Situation in the OPT – Letter from Iraq

Letter dated 17 September 1986 from the Permanent Representative of

Iraq to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

I have the honour in my capacity as Chairman of the Arab Group for the month of September, to enclose herewith a letter dated 16 September 1986 addressed to the President of the Security Council by Mr. Zehdi Labib Terzi, Permanent Observer for the Palestine Liberation Organization to the United Nations.

I would be grateful if this letter and its attachment could be circulated as an official document of the General Assembly, under item 73 of the provisional agenda, and of the Security Council.

(Signed)  Ismat KITTANI

Ambassador

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*A/41/150.

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ANNEX

Letter dated 16 September 1986 from the Permanent Observer of the Palestine Liberation Organization

to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council

I am instructed by Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, to bring the following to your attention so that you may be kept apprised of the situation in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories:

The Israeli military commander of Tulkarem sent a letter on 27 July 1986 to the attorney representing the Palestinian villages of Salfit and Iskaka informing him of the intention to confiscate 4,000 dunums of Palestinian land. The Israeli military commander informed the attorney that the villagers had been notified, however, when contacted they said that they had not been notified. Ironically the Israeli military commander could not specify the date on which he claimed he contacted the villagers.

The occupying Power, Israel, had first attempted to confiscate these lands in 1979 and had met with strong opposition from the more than 100 Palestinian families that own the land. A year-long legal battle ended when the occupying Power, Israel, informed the Israeli High Court that it no longer intended to confiscate the land, but added that the decision did not imply recognition of the legal rights of the Palestinian land-owners. The case was dropped without a decision. Six years later the legal owners of the land are once again facing land confiscation.

Most of the 4,000 dunums are currently used as olive groves and wheat fields, and confiscation would mean the end of the villages' economic resources and means of livelihood.

This latest confiscation brings the total of Palestinian lands confiscated in the Nablus area this summer to 7,000 dunums, 3,000 dunums being confiscated from the villages of Bidya, Sarta and Kufr al-Deek.

It is obvious that the confiscation is to add land to the nearby illegal Zionist settlement of Ariel, which was built on 30,000 dunums of land confiscated from the Palestinian villages of Salfit and Kufr Hares.

Chairman Arafat, on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization, calls upon the Secretary-General and the Security Council to take all appropriate and necessary measures to put an effective end to this latest criminal Israeli offensive against the Palestinian people living under Israeli military occupation.

(Signed)  Zehdi Labib TERZI

Permanent Observer

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