Human rights in OPT – Letter from Palestine

QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL

FREEDOMS, INCLUDING POLICIES OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

AND SEGREGATION AND OF APARTHEID, IN ALL COUNTRIES, WITH

PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO COLONIAL AND OTHER DEPENDENT

COUNTRIES AND TERRITORIES: REPORT OF THE SUB-COMMISSION

UNDER COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS RESOLUTION 8 (XXXIII)

Letter dated 1 June 1992 from the Permanent Representative

of Palestine to the United Nations Office at Geneva

addressed to the Under-Secretary-General for Human Rights

1. For the eighth consecutive day, the Israeli occupation authorities have imposed a military blockade on the Gaza Strip and a curfew on the camps of Nuseirat, Maghazi and Bureij and on the town and camp of Deir el-Balah, thus bringing the threat of dreadful famine to the Strip, where mass punishment is clearly being inflicted on its citizens, numbering over half a million Palestinians, in gross and flagrant violation of the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The embargo is now permeated by brutal acts on the part of the occupation authorities and Israeli settlers, such as destroying private property, setting fire to domestic furnishings, uprooting fruit-bearing trees, shooting to kill and randomly and arbitrarily arresting groups of youths.

2. On 31 May 1992, the Israeli occupation authorities also stormed the village of Aqraba, south-east of Nablus, and randomly arrested the following 71 Palestinians:

1. Magda Harnea Bani Muniya

2. Farhan Hamed Bani Muniya

3. Hani Maj id Bani Muniya

4. Jada'an Mahmud Bani Muniya

5. Majid Dhib Bani Muniya

6. Kamal Shahhada Bani Muniya

7. Bilal Shahhada Bani Muniya

8. Yusuf Muhammad Bani Muniya

9. Zahi Wadi' Bani Jabir

10. Fouad Wadi' Bani Muniya

11. Mufid Wadi1 Bani Muniya

12. Ahmad Zayid Bani Muniya

13. Mahmud Ahmad Bani Jabir

14. Zakariya Ahmad Bani Jabir

15. Muhammad Abdullah Bani Jabir

16. Fathi Mustafa Bani Jabir

17. Aim jad Farid Dairiya

18. Muhammad Rifa'at Dairiya

19. Nawwaf Nayif Bani Hamid

20. Khalil Rabi' Bani Jabir

21. Nayiq Salim Bani Jabir

22. Adnan Rajih Bani Jabir

23. Adil Hamed Bani Jabir

24. Sabri Ahmad Bani Jabir

25. Basim Ahmad Bani Jabir

26. Samir Hussein Bani Jabir

27. Ribhi Nayif Bani Jabir

28. Khair Muhammad Bani Jabir

29. Majid Muhammad Bani Fadhl

30. Bilal Hamd Bani Fadhl

31. Muhammad Nassar Bani Fadhl

32. Haitham Fawzi Bani Fadhl

33. Bilal Muhammad Bani Jami'

34. Ghassan Muhammad Bani Jami1

35. Ahmad Khalid Dairiya

36. Mahmud Abdullah Bani Jabir

37. Rizqallah Abdullah Bani Jabir

38. Hussein Shukri Dairiya

39. Raghib Sa'ada Dairiya

40. Adib Arif Dairiya

41. Samer Izzat Dairiya

42. Salem Izzat Dairiya

43. Abdullah Izzat Dairiya

44. Khairallah Mahmud Dairiya

45. Ayman Musa Dairiya

46. Muhammad Musa Dairiya

47. Hussam Nayif Dairiya

3. Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories are currently witnessing a vigorous campaign among Israelis and Jewish settlers amid cries to kill Palestinians wherever they might be found and calls to banish them from their territory and homeland.

4. The present bloody and vehement campaign in Israel against Palestinians is being conducted under supervision from the occupation authorities and with their encouragement and protection, thereby warning of human massacres to be added to the mass slaughters perpetrated by Israel in the past and condemned at the time by the international community.

5. As a result of Israeli practices, the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories has now deteriorated to such a point, where all values and principles are renounced and where the occupation authorities have surrendered to the frenzy of power, arrogance and loathsome domination; the international community should therefore assume a major responsibility in providing international protection for the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation, particularly since it has hitherto proved unable to compel Israel, as an occupation authority in the occupied Palestinian and other Arab territories, to respect its international undertakings and its obligations as

a member of the United Nations and a party to the Fourth Geneva Convention.

6. This memorandum is addressed to you in the hope that you, in addition to the Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights, will intercede as quickly as possible with the Government of Israel to halt the practices carried out against the Palestinian people by the Israeli occupation authorities, Israeli settlers and the veiled armed groups belonging to the Israeli army, as well as urge it to respect the principles of international law and the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention which, in view of their universality, apply to the Palestinian occupied territories, and to abide by the resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights, and the relevant statements of the International Committee of the Red Cross. We also request that this memorandum should be circulated as an official document of the next session of the Commission on Human Rights and the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.

(Signed) Nabil Ramlawi

Ambassador

Permanent Representative of Palestine at

the United Nations at Geneva and the other

international organizations in Switzerland

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