United Nations

A/65/791­S/2011/146
Distr.: General 18 March 2011 Original: English

General Assembly Security Council

General Assembly Sixty-fifth session Agenda items 36, 52 and 60 The situation in the Middle East Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources

Security Council Sixty-sixth year

Identical letters dated 16 March 2011 from the Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council
I have the honour to transmit herewith a letter from H. E. Mr. Walid Al-Moualem, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Syrian Arab Republic dated 14 March 2011, addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council, regarding the capture and imprisonment of the two Syrian citizens, Mr. Majed Al Chaer and Mr. Fidaa Chaer from the Occupied Syrian Golan, by the Israeli occupation authorities last year and the recent issuing of unjust judgments against them (see annex). I would highly appreciate it if the present letter and its annex could be circulated as a document of the General Assembly under agenda items 36, 52 and 60, and of the Security Council. (Signed) Bashar Ja'afari Ambassador Permanent Representative

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Annex to the identical letters dated 16 March 2011 from the Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council
[Original: Arabic] Damascus, 14 March 2011 On 5 August 2010, I wrote to you concerning the arrest by the Israeli occupation forces of Syrian citizen Fida al-Sha`ir and his father Majid al-Sha`ir on spurious charges, the aim being to terrorize the Syrian population of the occupied Syrian Golan. I should like to draw your attention to a new measure undertaken by the Israeli occupation forces: on 17 February 2011, the Israeli District Court in Nazareth passed tyrannical sentences on those two prisoners. Majid al-Sha`ir received a five-year prison sentence and his son Fida al-Sha`ir was sentenced to a three-year prison term. The Israeli authorities arrested Majid and Fida in July 2010 and they have been in detention since that time. Fida was incarcerated from the moment he stepped off the aircraft in Ben Gurion airport. He was returning from France to spend the summer holidays in the Golan, having completed the academic year in France. His father Majid was arrested two days later. The Israeli occupation forces are continuing to show total disregard for human rights. In an act of provocation, the Israeli police searched the prisoners' house and fired huge amounts of tear gas at the families gathered around the house. Syrian prisoner Faris al-Sha`ir was kept for five months in the prisons of the occupation on a pretext that is often used against the Syrian population of Golan. He was forced to live outside the occupied Golan, in a house in the occupied territories, and was prohibited from leaving it or returning to the Golan before his subsequent sentencing. This is all part of Israel's tyrannical policy towards the population of the occupied Syrian Golan. I should like to reiterate to you yet again that the United Nations must shoulder its responsibilities by increasing Member State endeavours to bring to an end the policy of State terrorism that has become standard Israeli practice and halt its continual violations of United Nations resolutions, international law, international humanitarian law and the most basic principles of human rights. I demand that pressure should be brought to bear on Israel to free all Syrian prisoners and detainees held in the prisons of the occupation and withdraw from the occupied Syrian Golan, in conformity with the relevant international resolutions, including Security Council resolution 497 (1981). As Israel continues to occupy Arab territory and to consider itself to be above all international resolutions, laws and norms, the situation in the region is steadily deteriorating, which has a negative impact on safety and security in the region and the world, as well as on international efforts to end grave and systematic human rights violations, strengthen the rule of law and ensure respect for all the peoples of the world. (Signed) Walid Al-Moualem Minister for Foreign Affairs

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