Middle East Trials and Errors

(3 of 4)
The most serious threat hanging over the Palestinian detainees is deportation, another legacy of British-mandate law. Since 1967 Israel has used that device to get rid of some 2,500 undesirable Palestinians, expelling them to neighboring states with large Palestinian populations. The practice is widely viewed as a violation of the fourth Geneva Convention, which establishes rules for the conduct of affairs in territory seized during wartime. Israel claims to abide by humanitarian provisions of the convention, but its courts have held that local laws supersede the international code on this matter. Said Rabin: "Deportation is part of our system." Late last week, authorities releashed more than 100 Palestinian detainees without trial and simultaneously announced that Israel had issued deportation orders against nine residents from the occupied territories. All nine were described as "leading activists and organizers" during the riots.

Deportation is applauded by almost no one outside Israel. Jordan, which has granted citizenship to most West Bank Palestinians and has accepted some deportees in the past, announced last week that it would not permit their entry. Egypt, the only Arab state that recognizes Israel, foreclosed any possibility of receiving newly deported Gazans. Faced with those refusals, Israel would probably send its Palestinians to Lebanon.

The Reagan Administration deplored the possibility of deportations, continuing the public scolding that Washington has been giving Jerusalem since the riots began. U.S. Ambassador Thomas Pickering called on Rabin to warn him that Washington would be highly critical if Israel went ahead with the expulsions, which the U.S. views as illegal and fears would increase tensions in the occupied territories. But Israel refused to rule out a disciplinary measure that it regards as its single most effective weapon against Palestinian subversion. Said Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir: "We appreciate the American advice, but we will act as we judge best."

Israeli leaders also rejected criticism that the military, well trained in warfare, was ill prepared to handle riots and too quick to use lethal countermeasures. Rabin continued to insist that "whenever there is clear-cut danger to our troops, they have orders to use live ammunition." Army officials, however, announced that future draftees will be trained in crowd control and supplied with nonlethal riot gear, including rubber bullets, tear- gas grenades and defensive shields.

That decision underscored how sensitive Israel has become to the image it projects abroad, especially in the U.S. Israeli political figures complained bitterly that TV coverage in particular was distorted. Said former Israeli Ambassador to Washington Moshe Arens: "One cannot see on television that the soldiers would ((have been)) in great danger if they did not defend themselves." After seeing footage of the first few encounters, army officials ordered that patrol units in the territories be accompanied by foreign- language speakers who could deal with the press.