From: hernlem@chess.ncsu.EDU (Brad Hernlem)
Subject: Rabin says he has 'no pity' for deportees
Reply-To: hernlem@chess.ncsu.EDU (Brad Hernlem)
Organization: North Carolina State University
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 18:59:14 GMT


reposted from soc.culture.lebanon:
[ Article cross-posted without permission ]
	JERUSALEM (UPI) -- Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin offered ``no pity''
Monday for the 415 Palestinian activists Israel deported to Lebanon, and
he vowed not to let them return.
	Israel's surrogate Lebanese militia, meanwhile, fired mortar shells
and tear gas at the deportees who were forced to leave their tent camp
by the Lebanese army. At least two of the Palestinians were hurt.
	Israel said it did not order the shooting and was trying to restrain
the South Lebanon Army, which it finances. Lebanon has continued to
assert it will not allow the Palestinians to remain.
	The Supreme Court also deliberated an appeal to the deportation
order, but postponed a ruling until Tuesday.
	Speaking in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, Rabin said he would not
allow the Palestinians expelled last Thursday back into Israel or the 9-
mile-wide security zone it controls in Lebanon. ``The conditions in the
camp ... are not easy. It's cold there,'' he said. ``But I must admit,
in my heart I have no pity for them. ...
	``The Lebanese government is trying to prove to the world and the
court in Israel that these men of terror are defenseless and need help,''
Rabin said. ``Our position is fixed. We will not let them return.''
	A government spokesman confirmed that soldiers from Israel's
surrogate South Lebanon Army fired on the deportees who were being
forced south by the regular Lebanese army from a tent camp set up for
them by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
	``There was some shooting. It was very brief,'' said spokesman Uri
Dromi. ``We are trying to hold them back, but of course there's only so
much we can do.''
	Reports from Lebanon monitored by state-run Israel Radio said two of
the deportees were wounded by 120mm shells fired by the SLA. One of the
injured was taken to a hospital and the other was treated at the scene.
Dromi said the SLA troops first fired tear gas, then live ammunition.
	Lebanon has refused to accept the deportees, arguing that Israel
should rescind the mass expulsion and bears responsibility for their
welfare.
	Israel issued the unprecedented deportation order to avenge the
kidnapping and execution of a border policeman last week. Five other
Israeli soldiers also have been killed by members of Hamas and the
Islamic Jihad since Dec. 8.
	Meanwhile, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip
observed the fourth day of a commercial strike to protest the two-year
deportations, part of ``10 days of confrontation and fire'' against
Israeli authorities.
	In the Khan Yunis refugee camp in Gaza, Israeli troops shot dead a
10-year-old boy during disturbances connected to the deportation and the
week-old curfew imposed on the camp, Palestinian sources said. The army
said it was checking the report. The boy was the eighth Palestinian and
second child killed within 48 hours.
	Hamas leaders said in a leaflet distributed Monday that they would
kidnap and execute an Israeli soldier for every Palestinian killed by
Israel.
	Despite Israel's insistence that the deportations were only
temporary, Maj. Gen. Danny Yatom, the central region commander, said the
415 Palestinians could return only if they did not ``engage in terrorist
activity'' against Israel during exile.
	Yatom said at a news conference he was confident that Israel could
control violent demonstrations against the deportations and particularly
that Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem on the West Bank would not be
curtailed.

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