Israel has made clear that it reserves the right to deport Palestinians arrested for rioting, despite cautions from the United States in recent days against such measures.
Expulsions will depend on “our understanding” of the situation, Premier Yitzhak Shamir told reporters Tuesday during a visit to Abu Gosh, an Arab village on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
Thomas Pickering, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, is reported to have told Foreign Minister Shimon Peres last week that Washington does not favor deportations of Palestinians from the administered territories.
In Washington, the U.S. State Department reiterated that position Tuesday. “We have conveyed our opposition to deportations to various Israeli officials,” said spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley.
Shamir said he “thanked the U.S. for her advice. But when the need arises, one must use the deportation procedure. It is no great pleasure, but we shall act according to our understanding.”
Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin who is also understood to have been approached by Pickering on the subject, told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday that Israel has detained and deported “agitators” in the past and will do so in the future “as she will deem necessary.”
He reportedly has conveyed the same message to American officials.
But using less forceful phrases in speaking to reporters outside the Knesset chamber, the defense minister said Israel would consider using “all the measures available under our law, including deportation.”
ENTIRELY UP TO ISRAEL
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday that Israel would continue to use “the legal means at her disposal” to maintain order in the territories and that deportations are “entirely” up to Israel.
These responses appeared to indicate Israel’s determination not to be swayed by opinion abroad.
The deportation option is a holdover from the British Mandate’s defense emergency regulations of 1945. According to some sources, the authorities want to expel at least 50 Palestinian activists. But so far, no deportation orders have been issued.
There were rumors in the West Bank on Tuesday evening that six Palestinians had been detained with a view toward their imminent deportation.
But well-placed Israeli government sources maintained that there would be no decisions on deportations until the present phase of fast judicial proceedings against suspected participants in the rioting have concluded.
Scores of Palestinian detainees are being brought daily before military courts in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on charges of rioting and other security defenses. Seventeen defendants appeared Sunday before a military court in Hebron. All pleaded “not guilty.”
Military prosecutors have prepared charges against 250 suspects and another 400 charge sheets are under preparation. According to official figures, more than 900 Palestinians have been detained since violent disturbances broke out in the territories on Dec. 9. Palestinian sources put the number arrested at 2,500.
There are some 600 detainees in Fara prison near Nablus and the Israel Defense Force has set up a new detention center near Dahariya village in the Hebron hills.
Palestinian lawyers have assailed the speedy judicial proceedings, contending they have not been given adequate opportunity to meet with and prepare cases on behalf of their clients.
LAWYERS’ BOYCOTT WIDENS
A group of prominent West Bank lawyers announced Tuesday night they would begin boycotting military court proceedings, as their colleagues in the Gaza Strip have been doing for the past week.
In the Gaza military court Tuesday, three local youth convicted of throwing gasoline bombs were sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison. The bombs caused no injuries or damage.
Dozens of other defendants in Gaza, Nablus and Hebron were fined and sentenced to several months in jail for their roles in the disturbances.
Four defendants in Gaza and nine in Hebron pleaded not guilty to the charges. Their cases were deferred until a later date.
American diplomatic observers have been attending the judicial proceedings, Israel Radio reported Tuesday night. The CNN television network here reported that the U.S. Embassy had received permission from the Israeli government to send two observers to the trials.
In Washington, Oakley of the State Department confirmed Tuesday that U.S. Embassy officials in Israel are observing proceedings against the Palestinians. She maintained it is “not unusual” for U.S. officials stationed abroad to monitor trials in foreign countries when there are political consequences.
(Washington correspondent Howard Rosenberg also contributed to this story.)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
