Episcopal Press and News

Furor Over Palestinian Deportees Fuels Call for Renewed Middle East Peace Talks

Episcopal News Service. January 15, 1993 [93002]

Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning is urging an immediate resumption of Middle East peace talks following the December 17 deportation of 415 Palestinians by Israel.

"The collective punishment meted out to 415 Palestinians is an affront to decency, and the use of deportation as that punishment is a violation of their human rights," said Browning in a pre-Christmas statement.

The deportees are Muslim fundamentalists and members of Hamas, an organization with links to Iran that opposes peace talks between Israel, the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Israel's Arab neighbors. Following accusations by Israel that the men were involved in extremist activity, they were transported to an encampment on a barren, rocky hillside at the southern tip of the Bekka Valley in Lebanon.

International human rights agencies immediately condemned Israel for the deportations and asserted that the incident was evidence of the need to resolve the long-standing disputes among all parties in the Middle East. The United Nations adopted Resolution 799 calling on Israel to repatriate the deportees.

"The long-standing differences between the Israeli and Palestinian people can only be settled at the peace table, and the use of deportation as a means of punishment contravenes all that has been achieved in the...negotiating sessions," Browning added. "I urge the government of the State of Israel to live within the principles of the Fourth Geneva Convention and to allow the deportees to be returned to their homes and families."