From: UPI
Subject: Palestinians strike to protest deportations
Reply-To: ayman@eecs.umich.edu
Organization: United Press International
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 13:39:13 GMT
X-Note: This article was automatically cross-posted to soc.culture.lebanon

[ Article cross-posted without permission ]
	RASHAYA, Lebanon (UPI) -- Palestinian refugee camps went on strike
Saturday to protest the Israeli deportation of hundreds of Palestinians
to Lebanon as the deportees spent their second night in a no-man's land
at the edge of the border area.
	Some 418 Palestinian activists who arrived in Lebanon Thursday
remained stranded in a 4-mile strip of land that separates the Marj Al
Zouhour checkpoint manned by Lebanese army troops and the crossing point
of Zimraya controlled by Israeli troops.
	In New York, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved
a resolution strongly condemning the expulsions, calling them contrary
to the fourth Geneva Convention and asking Secretary-General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali to send a representative to the area.
	Israel said the deportees were among 1,600 Palestinian activists
rounded up since Sunday when an Israeli border policeman was abducted
and killed by the military wing of the Muslim fundamentalist
organization Hamas.
	Israel's High Court of Justice approved the deportations but gave the
government 30 days to explain the largest explusion since Israel
captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Six-Day War.
	The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Lebanese Red
Cross established a makeshift hospital and erected 12 large tents near
the Lebanese checkpoint to protect the deportees from freezing
temperatures. More tents were to be established later Saturday.
	Most of the new refugees were treated for bruises and wounds received
from the beatings during detention in Israel.
	``Many had also swollen hands and feet and suffer from diarrhea after
spending two nights in the open,'' said a Lebanese Red Cross relief
worker.
	The ICRC distributed canned food, bread, blankets and medicines to
the refugees, whose age ranted from teenagers to 65. But other
accomodations, such as sanitation, drinking water or heating, were non-
existent.
	``We couldn't sleep because of the cold weather,'' said Issam
Roumman. He said many spend the night in the open and only 150 were
squeezed in some 12 tents.
	The deportees spokesman Abdel Aziz Ramsisi hoped that their condition
would improve when relief organizations offer shoes, clothes and three
blankets for each deportee.
	The new refugees started to organize their life in this strip of land
that could turn to be their new home.
	Despite their misery, the deportees urged the Lebanese government to
remain firm and deny them entry.
	They urged the Arab parties to the Mideast peace negotiations,
particularly the Palestinian delegation, to withdraw from the talks, and
appealed to the United Nations and humanitarian organizations to
pressure the Israeli authorities ``to back out from its unjust measure.''
	Official sources in Beirut said Lebanon's decision not to receive the
deportees was coordinated with the Palestine Liberation Organization in
Tunis.
	President Elias Hrawi received a letter from PLO Chairman Yasser
Arafat urging Lebanon to stick firm to its decision, the sources said.
They said Hrawi also consulted with Syrian President Hafez Assad on the
``explosive situation in the south.''
	The PLO representative in Beirut, Shafik Al Hout, visited Prime
Minister Rafik Hariri and thanked him for ``Lebanon's courageous stand
which expose Israeli atrocities.''
	The Israeli measure prompted Palestinian refugees residing in Lebanon
since 1948 to remain indoors Saturday in sign of protest and in support
of their mates.
	Shops, schools and businesses were paralyzed in shantytowns in
southern, eastern and northern Lebanon.
	Black and Palestinian flags were raised on the homes of the Ein El
Helweh camp outside the southern port city of Sidon to mark a day ``of
sadness and mourning.''
	A huge placard at the entrance of Ein El Helweh, home for more than
50,000 Palestinians, read: ``No difference between terrorist Shamir and
criminal Rabin.''
	Students toured the camp's alleyways, chanting anti-Israeli slogans.
Shortly before, their teacher gave them a special lecture on ``the
deportees in Zimraya,'' explaining how Israel expelled 418 Palestinians
and briefed them on Israel's ``criminal history.''

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