Mideast situation/Schools, universities closures/Haifa desecration – Letter from CEIRPP Chairman

Letter dated 15 July 1981 from the Chairman of the Committee on

the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People

addressed to the Secretary-General

I have been instructed by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People to express the Committee's deep concern at the complete disregard shown by Israel for the rights of the Palestinian people, examples of which can be found almost daily in the Israeli press.

According to these reports, the military occupation authorities continue to interfere in the education dispensed in the occupied territories and close schools and universities on the slightest pretext.

At the same time, the Israeli authorities continue to seize land and to proceed with the establishment of new settlements in defiance of the resolutions of the United Nations and of world public opinion.

The Committee is also concerned at the rumours that Dr. Abdul Shafi, Director of the Palestinian Red Cross in Gaza, has not been authorized to leave Gaza and that his freedom of movement in the region has been curtailed.

The Committee is likewise shocked to learn of the desecration of the Muslim cemetery, Istiqlal, situated in the centre of Haifa; it is reported that some 3,000 bodies have been exhumed in order to clear the land for the construction of administrative offices and commercial centres.

The Committee feels that the United Nations, and in particular the Security Council, should take urgent steps to draw Israel's attention to the dangers inherent in such policies, which are pursued in defiance of world public opinion.

I would be grateful if you would kindly have this letter circulated as a document of the General Assembly and of the Security council, under item 31 of the preliminary list.

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*A/36/50