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

Letter dated 13 October 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.

In Gaza, an explosive situation has developed as mass protests against the actions of the Israeli troops are met with further violence. According to Al Fajr of 4 October 1987, Israeli soldiers opened fire on demonstrators on 1 October, killing three Palestinians who had attempted to run away from an Israeli army check-point outside Breij refugee camps in Gaza. News of the shooting prompted demonstrations and a general student strike in the Gaza Strip.

Subsequently, according to UPI, tensions rose sharply in Gaza after four Arab men identified by Israeli authorities as guerillas were killed in a clash with Israeli troops on 6 October. One soldier was also killed. The incident sparked widespread protests which are still continuing. UPI reported that at least 25 Palestinians were wounded by Israeli troops on 10 October in various incidents in Gaza. At the Islamic University, an army patrol opened fire on students staging an anti-Israeli protest on campus, wounding two persons seriously. Among the victims were a 10-year-old boy and a 17-year-old labourer, who was shot at twice while attempting to drive a wounded girl and a woman to a hospital.

Yesterday, Palestinian youths burned tires in the streets of Gaza City and hurled stones at Israeli army patrols. Soldiers fired into the air to break up crowds or to threaten pedestrians, who were forced at gunpoint to clear away mounds of burning tires and garbage, often using their bare hands. Soldiers also forced merchants to reopen businesses shut Saturday during a general strike. Troops ripped down the front doors of shops whose owners did not comply with the order.

Extremely serious incidents have also been reported from the occupied West Bank in recent days. On 11 October, according to Reuters, a renewed attempt by militant Jews to enter the Islamic holy shrine of Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem sparked a protest demonstration by some 2,000 Palestinians. According to The New York Times of 13 October 1987, soldiers fired tear-gas at the demonstrators, injuring 25 people, and arrested another 12. Further protest demonstrations over the incident have taken place in Ramallah, where a Palestinian woman was shot dead and six students were wounded by Israeli troops. The centre of Ramallah has been sealed off and some 100 Palestinians arrested. A general strike was declared in Nablus, Jerusalem and elsewhere to protest at the shootings.

The Committee wishes to express its most serious concern at those grave incidents, which can only exacerbate tension and violence in the occupied territories and further hamper efforts to bring about a peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine. In the light of the grave situation that is thereby being created, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People wishes to appeal to you to redouble your efforts towards a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the question, particularly by promoting the convening of an international peace conference on the Middle East in accordance with General Assembly resolution 38/58 C.

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