Palestine question/Mideast situation/Lebanon – GA emergency session – Verbatim record

Seventh emergency special session

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

PROVISIONAL VERBATIM RECORD OF THE FIFTEENTH MEETING

Held at Headquarters, New York,

on Thursday, 22 April 1982, at 3 p.m.

 – Question of Palestine [5] (continued)

The meeting was called to order at 3 30 p.m.

AGENDA ITEM 5 (continued)

QUESTION OF PALESTINE

Mr. GONZALEZ CESAR (Mexico) (interpretation from Spanish):  As the seventh emergency special session on the question of Palestine resumes, beyond differences in perception or language regarding the significance of this diplomatic exercise we must recognize two fundamental facts: on the one hand that the situation prevailing in the Middle East continues to be a serious threat -to international peace and security; and, on the other hand, that in spite of the many partial and comprehensive efforts that have been made and notwithstanding the majority position of the international community, it has not been possible to move forward towards a concrete settlement of the essential problem of the exercise of the rights of the Palestinians.

Between the suspension of this emergency special session and its resumption, events have occurred the implications of which have been considerable both within and outside the region and which have undoubtedly had an influence on increasing tensions there. Among them should be mentioned the death of the Head of State of Egypt, the annexation of the Golan Heights, the elimination of local institutions in the Gaza Strip and on the West Bank, the recurring acts of violence against Beirut – the most recent of which occurred only a few hours ago – and the regrettable incident at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Who could doubt the importance of each and every one of those events which demonstrate how dramatically events in the Middle East are evolving?

But neither singly nor together can those events be compared to the question of Palestine in its truly crucial importance. Unless a basis is laid for a final solution to the problem of the Palestinians, it should be repeated, there can be no progress towards a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

It should be repeated on this occasion that, in strict observance of the principles of its foreign policy, Mexico has maintained an invariable position with respect to the question of Palestine.

Mexico has reaffirmed the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to the exercise of self-determination as well as to the establishment of their own national, independent and sovereign State.

Mexico has reaffirmed that a complete, just and lasting peace in the Middle East cannot be established in accordance with the principles and resolutions of our Organization without the withdrawal by Israel from all the Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories, including Jerusalem.

Mexico has reaffirmed the right of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which maintains an office of representation with the Mexican Government, to participate on an equal footing in any meetings dealing with the question of Palestine and the situation in the Middle East under the auspices of the United Nations.

Mexico has reaffirmed the terms of Security Council resolution 242 (1967) and other relevant Council resolutions and at the same time has urged Israel to withdraw from all the territories that it has occupied since June 1967.

Mexico has reiterated its firm conviction that only respect for the fundamental principles of international coexistence can produce new realities and a new balance of regional power, which is a sine qua non for the new international order which we all desire and in which ethnic, cultural and ideological differences will not be the cause of war but, rather, will bring mutual and many-sided benefits to neighboring peoples and States.

We the peoples of the third world – who had nothing to do with the holocaust, that monstrous injustice which cannot lend legitimacy to those who, instead of directing their action against the real butchers of mankind, past and present, have created new victims among innocent men and peoples – cannot disregard or forget the interplay of the interests of the colonial Powers that gave rise to the so-called Arab-Israeli conflict, which was created and has been perpetuated as a colonial legacy.

The colonial Powers, which between 1923 and 1948, under the Mandate of the League of Nations, were well aware of the conditions in and prospects for Palestine at that time, managed to turn to their benefit the vestiges of the terrible social conflict which the Second World War constituted, particularly for certain minorities.

And with intentions that one cannot assume were more humanitarian than pragmatic they introduced into the Middle East, which is such a sensitive part of the third world, the elements of a controlled instability that were favorable to their economic and strategic interests.

From that viewpoint, the Israeli people, like the Palestinian people, are a community that cannot forge its own destiny once and for all unless it is capable of achieving its complete human, political and social personality by identifying with other regional communities with which it must live in peace and co-operation.

The increase in tensions in the area makes it ever more necessary to try, with renewed political imagination, new ways of defining the parameters of the problem, looking towards its origin and its future prospects. We must consider diverse facts and interests and even opposing ideologies and find there areas of agreement in the interest of producing a new, pluralistic interdependent and peaceful society in the Middle East.

Of course we do not wish to give advice to anybody or claim that our approach is original. We wish merely to say that the settlement of the question of Palestine remains a challenge to all peace-loving peoples and countries, including Mexico.

We have exhausted all the available political vocabulary in reaffirming the rights of the Palestinian people and condemning the continued violations of international law which have stood in the way of the full exercise of their sovereignty. Here, as in the other great problems of our era, the prestige and credibility of the United Nations are at issue.

If we believed in hegemonistic or unilateral solutions to the crises of our times, then we would implicitly be accepting violations of the Charter. For that reason my delegation will strongly support any decisions emerging from this Assembly that are aimed at guaranteeing the full exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.

Mr. TROYANOVSKY (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) (interpretation from Russian): I should like first of all to express my warmest welcome to the delegation of the Palestine Liberation Organization led by the head of the Political Department of that organization, Mr. Farouk Kaddoumi, who has come here to take part in the work of the Assembly. In him we see the representative of the heroic Palestinian people, which has waged a selfless struggle for the restoration of its national rights to freedom and independence, which have been trampled underfoot.

As will be recalled, in the resolution adopted on 29 July 1980, at the seventh emergency special session, the General Assembly clearly and unambiguously reaffirmed the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and establishment of its own independent sovereign State. It currently called upon Israel to withdraw its troops from all the Arab territories it had occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem.*

(* The President took the Chair.)

To this very day, that General Assembly resolution has remained unimplemented. There has been not the slightest movement in the solving of the Palestinian question, which is at the very heart of the Middle East conflict. The complex web of Middle East problems has been drawing even tighter, and the course of a settlement of the Middle East conflict has become ever more difficult and suffered severe setbacks. The tension that has been accumulating in the region over the years has now reached such a peak as to create a direct threat to international peace and security.

As was stressed in this regard by the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, President of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, a single reckless step may cause a military conflagration to engulf the entire Middle East region, and it is difficult to say how far the sparks of that conflagration would carry.

The explosive situation that has arisen in the Middle East is the direct and inevitable consequence of Israel's continuing illegal occupation of the Arab territories it seized in June 1967 and its stubborn refusal to recognize the inalienable national rights of the Arab people of Palestine.  It is precisely the aggressive and expansionist policy pursued by Tel Aviv with the support of the United States aimed at the perpetuation of its occupation of the ancestral Arab lands and the attempts of Israel by fire and the sword to impose upon the Palestinian people the yoke of alien domination that stands in the way of a settlement of the Middle East conflict and the establishment in the region of a just and lasting peace.

It suffices to recall just a few milestones of Israeli policy over the last one and a half years to realize the true worth of Tel Aviv's hypocritical assertions concerning their aspirations to peace with the Arabs.

On 30 July 1980 – that is, one day after the conclusion of the work of the first stage of this session of the General Assembly – the Israeli Knesset adopted a law on the annexation of Jerusalem declaring that city the single, indivisible and eternal capital of Israel. That decision, which aroused the profound indignation of the whole of the international community, was vigorously condemned by the Security Council as a flagrant and naked act of arbitrariness.

Furthermore, in June 1981, aircraft of the Israeli air force carried out a piratical raid on Baghdad and destroyed the Iraqi nuclear research center, thus writing a further shameful page in the history of the Israeli policy of piracy and blackmail against sovereign States.

In July 1981 Israeli aircraft barbarously bombed Beirut and other inhabited places in Lebanon. As a result, hundreds of peaceful inhabitants basically old people, women and children – were killed and many thousands wounded.

In December 1981 Tel Aviv committed another act of international piracy by declaring its annexation of the ancestral Syrian territory of the Golan Heights. That most flagrant violation by Israel of the Charter and decisions of our Organization was duly rebuffed by the General Assembly, which at its ninth emergency special session not only vigorously condemned the actions of Israel but also called upon its Members to take effective measures against the aggressor.

In March and April of this year Israel began to take steps aimed at the virtual annexation of the West Bank of the Jordan and the Gaza Strip.

Just one day ago the Israeli militarists committed a further criminal act in Lebanon, bombing a Palestinian refugee camp and other targets in a statement of TASS published today in this regard, it is stressed that in its policy

Accordingly, in spite of all the resolutions and decisions of the United Nations, the Israeli leadership is continuing to tread the path of aggression against Arab States, entrenching itself in the lands of others which it has seized as the result of aggression, perpetuating its occupation of those lands and finally annexing them outright.

At the heart of the expansionist policy of Israel are the attempts to strip of its rights the 4 million strong Arab people of Palestine headed by its acknowledged and recognized leader the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Numerous facts, including those adduced by a considerable number of delegations in this very hall, testifying to the cruel terror and repression of the Israeli occupiers against the Palestinian population, systematic confiscation's and expropriations of ancestral Arab lands and mass expulsion from them of the indigenous Arab population – all irrefutably demonstrate that Tel Aviv is at the present time turning away from its policy of creeping annexation of Arab territories to finally swallowing them up.

It is sufficient to state that between 1967 and 1981 the total area of lands confiscated by the Israeli authorities amounted to 34 per cent of the territory of the West Bank, where 108 illegal settlements have already been established. By 1985 the occupiers are planning to build a further 70 settlements there.

As though to finally to dispel any possible doubt about the true orientation of Tel Aviv's policy, the Foreign Minister of Israel recently frankly said that peace on Israeli terms "means that the Golan Heights, Judea and Samaria must remain within the confines of the Land of Israel."

The policy of terror and violence, which has been elevated to the status of Tel Aviv State policy, reveals in its nakedness the strategic goals of the Israeli expansionists: to bring the Palestinian people to its knees, to force it to reconcile itself with the occupation of its land, to attempt to break the will of the Arab peoples struggling for the elimination of the consequences of aggression, and to dictate to them at machine-gun-point. The Israeli terms for a so-called peace.

It would appear that the time is long overdue for the Israeli leader's to understand that it is impossible to ensure reliable security for the State by pursuing a course of territorial seizures and trampling underfoot the legitimate rights of its neighbors. But, somehow, the shroud of self-aggrandizement seems to be impeding certain Israeli leaders from seeing the true situation and the state of affairs in the Middle East and the world. People in Tel Aviv are conducting themselves as though they were hoping that their ability to treat the Arabs in an unjust fashion would go on forever. Such adventurism borders on political suicide.

In that regard, the legitimate question arises: Is it not tire for the United Nations to consider the question of Israel's failure to comply with the numerous relevant resolutions of the Security Council, which are in accordance with the United Nations Charter and are considered to be binding on all Member States of the Organization?

