From: pnmideast@igc.apc.org
Newsgroups: alt.activism
Date: 17 Dec 92 20:55 PST
Subject: deportations from Palestine
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1296500458:000:5249
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!pnmideast    Dec 17 20:55:00 1992


From: <pnmideast>
Subject: deportations from Palestine

/* Written  2:50 pm  Dec 17, 1992 by mtaylor@igc.apc.org in igc:mideast.action */
/* ---------- "deportations from Palestine" ---------- */
For Human Rights Information from Palestine and Israel contact:



*Palestine Human Rights Information Centre* 

Jerusalem (fax: 02.287-070) or their Chicago office



*Al Haq (West Bank affiliate of the ICJ)*

Ramallah (fax: 02.955194)



*Mandela Institute (human rights and prisoner support organisation)* 

Ramallah, tel: 02.955756



*B'Tselem, Israeli Human Rights Organisation monitoring the West Bank and

Gaza*, Jerusalem (fax: 02.617.946)



*Association for Civil Rights in Israel ACRI*

Tel Aviv, (fax: 03.654726)



There are other human rights activists and projects (Hotline for workers,

Human Rights Action Project, et al) but these are some of the principal

organisations. They vary in focus and politics.



                                  **UPDATE**

Israel's mass expulsion of almost 400 Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza

Strip has pushed tensions in the occupied territories to a flash-point. Coming

in the midst of extended curfews over much of the occupied territories, the

deportations will only provide unneeded momentum to a downward spiral of

unrest and violence. Immediate intervention by the international community is

required to bring Israel in line with international law and to ensure Israeli

resect for universally recognised standards of human rights. 



The families of an estimated 1500 Palestinians arrested in massive raids this

past week are today trying to determine if their relatives were among the 383

Palestinians trucked across the border into Lebanon late yesterday. The

deportations took place less than 24 hours after the Israeli cabinet ordered

the expulsions be carried out in secrecy (Incredibly, all cabinet memebers

from the left-of-centre Meretz party, members of which were central to

starting up the human rights group B'Tselem, voted along with the rest of the

cabinet in support of the deportations. The only dissent came from Justice

Minister (Labour) Liba'i). Press censorship was imposed while the detainees

where flown up to the border overnight Wednesday and Thursday, where they were

kept on buses, handcuffed and blindfolded for almost 24 hours before being put

onto trucks and driven into Israel's self-styled "security zone" in southern

Lebanon. The move comes on the heels of a week of violence in which five

Israeli soldiers were killed by Palestinian armed elements. During the same

period seven Palestinians were killed by army gunfire.



Meanwhile, almost one million Palestinians remain under curfew in Hebron and

the Gaza Strip. Most of Gaza has been under a 24 hour curfew since 8 December

without a break. As a result, the economy has been completely shut down with

lost income to the 30,000 Palestinian workers who would normally travel to

Israeli for work fast approaching U$2.7 million. No produce is entering or

leaving the Strip and farmers have been prevented from harvesting the

cauliflower, cabbage and clementine crops which are in danger of rotting under

the winter rains. Heavy rains and storms have caused extensive flooding in the

Jabalyia and Beach refugee camps presenting massive health risks to over

100,000 people. In Hebron, hospital(s) report the army has refused permission

for ambulance to operate.



(abridged and updated news release)



                  "BIRZEIT UNIVERSITY: NO TO MASS EXPULSIONS!

            Immediate Enforcement of International Law Imperative"



"Birzeit (17 December 1992) - Birzeit University today strongly condemns the

Israeli Cabinet decision to expel 383 Palestinians from the Occupied

Palestinian Territories, in contravention of prevailing international law and

of common humanity. It urges the international community to move beyond formal

condemnation and to take immediate and effective measures to ensure respect

for the Fourth Geneva Convention which, under Article 49, absolutely forbids

deportation "of protected persons from occupied territory" and to implement

United Nations Security Council Resolution 726 of 6 January 1992, which

unanimously rejected Israel's deportation policy and affirmed the

applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention to the Occupied Palestinian

Territories. 



"Deportation is defined as a "grave breach" of the Fourth Geneva Convention,

tantamount to a war crime. Birzeit University has issued numerous protests

over the years as deportation orders took a steady toll of its faculty and

students, beginning with the expulsion of Birzeit University President Dr.

Hanna Nasir in 1974. Today the Israeli authorities carried out 383 war crimes;

each not only against an individual, but against 383 families and an entire

people. Neither peace, justice nor security for Palestinians or Israelis are

served by Israel's deliberate and massive violation of international law and

of the will of the international community. The mass expulsion of Palestinians

from their homeland must be stopped".



"At least seventeen Birzeit University students were among the over 1,200

Palestinians rounded up in the past few days...."


Newsgroups: alt.activism,alt.current-events.somalia