Massachusetts Organization Targets Israeli Expulsion Policy

By Mary Barrett

A vigorous grassroots reaction to the new wave of Israeli expulsions and threatened expulsions has been set in motion largely through the initiative of a Massachusetts-based organization, the Ad Hoc Committee to End Israeli Expulsion of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories.

More than 2,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homeland between 1967 and 1987. It was the handing down of 27 additional expulsion orders during August 1988, however, that finally triggered the formation of the Ad Hoc Committee in September by a dozen nationally prominent professors. The group collected 3,800 signatures in a span of two weeks in October. By mid-December, the Israeli government had received copies of the petition demanding that the orders be rescinded and that "Palestinians involved either be charged and brought to public trial with full due process guaranteed, or be released and allowed the freedom to live and work in their country of birth."

Strongly worded letters accompanying the petitions informed then Secretary of State George Shultz and Vice President George Bush that the signatories are "Americans from all walks of life and religious and ethnic backgrounds" who "will not remain mute ... while our government condones such actions."

Committee literature points out that "Article 6 of the charter of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg defined deportation as a 'war crime' and as a 'crime against humanity."'

With the emergence of an Israeli political party whose sole plank is the "total expulsion of all Palestinians from the occupied territories," many here see piecemeal expulsions as setting the stage for a calamity of major proportions.

Further condemned by Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, this internationally outlawed crime against humanity hit close to home for Dr. Nweer Aruri, professor of political science at the University of South Eastern Massachusetts.

His cousin, Tyseer Aruri, was arrested Aug. 8 in the West Bank town of Ramallah and held without charge. Nineteen days later Tyseer, a professor of physics at Birzeit University, was named, along with 24 others, to be expelled.

Married, and the father of three small children, 43-year-old Tyseer Aruri had already spent four years in prison between 1974 and 1978 without charge. He was adopted by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience and his release was achieved only after a campaign in the United States by academic organizations and prominent scientists.

Tyseer's re-arrest and positioning for expulsion at this time is of particular interest in view of his participation in a unique experiment in peaceful coexistence. Founded in 1985, the Israeli and Palestinian Writers, Artists, and Academics Committee Against the Occupation and for Peace and the Freedom to Create is composed of some 25 Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs and Arabs from the occupied territories who meet regularly to partake in cultural and intellectual exchange.

In June 1988 they met in Jerusalem to sign a "peace treaty" between Israel and Palestine. It listed six principles involving mutual recognition, the creation of an independent Palestinian state in territories occupied by Israel in 1967, mutual non-aggression accords, an open and binational capital in Jerusalem, negotiations concerning refugees, an international conference including Israel and the PLO, and the cessation of all acts of violence upon the commencement of negotiations.

Tyseer Aruri's association with this document may have been one of the reasons behind the order for his expulsion. The document was referred to in the denial of appeal by the Military Advisory Committee, the body which responds to the first stages of appeal ostensibly available in the Israeli military review system.

Despite the work of the Ad Hoc Committee to End Israeli Expulsions; a public denunciation of the policy issued by the United States on Aug. 24, 1988, a statement of disapproval by the European Economic Community, and personal letters of protest by several US senators to Israeli Minister of Defense Yitzhak Rabin, 13 of the 27 men were forcibly removed to Lebanon Jan. 1. Recent efforts by the committee, which have produced protests by the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Physicians for Human Rights, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, as well as a letter from former President Jimmy Carter to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, have apparently slowed down the process, keeping the other 14, including Tyseer, still in prison at the time of this writing.

"Wansee Plan" Recalled

Many people see the policy of expulsion as merely a gearing up for mass population transfer. This tactic, banned by the 47th Geneva Convention, is currently the subject of much discussion in Israel. Translations of an excerpt of the debate, which appeared in the Israeli newspaper Haamlz prior to the Israeli national election in 1988, have been published by Professor Israel Shahak (and are available through the American Educational Trust, P.O. Box 53062, Washington, DC 20009). Referring only to the occupied territories, but occasionally to Israel as well, each writer presents his own suggestions as how best to achieve the goal of removing all Palestinians. While some note that war is the best context for driving them out, another simply quotes from the "Wansee Plan" which the Nazis prepared for the holocaust: "The danger lies in the minority living in our midst. Whoever ignores this is an ostrich. They multiply faster than us, they clog up the universities, they are plotting against us, taking over the land, the capital ... of their allies is pouring into the country and destroying it, they make eyes at our daughters and they will never come to terms with their inferior status. For this reason I recommend that we transfer them from here..."

With the emergence of an Israeli political party whose sole plank, in the words of Prof. Shahak, is "the total expulsion of all Palestinians from the occupied territories," many here see piecemeal expulsions as setting the stage for a calamity of major proportions, one that must be addressed vigorously and immediately.

Those interested in more information about the Ad Hoc Committee to End Israeli Expulsion of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories can write to P.O. Box 102, Waverly Square, MA 02179.

Mary Barrett is a free-lance writer based in Boston. She is currently completing a book entitled View From Below: Palestinian Stories of Occupation and Rebellion.