Situation in the OPT – Letter from Yemen

Letter dated 6 March 1985 from the Chargé d'affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission 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 March 1985, to request the circulation of the enclosed letter dated 5 March 1985 by the Deputy Permanent Observer for the Palestine Liberation Organization to the United Nations as an official document of the General Assembly, under item 33 of the preliminary list, and of the Security Council.

(Signed)  Hussein S. AL-ALFI

Chargé d'affaires, a.i.

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*A/40/50 and Corr.1

ANNEX

Letter dated 5 March 1985 from the Deputy Permanent Observer of the

Palestine Liberation Organization to the United Nations

addressed to the Secretary-General

I am instructed by Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization to bring the following to your urgent attention.

On the evening of 1 March 1985, several units from the Israeli occupation army and border guard stormed both the old and new campuses of Bir Zeit University.  This latest fascist attack against Bir Zeit University was to stop the opening of a Palestinian cultural exhibit sponsored by the Bir Zeit Student Council and Staff Union. During the attack several Palestinian students were badly injured.

The Israeli occupation army then declared Bir Zeit University a military zone, suspended classes at the University and proceeded to arrest scores of Palestinian students and faculty members.

Concomitantly, other units from the Israeli occupation army and border guard stormed homes of Palestinian students, arrested scores and carried out on-the-spot interrogations.

On Sunday, 3 March 1985, massive Israeli reinforcements were sent to the University  in an attempt to crush a protest by thousands at Palestinian students against the latest fascist Israeli attacks against Bir Zeit University, and to demand the immediate release at of all Palestinian students and faculty members arrested during the attack.

On Saturday, 2 March 1985, Al-Najah University, also in the Israeli occupied Palestinian West Bank, was stormed and surrounded by units from the Israeli army.

These premeditated fascist attacks on prominent Palestinian universities in the Israeli occupied Palestinian West Bank are further examples of the "iron first policy" the Zionist regime in Tel Aviv is unleashing against our people under

Israeli military occupation.

As of today, Bir Zeit University remains both closed and under siege by the Israeli army.

The United Nations and its organs are called upon to assume their responsibility to put an effective and immediate end to such fascist and inhuman acts committed by a Member of this Organization.

(Signed) Riyad MANSOUR

Deputy Permanent Observer

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