Situation in the Palestinian refugee camps – Letter from CEIRPP Chairman

Letter dated 3 June 1987 from the Chairman of the Committee on

the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian

People addressed to the Secretary-General

As Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, I should like to call your urgent attention to the serious incidents which have continued to occur in the occupied Palestinian territories.

According to cables from the Kuna and Reuter agencies dated 1 and 2 June 1987, the Israeli authorities have launched a massive campaign of detention of Palestinians following protest demonstrations in the refugee camps in the West Bank.  Israeli soldiers burst into the refugee camp of Balata, near Nablus, opening fire on the demonstrators, and arrested 60 people.  Ten people were detained without trial for a period of six months.  The Israeli authorities also declared a curfew in the camp.

In view of the gravity of these events, I must emphasize, on behalf of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, that the actions taken by the Israeli authorities in the occupied territories are absolutely contrary to the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949.  In its resolution 592 (1986), the Security Council called upon Israel to abide immediately and scrupulously by the Convention and to release any person detained in violation of that instrument.

The Committee wishes to reiterate its concern at the actions of the Israeli authorities, which continue to heighten tension in the region and impede international efforts aimed at finding a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the question of Palestine, which lies at the heart of the conflict in the Middle East.

The Committee accordingly requests you once again to continue to do everything in your power to facilitate this solution and to enable the Palestinian people to exercise its inalienable rights, in accordance with the relevant United Nations resolutions.

I should be grateful if you would have this letter distributed as a document of the General Assembly, under item 38 of the preliminary list, and of the Security Council.

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*   A/42/50.