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52-53 ICJ Newsl. 1 (1993)

handle is hein.icj/icjnews0052 and id is 1 raw text is: No 5 -53 p, 1 199 ICJ Condemns Deportation of Palestinians T he I.C.J. wrote to the UN Security Council expressing its alarm over the Israeli decision to deport 417 Pales- tinians from the West Bank and Gaza on 18 December 1992. While deploring the 12 December incident of kidnap- ping and eventual killing of an Israeli soldier by Hamas, the ICJ asserted that the Israeli response to such an act should be consistent with the provi- sions of international law. On 16 December 1992, the Israeli Cabinet took the unprecedented step of ordering the summary deportation of 417 Palestinians from the Occupied Territories. The Cabinet also amended the Israeli legal provisions permitting deportation. The text of the amend- ments has not been published. The Is- raeli Radio announced, however, that the amendments effectively abolished the existing mechanisms for the legal review of deportation orders. Israel refused to release the names of the deportees. It announced how- ever that they belong to Hamas and al- Jihad al-Islami organizations. There is no claim that al-Jihad al-Islami partici- pated in the killing of the Israeli sol- dier. Upon the announcement of the de- portation orders, Israeli and Palestin- ian Human Rights activists, including the ICJ affiliate The Gaza Center for Rights and Law, petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court for a restraining order. The Court granted the stay order and convened to discuss the appeal. After 15 hours of deliberations, it confirmed the legitimacy of the deportations. The ICJ deeply regretted such a ruling which clearly violated the principles of international law. Israel bases its deportation orders on article 108 of the 1945 Defence (Emergency) Regulations enacted dur- ing the British Mandate over Palestine. The British government asserts that these Regulations were revoked by the British Mandatory authorities on the eve of their May 1948 departure from Palestine. Despite these assertions, Is- rael argues that they remain as an in- tegral part of the applicable law in the West Bank and Gaza. International law subjects the Is- raeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1969 to the provisions of the 1949 IV Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilians in Times of War. According to this Convention, de- portation is not only illegal, but also Nabil Ismail (AFP) constitutes a Grave Breach of the Con- vention. Grave Breaches of the Geneva Convention are War Crimes. The provi- sions of this Convention therefore su- persede the 1945 Defence (Emergency) Regulations which were enacted be- fore its coming into force. The ICJ noted that the current Is- raeli wave of deportations take place Continued on Page 2 Jurists Call for an International Penal Court D uring the discussion on the hu- man rights situation in the former Yugoslavia, the International Commis- sion of Jurists (ICJ) intervened before the United Nations Commission on Hu- man Rights stressing the need to es- tablish an International Penal Court. Recognizing the dire necessity to prosecute those responsible for mass and flagrant human rights violations in the former Yugoslavia, the ICJ wel- comed Security Council Resolution 780, which created an impartial panel of experts to investigate the crimes be- ing committed in the conflict. The Commission on Human Rights, the ICJ said, should adopt a resolution articu- lating the practical steps to be taken to establish this ad hoc panel and to ex- tend its mandate to include not only the responsibility to investigate, but also the power to prosecute. The ICJ noted, however, that this ad hoc panel, while relevant in the case of the former Yugoslavia, does not answer the global demand for an Inter- national Penal Court. The ICJ asserted that since international human rights law was created to protect all *equally, it must be respected and defended uni- Continued on Page 2

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