Situation in the OPT/Jerusalem – Letter by OIC – Letter from Egypt

GENERAL ASSEMBLY SECURITY COUNCIL

Forty-fifth session Forty-fifth year

Agenda items 11, 23 and 35

REPORT OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL

QUESTION OF PALESTINE

THE SITUATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

I have the honour to transmit to you herewith the text of a letter addressed to you and to the President of the Security Council by the Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Mr. Hamid Algabid, concerning the massacre of the Palestinian people carried out by the Israeli security forces on 8 October 1990 in the occupied territories.

I should be grateful if you would have the text of this letter and its annex circulated as a document of the General Assembly, under agenda items 11, 23 and 35, and of the Security Council.

ANNEX

Letter dated 9 October 1990 from the Secretary-General of the

Organization of the Islamic Conference to the Secretary-General

of the United Nations

The Israeli Security Forces carried out, on 8 October 1990, a ruthless and premeditated massacre of the Palestinian people in occupied Jerusalem. The large number of Palestinian and Arab casualties provides an ample evidence of the grim realities of brutal occupation to which these peoples have been exposed since 1967.

The member States of the Organization of the Islamic Conference are deeply anguished by these events and wish to convey to Your Excellency their serious concern on the rapidly deteriorating situation in Palestinian and Arab territories under Israeli occupation. The extremely volatile situation in the occupied territories constitutes a serious threat to international peace and security.

Considering these facts, the absence of firm and effective action by the Security Council and the international community will encourage the Israeli occupation authorities to intensify their acts of brutal repression against the Palestinian people.

It is the hope of the OIC member States that at this crucial juncture of a new era in the international relations the Security Council, assuming its primary responsibility for the preservation and maintenance of international peace and security, will act decisively and with unanimity to uphold international legality, protect the human rights of the Palestinian and Arab peoples, and galvanize itself for resolving the Palestine issue on a just, equitable and durable basis.

I would like to express the confidence that the Security Council will take the necessary measures for providing international protection to the Palestinian people. The most effective means to achieve this objective pending the political settlement is by placing the occupied territory under the United Nations supervision, as is demanded and reflected in the relevant United Nations resolutions.

I would also like to urge, in this regard, the Security Council to take appropriate steps for sending urgently international observers to occupied Palestinian territories, as a first step in the process of elaborating protection measures for the Palestinian people.

I remain hopeful that the Security Council and the international community will not tolerate indefinitely the crimes which are being committed daily against the Palestinian people and now more than ever act to uphold the national and inalienable rights of Palestinian people, including their right of self-determination and establishment of their independent State on their national soil.