Mideast situation/OPT/Convening of the Int’l Mideast Peace Conference – Letter from CEIRPP Chairman

Letter of 13 November 1987 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 to draw your most urgent attention to the grave incidents which have recently taken place in the occupied Palestinian territories and caused the death and injury of several Palestinians.

In the Gaza Strip, a 16-year-old Palestinian girl was shot and killed on 10 November 1987 when, according to UPI, Israeli settler fired on students demonstrating in the town of Deir el-Balah.

According to The New York Times of 12 November 1987, an Israeli driver shot and wounded, on 11 November, two 14-year-old Palestinian schoolgirls in Gaza City when he fired a pistol to ward off protesters who surrounded his car and showered it with stones. One of them is reported to be in critical condition.

Reuter reported, on 28 October 1987, that Israeli troops shot in the head a Palestinian student at Bethlehem University during a demonstration.  The student, identified as Ishaq Abu Srur, 22, later died of his wounds.

On 18 October 1987, the Jerusalem Post reported that four Gaza residents had been shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers on 17 October after rushing an army roadblock between the town of Deir el-Balah and Al-Bourjeh refugee camp on the Gaza Strip. The shooting occurred near the site of a similar incident reported to you in my letter of 13 October 1987 (A/42/655-S/19203). The four wounded said that the army position was not marked with a "stop" sign and that they were on their way to work. According to that report, Palestinians in the occupied territories have complained recently that army patrols have been too quick to shoot at vehicles whose drivers may not have heard the order to stop in crowded urban traffic or at roadblocks.

In a related matter, The New York Times reported, on 12 November 1987, that Israel's Attorney-General had ordered an investigation into the death of a 23-year-old Palestinian after he had been arrested by the Shin Beth internal security service, on 19 July, in the village of Kafr Ruman in the occupied West Bank and taken to Jenin prison. In an internal report that was published last week, it was said that Shin Beth agents had routinely subjected Palestinian detainees to physical abuse and that such abuse had been covered up in the courts.

The Committee wishes once again to express its utmost concern at the policies and practices of Israel, the occupying Power, and to bring them forcefully to the attention of the General Assembly and the Security Council as they clearly violate the fourth Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949 and have serious repercussions not only on the exercise by the Palestinians of their inalienable rights, but also on peace and security in the region, and on international efforts

to achieve a just, lasting and comprehensive solution to the question of Palestine, the core of the Middle East conflict. The Committee appeals to you to do all in your power to bring about a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the question, in accordance with United Nations resolutions, in particular through the convening of the International Peace Conference on the Middle East in pursuance of General Assembly resolution 38/58 C.

I should be grateful if you would have the text of this letter distributed as a document of the General Assembly under agenda item 38, and of the Security Council.

(Signed)  Massamba SARRE

Chairman

Committee on the Exercise

of the Inalienable Rights

of the Palestinian People

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