The danger of the current situation in the Middle East has become particularly intense in connection with the ever-increasing closeness of Israel's policy to that of Washington as regards the stepping-up of the military preparations of the United States itself in the Middle and Near East. The United States is attempting to impose, at any price, its own diktat on the peoples of that area, to maintain control over their natural resources, particularly oil, and to lord it over the area as if it were in the heart of Texas or California.

For the Middle East, that line of the United States Administration has been translated into practical steps aimed at confirming and expanding the American military presence in the area. And this policy on the part of Washington is aimed at furthering the growth of Israel's expansionist designs and ambitions.

We are going into such detail about American policy in the Middle East so that it will become entirely clear to everyone that Tel Aviv would be unable to carry out such a defiant policy if it did not have behind it the comprehensive assistance and encouragement of the United States. The link here is clear-cut and direct. The United States is placing into the hands of the Israeli aggressors the most modern weapons. Many multi-million-dollar injections are helping the Israeli military machine to become more sophisticated. They attempt to paralyze the actions of the international community every time the question of condemning the aggressive actions of Israel against the Arabs arises in the United Nations. It is precisely thanks to connivance on the part of Washington as regards the aggressive policy of Israel that for so many years now it has been impossible for the international community to make any break-through in the matter of a comprehensive settlement to the Middle East conflict. This includes solution to the Palestinian problem.

Through the efforts of the United States and Israel, there emerged the notorious Camp David agreements, which created new obstacle to a Middle East settlement. The refusal of other Arab countries to allow themselves to be drawn into the Camp David conspiracy and the inability of the United States and Israel to find within the ranks of the Palestinians quislings who would be willing to take part in talks about so-called administrative autonomy give further evidence of the hopelessness and futility of the separatist approach to a solution of the Middle East problem.

Camp David underwent its proper and due collapse and defeat because, beyond it, there remained the key question of any settlement – the question of restoring the inalienable rights of the Arab people of Palestine, without which there is not and cannot be any lasting or just peace in the Middle East.

The true essence of the American-Israeli alliance is now becoming particularly obvious – that alliance which is directed against the vital interests of the Arab countries and peoples. Washington, having declared the Middle and Near East as spheres of vital interest, is attempting to surround them with a network of military bases and has hastily knocked together the rapid deployment force under the screen of the Camp David agreement, it is implementing the placement in the Sinai peninsula of so-called multinational – which are, however, in actual fact American occupying forces and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces, and is stepping up its presence in the Indian Ocean.

The consolidation of the strategic co-operation between the United States and Israel could not fail to have an effect also on Washington's position in matters relating to a Middle East settlement. During the last year we have seen the United States continuing to creep gradually into a position that is openly anti-Arab, not only on all key aspects of a Middle East settlement but even on those questions to which United States representatives have in the past attempted to demonstrate an approach which had at least the appearance of objectivity.

Today, official Washington is preserving a sepulchral silence in the face of violence and terror brought down upon the inhabitants of the occupied territories by the Israeli authorities. It has not condemned by a single word the actions of its ally in the Golan Heights or in Jerusalem and it has silently supported the colonial policy of colonization the latter is pursuing on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.

Furthermore, the United States is openly covering up the crimes of the Israeli occupiers and systematically preventing the adoption by the Security Council of effective measures which would check the aggressor, it is thereby encouraging Israel's ambitions and expansionist claims.

After all, the fact that in the present month alone, in the Security Council, the United States has twice voted against resolutions relating to actions by Israel in the occupied territories surely demonstrates the direct participation by Washington in the aggressive actions by Tel Aviv against the Arabs.

The whole course of events in the Middle East serves to confirm this obvious truth: that the Arabs will never resign themselves to the occupation of their land and will not compromise their freedom and independence. In the struggle for the protection of their sovereign rights and the elimination of the consequences of Israeli aggression, the Arab countries and peoples can count firmly on the assistance of the Soviet Union. On the basis of our policy of principle, we have consistently supported the just cause of the Arab people of Palestine, which by their valiant struggle have earned for themselves the sympathy and respect of the whole world. In this struggle the Palestinian people have won considerable successes. They have won for themselves the position of a vanguard in the Arab national liberation movement, and their political avant-garde, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), has won broad international recognition in the United Nations and elsewhere as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

At the meeting held in October 1981 with the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the PLO, Mr. Arafat, the General Secretary and President of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Mr. Brezhnev, once again confirmed that the Soviet Union, faithful to Leninist principles of solidarity with countries struggling for their national liberation, will always be on the side of the just cause of the Palestinians.

The experience of history convinces us that only through a comprehensive political settlement of the existing conflict – and certainly not by blackmail, threats or an arms race – can the atmosphere of menace in the Middle East be defused and its peoples be ensured peace and security; only in that way can the Middle East problem and the question at the very heart of it the restoration of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people be solved.

The basis for such a settlement, in the view of the Soviet Union, should consist of three organically inter-linked points: the cessation of Israeli occupation of all the Arab lands seized in 1967, the implementation of the inalienable rights of the Arab people of Palestine, including their right to the establishment of their own State; and, finally, guaranteeing the security and sovereignty of all States of the region, including Israel.  This entirely realistic and just basis for a solution of the long-draft-out Middle East conflict is in keeping with the principles and objectives of the United Nations Charter, the will of the international community and the interests of all peoples of the Middle East, without exception.

As has been shown by the tragic events of recent years, the Middle East problem is so complex that it is possible to settle it only by means of honest collective efforts on the part of all interested parties, including of course the Palestine Liberation Organization as an equal participant in such a settlement. This is precisely the point of departure of the Soviet Union in its approach to the Middle East in general and to the solution of the Palestinian problem in particular.

Mr. TREKI (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) (interpretation from Arabic):  Once again we meet in special session to discuss the question of the Palestinian people, the gravest human question and the greatest tragedy in the modern history of mankind: the tragedy of a people displaced from its land so that a fascist, racist State could be established on its ruins; the tragedy of a people massacred, a people against which the worst crimes are committed every day, even in territories of neighboring States where it had sought refuge; the tragedy of a people for which the United Nations assumed historical responsibility by its approval of the establishment of the racist, Nazi State, the State of the Zionist entity.

For more than 30 years this gang, supported by imperialism, has been clearly proving to the world its fascist, racist, Nazi nature, disregarding the most elementary human norms, flouting all international rules and standards, and basing its persistent policy on the "logic" of oppression, genocide and brute force. That is the nature of this regime The danger will increase daily not only for the Palestinian people and neighboring Arab States but also for world peace and peoples' liberation movements throughout the world.

For more than 30 years we have been meeting and taking decisions until the United Nations archives are full of futile resolutions. The racist, Nazi gang has not respected any of these resolutions; therefore we have to reconsider and evaluate the past 30 years and study the prospects for the future and the risks for the international community as a result of the Nazi policy pursued by the State of the Zionist entity. I do not think that that logical conclusion reached after a realistic and objective analysis of our failure until now to do Justice to the Palestinian people by enabling it to exercise its right to self-determination as other peoples do, and return to its homeland poses any difficulty.

The tragedy lies in the fact that the result of that analysis, as we all knew shows that the reason for the Zionist arrogance and intransigence is the United Nations inability to implement its resolutions and the position taken by the United States of America which despises all values – including the values of the American people and its struggle for freedom – and today supports Zionist neo-Nazism.

The Palestinian people is in a position similar to that of the people of South Africa, where another fascist, racist regime commits murder with American weapons and funds. United States support for and adoption of the Zionist-Nazi policy, as well as its condoning of continued aggression, is the main reason for this Organization's failure to find a just and peaceful solution of the Middle East problem. I can even say that the policy of the United States Administration is the main reason and factor behind the obstruction of all international resolutions – the resolutions of the international community – for the establishment of peace and security in the Middle East region.

Its representatives talk about human rights, but they continue to apply a policy designed to violate human rights and values, as though human rights were only the rights of the white man and did not apply to Palestinian, African and Latin American peoples, because they are third-class peoples.  For two days they have been commemorating the memory of the Jews murdered by Nazism, yet they bless and support neo-Nazism – the genocide, murder and annihilation of the Palestinian people. What difference is there between the two forms of Nazism -except that Zionist neo-Nazism has committed more crimes than Hitler's. One day history will record that the terrorist Begin was more of a Nazi than Hitler, and that the State of the Zionist entity was a greater danger to mankind than Hitler's Nazi Germany before the war.

That danger affects the whole of mankind. Perhaps its first victims is the American people itself, since the Zionist-Nazi movement controls the United States Administration and directs it in accordance with its interests inside the United States and abroad.

The nuclear armaments policy and the interventionist policy pursued by the United States Administration which will inevitably lead the world to a nuclear war are but a result of the control by racist Nazism of that Administration.

The United States of America's use of the right of veto two days ago against a draft resolution that would otherwise have been adopted unanimously by the Security Council to denounce the fascist actions of the racist Begin Government in the occupied territories proves the complete alignment of the United States Administration with the gang which commits terrorism, murder and other crimes. Libya's long-held view that such use of the veto is incompatible with equity, justice and equality is not mistaken. Facts have proved it. The veto is thus being used against the will of the entire international community to obstruct all relevant resolutions of the international Organization that have been rejected by one State. We will therefore have to consider this matter seriously during the next session.

We heard the statement of the representative of the Nazi gang; we heard his insolence and his contempt and disregard for the international community. And we have now seen the reply given to this Assembly: the Zionist aggression waged with Phantom aeroplanes – against the people of Lebanon and against the Palestinian refugee camps. That is the logic of force, the answer that the Nazi Fascist gang will give to any resolution this Assembly may adopt.

The delegation of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya denounces these barbarous acts and reaffirms the solidarity of its people with the fraternal people of Lebanon and with the Palestinian revolution under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

The Palestinian people and the Arab nation are in despair; they have lost faith in United Nations resolutions. Those resolutions are so numerous that it is difficult – and pointless – for us Arabs to count them. The Arab nation turned to the international community to preserve legitimacy and to maintain peace. Patience has its limits, but so does the logic of force. Before long the international community will find that it is too late, and that peace – which we are all eager to preserve has been undermined and is not to be recovered.

The fact is that the division of the Arab nation is the main reason for the present situation. It is also a fact that the disregard of the United States Administration – which is controlled by Nazi Zionism for the Arab will has come about as a result of that division. It is with great regret that I say that this has enabled the United States Administration to make use of Arab funds to support the Zionist gang, to annihilate the people of Palestine and to devastate neighboring Arab countries. But how long will that go on? It will not go on for long. The Arab nation is a great nation, with its roots deep in history and with a great culture, and it is capable of rising up and unifying its strength to confront neo-Nazism just as in the past it confronted, and defeated, the forces of Crusader imperialism.

