In a surprise move Thursday, the Israel Defense Force canceled the planned deportation of one of the 12 Palestinian activists ordered expelled from the administered territories three weeks ago.
Awad Joude of Ramallah, one of five West Bank residents on the list, was spared by Maj. Gen. Danny Yatom, IDF commander of the central sector, which includes the West Bank.
Yatom acted on the recommendation of the military review panel hearing the Palestinians’ appeals. It was the first time since 1979 that the Israeli military authorities have reversed a deportation order.
An IDF spokesman said the appeals board decided deportation was unnecessary in Joude’s case because less drastic measures were available to local military commanders to keep him in line.
Moreover, it was pointed out that Joude had no record of prior arrests, except a brief period of administrative detention last year.
The four other West Bank Palestinians and seven in the Gaza Strip whose ouster from the territories was ordered by Defense Minister Moshe Arens on Jan. 2, may carry their appeals to Israel’s High Court of Justice.
The order to deport them, for which Israel was unanimously condemned by the U.N. Security Council on Jan. 6, followed the murders of four Jewish settlers in the administered territories by Arab gunmen.
The 12 activists selected for deportation were not directly linked to the murders but accused of creating a climate conducive to such violence.
But many observers in and out of Israel believe the resort to expulsion was less a security measure than a political move intended to appease Jewish settlers infuriated by the killings.
The display of leniency toward at least one potential deportee was overshadowed by the dragnet arrests overnight Tuesday of more than 60 Arabs in the West Bank and East Jerusalem who were suspected of subversive activities.
Protesting Palestinian leaders threatened not to attend the multinational phase of the Middle East peace conference opening Tuesday in Moscow.
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