Mideast situation/OPT/Int’l Peace Conference under A/RES/35/58 C – Letter from CEIRPP Chairman

GENERAL ASSEMBLY SECURITY COUNCIL

Forty-third session Forty-third year

QUESTION OF PALESTINE

Letter dated 5 January 1988 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 once again to draw your urgent attention to the aggravation of the situation in the occupied territories, caused by Israel's decision to expel Palestinian leaders and by the acts of violence by Israeli troops against the Palestinian population in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Since the letter of 29 December 1987 from the Acting Chairman of the Committee (A/43/73-S/19394), the situation has continued to deteriorate in the occupied territories. It was reported by The New York Times of 4 and 5 January 1988 that Israeli military authorities have decided to expel nine Palestinians, five from the West Bank and four from the Gaza Strip, accusing them of being the "chief instigators" of the uprising in the territories. According to the newspaper, "there was no way to independently confirm the army's accusations"

The army has identified the nine Palestinians as Furayi Ahmad Khayri, aged 39, vice-chairman of the Palestinian engineers' union in the Gaza Strip; Adil Nafa Hamad, aged 27, from the Kalandia refugee camp in the West Bank; Husam Uthman Mohammed Hadar, aged 26, of the Balata refugee camp near Nablus; Bashir Ahmad Khayri, a 45-year-old lawyer from Ramallah; Jamal Mohammed Jabara, aged 28, from the Qalqilya refugee camp in the West Bank; Mohammed Abu Samara, aged 26, a student at the Islamic University of Gaza; Khalil Kuka, a 39-year-old teacher in Gaza and a leader of a local religious Organization; Hasan Ghanim Abu Shakra, aged 37, a prominent religious leader from Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip; and Jibril Mahmud Rajub, aged 34, a journalist from the West Bank village of Dura and the author of a book on conditions in Israeli gaols.

The nine have been on a protest hunger strike in their respective prisons where they will remain until a decision is taken on their appeal against the expulsion orders.  More than 1,000 Palestinians rounded up during the past month also remain gaoled, and trials on incitement charges are proceeding in the military courts.

In further violent incidents on 3 January 1988, as reported by The New York Times of 4 January 1988, an Israeli soldier shot to death a 25-year-old Palestinian woman while she was hanging laundry in her yard in the village of Al-Ram north of Jerusalem.  The killing occurred when Israeli soldiers using live ammunition were chasing stone-throwing Palestinian boys in the streets of the village.

UPI reported on 5 January 1988 that Israeli soldiers opened fire on a crowd of rock-throwing Palestinians in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, killing at least one man and wounding eight others.  A report by the Palestinian Press Service that a second man was also killed could not be immediately confirmed. A curfew was imposed on Khan Yunis following the shooting.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People wishes to convey its growing concern at the policies and practices of Israel in the occupied territories, particularly the killing of unarmed civilians and the deportation of persons, which are in clear violation of the human rights of the Palestinian people, of United Nations resolutions and of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949. The Committee wishes to recall that Security Council resolution 605 (1987) of 22 December 1987 called once again upon Israel, the occupying Power, to abide immediately and scrupulously by that Convention and to desist forthwith from such policies and practices.

The Committee appeals to you to take all possible measures for ensuring the safety and protection of the Palestinian civilians under Israeli occupation and for preventing any deportations. The Committee further appeals to you to intensify your efforts towards the convening of the International Peace Conference on the Middle East, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 35/58 C.

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

(Signed) Massamba SARRE

Chairman of the Committee on

the Exercise of the Inalienable

Rights of the Palestinian People