The practices of imperialism, and its attempts to divide the Arab nation, as well as the imposition of solutions on that nation through the signing of the Camp David agreement and other fraudulent agreements in an attempt to pull Egypt out of the Arab ranks, are doomed to failure. The Arab nation has challenged and defeated those agreements, and it will challenge and defeat this neo-Nazi imperialist attack. It will not be long before Arab funds and united Arab efforts will be used to eliminate Zionist arrogance. It will not be long before Egypt takes its place in the Arab ranks and assumes its vanguard role against imperialism and Zionist nazism.

History, teaches us that the will of peoples is invincible. Where is the Shah of Iran, the ally of imperialism? Where is Somoza of Nicaragua, the lackey of imperialism? The struggle of the peoples proves once more that their will is invincible. Just as nazism disappeared from. Germany and fascism from Italy, just as the people of Europe achieved liberation, just as the Libyan people achieved liberation after a 30-year struggle against Italian fascism, just as Zimbabwe achieved liberation and put an end to racist Rhodesia, so too will Palestine achieve liberation and put an end to racist neo-Nazism.  And one day the American people also will liberate itself from the control of Nazi racism.

Two days ago, Mr. President, at the first meeting of this resumed session, you drew the attention of the Assembly to a letter from the Secretary-General concerning the fact that a State, unable because of its economic situation to pay its assessed contribution, stands liable to be deprived of its right to participate and vote at a time when the State of the Zionist Nazi gangs, which has been occupying land by force and violating United Nations resolutions constantly for more than 30 years, is allowed to remain a Member of the United Nations. It is time to be consistent, to apply our Charter and to respect our own resolutions. The expulsion from the United Nations of the racist Zionist Nazi enemy is the least that this Assembly should do. We should not be intimidated by the threat of the withdrawal from the Organization of the United States of America; the international community can survive without the United States of America. I might even say that the transfer of the United Nations could be a blessing for the American people, for it would then know the truth about the control exercised over it by Nazi Zionism and be able to liberate itself and contribute with us to the achievement of peace for all mankind. It would also be able then to harness its potential in its own interest and eliminate unemployment – for there are 9 million unemployed Americans – instead of harnessing its potential to help racist nazism to strike at and oppress peoples, thus jeopardizing international peace and security.

American funds are now being spent in the Arab region in the interests of the Zionist enemy, in order to strike at the peoples of the region; millions of black Americans, who are afflicted with poverty and unemployment, are deprived of those funds.

We must draw the attention of the President, the Administration and the public: opinion of the United States to the dangers of the path along which Nazi Zionism wants to drag the world: the path of war and destruction, which are the true nature of that racist neo-nazism.  The United States, which is the greatest Power in the world, must become aware of its responsibility and must shoulder that responsibility. It must become aware that it cannot sacrifice the world to meet the desire of the racist Nazi gang for control, murder and crime. That will bring only destruction to peace and security.

Recent times have witnessed numerous crimes committed by the Nazi Zionist gang in Palestine, such as continuous aggression against the Palestinian people at home and abroad, continuous aggression against Lebanon, the annexation of the Syrian Arab Golan Heights, the bombardment of the peaceful nuclear research reactor in Baghdad, the violation of the sanctity of the Al Aqsa Mosque and the murder of worshippers at their prayers. The United Nations has adopted resolutions condemning those barbarous actions by the State of the Nazi Zionist gang – but to no avail.  That gang, supported by the United States, has unabashedly persisted in escalating its criminal acts.

What, then, is required in the face of this paralysis caused by the position taken by the United States of America? We must resort to practical measures to put an end to this aggression and to command respect for the international will: First, we must help the Palestinian people in the legitimate war of liberation it is waging on behalf of the international community against neo-nazism. Secondly, we must adopt a resolution expelling the State of the Zionist non-entity from the United Nations on the grounds of its not being a peace-loving State and of its non-compliance with and lack of respect for the Charter and resolutions of the United Nations. In this connection, we must not lose ourselves in a legalistic labyrinth, but must base our actions on international legitimacy. A General Assembly resolution expelled Formosa and restored to China its rights, and South Africa has been prevented from participating in the deliberations of the General Assembly. We must do the same with regard to the State of the Zionist entity: there is no difference between Nazi racism in occupied Palestine and Nazi racism in South Africa.

Thirdly, we must clearly condemn and denounce the American Administration's abuse of the right of veto to obstruct United Nations resolutions, which has led to the encouragement of aggression and its persistence.

Fourthly, we must seriously consider amending the United Nations Charter in such a way as to abolish the veto and to establish equality among peoples.

Fifthly, if the United States persists in obstructing United Nations resolutions, in violating the United Nations Charter and in supporting the Zionist entity, we must also seriously consider the transfer of United Nations Headquarters to another site.

That is the least we can do. This is our last chance. Any failure now will cause the Palestinian people, the Arab people – indeed, all peace-loving peoples – to lose faith in this Organization once and for all. Our failure to deal seriously with the situation will only serve to aggravate tensions in the Middle East and encourage Nazi-racism in its racist policy, which is dragging the world towards nuclear holocaust.

However, the Arab nation, the peoples of the third world and the socialist forces are capable of rebuffing that aggression. Indeed, the day is not far off when it will be the imperialists and racists who will be coming to complain to this Organization, instead of the Arab nations, as has been the custom until now.

Mr. President, we have full confidence in your wisdom, and in the wisdom of the United Nations to adopt the right resolution.

Mr. KAMIL (Indonesia): Only yesterday, Israel once again loosed its war machine upon neighboring Lebanon, spreading devastation and killing innocent civilians. This wanton attack violated the precarious cease-fire and might even be a prelude to another massive attack by Israel against its neighbors.

It was in 1980 that the seventh emergency special session adopted two important resolutions to provide the framework for a solution to the question of Palestine. Among other things, they reaffirmed the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including its right to establish an independent State. However to this day to our dismay and disappointment, those resolutions have remained dormant. Instead of progress towards the peaceful solution we had all hoped for, we have witnessed a deterioration of the situation, particularly in the West Bank the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem.

While we are faced today with several problems that threaten world peace, nowhere has protracted irresolution carried with it such danger and such a sense of failure as the inability of our Organization for over three decades to discharge its responsibility in the case of Palestine.  My delegation, therefore, deems it important that this session should display a greater sense of urgency in its consideration of this critical situation and the challenge posed to us all.

At the outset, let me tell you that the traditional and unswerving support of the Government and people of Indonesia for the just cause of the Arab people of Palestine was fully reflected in a declaration made by President Suharto while addressing the House of Representatives on 9 January, in which he stressed the resolute opposition of Indonesia to the arrogant policies of Israel. Furthermore, my President characterized Israel's wanton acts as constituting a serious danger to world peace and order.  Indonesia remains fully committed to the cause of Palestinian self-determination, sovereignty and independence under the undisputed leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and within the United Nations and other forums my country has without exception, supported all resolutions in defense of Palestinian national rights.

For a while it seemed that the international community's response to Israel's challenge provided some ground for hope and optimism.  The seventh emergency special session, of 1980, confirmed Palestinian rights and expressed international solidarity with the people of Palestine.  Furthermore, it was in the same year that the Security Council unanimously adopted a series of resolutions which deplored the policy of settlements and also determined that all measures taken to change the status of Jerusalem had no legal validity. It also censured Israel's declaration of the Holy City as its capital and requested members to move their embassies from Jerusalem.

Noteworthy also was the 1980 Venice Declaration of the European Economic Community, which recognized the legitimacy of the desire of the Palestinian people fully to exercise its right to self-determination within the framework of a comprehensive settlement. Although that Declaration fell far short of the minimum requirements for a just solution, it none the less constituted a step in the right direction.

Those favorable developments must have warned Israel of the imminent dangers to its policies and underscored the urgency with which the international community views the need for its immediate and complete withdrawal to facilitate a comprehensive settlement. Indeed, Israel must have realized that time was running out; therefore, it began accelerating its illegal policies, as evidenced among other things, the annexation of the Golan Heights of Syria, the rapid increase in the number of settlements and the imposition of civilian rule to consolidate its hold over the occupied territories. Aggressive actions have not been limited to those territories but have also been extended to those of Israel's neighbors, such as Lebanon and Iraq. These military actions have been condemned by the overwhelming majority of the Member States.

In the face of these acts of creeping annexation, the world turned to the Security Council in the hope that it would act expeditiously and forthrightly to implement the relevant resolutions, as well as the recommendations of the committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. However, those hopes were crippled by the veto, which on previous occasions was exercised mostly by three members but which is now consistently exercised by only one permanent member of the Council. It was this inability of the Council to act that prompted the meeting of the Co-ordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Countries, held in Kuwait early this month, to call upon the President of the General Assembly to convene this emergency special session. Even after the Kuwait meeting another veto was cast by the same permanent member, frustrating the hope of those who had believed that the Council would act responsibly.

The veto, therefore, has proved to be a formidable barrier in the Security Council to the implementation of meaningful proposals that would have been useful to break the stalemate. The unwillingness and the inability of the permanent members of the Security Council to work together and come to grips with the worsening Middle East problem have brought us to the present dangerous situation. It is sad to note that for too long the Middle East conflict has been used in a political ball-game between the major Powers, as well as domestically by some of those Powers themselves.

Encouraged and emboldened by those vetoes, the occupier has embarked, in recent months, on an unprecedented escalation of violence against the Arab population. Since December of last year alone, numerous unarmed Palestinians have been killed, scores of indigenous inhabitants have been arrested, many more have been driven from their homes and their national life disrupted or destroyed. My Government takes this opportunity to pay a tribute to the valiant freedom-fighters of Palestine who are determined more than ever, and against overwhelming odds, to oppose the occupying force.

Just last week the world witnessed a most heinous act which was grounded in contempt for the rights of the Palestinian people and the Islamic faith, the sacrilege at the first Kiblah of Islam – the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque in the Holy City of Jerusalem. My Government issued a statement condemning that act of sacrilege in the strongest terms and expressing its indignation at the loss of lives and the injuries suffered in that incident. The statement of my Government added that the Indonesian people, 90 per cent of whom are Moslems, representing the largest Moslem population of the world, feel deeply offended by the attack, which they regard as an attack on Islam itself. Finally, the statement demanded that Israel should end its campaign of terror and withdraw from all occupied Arab territories.

