Seventh emergency special session
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
PROVISIONAL VERBATIM RECORD OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH MEETING
Held at Headquarters, New York,
on Monday, 16 August 1982, at 3 p.m.
President: Mr. KITTANI (Iraq)
– Resumption of the seventh emergency special session
– Question of Palestine [5] (continued)
xxxxxThe meeting was called to order at 3.40 p.m.
RESUMPTION OF THE SEVENTH EMERGENCY SPECIAL SESSION
xxxxxThe PRESIDENT: I declare the seventh emergency special session of the General Assembly resumed, pursuant to paragraph 10 of its resolution ES-7/5 of 26 June 1982, whereby the Assembly decided "to adjourn the seventh emergency special session temporarily and to authorize the President of the latest regular session of the General Assembly to resume its meetings upon request from Member States".
AGENDA ITEM 5 (continued)
QUESTION OF PALESTINE
xxxxxThe PRESIDENT: I should like to make an announcement concerning the organization of the Assembly's work. In view of-the urgency of the question before the present session and in order to enable the Assembly to take a decision as soon as possible, it is my intention to close the list of speakers tomorrow, Tuesday 17 August, at noon. If there is no objection, and I hear none, it is so decided.
xxxxxIt was so decided.
xxxxxThe PRESIDENT: The first speaker in the debate is the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
xxxxxMr. SARRE (Senegal, Chairman, Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People) (interpretation from French): For the third time, in the course of this year, we have convened an emergency special session of the General Assembly to consider the question of Palestine. To these meetings can be added those held by the Security Council on the same question. The reasons for this exercise are well-known. They are as follows:
xxxxxFirstly, the situation in the Middle East is deteriorating from day to day and has, in fact, reached a point of no return, which seriously endangers international peace and security.
xxxxxSecondly, faithful to the virtues of dialogue and negotiation, the United Nations, despite obstacles and drawbacks, is making every effort it can to avert this evil.
xxxxxThirdly, the Palestinian phenomenon, which is the key to the whole question of the Middle East, should be seen in its real and objective context in any process designed to find a just, comprehensive and lasting solution to the Middle East crisis.
xxxxxFourthly, one party directly concerned in this particular case, Israel, which owes its very existence to the United Nations, refuses to heed the resolutions and decisions of this world body and, even more seriously, refuses to implement the principles and objectives of our Charter, to which it freely subscribed in exercise of its sovereignty.
xxxxxFifthly, a State Member of our Organization has had its sovereignty and independence jeopardized.
xxxxxThese are some of the reasons, among many, which have prompted us to resume the seventh emergency special session.
xxxxxFor more than two months now the international community, as a whole, has focused its attention on Lebanon, where one of the most lethal wars of aggression the Middle East has ever known throughout its history is going on. The capital of a member nation of the United Nations has been besieged by the armed forces of a neighbor State.
xxxxxThis premeditated operation, which has already resulted in thousands of Lebanese and Palestinian civilian victims, was planned well in advance, designed to bring about a final solution to the Palestinian problem. At the same time, acts of intimidation and terrorism towards the Palestinians on the West Bank of the Jordan and in the Gaza Strip are increasing, leaving the victims convinced that the only way, to survive is to submit to domination.
xxxxxThus the military operations conducted by Israel in Lebanon replicate the political war against the PLO, to which Michael Oren, the spokesman for the Israeli Occupation in the occupied territories, referred in The New York Times of 11 July. Israel, according to its logic, believes that the military destruction (If the PLO will make it possible for the authorities in Tel Aviv to impose on the inhabitants of the occupied territories a status of "autonomy" which would not conflict with their partially realized designs of annexation.
xxxxxAccording to this logic, which implies that the legitimate rights of the peoples of this region must be sacrificed to the security requirements of their country, the Israeli leaders continue to flout the fundamental principles contained in the Charter and to violate numerous resolutions of the United Nations which, however, presided over the creation of the State of Israel. The most recent and most flagrant example of this attitude was Israel's rejection of resolutions 508 (1982), 509 (1982), 512 (1982), 513 (1932) and 516 (1982) of the Security Council, and resolution ES-7/5 of the General Assembly, which all required Israel to put an end to the hostilities and to withdraw its forces behind the internationally recognized frontiers of Lebanon.
xxxxxThe diplomatic efforts which have been undertaken here and there have always been met by the same Israeli reaction. That is, an escalation of violence.
xxxxxIn its obsession to wear down Palestinian resistance, Israel has not even ruled out the option of economically throttling west Beirut, thus threatening approximately 500,000 people and condemning them to perish from hunger and sickness.
xxxxxThe tragedy of Lebanon speaks for itself. Today, more than ever before, the credibility of the United Nations is at stake. To fail to put an end to this tragedy would be tantamount to undermining once and for all the moral authority of this Organization, in which our collective hopes are vested for world of peace and justice.
xxxxxThis is particularly true since the Organization itself for some time now has been considering the real context in which this tragedy can and must end, that is, the withdrawal of Israel from all the occupied Arab and Palestinian territories and the restoration of the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people, including the creation of an independent State in its own homeland. In so doing, our Organization has simply drawn the lesson from history – nothing can be imposed on a people which refuses to submit to pressure.
xxxxxSpeaking in this context, I might cite the recommendations of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, which were adopted by the General Assembly in 1976 and reconfirmed frequently since then.
xxxxxThe haste with which Israel has been carrying out its plans has not succeeded, nor will it ever succeed, in changing reality? the Palestinian nation exists; it has been built on suffering and frustration and it has been hardened by years of struggle for freedom and dignity.
xxxxxIt is thus for this General Assembly today to be true to itself and to assume all the responsibilities conferred upon it by the Charter in order to induce Israel to heed the consensus of the international community.
xxxxxSenegal, for its part, while hailing the courage and determination with which the valiant Palestinian patriots continue to resist the repeated assaults of the Israeli aggressor, wishes to reaffirm its unfailing and constant support for the Palestinian cause and its unreserved support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the fraternal country of Lebanon. With respect to the events in that area, the Head of the Senegalese State, Mr. Abdou Diouf, stated the following on 31 July last:
xxxxxAt this particularly critical time in the struggle which is being waged by the Palestinian and Lebanese people for their independence and freedom, we continue to hope that the international community will prove equal to taking the courageous measures required to ensure that the Palestinian and Lebanese people will enjoy a future of peace and justice – even better, a future marked by co-operation, fraternity and dignity among all the States in the region. In so doing, we shall be acting in compliance with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and thus we shall have made a contribution which is our responsibility – to the advent of an era of peace and justice in the Middle East.
xxxxxThe PRESIDENT (interpretation from Arabic): I now call on the Observer of the Palestine Liberation Organization, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 3237 (XXIX) of 22 November 1974.
xxxxxMr. KADDOUMI (Palestine Liberation Organization) (interpretation from Arabic): The General Assembly is resuming this emergency special session once more for a brief period to reaffirm the grave concern of the international community with respect to the serious events which are unfolding in the Middle East in general and in Lebanon in particular. First and foremost, however, it has reconvened to discuss the question of Palestine, which is the essence of the conflict in the Middle East, and the way to enable the Palestinian people to exercise its inalienable rights in accordance with United Nations resolutions.
xxxxxWe are also meeting today at the request of the Group of Non-Aligned Countries, which has always considered the question of Palestine as one of its primary concerns and has always given the Palestinian people all possible support and assistance. We are sure that this session will lead to the adoption of resolutions designed to put an end to the Israeli aggression against the Lebanese and Palestinian people and against fraternal Syria. They should also be directed towards completing the action which was started a while ago to enable the Palestinian people to exercise its inalienable national rights. That is a necessary condition for eliminating the tension in the Middle East and it is the only course of action which can lead to the establishment of a just and lasting peace, to which we all aspire.
xxxxxThere is no other question which has been before the United Nations since 1947 and which today is still before the Organization without any solution. There is no doubt that the question of Palestine has constituted the major portion of the work of the United Nations throughout those long years, a fact which reflects, in the first place, its importance as well as the concern of the international community to find a just and lasting solution to this problem, which has been responsible for the outbreak of several wars and which has led to the misery of millions of people. This question also constitutes a serious hotbed of tension, which not only jeopardizes the peace and security of the Middle East but also the peace and security of the whole world.
xxxxxDespite all those years of persistent effort and human suffering, it seems that until now there has been no imminent end to the continuing violence and intimidation waged by Israel and its allies against the Palestinian people, actions which are continuing up to the present moment.
xxxxxThe question of Palestine, with all its political and human dimensions, constitutes a unique problem in our contemporary international community. Furthermore, it represents a challenge to our international Organization, thwarting its capacity to implement the purpose and principles for which it was established.
xxxxxWhen the question of Palestine was put before the United Nations in 1947 the Palestinian people had been subjected to an aggressive war and to armed intimidation perpetuated and led by those who were the protagonists in the massacres of Beirut, Begin and Shamir – the leaders of the Irgun Zwai Leumi and the Stern Gang – the protagonists in the Deir Yassin massacre, which led to the uprooting of the Palestinian people, its displacement from its homeland and the denial of its right to live in peace and security on its own land.
