Put Pressure on Israel, U.N. Chief Urges : Calls for Recognition of Civilian Rights in Occupied Terrorities

Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar today urged the international community to pressure Israel to respect the Fourth Geneva Convention, which is aimed at protecting the rights of civilians in areas of military occupation.

In a report to the Security Council, Perez de Cuellar also appealed to Israel and to Palestinians in the occupied territories to “exercise restraint” in the violent confrontations that have killed at least 36 Palestinians.

He said his principal recommendation toward ending the Palestinian unrest and the forced Israeli military intervention is that the “international community should make a concerted effort to persuade Israel to accept the de jure applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention to the occupied territories and to correct its practices in order to comply fully with the convention.”

The Fourth Geneva Convention is intended to protect civilians from abuse from occupation forces and grants them the rights of freedom of speech and religion.

Israel has rejected the application of that provision because it does not consider itself an occupation force in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which it has occupied since 1967.

Security Council Acts

The 16-page report was requested by the Security Council, which on Dec. 22 approved Resolution 605 to “strongly deplore” Israel’s policies and practices in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Perez de Cuellar sent Undersecretary General Marrack Goulding, in charge of U.N. peacekeeping forces, to Israel earlier this month for a personal view of the disturbances. Goulding returned Monday from his 10-day visit in the area.

The U.N. chief said Israel’s measures to quell the rock-throwing Palestinians and economic strife in some parts of the occupied territories “will neither remove the cause of the tragic events which prompted Security Council Resolution 605 nor bring peace to the region.”

Israel has rejected Resolution 605 and two others that called for a halt to deportations of Palestinians from the occupied territories.

Israeli and U.S. spokesmen declined comment, saying their governments are still studying the report.

In Washington, it was announced today that President Reagan has invited Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir for an official visit on March 16 to discuss the strife in the occupied territories and the Middle East peace process. The talks with Shamir will follow a state visit next Thursday by Egyptian Prime Minister Hosni Mubarak.

Muslims in Demonstration

In Jerusalem today, Muslim demonstrators chanted slogans and brandished an outlawed Palestinian flag outside Islam’s third holiest site, but there was no repetition of last week’s two-hour battle with Israeli police. Israeli security forces mounted a massive show of force around Temple Mount in Jerusalem to prevent rioting outside the Al-Aqsa mosque and made four arrests.

In the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, scattered protests were reported near mosques after today’s prayers.