Human rights in OPT/Israeli practices/Al-Aqsa Mosque – PLO Memorandum

QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE

Letter dated 8 October 1990 from the Permanent Observer for
Palestine to the United Nations Office at Geneva
addressed to the Under-Secretary-General for Human Rights

A new massacre is taking place at this very moment against the Palestinian people in occupied Jerusalem by the Israeli occupation forces. The Israeli occupation forces together with the Israeli settlers attacked with machine guns the Palestinian masses inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque this morning and killed 21 persons and wounded 600 others. The massacre is going on until this moment (1.30 p.m. Geneva time). The Israeli occupation forces have also arrested Mr. Faisal Husseini inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Moreover, Israeli helicopters fired tear-gas bombs inside the Al-Makassed hospital in Jerusalem, which led to the evacuation of pregnant women from the hospital to avoid miscarriages.

This massacre perpetrated by the Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinians comes only a few days after a previous massacre which took place inside the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on 21 September 1990, when the Israeli forces killed and wounded 180 Palestinians and destroyed 57 houses and shops and arrested hundreds of the inhabitants of the camp.

These continuous massacres which are perpetrated by the Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinian people in the Palestinian occupied territories show once more the flagrant disregard by the Israeli forces of the principles of international law and United Nations resolutions, as well as the intention of Israel to continue its violation of the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the principles of international humanitarian law.

We, hereby, request you to consider this memorandum as an official document of the Commission on Human Rights at its Forty-seventh Session.

(Signed) Nabil RAMLAWI
Permanent Observer for the Palestine
to the United Nations Office at Geneva

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