xxxxxIn its resolution 181 (II) the United Nations General Assembly recognized the right of the Palestinian people to independent statehood on its own national soil. Subsequently, in resolution 194 (III) the General Assembly recognized the right of that people to return to the land from which it had been forcibly displaced.
xxxxxIt is tragic that after more than 30 years the Zionist armed aggression against the Palestinian people is still continuing. However, it has acquired even more dangerous dimensions now that Israel has the latest, most sophisticated tools of destruction known to man, all provided by the United States of America. Moreover, the demand that the Palestinian people be allowed to exercise its right to a dignified life of freedom in its own independent State, on the territory of its ancient homeland, has yet to be fulfilled.
xxxxxThroughout this long period of years the Palestinian people has suffered all forms of oppression, displacement and intimidation, while the international community, as embodied in the United Nations has stood by helplessly, unable to enforce its will and its resolutions, all because of Israeli defiance of those resolutions and United States support for Israel.
xxxxxWhat is unfolding in Lebanon now is but a new chapter in this long tragedy. From the very beginning there has been an attempt to annihilate an entire people, the Palestinian people, to occupy its land and to eradicate the Palestinian identity, heritage and, culture. Thus, since last June Israel has been waging a flagrant war of aggression against Lebanon and against the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, mobilizing for that aggression more than 125,000 soldiers, thousands of tanks and hundreds of planes. As a result of this dirty war waged by Israel, several Lebanese cities – including Sidon and Nabatiyeh – as also more than 30 villages and 14 Palestinian refugee camps have been destroyed. In addition, more than 30,000 Lebanese and Palestinians have been killed or wounded, and Israel has displaced 1 million human beings. In addition to that, Israel has detained thousands of people in a camp which recalls the Nazi Auschwitz.
xxxxxAs for the valiant city of Beirut, it has been subjected to a continuous campaign, virtually unprecedented in history in its ugliness and dirtiness, since it has been subjected to complete destruction, and thousands of people, for the third straight month, have been subjected to an outright siege, during which they have been denied water supply, electricity and food, women and children have been deliberately murdered, while even schools, hospitals and nursing homes have been shelled.
xxxxxIt is tragic that all this is happening in full view of the entire World – a world which watches helplessly as a fascist Power, Israel, armed with the latest weapons, is flagrantly and unscrupulously attempting to annihilate both the Palestinian and the Lebanese peoples.
xxxxxAs is known, Israel has rejected all resolutions of the Security Council calling for a cease-fire, an end to the aggression, a lifting of the siege imposed on Beirut, deployment of international observers between the forces and full and unconditional Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
xxxxxWhat is worse, officially and through its Prime Minister, Israel is repeating its well-known position based on its disregard for the United Nations and. for United Nations resolutions. It is obvious, however, that Israel could not have waged this brutal war of aggression against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples in flagrant violation of United Nations decisions and in utter disregard for the international community and world public opinion if it had not been able to count on the full support of the United States, a permanent member of the Security Council – that organ which bears primary responsibility for the protection and preservation of international peace and security.
xxxxxIndeed, as I say, the United States has provided Israel with the most modern and sophisticated tools of destruction and murder: cluster bombs, phosphorous bombs, percussion bombs, fragmentation bombs. In addition, the United States has provided Israel with economic assistance and has consistently sought to paralyze the Security Council and prevent it from exercising its responsibility to put an end to Israel's acts of aggression and murder. Thus the United States has defied the will of all the members of the Security Council arid, indeed, all Members of the United Nations.
xxxxxIt is noteworthy that tile strategic co-operation accord between the United States and Israel paved the way for the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Indeed, the Israeli terrorist Defense Minister, Ariel Sharon, after a meeting in Washington with the United. States Secretary of State, Mr. Haig, on 26 May 1982, declared the following:
xxxxxSharon himself, 70 days after the beginning of the aggression on 15 August 1982, affirmed that Israel had achieved strategic gains for America through the war in Lebanon and the shelling of Beirut and had rendered the United States a major service like a presentation on a silver platter.
xxxxxIf this Israeli aggression is allowed to continue without a decisive response from the international community, it will constitute a dangerous precedent which will have negative repercussions for a long time to come and cast dark shadows over international relations as a whole. Hence, it is imperative to take immediate effective measures to put an end to the aggression and prevent a repetition through collective practical steps and the imposition of comprehensive sanctions against Israel, as well as to exercise pressure on the United States to cease its support and encouragement of the Israeli policy of aggression.
xxxxxIt is becoming clearer day by day, even in circles that are sympathetic to Israel and within Israeli society itself, that this war being waged by Israel in Lebanon is unjustifiable, extremely bloody and ruthless and, by their own standards, even immoral.
xxxxxWe have often spoken from this rostrum about the Fascist and aggressive nature of Israel and zionism. When the Assembly adopted its historic resolution 3379 (XXX) of 1975 declaring zionism a racist movement and a form of racial discrimination, imperialist circles were up in arms and threatened the United Nations.
xxxxxThe latest events and the criminal war being waged by Israel in Lebanon indicate that that resolution was sound. I believe that nobody now hesitates to consider Israel nazism's twin. This is a great irony: the people who were subjected to the oppression of hateful Hitlerite nazism, in the past have now become its successors and inheritors of this imbecilic ideology. The concentration camps established by Israel for Palestinian combatants in southern Lebanon, where they starve the civilian population, including women and children, deny them water and medicine for weeks, and commit acts of collective murder and reprisals, forced displacement, interrogation, torture, arbitrary detention – all these atrocities witnessed by the world are being repeated in full view of everyone in Lebanon. They can be described only by one word – nazism.
xxxxxIn addition, Israel refuses to treat the Palestinian detainees as prisoners of war. Those Palestinians are also denied the rights of civilian detainees provided for by the Geneva Convention, and Israel is preventing the International Red Cross from visiting them. Hence their true number is unknown and their families know nothing about them. Since what Israel has been waging in Lebanon for months is a dirty war in which it is using enormous forces and major military equipment from the latest American arsenals, I do not know how it can be said that war is not being waged and that prisoners of war are not being taken. Israel has been detaining not only Palestinian combatants captured in the field but also thousands of Palestinian men, women and children who had never fired a bullet in their lives and whose only sin was their Palestinian identity, which Israel wants to destroy. It has vented its wrath, not only against Palestinian citizens, but also against the land and the homes which sheltered them after Israel displaced them from their homeland 30 years ago. Thus Israel has completely destroyed their camps and once again transformed them into refugees, who have now become homeless and are at the mercy of warplanes, cluster bombs and phosphorus bombs.
xxxxxAfter more than two months of the barbaric Israeli invasion, Israel's real intentions have been unmasked, as has its guilt. Israel's first alleged objective was to push Palestinian resistance back 45 kilometers. In the face of the expansionist lust of Begin and Sharon, that pretext survived for only a few days. If an immediate end is not put to the policy of aggression and expansionism, nobody will know the new destination of Israeli tanks.
xxxxxI must point out that what is happening in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the occupied city of Jerusalem is another war being waged by Israel against the Palestinian people, a war which is no less dangerous than the ongoing, war in Lebanon. Mayors have been expelled and municipal councils dissolved. Also, enormous numbers of citizens have been arrested under the pretext of their support for, or sympathy with, the PLO. Universities have been closed down. For example, the University of Bir Zeit was closed down for seven months during the current academic year. Israel, through the so-called civilian administration which it is trying to impose on our people, has formulated a plan designed to seize completely more than one third of the territory of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to be used for military purposes and the establishment of settlements.
xxxxxWe have often warned that Israel intends, contrary to all the falsehoods and allegations concerning its security, first and foremost to liquidate the Palestinian people itself and destroy its legitimate leadership, embodied in the Palestine Liberation Organization, in order to prepare for the final and complete annexation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as it has already done in Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights. How else can we describe what has happened in Palestine and in Lebanon, if it is not an attempt to annihilate an entire people – the Palestinian people.
xxxxxIt is also obvious that Israel, through its new aggression against Lebanon, aims at continuing the policy of the annihilation of the Palestinian people and the destruction of its leadership and resistance and at transforming Lebanon into a dependent State after imposing a peace treaty upon it that will guarantee Israel complete hegemony over this Arab country and will isolate it from its Arab context and deprive the Lebanese Government of control of south Lebanon so that Israel will be able to annex it in the future.
