Human rights violations in OPT/Israeli practices – PLO letter

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

Letter dated 6 January 1992 from the Permanent Observer for
Palestine to the United Nations Office at Geneva
addressed to the Under-Secretary-General for Human Rights

Four days ago, the Government of Israel committed an extremely serious violation when it decided to expel 12 Palestinian citizens from their land and property in occupied Palestine. In so doing, the Israeli occupying authorities confirm the method of approach and the fixed policy which they have employed since their occupation of Palestinian territories, namely that of emptying the occupied territory of its Palestinian owners, thereby perpetually violating the principles of international law and the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention, specifically article 49 thereof. They simultaneously apply their fixed policy to the seizure of territory, the establishment of Jewish settlements thereon and the bringing of Jews from abroad to live in such settlements, thereby flagrantly and seriously violating the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits occupiers from seizing occupied territories, from transferring citizens of the occupying State to the occupied territories, and from transferring citizens of the occupied territories to the territory of the occupying State or other destinations away from their land and property. In addition there are the daily deliberate killings of Palestinians, such as that which occurred in Khan Yunis and the Nuseirat Camp on Sunday, 4 January 1992, the arbitrary and administrative detentions without trial, as a result of which tens of thousands are held in detention camps where brutal torture is carried out, and practices which contravene the most rudimentary principles of international law and resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights and flout the appeals of the International Committee of the Red Cross to the occupying authorities aimed at halting such acts, which, on being perpetrated by the occupying State, constitute war crimes in accordance with article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and article 58 of Protocol I of 1977 Additional to the 1949 Geneva Conventions.

We request that this letter should be circulated as an official document of the forty-eighth session of the Commission on Human Rights.

Signed) Nabil RAMLAWI
Permanent Observer for the Palestine at the
United Nations and other international
organizations at Geneva

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