8 Palestinians Deported in Act of Israeli Reprisal

The Israeli government deported eight Palestinians from the occupied territories Monday and served a dozen more with expulsion orders as it continued a series of reprisals after the controversial killing of a Jewish teen-ager last week in a West Bank Arab village.

A West Bank Jewish settlement leader branded the government response “too little, too late” after 15-year-old Tirza Porat died and 15 companions, most of them teen-agers, were injured in a violent clash at the village of Beita. Two Palestinians were shot to death and two others were wounded in the incident, in circumstances that army investigators say are still not completely clear.

Other critics charged that the expulsions were unjustified and were evidence that the authorities either cannot or will not stand up to right-wing militants in the settlement movement.

“If you look at what has been going on,” a Western diplomat said, “you see that proportionality and accountability are no longer operative terms.”

In Washington, the United States said it “strongly opposed” the deportations, calling them “counterproductive” and saying the measure would only “further inflame passions.”

The deportations were carried out as two more Palestinians were shot to death by army gunfire in the West Bank village of Kafr Rai, northeast of Tulkarm. The deaths brought to at least 137 the unofficial toll of Arab dead in more than four months of unrest in the territories. In addition to the teen-age girl, one other Israeli, a soldier, has been killed.

Six of those served with expulsion orders Monday are from Beita. The army said they were among those “who took an active part in the attack” on the Jewish teen-agers and two armed guards hiking with them.

Foreign Minister Shimon Peres conceded during a tour of Beersheba that the timing of the expulsions was influenced by the girl’s death. He said, “It was clear that it would happen sooner or later,” adding that experience has proved that expulsions are “one of the most effective deterrents that exist.”

The eight who were deported were transferred by army helicopter to the edge of Israel’s self-proclaimed “security zone” in southern Lebanon. They had been in custody since at least December and had previously either exhausted or rejected their limited rights of appeal.

Three were arrested before the Palestinian uprising began, while five others were among nine residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip who were served with deportation orders last January. Four were deported over repeated American and U.N. Security Council appeals, but the authorities delayed expelling the others in part because of concern that the move would stir more protests.

Notice of Expulsion

The eight were dropped off at a pass near Hasbayya, handed $50 “deportation allowances” and read the official notice of expulsion in a 10-minute ceremony. Among them were four men considered members of the radical Muslim religious leadership in the Gaza Strip, where the uprising began Dec. 9.

All eight, the army said, were “leading activists in terror organizations involved in incitement and subversive activities. . . . Most of them have served long jail sentences in the past for terrorist activity and incitement.”

The United States, the International Red Cross and other organizations oppose administrative expulsion of Palestinians from the occupied territories as a violation of due process and of the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention.

The Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a signatory, prohibits the expulsion “for any reason whatsoever” of civilians from an area under military occupation.

Israel’s Interpretation

Israel contends that the Geneva Convention was meant to outlaw mass deportations for the purpose of forced labor, torture or extermination and that it does not address the expulsion of individuals or small groups for the purpose of ensuring public order and security.

The government has deported at least 40 Palestinians since renewing the practice in August, 1985, after a long hiatus. More than 1,000 have been expelled since 1968, the year after Israel took the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but most of those were in the first decade of the occupation.

Soon after the current unrest began, informed sources said the government was considering a proposal to expel up to 20 Palestinians. That it scaled back the number was seen in part as a response to open U.S. criticism.

Since then, however, the violence has become much worse, and even though the army has used progressively tougher tactics against demonstrators, Israel’s political right wing has criticized the military for not being tough enough.

Two Israelis Also Dead

At the time of the earlier expulsions in January, 35 Palestinians had been killed in the unrest, with no Israeli fatalities. Since then, more than 100 more have been killed, including two Israelis.

The death of Tirza Porat, the daughter of one of the first West Bank Jewish settlers, has particularly inflamed rightist Israeli opinion, and the army has responded with unprecedented harshness although it has not yet completed its investigation of the incident.

Rabin and senior army officers met for two hours Monday with Jewish settlement leaders in the wake of charges the day before that the military was trying to shift the blame for the Beita incident away from the Arabs.

Late last week, the army destroyed 14 houses in Beita said to have been inhabited by leaders of the attack. On Sunday, even as the Israeli High Court issued a temporary injunction against more such demolitions, troops uprooted hundreds of olive trees on more than seven acres of land near the village.

On Monday, the High Court, acting on a complaint by the Assn. for Civil Rights in Israel, which charged that the army had acted “hastily and drastically,” said the military must give at least 48 hours’ notice before destroying any more Beita homes. The owners of the houses already destroyed were given as little as 30 minutes notice.

In an interview on Israel Radio, the deputy army chief of staff, Gen. Ehud Barak, defended the army action, although he conceded that the home of one man who turned out to be innocent was destroyed by mistake.

“Partial results (of the army investigation) were clear enough with regard to some of the participants in the attack on the group of youngsters, and the houses of some of these people have been demolished,” Barak said. He said the man whose house was wrongly destroyed will be compensated.

Bullet Fired From M-16

Tirza was first reported to have been stoned to death by angry Beita villagers, but officials said later that a pathological examination proved she had died from a gunshot wound in the head. The fatal bullet was fired from the M-16 rifle carried by one of the two Israeli guards on the outing, a preliminary army report said.

On the basis of accounts given by the surviving youngsters, settlers dispute the army finding and charge that the girl as well as three of the Palestinians were shot by an unidentified Arab gunman. A final army report on the incident is expected later this week.

The six Beita villagers and six other West Bank and Gaza residents who were served with deportation orders Monday may appeal to a military judge and then to the Israel High Court.