xxxxxIt is regrettable and I repeat this – that this continuous Israeli aggression is carried out with the backing and support and with a green light from the United States of America, as has been stated by the Israeli leaders themselves, on the basis of the strategic accord between those two parties. What is even worse is the fact that the United States, which has not uttered a word in. condemnation of the massacres perpetrated by Israel throughout Lebanon and which has prevented the Security Council from condemning the aggression by using its veto time and again and thus paralyzing the Council, is now trying to play the role of a mediator and peace-maker in a process of flagrant hypocrisy and blackmail. What kind of peace is this that the United States is going to establish in the Middle East? Is it the Israeli peace, based on expansion, aggression and the denial of the rights of the Palestinian people? What kind of mediator is the United States, which only recognizes one side and looks at things from only one angle, that of the realization of Israeli aims and of preventing the international community from condemning and putting an end to the aggression? The United States cannot be a mediator while it continues to refuse to recognize the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, its right to freedom, sovereignty and independence, like all peoples of the world, based upon the principles of international law, human rights and United Nations resolutions concerning the question of Palestine, the acceptance of which has been affirmed by the PLO.
xxxxxThe United States still refuses to recognize the PLO, which has been recognized by the overwhelming majority of States in the world as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. The persistence of the United States in adopting such a position cannot serve peace in any way. Thus it is disregarding facts which are undeniable and which cannot be ignored.
xxxxxThe PLO is a full-fledged member of the Arab League, the Islamic Conference and the Non-Aligned Movement. It also has observer status in the United Nations. What is more important than all of this is the fact that the PLO is the organization which the Palestinian people unanimously supports and in which it places its full confidence as its sole representative both inside and outside the occupied territories and for which the Israeli occupation authorities, in 17 years of occupation, oppression and terrorism, have failed to find a substitute representative.
xxxxxThere are indications that the American people itself, for whom we have nothing but appreciation and respect, is becoming impatient with the policy of its Government and with its absolute bias in favor of Israel which jeopardizes its interests and security. The United States of America is called upon to reconsider its policy concerning the question of Palestine radically and to look at facts in the Middle East objectively and in a balanced manner. Its disregard for these facts and its attempts to ignore them do not cause those facts to go away and do not nullify the effectiveness of the role of this Organization. Events have shown that attempts to liquidate the PLO militarily have net with ignominious failure.
xxxxxOur Palestinian people did not come to the fraternal land of Lebanon as an invader or aggressor – God forbid! – in the way the tanks of the Israeli terrorists, their planes and their brutal forces invaded Lebanon. The two peoples, the Palestinians and the Lebanese, belong to one Arab nation and have been neighbors for many centuries and heirs to all age-old culture and are bound by the ties of history, heritage, common destiny and cultural, social and economic relations. Large numbers of Palestinians arrived in Lebanon on the eve of the disaster in 1948 from Galilee in the north of Palestine in order to escape the Zionist terrorism through which the present State of Israel was established. The Arab Lebanese people, a hospitable people – all its classes and sects – welcomed its displaced and uprooted brothers, the Arabs of the north of Palestine, and our Palestinian people living near Palestine welcomed these displaced Palestinians, and the Lebanese Government, in co-operation with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, designated special camps for them in order to help them to live and survive temporarily until they could return to their homeland, Palestine.
xxxxxThe Palestinians did not accept their displacement as an established and permanent fact; rather they accepted their displacement as a transient and temporary event in the certainty that international legitimacy, as represented by United Nations resolutions and the principles of right and justice and their insistence on their rights, would lead to their return to their villages and towns. Thus they accepted to live in temporary camps reluctantly, although they have now been there for 34 years, during which they have tried to earn their living by work, and they have always played an effective role in Lebanese society and the Lebanese economy.
xxxxxAmong the people who took refuge in Lebanon were thousands of Palestinian intellectuals and technicians, skilled workers, bankers, merchants and farmers who made an effective contribution to the social, cultural and economic development of Lebanon. It was natural for our people, after it had waited for a long time to return to its homeland, Palestine, to rally behind its national political leadership in Lebanon and in other countries, in the context of its national unity, as represented in the Palestine Liberation Organization and for it to use all legitimate tools to defend itself and its right to return to its homeland, The Palestine Liberation Organization has commended the appreciation, sympathy and recognition of the people and Government of Lebanon and has organized its relations with the Lebanese Government in accordance with official documented agreements.
xxxxxThe fraternal Arab Lebanese people and, before it, the Arab people of Palestine have accepted thousands of displaced persons – Armenians, Jews and others – and Lebanon has given thousands of them full rights of citizenship and political representation. But the sons of our Palestinian people insisted on their identity and nationality as transient refugees who will inevitably return to their home and country. The PLO has always rejected and still rejects any attempt to effect the settlement of Palestinians.
xxxxxCompare that position of the Palestinians with the destructive, barbaric, Zionist invasion of cherished, fraternal Lebanon. Israel has maintained a state of aggression and invasion against Lebanon since its establishment in 1948, firing on the citizens of Lebanon, occupying Lebanese territory by force; usurping Lebanese waters, the Litani and Hasabani rivers, and Lebanon's wealth; subjugating it to establish complete hegemony; seeking to undermine its national entity and destroy it. The recent flagrant aggression against Lebanon is not the first and will not be the last: it is the most destructive and the most flagrant and tantamount to annihilation of the human race.
xxxxxThe attempt in some prejudiced quarters to equate the aggressor with the victim is a racist, invalid attempt based on the law of the jungle. The attempt to equate the Palestinian people and its presence with the presence of the Israeli forces of invasion is an obvious attempt to enable the Israeli aggressor to benefit from its aggression and to make the "logic" of might prevail over international legitimacy in relations among nations.
xxxxxThe Lebanese people, its national organization and its democratic cadres have fought at the side of the Palestinian people and its regular legitimate forces against Israeli invasion in the past and is doing so at present. It has been a heroic and valiant struggle against aggressive forces which are vastly superior in numbers and equipment. Without this common struggle, how could it have been possible to withstand for more than 70 days the invasion of 125,000 Israeli soldiers of aggression armed with the most modern destructive weapons? The barbaric invaders have used the latest weapons in their destructive arsenals against our valiant people. All the banned weapons have been used. In one day, Sharon's forces fired 200,000 shells against Beirut. On 12 August, those missiles were used to shell Beirut's population: 600 buildings were destroyed in one day in the residential quarters. That massacre was explained by a statement that the bombardment was designed to destroy the Palestinian leadership. It was also claimed that, if the killing of one Palestinian soldier necessitated the murder of five Palestinian and 10 Lebanese civilians, that was a modest price that must be accepted to achieve victory over the Palestinian revolution. Does not that bring to mind all the racist statements that brought upon those who uttered them the eternal curse of history.
xxxxxIn the face of this brutal aggression we have fought valiantly and honorably alongside the cherished people of Lebanon to defend its independence and protect its capital. And let the whole world take note that we have not been defeated, in spite of all the desperate attacks launched by the barbarians, the Israeli aggressors. At the same time we have been and will always be ready to respond to all requests of our Lebanese brothers concerning their territory and guaranteeing their territorial sovereignty.
xxxxxJust like the mother in the well-known story of the prophet Solomon, we are prepared to leave Beirut in order to protect it and maintain its unity without partition. Therefore, we expressed our readiness to our Lebanese and Arab brothers in the Jhidda meeting of 29 July 1982; however, we rejected as no doubt all representatives have rejected, the "logic" of allowing the aggressor to reap the fruits of his aggression. We have fought for three months to prevent the Israeli aggressors from achieving that and, in implementation of the relevant resolutions of this Assembly arid the Security Council, we have always based ourselves on the simple and clear logic that we are fighting today in order to return to our homeland, Palestine, tomorrow.
xxxxxWe have agreed to the withdrawal of our military forces from Beirut in the interest of the remaining valiant inhabitants of Beirut, those who have survived the destruction wreaked upon the city and its buildings, so as not to provide a pretext for the Israeli aggressors to refuse to withdraw their forces from Lebanese territory, and so as: to prevent the continuation of that aggression in whatever form.
xxxxxWe salute the heroic people of Beirut and the resisting Lebanese and Palestinian combatants. I salute them from this august rostrum. They have inscribed the name of heroic Beirut in the record of immortals which already includes the names of Stalingrad, Oradour, Warsaw, London, Port Said and Hanoi. I salute all those who stood by us in heroic Beirut and everywhere else against the barbaric invasion. I salute those noble States which made their positions clear to the brave Jews inside Israel and abroad who defied terrorism and nazism, heeded their consciences and stood on the side of right and justice, on the side of their real heritage and religious values while subjected to blackmail, pressure and intimidation in order to achieve a just peace in our region and in the world.
xxxxxIt has been established – and this has been confirmed by the United Nations General Assembly in numerous resolutions and by-the international community on many occasions – that the question of Palestine constitutes the essence of the conflict in the Middle East. It has also been established – and this is another fact – that the question of Palestine cannot be dealt with without including the Palestinian people and its sole legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The continued disregard of these facts and the insistence on one specific international resolution, such as resolution 242 (1967) of the Security Council, which does not provide in itself a solution to the problem and does not deal with it fully but views it only as a question of refugees, will not lead to the establishment of a just and lasting peace, to which we all aspire.
