Attacks on Israeli children – Letter from Israel

Letter dated 15 March 1982 from the Permanent Representative of

Israel to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

I wish to draw your urgent attention to yet another attempt by the terrorist PLO to perpetrate an atrocity against Israel children.

On 11 March 1982, at 1130 hours (local time), a time bomb exploded outside a crowded nursery school in the Jesse Cohen neighbourhood in the city of Holon. The device contained nails which scattered as lethal projectiles in every direction. Mercifully, no one was injured in the blast since the children were inside the building at the time of the explosion.

Packing nails into an explosive device is a typical PLO tactic. The PLO used this method, for example, when a kiosk was blown up in the Gala residential neighbourhood in Jerusalem on 26 November 1981 (see my letter of 30 November 1981 (A/36/736-S/14776)), and when a car was boobytrapped but the explosive charge in it was providentially discovered before it detonated in the Ramle marketplace on 22 September 1981 (see my letter of 2 October 1981 (A/36/574-5/14714)).

It will be recalled that Israel children, as well as Jewish children outside of Israel, have been one of the prime targets of the terrorist PLO over the years. Thus, for instance, on 7 April 1980, the PLO seized at Kibbutz Misgav Am two nursery buildings where infants and toddlers were asleep, together with some of their mothers. As a result of that PLO outrage, an infant, a civilian and a soldier of the Israel Defence Forces were killed and 4 small children and 11 soldiers were wounded (see my letters of 7 April 1980 and 9 April 1980 (S/13876 and A/35/171) respectively).

Other PLO outrages against Israel children include an attack on 28 November 1980 on a school bus full of children returning from a birthday party (see my letter A/35/669-S/14278 of 1 December 1980); the placing of two explosive devices in a children's playground in Bat Yam on 15 January 1980 (see my letter A/35/78-S/13767 of 25 January 1980); the murder of two little girls, aged four and three (and of their father) in Nahariyah on 22 April 1979 (see my letter A/34/207-5/13264 of 22 April 1979); the murder of 21 schoolchildren in Ma'alot on 15 day 1974 (see the letter by the Permanent Representative of Israel to the President of the Security Council (S/11290) of 18 May 1974); the murder of 8 children, together with 10 adults, in Kiryat Shmonah on 11 April 1974 (see the letter of the Permanent Representative of Israel of 11 April 1974 (A/9515-S/11259)); and the murder of 7 schoolchildren and 2 teachers on 22 May 1970 (see the letter of the Permanent Representative of Israel to the President of the Security Council (S/9810) of 22 May 1970).

PLO barbarism aimed at children is not confined to the children of Israel. Jewish children outside Israel are equally the target of the PLO's criminal designs. Thus, for instance, on 27 July 1980, the PLO attacked, in Antwerp, Belgium, a group of 40 Jewish schoolchildren on a Sunday outing, murdering one of them and injuring 17 children and adults (see my letter A/35/357-S/14081 of 29 July 1980).

All these acts of PLO terror serve as further reminders, if such are still needed, of the true nature and objectives of that murder organisation, which is a group of international criminals bent on the murder of civilians in general and of children in particular. As is well known, at the united Nations that murder Organization masquerades under the guise of a "national liberation movement”. This posturing is, of course, facilitated by the fact that the terrorist PLO has been granted by the United Nations irregular rights in clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations and of the rules of procedure of various organs.

I have the honour to request that this letter be circulated as an official document of the General Assembly, under item 34 of the preliminary list, and of the Security Council.

(Signed) Yehuda Z. BLUM

Ambassador

Permanent Representative of Israel

to the United Nations

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* A/37/50.