The intensification of oppression against the Arab and Palestinian population, the massive deployment of Israeli forces and its now obvious intention to annex all of the occupied territories underscore the seriousness of the challenge confronting the United Nations today.

Faced with this rapidly deteriorating situation caused by the determination of Israel to absorb all of the occupied territories, the General Assembly could not allow the United Nations to become immobilized and powerless in the implementation of its resolutions by reason of the inability of the Security Council to fulfil its primary responsibility.  The fate of the Organization. in which all Members place great hopes for the prevention of aggression and the maintenance of peace and security, is in jeopardy unless this Assembly adopts clear and firm measures to end Israeli defiance of the will of the international community. My delegation believes that this session should take effective actions to compel Israel to conform to international law and to heed relevant resolutions as called. for in the final communiqué of the Kuwait meeting.

In this regard, my delegation wishes to stress again, at the risk of being redundant, the crucial role of the Security Council in exercising, its primary responsibility in the maintenance of peace and security. It must act to defuse this dangerous situation before the region is engulfed in another round of hostilities that may lead to world conflagration. All of its permanent members should become fully involved and respond positively in the search for peace and not allow the solution to this explosive situation to be the monopoly of this or that major Power alone.

Indonesia stands for the security and sovereignty of all States in the region, as called for in the very first report of the Committee or the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian people. However, the greatest obstacle to peace in the region is the insistence of one of the parties to the conflict on being independent and secure, at the expense of the independence and security of the other parties. A policy of expansion through annexation on the basis of force of arms will never achieve the permanent peace that Israel has often claimed it is seeking. If anything, such policies exacerbate the worsening situation in the region and seriously threaten global peace.

Finally, the Extraordinary Ministerial Meeting of the Co-ordinating Bureau in Kuwait considered the recent ominous developments extensively and reached a consensus decision on actions and measures to be taken to ensure the restoration of Palestinian rights. These include a call upon the Secretary-General of the United Nations to initiate contacts with all parties in the search for a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the conflict. Further, as called for by that meeting, such efforts must be complemented by a resolute recognition by all permanent members of the Security Council of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and the pivotal role that the Palestine Liberation Organization must play in any negotiations resulting from the initiative undertaken by the Secretary-General.

We therefore urge this Assembly to endorse the decisions contained in the Kuwait final communiqué and program of action. Through such a concrete expression of solidarity, we shall respond effectively by securing the objective of Palestinian statehood and sovereignty so that the Palestinians too can take their rightful place among the comity of nations.

Mr. MARINESCU (Romania) (interpretation from French):  Sir, I should like to join the other delegations in expressing satisfaction at seeing you once again serving as President of the General Assembly. We express the hope that under your highly competent leadership this important emergency special session will bring us closer to a solution to one of the most serious and complicated problems before the world.

This emergency special session resumes its work in conditions of extreme gravity for peace in the Middle East and in the world, following the acts of violence and repression against the population of the occupied Arab and Palestinian territories  – and there has now been new military action by Israel in southern Lebanon. The primary cause of this situation is without doubt the prolongation of the unlawful occupation of those territories and the absence of any progress towards solving the central problem of the Middle East, namely, the realization of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

Romania has always attached special importance to the settlement of the problem of the Palestinian people. The Romanian people, who throughout their long history have themselves waged a constant struggle for their freedom and independence and for their economic and social progress, fully understand the aspirations of the Palestinian people to affirm their national identity, to obtain recognition of their inalienable national rights and to lead a free and dignified life. Romania has frequently affirmed, through its highest authority, President Nicolae Ceausescu, its solidarity with and support for the cause of the Palestinian people, the achievement of their legitimate rights and aspirations to a free and independent existence in their own national State, and all efforts to bring just, lasting and comprehensive peace to the Middle East.

From the very beginning the Romanian Government adopted a clear position with regard to the overriding need for a just political settlement of the problem of the Palestinian people and the ways and means of achieving this objective, which is of crucial importance to peace in the Middle East and the world. We have always maintained that the Palestinian people, like all other peoples, have the inalienable right to organize their life in accordance with their national interests and to create their own independent State in keeping with the right of all peoples to self-determination, which is a principle applicable to all peoples of the world without exception. As a concrete expression of this policy, Romania was one of the first countries in the world to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, to accept permanent Palestinian representation in Bucharest and to foster relations of friendship and co-operation with the PLO based on equality and mutual respect. That is also why my country was among those which took the initiative of requesting the inscription of the question of Palestine on the agenda of the General Assembly, and why it co-sponsored the draft resolution which granted the PLO observer status in the United Nations.

On this occasion, I should like to express my country's firm intention – which has been affirmed at many meetings between the President of Romania, Nicolae Ceausescu, and the Chairman of the Executive Council of the PLO, Yasser Arafat, and with other leaders of the PLO, as well as in all United Nations bodies – to give, also in future, its political, diplomatic, material and moral support to the Palestinian people and to contribute effectively to the building of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

As has been repeatedly stressed by my country, and also by the great majority of States in the world, the solution of the problem of the Palestinian people on the basis of respect for their national rights, is the key to a peaceful settlement in the Middle East. We are more than ever convinced that without a just political settlement of this problem it will be impossible to establish a viable and lasting peace in the Middle East and all the peoples in the region will remain exposed to ever more destructive conflicts.

As a staunch promoter of the right of peoples to self-determination and national independence, Romania considers that everything contributing to the affirmation and promotion of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people is in keeping with the interests of peace; on the other hand, any failure to recognize these inalienable rights or any violation of them in any form whatever is diametrically opposed to the interests of peace and the establishment of normal relations of mutual trust.

In that spirit, Romania has firmly opposed the illegal measures and, acts of violence perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinian people in the occupied territories following the 1967 war and also its acts of force against neighboring Arab States. We have taken a strong position against Israeli actions, in violation of the Charter and international law, to annex East Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights and against the Israeli military attacks in Lebanon and on the Iraqi nuclear installations.  Romania has resolutely rejected Israel's illegal practices in the occupied Palestinian and Arab territories, including the creation of Israeli settlements in these territories, the violation of the Arab historical and cultural heritage and the repression and discrimination to which the Palestinian and Arab inhabitants are subjected.

The succession of increasingly dangerous events in the Middle East shows quite clearly that real peace and security cannot be achieved by the use of force, by failing to recognize international law and order and by denying the right of other peoples to a free and independent existence.  On the contrary, the facts show decisively that force and war, far from contributing to the solution of problems, only further complicate an already grave situation and set the stage for further, ever more destructive, armed conflicts.

We are deeply concerned at the absence of any progress towards a solution of the fundamental problem of the Palestinian people: this can only lead to an increasingly more dangerous situation threatening peace in the region and throughout the world.

The extremely grave situation of tension that persists in the Middle East requires all. States to act in a spirit of lofty responsibility in order that the problem may be solved urgently through negotiations and that a just and lasting peace ray be established among all the peoples in the region.

It was with deep concern and disapproval that public opinion in Romania learned of the extremely repressive measures adopted by the Israeli authorities against the Palestinian population of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Against the background of the population's opposition to the occupation regime in these territories, new elements of tension have been added to those created by such actions of the Israeli authorities as the dismissal of the Arab mayors who had been legally elected by the Palestinian people, the imposition of a state of siege in numerous localities and the brutal suppression of strikes and street demonstrations, resulting in dead and wounded victims, as well as other measures aimed at strengthening Israeli military domination.

As these new actions were taken shortly after the decision to annex the Golan Heights – a decision-which was in violation of the basic norms of international law and which was taken in spite of the protests of world public opinion – they can only poison the atmosphere in the region and create further obstacles to the search for a comprehensive solution to the Middle East conflict and increase tension, which is of course contrary to the interests of the peoples of the region including the people of Israel.

It is a tragic error to believe that the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people to live in their own free, sovereign and independent State can be thwarted by armed repression. On the contrary, repressive actions can only increase resistance and provoke fresh explosions of violence and new dangers to peace and stability in the area.

The courageous struggle of the Palestinian people on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip and their fierce resistance enjoy the warm sympathy and full support of the people and the Government of Romania, the whole of public opinion in the Socialist Republic of Romania and all people of good faith in the world, who respect the sacred right of every people to be free and to choose its own future.

The interests of the peoples of the region and the interests of-world peace require that the Israeli authorities put an end to their illegal and repressive measures against the population of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and respect the relevant resolutions of the United Nations, which expressly provide that Israel must withdraw from the Arab territories occupied since 1967. We must never forget that these repressive actions are but the extreme expression of a situation the cause of which is the illegal prolongation of Israel's occupation of these territories and that foreign occupation, in whatever circumstances, remains by its very nature an illegal and unjust factual situation contrary to the fundamental principles of the Charter and international law.

In the present particularly serious international situation, resulting from the policy of maintaining and dividing up spheres of influence, from the policy of force and. the threat of force and of interference in the affairs of other States, it is necessary for all States and all peoples to redouble their efforts to speed up the solution of conflict situations and hotbeds of tension between States, as well as all contentious problems, exclusively by peaceful means. Given the impact of the Middle East conflict on the world climate as a whole, and given the explosive situation that has arisen in the region, which entails unforeseeable risks with most dangerous consequences for peace in the region and in the world, it is imperative to act urgently by all political and diplomatic means to resolve this conflict and to establish peace in the Middle East.*

(* Mr. Mirani Zentar (Morocco), Vice-President, took the Chair.)

From the very beginning of the 1967 war, Romania clearly expressed its profound conviction – which it has frequently repeated since then – that a viable response to the problems confronting the States and the peoples of the Middle East can be found only in a peaceful settlement that is in keeping with the basic principles of the Charter and international law, that is really in the legitimate and vital interests of all the States and the peoples of the region and that contributes to strengthening peace, security and international co-operation.

As is well known, Romania has firmly and constantly favored a political settlement of the conflict in the Middle East, a settlement that would lead to a just and lasting peace, based on Israel's withdrawal from the Arab territories that it has occupied since the 1967 war, to the solution of the Palestinian problem through the exercise by the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination, including the creation of their own state and to the safeguarding of the independence, integrity and sovereignty of all the States in the region. Romania's Head of State recently stated that in order to establish a just and lasting peace in the Middle East,

This debate on the question of Palestine once again brings out the need to enhance the role of the United Nations in the settlement of the situation in the Middle East. The very idea of a negotiated settlement, for which in our view there is no reasonable alternative, requires as a logical practical corollary the creation of such an international framework, under the auspices of the United Nations.

In the spirit of the communiqué of the Extraordinary Ministerial Meeting of the Co-ordination Bureau of the non-aligned countries, which has just taken place in Kuwait, we believe that the Secretary-General of the United Nations should undertake the necessary contacts with the parties to the Arab-Israeli conflict in order to find concrete ways and means towards a just and lasting settlement that would lead to peace in the area.

