Situation in the OPT – Letter from Yemen

GENERAL ASSEMBLY SECURITY COUNCIL

Thirty-fifth session Thirty-fifth year

Item 57 of the preliminary list*

REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE

 ISRAELI PRACTICES AFFECTING THE HUMAN RIGHTS

 OF THE POPULATION OF THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

Letter dated 2 May 1980 from the Permanent Representative of

Democratic Yemen 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 May 1980, to enclose herewith a letter addressed to you by Mr. Zehdi Labib Terzi, Permanent Observer of the Palestine Liberation Organization to the United Nations.

I would very much appreciate if this letter would be circulated as an official document of the General Assembly, under item 57 of the preliminary list, and of the Security Council.

(Signed) Abdalla S. ASHTAL

Ambassador

Permanent Representative

ANNEX

Letter dated 1 May 1980 from the Permanent Observer of the

Palestine Liberation Organization to the United Nations

addressed to the Secretary-General

Upon instructions of Chairman Arafat, I wish to draw your attention to the very grave situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, a result of the brutality of the SS troops of Zionist occupation.

Today, in the village of Anabta, the SS Zionist troops, under the command of the Military Governor, tried to confront Palestinian students who were manifesting their rejection of and opposition to the Carter-Begin-Sadat conspiracy on the occasion of May Day.  The commander ordered his men to shoot at the demonstrators.  Seventeen-year-old Najah Ahmad Abu Aliyeh was wounded in his leg, but he managed to rise and attempted to take away the gun from an SS trooper.  At that moment the SS Zionist racist commander gave the order to shoot to kill.  Seventeen-year-old Najah joined the ranks of the martyrs in the struggle for liberation and against racism.  The commander instructed the troopers to beat the other students; as a result, two other students received serious injuries and were rushed to a hospital.  Anabta was “sealed” and the press was banned from visiting the site.

Today, again, other SS troopers raided a girls’ college in Bireh, kidnapped a girl student and took her away.  Her schoolmates demonstrated and used the only weapons available, stones, against the SS troopers.  The situation in Jerusalem, Birzeit, Ramallah, Bireh and Jalazon, in particular, is very tense.

In Jerusalem again today the so-called police force attempted to break up a rally, again to protect against the Camp David accords, and arrested and detained 22 young Palestinian students.

I am instructed to recall that a United States citizen, the Zionist Meir Kahane, in complicity with the racist SS troopers, has started a campaign to harass Palestinians and vandalize their property.  Kahane’s campaign began on the infamous “night of the hammers”, when he and his gang damaged 150 cars, property of the Palestinian Arabs in Ramallah and Bireh.  It appears that other agents have vandalized Palestinian property in Deir El Asal.

As a result of these provocations, there were demonstrations in Ramallah and Bireh and the police shot at the demonstrators with the tragic result of five wounded.  They are:

George Boulos Awais (bullet in leg)

Issa Tannous (bullet in head)

Mohammed Mahmoud Said (fractures in both legs)

Omar Abdul Jawad Saleh (fractures in feet and arms)

Samir Abdel Nour Shahin (fractures in both arms)         

In Bethlehem the Zionist forces of occupation warned the city municipal council that a financial blockade will be imposed if the people and the students continue in their uprising.  Girl students were threatened with expulsion.

I am instructed by Chairman Arafat to draw your attention to the above and to request that the United Nations intervene by whatever means necessary to bring to an end this tragic and explosive situation.  I am also instructed to draw your attention to the fact that this is the form by which the Palestinian people greet the so-called “framework for peace”.

Zehdi Labib TERZI

Permanent Observer

—–