Steve Quayle News Alerts

July 20, 2002

An Israeli plan to deport the families of Palestinian suicide bombers from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip has been roundly rejected by the United States, the United Nations and the Arab League

A UN spokeswoman said that while Kofi Annan "has repeatedly condemned suicide bombings and upheld Israel's right to defend itself, the secretary general wishes to make clear that self defense cannot justify measures that amount to collective punishments."

"The secretary general is disturbed by reports that the Israeli government has again destroyed the homes of Palestinians in the West Bank and are considering the forcible transfer of relatives of suicide bombers from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip," the spokeswoman added.

The discussion of deportation followed Israel's demolition of the family homes of two Palestinian militants accused of planning attacks which killed 11 people in Israel and near a West Bank Jewish settlement this week. While in the Gaza Strip early Saturday, IDF troops backed by tanks and bulldozers, entered the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip and demolished a metal workshop and damaged a house, clashing briefly with Palestinian gunmen, according to Palestinian residents. No injuries were reported.

U.S.: Gaza Strip deportation will not bring security
The United States on Friday also criticized the proposal, saying it would not bring security to Israel.

"We expect that Israel's actions in its campaign against terror will be based on information related to an individual's culpability and not on personal or family relationships," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.

"We think that taking punitive actions against innocent people will not solve Israel's security problems and we will be raising that issue with the Israelis," he said.

Boucher declined to say whether the United States agreed
that such deportations would amount to war crimes, but maintained that Israel's security from terror remains the top priority in U.S.-led efforts to forge a settlement and reform Palestinian institutions.

On Saturday, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa also condemned the deportation plan. "The Israeli practices are thoroughly aggressive and indifferent to rules or bases of international law," Moussa told reporters at the Cairo-based Arab League. He said the plan violated article four of the Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians under occupation.

Mubarak warns of more Israeli hate
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday warned that Israeli's latest strategies for tackling militant Palestinian violence could backfire.

Mubarak said Israel's proposal to exile or destroy the homes of relatives of Palestinian militants could lead to more suicide bombings.

"What they (the Israelis) are doing only aggravates the hate against Israelis. Those who are going to take decisions must do so with a view to what may happen in the future. The current situation is not going to bring security," he said.

"If we want to have a secure situation, we have to move forward with good sense," Mubarak said. He said setting an agenda for implementing a U.S.-backed plan to create a Palestinian state might alleviate the security problems.

In remarks translated from Arabic, he said hopes for peace must be the driving force behind talks between the two sides, locked in conflict since the uprising against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories began some 21 months ago.

"Pessimism only brings the troubles we have now...the Palestinian people do not have the means to survive and that is why they turn to suicide attacks and kill innocent Israelis. Pessimism is dangerous," he said.

IDF arrests 21 Palestinians in West Bank
IDF troops arrested 21 Palestinian men in the West Bank overnight Thursday, all family members of the terrorists who carried out the latest attacks in Tel Aviv and Immanuel in which a total of 12 people were killed. The men, who were arrested near Nablus, are the fathers, brothers and sons of the terrorists.

Daniel Taub, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Israel was considering exile as it sought ways to deny bombers a "supportive environment." He said the idea was to counter the support that families of suicide bombers receive from groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and from outside governments, which amount to "bribery to commit mass murder," citing the example of Iraq, which sends up to $25,000 to the families of suicide bombers.

"We've seen mothers appearing in videos of suicide bombers before they go out to commit their atrocities. We've seen families of suicide bombers afterwards expressing the wish that their other children will follow suit," Taub said. "We have to try and break this cycle. We have to try and provide a deterrent."

According to Israel Radio, Rubinstein also said that there is no reason why Israel should not arrest the families of those who carried out the recent attacks in Tel Aviv and Immanuel, or demolish their houses, since the High Court has approved such steps in the past.

The army did demolish Friday the houses of the Palestinians who sent the terrorists to carry out the attacks, but was unable to apprehend the two.

In Nablus the IDF destroyed the house of Nasser Abu Asida, a senior Hamas member who was responsible for the two Immanuel terror attacks, one last week and one in December, in which 20 Israelis in all were killed.

The army also destroyed the house of Ali Ajouri in the refugee camp al-Askar in Nablus, head of the Fatah faction in the city. Ajouri was one of the operators who sent the two suicide bombers to Tel Aviv on Wednesday night.

The IDF said that its actions were part of its mission against terror, which included those against the terrorists, their operators and their immediate surroundings.

Erekat: Deportations violate Geneva Convention
Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat also denounced the deportation idea, calling it a war crime and violation of the fourth Geneva Convention, which governs the treatment of civilians in war zones.

"When nations in the year 2002 decide on collective punishment, and decide to deport [families] from one place to another, this is a war crime, and we will pursue it as such," he said.

The human rights group B'Tselem said the Geneva Conventions specifically banned forced deportations and said such collective punishment "will constitute an inerasable moral blight on the State of Israel."

The armed wing Hamas threatened to send its suicide bombers "everywhere" in Israel if the IDF goes ahead with its plan to transfer the families.

Family members of those who will be deported said that they would take legal action against move, and would appeal to the Supreme Court if necessary. They added that they would also operate through Palestinian channels to prevent the exile.

"It is illegal to punish people for the act of one person," Shawki Issa, director of the Palestinian LAW human rights society said. "These people had nothing to do with what happened."

Senior Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the deportations only lead to "more trouble."

"We warn Israel against carrying out this measure," he said. "This measure would only lead to more trouble besides the fact that it is illegal and violates all agreements."

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