On the same lines, we should like to remind the Assembly of the idea that the Romanian delegation put forward on 5 February 1982, during the emergency special session on the annexation by Israel of the Syrian Golan Heights – that is, the idea that it would be useful for the General Assembly to decide to establish a committee made up of representatives of States Members of the United Nations to undertake efforts to achieve a comprehensive settlement of the Middle East conflict in the interests of the respective peoples and of the cause of peace and security in the region and throughout the world. We believe that that idea is still valid, especially in view of the present extremely serious international situation, in which any path that could lead to a peaceful settlement should be explored.

On the basis of the need for a political solution to the Middle East conflict, and reaffirming their solidarity with the just cause of the Palestinian people and their determination to work tirelessly for an over-all settlement leading to a just and lasting peace in the region, the Romanian Government and public opinion in my country believe that the Israeli authorities must immediately nullify the unlawful actions that have been taken, put an end to repression in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and adopt a realistic attitude in accordance with the requirements of the process of peaceful settlement of the conflict, in order to ensure a calm and stable atmosphere in the region.

In this connection, as representatives of my country have so often stressed, it is high time that the Government of Israel understood that the security and independence of its country can be ensured only if it respects the security and independence of other countries and the right of the Palestinian people to live in freedom, to have their own independent State in conditions of a comprehensive peace guaranteeing all the States and peoples of the region their right to independence and territorial integrity.

Deploring the latest Israeli air raid on Beirut and other parts of Lebanon, which has caused considerable material damage and loss of human life, we cannot fail to note that such acts, since they make it more difficult to begin a genuine peace process leading to a political settlement, show once again how necessary it is for all the parties to the conflict to demonstrate restraint and put an end to all acts of aggression and violence.

Before concluding, I should like to reaffirm Romania's determination to continue acting in such a way as to contribute to the realization of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, to a just and lasting settlement of the problems of the Middle East and to the achievement of a comprehensive peace in the region.

We express the hope that the present debate and the decisions that the General Assembly will adopt at the conclusion of this emergency special session make a genuine contribution to the attainment of these important objectives so crucial to international peace, justice and security.

Mr. OYONO (United Republic of Cameroon) (interpretation from French):  We are meeting again, at this resumed seventh emergency special session of the General Assembly, to consider anew the thorny question of Palestine.  This session, as we know, is a resumption of the one held in July 1980, as the conclusion of which the General Assembly, in its resolution ES-7/2 of 29 July 1980, unequivocally reaffirmed the framework for a just and lasting settlement of the question of Palestine.

Basing itself on its many previous resolutions and those of the Security Council, the General Assembly reaffirmed 21 months ago the fundamental principle of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force and demanded that Israel should start before 15 November 1980 to withdraw completely and unconditionally from all the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967.

The Assembly also reaffirmed the right of the Palestinian people "to self-determination without external interference, and to national independence and sovereignty" (resolution ES-7/2, op. para. 4 (a)).

The resumption of this emergency special session unfortunately demonstrates not only that nothing has been done about the recommendations of the Assembly, but that indeed the situation in the Middle East has constantly deteriorated because of the intransigence of the Israeli Government and all its maneuvers aimed at annexing the occupied Arab territories.

In fact, in addition to the Holy City of Jerusalem, whose status Israel has taken it upon itself unilaterally to change, the Syrian Golan Heights has also had imposed upon it legislation and an administration contrary to international law and to the recommendations of the Security Council.

Last month, in pursuance of its policy of rampant annexation and intimidation of the people, Israel had no hesitation in dismissing the mayors of Nablus and Ramallah, who were striving bravely to carry out the mandate democratically entrusted to them by their fellow citizens.

And today, when our Assembly has been meeting for two days in another attempt to find a peaceful solution to the tragic problem of the Middle East, Israel, again showing its disrespect for this Organization and the rest of the world community, has sent its armed forces against the sovereign State of Lebanon, indiscriminately bombing the defenseless civilian population and taking a considerable toll in human life and material damage.

These are all actions that are unacceptable to the international community. They display the deliberate intent of the Israeli Government to flout the provisions of the United Nations Charter and the relevant resolutions, particularly Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973).

This arrogant attitude towards the world Organization cannot but compromise the efforts being made by various parties to defuse tension, which has constantly and dangerously been on the rise in the region, thus maintaining a vicious circle of violence and depredation and creating a chronic climate of hatred which from time to time explodes into acts that outrage the human conscience.

Thus, after the fire in the Al Aqsa Mosque a few years ago, we were all stunned on 11 April last to learn that an Israeli soldier in uniform and armed with an assault rifle had gone on a savage shooting-spree against the crowd of Moslem worshippers on the esplanade of that Mosque. That odious act of desecration took a toll of 24 victims, two of whom have already died.

We cannot condemn these acts of barbarity without at the same time denouncing the policy of State terrorism and repression of the people of the occupied territories which promotes and encourages such acts.

There can be no lasting peace in the Middle East until Israel, whose right to live in security within internationally recognized boundaries we have always recognized, makes up its mind to acknowledge all the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and the need to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the neighboring States.

For its part, Cameroon will continue vigorously to reaffirm the conditions for normalization of the situation in the Middle East as defined by our Organization, conditions that have recently been stressed once again by the Non-Aligned Movement at the meeting of its Co-ordinating Bureau in Kuwait from 5 to 8 April this year.

It must first of all be recognized that the fate of the Palestinian people, which is at present reduced to the status of stateless refugees, constitutes the very heart of the problem of the Middle East. It is therefore clearly an illusion to think that a satisfactory and lasting settlement of this problem can be achieved until the Palestinian people is in a position fully to exercise its inalienable rights, including its right to self-determination without outside interference and its right to independence and national sovereignty.

Any process of settlement of this problem must therefore include the Palestinian people struggling for its rights under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and it must be assured an equal role with the other parties to the conflict.

The tragic events which have been going on for several months now on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and which have led the people permanently to rally round the banner of the Palestine Liberation Organization to resist oppression, eloquently demonstrate that it is futile to attempt to gag that people or to separate it from its sole authentic representative.

Finally, it is clearly now more than ever necessary for Israel to withdraw unconditionally from all the Arab territories occupied by force, so as to demonstrate its determination to live in peace with its neighbors and to set its feet resolutely and without ulterior motives on the path of sincere and constructive negotiation.

It is to that end that Cameroon has always worked and will continue to work, convinced as it is of the need to thwart the hegemonistic designs of the great Powers in the Middle East and to promote in that part of the world, the cradle of such great religious and cultural currents, a climate of peace and understanding and even fruitful co-operation.

Mrs. NGUYEN HGOC DUNG (Viet Nam) (interpretation from French):  Together with the representatives of nearly all the States Members of the United Nations, the delegation of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam is participating in this seventh emergency special session of the General Assembly on the question of Palestine with deep feelings of concern and indignation.

For many years, from one session to the next, all the bodies of the United Nations, including the Security Council and the General Assembly have one after another on many occasions been seized of urgent questions concerning the Middle East resulting from the acts of terrorism and vandalism perpetrated by Israeli forces against the Arab populations of the occupied territories.

To each new session, as we can note, there corresponds a new escalation, in number as well as seriousness, of the practices of the criminal policy of aggression, expansion and annexation pursued by Israeli occupying authorities against the Arab States and peoples, in defiance of all international condemnation.

For many decades, not a day has gone by without acts of killing and repression taking place in the occupied regions, and each day those acts are more cynical. Last March there was armed repression of the population of the West Bank of the Jordan, the dissolution of the Municipal Council of El Bireh, the arrest and deportation to an unknown destination of the elected mayors of Nablus and Ramallah. There then followed, as the Assembly knows, the sadistic and unprecedented armed attack by Israel, which opened fire on the crowd of worshippers praying in the Al Aqsa Mosque and at the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem on Sunday, 11 April.

All mankind, regardless of political or religious conviction, cannot fail to condemn this cold-blooded murder, a deliberate act of sacrilege against worshippers at prestigious monuments venerated by the Islamic community throughout the world.

As recently as 21 April, those odious crimes were followed by further crimes. We learned with amazement that Israel's air forces had savagely attacked heavily populated cities and villages of Lebanon, leaving many victims.  And 40,000 Israeli troops are massed on the Lebanese border.  This has led the forces of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to declare a state of alert at the highest level and to consider the possibility of a major general strike in the occupied territories.

My delegation, as well as many other representatives, has frequently pointed out that these odious acts of State terrorism are part of Israel's systematic policy to eliminate the physical presence of an entire people, an entire nation, in order to establish in that country a bastion of colonialism and racism in the service of the interests of the imperialist Powers.

Certain things have become routine: the establishment of military bases, the search for military facilities, the establishment of rapid deployment forces in that strategic region; it is not by chance that war vessels and naval units were sent by the Pentagon to the Mediterranean before Israel's decision to annex the Golan Heights.

In order to preserve their strategic objectives and to gain control of the sources of oil supplies in that region, the United States has during the past three decades given Israel lavish quantities of murderous arms and means of destruction worth more than 19 billion dollars, in order to destroy the heroic resistance of the Palestinian people and the Arab people, which is the primary obstacle to the achievement of the dark designs of the United States.

The recent premeditated attacks using artillery, rifle fire and tear gas against the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock are just one more manifestation of that long process of the tragic destruction of the Arab peoples of the occupied areas.

But what we find particularly revolting is the fact that in the Security Council, those responsible for these unpardonable crimes are protected by the veto used by their strategic ally and instigator. It is precisely that political support, especially economic and military support, on the part of the United States which encourages Tel Aviv and provides it with the possibility and the means of realizing its policy of expansionism against the Arab countries and of seriously prejudicing the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. It is because of the complicity of the United States and other reactionary forces that Tel Aviv's campaigns of terrorism have been conducted with impunity, which poses a serious threat to peace and security in the Middle East and in the entire world.

My delegation calls on the General Assembly to condemn as strongly as possible not only Israel's most recent crimes, but also the flagrant complicity of the United States and other reactionary forces which have made these criminal acts possible. My delegation earnestly hopes that all the States Members of our Organization will act in unison to ensure that Israel respects the relevant decisions and resolutions of the United Nations by imposing on it the necessary sanctions under Chapter VII of the Charter.

We also feel that it must recall that the only real solution to the problem of peace in the Middle East requires the withdrawal of Israeli troops from all the occupied Arab territories and effective respect for the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to create an independent and sovereign State and to return to their illegally occupied homeland.