xxxxxThe unending Zionist violence and terrorism perpetrated against the Palestinian people for over 30 years has failed to dispose of this question. Israel has not been able to annihilate the Palestinian people nor will it ever be able to do so, nor has it been able to destroy the PLO. It has also failed to destroy the national identity and national aspirations of that people. On the contrary, violence breeds resistance and counter-violence, and the attempts at annihilation, annexation and containment have made our people more determined to regain its land and its rights and more committed to its homeland and independent national identity. The attempts to suppress the PLO or to destroy and annihilate it have been completely in vain. Our organization's roots are becoming stronger and it has won international recognition. The commitment of the Palestinian people to the leadership of the organization is beyond discussion. The role it plays at the regional, national and international level has become a feature of the international community.
xxxxxOne of the greatest delusions today is the attempt to treat the problem in Lebanon as though it were a matter of lifting the siege of Beirut and withdrawing the Palestinian resistance from it. In spite of the importance of this problem and of the fact that we deeply cherish Beirut and all that it represents in terms of the steadfast will and opposition to Zionist aggression and Israeli barbarism, the main problem from which the problem of Beirut originates can be said to derive from two issues: first, the Lebanese problem, the solution to which lies in the achievement of the complete and unconditional withdrawal of the Israeli forces of aggression from the whole of Lebanon, in accordance with Security Council resolutions 508 (1982), 509 (1982), 516 (1982) and 517 (1982), thus enabling the Arab people of Lebanon to determine its future in complete freedom; secondly, the problem of Palestine which is the main problem and the essence of the conflict and which, unless it is solved, will create numerous further problems in the area which could lead to more bloodshed and jeopardize international peace and security. In this connection we call for the urgent convening of an international conference under the sponsorship of the United Nations, with the participation of all parties on an equal footing, including the PLO, to discuss the question of Palestine on the basis of all relevant United Nations resolutions which alone constitute the foundation for a just and lasting solution.
xxxxxIt is incumbent on us today, more than ever before, to redouble our efforts to apply our energies towards standing up to the Israeli aggression, backed by the United States of America, against the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples, to prevent Israel from pursuing the implementation of its criminal and expansionist designs and to impose deterrent sanctions against it, in implementation of Chapter VII of the Charter, or to expel or suspend Israel's membership, rejecting the credentials of its representatives in the United Nations and in the specialized agencies, treating Israel as an international outlaw and a non-peace-loving State.
xxxxxIn conclusion, brother Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the PLO and, commander-in-chief of its armed forces, informed you in his historic statement in this hall in 1974 that he come before you bearing an olive branch. There is still a chance for the olive branch to remain extended. It is the responsibility of the entire international community to make sure that this is not the last chance. I say in the name of the Palestinian people once more: "Do not let the olive branch fall from our hands."
xxxxxMr. MALMIERCA (Cuba) (interpretation from Spanish): Scarcely three years ago, in this same General Assembly Hall, the Chairman of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, comrade Fidel Castro, referring to the reasons that had led the Sixth Summit Conference of Heads of State of our Movement to condemn Israeli expansionism and determine the responsibility of the United States in the carrying out of Tel Aviv's aggressive practices, stated:
xxxxxIn the interval, and especially in the last two months, Israel has succeeded in demonstrating how right President Fidel Castro's statement was.
xxxxxThe weeks that have elapsed since Israel launched its invasion of Lebanon and put into practice the most sophisticated methods of extermination and destruction are hours and days that have left, on the history of our marks of barbarity and ignominy. Our generation has never known so horrifying a massacre since the days of the Second World War and seldom before has the world witnessed a demonstration of the heights that people's resistance can reach as clear as that which the Palestinian people are providing today in confronting United States-Israeli military might and the inhuman blockade of the city of Beirut.
xxxxxThis unsurpassed courage, steadfastness and heroism are reminiscent in still greater measure, of the sufferings and the great fighting spirit of the Vietnamese people. This courage, this steadfastness, this heroism oblige us to endure the deep sorrow engendered by this genocide and to reflect upon the lasting values that make peoples immortal and men eternal. Those who are dying and suffering in the struggle for Palestine are men of that breed.
xxxxxThis is the third time this year that you have decided to reconvene the seventh emergency special session at the request of the Member States.
xxxxxThis resumed session bears witness to the persistence of Israel's aggression against the Palestinian people and its absolute contempt, its most shameless rejection of the resolutions of this body, and of international public opinion.
xxxxxIsrael's scorn for the decisions of the Security Council and the United Nations. General Assembly is a well-established and well-known fact, but this attitude clearly reached a new height when Israel did not allow United Nations observers to be present in Lebanon, especially in Beirut, and rejected the possibility of a tour by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to the area in order to apprise himself of the situation personally.
xxxxxIsrael has committed enough criminal acts against the letter and the spirit of the United Nations Charter and has adopted so hostile an attitude towards the Organization itself that we should urgently consider whether it deserves to retain the right to belong to this Organization.
xxxxxIt is not only in 1982 that we have had to meet to address ourselves to Israel's barbaric aggression against the Palestinian people and to adopt decisions in that regard.
xxxxxWe wish to recall that the resolution adopted at the eleventh meeting of the seventh emergency special session of the General Assembly, in considering the question of Palestine, on 29 July 1980, in paragraph 7, "Calls upon Israel to withdraw completely and unconditionally from all the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since June 1967, including Jerusalem (resolution ES-7/2).
xxxxxIn this year, 1982, when in April it reconvened the seventh emergency special session, the General Assembly, at its twentieth plenary meeting, expressed its rejection of all the policies and plans aimed at resettling the Palestinians outside the territory of their homeland.
xxxxxBut, as we all know, in June of this year, Israel launched a brutal invasion against the territory of Lebanon, with the avowed purpose of exterminating the Palestinian people, liquidating the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and assassinating its leaders. For more than two months, the Israeli Army, equipped with the most sophisticated resources, supplied by the United States of America, has been carrying out ruthless aggression against the Lebanese people and the Palestinian people, has razed cities and villages, killing tens of thousands of civilians, placing Beirut under siege, cutting the supply of electricity, food, water and medicines, in a clear demonstration of its genocidal intentions.
xxxxxEach day, the mass media, mainly those controlled by the United States and Israel, bring us reports of continued bombing and shelling against Beirut.
xxxxxThey accompany these reports with information about so-called negotiations for the departure from Beirut of the Palestine Liberation Organization's fighters, but in reality, these so-called negotiations are nothing but part of the aggression against the right of the Palestinian people to return to the territory of their homeland.
xxxxxThere are many people who have been prepared, conditioned, by these reports, to link in their minds the departure of the Palestinian fighters from Beirut with the end of the siege of Beirut.
xxxxxBut nothing is said about the elementary requirement which must be insisted upon until it is accomplished: the withdrawal of the invader, the withdrawal of the aggressor, the withdrawal of Israel from the territories it has occupied in Lebanon.
xxxxxWhen we read the United States Government's statements or the press reports on the situation in Lebanon, not a word is said about the central aspect of the Middle East question. Any reference to the necessary recognition of the inalienable rights of the people of Palestine is carefully avoided.
xxxxxThere will be neither peace nor a real solution in the Middle East until the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, to establish their own independence, sovereign State, their right to return to their territories and homes is established.
xxxxxNothing is being said today, although it is necessary to do so if we intend to advance toward a true solution, about Israel's withdrawal from the occupied Arab and Palestinian territories. We must demand today, more strongly than ever before, Israel's withdrawal from the territory of Lebanon and from the West Bank, from Gaza, from Golan and from Jerusalem.
xxxxxIsrael has been guilty for many years and has earned the condemnation of the international community. Today Tel Aviv's terrorist rulers have perpetrated new and barbaric crimes against humanity, which we cannot pass over in silence and which must be condemned.
xxxxxThe Movement of Non-Aligned Countries has not ceased in its endeavors since 4 June, when Israel launched its first savage bombings of Lebanese territory, to express its solidarity, in all forms and ways, to put an end to the aggression and to ensure that the Zionists return to their borders. On that date, the Co-ordinating Bureau was meeting in Havana, at the ministerial level, and it immediately took the decision to call on the Security Council to take action to put an end to that barbarism.
xxxxxSince that time, the Chairman of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries has addressed himself on several occasions to the Heads of State or Government of the Non-Aligned Countries, to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, to the President of the Security Council, to the President of the General Assembly and to the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, asking them on each occasion to use all their influence and means of action to restore peace, to preserve the Palestinian people's right to survival and to defeat the nefarious designs of the Zionist aggressors and their accomplices.
xxxxxOn President Fidel Castro's instructions, I visited Beirut at the end of June to hold consultations with the leaders of the PLO and with the Lebanese Government. Following upon those initiatives and in response to the letter that Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, sent on 6 July to Fidel Castro, Chairman of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, the Co-ordinating Bureau of our Movement held an extraordinary meeting in Nicosia, Cyprus, from 15 to 17 July, which adopted a communiqué and program of action aimed at giving effect to the expressions of solidarity that the Heads of State wished to implement and of which they had made repeated references in their replies to the letters of the Chairman of the Movement.
