Israeli practices – SpCttee annual report

REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE ISRAELI

PRACTICES AFFECTING THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE POPULATION

OF THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

Note by the Secretary-General

The Secretary-General has the honour to transmit to the members of the General Assembly the attached periodic report covering the period from 26 August to 31 March 1989, which was submitted to him, in accordance with paragraphs 19 and 20 of Assembly resolution 43/58 A of 6 December 1988, by the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories.

CONTENTS

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

7 January 1989

Sir,

     The Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories has the honour to transmit to you herewith, in accordance with paragraphs 19 and 20 of General Assembly resolution 43/58 A, a periodic report updating information contained in the twentieth report, which it adopted and presented to you on 26 August 1988 (A/43/694).  The present periodic report has been prepared in order to bring to your attention, and to the attention of the General Assembly, updated information on the human rights situation in the occupied territories.

     The present periodic report covers the period from 26 August 1988, the date of the adoption of the twentieth report, to 31 March 1989.  It is based on written information gathered from various sources among which the Special Committee has selected relevant excerpts and summaries which are reflected in the report.  Oral evidence as well as any further information relevant to its mandate will be reflected, together with its conclusions, in the twenty-first report of the Special Committee.

     Accept, Sir, on behalf of my colleagues and on my own behalf, the assurances of our highest consideration.

Daya R. PERERA

Chairman of the Special Committee to

Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting

the Human Rights of the Population

of the Occupied Territories

His Excellency

Mr. Javier Pérez de Cuéllar

Secretary-General of the United Nations

New York

I.  INTRODUCTION

1. In paragraphs 19 and 20 of its resolution 43/58 A of 6 December 1988, the General Assembly requested the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories, pending early  termination of Israeli occupation, to continue to investigate Israeli policies and practices in  the Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, to consult, as appropriate, with the International Committee of the Red Cross in order to ensure the safeguarding of the welfare and human rights of the population of the occupied territories and to report to the Secretary-General as soon as possible and whenever the need arises thereafter, and also requested the Special Committee to submit regularly periodic reports to the Secretary-General on the present situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.

2. Section II of the present periodic report describes the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory as it affects the human rights of the civilian population. It contains a summary of information received by the Special Committee

during the period from 26 August 1988, when it adopted its twentieth report (A/43/694), up to 31 March 1989. The Special Committee has followed the situation in the occupied territories on a day-to-day basis through reports appearing in the Israeli and Palestinian press; it has also examined a number of communications and reports from Governments, organizations and individuals that reached it during the period covered by the present report.

3. Section II A (paras. 8-50) reflects the general situation in the occupied territories. It provides relevant excerpts and summaries of reports concerning general developments in the occupied territories and policy statements referring to any major policy decision taken by the Government of Israel as part of its declared or undeclared intent that bears an impact on the human rights situation in the occupied territories. It also provides an account of the main incidents linked to the uprising of the Palestinian population against the occupation.

4. Section 118 (paras. 51-91) contains information on the administration of justice in the occupied territories, and gives an account of various court proceedings, sentences and detention measures to which Palestinian civilians have

been subjected; it also refers to a few cases of Israelis charged with killing or ill-treatment of Palestinians.

5. Section II C (paras. 92-228) attempts to describe briefly other measures affecting the human rights of the civilians, such as harassment and physical ill-treatment; the illegal  resort to collective punishment as  measures of reprisal, under various forms such as the demolition of houses of civilians, the imposition of prolonged curfews or economic sanctions; and the deportations from the occupied territories carried out against a number of Palestinians despite the illegal character of such practices.  The section further provides information on restrictions limiting the enjoyment of certain fundamental freedoms such as freedom of expression or freedom of education; it also briefly describes acts of violence and aggression by Israeli settlers against the civilians.

6. Section II D (paras. 229-260) refers to the treatment of Palestinian detainees, which has been further worsened by the noticeable increase in the number of prisoners consequent to the uprising.

7. Finally, section II E  (paras. 261-175) reflects recent  measures of annexation of and settlement in  parts of the occupied territories.

II.  INFORMATION RECEIVED BY THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE

A.  General situation

1.  General developments and policy statements

8. On 1 September 1988, it was reported that the number of Palestinians killed in the territories since the beginning of the uprising had reached 212. According to reports of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the number of victims had reached 258, and had included 13 cases of suffocation from tear-gas, 12 cases of death as a result of beating and 14 cases of death following shooting by Israeli civilians. (Ha'aretz, 1 September 1988)

9. On 19 September, Israel Defence Forces (IDF) sources were reported as saying that since the IDF had started using new plastic bullets in the territories, troops had been authorized to use such bullets against  stone throwers and demonstrators, even when there was no danger to the soldiers' safety. According to a report appearing on 20 September 1988, Defence Minister Rabin had changed orders regarding the firing of plastic bullets, cancelling an earlier restriction that limited use of such bullets to specially trained officers. (Ha'aretz, 19 September 1988; Jerusalem Post, 20 September 1988)

10. On 21 September, Defence Minister Rabin declared in a press conference that the IDF was using plastic bullets in the territories to increase injuries among Palestinian rioters.  He said he was "not worried" by the sharp rise in casualties among participants in violent protests. "This is precisely our aim", he said. He added that there had not been a rise in the rate of killings. Mr. Rabin added that, in addition to the use of plastic bullets, the IDF had increased its pre-emptive raids on villages in order to block the organization of violent protests. "We are determined to do everything legally possible to suppress and significantly reduce the violence in the territories", he concluded. (Jerusalem Post, 28 September 1988; Attalia, 29 September 1988)

11. On 29 September Dr. Habis Woheidi, head of the emergency room at Ahali hospital in Gaza, was reported as saying that plastic bullets were like live ammunition. According to doctors in that hospital, eight Palestinians had been killed by plastic bullets since the IDF began using them a month earlier.  According to UNRWA figures, over 200 Palestinians were wounded in the Gaza Strip during the month of September 1988, mostly by plastic bullets. (Jerusalem Post, 29 September 1988)

12. On 4 October, Chief of General Staff R/A (Lieutenant General) Dan Shomron told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee that the army was not using plastic bullets in the territories in self-defence, but in order to stop the riots before they got dangerously out of hand. Since the IDF started using plastic bullets, the number of fatalities among Arab rioters had decreased, while the number of injuries had risen. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 5 October 1988)

13. On 6 October, Chief of General Staff R/A Dan Shomron was reported to have mentioned in his report to the Knesset on the use of plastic bullets that during the past three weeks 11 people had been killed and 267 had been injured, as compared to 10 and 137 the preceding three weeks.  (Attalia, 6 October 1988)

14. On 7 October, Defence Minister Rabin said that since the beginning of the uprising in the territories, 250 persons had died and 18,000 arrests had been carried out. He said that plastic bullets were fired by officers and specially-trained soldiers in order to injure anyone involved in stone-throwing, organization of riots, or incitement. (Ha'aretz, 9 October 1988)

15. On 9 October, Attorney-General Yosef Harish defended the use of plastic bullets in the territories and said their aim was not deterrence through injury, but dispersal of violent riots.  Harish said he had approved guidelines for use of the bullets before they were issued to troops. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 10 October 1988)

16. On 20 October, the Israeli press reported on two recent publications by the "West Bank Data Base Project, headed by Dr. Meron Benvenisti. One publication, entitled "The Price of Insurgency", was the first comprehensive report on human rights violations in the territories since the beginning of the uprising.  The report, compiled by attorney Carmel Shalev, indicated an "alarming increase in the number of human and civil rights violations as a result of measures adopted by the Israeli authorities in their efforts to quell the uprising by the Palestinian population.  That phenomenon was accompanied by Government acts – legislative, administrative and judicial – which have been granting legitimacy to these violations, and have been causing a qualitative change in the human and civil rights situation of the population". According to the report, by September 1988, over 250 persons had been killed in the territories, as compared with 8 in 1986 and 22 in 1987. During the period under consideration, over 5,000 people had been injured, some 2,500 administrative detention orders had been issued, as compared with 37 in 1988 and 62 in 1987, and over 18,000 people had been arrested.  The freedom of movement of hundreds of thousands was restricted by the imposition of curfews and by sealing off localities.  The report also alleges that there was a dual system of justice in civil and military courts that discriminated against Arabs.  The report further noted a discrepancy between official policy guidelines on the use of force by Israeli soldiers and their implementation.  The second publication was "The West Bank and Gaza Atlas", which included maps and statistics on growth and distribution of Jewish and Arab population, infrastructure and transport, cultivation, town planning and various Israeli political plans for border demarcation. One of the major findings in the atlas concerned the increase in the Palestinian population of the territories. According to the atlas, the Palestinian population in the West Bank was greater by some 200,000 than figures released by the Central Bureau of Statistics and reached 1,067,873. The Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip stood at 633,000. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, Attalia, 20 October 1988)

17. On 23 October, Reuters news agency reported – on the basis of Palestinian allegations – that an undercover army unit, code-named "Duvdevan" (Cherry) was operating in the West Bank to capture Arabs throwing petrol bombs and rocks, and that the unit had verbal order to shoot to kill fugitives "with blood on their hands".  According to the Reuters report, three West Bank residents killed in clashes on 8 and 9 October in the village of Yatta and Yaabad had been shot dead in cold blood by members of this unit. The news agency further alleged that a similar unit, code-named "Samson", was operating in the Gaza Strip. On 24 October 1988, the IDF flatly denied the existence of an undercover "death squad" operating in the West Bank and Gaza. The statement did not deny the existence of undercover units whose task was to arrest throwers of rocks and petrol bombs.  (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 24, 25 and 28 October 1988)

18. On 1 November, the day of the general elections in Israel, and on 2 November 1988, the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the territories were sealed off and a self-imposed curfew and general strike were observed. Arab residents of the territories were not allowed to enter Israel or to circulate freely inside the territories. Journalists were not allowed to enter the territories. (Ha'aretz, 2 November 1988; Al-Fajr, 6 November 1988; Attalia, 10 November 1988)

19. On 4 November, it was reported that the border police forces operating in the territories would double their numbers by mid-1989, as compared with their size at the beginning of the uprising. In the Jerusalem area the number of border police troops has been quadrupled since December 1987. (Ha'aretz, 4 November 1988)

20. On 6 November, it was reported that 374 Palestinians had been killed since the beginning of the intifadah. (Al-Fajr, 6 November 1988)

21. On 13 November, it was reported that the security authorities had resorted to an unprecedented show of force in  the territories to head off rioting on the occasion of the opening of the session of the Palestine National Council (PNC) in Algiers. The preventive measures included a total curfew imposed on the Gaza Strip, affecting a population of 650,000, cutting of telephone links to the territories, except to hospitals and persons linked to the authorities, banning movement by Arab residents to and from Jerusalem, an unprecedented troop deployment, preventive arrests (of approximately 350 people), distribution of leaflets warning the population against any disturbances etc. Distribution of East Jerusalem newspapers in the territories was banned and reporters were barred from the Gaza Strip, except under escort by an IDF spokesman. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, Al-Fajr, 13 November 1988; Attalia, 11 November 1988)

22. On 17 November, the Israeli army issued orders banning all signs of celebration on the occasion of the declaration of Palestinian independence. Prison terms up to five years and heavy fines could be inflicted to those violating the orders. (Attalia, 17 November 1988; Al-Fajr, 21 November 1988)

23. On 21 November, a group of Israeli and Palestinian jurists, physicians and professors set up an Israeli-Palestinian Human Rights Committee, headed by attorney Darwish Nasser from Jerusalem and Eddie Kaufmann of the Hebrew University.  (Ha'aretz, 22 November 1988)

24. On 27 November, it was reported by the IDF that since the beginning of the uprising 230 Arabs had been killed in clashes with troops: 163 in the West Bank and 77 in the Gaza Strip. According to international bodies operating in the territories the number of victims reached 320, including several Arabs murdered as suspected collaborators and Arabs killed by Israeli civilians in the territories.  During the same period six Israeli civilians and two soldiers were killed in incidents linked to the uprising. According to IDF sources some 3,550 Palestinians had been injured and hospitalized. Palestinian sources alleged that the number of injured was much higher. Seven hundred and twenty-two soldiers and 399 Israeli civilians were injured. Some 5,656 Palestinians were currently being detained in military detention facilities for acts linked with the uprising. Only 377 of them were serving prison sentences given by courts. A total of 2,064 were being detained until the end of the legal proceedings against therm, and 1,625 were in pre-trial detention; 1,590 were in administrative detention. These figures corresponded to the situation as at 22 November 1988. (Ha'aretz, 27 November 1988)

25. On 30 November, it was reported that, according to UNRWA, 250 Palestinians had been shot at in the Gaza Strip during the period from 1 to 28 November 1988, including four who were killed. This was said to be the highest toll in a single month since the beginning of the uprising. According to UNRWA, over 12,070 Palestinians had been admitted to UNRWA clinics since December 1987, suffering from various injuries, including tear-gas poisoning and rubber bullet wounds. Among the injured 6,635 were children aged from under 1 to 13 years.  (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 30 November 1988)

26. On 30 November, it was reported that the use of plastic bullets fired at rioters in the territories had been extended to the night hours. (Ma'ariv, 30 November 1988 )

27. On 4 December, the Deputy Chief of Staff, Aluf (Major-General) Ehud Barak, said that since the beginning of the uprising, one year earlier, 301 Palestinians had been killed, 3,640 had been injured, and 5,500 were under detention, including 1,500 in administration detention, and that 140 houses had been demolished. Six Israeli civilians and two soldiers had been killed.  (Ha'aretz, 5 December 1988; Attalia, 8 December 1988)

28. On 8 December, a report entitled "Punishing a Nation: Human Rights Violations during the Palestinian Uprising" was published by the Palestinian human rights monitoring group Al-Haq. According to the report, which was based on sworn affidavits from Palestinian witnesses, questionnaires, reports by Al-Haq fieldworkers and press accounts, 405 Palestinians had been killed during the uprising, 217 in the West Bank and 134 in the Gaza Strip (according to the Defence Ministry there had been 302 Palestinians killed, and according to UNRWA – 313) . Over 20,000 Palestinians had been wounded (3,640 according to IDF sources), at least 20,000 Palestinians were arrested over the past year, of whom 9,000 to 10,000 were currently in prison including at least 3,000 administrative detainees. Some 32 Palestinians had been deported and another 27 served with expulsion orders. In the West Bank 100 homes had been demolished and 45 sealed. At least 1,600 curfews had been imposed, of which at least 400 were around-the-clock curfews lasting between 3 and 40 days. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 9 December 1988; Attalia, 8 December 1988; Al-Fajr, 12 December 1988)

29. On 8 December the Central Region Commander, Aluf (Major-General) Amram Mitzna, spoke about the one year's uprising in the territories. He said the IDF had "succeeded in blunting the Palestinian population's sense that they could dictate events here and shake off our control" , but the IDF still faced the task of eliminating the so-called "shock committees", especially in remote villages, which were used to impose the will of the uprising's leaders on the general population.  (Jerusalem Post, 9 December 1988)

30. On 8 December, Attalia correspondents published a report based on official records of five hospitals in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip showing that 33,088 persons had been hospitalized for various injuries in 1988. These figures did not include those admitted in other hospitals (11), clinics or UNRWA relief centres in the territories, nor those treated locally or never registered. (Attalia, 9 December 1988)