History has shown that policies using gas chambers, the guillotine or B-52s have not been able – not in Europe, not in Asia, not in Africa, not in Latin America – to break down the will of peoples to free themselves and to be masters of their own destiny. Those who are following in the footsteps of the Nazis, adopting Hitler's methods of killing and Goebbel's methods of lying, will never have their way. That is our conviction.

The Arab peoples and the Palestinian people, whose authentic representative is the PLO, can rely on the unfailing solidarity of the Government and people of Viet Ham in their just and heroic struggle.

We are pleased with the continuing increase of international support for the Palestinian cause, as recently evidenced in important new documents, such as the final communiqué adopted on 8 April last by the Ministers of the non-aligned countries in Kuwait and the Valetta appeal adopted by the sixth United Nations Seminar in Malta on 15 April on the question of Palestine.

For its part, my delegation is prepared firmly to support whatever proposals are put forward by the Arab countries and the PLO during the present session.

Mr. BHATT (Nepal): The question of Palestine is an important element of the Middle East problem. No structure of lasting peace in that region can be built without the full participation of the Palestinian people through their sole representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Failure to recognize the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people has led to cycles of violence and the resulting human tragedy on a great scale. The present situation in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza is a matter of deep concern, because it has aggravated an already tense and complicated situation. The present tension in the area is the direct result of the Israeli authorities' decision to disband the Municipal Council of El Bireh and to dismiss the mayors of Ramallah and Nablus. Nepal strongly denounces those actions of the occupying Power to prevent the democratically elected representatives from carrying out their responsibilities.

The latest action represents yet another violation by Israel of the provisions of the relevant resolutions of the United Nations and of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. Those violations of the rights of the inhabitants of the occupied territories closely follow the de facto annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights, in open defiance of the expressed will of the international community. The Israeli action has further damaged the prospects for peace. We strongly urge Israel to rescind the measures it has undertaken in the occupied West Bank and Gaza and thus create confidence in its stated willingness to negotiate a comprehensive solution to the whole problem.

Nepal has repeatedly affirmed its total opposition to the unilateral Israeli action to change the legal and demographic character of the territories occupied since 1967. Likewise, we are totally opposed to the acquisition of territory by force. Nepal continues to hold the view that Israel's administrative and settlement policies in the occupied territories constitute a serious violation of the norms of international law. Israel must put an end to its present policies in the occupied territories. Such a step would contribute to the creation of trust between Israel and the Palestinian people and the neighboring States.

A climate of mutual trust and confidence alone can advance the hope for a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East. In our view, such a settlement must be based on three basic principles: first, withdrawal of Israel from the territories occupied since 1967; secondly, recognition of the right of the Palestinian people to establish its separate State; and, thirdly, recognition of the right of every State in the region, including Israel, to live in peace within recognized and secure boundaries, free from threats and acts of violence.

The conflict in the Middle East has defied solution for too long. The situation continues to remain grave and thus threatens international peace and security. Wars and violence have failed to solve the problem. A just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the region can be achieved only through peaceful means and constructive dialogue. It is our earnest hope that the present deliberations in the General Assembly will induce the parties concerned to launch such an initiative.

Mr. KOSTOV (Bulgaria): Almost two years ago, in this same hall, the seventh emergency special session of the General Assembly, devoted to the question of Palestine, was convened. At that time the deliberations reflected the profound concern and anxiety of the Member States over the continuing state of military and political tension in the Middle East, as Well as the sound comprehension of the international community regarding the nature of the Palestinian problem as one of national self-determination for the Arab people of Palestine.

General Assembly resolution ES-7/2, adopted on that occasion in consonance with previous, United Nations resolutions, reaffirmed the ways and means for the settlement of the Middle East conflict and the Palestinian question – ways and means which necessarily should include the total withdrawal of Israel from all occupied Arab territories, the achievement of a just solution to the problem of Palestine on the basis of the attainment of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people in Palestine, and the guaranteeing of the security and sovereignty of all States in the Middle East, including Israel.

The overwhelming majority of Member States took a clear-cut position on the need for urgent and prompt measures aimed at implementing General Assembly and Security Council resolutions on the question of Palestine and pointed to the danger posed by delaying a comprehensive settlement.

In its statement at the 1980 session, my delegation maintained that:

To our regret, the misgivings and apprehensions voiced by our delegation and many others in July 1980 have proved to be fully justified.  In the nearly two years that have passed, Israel not only has failed to make one single gesture, even a symbolic one, at implementing the relevant United Nations resolutions, but, on the contrary, has continued to defy all appeals and condemnation by the international community and has continued, with shocking arrogance and fanatical stubbornness, along the chosen road of continued aggression against the neighboring countries and of bloody repression against the populace of the occupied territories.  Indeed, following that road, Israel has even put up some fresh landmarks.  It should suffice to mention just a few of them: the illegal annexation of Jerusalem and the proclamation of that city as "the eternal, united and indivisible" capital of Israel -the piratical armed attack against the Iraqi nuclear installation; the air raids against Lebanon, and the annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights. This list is far from complete; however, Israel's regrettable record in that respect is only too well known in the United Nations to require further elaboration.

At this very moment the attention of the international community is again focused on Israel's aggressive schemes against Lebanon.  Yesterday we heard that Israel had carried out new air raids against Palestinian refugee camps near Beirut, killing and wounding scores of innocent people, thus blatantly violating the nine-month-old cease-fire. This could well be the start of a new large-scale adventure by the Israeli military. The mass media have announced the presence of large concentrations of Israeli troops near the borders of Lebanon and Syria, and the existence of a real threat of an Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon. Strikes against other Arab countries too cannot be ruled out. If recent history can be any indicator, the deterioration of the international situation and the existence of hotbeds of tension in other parts of the world have always been regarded by Tel Aviv as advantageous for the realization of its expansionist goals.

The aggressive actions of Israel against its neighbors have always been accompanied by mounting repression and terror aimed at the defenseless Palestinian Arab population in the occupied territories. Ruthless terror and repression, gross violations of elementary human rights, confiscation of the property of the local populace, scores of Palestinians – including innocent women and children -killed or wounded, and hundreds arrested and prosecuted: that is the tragic toll of Israel's occupation policy.

The actions of Israel are increasingly assuming the character of mass military and police suppression of the Palestinian struggle for national rights, and are aiming at crushing all resistance to Israeli practices in the occupied lands.

But it is well known from examples both past and present that indiscriminate terror only breeds even stiffer resistance. And indeed we have recently witnessed yet another explosion of Arab resistance to the occupying Power. On the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip demonstrations, protests and strikes have swept the area. The Golan Heights are still gripped by the protests of the Arab population against the decision of the Israeli Knesset to annex that Syrian territory. All this underscores how divorced from reality are the designs of Israel's leaders, who hope – in vain – to impose by naked armed force Israeli-style "peace, order and tranquility" and to stifle the legitimate aspirations of the Arab people of Palestine to independence and self-determination.

Now it is obvious that the situation in the area has not developed according to the scenario written in Camp David. Today it is more evident then ever, even to those who had had any illusions about the separate deal of Camp David, that its true goal was the securing of United States domination of the Middle East and the Persian Gulf, which would facilitate the realization of the Zionist idea of a "Greater Israel". The political symbiosis of these two ideas underlies the strategic co-operation agreement signed in December 1981 between the United States and Israel, whose targets are those States of the region which, because of their independent policies, are perceived as an impediment to American and Israeli "vital interests". It is precisely this concurrence of interests that is the driving force behind the all-round massive support by the United States for Israel, its multi-billion-dollar shipments of modern weapons to that country, and its guardian-angel protection of Israel from the adoption and enforcement by the Security Council of the measures envisaged under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter.

The United States has gone even further, to the point of opposing the simple condemnation of the blatant Israeli aggressive acts. Since the beginning of this year, the United States has three times used its right of veto in the Security Council in order to block Security Council resolutions critical of the Israeli Government's actions, no matter how soft-spoken they might be.

The inalienable right of the Palestinian Arab people to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty, including its right to create its own State, is today acknowledged and supported by the vast – the overwhelming – majority of Member States. The heroic struggle of that people has been hailed by the largest strata of world public opinion, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has been recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the Arab people of Palestine.

The Government and people of the People's Republic of Bulgaria deeply cherish their traditional ties of friendship and co-operation with the Arab peoples, and particularly with the Arab people of Palestine and its legitimate representative and political vanguard, the Palestine Liberation Organization. In keeping with that tradition, Bulgaria will continue to render active support for and assistance to the just and legitimate struggle of the Palestinians against Israeli aggression, a struggle whose ultimate aim is the realization of the longing felt for many years by the Palestinian people to live in an independent, sovereign and flourishing State of their own, and to live in peace and co-operation with all countries in the region.

The Bulgarian delegation stands ready to lend its support to all constructive undertakings and proposals for the achievement of that goal in conformity with the principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter.

Mr. ZERIF (Afghanistan): On behalf of the delegation of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, I should like to convey to Ambassador Kittani our sincere congratulations on his assumption of the high post of President of this resumed emergency special session on the question of Palestine.

The reconvening of the seventh emergency special session of the General Assembly is clearly appropriate. Scarcely a day passes without new manifestations of the Israeli policy of aggression against Arab peoples and of Tel Aviv's arrogant disregard for the will of the international community to establish a lasting and just peace in the Middle East.

In 1980, at this seventh emergency special session, the General Assembly reaffirmed the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including its right to establish its own independent sovereign State, and called upon Israel to withdraw completely and unconditionally from all Palestinian and other Arab Territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem. Thus, the way to the resolution of the unacceptable situation of aggression and occupation in the Middle East is well defined.

But the Zionist regime has its own answer, its own rules of international conduct. The Zionist clique is guided by the cynical belief that all its aggressive and occupationist activities, all its criminal acts against the Palestinian and other Arab peoples, are well above the authoritative pronouncements of the United Nations, and beyond the reach of the international measures provided for by the Charter of the United Nations to stop aggression and to safeguard the rights of peoples to freedom and national independence.

The record of Israeli policy for the last two years leaves no doubt about that. The very day after the suspension of the first part of this session, the Zionist authorities, by adopting the law proclaiming Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel, annexed part of the Arab lands occupied by Israel in 1967.

In June 1981, by an unprecedented act of banditry, the Israeli air force destroyed the Iraqi nuclear research center. The next month, barbarous Israeli raids against Lebanon resulted in thousands of casualties among the civilian population.

