Jerusalem/Settlements – CEIRPP support for GA emergency session – Letter from CEIRPP Chairman

Fifty-first session

Agenda item 35

QUESTION OF PALESTINE

Letter dated 14 April 1997 from the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise ofthe Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People addressed to the Secretary-General

On behalf of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, I have the honour to express the most serious concern at the continued construction of an Israeli settlement on Jabal Abu Ghneim mountain south of East Jerusalem, in violation of the obligations of the occupying Power under the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, and in disregard of the unanimous opposition of the international community.  The Committee believes that these actions, as well as other measures taken by the occupying Power in recent months in the occupied Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, threaten the very foundations of the peace process and lead to a dangerous exacerbation of tensions in the area.

Accordingly, the Committee wishes to express its support for the request made by the States members of the Arab League, and endorsed by the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, for the convening of an emergency special session of the General Assembly pursuant to its resolution 377 (V) of 3 November 1950, in order to consider these developments and to adopt an appropriate resolution.

The Committee calls on the parties to the peace process, as well as on all States, to do everything in their power to protect and save the peace process at this crucial juncture.

I have the honour to request that the present letter be circulated as a document of the fifty-first session of the General Assembly under agenda item 35.

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