General Assembly Tenth emergency special session Agenda item 5 Illegal Israeli actions in Occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory Security Council Sixty-fifth year Identical letters dated 16 April 2010 from the Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council I write to you, in immediate follow-up of my letter of 12 April 2010 (A/ES10/487-S/2010/185), to again draw your attention to and to convey our continuing alarm regarding the dangers emanating from the provocative, illegal measure recently enacted by Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian civilian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. Israel’s latest military order (so-called military order “1650”) threatens the very presence of the indigenous Palestinian population in their own land, and along with other illegal Israeli measures, including, inter alia, ongoing settlement and wall construction, confiscation of land, demolition of homes, evictions, residency permit revocations, and closure of areas as so-called “military zones”, is clearly yet another attempt by the occupying Power, to illegally alter the demography, status and Palestinian Arab character and nature of the Territory. As noted earlier (see A/ES-10/487-S/2010/185), this military order could result in the deportation of tens of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children from the West Bank who are deemed by the occupying Power to allegedly be “infiltrating” the Occupied Territory. The scope of the order is vast and arbitrary, potentially affecting any civilian considered not to be in possession of so-called “required permits” issued by the occupying Power to reside in the West Bank. Thousands upon thousands of Palestinians risk being labelled as “residing illegally” in the West Bank, regardless of their Palestinian nationality, citizenship and residence, and would be subject to detention, imprisonment and forcible expulsion by the Israeli occupying forces with no recourse or protection for their rights. At greatest risk are Palestinians bearing Gaza Strip identifications, Palestinian Jerusalemites and Palestinian expatriates and international aid and development workers, even if they entered the West Bank “legally”, that is to say, with the approval of the occupying Power, which maintains control of all borders and crossings into and out of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. This military order thus harkens back to the period of the Israeli military government established in the Occupied Palestinian Territory following the occupation in June 1967 and the 1969 military orders by which the occupying Power granted itself the power to expel socalled “infiltrators” that were deemed to have entered the Territory “illegally”. We reiterate our condemnation of such a blatant act of violation of relevant provisions of international law and United Nations resolutions. We reiterate that this measure constitutes a grave breach of article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, … regardless of their motive”, and a violation of relevant Security Council resolutions, including resolutions 607 (1988), 608 (1988), 636 (1989), 641 (1989), 681 (1990), 694 (1991), 726 (1992) and 799 (1992). Moreover, we reiterate that the measure is a direct violation of the agreements and commitments between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization and, in this regard, must underscore that the 1993 Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements (Oslo Accords) made no distinction between Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, who were able to move between the two areas of the Territory and take up residence in either. In addition to the real dangers emanating from such an illegal and provocative measure, I must alert you to the continuation of Israeli military raids and arrests of Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. Overnight, at least seven Palestinians were detained by the Israeli occupying forces following raids in the Nablus and Ramallah areas. In this regard, it is necessary to point out that recent reports have revealed that, in 2009, the average number of Israeli military raids in the West Bank was approximately 103 a week, another glaring indication of the occupying Power’s incessant attempts to raise tensions and further destabilize the situation and to undermine the Palestinian Authority’s security efforts. I also regret to inform you of the continuing lawlessness and terrorism being perpetrated by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians and their properties. This week such acts included the vandalizing of a mosque in the village of Hawara near Nablus, where a Star of David was spray painted on the mosque’s walls, and the burning of cars in the village, as well as the torching of more cars and spraying of graffiti on homes in the village of Jinsafout near Qalqilya today. These attacks are now being perpetrated by settlers against Palestinian civilians and their very presence in the Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, as part of a deliberate, malicious, so-called “price tag” campaign against any attempts to freeze settlement activity in the West Bank, with legal consequences rarely being meted out by the occupying Power against the perpetrators. Such disturbing developments require the urgent attention of the international community as Israel’s actions continue to blatantly and aggressively contravene international law and contradict the goal of the two-State solution for peace, threatening to further destabilize the fragile situation on the ground and in the region. The international community, with the Security Council at its forefront, has the responsibility to act urgently to compel Israel to rescind its military order and refrain from the deportation of any Palestinian civilians, as well as to cease completely its colonization campaign and all other illegal measures in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. Our collective drive for peace and security in the region is dependent on acting in such a timely and responsible manner. This letter is in follow-up to our previous 366 letters regarding the ongoing crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, since 28 September 2000. These letters, dated from 29 September 2000 (A/55/432-S/2000/921) to 12 April 2010 (A/ES-10/487-S/2010/185) constitute a basic record of the crimes being committed by Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian people since September 2000. For all of these war crimes, acts of State terrorism and systematic human rights violations committed against the Palestinian people, Israel, the occupying Power, must be held accountable and the perpetrators must be brought to justice. I should be grateful if you would arrange to have the present letter distributed as a document of the tenth emergency special session of the General Assembly, under agenda item 5, and of the Security Council. (Signed) Riyad Mansour Ambassador Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations   sss1 \* MERGEFORMAT A/ES-10/488 sss2 \* MERGEFORMAT S/2010/190 sss1 \* MERGEFORMAT A/ES-10/488 sss2 \* MERGEFORMAT S/2010/190 FooterJN \* MERGEFORMAT 10-32073 \* MERGEFORMAT 2 \* MERGEFORMAT 3 FooterJN \* MERGEFORMAT 10-32073 United Nations A/ES-10/488–S/2010/190 General Assembly Security Council Distr.: General 20 April 2010 Original: English jobn \* MERGEFORMAT 10-32073 (E) 210410 Barcode \* MERGEFORMAT *1032073*