Mideast situation/Palestine – Israeli arrest campaigns – Letter from Jordan

LETTER DATED 7 JANUARY 1983 FROM THE CHARGE D'AFFAIRES A.I. OF THE

PERMANENT MISSION OF JORDAN TO THE UNITED NATIONS ADDRESSED TO THE

PRESIDENT OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL

I have the honour to enclose herewith the two letters from the Permanent Observer of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Mr. Zuhdi Labib Terzi, concerning the large-scale arrest campaign by Israeli occupation troops in the occupied Palestinian West Bank over the past few days and the continuous torture of the Palestinian prisoners by their Zionist jailers.

Inasmuch as the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories remains highly explosive and violent, I request that this letter and the attached letter

from the Permanent Observer of the Palestine Liberation Organization be circulated as a document of the Security Council.

(Signed) Saad BATAINAH

Minister Plenipotentiary

Chargé d'Affaires a.i.

Annex I

Letter dated 5 January 1983 from the Permanent Observer Of the

Palestine Liberation Organization to the United Nations

addressed to the President of the Security Council

On instructions from Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, I am requested to bring the following to your most urgent attention.

Israeli occupation troops in the occupied Palestinian West Bank have over the past few days mounted a large-scale arrest campaign. Hundreds of Palestinians have been summoned to local military governors' offices for interrogation and then have been imprisoned. The number of Palestinians imprisoned from the Bethlehem area alone has risen to more than 150 in the past week. They were first summoned to the Bethlehem military governor's headquarters and then imprisoned far to the north at the Fari's jail in the Jenin area. Many more Palestinians have been detained from the towns of Ramallah, Nablus and from other West Bank villages and refugee camps.

Among those currently detained are trade union members, students, teachers, writers, journalists and workers. The prisoners are being kept in horse stables in the Fari's jail along with 300 Palestinians detained earlier.

The Zionist occupation authorities have issued an order closing the industrial secondary school in Nablus for one week on the pretext that students had raised the Palestinian flag at the school.

Bookshops and libraries have also been the target of Israel censorship.  Occupation troops recently stormed 16 bookshops and publishing houses in West Bank towns and villages. Hundreds of books, publications, drawings and posters have been confiscated on the claim that the material is provocative.

Last week the Israeli military authorities sealed off an area of 2,000 dunums of land belonging to the villages of Tal and Assira in the Nablus district. The land is planted with olive trees and is the only source of livelihood for the villagers. Another 120 dunums have been seized from the village of Bala' in the Tulkarem district.

(Signed) Zuhdi Labib TERZI

Permanent Observer

Annex II

Letter dated 6 January 1983 from the Permanent Observer of the

Palestine Liberation Organization to the United Nations

addressed to the President of the Security Council

On instructions from Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, I am requested to bring the following to your most urgent attention.

Palestinian detainees in the Jenin jail in the occupied Palestinian West Bank are continuing an open hunger strike begun earlier this week to protest the inhuman conditions of their detention. The prisoners have stated that they are subjected to continuous torture by their Zionist jailers.

In Jerusalem, the Israeli occupation authorities have renewed for the third time, six-month house arrest orders against two West Bank trade union leaders, Ibrahim Dakkak, President of the West Bank Union of Engineers, and Abed Abu Diab, advisor to the West Bank General Federation of Trade Unions.

The Israeli occupation authorities summoned members of the Nablus municipality earlier this week and subjected them to lengthy interrogation and abuse,before they were released from the military governor's office.

Two members of the Union of Printing Workers from Nablus have been detained since Tuesday, following a raid by Israeli occupation troops on the building which houses the Union's office. The occupation authorities have issued an arbitrary order to close the Union.

Two armed Israeli soldiers entered the Al-Najah University campus last Monday in an attempt to provoke a disturbance with Palestinian students. Al-Najah students met afterwards and charged that the incident is a prelude to further intervention by the Israeli occupation authorities into the University's affairs.

Israeli occupation authorities sealed off a large area of land belonging to the village of Beit Anan in the Ramallah district. The land is planted with olive trees and is used by the villagers for seasonal planting. Israeli military authorities want to use the land as a military training field.

A number of Palestinians have been arrested over the past few days in Arrabe in the Jenin district on allegations of writing anti-occupation slogans on walls of the village.

Zionist settlers attempted to burn the Russian Orthodox church in Ein Karem just to the west of Jerusalem last Tuesday by setting a fire near to the church's gas pipes. Fortunately, the attempt failed.

Israeli occupation troops stormed the residence of the Palestinian Women's Union in Gaza yesterday. Israeli troops confiscated a map of Palestine which has hung in the building since the establishment of the Union in 1964. Sixty-four books were also confiscated from the library.

This information is conveyed to you so that you may be kept apprised of the escalated and highly intensified Israeli activities against the Palestinians under Israeli military occupation.

(Signed) Zuhdi Labib TERZI

Permanent Observer

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