31. On 21 December, Al-Ittihad and Hadashot reporters revealed that Israeli police were using a new type of bullet. against Palestinian demonstrators, which was made of nickel, was 4 centimetres long and half a centimetre wide, was open at both ends with a tube holding two rubber bullets and contained an anesthetic liquid. The bullet was used against Emran Obeid, aged 19, in the village of Issawiy near Jerusalem on 18 December 1988. (Al-Fajr, 26 December 1988)

32. On 29 December, the Israeli Defence Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee that 320 Palestinians had been killed since the start of the intifadah, in addition to 700 injured and 21,000 detained.  According to Palestinian sources, 445 Palestinians had been killed. (Attalia, 29 December 1988)

33. On 12 January 1989, it was reported that the IDF had recently introduced a new type of bullet. The new bullet, described by soldiers as an improved rubber bullet, reportedly had a longer range than the old type of rubber bullet; it was also reported to cause pain but not to explode inside the body. However, according to Palestinian sources two children from the Gaza Strip, who died in November and December 1988, were shot by such bullets. (Jerusalem Post, 12 January 1989; Attalia, 19 January 1989)

34. On 12 January, Defence Minister Rabin disclosed that 330 Palestinians had been killed since the start of the uprising and more than 7,000 injured. Some 21,000 had been arrested and over 5,000 were currently in detention. (Jerusalem Post, 13 January 1989; Attalia, 19 January 1989)

35. On 14 January, senior IDF sources reportedly confirmed that, under new instructions issued recently, soldiers who were not officers were also authorized to shoot plastic bullets at demonstrators.  On 18 January 1989, further measures were reported by security sources in order to quell stone-throwing. The new measures included speeding up the process of bringing stone-throwers before military courts and harsher sanctions against the parents of stone-throwers.  Prosecutors in military courts would be instructed to ask for harsher sentences for stone-throwers.  The homes of stone-throwers who were responsible for death or injuries would be demolished and the homes of those who were responsible for material damage would be sealed.  (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 15, 18 January 1989; Attalia, 19 January 1989)

36. On 19 January, Defence Minister Rabin said that all instructions given to IDF soldiers in the territories were being co-ordinated with the office of the State Attorney, and could therefore be defended before the High Court of Justice. He said that deliberate shooting of children was illegal, but added, "those who do not want to be hurt should not throw stones". (Ha'aretz, 20 January 1989; Al-Fajr, 23 January 1989)

37. On 22 January, attorney Felicia Langer petitioned the High Court of Justice, on behalf of the "League for Human and Civil Rights in Israel ", regarding the lawfulness of open-fire instructions in the territories. On 25 January 1989, Defence Minister Rabin told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee that open-fire instructions had been approved by the judge advocate-general. He said that soldiers had been ordered, first of all, to catch stone-throwing children, identify their parents and compel them to post a bond for a large sum of money. (Ha'aretz, 23 January 1989; Jerusalem Post, 25 January 1989)

38. On 23 January, it was reported that the top echelons of the IDF had instructed commanders in the territories to refrain, as much as possible, from using gunfire in their struggle against demonstrators and stone-throwers. The new instruction came after what was described as a public uproar that followed news about the increased use of plastic bullets against demonstrators. Attorney-General Harish said that there was no indication that IDF policies in the territories violated either Israeli or international law. (Al-Fajr, Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 23 January 1989)

39. On 23 January, Israeli Defence Minister Yitzhak Rabin was reported to have told journalists that the Israeli army would work to bring suspected stone-throwers to a speedy trial and that harsher sentences of up to three years would be levied against youngsters found guilty of hurling stones at troops or Israeli civilians.  Families of stone-throwers would be heavily fined and the homes of suspected stone-throwers would be demolished or sealed off. (Attalia, 23 January 1989)

40. On 23 January, the IDF spokesman reported that out of 288 Palestinians who had been killed since the beginning of the uprising, 47 had been shot by plastic bullets. (Ha'aretz, 24 January 1989)

41. On 25 January, the Deputy Chief of Staff, Aluf Ehud Barak, gave the IDF details regarding the uprising, as follows: since December 1987  352 Palestinians had been killed: 289 by IDF soldiers and the others "in other circumstances"; 30 of the latter had been killed by other Palestinians. Four IDF soldiers and seven Israeli civilians were killed. Currently 5,600 Palestinians were being detained, including 1,100 administrative detainees.  Some 45 Palestinians had been expelled ad 200 houses had been demolished or sealed. (Ha'aretz, 26 January 1889)

42. On 1 February, the Justice Ministry issued an official statement saying that following a discussion by the Ministry's top level officials it had been agreed by all participants that "the existing order (for opening fire in the territories) are in accordance with the requirements of the law, and thus, carry full legal validity".  It was further agreed that soldiers who were authorized to shoot plastic bullets would receive specific clarifications concerning the restrictions imposed on their use.  (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 2 February 1989)

43. On 7 February, the Judge Advocate-General, T/A (Brigadier-General) Amnon Strashnow, told law reporters that since the beginning of the uprising some 50 soldiers and officers had been put on trial on charges of causing death of Arab residents of the territories, ill-treatment or stealing of property from apartments.  In addition, some 200 to 300 soldiers and officers had been put on disciplinary trial before their commanders on less severe charges.  T/A Strashnow also reported that 1,100 administrative detainees were being held at the Ketziot (Ansar 3) facility. Since the beginning of  the uprising some 4,500 residents of the territories had been held in that jail. During the past 14 months 8,000 Palestinians had been brought to trial, 4,500 trials had been completed, 300 people were awaiting trial in jail and 500 had been released on bail. In 5 per cent of the trials the defendants had been acquitted; 25 to 30 per cent of appeals against detention had been accepted by the authorities. The IDF had demolished 100 houses and sealed 100 others; 59 expulsion orders had been issued, but only 49 persons had been deported, as 10 cases were still pending.  T/A Strashnow confirmed that soldiers may not shoot plastic bullets at fleeing rioters, unless they were fleeing "in order to improve their positions" and were continuing to riot. In case of doubt, he said, soldiers were ordered to ordered to refrain from using plastic bullets. He added that since the beginning of the uprising, the orders on using live ammunition had not been altered in any way.  (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 8 February 1989; Attalia, 9 February 1989)

44. On 23 February, it was reported that Defence Minister Rabin had written to the president of the Israeli branch of Defence for Children International that since the beginning of the uprising 22 minors had been killed in the territories. Most of them had allegedly participated in the riots. Commenting on Rabin's letter, a source at an international development organization in Jerusalem said that during the period from 9 December 1931 to 9 December 1988, 70 children and teenagers up to the age of 16 had been killed; 35 of them had reportedly died from gunshot wounds, 31 from tear-gas, 1 from beating and 3 in various incidents linked with the uprising. The majority of children who died from tear-gas were under six months old, according to that source. (Jerusalem Post, 23 February 1989)

45. On 3 March, it was reported that the Southern Region Commander, Aluf (Maj. Gen.) Yitzhak Mordekhai, told Gaza Strip notables that the IDF would reduce its forces in the region and remove several brigades from sensitive places, such as schools. He also promised that some detainees would be released and local fishermen would be allowed to carry out their activity more freely. (Ha'aretz, 3 March 1989)

46. On 10 March, it was reported that security force in the Gaza Strip were being redeployed to enhance efficiency, with a view to reducing the number of Palestinian casualties. It was announced that the border police would be responsible for order in the town of Gaza and in other sensitive localities in the region. (Jerusalem Post, 10 March 1'89)

2.   Incidents linked with the uprising of the Palestinian population against the occupation

47. During the period covered by the present report, the special Committee received communications from various sources, as well as a considerable amount of reports from various newspapers providing information on the overall situation resulting from the uprising of the Palestinian population against the occupation.  According to these reports, civilian deaths had continued to occur on a wide scale.  In a communication transmitted by Amnesty International dated 19 September 1988 entitled "Israel and the Occupied Territories: Update of the Use of Live Ammunition by Members of the Israel Defence Forces", a list was provided that contained information on 42 Palestinians killed by live ammunition fired by Israeli soldiers between 17 June and 17 September 1988. The report provided details on four cases of death by shooting by IDF personnel where, according to Amnesty International, unofficial accounts of events raised serious questions and warranted a thorough investigation.

48. The following table provides details concerning the 183 Palestinians killed between 26 August 1988 and 31 March 1989 in the occupied territories and the circumstances of their death as reported in various newspapers.  The following abbreviations of the names of newspapers are used in the table:

AF  – Al-Fajr (weekly)

AT  – Attalia

H  – Ha'aretz

JP  – Jerusalem Post

M  – Ma'ariv

49. In addition to the above-mentioned cases of deaths, numerous other serious incidents, occurring practically every day and in several localities were reported during the same period. These incidents included violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces in various areas of the occupied territories, and often resulted in severe injuries caused by live, rubber and plastic bullets, burns caused by exploding or flammable objects, tear-gas and beatings and affected all categories of civilians, including very young children. Other incidents included widespread demonstrations, transport and commercial strikes by the Palestinian population, stone-throwing and petrol-bomb throwing, raids on many localities and villages by IDF soldiers, border policemen and paratroopers in order to carry out scores or arrests, collect taxes, or remove Palestinian flags and graffiti, and the imposition of curfews and closing off of villages and sometimes entire areas, for periods of varying durations (see also paras. 110-152).

50. Some of these clashes were most serious, such as the one reported in Ha'aretz and Jerusalem Post on 18 December 1988, which took place in Nablus on 16 December 1988 and in which five youths were killed and some 20 injured, including three youths who died of their wounds in the following days. Reference can also be made to clashes reported in Ha'aretz and Jerusalem Post on 12 January 1989, in which two Palestinians died and at least 28 were injured in widespread serious clashes. The most serious clash occurred in Tulkarem after news about the death of Marwan Munzer al-Madani became known.  Troop used large quantities of tear-gas and rubber bullets, and later live ammunition, to disperse the protesters. At least 17 were shot and wounded – most of them children and youths, and some 60 others needed medical treatment for rubber bullet, tear-gas and beating injuries. Two 16-year-old girls, named as Abir Sawis and Ghaarda Darwish Ahmed, were shot in the chest and hospitalized in very serious condition. Eight Gaza residents were shot and injured, two seriously, including Muhammad el Sahluk, aged 15, from Nuseirat camp. There were several attacks on suspected collaborators. Violent clashes were also reported on 22 February 1989 in Ha'aretz and Jerusalem Post, in which 15 Palestinians had been shot and wounded in the West Bank on 21 February, and 4 in the Gaza Strip. Reference can also be made to events that took place on 7 March, as reported in Ha'aretz and Jerusalem Post on 8 March 1989, when violent clashes continued to be reported in the territories, as a general strike was observed for the second day running. One person was killed and over 30 people were shot and injured – 29 of them in the Gaza Strip. Clashes in the Gaza Strip were described as the worst in several months. A violent weekend (24-25 March) was also reported in the Gaza Strip by Ha'aretz, and Jerusalem Post on 26 March 1989, when three persons were killed, 26 shot and wounded and some 20 beaten. Heavy clashes were further reported by Ha'aretz and Jerusalem Post of 31 March 1989 to have occurred on 30 March, when a general strike was observed in the territories to mark the Land Day anniversary. Heavy clashes were widespread. Four were shot dead and over 40 were injured. Most of the unrest was outside the major towns, as heavy troop presence and curfews stifled protest in cities and surrounding refugee camps. About 20 casualties were reported in the Hebron area, where violence was allegedly provoked by vigilante car patrols by settlers.

B.  Administration of justice, including the right to a fair trial

1.  Palestinian population

51. During the period under consideration, the Special Committee received a considerable amount of reports from various newspapers providing information on arrests, the issuing of administrative detention order, and the passing of sentences concerning Palestinians in the occupied territories. Such information included, in most cases, relevant details such as the date, subject or subjects, place, duration and  motive invoked. Owing to the amount of cases involved, which, if listed individually, would have taken up considerable space, only a few examples are cited below in order to illustrate the situation in that regard.

51. On 30 August 1988, the Israeli Minister of Defence, Yitzhak Shamir, reportedly said that a total of 18,000 Palestinians had been arrested over the past nine months and that 5,600 of them, including some 2,600 administrative detainees, were still in detention.  (Al-Fajr, 4 September 1988)

53. On 4 September, the Commander of the Military Police, T/A (Brigadier General) Emil Elimelech, gave details about the number of Arabs from the territories held in prison. There were 2,461 administrative detainees, 519 convicted prisoners, 987 detainees (by order of a police officer) and 1,643 detained until the end of the legal proceedings (by order of a judge). The total number was 5,640 persons.  Since December 1987, the Investigating Military Police had opened 430 inquiry files regarding "irregular incidents" in the territories. In 350 cases the inquiries were completed and in the remaining 80 inquiries were still under way; 154 inquiries concerned circumstances of death of young Arab demonstrators and 71 concerned cases of injuries; 200 cases concerned other irregular acts by soldiers, including beatings, destruction of property etc. (Ha'aretz, 5 September 1988)

54. On 6 September, in the town of Kalkilya, soldiers carried lists of names, and detainees were taken handcuffed and blindfolded to a school where they were questioned by agents of the General Security Service (GSS). A military prosecutor signed detention orders and prisoners were taken to the Far'a detention camp near Nablus. Some 150 people were arrested during the first day of the operation.  Military sources said the detainees were found in possession of knives and hatchets. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 7 September 1988; Attalia, 8 September 1988; Al-Fajr, 11 September 1988)

55. On 23 October, it was reported that 60 administrative detainees and prisoners from the Gaza Strip held at the Ketziot prison in the Negev desert, known as Ansar 3, were being released from prison, as a gesture on the occasion of the holiday marking the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, on 22 October 1988.  (Ha'aretz, 23 October 1988)

56. On 27 October, the IDF Judge Advocate-General, T/A Amnon Strashnow, reported that the army was holding 1,600 Palestinian. In administrative detention, compared with some 3,000 a few months earlier. Most of the detainees had filed appeals, and all but 200 of the appeals had already been heard by military court judges. The remaining appeals were to be heard the following week. (Jerusalem Post, 28 October 1988)

57. On 27 and 28 October, the Israeli authorities carried out many arrests in different parts of the occupied territories as a preventive measure.  According to Israel Radio, 200 Palestinian youths were arrested, including several journalists.  (Attalia, 3 November 1888)

58. On 29 October, the security forces carried out many arrests, described as a "preventive measures", in connection with the forthcoming elections in Israel and the United States, the Balfour Declaration Day, and the meeting of the Palestine National Council in Algiers. Many public figures were arrested, including eight journalists, eight trade unionists and the son of Abd el-Hamid A-Sayeh, chairman of the Palestine National Council. (Ha'aretz, 30 October 1988)

59. On 6 November, it was reported that some 300 charge sheets had been filed with the military court in Gaza over the past two months against residents charged with membership in "popular committees". The security forces reportedly intended to file 200 more charge sheets for similar offences. (Ha'aretz, 8 November 1988)