In December last year, by annexing the Syrian Golan Heights, Israel mounted its expansionist policy to the extreme level. That illegal action was strongly condemned at the ninth emergency special session of the General Assembly. The General Assembly declared that, Israel's record and actions confirmed that it is not a peace-loving State and called upon all Member States to apply sanctions against Israel.

Even now as we are gathered here in this universal forum to promote a solution to the question of Palestine, Israel is conducting new impudent acts of aggression against Lebanon and committing fresh atrocities against civilians in that country. This brazen challenge to the international community by the aggressor cannot be left unmet.

Only one correct conclusion can be drawn from the arrogant Zionist policy in the Middle East: complete and strict international enforcement actions should be applied against Israel to make it comply with United Nations resolutions, to prevent further acts of Zionist aggression and to restore peace in the Middle East. The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan is ready to support any effective measure against the Zionist aggressor, including the application of severe sanctions, as provided for under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter.

It is quite clear that Israel could not and would not pursue its policy of constant aggression and of oppression of the Palestinian and other Arab peoples and persist in its breaches of international law were it not backed by the United States. The ever-increasing flow of billions of dollars and modern weaponry from the United States to Israel – political support shaped by "strategic co-operation" between the two countries – only encourages Israel's aggressiveness and its defiance of resolutions of the United Nations and the norms of the United Nations Charter.

The unfailing support provided by the United States to Israeli expansionism and its outrageous policy towards the Palestinians and other Arab people under its military occupation is aimed at frustrating every effort to make progress towards a just and comprehensive solution to the crisis in the Middle East. At the Extraordinary Ministerial Meeting of the Co-ordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Countries, held at the beginning of this month in Kuwait in which Afghanistan also participated, the ministers held the United States responsible for the support, weapons and means of aggression it provides to Israel and declared that such support and aid were determining factors in the pursuit by the Zionist régime of its blatant policy of aggression against, and occupation and colonization of the occupied Arab territories and of its persistent refusal to recognize the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.

Despite all the rhetoric and diplomatic maneuvers, the practical deeds of the United States, not least its vetoes of the measures of the Security Council to halt Zionist piracy, amply show that the policy of the United States in the Middle East has the goal of enabling Israel to continue its expansion and to consolidate the fruits of its unabated aggression against the Arab States

The Camp David accords were designed for the same purpose:  legalizing the Zionist occupation of Arab lands and perpetuating the homelessness of the Palestinian people. This separate deal was thus justly rejected by Arab States, by non-aligned countries and by the General Assembly. The Zionist-imperialist "peace process" leads to the extreme exacerbation of the situation in the Middle East by pushing the region towards war. The "peace process" is obviously not a path to peace nor was it ever conceived as such by those who initiated it. From the very beginning it proved to be a process for creeping annexation of the occupied Arab territories, a process for mounting ruthless repression of the Palestinians a process for forging the alliance of Israel and the United States against the Arab States.

We are sure there will be peace in the Middle East – peace based on the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from all occupied territories, on the full exercise by the Palestinian people of its inalienable national rights, including its right to establish an independent State. The search for such a just and lasting peace in the Middle East requires genuine collective efforts within the framework of an international conference, with the full participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan stands ready to contribute to the earliest achievement of this lofty goal.

On behalf of the Afghan people we reiterate our firm support of and solidarity with the friendly Arab countries and the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole, legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, in its heroic struggle against Zionist aggression and expansion, and for the restoration of its inalienable rights.

Mr. BOLE (Fiji):  The question of Palestine has been discussed in the General Assembly and in the Security Council for more than three decades, and yet a durable solution has defied us. Indeed, with the passage of time, the question has become more complex and its solution more elusive. Since the emergency special session on this question was convened nearly two years ago, we have witnessed continuing normalization of relations between Israel and Egypt. Regrettably, however, during the same period other developments have caused further deterioration of the situation in the area.

We recognize and fully sympathize, with the problems of the Palestinian people and therefore strongly hope that this resumed emergency special session will facilitate the search for an acceptable and lasting solution to those problems.

We are fully convinced that the Palestinian question is not merely a refugee question but an integral part – and indeed at the heart – of the Middle East problem. Consequently, no solution of the Middle East problem will be effective and durable unless it takes into account the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

Fiji respects and wholeheartedly supports the inalienable rights of displaced Palestinians to self-determination, including their right to a national homeland. We also fully support the call for Israeli withdrawal from all Arab territories occupied during and since the 1967 war.  At the same time, we firmly believe that for any just and lasting peace it is essential to acknowledge and respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State, including Israel, and its right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries.

In this regard, we believe that Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) provide the essential framework for a negotiated settlement and should remain the basis on which a just and lasting peace can be achieved in the area. At the same time, we also welcome any bilateral or any other initiative which would facilitate and bring closer to reality the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.  Such initiatives, in our view, should also contribute significantly to stabilization and the achievement of an ultimate peaceful solution of the broader issue of the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East. Thus, Fiji has given concrete support to the Multinational Force and Observers in the Sinai. It is our hope that the successful completion of the return of Sinai to Egypt will be an important breakthrough in the normalization of relations in the Middle East, and should enhance United Nations efforts in its search for a satisfactory solution to the Palestinian question.

In our continuing effort to encourage a negotiated settlement, we therefore appeal to all concerned to refrain from the use or threat of use of force. In this regard, we deplore the wanton killing of women, children and innocent civilians, the acts of sacrilege against Holy Places and the latest raids of yesterday which have added to so many deaths and so much suffering. Indeed, we deplore all actions which further fan the feeling of suspicion and hatred and 'which are detrimental to an atmosphere conducive to peace. To demonstrate Fiji's commitment to peace in the area, my countrymen are actively engaged in peace-keeping with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon and some of them have even lost their lives. We earnestly hope that this was not in vain.

To give peace a chance in the Middle East and to realize the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people, we urge all concerned not only to refrain from the use or threat of use of force but also to make every effort towards a negotiated settlement. We still believe that this can be achieved through dialogue based on mutual trust, respect and, above all, a genuine desire and will for peace and peaceful coexistence among all the parties concerned.

The PRESIDENT (interpretation from French):  I now call on the Permanent Observer of the League of Arab States, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 477 (V) of 1 November 1950.

Mr. MAKSOUD (League of Arab States) (interpretation from Arabic): Any close study of the course of recent events in the Middle East leaves no room for doubt that Israel deliberately exploited the period prior to its withdrawal from Sinai to create a situation in the area which will pave the way for and facilitate the exercise of its full sovereignty over the occupied Syrian and Palestinian territories in return for its withdrawal from Sinai. Here we see the dilemma which the two other parties to the Camp David agreement are facing, after having been drawn into this by Israel.  One of the flagrant manifestations of that was the resort by the United States to the use of the veto when a draft resolution was submitted to the Security Council calling upon Israel to rescind its arbitrary acts in the occupied territories.

To state, as the United States has stated, that Israel's action in dissolving the Municipal Council and dismissing the mayors does not constitute a violation of the Geneva Convention on the protection of the rights of civilians under occupation, is only a legal pretext, because we cannot consider the dismissal of elected mayors and the dissolution of an elected Municipal Council to be normal procedure by an occupying Power.  The real reason for the United States resort to the veto is that the United States Administration, which is the main party to the Camp David accords, did not want to risk stopping the implementation of the Israeli withdrawal from Sinai.

The use of the veto by the United States, in addition to its being contrary to the unanimous opinion of the international community, gave a signal to Israel to continue to carry out its illicit activities in the occupied territories and thus to create new faits accomplis in undermining the national character of the Palestinian people, who are suffering under the yoke of occupation, and to impose Israel's own interpretation of the Camp David agreements as a cover for its schemes of settlement, expansion and aggression.

Therefore, the resolution of the Council of Arab Foreign Ministers affirmed the need to resort to the General Assembly to bypass this dilemma, on the one hand, and to preserve the prestige of the United Nations, on the other, so that the resolutions of the international community will not remain a dead letter because of fear of Israeli reactions with respect to withdrawal from the Sinai.

It is no secret that the faith of our Arab people in the usefulness of resorting to the United Nations is diminishing in view of the accumulation of its unimplemented resolutions. Although we are aware of all the justifications for that feeling on the part of Arab public opinion, we feel that it is still incumbent upon the General Assembly not to give us any reason for despair. That will not be easy unless the resolutions adopted by the United Nations are accompanied by the will and the ability to implement them. Only then will the resolutions of the United Nations regain their credibility, will the United Nations regain its prestige and will the people regain their faith in the viability of the Organization as an authority that works for the establishment of peace and justice in the world.

The decision by the Israeli occupation authorities to dissolve the Municipal Council of El Bireh was a sign of a drastic change in the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories. It was designed to close all the options except that of annexation and to make it the only option for the Palestinian people. It not only flagrantly negates the will of the Palestinians who elected the Municipal Council, but it also undermines all the Palestinian human, political, national and social institutions and structures. That act, which was preceded by the deportation of the mayors of Halhoul and Hebron and which was accompanied by the dismissal of the mayors of Ramallah and Nablus, was designed by Israel as a tool to eliminate Palestinian leadership and national institutions so as to enable the occupying authorities to deal with the people in such a way as to transform them into mere figures which can be struck out, and to isolate them and deport them, depopulating the occupied territories.

In addition to facilitating the annexation the aim is to replace them with foreign Jews and to establish new settlements. Thus the reasons which are the basis for the establishment of a Palestinian State on the occupied Arab territories will be eliminated.

The annexation of land was not enough. The occupation authorities isolated Palestinian camps and villages and cities from each other and from the outside world by using large military units and transforming the West Bank and the Gaza Strip into military barracks by committing the worst acts of aggression against Palestinian Arabs, their institutions and their facilities. This resulted in the murdering of a large number of persons – martyrs – and in the wounding of many others. Israel's aims were clear in abstaining – until today from calling the West Bank occupied territory, as it is designated by the world and in insisting on calling it Judea and Samaria. Its aim was also clear when Begin said, upon signing the Camp David agreements in September 1979, at a hotel in Washington:  "There will never be another State in Judea and Samaria."

Israel's aims were also clear when it said that its recent actions are Dart of its war against the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).  Israel strives strenuously to portray the PLO as a clique of armed terrorists disregarding the fact that the PLO is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, as recognized by the Assembly and the international community.

Here we must define our concept of the PLO, so as to leave no room for ambiguity concerning its nature and its reality. We must recall here that the PLO is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and that it is the framework of its integrated national unity and the leader of the struggle of the Palestinian people to regain its rights to its homeland. It also reflects the very title of its entity, the symbol of its commitment to its unified destiny, the expression of its will, the embodiment of its aspirations and the way to achieve its legitimate aims – self-determination and the establishment of its own independent State on its territory.

