Situation in OPT – Letter from CEIRPP Acting Chairman

QUESTION OF PALESTINE

Letter dated 14 May 1980 from the Acting Chairman of the Committee

on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People

to the Secretary-General

In my capacity as Acting Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and on its behalf, I feel bound to convey to you once again our serious concern over Israel's continued violations of the resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly, the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 1/ and established principles of international law. Several previous letters addressed to you by the Chairman of the Committee, as well as by Members of the United Nations, are replete with examples of Israel's total disregard of international law and practice, and of world public opinion.

According to the report of the Secretary-General (S/13938) Israel has now added to this inventory of defiance by refusing to readmit the mayors of Al-Khalil (Hebron) and Halhoul and of the Sharia Judge of Al-Khalil, despite the adoption by the Security Council of resolution 468 (1980) of 8 May 1980 which called upon the Government of Israel, as the occupying Power, to rescind its illegal measures and to facilitate the immediate return of the expelled Palestinian leaders so that they could resume the functions for which they were elected and appointed.

The Committee is seriously disturbed by this additional provocation made in complete disregard of one of the main organs of the United Nations; it is a further obstruction to the prospects for peace and stability not only in the region but in the entire world. Regrettably, it merely demonstrates, once more, that the Government of Israel has no intention of helping to find a peaceful solution of the question of Palestine, which forms the core of the Middle East problem.

The Committee is convinced that, in the face of this attitude, concrete and practical action by the Security Council is urgently called for in order to prevent a deterioration of the situation and a threat to international peace and security. We have had occasion to urge Security Council action on many previous occasions in the past. Delay only allows the situation to deteriorate further.

I shall be grateful if you would have this letter circulated as a document of the General Assembly under item 24 of the preliminary list.

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*  A/35/50.

1/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, No. 973, p.287.