xxxxxThat Extraordinary Ministerial Meeting of the Co-ordinating Bureau of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries was held only six days after it was announced, thanks to the readiness of the member States to show their solidarity with the people of Palestine, and especially of the Government of the Republic of Cyprus, which provided all the resources and services necessary to ensure the success of that Meeting.
xxxxxThe Ministers condemned Israel for its aggression against Lebanon and the Palestinian people and their legitimate representative, the PLO, as a continuation of the policy pursued by Israel since its creation, a policy aimed at expanding its territory at the expense of its Arab neighbors and at exterminating the Palestinian people.
xxxxxThe Meeting pointed out that the implementation of that expansionist policy had been possible thanks to the massive military, financial and political assistance given to Israel, especially by the United States of America under their permanent alliance, firmly condemned by the non-aligned countries.
xxxxxThe Meeting urged the Security Council to meet immediately in order to apply against Israel the measures provided for in Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter for failure to comply with resolutions adopted by the Security Council and the General Assembly and for gravely endangering international peace and security by its actions.
xxxxxThe Ministers' Meeting in Nicosia condemned the misuse of the veto by the United. States, which prevented the Security Council from fulfilling its responsibilities to contain the barbaric Israeli aggression.
xxxxxAfter evaluating the extremely grave situation provoked by the Israeli aggression, the Ministers stated once more that peace in the Middle East is indivisible and must be based on a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the question of Palestine and the Middle East conflict.
xxxxxSuch a solution must ensure the complete and unconditional withdrawal from the Palestinian territory and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, and enable the Palestinian people under the leadership of the PLO to exercise their inalienable rights, including the right to return to their homes and their territories, the right to self-determination, to national independence and to the establishment of an independent State in Palestine.
xxxxxThe Nicosia Meeting established a Ministerial Committee consisting of nine non-aligned countries, which was entrusted with the task of travelling to Lebanon and holding consultations with the Government of Lebanon and the PLO leadership.
xxxxxDespite repeated efforts, the Committee was prevented by the Israeli occupation troops from travelling to Lebanon and to Beirut.
xxxxxThe Committee made contact with the States members of the Security Council and met with the officials appointed to that effect by the Governments of France, the Soviet Union and Poland, in order to contribute to finding an immediate, just and comprehensive solution to the present aggression and to the question of Palestine and to increase world support and assistance to the Palestinian people.
xxxxxThe Committee received from Washington the reply that neither the President nor the Secretary of State had time to receive the nine Ministers of the non-aligned countries and that an official would receive them, but that the Ministers of Cuba and Nicaragua should not be part of the delegation.
xxxxxWe are not surprised by this new expression of imperial might and arrogance.
xxxxxIsrael prevents the Committee from visiting Beirut and the United States prevents it from visiting Washington. That is quite natural; they are strategic allies and act accordingly.
xxxxxThe Committee will maintain its contacts and has requested meetings with the representatives of the States members of the Security Council that are not members of the Non-Aligned Movement, as well as with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the President of the Security Council, the President of the General Assembly and the Chairman of the Special Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
xxxxxThe Nicosia Ministerial Meeting also recommended the resumption of this seventh emergency special session of the General Assembly on the question of Palestine and called upon all States Members of the United Nations to examine the decision contained in resolution A/36/120 of 28 January relating to the convening, under the auspices of the United Nations, of an international conference on the question of Palestine, with world-wide participation, with a view to advancing its date to 1983 and earmarking the necessary resources in good time.
xxxxxMy delegation must express its deep indignation at the fact that nine Security Council resolutions on the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and on the question of Palestine have been rendered totally ineffective owing to the conduct of Israel and to the fact than an even greater number of efforts aimed at the Council's adoption of resolutions, which, while not more effective, would at least have been more consistent with the will of the international community, have been paralyzed by the United States veto.
xxxxxThe scandalous behavior of the representatives of the United States, however, will not be enough – as the Americans and Israelis must know very well – to induce the States of the world comprising the United Nations to accept as a fait accompli what appears to be the clear purpose of the Reagan Administration, namely, to paralyze the United Nations, to incapacitate the United Nations system and the many international organizations which in their respective fields carry out the rules, policies and recommendations emanating from this forum and to frustrate the efforts of world diplomacy to find solutions to the acute problems which exist at present.
xxxxxCuba has never believed in irreversible designs, nor do we believe, as we have demonstrated, in invincible power or implacable arrogance. Both Israel and the United States can and must be made to abide by the precepts of law and the rules of harmonious and. peaceful coexistence. The drafters of the Charter may not have imagined that a situation such as this could arise, but they nevertheless provided for it under Chapter VII.
xxxxxIt is our experience – the same as that gained by the majority of developing countries – that our demands, our claims and our wills can find a response in this forum when the rightness underlying then is accompanied by the decision to act. I will not go into examples; that would be unnecessary. All those who have followed the record of the United Nations system during the last 15 years know very well that the victories of our peoples in the face of the intransigence and unco-operative attitudes of certain countries have not been few. They also know that the occasions have not been lacking when the United Nations community has found a common language and when the positions of this side and the other have managed to come closer together until promising channels and concrete solutions were found.
xxxxxToday, more than ever, we need to join together to find such common language so that the present crime can be condemned and punished to forestall the judgement we would be compelled to pronounce for new crimes that will be committed in the future, should our present efforts come to naught. The Palestinian people, the justness of its inalienable right, the unequalled example of patriotic fervor with which the Palestinians are imbuing our times, demand that we move on from words to deeds and that we contribute actively and decisively towards the necessary solution.
xxxxxIsrael has unscrupulously declared that the objective of its attack upon Beirut was to eliminate the PLO leadership. That much is true, but that truth is also a way of lying – of concealing the true objectives pursued by Israel. The strategic alliance between Israel and the United States is not aimed exclusively against the PLO: its objective is to place the whole Middle East region under Israeli and United States military, political and economic control. The PLO is an obstacle, but all those who defend the independence and the right of the Arab peoples to choose their own destiny will also become the targets of Zionist imperialist aggression. The invasion of Lebanon, the siege and bombing, of Beirut are criminal actions against the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples; they are Part of the strategic plan designed to quash the Palestinian people's struggle for recognition of its inalienable rights, to deal a blow to progressive Lebanese forces and set up in Lebanon a puppet Government subject to Israel and the United States, to implement expansionist plans, to establish a "Greater Israel" and to make the occupation and annexation of the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights and Jerusalem irreversible.
xxxxxIf they achieve their objectives in Lebanon today, who can foretell what will be the next act of aggression against the Arab States?
xxxxxThere is little need to repeat what the non-aligned countries have reiterated time and time again: that any agreement, negotiation or initiative that does not take the PLO into account is treachery; that any solution that ignores the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people is unacceptable, that there will be no solution to the Middle East Problem. without a solution to the Palestinian problem; and that the blood shed, the sacrifices made and the greatness displayed in these days of martyrdom and heroic resistance by the Palestinian people and the PLO will lead, whether Washington and Tel Aviv like it or not, to the victory of that people.
xxxxxThese are not times in which the world can be deceived by well-orchestrated press campaigns depicting the aggressor as the victim, and the ally as the mediator. The plain truth is that Israel intends to commit genocide against the Palestinian people, and the United States has been abetting and arming Israel in that attempt. The United Nations system must be guided by those realities and act sternly to punish the criminal and to prevent the protection that Israel has repeatedly enjoyed through the use of the veto.
xxxxxIf today solutions are perceived, they have emerged neither from the capabilities of the ally nor from its messengers. They have emerged from the courage, resistance and sacrifice of the Palestinian people. Neither kindness nor restraint have stopped the invader at the gates of west Beirut. It is the courage of the Palestinians and their knowledge that Israel would pay very dearly for such boldness.
xxxxxIf, as my delegation sees it, to be a statesman is, in the first place, to be realistic, then let us be realistic. My delegation will contribute, with all its means, to the implementation of solutions of this nature that will guarantee the Palestinian people its rights and foster the peaceful coexistence of the peoples of that region.
xxxxxTo conclude, allow me to propose that the international community should commemorate in some permanent manner, here at United Nations Headquarters, the sacrifice of the thousands of innocent Palestinian and Lebanese children massacred by Israeli machine-guns in June, July and August of 1982. I am confident that the example embodied in a memento of this nature will be as moving and instructive to any visitor to United Nations Headquarters in the future as the impression caused today by a visit to Auschwitz or Buchenwald.
xxxxxThe irreparable losses and pain wrought upon the victims have lowered the flags of progress and civilization to half mast, but the flags of struggle, of solidarity with the heroic Palestinian people, with their leaders willing to die rather than surrender, must be raised high – as high as is necessary to lead the fight against aggression and barbarity.
xxxxxMr. MOUSSA (Egypt): On behalf of the delegation of Egypt, may I express our deep appreciation for the prompt and timely reconvening of the General Assembly seventh emergency special session on the question of Palestine for the third time this year, a year which proves to be yet another landmark in the long history of the Palestinian tragedy.
