A Warning on Expulsions

The United States says publicly that it is “shocked” by Israel’s intention to expel 25 more Palestinians from the occupied territories--an action that would bring to 57 the number of Arabs who have been forced into exile so far this year for alleged security offenses. Privately, via a strong diplomatic protest that was quickly leaked to the Israeli press, the American government warns in blunt language that if the expulsions take place “damage to our bilateral relations will occur.” Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has rejected that protest. But if Jerusalem means to stand firm, so does Washington. Israel has apparently been told not to expect U.S. support if its expulsion policy is again brought before the U.N. Security Council for condemnation.

What disturbs the United States, as State Department spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley put it, is the widening use of expulsions as a substitute for proper legal procedures. In the view of the American and most other governments, the expulsions violate the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 concerning the forced transfer of persons from occupied territory. Israel says that the Geneva Convention isn’t applicable in this case, and that in any event its law--based on a measure first adopted during the British Mandate over Palestine--takes precedence over international law. Those with long memories in Israel and indeed in this country might remember that Britain’s use of this law against Jewish nationalists during the mandatory period also provoked an outcry.

Of greatest concern to the United States is that expulsion bypasses the routine due-process procedures of formal charge and trial. Instead, wholly on the basis of a suspicion or an accusation that is not required to be proved in a court of law, people are taken from their homes and families and pushed across the border into Lebanon or Jordan. This policy is not one with which the United States feels comfortable politically, legally or morally.

Israel’s increasing recourse to expulsion is not aimed solely at inflicting individual punishment. Rather, it seems to be part of an effort to try to separate the real or suspected intellectual and political leaders of Palestinian nationalism in the occupied territories from the activists in the streets. This tactic pretty clearly won’t cause the problem that Israel faces to go away. Instead, it will almost certainly add to tensions even as it further weakens relations with the United States. The straightforward warning from Washington ought to be taken seriously. The United States refuses to associate itself or to be identified with insupportable Israeli actions. Thoughtful Israelis know that their country doesn’t have such a surplus of powerful allies that it can afford to ignore this concern.