Situation in the OPT – Attacks on Palestinian mayors – Arafat letter to SecGen – Letter from Bahrain

Letter dated 3 June 1980 from the Permanent Representative

of Bahrain to the United Nations addressed to the

Secretary-General

As Chairman of the Arab Group for the current month, I have the honour to transmit herewith a copy of the letter addressed to you by Mr. Yasser Arafat and to request you to circulate it as an official document of the General Assembly, under item 57 of the preliminary list, and of the Security Council.

ANNEX

Letter dated 3 June 1980 from Mr. Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the

Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, to

the Secretary-General

The Zionist occupation authorities have deliberately created an extremely critical situation in the occupied Palestinian territories in an attempt to deprive those territories of their national leaders by every possible means, in order to make the Palestinian people in the occupied homeland submit to occupation and drive out the population of Palestine.  They carried out four bombing operations in the cities of Hebron, Nablus, Ramallah and Bireh.  These attacks left 10 people wounded, including the Mayor of Nablus, Bassam al-Shaka, who lost both legs, the Mayor of Ramallah, Karim Khalef, who lost his left foot; the Mayor of Bireh, Ibrahim Tawil, escaped, thanks to his discovery of the time bomb which has been placed in his car.

At the same time, the security forces and the army open fire on groups of unarmed Palestinian demonstrators.  The ongoing escalation of the crimes being committed by the Zionist occupation authorities against our unarmed Palestinian people and their national leadership is proof of the failure of those authorities to overcome our people’s heroic resistance to the Zionist occupation, the Camp David conspiracy and the autonomy talks.

The repressive methods being used by the occupation authorities are a reflection of the official and organized terrorism being practiced by Israel against our defenseless people who are subjected to the odious Israeli occupation.  The Zionist occupation authorities would not dare to commit these crimes, were it not for the hesitation of the United Nations and its specialized agencies to impose sanctions on Israel for its constant violations of United Nations implementation of their resolutions, as in the case of the Security Council resolution calling for the return of the exiled mayors to Palestine.

The Palestine Liberation Organization calls upon the United Nations to take the necessary measures to prevent the continuation of these crimes against out defenseless people.  The United Nations imposed sanctions on the former racist régime in Rhodesia.  It is regrettable that the United Nations stands by with its hands tied as our people are exposed to these campaigns of subjugation, annihilation and racist oppression.

The Palestine Liberation Organization calls upon the Secretary-General to take the necessary steps to ensure the protection of out defenseless Palestinian people against official and organized Zionist terrorism.