xxxxxA new chapter indeed is already annexed to the annals of human agonies and injustices inflicted upon the Palestinian people, which, alone among all peoples and nations, is being recrucified year after year and decade after decade.
xxxxxThe tragedy of the Palestinian people is an endless epic of displacement and exile. Now its oppressors seek to subject it to a "final solution" – no more, no less.
xxxxxThis scenario of events provides ample evidence that history at times repeats itself. A new Palestinian diaspora is emerging as an aftermath of this recurrent pattern of cyclical genocide against the Palestinian people.
xxxxxAgain, like the Jews of the past, the Palestinian people is facing the prospects of fragmented life around the four corners of the globe.
xxxxxThe analogy is too tempting to ignore. The events of recent weeks, during which the Palestinian community in Lebanon was exposed to virtual extermination, prove beyond doubt that the will to live was stronger than Israel's cluster bombs, phosphorous shells and 175-mm guns.
xxxxxThe forces of history which resulted in the Jewish redemption will by themselves interact for the Palestinian redemption. The story of Palestine is as yet untold.
xxxxxThe present Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the onslaught on the Palestinians and the new Palestinian displacement and exodus can achieve only one thing: Palestinian devotion to Palestine, The fundamental issue has been and will continue to be the struggle over the same piece of land. But the question will remain: why should the Palestinians have to pay for the sins of others and to what extent does the diabolic plan against the Palestinian people go or will be permitted to go?
xxxxxThe major responsibility for the boiling cauldron in the Middle East today rests squarely with the Government of Israel. There is no ethical justification for calling the embittered Palestinians "beasts" and "terrorists" when their oppressors are basically destroying Lebanon, murdering thousands of civilians – women, children and the elderly – and cutting electricity, water and medical supplies.
xxxxxIt is impossible to approach the tragedy of the Middle East without recognizing the present reality as it defies the human conscience, morality and sense of justice.
xxxxxEnough sorrow has now occurred with the overflowing of human blood that has been spilled and shed. However, the core of the tragedy rests in the present position of the Palestinians between the hammer and the anvil, between the merciless bombings and shellings by the Israeli invaders and the coming days of their unknown and long diaspora. But this aggression which destroyed Palestinians did not destroy the Palestinian dream.
xxxxxThe Palestinian dream, the Palestinian aspiration for a homeland, will persist and real peace will not come to the Middle East until their dream is fulfilled; and, if the Israelis whole-heartedly seek this kind of peace, the Middle East can begin to blossom again.
xxxxxIn the truest sense, the Palestinians and the Israelis can coexist, and there are many warm-hearted people on both sides who long for the day when both nations can live and work in peace as good neighbors.
xxxxxRecent history has shown that military aggression will never remove the fear and insecurity which obsess most Israelis. Let me say that the most secure borders are friendly borders – indeed, only friendly borders.
xxxxxIn a real sense, the Israelis hold their future in their own hands. Across the centuries the voice of Moses still pleads:
xxxxxIt is acknowledged that the present conflict has a history with its roots inextricably woven in the past, so much so that a viable solution cannot be attempted without full understanding of its genesis. Yet, there is nothing more misleading and illusory than to imagine the aggression against the Palestinians as a step towards peace. Nothing can be more illusory than presenting the national struggle of the Palestinians in such a distorted manner.
xxxxxTo look at it as a breakthrough towards peace is an apology for aggression and a justification for occupation.
xxxxxThe most obvious symbol of this apologia for aggression is the deliberate systematic use of the term "terrorist". Self-redemption is not terrorism. Reason and morality teach us where terrorism really lies.
xxxxxPresident Wilson once said:
xxxxxUnhappily, this wisdom has been systematically neglected and the Middle East has been brought into even more dangerous confrontation. This applies strictly to bartering about the destiny of the Palestinians in terms of their transfer from one sovereignty to another, totally ignoring the origins of their tragedy and alienation, their expatriation from their homeland, Palestine.
xxxxxEven now, in the closing hours of the mission of United States envoy Philip Habib, whose efforts we wish to con-mend, we still hear voices persisting in the belief that a solution can be imposed upon the Middle East which ignores the origins of the conflict and the aspirations of the Palestinians.
xxxxxIn response to such an approach, we simply ask: for how much longer can the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people be excluded from negotiations which will depend upon the Palestinians' involvement for their success?
xxxxxIt is depressing to note that, so long as the Israeli policy pursues a narrow-minded and short-sighted path, no viable comprehensive peace can really be achieved.
xxxxxIt should by now be crystal clear that to acknowledge the Palestinian cause is not to deny the cause of Israel but to elevate the Palestinians to their proper place and to recognize that their will cannot be easily side-stepped.
xxxxxThe second stage in a "peace for Galilee" operation after the annihilation of the Palestinian people and the forced evacuation of the Palestine Liberation Organization is now ushered in with the intention to dismember Lebanon by partitioning its people and territory, which would be a disaster not only for Lebanon itself but also for the entire region. The sovereignty of Lebanon should be respected; its territorial integrity should be protected, and its unity should be preserved.
xxxxxIt is a well-planned scenario, under the misnomer "peace for Galilee", which started with the goal of eliminating the major factor and dimension of the Palestinians and the PLO; the elimination of other factors is still to come. But it is a doomed scenario.
xxxxxThe conflict in the Middle East will be solved only when the Palestinians and the Israelis are able to work out their own salvation with each other through mutual recognition. The minimum condition for this is an environment which has to be created by the rest of the world and in which both peoples are persuaded to recognize that each has equal but reconcilable rights in Palestine. This is the essence of any comprehensive solution, and this is the central point of the Franco-Egyptian initiative now before the Security Council.
xxxxxThere can be peace in the Middle East only when it is universally recognized that Palestine did exist, does exist and will exist.
xxxxx"Palestinian rights" is not an empty slogan. It is a dynamic process for which certain basic and lawful rights should be stressed: the right to self-determination and statehood; the right to return and compensation; the right to negotiate on an equal footing; the right to recognition; the right to accept and to refuse; and the right to security.
xxxxxEqually, the rights of Israel have to be defined: the right to existence; the right to security; the right to recognition; and the right to negotiate.
xxxxxFrom this standpoint, as we call for the recognition of the rights of both parties in a mutual and simultaneous process, the obligations of both parties have to be highlighted and underlined.
xxxxxIsrael is under obligation to renounce its military policies and practices; Israel is under obligation to renounce its policy of settling the occupied territories and changing their geographical character, demographic composition and legal status; Israel is under obligation to renounce its policy of annexation and expansion; Israel is under obligation to follow a peaceful policy commensurate with its undertakings under its signed commitments; and, finally, Israel is under obligation to respect the principles and provisions of the United Nations Charter and the rules of international law.
xxxxxEqually, the Palestinian people is under obligation to recognize all resolutions relevant to the Palestinian and Middle East questions.
xxxxxIn this connection we salute and support the declaration of the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat, announcing that he "accepts all United Nations resolutions relevant to the Palestinian question". We take it as being all-inclusive, in particular with regard to Security Council resolution 242 (1967), which stipulates the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war, and Security Council resolution 338 (1973), which initiates the process of negotiations to achieve a comprehensive settlement.
xxxxxThe inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war certainly emphasizes one basic element in the Palestinian cause, that is, the liberation of the Palestinian territory of the West Bank and Gaza.
xxxxxIn this respect, it is our considered opinion that the United States can play a vital part in convincing the Palestinians and the PLO that their legitimate rights can be obtained by negotiation and that they can find their place in the family of nations through a peaceful, legitimate process. But to be able to do so the United States would have to start talking to the Palestinians, to the organization that is accepted by the majority of nations, namely, the Palestine Liberation Organization. Contacts have to be established between the United States Government and the PLO. The very fact that the PLO was involved in the arduous negotiations conducted by Ambassador Habib proves beyond doubt that a dialogue with the PLO is not only a practical necessity but a basic requirement in the peace negotiations in the Middle East.
xxxxxAs we closely follow the developments in Lebanon we cannot but rejoice at the achievement of progress towards restoration of Lebanese authority and of the Lebanese State. But ire cannot accept the reported measures taken by Israel in Lebanon which give an ominous indication of an Israeli plan to extend and prolong its occupation under whatever pretext and guise. Particularly disturbing is the initiation of an Israeli civilian administration in the occupied territories in Lebanon which flies in the face of all Israeli allegations to the contrary.
xxxxxWe strongly urge all concerned, especially the United Nations, whose role in Lebanon should be recognized, enhanced and supported, to put an end to the Israeli presence in Lebanon and to Israel's attempts to manipulate the internal situation there.
xxxxxThe Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon is a sine qua non for the restoration of justice and stability in Lebanon. This should not depend on any condition. We flatly reject any partition or fragmentation of Lebanon, any condominium in Lebanon and any occupation of Lebanon. Here we have to say it loud and clear: now that the PLO has accepted to withdraw, all non-Lebanese forces have to withdraw forthwith.
