Mideast situation/OPT/Lebanon/Early convening of the proposed int’l peace conference – Letter from CEIRPP Chairman

GENERAL ASSEMBLY SECURITY COUNCIL

 Fortieth session Fortieth year

 QUESTION OF PALESTINE

Letter dated 12 February 1985 from the Chairman of the Committee

on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian

People addressed to the Secretary-General

In my capacity as Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, I wish once again to bring to your most urgent attention the grave situation and growing tension in and around the Palestinian refugee camps, both in South Lebanon and the occupied West Bank.

The latest reports which have reached the Committee indicate that a number of extremely serious incidents have taken place in recent days.  In South Lebanon, on 5 February 1985, Israeli occupation troops opened fire on Palestinians near the Burj Al-Shamali refugee camp in the Tyre area, wounding several refugees including women and children.  The camp was subsequently surrounded, sealed off and stormed by the troops, which carried out mass arrests of Palestinian refugees.

The following day, Israeli troops opened fire on civilians, also in the Tyre area, hitting a passenger car and seriously wounding the six Palestinians inside.

A very grave situation has also been reported from refugee camps in the West Bank.  In Dheisheh near Bethlehem, all roads into the camp have been blocked by stacks of cement-filled barrels topped by sharp iron bars and coils of barbed wire.  Only one narrow pedestrian entrance remains open, affecting the provision of services to the camp and aggravating the atmosphere of living under siege caused by the almost daily incidents of provocation and harassment against the camp residents by the Israeli settlers.  On 1 February, the police, reinforced by military troops, arrested scores of residents in the camp and villages in the vicinity.

In the past few days, Israeli planes have also repeatedly attacked Palestinians in South Lebanon, causing casualties among the civilian population.

In the light of the above, I wish to express the utmost concern of the Committee on the Exercise on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People with regard to the mounting tension in the refugee camps in South Lebanon and the West Bank, which arises from the continued illegal occupation by Israel and the absence of a just and comprehensive solution to the question of Palestine.

The Committee has on several occasions in the past expressed its belief that tension and violence will continue to prevail in the area, increasingly endangering international peace and security, as long as the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people remain unattained.  These latest incidents provide clear but tragic confirmation of this belief.

I wish therefore to reiterate the Committee's conviction that, at this critical juncture, a concentrated international effort to find a just solution to the question of Palestine and to end the unacceptable plight of the Palestinian people must be given a new momentum.  To this end, the Committee attaches the utmost importance to the early convening of the proposed international peace conference on the Middle East.

In conclusion, I wish to request that the present letter be circulated as a document of the General Assembly, under the item entitled "Question of Palestine", and of the Security Council.

__________

* Reissued for technical reasons.

85-04620 1945a (E)