From: UPI
Newsgroups: soc.culture.lebanon
Subject: Israeli Supreme Court upholds deportations of 415 Palestinians
Date: 22 Dec 92 22:30:20 GMT
Reply-To: ayman@eecs.umich.edu
Organization: United Press International
X-Note: This article was automatically cross-posted to soc.culture.lebanon

[ Article cross-posted without permission ]
	JERUSALEM (UPI) -- Israel's Supreme Court Tuesday upheld the
government's expulsion of 415 Palestinian militants to Lebanon,
rejecting appeals from human rights groups that the men's lives were
endangered by being stranded in a bone-chilling wasteland.
	The court did not explain its ruling, except to say that the men were
stranded not in what has been widely described as a ``no man's land,''
but in a sovereign area of neighboring Lebanon.
	Chief Justice Meir Shamgar explained, ``We didn't see room for us to
get involved'' in the expulsion, which was ordered by Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin in response to recent fatal attacks on Israeli servicemen
and has drawn criticism and even condemnation from governments around
the world.
	The appeal, brought by Arab members of the Knesset, Israel's
parliament, relatives of the deportees and Israeli human rights groups,
argued before the high court that the expulsion was illegal and has put
the men's lives in danger -- partly because of southern Lebanon's harsh
winter weather and because the exiles have been fired upon by Israeli-
backed Lebanese militiamen.
	But the Israeli government has stressed that the Palestinians were
just north of the Jewish state's 9-mile-wide self-declared ``security
zone'' in Lebanon that runs along Israel's northern border and just
south of a line that the Lebanese army does not cross to avoid
inadvertent entanglements with Israel.
	Palestinian leaders, who earlier called the mass expulsion a ``death
blow'' to the Middle East peace process, said the court's decision would
cause even more unrest in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
	``I'm extremely appalled. I'm really outraged at the decision to keep
the deportation order,'' said Hanan Ashrawi, spokeswoman for the
Palestinian delegation to the Middle East peace talks.
	``This is liable to affect the stability of the area and the entire
region,'' she said. ``At the same time it casts serious doubts about the
entire legal system in Israel ... and it is sending negative messages
and dealing serious blows to the possibility of peace between
Palestinians and Israelis.''
	Leah Tzemel, a noted Israeli civil rights lawyer who argued before
the court that the expulsion be rescinded, explained, ``The essence of
our claim is that the deportation is illegal as such. The fact that the
people's lives are in danger is only a side-effect of the deportation.''
	Tzemel said she had hoped to convince the court that ``Israel cannot
dump what it considers its garbage on neighboring countries.''
	Lt. Gen. Ehud Barak, the Israeli army chief of staff, testified that
he was skeptical about reports the men face mortal danger. He asked to
share classified information about the deportees in a closed session
with the judges, but the offer was rejected.
	The Supreme Court ruling came as Rabin defended the deportation in a
parliamentary committee meeting and outlined the steps the army was
taking to prevent their return. The prime minister revealed during the
meeting that he gave the order to fire at the deportees but instructed
commanders to let the shells fall short of the Palestinians.
	Rabin outlined steps the army was taking to prevent their return in
testimony before the parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Security
Committee. He declared that he would not bow to international demands
that the deportees be allowed back and called the expulsion ``one of the
most daring decisions Israel has ever taken in its war on terrorism,''
state-run Israel Radio reported.
	The army, meanwhile, reinforced its presence in the 9-mile-wide
border zone Israel controls in southern Lebanon, sending paratroopers,
elite infantry troops and riot gear to deter the return of the
deportees, who were dumped off in a desolate no man's land just north of
the zone Thursday night.
	Five days after Israel's unprecedented crackdown, the exiles, members
of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations, were still stranded there,
chased from a tent camp set up by international relief organizations.
	The Beirut government has refused to accept the deportees, arguing
that Israel should rescind the mass expulsion and bears responsibility
for their welfare, and its army continued to prod the men toward the
security zone.
	Israel issued the unprecedented deportation order in response to the
kidnapping and execution of a border policeman last week. Five other
Israeli servicemen have been killed by members of Hamas and the Islamic
Jihad since Dec. 8.
	Rabin outlined steps the army was taking to prevent their return in
testimony before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Security Committee.
He declared that he would not bow to international demands that the
deportees be allowed back and called the expulsion ``one of the most
daring decisions Israel has ever taken in its war on terrorism,'' state-
run Israel Radio reported.
	For the first time since the deportees were rounded up a week ago,
authorities lifted a curfew from parts of the occupied Gaza Strip,
allowing at least 2,000 Palestinians to cross into Israel for work. But
most of Gaza remained shut down by army order, confining 500,000
Palestinians to their homes.
	In the West Bank, Palestinians kept their businesses shut for the
fifth day in a commercial strike declared to protest the deportations.
	The strike also was observed by many of Israel's 800,000 Arab
citizens, prompting attacks from right-wing Israelis who accused them of
disloyalty.
	Israel Radio said troops had erected barriers and mined the crossing
points between the security zone and the rest of Lebanon. The army also
sent in paratroopers and soldiers from its elite Golani brigade,
equipped with riot gear, clubs, tear gas and smoke grenades to prevent a
return of the deportees.
	On Monday Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army militia, which patrols
the security zone, fired mortar shells and tear gas at the Palestinians
who had been forced from their tent camp by Lebanese troops. At least
three injuries were reported.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.lebanon