60. On 10 November, the Israeli military court in Nablus, indicted three Palestinian youths aged between 13 and 14 for throwing stones at soldiers. They were given the choice between five months effective imprisonment and the payment of fines of 600 to 900 shekels. One youth was sentenced to four month.s imprisonment and the identity cards of the two others were confiscated because their parents refused to pay the fines.  (Attalia, 24 November 1988)

61. On 29 November, an IDF spokesman reported that a large number of "terrorist" cells had been uncovered in the West Bank. Their members were suspected of a long series of sabotage acts, attacks on settlements and suspected collaborators etc.  The cells were uncovered in al-Aroub, north of Hebron, Beit Umar, al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, Abud, Jalazun, Tulkarem, Deir Istiya, Jenin, Nablus, Taluza and Balata. (Ha'aretz, 29 November 1988)

62. On 30 November, it was reported that since the beginning of the uprising 6,000 persons had been put on trial on charges of breaking the peace and throwing petrol bombs. The trials of 4,000 of them has already taken place; 200 of those put on trial were acquitted. Some 4,000 persons had been placed under administrative detention orders, but most of them had been released and at present there were still 1,500 administrative detainees. These details were given by the Judge-Advocate General, T/A Amnon Strashnow. (Ha'aretz, 30 November 1988)

63. On 8 December, it was reported that, according to a report by the New York-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, following two fact-finding missions to Israel and the territories by the committee's executive director and board chairman, "the Israeli military authorities have failed to provide an adequate basis for the administrative detentions" and had therefore "exceeded its detention powers". The report specifically criticized Israel for the administrative detention of five workers from the Al-Haq human rights group and of two lawyers from Gaza, named Raji Surani and Yunis al-Jaru. The report said that in all seven cases, no specific public charges of illegal activity had been made and no evidence had been disclosed. (Jerusalem Post, 8 December 1988)

64. On 2 January 1989, a group of Arab lawyers announced that they would not appear in military courts in the N..t West Bank for one month in protest against conditions that, they said, made it impossible for them to represent their clients properly. At a news conference in East Jerusalem the Arab lawyers listed 22 complaints about the military justice system, including absence of arrest warrants and search warrants, failure to notify families about the location of detainees, bureaucratic obstacles that prevented lawyers from meeting with their clients, severe limitations on family visits to detainees, a restricted bail policy, the failure to bring detainees and witnesses to court, and the repeated postponement of trials while the accused was forced to remain in jail. In addition, the Arab lawyers called upon the military authorities to co-ordinate trial dates with them to avoid situations in which clients had been brought to court without the lawyers' knowledge. They also protested the security forces' alleged practice of arresting a member of a suspect's family if the suspect was not home when they want to arrest him. They further criticized the practice of extending prisoners' detention in speedy hearings held at the prison without the presence of a lawyer and without allowing the detainee to speak on his own behalf.  Responding to the lawyers charges, the IDF spokesman said the military courts functioned "properly and reasonably, under current conditions". He added that the military courts would continue to hold trials, maintaining the defendants' rights even if they were not represented. (Jerusalem Post, 3 January 1989)

65. On 22 January, it was reported that the military court in Gaza had sentenced four youths who had pleaded guilty to charges of stone-throwing at troops to prison terms ranging from four and a half to six months. (Ha'aretz, 22 January 1989)

66. On 25 January, a spokesman for the Defence Ministry announced that Faisal Husseini would be released shortly from jail, where he was being held in administrative detention, after Defence Minister Rabin decided not to extend his administrative detention order. On 29 January, Husseini was released from Kfar Yona jail. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 26, 29 January 1989)

67. On 2 February, Palestinian lawyers announced at a press conference in East Jerusalem that they intended to continue their protest strike, started one month earlier, and to boycott West Bank military courts for another month, unless the authorities improved the legal system there. The lawyers' complaints included the frequent postponement of trials while suspects remained in jail, failure to notify families about where detainees were held, bureaucratic obstacles that prevented lawyers from meeting with their clients, the severity of penalties and the use of Ketziot facility in the Negev desert to hold detainees from the territories. IDF Judge Advocate-General Amnon Strashnow responded to the complaints saying that the strike was unjustified and that military courts would continue to operate in an orderly manner even without the lawyers. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 3 February 1989; Al-Fajr, 13 February 1989)

68. On 6 February, it was reported that Supreme Court Justice Gabriel Bach had ruled that a Palestinian candidate for deportation had the right to be shown parts of the confidential evidence held by the GSS against him, despite secrecy orders from the Defence Minister. The decision was described as a precedent-setting ruling.  The man against whom an order of expulsion was given was Balah Shakhshir, from Nablus. His lawyers, Lea Tsemel, Avigdor Feldman and Abed Assali, claimed in their petition to the High Court of Justice that their client could not refute the allegations that led to the issuing of an expulsion order against him unless he knew what sort of evidence the GSS was holding against him. (Ha'aretz, 6 February 1989)

69. On 20 February, it was reported that charge sheets had been filed with the military court in Gaza against all the leaders of the Hamas Moslem resistance movement. The movement was created in December 1981 and was designed to integrate the activities of the religious organizations in the Gaza Strip with those of the uprising. (Ha'aretz, 20 February 1989)

70. On 5 March, it was reported that military courts would be set up in Kalkilya and Tulkarem by the IDF Judge Advocate-General as part of the "quick trial" policy, which was initiated in January 1989. The new courts would supplement the existing courts in Nablus, Jenin, and Hebron. The "quick trial" policy was introduced as part of the overall crack-down on stone-throwers. The policy reportedly cut the time security suspects spent in the pre-trial detention from several weeks, or even months, to a number of days. (Jerusalem Post, 5 March 1989)

71. On 7 March, it was reported that the IDF had released 124 detainees, including administrative detainees, from the Ketziot detention camp. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 7 March 1989; Al-Fajr, 13 March 1989)

72. On 22 March, it was reported that the Jerusalem police and the GSS had recently uncovered several cells affiliated to George Habash's Popular Front.  Over 40 suspects had already been arrested. (Ha'aretz, 22 March 1989)

73. On 22 March, it was reported that the security forces had captured Yahya Abid, the leader of the Democratic Front, in the Gaza Strip. (Ha'aretz, 22 March 1989)

74. On 24 March, it was reported that the IDF had released, over the past few days, some 150 West Bank prisoners and detainees.  The move came after a series of talks between the head of the civil administration and local notables. It was explained as a good-will gesture in relation to the Ramadan feast. (Ha'aretz, 24 March 1989)

2.  Israelis

75. During the period under consideration, it was reported that a few Israelis charged with murder or ill-treatment of Arab civilians had been charged and sentenced to various terms. A few such examples are cited below.

76. On 23 September 1988, it was reported that the Judge Advocate-General had decided to put on trial four soldiers of the "Givati" brigade, a staff-sergeant and three privates, who were allegedly involved in beating a Gaza resident, Hani Shami, to death. The incident occurred in August 1988 when some 20 soldiers forced their way into Shami's home, searching for stone-throwing children. When Shami tried to protect his children the soldiers caught him and started beating him violently on all parts of his body. Hani Shami died of his wounds several hours later. The four suspects were charged with manslaughter, and it was the first time since the beginning of the uprising in the territories that soldiers were being charged with beating an Arab to death. On 4 October, the Military Appeals Court heard the appeal by the four "Givati" soldiers. Lawyers for the four soldiers claimed that the use of beating "as punishment" was ordered by "most senior authorities" in the IDF. One of the lawyers quoted an affidavit by the soldiers' immediate commander, stating that their "action was in accordance with the customary procedures in the area". On 5 October, the Military Appeals Court decided that the four soldiers should remain in jail pending their trial. On 15 November, the president of the Southern Region military court ordered the release of the four soldiers. The judge reached the conclusion that other soldiers had caused the Arab's death by beating him and that the identity of those responsible was not known. (Ha'aretz, 23 and 27 September 1988, 16 November 1988; Jerusalem Post, 5 and 6 October 1988; Attalia, 29 September 1988; Al-Fajr, 2 October 1988)

77. On 11 October, the trial of Pinhas Wallerstein opened at the Jerusalem District Court. Wallerstein, head of the Mateh-Binyamin regional council, was being charged with killing one Arab youth and wounding another. (Jerusalem Post, 12 October 1988)

78. On 27 October, the IDF Judge Advocate-General, Amnon Strashnow, reported that 32 IDF soldiers and officers had been tried since the beginning of the uprising for unbecoming conduct towards the residents of the occupied territories. Dozens of other soldiers have been reprimanded by their commanding officers. (Jerusalem Post, 28 October 1988)

79. On 24 November, it was reported that a reservist who had slapped and kicked an Arab detainee in the Tulkarem detention facility was sentenced to two months' imprisonment, 18 months' suspended term, and was demoted from sergeant to private.  (Ma'ariv, 24 November 1988)

80. On 27 November, it was reported that 21 soldiers had been sentenced to 14 days in prison for vandalizing private Arab property in the Kalandiya refugee camp.  The soldiers' platoon commander, a second lieutenant, was jailed earlier for 14 days and relieved of his post. The company commander was reprimanded. (See also para.. 92-228.) (Jerusalem Post, 27 November 1988)

81. On 28 November, it was reported that a second lieutenant, an instructor of the IDF officers' college, was facing a charge of manslaughter out of negligence.  On 21 August 1988, while chasing after suspected stone-throwers, he opened fire, in violation of the standing orders, and killed a suspect. The trial was to be held at the Southern Region military court. (Ma'ariv, 28 November 1988)

82. On 30 November, Yisrael Ze'ev, aged 38, from Shilo, was convicted at the Jerusalem district court of manslaughter and causing injuries, for killing Jodeh Abdallah Awad, a shepherd from Turmus Aya, and injuring Rizek Abu Naim. The incident took place on 5 May 1988 when the settler opened fire at the two shepherds who were grazing their sheep "too close to the settlement". On 5 December, it was reported that Ze'ev was sentenced to three years' imprisonment and two years' suspended term. He was also ordered to pay NIS 30,000 (approximately $20,000) as compensation to the widow. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 1 and 5 December 1988; Al-Fajr, 12 December 1988)

83. On 1 December, the IDF Judge Advocate-General T/A Amnon Strashnow told Officer School Cadets that 45 charge sheets had been filed against soldiers and officers for irregularities during service in the territories; 15 had been convicted and 2 had been acquitted. Sentences ranged from suspended terms to one year in jail for manslaughter. (Ha'aretz, 2 December 1988)

84. On 12 December, the Supreme Court rejected the appeal by Yosef Harnoi, the Eilon Moreh settler who was convicted of killing Aishah al-Bahsh, aged 11, in Nablus in 1983. A three-justice panel rejected Harnoi's claim that he had suffered an attack of epilepsy at the time of the shooting. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 13 December 1988)

85. On 15 December a military court in Jaffa sentenced private Eli Yedid to 18 months' imprisonment for manslaughter, for killing Yusuf Abu-Eid from Bidu during a riot in March 1988. Yedid was found guilty of shooting Abu-Eid after seeing him throwing stones. (Jerusalem Post, 16 December 1988)

86. On 20 December, five soldiers, including a woman and an officer, were convicted at the Central Region military court of ill-treatment of detainees in the Dahiriya detention facility. In March 1988, the five ill-treated handcuffed and blindfolded detainees. The charge sheet contained 22 counts. Lieutenant Uzzi Saadon was sentenced to five months' imprisonment and seven months' suspended term and was demoted to private; Rimon Goldstein, a military policeman, was sentenced to three months' imprisonment; Baruch Yaacov was given two and one half months' imprisonment and four and one half months' suspended; Victor Masika was given nine months' imprisonment and nine months' suspended and Ronit Maliniak, a woman soldier who served as telephone exchange operator in the facility, was given one and a half months' imprisonment and suspended – for hitting a detainee with a truncheon. (Ha'aretz, 21 December 1988; Al-Fajr, 26 December 1988)

87. On 30 January, it was reported that the Southern Region military court had sentenced an IDF officer, second lieutenant Alex Deutschman, to three month' imprisonment and six months' suspended term for causing the death of an Arab resident of Bureij camp, out of negligence. The officer pleaded guilty. According to the court, the officer had violated standing orders by deciding to open fire in circumstances that did not justify such an action. (Ha'aretz, 30 January 1989)

88. On 30 January, the Supreme Court increased from 3 to 18 months' imprisonment the sentence given to Binyamin Sa'adia who, with two accomplices, planned to set fire to a hut in Or Yehuda in which three Arab workers were living. A suspended term given to the defendant vas also increased from 9 to 18 months. (Jerusalem Post, 31 January 1989)

89. On 2 February, the Tel Aviv district court sentenced Yaacov Batash, aged 22, of Or Yehuda to one year's imprisonment and one year's suspended term. He was convicted of having prepared a petrol bomb in order to set fire to a hut accommodating Arab workers. (Ha'aretz, 3 February 1989)

90. On 14 February, the Northern Region military court sentenced four soldiers of the Golani brigade to prison terms and demotion to the rank of private. The four were convicted of severely ill-treating an Arab while he was handcuffed and blindfolded. They kicked him in all parts of his body and extinguished a burning cigarette on his body. Three of the defendants were each given one and a half months' imprisonment and were demoted from staff-sergeant to private. The incident occurred in July 1988 in Beit-Sahur area. (Ha'aretz, 15 February 1989; Al-Fajr, 20 February 1989)

91. On 29 March, it was reported that, according to MK Dedi Zucker, 600 inquiry files had been opened since the beginning of the uprising against soldiers and civilians employed by the IDF on suspicion of abuse. In the territories (including inquiries into all the cases of unnatural deaths).  So far, only 21 cases had reached the military courts; 46 soldiers and two IDF-employed civilians had been put on trial. Only seven cases of manslaughter (out of 310 cases of death) had reached the courts. In four of the cases suspects were charged with "causing death out of negligence", and the other three were charged with manslaughter. There were seven cases of detainees who died in detention facilities; in none of these cases had suspects been put on trial.  Files of inquiries into cases of death that were opened in February 1988 had not yet been closed and no decision had been taken. In four cases sentences were given ranging from five months' suspended to one and a half years' imprisonment.  Out of 27 cases that reached the courts, 7 were cases of death, 3 were "unfit behaviour", 1 was blackmail under threats, 3 were cruel treatment, 6 were theft, 3 were illegal use of arms, 1 was causing injury deliberately (resulting in death), 2 were cases of assault and 1 case of injury in aggravated circumstances. Sentences in the cases of theft (usually from detainees or persons checked at roadblocks) ranged from two weeks to six months in jail.  Sentences for unfit behaviour were suspended prison terms. All these details were included in letters MK Zucker addressed to the Defence Minister and the Attorney General. A senior military source reacted to the allegations by saying they were politically motivated. He said since December 1987 over 600 files were opened, including files concerning cases of death (269), and other offences. Some 58 soldiers and officers had been put on trial, including 20 in 11 cases of manslaughter or causing death. (Ha'aretz, 29 and 31 March 1989)

C.  Treatment of civilians, including fundamental freedoms

1.  General developments

(a) Harassment and physical ill-treatment

92. On 4 September 1988, it was reported that several residents of Jericho had allegedly been harassed and ill-treated by IDF reservists during the previous months. The allegations were transmitted to the IDF and the Central Region Commander appointed an examining officer who investigated the allegations and submitted his findings to the Region Commander. Following the incident the Region Commander reiterated his instructions to soldiers serving in the West Bank not to deviate from the rules that prohibited such practices. (Ha'aretz, 4 September 1988 )

