From: UPI
Subject: Israeli Supreme Court upholds deportations of 415 Palestinians
Reply-To: ayman@eecs.umich.edu
Organization: United Press International
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 18:26:13 GMT
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, state-
run Israel Radio reported.
	After a half-dozen postponements of its decision, the court rejected
appeals to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's order from Arab members of the
Knesset, Israel's parliament, and relatives of the exiles.
	The appeals asserted that the expulsion was illegal and has put the
men's lives in danger, partly because of southern Lebanon's harsh winter
weather and also because they have been fired upon by Israeli-backed
Lebanese militiamen.
	``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,'' said Leah Tzemel, a noted civil rights
lawyer.
	Tzemel said she 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 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.