Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, August 1989, Page 23-A.
Human Rights
UN Non-Governmental Organizations Call for Cut in U.S. Aid to Israel
By Sally Clark Nyhan
The Sixth United Nations North American Regional Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) Symposium on the Question of Palestine has called for a cut in US aid to Israel and has protested Israeli violation of labor laws pertaining to Palestinian workers.
The conference, held June 21-23 at UN headquarters in New York, was attended by 84 voting , and 29 observing NGOs. The two resolutions were passes unopposed, although several delegations abstained from voting. The resolution on aid to Israel calls for reductions equal to the amount that Israel is spending to occupy the West Bank and Gaza strip, expand Jewish settlements in those areas, maintain Ansar III detention camp, and to pursue its nuclear program. The resolution was based on US public law 94-329, which "prohibits providing foreign aid to any country where a 'consistent pattern of gross violations of international human rights' occurs." The resolution noted that Israeli allocates "at least $150 million annually" for settlement expansion, conducts a policy of collective punishment and use of torture, refuses to "disclose or allow monitoring of its stockpiling of nuclear weapons. . .or to sign a nonproliferation treaty," and has provided aid to the contras and to authoritarian regimes in South Africa, Chile, Haiti, and Guatemala.
The resolution on labor restrictions sponsored by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and the Palestine Human Rights Campaign (PHRC) condemned closures of union headquarters, banning of union meetings, interference with union elections, holding union members without trial, and deporting union activists. It calls for investigation of these charges by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The symposium ended with a plan of action that included reaffirmation of the PLO as "the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people," and a commitment "to support the Palestinian people and their struggle for self-determination." Participants called upon the UN Secretary General and the UN Security Council to convene an extraordinary session of the General Assembly to "discuss the protection of the Palestinian people in the occupied territory."
NGOs elected for the coming year to fill 11 positions on the North American Coordinating Council were: American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee; General Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist Church; International Jewish Peace Union; NAJDA; National Lawyer's Guild; Palestine Aid Society; Palestine Solidarity Committee; Palestine Human Rights Committee; Presbyterian Church (USA); and, from Canada, Jews for a Just Peace and the Near East Cultural and Educational Foundation of Canada.
Amnesty Calls for Investigation of Shooting
Amnesty International (AI) has called for an investigation into the killing Feb. 27 of Atwan Lufti Omar Hirzallah by Israeli soldiers. AI said it had evidence that the 26-year-old Palestinian was executed at "almost point blank range" after being stopped by an Israeli patrol.
Israeli military authorities had said that Hirzallah and four other youths were throwing rocks at the soldiers. The youths testified that they were returning from a friend's home and were not involved in rock throwing. An Israeli lawyer for the youths has filed suit against Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Judge Advocate General Amnon Strashnow, claiming that the incident was premeditated murder and calling for an investigation.
Sally Clark Nyham is the Book Club Editor for the American Educational Trust.