93. On 6 September, it was reported that, following a report by a team of doctors and toxicology experts commissioned by MK (member of the Knesset) Dedi Zucker, who warned that the use of tear-gas in closed spaces could be fatal, the IDF General Staff issued a directive prohibiting soldiers from using gas in closed areas while

breaking up demonstrations in the territories.  (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 6 September 1988)

94. On 1 October, figures released by UNRWA indicated a total of 760 Palestinians injured in the Gaza Strip during the month of September as compared to 107 casualties in August. Twelve Palestinians (six from the West Bank and six from the Gaza Strip) were shot dead by IDF troops between 16 and 30 September 1988.  UNRWA's figures also showed that 445 Gaza residents had been injured by live ammunition, 66 bit by rubber bullets or affected by tear-gas, and 249 beaten by IDF troops. (Al-Fajr, 11 October 1988)

95. On 2 October, it was reported that plastic bullets described as non-lethal by Israeli Defence Minister Yitzhak Rabin had caused at least eight deaths since they were used in early September, according to Palestinian medical sources in the occupied territories. (Al-Fajr, 2 October 1988)

96. On 17 October, it was reported that a group of reservists had complained to the Defence Minister about the behaviour of a reserve tank unit in Kalkilya and its area in September 1988. One of the complainants, a medical student, said he had been prevented from giving aid to a Palestinian who was badly beaten by the soldiers. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 17 October 1988)

97. On 18 October, it was reported that cases of temporary confiscation of cars belonging to Arab residents of the territories had recently increased. The cars were being confiscated for army use, for various purposes, for several hours and sometimes even for a whole day. Replying to a letter on the subject by MK Dedi Zucker, Defence Minister Rabin said that that practice was in keeping with international law. (Ha'aretz, 18 October 1988)

98. On 23 October, it was reported that MK Dedi Zucker had asked Defence Minister Rabin to order that the practice of mock execution as a means of pressure on witnesses, or as a form of ill-treatment, be ceased. According to MK Zucker, he had received two complaints of such a practice over the previous fortnight.  (Jerusalem Post, 23 October 1988)

99. On 10 and 11 November, it was reported that residents of Nablus had complained about soldiers entering homes, beating up occupants, vandalizing furniture and ransacking closets. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 10 and 11 November 1988)

100. On 16 November, a 24-year-old handicapped Palestinian was severely beaten by Israeli border policemen when they raided the village of Eysawiya to disperse a march by women celebrating the declaration of independence. The youth was later hospitalized. (Attalia, 24 November 1988)

101. On 20 November, late at right, a group of soldiers smashed windows of cars and homes and overturned a vehicle, at the Kalandiya refugee camp, north of Jerusalem, after a bus in which they were riding was stoned. The Central Region Commander, Amram Mitzna, reportedly ordered that an inquiry be conducted into the incident.  On 23 November, it was reported that the soldiers involved in the incident were 16 members of a paratroopers unit headed by an by an officer. On 24 November, it was reported that the officer, a platoon commander, had been given a two-week jail sentence, and that he would be suspended from his post. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 22, 23 and 24 November 1988)

102. On 28 November, MK Muhammad Miari urged the Defence Minister to investigate allegations on troops using a new, unspecified burning material against Palestinian children and adolescents. According to an Israeli source close to the Al Ittihad Hospital in Nablus, several youths had been admitted to the hospital over the past months with serious burns.  An Israeli physician who examined the boys said they were suffering from severe burns. The IDF spokesman denied the allegations and said the boys had played with inflammable material that caused the burns. The spokesman stressed that the IDF did not use any inflammable material or any other material  to cause burns.  (Ha'aretz, 30 November 1988; Ma'ariv, 29 November 1988)

103. On 5 December three Palestinian children were reported under treatment in Al Ittihad Hospital in Nablus after suffering severe burns from explosive objects in the shape of candy bars thrown at them by Israeli soldiers. The three were named Mahmud Abu Jawad, aged 10, from Tamoun (his family was recently expelled from the Jeftlik area in the Jericho Valley); Majed Saleh, aged 14, from Kabatiya; and Samour Bisharat, from Tamoun.  The Israeli army spokesman denied the use of such burning material in the occupied territories. Two other children were treated for similar burns according to reports. (Al-Fajr, 5 December 1988)

104. On 7 December, all vehicles owned by villagers in Tamoun were seized.  The measures was seen as punishment for the killing of a Jewish settler a month earlier by one of the villagers and to prevent the residents from cultivating their land in the Jiftlik area in the Jordan Valley. (Al-Fajr, 2 December 1988)

105. On 20 December, it was reported that residents of Mghayir, near Ramallah, alleged that they had been abused  by border police during a raid before dawn on 9 December. According to villagers' accounts a group of 50 men were taken from their homes and ordered to paint over nationalist graffiti and remove Palestinian flags.  Most of the men were 50 years of age and older, since younger men had fled the village. The men's hands were bound behind their backs, and they were led to a neighbouring valley, as border police beat and humiliated them. A gravel-cannon was driven into the village and fired at homes, smashing windows and wounding a young woman in one of the houses. The men were allegedly held until about 10 a.m., when the police put the villagers' ID cards on the ground, walked away, and fired tear-gas at the group that was still handcuffed, as officers looked on. A border police spokesman declined to comment on the reported incident and an army spokesman said the allegation were being investigated. (Jerusalem Post, 10 December 1988)

106. On 25 December, it was reported that MK Dedi Zucker had said in a letter to Defence Minister Rabin that dozens of seriously ill Palestinians in the West Bank had died as a result of drastic restrictions on hospitalization in Israel imposed by the civil administration during the uprising. According to Israeli doctors cited by MK Zucker, three months after the start of the uprising, virtually all hospitalization of West Bank residents (in Israeli hospitals) ceased. The level of hospitalization declined to 20 per cent of its previous level. According to those doctors, hospitalization in Israel was being denied to persons suffering from serious and malignant diseases. MK Zucker further reported a virtual halt of hospitalization in Israel of Palestinian children up to age three, who had mandatory health insurance. These children had been treated in Israel for cancer, kidney and heart illnesses, and for amputations. In addition, licensing for nine local ambulances had been delayed. A spokesman for the civil administration confirmed a reduction in referrals to Israeli hospitals, but said this was the result of budget difficulties and not a punitive measure. On 12 January 1989, it was reported that 20 Knesset members from six factions were urging Defence Minister Rabin to restore the earlier liberal policy regarding hospitalization in Israel of Arabs from the territories.  (Jerusalem Post, 25 December 1988; 12 and 26 January 1989)

107. On 12 February 1989, a senior commander in the Gaza Strip testified in the trial of four soldiers of the Givati brigade charged with causing the death of Hani Shami of Jabaliya camp. He said that Southern Region Commander, Aluf Yitzhak Mordekhai, had given explicit orders to beat Arab rioters so that they should not repeat their deeds. He said the Chief of Staff had not referred to the rule of beating when he talked with soldiers. (Ha'aretz, 13 February 1989)

108. On 13 February, the Israeli police was reported to have broken into an elementary school in Nazareth and arrested an 11-year-old boy for drawing the colours of the Palestinian flag on his ruler. (Al-Fajr, 13 February 1989)

109. On 22 March, residents of the Nablus Casbah continued to complain about vandalizing and beating during searches, including breakage of household items and ransacking of contents of homes. On 26 March, there were more complaints from Nablus residents about attacks and harassment by soldiers of civilians who were not involved in violent protest. (Jerusalem Post, 23 March 1989; Ha'aretz, 23 and 27 March 1989)

(b) Collective punishment

110. During the period under consideration the Special Committee received reports from various newspapers providing information on various forms of collective punishment imposed on the civilian population in contradiction with the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention. This period witnessed a considerable amount of such measures of collective punishment, implemented in three main ways:  the demolition of houses, the imposition of curfews or sealing off certain areas and the imposition of economic sanctions. Owing to the frequency of these cases, which, if listed individually, would have taken up considerable space, only a few examples are cited below in order to illustrate the situation in that regard.

(i) Demolition of houses

111. On 20 October 1988, it was reported that, since the beginning of the uprising, the IDF had demolished about 100 homes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. (Ha'aretz, 20 October 1988)

112. On 21 October, the IDF demolished two houses in Al Sabra quarter and in Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip alleging that their owners had participated in throwing fire bombs at Israeli patrols. Nine other houses were demolished in Salem and Beit Furik. (Al-Fajr, 23 October 1988)

113. On 8 November, the IDF demolished some 20 shacks, huts and tents in the Jiftlik area in the Jordan Valley, belonging to Arab agricultural workers and shepherds.  The Arabs were driven out of the area. The operation was carried out following the killing on 6 November 1988, of a reservist in the nearby Massu'a settlement. Most of the Arabs expelled were from Tamoun, the village of the reservist's assailant.  In Tamoun itself, which was under curfew, troops demolished the assailant's family house and a half-built house which belonged to his brother.  On 11 November, it was reported that the demolition and the eviction of Arabs continued in the Jiftlik area, and that 70 families had thus lost their improvised shacks and had been told to leave the area. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 9, 11 November 1988)

114. On 17 November, it was reported that 140 houses, including 72 homes in Jiftlik, had been demolished during the previous week in the occupied territories, making about 170 Palestinian families homeless. The authorities claimed that these houses had been built without permits. The Israeli army also demolished nine houses in the Gaza Strip belonging to alleged members of the Islamic Jihad organization who had recently been arrested. In addition, 11 other houses had been demolishes in Bani Naim and Tulkarem allegedly because the owners had been involved in anti-Israeli activities. (Al-Fajr, 13 November 1988, Attalia, 17 November 1988)

115. On 29 November, it was reported that the IDF had demolished 10 West Bank homes that belonged to members of 13 cells of suspected terrorists. (Jerusalem Post, 29 November 1988)

116. On 1 December, 19 houses were reported to have been demolished during the previous week in the occupied territories, including 10 for security reasons and 9 others on grounds that building permits had not been issued for them.  (Attalia, 1 December 1988)

117. On 8 December, it was reported that in addition to the 140 houses demolished mentioned in the report of Deputy Chief of Staff Ehud Barak, 353 houses had been demolished for alleged unauthorized building, 20 had been partially demolished and 60 others had been sealed off for security reasons, bringing the total number of houses affected by these measures to 592. Moreover, over 1,000 trees, mostly olive trees, were uprooted. (Attalia, 8 December 1988)

118. On 14 December, IDF destroyed the only health clinic in the village of Bi'lin allegedly because the building was not licenced. (Al-Fajr, 19 December 1988)

119. On 19 December, it was reported that the Israeli authorities had demolished 13 houses during the week from 13 to 18 December 1988. Seven other houses were demolished the previous week in Kafr Neema, Sabsteya, and Asira al Kabliya, Al Dorj quarter, in Gaza. (Attalia, 22 December 1988)

120. On 12 January 1989, the Israeli authorities were reported to have demolished six houses in areas around the villages of Jenin and Nablus alleging unauthorized building. (Attalia, 19 January 1989)

121. On 26 January, the IDF demolished or sealed seven houses belonging to families of suspected petrol-bomb throwers in the West Bank and sealed a room of a youth convicted of throwing petrol bombs. The civil administration demolished 16 houses in several West Bank villages that were built without authorization. In Tulkarem, the IDF demolished a two-storey house in which two families lived. The son of one of these families, the Halub family, was suspected of membership in a group responsible for a number of petrol-bomb attacks. Tulkarem residents alleged that the dynamiting of the house damaged nine other houses nearby.  Another four houses were demolished in Akraba village, south-east of Nablus. A fifth house was sealed. They belonged to families of suspected members of a group responsible for petrol-bomb attacks. At the al-Fawar camp, near Hebron, troops sealed part of the home of the family of Subhi Naja, who was convicted of a petrol-bomb attack on an IDF tank carrier on 25 February 1988. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 27 January 1989)

122. On 26 February, the IDF blew up the upper floor of a building in the Nablus Casbah, from where assailants had dropped the rock that killed Israeli staff sergeant Binyamin Meisner the previous week. Windows of homes overlooking the alley were sealed and the gate to the alley was removed in preparation for sealing the area off. The building partially demolished belonged to the Tukan family. The floor that was demolished was unoccupied. The explosion of the floor also destroyed two neighbouring apartments whose ceilings collapsed, leaving 17 persons homeless. Other windows and roofs nearby were also damaged. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 27 February 1989; Al-Fajr, 6 March 1989)

123. On 2 March, the civil administration demolished 17 houses in Idna, near Hebron, on the grounds that they had been built without a permit. (Ha'aretz, 5 March 1989; Attalia, 9 March 1989)

124. On 7 March, Nablus vas placed under curfew to prevent rioting while sappers dynamited the houses of the families of Ibrahim Takatuk and Samir a-Na'anish, who were suspected of killing Israeli soldier Binyamin Meisner. According to Casbah residents the demolition of the two houses caused extensive damage to neighbouring houses. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 8, 9 and 10 March 1989; Attalia, 9 March 1989; Al-Fajr, 13 March 1989)

125. On 14 March, the civil administration demolished 15 homes in the West Bank on the grounds that they were built without a permit. Five houses were demolished in Halhul, two in Beit-Omar and two in Beita. Other houses were demolished in the Jenin region. The previous day seven homes were demolished in Fureidis, near Bethlehem, and two in Beita. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 15 and 21 March 1989; Attalia, 16 March 1989)

126. On 20 March, the Palestinian human rights monitoring group Al-Haq published statistics showing that at least 672 houses had been demolished in the occupied territories since the outbreak of the uprising in December 1987. The alleged reason for demolition was that they had been built without a permit. (Al-Fajr, 20 March 1989)

127. On 23 March, the Israeli authorities were reported to have ordered the demolition of 49 houses and the sealing off of one house during the previous two weeks. The demolition order were given on the grounds that the houses had been built without a permit or for alleged security reasons. (Attalia, 23 March 1989)

(ii) Imposition of curfews, sealing off or closing areas

128. On 6 September 1988, the security forces embarked on an unprecedented operation of searches and arrests in the town of Kalkilya. A curfew was imposed, which was lifted eight days later, on 14 September. The operation started before dawn. Troops surrounded the town of 25,000, blocked access roads and diverted traffic. Phone links were cut. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 1 and 15 September 1988)

129. On 9 September, there were reports of acute shortages of food in the village of Bani Naim, which had been under curfew for 13 days. (Al-Fajr, 11 September 1988)

130. On 14 September, it was reported that the IDF had staged an operation, similar to the one in Kalkilya, in the village of Kafr Malek, north-east of Ramallah. The village was sealed off and placed under curfew. Soldiers with prepared lists of suspects moved from house to house, backed by a helicopter used to spot fleeing youths. The village was reportedly targeted because of its proximity to a road leading to neighbouring Jewish settlements and because it had been the site of attacks on settlers' vehicles. Similar operations were also reported in four villages in the Tulkarem area: Kafr Zibad, Kafr Abush, Kfar Sur and Kafr Jamal.  (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 14 September 1988; Al-Fajr, 18 September 1988)

