Mideast situation/OPT/Deportations – Letter from CEIRPP Chairman

Letter dated 5 February 1986 from the Chairman of the Committee

on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian

People addressed to the Secretary-General

In my capacity as Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, I wish to bring to your attention still further information concerning deportation orders issued by the Israeli military authorities against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.  I previously discussed this matter with you in my letter of 13 November 1985 (A/40/889-S/17630), in which I conveyed to you information concerning the measures implemented by the Israeli authorities against Palestinians who are considered "security risks".

According to a Reuters dispatch of 30 January 1986 and a news item in The New York Times of 31 January 1986, three of the Palestinians cited in my letter of 13 November 1985 have withdrawn their High Court appeals against their deportation orders.  They are identified as:  Mr. Ali Abu Hilal, member of the Executive Committee of the General Confederation of Palestinian Trade Unions; Dr. Azmi Al-Shuiabi, a dentist and elected member of the El-Bireh Municipal Council (dissolved by the Israeli occupation authorities in 1982); and Mr. Hassan Abdul Jawad Farrarjeh, a journalist and head of the Dheisheh refugee camp youth centre (closed by the Israeli occupation authorities in 1983).

The three Palestinians said that they could not expect to get a fair trial in Israel.  Under Israeli law, defence lawyers are not allowed to view evidence against their clients which judges believe would harm Israeli intelligence networks in the occupied territories.  The High Court had, moreover, decided to disallow defence arguments that were based on the applicability of the fourth Geneva Convention to the occupied Palestinian territories.

I regret to inform you that the deportation orders against these three Palestinians have already been carried out, despite the obvious injustice of a measure against which there have been numerous protests, in Israel as well as abroad.

According to The Jerusalem Post of 26 January 1986, the military government has served deportation orders on four other West Bank Palestinians.  If they take place, these new deportations will bring the number of Palestinians expelled from the occupied territories since last summer to 29.

In the light of the stepped-up measures taken by the Israeli military authorities against the population of the occupied Palestinian territories, it should be recalled that the Security Council has on several occasions reaffirmed that the fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 is applicable to the territories occupied by Israel since 1967 and has called upon Israel scrupulously to observe the provisions of that Convention.  In its resolution 40/161 of 16 December 1985, the General Assembly called upon Israel to rescind its illegal decision to expel the Palestinians mentioned therein and to desist forthwith from expelling Palestinians in violation of the fourth Geneva Convention.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People wishes to reiterate its deep concern at the measures taken by the Israeli authorities, which only heighten tensions in the region and present a serious obstacle to international action for a just and lasting solution to the question of Palestine, which is at the core of the Middle East conflict.

In conclusion, I should be grateful if you would have this letter circulated as a document of the General Assembly, under the item entitled "Question of Palestine", and of the Security Council.