Security Council condemns 'appalling' Hebron massacre - UN body acts to protect Palestinians after the fatal attack on mosque worshippers in Hebron on the West Bank - includes related article on work of UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East after Israel-PLO peace accord

UN Chronicle, June, 1994

Expressing shock over the "appalling massacre" of Palestinian worshippers in the Mosque of Ibrahim in the West Bank town of Hebron on 25 February during the holy month of Ramadan, the Security Council on 18 March called for measures to "guarantee the safety and protection of the Palestinian civilians throughout the occupied territory", including a "temporary international or foreign presence" within the context of the ongoing peace process.

In adopting resolution 904 (1994), the Council also strongly condemned "the massacre in Hebron and its aftermath which took the lives of more than 50 Palestinian civilians and injured several hundred others". It called upon Israel to continue to take measures, including confiscation of arms, with the aim of "preventing illegal acts of violence by Israeli settlers".

Implementation without delay of the Declaration of Principles on Palestinian Interim Self-Government Arrangements--signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on 13 September 1993 in Washington, D.C.--was also urged. The Council asked the United States and the Russian Federation--as co-sponsors of the peace process--to continue their efforts to invigorate it.

The resolution as a whole was adopted without a vote following a paragraph-by-paragraph vote, in which the United States abstained on two preambular paragraphs. Specifically, it opposed the description of the territories occupied during the 1967 war as "occupied Palestinian territory", and the particular reference to Jerusalem, the status of which was to be addressed at a later stage of the peace process.

M. Nasser Al-Kidwa, Observer for Palestine, said that every single Council resolution on the Palestinian issue had contained language referring to Jerusalem as part of the occupied territories. Any attempt to change that language carried the danger of a change in policy. Arab East Jerusalem was an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territory, he said. All Israeli measures aimed at changing Jerusalem's status were legally null and void, he declared.

Gad Yaacobi of Israel said his country shared the Council's support for implementation of the Declaration of Principles. However, reference to Jerusalem was incompatible with that Declaration, by which both parties agreed to address the issue not later than the beginning of the third year of the interim period. It called upon the Palestinians, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon to return to the peace talks.

|Despicable act'

The shootings at the Hebron mosque were condemned "in the strongest possible terms" by Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali on 25 February. Having learned of that "despicable act of violence" with "revulsion and outrage", he was also deeply concerned by the unrest generated throughout the occupied territories in reaction to that incident, and its possible impact on negotiations between the PLO and Israel.

The Secretary-General appealed for calm on the part of all concerned, so that the implementation of the Declaration of Principles might proceed without delay. He also called on the Israeli authorities to take "all necessary measures to ensure that settlers refrain from such criminal acts".

"This murderous violence must be unreservedly condemned", General Assembly President Samuel R. Insanally of Guyana stated on 25 February. Everything must be done to prevent or punish those acts, as well as to "calm the unrest which such crimes can only provoke".

The massacre of innocent Palestinian worshippers and the consequent "outbreak of violence leading to loss of lives in the Palestinian occupied territories" were also deplored by the Commission on Human Rights.

Also on 25 February, Commissioner-General Ilter Turkmen of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said he was "stunned and saddened at this unprecedented loss of life. The magnitude of the casualties and the circumstances of the attack are truly appalling." UNRWA had immediately mobilized its resources to assist the affected Palestinians, Mr. Turkmen added. It had directed its ambulances to the Hebron area and sent blood and other medical supplies to the hospitals in Hebron and elsewhere. The Agency had also helped to redeploy medical staff to assist Hebron hospitals where victims were treated.

Council debate

Widespread support for an international presence to protect Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories was expressed in the Security Council, as it discussed (28 February-2 March) the situation in the occupied Arab territories.

The dangerous situation caused by the Hebron massacre called for urgent and decisive measures by the Council and Israel to "save the peace process", Palestine told the Council on 28 February. Israel should adopt "real changes in policy" regarding the settlements and settlers in the occupied territories, it said. Settlers must be disarmed and the settlements dismantled.

Israel condemned the "criminal murder" of Palestinian worshippers which, it said, had been committed by a single individual. Extremists on both sides believed they could derail the peace process, but they were wrong, it stressed. A number of steps--including establishing a Commission of Inquiry, and measures against radical elements in the territories--had been taken in response to the massacre. Israel called upon the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table and "put an end to 100 years of war and terrorism".