131. On 6 November, it was reported that the village of Burka in the Jenin district remained under curfew for the fifteenth consecutive day. Villagers had been prevented from harvesting their olives. (Al-Fajr, 6 November 1988)

132. From 11 to 14 November, the Israeli army placed most towns and refugee camps in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip under a week-long curfew. On 15 November, Independence Day, over 1 million were reported under curfew.  (Attalia, 17 November 1988)

133. On 6 December, it was reported that residents of three West Bank villages that had been under curfew for long periods of time had been complaining of severe food shortages, in particular, of milk for babies. In Kafr Malek, near Ramallah, which had been under curfew or sealed off for 20 days, villages said the situation was serious. The IDF denied reports of shortages and said food deliveries were being made regularly, and that the curfew was lifted daily for two hours to allow residents to stock up on supplies. The two other localities where there were complaints about food shortages were the al-Amari camp, which has been under curfew for 16 days, and Kalkilya (8 days). (Ha'aretz, 6 December 1988; Jerusalem Post, 4 December 1988)

134. On 13 January 1989, it was reported that, for the third time in the history of Israeli rule in East Jerusalem a widespread police operation accompanied by a curfew had been carried out in Silwan. Local residents complained that police used harsh measures, including collective punishment in retaliation for the deeds of a few troublemakers. The Israeli Broadcasting Authority took advantage of the curfew to seize the television sets and video units from residents who failed to pay their licence fees. Officials impounded some 30 sets. On 17 January, it was reported that the curfew imposed on Silwan had been lifted the previous day. According to residents, during the four-day curfew teams of police and inspectors visited homes, accompanied by tax officials, National Insurance representatives, television licence-fee collectors and people tracking down unpaid parking tickets. Houses were searched room by room and some 30 people were arrested. Residents accused the border police of vandalizing their property and humiliating them. (Jerusalem Post, 13, 16 and 17 January 1989)

(iii) Imposition of economic sanctions

135. On 8 September 1988, Israeli tax inspectors, accompanied by security forces, increased their harassment of Arab taxpayers in the northern part of the West Bank. Actions included raids on houses and shops, confiscation of identity cards, and checkpoints in streets to stop drivers who had not paid their taxes etc.  (Attalia, 8 September 1988)

136. On 14 September, it was reported that residents of Kalkilya had been complaining of shortages of fresh food and of milk tor for infants. Electricity and water supplies had been periodically interrupted and fruit trees and other crops outside the town were being damaged because of lack of irrigation during the curfew. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 14 September 1988)

137. On 22 September, it was reported that the authorities were planing to use the forthcoming olive-picking season in the West Bank to hit back at "problematic" villages by banning their export of olives and olive oil. Tell, near Nablus, which for over a month was forbidden to market its figs and yoghurt, had already been warned that its olive exports would be blocked if unrest resumed. Halhul was forbidden to export its grapes as punishment for violent protests. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 22 September 1988; Al-Fajr, 25 September 1988)

138. On 20 October, IDF authorities were reported to have banned the olive harvest in several West Bank villages. The measure was taken against villages that took part in protest activities, including Deir Al Hatab, Burin and Al Labn Al Sharkeya, near Nablus, Al Zawiya, near Tulkarem, Bala', near Anbata, Barka, near Jenin, and Idna in the district of Hebron. In a related development, owners of olive presses were notified that they had to make advance tax payment before olive presses were allowed to open. (Attalia, 20 October 1988; Al-Fajr, 23 October 1988)

139. On 10 November, tax officials undertook raids in most towns in the occupied territories, harassing citizens, arresting shopowners, seizing goods, erecting checkpoints in streets and closing shops. (Attalia, 10 November 1988)

140. On 1 December, the Israeli tax officials carried out their threat to confiscate goods and property of residents who refused to pay their tax bills.  Several shops were raided and a number of shopowners were also arrested. (Attalia, 1 December 1988)

141. On 12 December, the Israeli authorities destroyed thousands of olive trees belonging to the village of Musmus near Aul Ul-Fam for allegedly being grown on State land. (Al-Fajr, 12 December 1988)

142. On 19 December, the Israeli television announced new regulations by the Israeli civil administration concerning the entry of money into the occupied territories. Individual Palestinians coming from Jordan or Egypt were allowed to bring with them no more than JD 200 (approximately $500), down from JD 400 (approximately $1,000). Residents bringing in up to JD 500 had to reveal the source of money and prove that it did not come from hostile sources. For amounts above JD 500, residents had to display special permission from the Israeli civil administration. According to Palestinian businessmen, the measures made it difficult for them to bring in revenues from their exports, thus weakening the cash flow in the area. (Al-Fajr, 26 December 1988)

143. On 29 December, it was reported that 907 trees belonging to Arab villages had been uprooted by IDF troops and Jewish settlers during the past week.  (Attalia, 29 December 1988)

144. On 4 January 1989, it was reported that soldiers in Nablus had begun implementing the defence authorities' policy of fining parents of young stone-throwers NIS 1,000 to NIS 1,500 (approximately $550 to $840).  According to Nablus residents, in the month, children ranging in age from 6 to 10, as well as teenagers, had been rounded up by troops on suspicion of stone-throwing; they were taken to military headquarters and their parents were summoned to the building and ordered to pay fines on pain of imprisonment. According to security sources, 70 per cent of stone-throwing incidents involved children too young to be tried in court. (Jerusalem Post, 4 January 1989)

145. On 12 January, it was reported that several thousand Arabs from the occupied territories working in Israel in the industrial and services sector had been dismissed from their work during 1988. Officials claimed the measure was taken because of frequent absences due to solidarity of these workers with strikers in the territories. (Attalia, 12 January 1989)

146. On 16 February, it was reported that since the beginning of the uprising the Israeli authorities had uprooted 105,364 trees in the occupied territories.  (Attalia, 16 February 1989)

147. On 9 March, it was reported that Israeli military bulldozers had uprooted over 1,670 trees during the previous week in several villages including Kafin (35 trees), Artass (1,000), and Khalet Jabal Al Aroud, near Al Khedr (500).

(Attalia, 9 March 1989)

148. On 29 March, it was reported that troops had uprooted hundreds of trees along roads in Samaria where stone-throwing incidents had recently taken place. Some 120 fruit trees had been uprooted on 28 March 1989 near Mas'ha village, after settlers' cars had been stoned. Palestinian sources alleged that since December 1987, over 23,000 trees had been uprooted in the West Bank, but military sources said these figures were exaggerated, and that "no more than 1,000 to 2,000 trees were uprooted".  Owners did not receive compensation for their trees, although they were almost never involved in violent incidents occurring near their plantations. (Ha'aretz, 29 March 1989)

149. On 30 March, it was reported that the Israeli authorities had uprooted over 1,400 trees between 17 and 18 March 1989 in different localities throughout the occupied territories. (Attalia, 30 March 1989)

(iv) Other forms of collective punishment

150. On 5 September, the High Court of Justice upheld an IDF ban on international telephone calls from the territories, based on an emergency regulation dating back to 1945. The High Court ruled that the ban, issued by Central Region Commander Amram Mitzna on 10 April 1988, fell within the latter's powers to "restrict, regulate or impose conditions" on telephone use in order to prevent exchange of information among hostile elements. The court dismissed the petitioners' claim that the ban constituted a form of collective punishment. (Jerusalem Post, 6 September 1988)

151. On 28 September, the Arabic dally Asha'b reported that water, electricity and telephone lines were still cut off from the town of Kabatiya for the tenth consecutive month. Residents were also banned from travel. The village of Hablash in the Nablus area had had its water and electricity cut off for 40 days. (Al-Fajr, 2 October 1988)

152. On 27 October, the Israeli authorities declared that water would be cut off in several Palestinian villages and towns allegedly because residents had not paid their water bills. (Al-Fajr, 30 October 1988)

(c) Expulsions

153. On 1 September, it was reported that the president of the military court in Gaza, S/A (Lt. Col.) Eli Zicherman, had ruled that the hearings of the appeals by 10 Gaza resident against their expulsion would be held in public session.

S/A Zicherman made this decision in his capacity as chairman of the advisory committee at the IDF Southern Command assigned with hearing the appeals. The Judge Advocate-General and the military prosecutor had argued that the hearing was an administrative procedure and not a judicial one and was therefore not subjected to the principle of open court. But the chairman ruled that since the same material would also be considered by the High Court of Justice, where hearings were public, there was no reason to hold the hearings in camera. (Ha'aretz, 1 September 1988)

154. On 4 September, Said Hussein Hassan Barakat and Riad Ashour appeared before a military review board in Gaza to appeal deportation orders issued against them.  The hearings were held in open court. According to the prosecutor, Barakat had signed a 15-page confession admitting he had made speeches and had written leaflets inciting to violence. The authorities originally had planned to put him on trial and had filed charges against him on 31 July 1988, but changed their minds and on 17 August 1988 the Southern Region Commander signed a deportation order. As for Ashour, he was alleged to be a PLO activist who headed "popular committees", which had recently been outlawed. The prosecutor submitted "secret evidence" to back the decision to expel the two. (Jerusalem Post, 5 September 1988)

155. On 16 November, an advisory committee at the IDF Southern Region Command, considering the expulsion of 10 Gaza Strip residents, decided to recommend to the Region Commander that 8 of the 10 be expelled. The committee recommended that Muhammad Maduh and Riad Ashour not be expelled. (Ha'aretz, 17 November 1088)

156. On 25 November, it was reported that the Israeli objections committee approved the decision to expel six Palestinians from the West Bank. All six reportedly were going to appeal their expulsion orders to the Israeli High Court. (Al-Fajr, 28 November 1988)

157. On 14 December, three Gaza residents were expelled to Lebanon.  They were Ahmed Hassan Muhana, aged 39, Issa Eid Saleh Hamadah, aged 60, and Abdul Fatah Mahmud Ziadeh, aged 55. None of the three was on the list of 26 people who had been served with expulsion orders in July. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 15 December 1988; Al-Fajr, 19 December 1988)

158. On 27 December, deportation orders against two Gaza residents were withdrawn in the High Court of Justice after they agreed to leave the country voluntarily for five years. The two men, Atta Abu Kirsh, aged 52, and Nabil Tamus, aged 22, promised not to engage in any hostile activity or to disrupt public order in the Gaza Strip over the next five years. Four other Gaza residents were ordered deported by the Court after they declined to sign similar agreements and withdrew their appeals. (Jerusalem Post, 20 December 1988; Attalia, 29 December 1988)

159. On 1 January 1989, the IDF deported to south Lebanon 13 Palestinian residents of the territories, including two employees of UNRWA. All 13 – 7 from the West Bank and 6 from the Gaza Strip – were among the 25 Palestinians served with deportation orders on 17 August 1988. All 13 were accused of membership in popular committees and of playing key roles in the direction of the uprising, including the passing of information from terrorist groups abroad. All 13 terminated legal proceedings in their appeals of their deportation orders to the High Court of Justice. They were the following:  Hani Hallub, aged 28, of Tulkarem; Othman Daoud, aged 27, of Kalkilya; Abdul-Hamid Baba, aged 25, of the Amari camp; Jamal Faraj, aged 25, of Dheisheh; Yuluf Odeh, aged 25, of Balata; Issam Dib'i, aged 24, of Nablus; Mas'ud Zu'aytar, aged 42, of Nablus; Sa'id Baraka, aged 32, of Gaza; Fathi Hajaj, aged 36, of Jabaliya; Abdullah Samhadaneh, aged 38, of Gaza; Ayish Abu-Sa'adeh, aged 30, a teacher in the UNRWA school in Jabaliya; Rizk al-Bayari, aged 29, a journalist and teacher in the UNRWA school in Gaza; and Min'am Abu-Ataya, aged 33, of Gaza. Two others who were served deportation orders at the same time, Atta Abu Kirsh aged 52, of Shati and Nabil Tamus, aged 21, of Gaza, agreed to leave on their own volition and cancel their appeals to the High Court for five years, and promised to refrain from hostile activity and incitement. With these expulsions, the total number of Palestinians deported since the beginning of the uprising reached 47 (28 from the West Bank and 19 from the Gaza Strip). (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 2 January 1989; Attalia, 5 January 1989)

160. On 16 February, it was reported that Saleh Abdallah, aged 23, and his sister Haifa, aged 22, of the Ein Beit al-Ma camp near Nablus, had been deported to Jordan without prior notice on grounds that they had no identity cards. They were refused entry to Jordan and their attorney, Felicia Langer, applied to the legal adviser of the West Bank to enable them to return to their homes. Sources in the civil administration reported that the two were not "residents of the region" and had lived there since the late sixties "illegally". On 26 February, it was reported that the civil administration had no intention of going back on its decision not to allow the two to return to the West Sank. A senior source in the civil administration told Ha'aretz that' the main consideration in the decision not to allow them back was the fear of setting a precedent that may force the authorities to give the status of residents to thousands of people whole situation was identical to that of Saleh and Haifa Abdallah.  (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 16 and 26 February 1989)

2.  Measures affecting certain fundamental freedoms

(a) Freedom of movement

161. On 23 February 1989, it was reported that Taher Shriteh, aged 28, a journalist from Gaza, had been summoned to the civil administration after having applied, six weeks earlier, for a travel permit to Egypt. He was told that his request was being rejected because he had been assisting foreign journalists on their visits to Gaza. (Jerusalem Post, 23 February 1989)

162. On 24 February, Southern Region Commander Yitzhak Mordekhai said that, as at 26 February 1989, car owners in the Gaza Strip would receive stickers to apply to the front and back of their cars to enable them to enter Israel freely. Some 25,000 cars would be given such stickers, but several hundred carowners who had committed "violations of public order would not receive their stickers and would not be able to enter Israel with their cars. According to the Southern Region Commander, the procedure would enable any employer or security official in Israel to distinguish the cars from a distance. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 26 February 1989)

163. On 14 March, it was reported that the civil administration had recently issued identity cards to dozens of Palestinians suspected of organizing disturbances. Bearers of the new green cards would not be permitted to cross the Green Line into Israel. The civil administration asked employers in Israel not to hire West Bank residents who held such cards. The police, working in conjunction with the civil administration, would enforce the new regulations in Israel and warn that anyone who violated them would be prosecuted. A similar step had been taken earlier with regard to Gaza Strip residents. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 14 March 1989)

(b) Freedom of  expression

164. On 4 September 1988, Hatem Abd el-Kader, aged 33, a journalist for the East Jerusalem daily Al-Fajr, was arrested by the Jerusalem police and placed under administrative detention for six months. (Ha'aretz, 5 September 1988)

165. On 5 September, two journalists were arrested: Salah Zuheika, the acting editor of Asha'b, and Hassan el-Khatib, the sports editor of Al-Fajr.  (Ha'aretz, 6 September 1988)

166. On 5 September, Hatem Abdel Kader, managing editor of the daily Al-Fajr, was arrested in the newspaper's offices. Abdel Kader had been arrested earlier under an administrative detention order and held for 52 days. He was released pending the review of his case by the Israeli Defence Minister after his lawyer found a fault in the detention order. Other Al-Fajr staff recently arrested under administrative detention orders were Sami Abu Jundi, sports editor; Musa Garadat, correspondent in the Hebron area, Kaddura Mussa, correspondent in the Jenin area; Talal Abu Afifeh, day editor, and Mussa Kous, translator. Another staff member, Mahmud Ramahi, was currently serving a seven-year prison term on political charges.  (Al-Fajr, 25 September 1988)

167. On 15 September, Rafik Yunis, Asha'b correspondent, was put under a six-month administration detention order after being held in detention on unspecified charges for 25 days. (Al-Fajr, 18 September 1988, from Asha'b)

168. On 18 September, it was reported that the civil administration in the West Bank had banned the distribution in the territories of the East Jerusalem daily Al-Fajr for 45 days, following the publication of an "antisemitic cartoon".