xxxxxIn conclusion I should like to say this; every time a public debate opens on Israeli aggressive plans and activities against the Palestinians it is usually labeled anti-Semitic. I should like to say in the first place that that designation is a misnomer. Arabs are sons of Abraham and thus Semites.
xxxxxFar more serious than the inaccuracy of the term is that fact that it is a vicious psychological tool. Indeed, many people have suffered from injustices and have had reason to label their misery. Peoples with martyr complexes invariably interpret action by others as being inimical to their own interests. But when any person, group or State puts itself beyond the reach of criticism it is committing a grave psychological and ethical mistake. This is precisely what Israel is doing.
xxxxxMr. NISIBORI (Japan): It is already two and a half months since Israel began its invasion of Lebanon. The massive land, sea and air assault carried out by the armed forces of Israel has inflicted enormous casualties on the inhabitants of Lebanon, both Lebanese and Palestinian, and great destruction of property. The situation is extremely grave. The Government of Japan, in a statement by the Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs issued on 6 June, immediately after the invasion began, expressed its deep regret over the suffering and devastation which had been caused. At the same time the Government of Japan denounced Israel's action, declaring that it constitutes a serious violation of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of Lebanon. It called upon Israel to end its attack immediately.
xxxxxFurthermore, gravely concerned that such military actions in Lebanon and on the Lebanese-Israeli border might be escalating into a yet more serious armed conflict which would threaten peace throughout the Middle East, the Government of Japan on 5 June introduced a draft resolution calling on the parties involved to cease all military activity immediately. This was adopted unanimously as Security Council resolution 508 (1982).
xxxxxIn the two and a half months that have elapsed since then Israel has utterly disregarded the repeated demands of the Security Council which were echoed in appeals made by many countries all over the world for an immediate cessation of hostilities and the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Israeli forces from all parts of Lebanon. Indeed, Israel has continued its thrust all the way to Beirut, placing the western part of the city under siege and even invading part of it. My Government, in a statement issued on 5 August, declared that such actions cannot be condoned and it has denounced Israel for them.
xxxxxOne of the consequences of Israel's invasion has been the tragic deprivation and displacement suffered by a great number of inhabitants, including many Palestinians, who are in dire need of emergency assistance such as foodstuffs, medical supplies and other basic necessities. In view of this distressing situation and in response to an urgent appeal by the Secretary-General the Government of Japan has contributed $1 million through the International Committee of the Red Cross as emergency humanitarian assistance to Lebanon to help alleviate the suffering of the people there. My Government would like to take this opportunity to express once again its profound sympathy to the Government and the people of Lebanon for the tragic loss of many innocent lives, the deprivation and displacement suffered and the massive destruction of property.
xxxxxThe Government of Japan has been strongly supporting the efforts of the parties concerned, including, in particular, those of the Lebanese Government and of Ambassador Habib, to work out a peaceful solution to the problem in Lebanon and it has been watching the development of the situation with deep concern. My Government therefore welcomes the recent reports that through the tireless efforts of Ambassador Habib progress is apparently being made towards avoiding further bloodshed and devastation in Beirut. Japan earnestly hopes that such efforts will lead to the early restoration of peace throughout Lebanon. My Government strongly calls on all the parties concerned to exercise the utmost self-restraint so that the innocent inhabitants of Lebanon will not have to endure further displacement and deprivation.
xxxxxJapan is of the view that the most important principle in the settlement of the various problems regarding Lebanon is that the wishes of its Government and its people must be respected without interference from foreign forces. It also recognizes that a just solution cannot be attained in the face of increasing Israeli military pressure.
xxxxxThe Government of Japan therefore once again calls on Israel to withdraw from Lebanon as soon as possible, in compliance with the relevant United Nations resolutions. At the same time, it expresses the earnest desire that national reconciliation will swiftly be achieved in Lebanon, that the complete restoration of Lebanese sovereignty and territorial integrity will be secured with broad national support and without any external intervention, and that domestic security and order will be re-established in accordance with the goals of the Lebanese Government. The Government of Japan is determined to make every possible effort to assist in the realization of the aforementioned objectives.
xxxxxIt is the view of the Government of Japan that the present tragic situation in Lebanon demonstrates the importance of achieving a settlement of the Middle East problem, at the heart of which is the question of Palestine. Israel should know that the question of Palestine will never be resolved through efforts to suppress the movement for the national liberation of the Palestinian people. Indeed, the use of force cannot quell a people's strong aspiration for self-determination.
xxxxxThe basic position of the Government of Japan on the Middle East problem, and in particular on the Palestinian question, has been presented on numerous occasions. However, I should like to take this opportunity to restate it as follows: first, peace in the Middle East should be just, lasting and comprehensive; secondly, such a peace should be achieved through the early and complete implementation of Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) and through recognition of and respect for the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination, under the United Nations Charter, and, thirdly, each and every path towards the realization of such a peace must be explored, with careful consideration given to the legitimate security requirements of the countries in the region and to the aspirations of all the peoples in the region, including the Palestinian people.
xxxxxOn the basis of those principles for the solution of the Middle East problem and, in particular, of the question of Palestine, Japan recognizes that the Palestine Liberation organization (PLO) represents the Palestinian people.
xxxxxThus, in order to advance the cause of peace in the Middle East, Japan believes it is essential that Israel and the PLO recognize each other's position, and that the PLO participate in the peace process in the future.
xxxxxThe current suffering in Lebanon brought about by the Israeli invasion is a tragic reminder of conditions prevailing throughout the Middle East. It also demonstrates the necessity of finding, as soon as possible, a solution to the question of Palestine.
xxxxxBecause the Lebanese situation is clearly the result of various attempts to settle the question of Palestine by using military force, the Government of Japan once again stresses its long-standing position that all the parties, including Israel and the PLO, must renounce the use of force and resolve their problems through peaceful negotiations. The tragedy that we have been witnessing in Lebanon underscores the necessity for a speedy solution of the question of Palestine and the achievement of a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East – matters of vital concern to all of us gathered here today.
xxxxxThe PRESIDENT (interpretation from Arabic): I call on the last speaker for this afternoon, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, League of Arab States, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 477 (V) of 1 November 1950.
xxxxxMr. OMRAN (League of Arab States) (interpretation from Arabic): As we meet here today in this emergency special session of the General Assembly to consider again the measures that must be taken against Israel for its barbaric aggression against the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples, we wonder what meaning this session could have for the hopes and aspirations of the victims of the aggression, the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples, in the light of previously convened sessions and the numerous resolutions that have been adopted in the past.
xxxxxAs we have come to realize, the dignity, international value and weight of the United Nations are being tested today and we are reminded of the 1930s when the League of Nations, the mother organization, collapsed after failing at that time to take effective measures against the Fascist aggression.
xxxxxThat fully attests to the grave consequences of the failure of joint international efforts to deter adventurists who trample on human dignity and tenets of international and civilized behavior and exposes to all States Members of this Organization the extent of the risks that their nations might encounter were they themselves to become victims of a barbaric aggression similar to that of the Zionists, an aggression nurtured by a racist creed deriving from the racist theories that permeated the world in the first half of this century, a creed which for many years has wreaked devastation and destruction.
xxxxxToday we meet in a new attempt to protect the principle of collective responsibility mandated by the United Nations Charter for the States Members of this Organization, since this principle has been defied by the Israeli liar machine with arrogance and contempt for the international will. We meet today in an urgent effort to restore respect for our international Organization and credibility to its resolutions, since the only alternative to a destroyed credibility is the lair of the jungle.
xxxxxWe are here today in another effort – not to say the last effort – to work together on a way to prevent the possibility of another devastating war the grave consequences of which night not be limited to the Middle East region, bearing in mind that the Second World War was triggered by a gang of war criminals who colluded ideologically and politically with the leaders of the Zionist entity and whose philosophy was based on racial superiority and on what they presumptuously called the theories of secure borders and Lebensraum.
xxxxxThe States Members of the international Organization are called upon today, in the aftermath of the failure of all the efforts thus far exerted, to uphold the principles of the Charter, in particular Chapter VII which calls for effective measures against aggression – in this case the Israeli aggression – to halt it and remove all its consequences and effects.
xxxxxThe General Assembly now bears the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, since it is the organ which represents the international will, especially in view of the repeated failure of the Security Council to deal with this issue as a result of the regrettable, painful fact that led to the paralysis of that organ whose mandate is to maintain international peace and security owing to the exercise by a super-Power – a permanent member of the Security Council, the United States of America – of the veto to make its policies a tool of Israeli interests.
xxxxxBy committing itself to Israeli diktat and casting a negative vote against any draft resolution to which Israel objects, the United States has paralyzed the Security Council's ability to fulfil its role and responsibility. Hence it has practically given over its right of veto to Israel in the context of that country's latest aggression. Thus the United States right of veto, of which we have seen an extreme use in the Security Council in favor of the Israeli aggression and of preventing a cease-fire, is no longer a United States veto but has actually become an Israeli veto which Israel uses through an intermediary.
