Situation in the OPT – Letter from CEIRPP Chairman

GENERAL ASSEMBLY SECURITY COUNCIL

Forty-third session Forty-fourth year

Agenda item 37

QUESTION OF PALESTINE

Letter dated 5 July 1989 from the Acting Chairman of the Committee on

the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People

addressed to the Secretary-General 

In my capacity as Acting Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People I wish to protest in the strongest terms the renewed deportations of Palestinians from the occupied Palestinian territory by Israel, the occupying Power.  According to the ABC television network of 29 June and The New York Times of 30 June 1989, the following eight Palestinians were deported to southern Lebanon on 29 June 1989:  Mr. Ata Abu Karsh, Mr. Nabil Tamuz, Mr. Riyad Adhur and Mr. Mohammed Madawah from the Gaza Strip; Mr. Mohammed Lebadi, Mr. Radwan Ziada, Mr. Akef Hamdallah and Mr. Taysir Naserallah from the West Bank.  The deportations were carried out after their court appeals were rejected.  The men were accused of being leaders of the intifadah or of being active in the Palestine Liberation Organization.  As in all such cases, the men and their lawyers were not allowed to review the evidence brought against them.

      These latest deportations have brought to at least 59 the total number of Palestinians deported since the beginning of the intifadah.  Israel has continued to violate its obligations as the occupying Power under the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 and to defy the international will as expressed in Security Council resolutions 607 (1988) and 608 (1988), which have specifically requested Israel to desist from further deportations, to rescind the deportation orders, and to ensure the safe and immediate return of those already deported.

     These latest measures by Israel take place in a situation of growing repression by the Israeli troops and of violence and provocation by armed Israeli settlers, which our Committee has repeatedly condemned and which arouse serious international concern.  Such unrestrained attacks by the occupation forces can only exacerbate the situation further and pose grave obstacles to ongoing efforts to advance the peace process.

     The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People wishes once again to call on the international community as a whole, and the Security Council in particular, to take urgently all necessary measures to ensure respect for the Fourth Geneva Convention and Security Council resolutions by Israel, the occupying Power.

     I should be grateful if you would arrange for the text of the present letter to be circulated as an official document of the forty-third session of the General Assembly, under agenda item 37, and of the Security Council.

(Signed) Oscar ORAMAS-OLIVA

Acting Chairman

Committee on the Exercise

of the Inalienable Rights

of the Palestinian People