In response, the editorial board of the newspaper decided to hold a one-week strike. (Ha'aretz, 18 September 1988)

169. On 2 October, it was reported that the administrative order closing the Palestinian Office for Press Services in East Jerusalem, headed by Raymonda Tawil and Ibrahim Karain, was extended by one year by order of the Central Region Commander Amram Mitzna. (Ha'aretz, 2 October 1988; Attalia, 6 October 1988)

170. On 6 November, it was reported that administrative detention orders had been issued against the chairman of the Palestinian Authors Association and against a Palestinian journalist, Nabhan Haraisheh, of Jenin. Both had already served several administrative detention periods. (Ha'aretz, 6 November 1988)

171. On ' November, it was reported that Nasser Muhammad Sa'adeh, aged 32, of A-Ram neighbourhood, north of Jerusalem, who had been arrested two months earlier in connection with the uncovering of a printing-house where the illegal communist paper "al-Watan" was printed, had been placed under a six-month administrative detention order. His family alleged that the decision was taken after it appeared that there was not enough evidence against him in order to put him on trial.  (Ha'aretz, 7 November 1988)

172. On 10 November, Hana Seniora, editor of Al-Fajr, said in a press conference that since the beginning of the Palestinian uprising 24 Palestinian journalists had been put in administrative detention. The press conference was organized to urge the release of an Al-Fajr journalist, Khatem Abdel Kader Id, who was being held in administrative detention in the Beerheba prison. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 11 November 1988)

173. On 5 January 1989, the security forces detained Muhammad Arikat, the administrative director of Al-Fajr and editor of its weekly magazine Al Usbri Al Jadid, and placed him in administrative detention for six months.  Arikat, a resident of Abu-Dis, had been released from administrative detention in Ketziot two months earlier. (Ha'aretz, 6 January 1989)

174. On 18 February, Sam'an Khoury, a journalist from East Jerusalem, was placed in administrative detention for six months. He was reportedly employed by Agence France Presse, and was a senior member of the Palestinian Journalists Association.  He had served in the past another administrative detention term. He participated, together with Faisal Husseini and other Palestinian public figures, in a meeting held the previous week in East Jerusalem with members of the Labour party.  (Ha'aretz, 19 February 1989; Al-Fajr, 27 February 1989)

175. On 19 February, three East Jerusalem journalists were placed in administrative detention for six months. They were named as Abd el-Latif al-Ghith, member of the board of directors of the Palestinian Journalists Association, Hassan Abu-Rabu (according to another report – Adnan Shalaldeh of A-Tur) and Nabil al-Joulani, owner of Al-Hayat press office that was ordered closed several months earlier.  According to Palestinian sources 30 journalists were being held in administrative detention. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 20 February 1989)

176. On 21 February, the head of the Palestinian Authors Association, Al-Mutwakal Taha, was placed in administrative detention for six months. He had served a similar term which he finished just one month earlier, and was re-elected as head of the Authors Association. (Ha'aretz, 22 February 1989; Al-Fajr, 27 February 1989)

177. On 1 March, Al-Quds newspaper reported that the Israeli authorities had placed journalist Yussef Al Yubeh under a six-month administrative detention order. He had been arrested on 17 February 1989. He had already spent nine months in administrative detention and had been released only in November of 1988. (Al-Fajr, 6 March 1989)

178. On 3 March, the Israeli Commissioner of the Northern District, Amran Qala'ji, ordered Al-Raya weekly closed, alleging that the Nazareth-based newspaper was financed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Earlier the Israeli authorities closed another Arabic newspaper, Tariq Al-Sharara, claiming that it was financed by the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. (Al-Fajr, 6 March 1989; Attalia, 9 March 1989).

(c) Freedom of education

179. On 6 September 1988, it was reported that the civil administration in the West Bank was acting against Palestinian attempts to hold classes in place of schools closed down by the military government. On 5 September, the IDF closed down the Society of Friends of Al-Najah University in Nablus after classes were held in the premises. Several days earlier the security forces stopped a class at the Abu-Dis college and arrested 12 students and two teachers. On 7 September, security forces raided several vocational training centres in Tulkarem on suspicion that classes were being held there. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 6, 8 and 20 September 1988; Al-Fajr, 11 September 1988)

180. On 19 September, 14 education centres in Nablus were ordered closed until further notice by the Israeli military authorities. (Al-Fajr, 25 September 1988)

181. On 27 September, the Israeli authorities ordered the closure of the Islamic Orphans' School in Jerusalem for five days as a first warning, and threatened to close it for an indefinite period should students take part in riots. The Nizameya Girls' School in Jerusalem was also closed for one week on grounds that students took part in demonstrations. Eight girls were arrested. (Attalia, 29 September 1988)

182. On 2 October, it was reported that all schools and educational institutions in the West Bank would be closed, by order of the civil administration, until 15 November 1988. (Al-Fajr, Ha'aretz, 2 October 1988; Attalia, 6 October 1988)

183. On 20 October, it was reported that six schools were ordered closed during the previous week, five in East Jerusalem and one in the Gaza Strip. (Attalia, 20 October 1988)

184. On 7 November, it was reported that the civil administration in the West Bank would extend the order closing all schools in the region, which was to expire on 15 November 1988. On 15 November, it was decided to extend the order by one month.  On 20 November, it was reported that the civil administration would open the academic year in the West Bank over the first three weeks of December 1988, unless there was an escalation in the level of violence in the region. According to the plan, elementary schools would be opened first; one week later, pre-secondary schools would be opened, and the secondary schools would be opened on the third week. The reopening of schools would necessitate the evacuation by IDF troops of over a dozen schools that were being used by the army as barracks.  (Ha'aretz,  7, 17, 20 November 1988)

185. On 11 November, the Israeli Jerusalem municipality ordered three schools closed until 17 November. Later, all East Jerusalem schools were ordered closed on 14 and 15 November as a pre-emptive move in light of the PNC meeting. (Al-Fajr, 13 November 1988)

186. On 13 November, two schools in Gaza were ordered closed for two months bringing the number of schools closed in the Gaza Strip to seven. (Al-Fajr, 13 November 1988)

187. On 15 November, the West Bank military governor issued an order keeping all West Bank education institutions closed until 1 December 1988. (Al-Fajr, 21 November 1988)

188. On 1 December, it was reported that classes at West Bank elementary schools were to resume after a closure of over four months, which had been ordered by the civil administration on grounds that schools had become centres of protest. By the end of December, more than 300,000 pupils at 1,194 government, private and UNRWA schools were expected to be back at their classes.  Universities were to remain closed indefinitely. It was also reported that the Rashidiyeh school in East Jerusalem was ordered closed indefinitely after pupils refused to follow the full curriculum and were obeying instructions of the uprising's underground leadership to leave school early. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 1 December 1988; Al-Fajr, 5 December 1988)

189. On 1 December, the Beit Hanun preparatory school was closed until further notice following violent clashes in the town. (Al-Fajr, 5 December 1988; Attalia, 8 December 1988)

190. On 13 December, it was reported that three more schools in East Jerusalem had been ordered closed for five days due to the pupils' participation in demonstrations. The schools were the boys' secondary school in Shu'fat and two schools for boys and girls in A-Tur. It was also reported that an international teachers delegation severely criticized Israel for the frequent closure of schools and universities in the territories. The delegation, headed by John Pollock, held a one-week visit in the area and met with Palestinian teachers and students and with IDF officials. (Ha'aretz, 13 December 1988)

191. On 31 December, the military authorities ordered all schools in the occupied territories closed for one week in anticipation of widespread clashes with IDF troops. Israeli officials said the closure was an ultimate warning before ordering all schools closed for the entire year.  (Attalia, 5 January 1989)

192. On 18 January 1989, the military authorities ordered all schools in Jenin, Ramallah, El Bireh and Kalkilya closed for three days. Tarek Ben Ziad secondary school and Khaled Abdel Aziz preparatory school in Hebron were also ordered closed until 27 January. Al Arub Agricultural school was closed until 24 January. Sharia Secondary school in Hebron had been ordered closed until 6 February. Dar Al Yatama (Orphans Institute) in Jerusalem and Dheisheh Girls School and Husan Secondary boys school were ordered closed for 30 days.  According to Al-Fajr, all West Bank schools were ordered closed until further notice because of increasing student involvement in demonstrations. (Attalia, 19 January 1989; Al-Fajr, 23 January 1989)

193. On 14 February, the Frères School in Jerusalem was ordered closed for one week because a Palestinian flag was hoisted at the school. (Al-Fajr, 20 February 1989)

194. On 23 February, four schools were ordered closed by the military authorities in Gaza. (Al-Fajr, 27 February 1989)

195. On 5 March, the Israeli authorities ordered the Shufat Girls' school closed until further notice and prohibited primary pupils of Shufat Boys' School from attending classes. The measure was taken after alleged repeated stone-throwing from these schools. (Al-Fajr, 13 March 1989)

196. On 22 March, UNRWA announced that it would provide "some basic education" to pupils whose schools in the West Bank had been closed. The organization said it would arrange for teachers to visit pupils in refugee camps and other communities to distribute educational materials and to give guidance on their use. On 30 March, it was reported that UNRWA was barred from running informal educational programmes in the West Bank. It announced in a statement that it had been informed by the Foreign Ministry that "military security precludes for the time being the

introduction of even interim measures to provide some basic education for the youngest pupils".  The apparent reason for vetoing the UNRWA plan was the fear that it would become part of "popular education" effort that have been undertaken by Palestinians since the enforced closure of West Bank schools. (Jerusalem Post, Ha'aretz, 23, 30 March 1989; Al-Fajr, 3 April 1989)

3.  Settlers' activities affecting the civilian population

197. On 1 September 1988, it was reported that two settlers from Hebron who had handed a wounded Arab youth to the police, claiming that they had captured him after he had thrown stones at them, were later arrested by the police on suspicion of having attacked and injured the youth. The two settlers were questioned and released on bail. (Ha'aretz, 1 September 1988)

198. On 8 September, the IDF spokesman was reported to have declared that settlers planned to set up a parallel army in the occupied territories to carry out actions not undertaken by the IDF. He added that the main threat came from military actions that settlers could take against Arab residents. He said operations such as those used by the IDF against the village of Beita aimed at countering pressures by settlers to implement their scheme. (Attalia, 8 September 1988)

199. On 1 November, it was reported that settlers from the Katif bloc, in southern Gaza Strip, had uprooted several trees in an orchard close to the Bureij camp in retaliation for stone-throwing from the orchard at settlers' cars. Settler sources told a correspondent that the settlers had presented the IDF with an ultimatum to the effect that if the army failed to protect roads in the region and uproot orchards immediately after they were used for attacking settler traffic, the settlers would do it themselves. (Ha'aretz, 1 November 1988)

200. On 3 November, it was reported that the Amana movement – the settling body of Gush Emunim – had several days earlier prepared 15 caravans to enable the immediate installation on the ground of two settler groups in the Katif bloc: Katif H and Dugit. Settlers in the Gaza Strip reportedly planned two more settlements, named Peat-Sadeh and Kfar-Daron. They had already met with activists of the Amana movement and various political bodies to discuss ways of realizing their plans in the near future. The settlers were also demanding the setting up of a civil guard to patrol roads and fields near the Jewish settlements and prevent material sabotage. It was further reported that Katif bloc settlers continued to uproot trees in retaliation for stone-throwing at their cars. (Ha'aretz, 3 November 1988)

201. On 4 November, settlers from Ginot Shomron, near Kalkilya, threw stones at Arab cars passing near the settlement after telephone links to the settlement had been cut off, allegedly by Arabs. Three Arabs were reportedly injured by stones.  It was further reported that settlers uprooted 30 olive trees in the nearby Kafr Latif.  (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 6 November 1988)

202. On 11 November, the Council of Jewish Settlements in "Judea", "Samaria" and Gaza held a meeting in Beit-Aryeh settlement and adopted a resolution under which it considered stones as "objects liable to cause murder" and called on settlers to act accordingly. It as reported that the IDF, interpreting the call as authorizing settlers to open fire at stone-throwers, warned the settler leaders not to use firearms unless it was for self-defence. On 11 November, settlers from Shilo opened fire at stone-throwers near Jalazun camp after the bus in which they were riding was stoned. No one was hurt by the stone throwing or by the shooting.  (Ha'aretz, 13 November 1988)

203. On 23 November, it was reported that the police had recommended to the Jerusalem district attorney that charges be brought against Rabbi Moshe Levinger for causing the death of a Hebron shopkeeper and wounding another man during a shooting incident two months earlier. Levinger had allegedly opened fire in Hebron on 30 September 1988 after his car was stoned.  Ka'id Salah was killed outside his store and another man was injured. (Jerusalem Post, 23 November 1988)

204. On 24 November, it was reported that settlers from Yitzhar settlement had uprooted some 250 olive trees with a bulldozer in the nearby village of Burin, south of Nablus. The uprooting was in retaliation for the cutting of a water-pipe to the settlement earlier in the week.  In another development, it was reported that MK Dedi Zucker had written to ask Defence Minister Rabin to check reports by reservists that the security officer of Oranit settlement, east of Rosh-Ha'ayin, had attacked Arabs and vandalized their property on 29 October and 7 November.  (Jerusalem Post, 24 November 1988)

205. On 25 November, settlers from Ginot Shomron damaged Arab cars on the outskirts of Kalkilya after troops stopped them from entering the town. The settlers were retaliating for a stoning attack in which a woman from the settlement was seriously injured earlier in the week. On 27 November, three settlers were arrested and later released on bail. The security officer of the settlement was dismissed after being accused of interfering with IDF activities. (Ha'aretz, 28 November 1988; Jerusalem Post, 21-28 November 1988)

206. On 13 December, a vehicle belonging to settlers from Yitzhar was stoned near the school in the village of Burin. The passengers opened fire into the air. They caught one of the pupils and beat him, and then entered the school and beat the principal and the teachers. They later blocked the main road in the village, entered a home and broke furniture.  Following repeated attacks on settlers' cars and the incident in which a settler from Har Bracha was killed by a Palestinian, the settlers' leaders were demanding that the IDF adopt toucher measures to quell the uprising. To press their demands they were staging various actions, including a hunger strike and demonstrations near the Prime Minister's residence in Jerusalem. (Ha'aretz, 14-15 December 1988; Al-Fajr, 19 December 1988)

207. On 18 December, Asha'b, an Arab newspaper, reported that Jewish settlers from the settlement of Elon Moreh had raided the villages of Salim and Deir Al Hattah the previous day and clashed with villagers. Settlers had used firearms, seriously injuring Jihad Mustafa, aged 11, in the head. (Al-Fajr, 26 December 1988)