xxxxxArticle 27 (3) of the Charter – which deals with voting procedures in the Security Council – clearly states that
xxxxxIf we also remember that the United States has previously committed itself to supporting Israeli efforts to prevent the adoption of any deterrent resolutions against Israel, regardless of the extent of Israeli violations of international law, we come to the simple conclusion that the United States has legally become a "party to the dispute" and has thus lost its credibility and must bear the responsibilities of a super-Power and of a permanent member, according to the Charter.
xxxxxNow that the Security Council's effectiveness has become completely paralyzed owing to the veto power of the United States, the mandate to maintain international peace and security becomes that of the General Assembly. By shouldering their responsibilities, Member States cannot only bring Israeli crimes against humanity to an end but can also rescue this Organization and restore the confidence of our people in the future – a confidence already threatened by war and destruction.
xxxxxThe events of recent weeks in Lebanon and what is happening now in terms of occupation, devastation, genocide and destruction are the natural outcome of several factors, foremost among which is the fact that the structure of the Israeli entity is built on the tenets of a Zionist racist settler ideology and the premise of a chosen people, a premise that makes Zionist decision-makers believe that they and their people alone are superior to all other people on earth, that they have the right to commit the crime of genocide, thus perpetuating in a skilful reproduction all the crimes of nazism.
xxxxxThat ideology justifies uprooting, displacing and exterminating the Palestinians. This was illustrated 30 years ago by the massacre of Deir Yassin, one of the many crimes carried out by the engineers of the present Israeli aggression against Lebanon. It justifies uprooting the Palestinians, generation after generation, for the fourth, fifth or sixth time, pursuing them to refugee camps, killing Lebanese women and children and destroying orphanages, old-age homes, and even mosques and churches, while Israel enjoys membership in the United Nations, membership that is predicated upon principles that Israel has betrayed and defied one after another.
xxxxxThe premise of Zionist racial superiority – identical to the nazi ideology of racial superiority – bestows on those possessing the military might the right to draw political maps according to their expansionist plans. The plans of Begin and Sharon today are faithful translations of the theories of Hitler, Goering, Goebbels and Ribbentrop. What difference is there between the Israeli theories of Lebensraum and secure borders – acted out today against the Palestinians and Lebanese in the Middle East and against all neighboring States – and their nazi precedents, which were aimed against Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and finally the whole world? What difference is there between the Israeli bloodbaths inflicted on thousands of innocent children and civilians in Lebanon today and the nazi holocaust? What difference is there between the statements made by Hitler, Goebbels and Ribbentrop which advocated that the Third Reich should extend its domination and influence from the Atlantic Ocean to the Urals and those made by Sharon and Begin concerning the extension of Israeli domination and influence from the borders of Pakistan in the east to the Atlantic in the west and to the African deserts in the south?
xxxxxThe theories and the crimes are the same, if not further developed, and the perpetrators belong to one ideological group, the only difference being in names, places and time. The Israeli leaders today, acting on the premise of their racial superiority complex, defy the principle of sovereignty enjoyed by each and every Member State in this Assembly. Their hallucination has led them to believe that any Jew in any country and of whatever nationality should obey Israel's commands. Mr. Begin's call to French nationals of the Jewish faith to form vigilante military gangs within French society and to carry arms in violation of French laws and regulations is one of the many examples that attest to the Israeli leader's contempt for the Jewish people's commitment to their respective countries and societies, to which they have contributed and which they have enriched through the sublime spiritual values of the Judaic faith.
xxxxxSecondly, we ought to realize that what enabled Israel to implement its designs is the commitment of a super-Power to them, including the provision of extensive political, economic and military aid that permits Israel – confident of a generous supply -to implement its expansionist plans on a sustained and increasing basis, qualitatively and quantitatively, in its persistent aggression.
xxxxxThirdly, ire have to keep in mind that it is the Camp David agreements that have enabled Israel to launch its barbaric, total aggression against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples. Those accords were used to facilitate the Israeli rampage in Arab territories, the annexation of the Golan Heights and of Jerusalem, the feverish expansion and development in the building of settlements, the displacement of the people and changes in the demographic features of the occupied Arab territories and, as the culmination of all this, the latest Israeli aggression against the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples.
xxxxxMillions who are daily faced with Israeli genocide are desperately awaiting the result of this session. Also waiting are the children of the Palestinian refugee camps expelled from their homeland and living through the horrors of poverty and the fear of destruction, having to choose today between collective death or a new diaspora to await again the bombs of another Israeli aggression yet to cone. Also waiting are all those on the verge of losing faith in the conscience of humanity and in the United Nations.
xxxxxHence the General Assembly at this emergency special session is urged to adopt clear and effective resolutions and to salvage its decisions from diplomatic precautions and the vicious cycles of diplomatic bargains and compromises. The General Assembly is urged to take a definitive historic decision that will restore our faith in the principles of justice and right and in the United Nations Charter, taking into consideration the following measures:
xxxxxFirst, to stop the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples immediately.
xxxxxSecond, to ensure the immediate and unconditional Israeli withdrawal from all the Lebanese territories in order to enable Lebanon to restore its sovereignty over all of its territories, including those under the control of Israeli puppets, and to assist Lebanon in resuming its civilizing role in the interest of all its citizens, as an Arab country and as part of the Arab nation.
xxxxxThird, to call upon Israel to withdraw immediately all of its forces, from all the occupied Arab territories and to put an immediate end to its oppressive measures and practices against the Syrian nationals under occupation in the Golan Heights who are heroically resisting the Zionist occupation and the barbaric Judaization measures.
xxxxxFourth, to decide to hold Israel responsible for all the human and material losses and oblige Israel to compensate fully for them.
xxxxxFifth, to reaffirm the General Assembly's obligation to continue its support of the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people until that people is able to enjoy the right of self-determination and to establish its independent state in its homeland, Palestine.
xxxxxSixth, to support and assist the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
xxxxxSeventh, to stop the Israeli acts of aggression on the Palestinian national character, including acts of extermination and collective genocide, in different areas, including what Israel has been doing and is doing against the inhabitants of the camps, as illustrated by what happened in the Ain al-Hilweh and in Burj al-Barajneh camps and in other refugee camps. This also includes the frenzied Israeli acts in the occupied Arab territories aimed at displacing the Palestinians and forcing them off their land through oppression and. torture, and all other attempts to eradicate the Palestinian national character in the West Bank, including hit lists designating Palestinian officials.
xxxxxEighth, to recommend the imposition of sanctions against Israel under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter.
xxxxxThe Israeli crimes which are aimed at exterminating the Palestinian people by genocide, or other measures, according to the plan that Israel calls "the final solution" are repetitions of Nazi crimes condemned by the Nuremberg Tribunal. The Israeli officials and those responsible for genocide have committed acts similar to those dealt with by the Nuremberg Tribunal. The Nuremberg Tribunal described the crimes that fall within its jurisdiction, as follows:
xxxxxFirst, crimes committed against peace: That is, planning and implementing military action.
xxxxxSecond, violations of regulations prohibiting war and war crimes, namely those crimes committed against civilian populations, the cruel treatment of prisoners of war and the destruction of property, villages and residences without any military justification.
xxxxxThird, committing crimes against humanity, including genocide, displacement, or any other acts against civilians before or in the time of war.
xxxxxWhich of these crimes did Israel refrain from committing? Which of these crimes have not been continuously committed as barbarically as those of the Nazi leaders?
xxxxxBased on the available legal evidence, we urge the General Assembly to recommend the establishment of such a tribunal in accordance with legal measures provided for by the United Nations Charter, and in accordance with the Agreement pertaining to the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide adopted on 9 December 1943, based on the General Assembly resolution unanimously adopted on 13 December 1946. Article 8 of this Agreement states that any signatory party has the right to call on the specialized United Nations organs to take the necessary measures according to the Charter to implement the agreement against those who commit such crimes.
xxxxxThe League of Arab States, which is the political organ of the member Arab States, believes in the necessity of achieving peace. In a prompt and urgent manner it has so far exerted sincere efforts to further this objective.
xxxxxThe peace for which we work is a peace based on safeguarding legitimate rights and respecting the tenets of justice and dignity; the peace that we are seeking is one which will enable the people of the region to address themselves to building and development and which will parallel the efforts made at the international level for fruitful co-operation among all nations.
xxxxxThis is the peace we seek. This peace cannot be an established and permanent peace unless it is based on principles of right and justice, those principles which we believe the General Assembly must affirm in the resolutions it will adopt.
The meeting rose at 6.10 p.m.
Document Type: Meeting record, Multimedia
Document Sources: General Assembly, General Assembly 7th Emergency Special Session
Subject: Agenda Item, Golan Heights, Human rights and international humanitarian law, Jerusalem
Publication Date: 16/08/1982