Human rights violations in OPT/Deportations – PLO letter

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

Letter dated 18 December 1990 from the Permanent Observer for
Palestine to the United Nations Office at Geneva
addressed to the Under-Secretary-General for Human Rights

1. The Israeli Government decided, last week-end, to expel four Palestinians out of their homeland.  This measure concerns:

(a) Mr. Imad Khaled Al-Alami – engineer from Gaza city;

(b) Mr. Fadel Khaled Zuheir Al-Zamout – teacher from Gaza city;

(c) Mr. Mustafa Youssef Abdallah Al-Iddawi – student from Jabalia came;

(d) Mr. Mustafa Ahmad Jamil Al-Kanou' – teacher from Jabalia camp.

2. By this decision, the Israeli occupation authorities added a new link in the chain of their policy of deportation of the Palestinians out of their homeland, thus securing the settlement of more Jewish immigrants coming from the Soviet Union or elsewhere, in the Palestinian occupied territories, after the deportation of 1,300 Palestinians between 1967 and 30 November 1987, as well as the deportation of 61 Palestinians between 1 December 1987 and 14 December 1990. By this last decision, the total number of deported Palestinians out of their homeland since 1967 until today is 1,365.

3. This new wave of deportations does not need to Prove that the Israeli occupation authorities continue their policy based on the rejection of the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention to the Palestinian occupied territories and on the disregard of their international commitment and of the several Security Council resolutions such as resolution No. 469 of 20 May 1980, which calls upon Israel to abide by and implement the Provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, resolution No. 484 of 19 December 1980, which reaffirms the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949 to all the Arab territories occupied since 1967, resolution No. 607 of 5 January 1988 which reaffirms and confirms the applicability of the said Convention to the Palestinian and other Arab occupied territories, including Jerusalem, in Particular articles 47 and 49 thereof, and resolution No. 608 of 14 January 1988, which requests Israel to desist from any sort of expulsion or deportation of any Palestinian from the occupied territories. The Israeli occupation authorities also disregard all the resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly, of the Commission on Human Rights and of the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities related to the Israeli practices against the human rights and to the Israeli violations of the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention in the Palestinian occupied Territories, resolutions adopted in all sessions since 1968. The Israeli occupation authorities also continue their policy of deportation without giving any care to the statements and press releases issued by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which protested many times and announced that such Israeli action constitutes a grave violation of article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949, and expressed its deep concern, in its several press releases, particularly those issued on 13 January 1988, 19 August 1988 and 30 January 1989.

4. It is clear that the moderate international reaction towards the crimes perpetrated by Israel, such as killings, deportation, miscarriages of pregnant women, killing of children, mass killings, breaking bones of youth and children, illegal detention, collective punishments, destruction of houses, discrimination, violation of fundamental freedoms, but also attacks of holy places, confiscation of land, destruction of the Palestinian national economy, establishment of settlements in the occupied territories puts Israel on a safe side away from any sanctions of the international community, and encourages Israel to continue to Perpetrate these crimes described by the international law as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

5. The recent developments have reached a dangerous stage, that can no more tolerate silence or moderate reactions, because the continuation of such Practices, since decades, against the Palestinian people, practices that constitute crimes according to international law, put the region in a state of war which threatens not only the region itself but also the whole world with the worst dangers.

6. We request you, Your Excellency, as well the Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights, to intervene to the Israeli Government as soon as possible, to out an end to all these grave violations of the principles of international law. We also request you to consider this memorandum as an official document of the forty-seventh session of the Commission on Human Rights.

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

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