208. On 19 December, Jewish settlers raided by night a house in Dhahiriyeh, beating its residents, a widow and her children, and breaking windows. According to residents, a similar act occurred the previous week against another house in the village. (Attalia, 22 December 1988)

209. On 7 January 1989, Palestinian sources reported that, following the murder of an Israeli civilian, Shimon Edri, whose body was found near the settlement of Yakir, scores of settlers had raided the nearby village of Hares, and had demonstrated on the Trans-Samaria road, attacking cars with Arab licence plates.  (Jerusalem Post, 8 January 1989)

210. On 12 January, there were several clashes between settlers and soldiers throughout the West Bank. Settlers defied arms, road blocks, scuffled with soldiers and defiantly erected memorials that were quickly demolished by the IDF. There were no official reports of arrests. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 13 January 1989)

211. On 13 January, some 15 settlers attacked Arab stone throwers and tradesmen in Hebron in what was described as a series of vigilante-style actions. The clashes in Hebron were reportedly initiated by the Hebron residents' committee (a Jewish settlers' group) to protest the alleged IDF failure to maintain law and order.  (Jerusalem Post, 15 January 1989)

212. On 22 January, it was reported that a new "public committee" of settlers had recently distributed leaflets to Ariel settlers, informing them that they would be advised shortly about "active, but legal actions" to be undertaken against stoning of cars on the Trans-Samaria road. A spokesman for the committee, Shmuel Rafaeli, said that the new body had no weapons or petrol bombs; he added that the committee intended to undertake several actions that would "shock the public opinion and explain the difficult security situation". (Ha'aretz, 22 January 1989)

213. On 24 January, during the night, settlers from Ariel reportedly rampaged through the village of Bidya, following stone-throwing attacks on Israeli traffic.  The settlers blocked the junction on the Trans-Samaria road and smashed car and house windows in the village. They left behind a leaflet in Arabic warning villagers that if the violence persisted it would harm the villagers, their property and their security. (Jerusalem Post, 26 January 1989)

214. On 26 January, the heads of Jewish councils in the territories held a press conference in Jerusalem, coinciding with the end of their hunger strike.  Rabbi Moshe Levinger said that settler leaders had instructed the settlers to capture Arab stone throwers and even to use a "reasonable degree of force" in order to capture them. He said the instruction had been checked with lawyers and had been found to be legal. The settler leaders also announced plans to conduct tours through Arab towns and villages and increase activities in East Jerusalem.  (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 27 January 1989)

215. The sixtieth week of the intifadah was marked by increased acts of violence by settlers against Arab villages. Settlers broke windows in the village of Bidya, attacked vehicles belonging to Arab citizens in Hebron, opened fire at Palestinians in Artas and Husan. (Attalia, 2 February 1989)

216. On 3 February, it was reported that villagers at Irak Burin, near Nablus, alleged that settlers had beaten local shepherds with clubs and that the shepherds had to be hospitalized. The settlers also shot and killed a sheepdog. (Jerusalem Post, 3 February 1989; Al-Fajr, 6 February 1989; Attalia, 9 February 1989)

217. On 3 February, during the night, settlers carried out a raid of retaliation on the village of Azun, after a settler's car was stoned. The settlers stoned local houses, damaging at least six houses; they clashed with troops before being dispersed with tear-gas. The settlers came from Ariel and Sha'arei-Tikva.  (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 5 February 1989; Al-Fajr, 6 February 1989; Attalia, 9 February 1989)

218. On 5 February, some 30 settlers from Hebron evacuated a house located near the Romano house, which they had occupied the previous night. The settlers left the house after negotiations with IDF officials and after they were promised that the army would occupy the house and station soldiers there. On 6 February, official IDF spokesmen denied that any agreement had been reached with the settlers, and said that the latter evacuated the house after it was made clear to them that they would be evacuated forcibly unless they left of their own will. (Ha'aretz, 6, 7 February 1989)

219. On 8 February, settlers from Ariel and Alfei-Menashe tried to enter nearby village after a settler was burnt to death in his car in what was believed to be a petrol-bomb attack. Troops prevented settlers from entering Kalkilya and nearby villages. Settlers reportedly stoned Arab cars, injuring at least three drivers and passengers. Settlers from Ariel tried to enter Bidya, charging that their cars had been stoned on the Trans-Samaria road, but they were blocked by troops.  (Jerusalem Post, 9 February 1989)

220. On 9 February, settlers continued to take retaliatory action against Arab villagers, following the death of settler Albert Jerassi. Some settlers raided Haris. The area was later declared a closed military zone. It was also reported that Samir Nasser al-Kilani, aged 22 and Majid Ali al-Kilani, aged 20, both from Nablus, alleged that settlers had stopped their car near Bidya, on the night of 8 February, shattered their car widows, severely beat them with various objects on all parts of their body and tried to hinder their evacuation to hospital. The two were finally rushed to the Anglican hospital in Nablus, with head and other injuries. (Ha'aretz, 10 February 1989)

221. On 11 February, police entered the settlement of Yitzhar to investigate the vandalization of property in the nearby village of Burin. Vandalization by settlers was also reported in Ramallah. (Jerusalem Post, 12 February 1989)

222. On 14 February, Alfei Menashe settlers continued to "demonstrate presence" along the road leading to the settlement, but avoided carrying out armed patrols.  Security sources said that such patrols were illegal and only the IDF was authorized to carry out security activities in the region. According to MK Yossi Sarid a "settlers' militia" was operating in the West Bank, based in five settlements:  Ariel, Ginot-Shomron, Ma'aleh-Shomron, Kedumim and Yitzhar. The IDF deputy chief of staff, Aluf (Maj.-Gen.) Ehud Barak said he had no knowledge of the existence of a settlers' militia in the territories. It was reported that police investigators had reached the conclusion that settler Albert Jerassi had not been killed as a result of a petrol-bomb attack. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 15 February 1989)

223. On 14 February, Jewish settlers raided Hebron after their cars had been stoned in the city. They blocked streets and markets. Several residents were arrested following the incident. (Al-Fajr, 20 February 1989)

224. On 17 March, three Palestinians were injured when Jewish settlers raided shops in the city of Hebron. (Attalia, 23 March 1989)

225. On 20 March, it was reported that settlers from the Katif bloc in southern Gaza Strip had set fire to Arab greenhouses and a tractor and had damaged farm produce and irrigation systems. This was reportedly done in retaliation following Arab attacks on settlers' agricultural constructions. On 20 March, police detained our settlers suspected of having taken part in the raid on Deir el-Balah and Zweida. The four were questioned and sent to the Ashkelon lock-up on suspicion of trespassing and causing damage. They were released on 22 March. (Ha'aretz, 20, 22, 23 March 1989; Al-Fajr, 27 March 1989)

226. On 20 March, it was reported that Jewish settlers had killed 16 Palestinians and wounded 107 in the year between December 1987 and December 1988, according to an unpublished report by the East Jerusalem Palestine Human Rights Information Center. Most were killed by settlers who shot at crowds after their vehicles were stoned. the report said. (Al-Fajr, 20 March 1989)

227. On 21 March, Hebron settlers held a Purim holiday march from Tel Rumeida to the Patriarchs' Cave, where they attempted to install a Torah ark, but were stopped by troops. Some settlers were dressed as Arabs and armed with bottles and stones; they carried Palestinian flags and then set fire to them. The procession was protected by the army. Settlers pushed soldiers and Arabs on their way to prayer in the Patriarchs' mosque. The settlers finally dispersed. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 22 March 1989; Al-Fajr, 27 March 1989)

228. On 22 and 23 March, Jewish settlers were reported to have attacked several Arab towns and villages. They uprooted trees, damaged crops, smashed windows and attacked local residents with gunshots and beating. (Al-Fajr, 27 March 1989; Attalia, 30 March 1989)

D.  Treatment of detainees

229. On 31 August 1988, two members of the Knesset reported cases of ill-treatment of detainees in Israeli detention camps after a visit to Jneid prison on 23 August 1988. They described the cases of six Palestinians slated for expulsion, including that of Abdel Hamid Al Baba, arrested in July 1988, who was kept in Maskubeya prison yard day and night for 26 days. (Al-Fajr, 4 September 1988)

230. On 1 September, three Supreme Court Justices, Meir Shamgar, Menahem Elon and Gavriel Bach, made a six-hour visit to the Ketziot detention camp in the Negev desert, where 2,600 Palestinians were being held. The justices heard complaints about hunger, a water shortage, an unvaried diet, the fact that two inmates must share one tray, a limit of one shower a week etc. The judges decided to visit the facility after 11 detainees had appealed to the High Court of Justice against "inhuman conditions" there. On 8 November, the High Court of Justice, while rejecting the appeal, severely criticized conditions prevailing in the facility.  The three justices who had visited the camp said there was considerable overcrowding, with up to 28 men being confined to a single tent. The justices also criticized the punishment methods in the camp. The court president, Meir Shamgar, further criticized the disciplinary measures taken against disruptive inmates. On 25 November, it was reported that hundreds of detainees in the Ketziot detention camp had rioted the previous week, but the riot was immediately suppressed.  According to one report six detainees were injured, but the IDF spokesman denied the report.  On 5 December, it was reported that all the detainees in the Ketziot prison had gone on hunger strike to protest conditions in the prison. On 8 December, it as reported that according to a report by the New York-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights conditions at the Ketziot prison were "inhumane". Detainees were beaten and exposed to harsh desert heat, food was inadequate, sanitary and hygienic conditions were poor and there were cases of individual and collective punishment. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 2 September, and 9 November 1988; Ha'aretz, 24 November and 5 December 1988; Jerusalem Post, 6 and 8 December 1088)

231. On 15 September, it was reported that Yair Tzaban, a member of the Knesset, had appealed to Defence Minister Rabin to release 11 detainees held in Ketziot detention camp, whose health was poor. He also asked that a team of doctors be authorized to examine these detainees. (Ha'aretz, 15 September 1988)

232. On 22 September, it was reported that according to autopsy findings communicated by the State Attorney's Office to lawyer Felicia Langer, Awad Hamdan, aged 23, had "suffocated to death" during his interrogation by the General Security Service (GSS).  Hamdan, from the village of Rumana, near Jenin, was arrested on 19 July 1988 and died two days later at the Jenin prison. His family was first told that he had died of a heart attack, and later, that he had died of pneumonia.  Finally, it was informed by the Jenin military governor that he had died of snake-bite. An initial autopsy report said he had died of natural causes.  Attorney Langer petitioned the High Court of Justice to obtain the autopsy report and to learn the cause of death after members of Hamdan's family said his body bore signs of violence, and that he had been healthy when arrested. Following a police investigation, three GSS agents were suspected for lying about the incident, and one was charged with causing Hamdan's death through negligence, and was still on trial at the Jerusalem Magistrate's court. On 4 October, Attorney Langer petitioned the High Court of Justice in order to obtain information from the Ministers of Defence and Police concerning the circumstances of Hamdan's death.  Hamdan died in custody on 21 July 1988, two days after being arrested. In response to a previous petition by the family, the State Attorney's Office had said that Hamdan died of "asphyxia: due to suffocation" . The new petition demanded a court order to reveal "what caused the suffocation and when, who caused it, how and why".  On 7 December, the High Court of Justice issued an order nisi which instructed the Defence Minister and the Minister of Police to show cause, within 30 days, why the Hamdan family should not be given information on the circumstances of the suffocation, what caused it and when, who caused it, how and why.  (Jerusalem Post, 22 September 1988; Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 5 October and 8 December 1988)

233. On 28 September, serious clashes were reported in Ansar 3 detention camp resulting in the injury of a Palestinian detainee and an Israeli soldier. The incident started when soldiers ill-treated the detainee. It was the second serious incident that had occurred in the desert camp, which is mainly used for administrative detainees. According to estimates, about 2,500 Palestinians were being held there. In another development, journalist Salah Zuheikeh, managing editor of the Arabic daily Asha'b went on a hunger strike to protest his detention under an administrative detention order. He had been under interrogation in Maskubeya prison ever since he was brought there. (Al-Fajr, 2 October 1988)

234. On 10 October, it was reported that a spokeswoman of the Women's Organization for Political Prisoners said that 43 female "political prisoners" were currently in detention. She estimated that over 1,000 women had been arrested since the start of the uprising.   She claimed that almost all the women were tortured. (Jerusalem Post, 10 October 1988)

235. On 23 October, it was reported that a Palestinian prisoner, Ibrahim al-Matur, aged 32, of Si'ir near Hebron, had been found dead in his cell in the Dhahiriya military jail on 21 October 1988. Military sources aid he had committed suicide, but his family charged that his body bore signs indicating he had been beaten to death. On 27 October, it was reported that al-Matur's family had alleged in letters to the Defence Minister, the Attorney-General and the West Bank military government's legal adviser that the detainee had been murdered in jail by his warders or interrogators, and had not committed suicide, as claimed by the military authorities. On 3 January 1989, it was reported that attorney Felicia Langer, on behalf of the family of Ibrahim al-Matur, petitioned the High Court of Justice to order that al-Matur's body be exhumed and a new post-mortem examination be made.  (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post,  23, 27 October 1988; Ha'aretz, 3 January 1989)

236. On 15 November, a report was published by the Israeli Committee of the International Association for Child Protection. The three members of the committee, former supreme justice Moshe Etzioni, jurist Professor Leslie Saba and Dr. Menahem Horovitz, had visited Megido prison in Israel in August 1988. They noted in their report that some 60 minors aged 14 to 16, from the territories were being held in that military prison together with 620 adult prisoners, in violation of international conventions. Only during the night were the minors separated from the adults. All the minors, most of whom were arrested for breaking the public peace, throwing stones and petrol bombs and participating in demonstrations, had to wait many months for their trial. Two minors had been arrested in December 1987 and were still awaiting their trial in August 1988.  In response to the report the IDF reported that following a meeting between the Judge Advocate-General and the committee member, it was decided to transfer all the minors to the Atlit jail and that the separation between them and the adult detainees had already been implemented. Some 70 minors held in military prisons were recently released as a goodwill gesture. (Ha'aretz, 15 November 1988)

237. On 1 December, at the trial of four soldiers of the "Givati" brigade charged with causing the death of a resident of Jabaliya camp, one of the witnesses, a reserve sergeant, told the Southern Region military court that soldiers beat detainees in the Jabaliya post "for fun. The humiliation and beating were just in order to while away the time". (Ha'aretz, 2 December 1988)

238. On 10 December, a clash was reported in "Ansar 2" prison in Gaza. A detainee, Abdallah Ibrahim Mahruka, aged 20, stabbed a soldier, and another soldier opened fire and killed the assailant. Following the incident all the detainees were put back in their cells and searches were carried out. Improvised arms were discovered. All promenades in the courtyard were suspended. On 12 December, hundreds of detainees in "Ansar 2" went on hunger strike to protest the killing.  (Ha'aretz, 11, 13 December 1988)

239. On 21 December, it was reported that a visit to Megido jail (northern Israel) by some 600 family members of 510 detainees from the southern West Bank was cancelled following a riot. According to eyewitnesses, visitors could hardly talk with their detained family members, since 20 detainees met simultaneously with their families, with a distance of 3.5 m separating the two groups, forcing them to shout in order to be heard. (Ha'aretz, 21 December 1988)

