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San Francisco Examiner · 10 February 1988

CP-1988-046

U.S. report alleges Israeli repression in occupied areas

By Walter Friedenberg, Scripps Howard News Service

U.S. report alleges Israeli repression in occupied areas — San Francisco Examiner, 10 February 1988
San Francisco Examiner · 10 February 1988

Transcribed from the clipping

“WASHINGTON — The State Department’s annual global human-rights report says Israeli Jews enjoy democratic rights, but that the Israeli government subjects Palestinians in the occupied territories to repression, arbitrary detention and lethal force by the army… The annual report, titled ‘Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1987,’ covers 170 countries — all but the United States… Israel is described as a model parliamentary democracy with free elections, an independent judiciary and elected legislature that may limit the government and bring it down by a vote of no confidence. But Israel’s military administration in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, captured in the 1967 Middle East war, comes in for sharp criticism. Under the category of ‘political killing,’ the report lists 47 Palestinians killed last year and 300 wounded by the Israeli army or other security forces, the majority by the use of ‘lethal force’ against demonstrators… Palestinians are subject to pre-occupation Jordanian law as amended by Israeli military regulations, while Jewish settlers are subject to Israeli law and administration. This ‘dual system’ means Palestinians are ‘usually treated less favorably’ than Jewish settlers on a broad range of issues, including due process, freedom of movement, land use and social services. While Hebrew-language newspapers submit only military security articles to censors, the Arabic press must submit all items for censorship. Several Arabic papers and news services were closed for six months to two years. Nine Palestinians were deported in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention governing occupied territories. More than 120 Palestinians were detained as long as six months without charges.”

Photograph caption

ISRAELI POLICEMAN ORDERS ARAB AWAY FROM REFUGEE CAMP — The man was attempting to visit his family in a West Bank camp

Context added by this archive

In February 1988 the United States government published a finding that the territories ran on a dual system under which Palestinians were usually treated less favorably than settlers in due process, movement, land and social services. In December 1988 an American columnist wrote that the resolution calling Zionism racism was integral to the United Nations’ enterprise of delegitimizing Israel, and the Republican platform promised to cut American support for the United Nations until it was repealed. Same year, same government, two documents that never meet.

Cite this item

"U.S. report alleges Israeli repression in occupied areas," San Francisco Examiner, 10 February 1988. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1988-046. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1988-046

Elsewhere in the archive

This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American and Anglophone newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1812 to 2022. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.

The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the wire service that supplied the copy. It is reproduced here for research, criticism and commentary.

Something wrong here, or something you know about this clipping? The archive is still being built and corrections are wanted: maria@rozumstudio.com, quoting CP-1988-046.

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