Israeli Court Upholds Arab Deportations

NICOSIA, Cyprus — Israel’s Supreme Court today unanimously upheld the deportation of more than 400 Palestinians expelled from the occupied territories more than six weeks ago.

The key decision, announced moments after the high court convened to reconsider the expulsions this morning, appeared to complicate efforts to reach a compromise solution that could avert U.N. Security Council action against Israel.

In attempting to soften its verdict, the court ruled that the deportees, who have been living in tents in Israel’s self-declared security zone in Southern Lebanon, will be permitted to return to Israel to appeal their cases in person. Previously, they had to use lawyers to argue in their behalf.

The high court appeared to be the deportees’ last hope for legal recourse to return to their homes.

Palestinian reaction to the verdict was swift. In a hastily prepared statement, Palestine Liberation Organization spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi declared today’s ruling “a clear distortion in the Israeli legal system.”

“However,” she added, “the Palestinian people did not expect justice.”

The PLO submitted a proposal to the United Nations on Tuesday calling for limited trade sanctions against Israel over the deportee issue, asserting that the Security Council is applying double standards in taking such measures against Iraq and Yugoslavia but ignoring human-rights violations by Israel.

On Wednesday, Israel had offered to give the deportees cellular telephones so they could consult their lawyers on their appeals. The Palestinians have been stuck in a no-man’s land between Lebanese army front lines and Israel’s self-proclaimed “security zone” since their deportation.

The phone proposal was part of the government’s response to a court query about how Israel intended to respect the exiled men’s right to legal counsel, said a Defense Ministry spokesman.

In defending the deportations, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin has insisted that the Palestinians expelled by his government were members of the radical, fundamentalist organization Hamas, and his government asserted they represented a clear threat to the security of the Israeli state.