240. On 25 December, it was reported that 120 detainees at a detention facility located in the Tulkarem military government house were complaining about their detention conditions. They were being held in tin huts where it was unbearably cold and rain penetrated the huts. (Ha'aretz, 25 December 1988)

241. On 29 December, it was reported that following a visit to the Dahiriya detention camp by a delegation of members of the Association of Civil Rights of Israel, the Association was demanding that the IDF drastically improve detention conditions in the camp or close it altogether. According to a report prepared by the Association, despite efforts to improve the sewerage network and to introduce hot water, human beings should not be held in the camp in the present conditions. The members of the delegation said conditions in Dahiriya could not be compared to conditions in any other detention camp they visited in the territories. The report had been transmitted three weeks earlier to the IDF Judge Advocate-General. the Central Region Commander and the Legal Adviser of the West Bank, but the three officials had not commented on it. (Ha'aretz, 29 December 1988)

242. On 5 January 1989, it was reported that prisoners in the Ketziot detention camp had decided to boycott appeal hearings against administrative detentions in solidarity with Arab lawyers who had declared a one-month strike in protest against their working conditions in military courts. A journalist held at the camp for nine months, Adnan Damiri, reportedly declared an open-ended hunger strike to protest the third renewal of his administrative detention. (Jerusalem Post, 5 January 1989; Attalia, 5 January 1989)

243. On 6 January, it was reported that a body called "Down with Occupation" had protested about harsh conditions in the "Oz-Megido" detention facility.  Allegations concerned lack of appropriate clothing and medical treatment and family visit conditions, which were described as a "collective punishment". (Ha'aretz, 6 January 1989)

244. On 9 January, it was reported that the "Down with Occupation" organization had learned that some 250 West Bank detainees in the Megido detention facility were to be transferred to "Ansar 3" camp in Ketziot where no family visits were authorized. (Ha'aretz, 9 January 1989)

245. On 13 January, it was reported that prisoners at the Ketziot detention centre had been on hunger strike since 9 January, to protest against the injury of two prisoners on 8 January during a disturbance in Division-7, as well as the living conditions at the facility. (Jerusalem Post, 13 January 1989)

246. On 16 January, Al-Ittihad newspaper reported that all 1,500 detainees held in Megido prison had announced that they would not appear before Israeli military courts in solidarity with Palestinian lawyers who were on strike. The lawyers declared on 1 January 1980 that they would not appear in military courts for one month, demanding improvement in conditions the detainees were held in and an easing on restrictions imposed on the lawyers regarding the performance of their duties as defence attorneys. (Al-Fajr, 23 January 1989)

247. On 8 February, it was reported that MK Dedi Zucker had written to Defence Minister Rabin demanding an investigation into charges by Omar Hanan, aged 24, of Nablus, that he was paralysed from the waist down after being beaten in custody by an IDF soldier and was later rearrested despite his disability. Hanun had been arrested on 29 May 1988.  He was allegedly shot in the leg with four rubber bullets. When he denied charges of throwing stones and being a member of Fatah's Shabiba movement, two soldiers hit him with rifle butts on the head, back and chin. He was then put in a cell one and a half metres by half a metre, and was suspended from the ceiling by his hands from 11 a.m. until the evening. He was then questioned for four days and transferred to a detention tent. An hour later a group of soldiers entered the tent and beat him. One struck him with a pole on the back of the neck knocking him unconscious. (Jerusalem Post, 8 February 1989)

248. On 8 February, some 1,300 Arab prisoners rioted in Megido prison, northern Israel, hurling stones and iron bars at guard towers and climbing the prison fences. Guards opened fire killing one inmate – Nidal Zuhadi Deeb, aged 23, from Kadura near Ramallah – and injuring 19 others. The riot reportedly began following a decision by the prison commander to cut short visitors' day after a guard spotted a visitor waving a Palestinian flag. Troops shot in the air, fired dozens of tear-gas grenades and shot rubber bullets, but the riot continued. The prison commander decided that the guards' lives were in danger and ordered to shoot at the rioters.  Five of the injured inmates had to be hospitalized. A further riot was reported in the prison the next day, and five inmates were slightly injured from tear-gas. The Megido prison was put under the control of the military police. It was considered among Palestinians as the worst detention centre, and since the beginning of the uprising, several hunger strike, sit-in strikes and riots were reported  (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 9 and 10 February 1989; Al-Fajr, 13 February 1989; Attalia, 16 February 1989)

249. On 9 February, guards at the Ketziot detention facility, in the Negev desert, shot at detainees who refused to come out for the evening head count.  Two inmates were injured, and eight others were affected by tear-gas. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 12 February 1989)

250. On 13 February, Israel Radio was reported to have broadcasted news of riots in Ansar 3 detention camp during which 10 Palestinian detainees were injured: 8 from tear-gas, 1 from live bullet and another from a rubber bullet. (Al-Fajr, 13 February 1989)

251. On 15 February, it was reported the MK Muhammad Miari had visited three prisoners who had been injured in an incident in the Megido jail the previous week. The three were hospitalized in Afula hospital. According to MK Miari one of them, whose left leg was in a cast, had his right arm and leg chained to the bed.  An IDF spokesman acknowledged the fact and added that this was contrary to instructions. (Ha'aretz, 15 February 1989)

252. On 18 February, a Palestinian prisoner at Beersheba jail was murdered by another inmate. The victim was named as Sirham Amuri, aged 18, of Shufat. An 18-year-old prisoner from Gaza reportedly confessed to the crime. (Jerusalem Post, 20 February 1989)

253. On 20 February, the Israel Women's Organization for Political Prisoners reported that Amneh Darwish, aged 28, had been ill-treated during interrogation at the Russian Compound prison in Jerusalem on 14 January 1989. (Al-Fajr, 20 February 1989)

254. On 5 March, it was reported that all the detainees at the Ketziot detention camp ("Ansar 3") were entering the second week of their hunger strike against prison conditions. According to detainees lawyers, the striking detainees had not been given any medical checks since the beginning of their strike. According to the 1,100 security detainees held at Ketziot, they were striking to protest the bad quality and insufficient quantity of food they received, the prohibition of family visits, the extension of the detention orders against some of them for the second or third time, ill-treatment and the use of tear-gas, beating, water jets and even rubber bullets and live ammunition to disperse gatherings. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 5 March 1989)

255. On 6 March, Arab sources reported that all the detainees in the "Ansar 2" camp in the Gaza Strip had been on hunger strike until 5 March 1989, and that the prison authorities had denied detainees' lawyers access to their clients. Two detainees were reportedly beaten during disturbances. (Ha'aretz, 6 March 1989)

256. On 7 March, it was reported that a security prisoner, Mahmoud Yussuf Alayan al Masri, aged 38, from Rafah, had died on 5 March in the GSS section of the Gaza jail. According to a Prison Authority spokesman, the detainee had received medical treatment from the prison doctor, in the investigations section, after he had complained he was not feeling well. He was thought to be suffering from an ulcer. Arab sources in Rafah alleged that the detainee had been badly beaten and that that was the cause of his death. The prison authorities set up a special investigating team to look into the circumstances of the death. The police were reportedly also investigating the case. On 8 March, it was reported that an autopsy performed on his body indicated several minor hemorrhages in his limbs, which could have resulted from sleeping on the floor for hours, and internal bleeding, which could have resulted from a burst ulcer. No signs of violence or torture were reportedly found during the autopsy. Al Masri's mother denied that her son had ever suffered from all ulcer. On 10 March, it was reported that Prison Authority head, Levi Shaul, had ordered that the investigation into al Masri's death be continued and that the investigators continue to ascertain whether prison regulation governing the treatment of sick prisoners were adhered to. Police investigators were also continuing to check whether negligence in the application of prison medical regulations contributed to the death. On 19 March, it was report that al Masri's family had applied to the High Court of Justice, demanding an explanation from the defence and police ministers why they would not order al Masri's grave opened to permit an independent autopsy. High Court Justice Aharon Barak issued an order nisi requiring the two ministers to respond within 20 days to the application. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 1, 8, 9, 10 and 19 March 1989; Al-Fajr, 13 March 1989)

257. On 9 March, it was reported that inmates of the Gaza prison were continuing their hunger strike in protest over the death in prison of detainee Mahmoud al Masri. The inmates in the Ketziot camp also resumed their hunger strike in protest over the death of al Masri and over prison conditions. (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, 9 March 1989)

258. On 13 March, it was reported that Tarek Abu Sha'aban, a detainee in "Ansar 2" had been hospitalized in Soroka hospital in Beersheba after allegedly being badly beaten by soldiers. He had to undergo an operation in which his spleen had to be removed. On 12 March, he was discharged from hospital. (Ha'aretz, 13 March 1989)

259. On 13 March, detainees at Ansar 3 went on a one-day hunger strike to warn the prison authorities against breaking their promises made following the two-week long hunger strike. (Attalia, 16 March 1989)

260. On 30 March, it was reported that two experts on prison medicine, sent by the United State-based Physicians for Human Rights group, said that their request to visit inmates at the Ketziot, Dhahiriya and Megido prisons had not been granted by the Defence Ministry. A delegation from the same organization held a widely publicized press conference on injuries from IDF gunfire and beatings in the territories. (Jerusalem Post, 30 March 1989)

E.   Annexation and settlement

261. On 25 October 1988, it was reported that a new settlement named Na'aleh was to be inaugurated the next day. It was located near the settlement of Nili, close to the Green Line, and consisted of 27 families of employees of the Aviation Industry. The new settlement was sponsored by Amana, the settling body of Gush Emunim. (Ha'aretz, 25 October 1988)

262. On 6 November, it was reported that Gush Emunim planned the establishment of two new settlements in the Gala Strip: Dogat and Kataif H. (Al-Fajr, 6 November 1988)

263. On 10 November, the occupation authorities 50 seized 50 dunams in the area of Al Majr, opposite Jneid prison camp, belonging to five Arab families in Rafidiya.  Eyewitnesses reported seeing IDF lorries bringing in army tents and equipment.  (Attalia, 10 November 1988)

264. On 22 November, it was reported that an industrial zone of approximately 10,000 square metres was planned to be created in Ariel. The industrial zone was to be built by a company headed by an adviser to Trade and Industry Minister Ariel Sharon. It would cost $8 million. (Ha'aretz, 22 November 1988)

265. On 1 December, it was reported that the Housing and Construction Ministry was stepping up its activities in the Etzion bloc. Some 300 housing units were to be built shortly in Efrat, which would be converted from a community settlement to an urban settlement. The number of housing units in Beita should reach 8,000.   The new road was under construction, a Kalkilya by-pass, would be ready in one month's time. According to the Director-General of the Ministry, Amos Unger, despite the uprising there was a lot of construction and purchase of flats in the Jerusalem area and in western Samaria. By the end of the fiscal year 1988 some 1,500 housing units would be built, according to Housing Ministry plans. Under another plan, the Ministry would create the infrastructure for building 500 flats in Pisgat-Ze'ev, north of Jerusalem (between the French Hill and Neveh-Yaacov). (Ha'aretz, 1 December 1988)

266. On 6 December, it was reported that an extensive settlement campaign was under way in the Katif bloc, in the southern Gaza Strip, and that some 200 families had allegedly expressed their will to settle there. The campaign was organized by the Government, through the Ministry of Trade and Industry, in co-operation with the Gaza Regional Council. (Ha'aretz, 6 December 1988)

267. On 22 December, a list of eight new settlements whose construction was agreed upon between the Likud and Labour parties as part of the coalition government plan was made public. The eight new settlements should be set up within the first year of the new Government's term of office. Five would be located in the "Judea" region and three in the Gaza Strip as follows:

(a) The settlement of Talmon ( north west of Ramallah) to be established on an area of land covering 1,300 dunams;

(b) Mikhtam (east of Latrun, 15 km north of Jerusalem) to be established on an area of 700 dunams;

(c) Eitan (2 km north-welt of Jericho) to be established on an area of 600 dunams that had been allocated to the settlement;

(d) Alon (north of Mishor Adumim) to be established in an area uninhabited by Arabs in the district of Jericho, on 600 dunams of land that had been allocated to the settlement;

(e) Zif (7 km south-east of Kiryat-Arba in the Mount Hebron area) to be established on 300 dunams that had been allocated to the settlement;

(f) Peat-Sadeh (south of Khan Yunis) to be established on 600 dunams of land that had been allocated to the settlement;

(g) Katif B (near Peat-Sadeh) to be established on an area of 300 dunams;

(h) Dugit (near Jabaliya camp, north of Gaza) to be established on an area of 600 dunams that had been allocated to the settlement. (Ha'aretz, 22 December 1988).

268. On 6 January 1989, it was reported that Defence Minister Rabin and the Prime Minister's adviser on settlement affairs, Michael Dekel, had prepared a document describing in detail the settlements that would be set up during the first year of the coalition government. The document was to be submitted to the government in 10 days time. Under that plan, three settlements would be created in the Gaza Strip within four month:  Dugit, with 70 families, in two months' time; Peat-Sadeh, with 50 families, in four months; and Kfar-Daron – a "'permanent settlement", in the coming weeks. Infrastructure and construction for the three settlements could cost NIS 4.5 million (approximately $2.5 million) . (Ha'aretz, 6 January 1989)

269. On 18 January, Asha'b newspaper reported that the Israeli military authorities had handed residents of the village of Jayus, in the Tulkarem area, orders confiscating 1,362 dunams around the village alleging they were government property. The residents were given 45 days to appeal to the Israeli Military Objections Committee. (Al-Fajr, 23 January 1989)

270. On 14 February, the village council in Tamun was notified by the military authorities that 2,838 dunams of village land would be confiscated.  No reasons were given. (Al-Fajr, 20 February 1989)

271. On 15 February, the military authorities closed an area of about 7,000 dunams used for grazing sheep in the villages of Tamun, Tayasir and Ein Al Biba.  Residents were prevented from reaching the area. (Al-Fajr, 20 February 1989)

272. On 20 February, deputy Prime Minister and Housing Minister David Levy inaugurated the Kalkilya by-pass road. At the ceremony, Housing Ministry officials announced that NIS 15 million (approximately $9 million) would he earmarked in the coming year for the construction of more roads and by-pass roads in the territories. (Ha'aretz, 19 and 21 February 1989)

273. On 15 March, Jewish residents of the West Bank moved to a rocky hilltop 8 km north-west of Ramallah and established Talmon – the first Dew settlement in years. They reportedly acted with government approval. Gush Emunim's settlement movement, Amana, and the Mateh-Binyamin regional council had undertaken to cover Talmon's initial costs. (Jerusalem Post, 16 March 1989)

274. On 20 March, four provisional structures were placed at the site of a new settlement, named Tzofim, near Kalkilya. The new settlement was a private initiative and was not included in the eight settlements whose construction was agreed upon by the national unity government. The Amana movement was responsible for placing the provisional homes at the site. Permanent housing was to be built shortly. (Ha'aretz, 22 March 1989)

275. On 23 March, it was reported that members of the Al Sharha family from Dura were notified of the confiscation of 1,500 dunams belonging to them in the areas of Taku' and Dhahiriya.  The Israeli authorities gave them 45 days to file an objection. (Attalia, 23 March 1989)

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