Therefore, the PLO is deeply rooted in the consciousness of an entire people and any attempt to exclude it is to no avail.

It is clear from the aforementioned that the Israeli occupation authorities, with their blind vanity, are under the illusion that they can create alternative leaderships; in addition to the fact that this aim is impossible to achieve, it furnishes further proof that Israel intends to accelerate annexation on a gradual basis through judaization and the expropriation of national institutions in the occupied territories.  No matter how hard Zionism and its supporters in the world try to give the outcasts of the Palestinian people a form qualifying them to represent the populations of the occupied territories, this endeavor is doomed to failure because it is mere racist thinking which disregards irrefutable facts and evidence, in addition to being in contravention of the will and the resolutions of the international community. Israel's attempt to establish so-called village associations as a means to implement its expansionist aspirations is but clear proof of the bankruptcy of the process of judaization in the occupied territories. The history of the struggle of peoples in the third world to achieve independence is replete with similar attempts by colonialists and racists who believed that they could obliterate the rights of peoples and affirm their control and their occupation.

In this regard we must hail from this rostrum the Palestinian masses and Syrian masses in the Golan Heights that are confronting the most vicious racist entity and the most brutal form of settlement colonialism. This confrontation, which was embodied in the great popular uprising including all sectors of the Palestinian people, has consolidated the will to remain steadfast and the Palestinian determination to achieve national independence and the legitimate rights recognized by the international community.

Israel claims that the confrontation, which was characterized by political wisdom and steadfastness and was accompanied by national mobilization, was the result of' provocation by the PLO. This allegation reveals the Zionist mentality, which bases its conduct on disregard for facts and which is fraught with the hatred inherent in every racist entity.

Through this policy, Israel is trying to separate the Palestinian people in the occupied territories from the PLO and to interpret the splendid, valiant uprising of the Palestinian people as a mere response to provocation, whereas it is the natural result of the persistence of occupation and the escalation of its viciousness, and the unmasking of the Israeli scheme to undermine the components of national Palestinian existence on its territory and homeland.

The Camp David agreements showed the inability of the other two parties to deter the Israeli authorities from pursuing the policy of intimidation and oppression in the occupied territories and against Lebanon. Also the Camp David agreements, instead of preventing the spread of settlements in the occupied territories, permitted them and expanded them, thus the mere talk of negotiations on "autonomy" and of commitment to those negotiations has become a farce, and it is no longer possible for this staged production to deceive the world.

The opposition of the Arab nation to the Camp David accords stems from a careful study of the Israeli Zionist scheme and from the experience of our people, especially the Palestinian people, with this aggressive racist entity, as well as from its own suffering.

It has often been said that it is not proper to prejudge the negotiations on autonomy, but the Camp David agreements are self-evident.  According to those agreements, autonomy is the aim of the tripartite negotiations. If there should be disagreement among those parties concerning the significance of autonomy and its implications, we, the Arabs, knowing the Zionist entity as well as we do, were sure that acceptance of the Camp David agreements as a basis for a settlement of the question of Palestine would be a contravention of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and that the establishment of an independent Palestinian State would become an unfeasible option. That is, the Camp David agreements nullify the legitimacy of international recognition of the right of the Palestinian people to establish its independent State.  Indeed, the Camp David agreements in this regard consolidate the deprivation of sovereignty and derogation of dignity and legitimize the denial to the Palestinian people of its independent State and its right to a homeland.

It is said today that the Camp David agreements left the issue of sovereignty in abeyance, and advice was given to the Arabs that this was to be an incentive towards participation in the negotiations on autonomy so as not to be overtaken by events. It was also said that it was possible for the Palestinians to consider the talks on autonomy as a transitional period, so that if they did not participate in these negotiations they might lose the opportunity of acquiring some of their rights.

But the occupying authority does not at all recognize that national independence for the Palestinian people and its sovereignty over its land are the subject of the talks. On the contrary, the party which rejects the rights of the Palestinian people is the party that is occupying its territory; it is the party that is committing aggression against it and that refuses to envisage the establishment of an independent Palestinian State as a certain, or even probable, result of the negotiations.  Therefore, the Camp David accords did not provide for sovereignty in the occupied territory to be given back to the people in that territory, whether immediately or some time later, but left the issue of sovereignty in abeyance and made Israel's claim to sovereignty equal to or even weightier than the rights of the Palestinian people. In other words, the Camp David agreements abolished the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people in the territory of its homeland, rights that have been recognized by this Assembly over and over again. When we are told that autonomy may be a transitional period, we run into a deliberate ambiguity, especially since all the articles of the Camp David agreements fail to include any mention that autonomy is the way leading to the exercise by the Palestinian people of its sovereignty over its land and of its right to the establishment of an independent State. Therefore, the interpretation by the occupying authority remains, by virtue of the very occupation and of this ambiguity, the prevailing interpretation.

Hence there arose a conviction, not only in the Arab nation, but also in most international circles, that the talks on autonomy were a veil for a separate truce and to buy time to isolate Arab Egypt from the fateful confrontation that would lead to the enforcement of the full rights of the Palestinian people and the elimination of Israeli occupation from all the occupied Arab territories.

As long as the occupying Power is able to exploit the coming five-year period to establish more settlements and to change the demographic and geographical character of the occupied territories, as it has been doing with escalating viciousness, since the occupation, and as long as Israel does not admit that it is merely an occupying Power in the Gaza Strip and on the West Bank, as well as in the Golan Heights, the five-year period – during which the process of judaization, settlement and annexation will continue – will be a period for emptying the occupied territories of their human and national components to pave the way for annexing them and making them a part of Israel.

Israel feels that it has the right to abuse the rights of the population of those territories and to violate them. The intensification and proliferation of the settlements is considered by Israel to be its legal right, to pave the way for the eviction of the population and bridging the gap through judaization. Therefore, Israel arrogates to itself the right to define autonomy as something that includes population but does not include land and that bestows upon Israel the right to expropriate territory, divert waters, displace population and maintain a military presence, in addition to closing schools, universities and institutions and applying complicated administrative, civil and legal procedures to induce despair and displacement. Israel does not confine itself to carrying out oppression against the popular Palestinian institutions at the hands of the occupying authorities, but practices terrorism and oppression by arming racist civilians for oppression and aggression against Arab citizens – as witnessed by the world during the recent events in the occupied territories.

This is no time to review the terrorist practices committed by the Israeli authorities, because they have become well known. But it seems that it is not well known that Israel wants to close the file on the question of Palestine and to abolish all resolutions that provide for the rights of the Palestinian people and the legitimacy of its cause and its right to self-determination, and envisage the means necessary for it to achieve its legitimate national aims, which are internationally recognized. Israel strives to abort all endeavors to that end.

If autonomy is a transitional stage, as was the case in many third-world countries, the occupying authority must at the outset recognize the right of the people under occupation to independence and national sovereignty.  If that condition is not met, autonomy becomes an alternative for independence and national sovereignty, and that is indeed the aim of the Camp David agreements. Hence the rejection of autonomy as envisaged in the Camp David accords is based on the fact that the rights of the Palestinian people have been transformed from national rights to municipal rights and the autonomy formula has been divested of any political significance and has come to mean a mere administrative arrangement.

If I have gone into some detail on the Camp David agreements, that is because in the next few days the region will witness extremely important, if not extremely grave, events. Israel's feigned concern regarding its impending withdrawal from Sinai and its feigned compliance with international resolutions, which it regards as a great sacrifice, arise from a mentality that regards any response, no matter how meager, to the international will and to the rights of others as a great concession and a risk that jeopardizes its security. Sinai is an Arab territory which we the Arab League and the Arab nation are determined to liberate and to restore to complete Egyptian sovereignty. But such restoration cannot be considered a barter which would enable Israel to abuse the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and Lebanon, because that would be unacceptable to every Arab. Foremost among those who reject such barter is doubtless the Egyptian people itself.

It is therefore imperative that the world understand the serious concern felt by the Arab nation as a result of the so-called Israeli-Egyptian treaty and its implied negation of Egypt's potential constructive and efficient contribution towards the regaining of full Arab rights.

This concern of ours stems, on the one hand, from the organic national relation between Egypt and the Arab States and, on the other, from what is promoted by some circles as the preference of Egypt for its links with Israel to its links with its Arab nation.

This argument conflicts with the logic of history as it conflicts with our emotions. What is most curious is what we hear and read about the concern that following the Israeli withdrawal from Sinai, Egypt might return to the Arab ranks.  What is really curious is that an anomaly in Egyptian history has been considered the rule by these Zionized circles and that Egypt's role as part of the Arab nation is considered an exception.

To us it is insolent to say that it is possible for Egypt's relations with the Arabs – that is, with itself – to be on the same level as its relations with Israel or that its relations with the Arabs should rank below those with Israel.

There is no doubt that those self-appointed experts on Egypt are the most ignorant of the Egyptian people's commitment to the Arab cause and to the Arab character of Egypt.

The world has recently witnessed the vicious aggression committed by gangs of the Israeli army against the Holy Dome of the Rock in occupied Jerusalem. This aggression against one of the holiest Islamic shrines and the terrorism and murder, and the arrests that followed, furnish proof, if there is need of proof, that Israel, like all other racist entities, strives to eliminate whatever is inconsistent with its racist ideology and whatever obstructs its schemes of expansion and settlement. Israel has tried to portray that incident as an individual act committed by a deranged man – which is precisely what it claimed regarding the aggression against the Al Aqsa Mosque on 21 August 1969.

In trying to place responsibility for this aggression on an individual, Israel is trying to shirk its responsibility as an occupying Power and is giving license to armed citizens, who actually are given instructions by the occupying authority and then claim that they have acted independently.  The anger of our masses in the occupied Arab territories and throughout the entire Islamic world affirms our determination that Jerusalem must remain an Arab city and a spiritual meeting place for all revealed religions.  In this respect the entire world has affirmed the illegitimacy of the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem and of Israel's declaration that Jerusalem is its eternal capital. Regrettably, the United States cast a veto designed to abort that unanimity.

Israel today portrays its conditional withdrawal from Sinai as a major concession and the Zionist media and some United States and Western mass media exaggerate this as though Israel were relinquishing its rights and making a sacrifice. While Israel is deliberately exaggerating, it is trying to distract attention from the processes of judaization and annexation carried out by it in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights, and against Lebanon, to impose its full sovereignty in the occupied territories, to pave the way for final annexation. This exaggeration has another aim: to persuade the Americans of the gravity of the concessions so that the United States will not try to influence it but rather acquiesce in its aggression, as happened with the veto of the resolution on Jerusalem and with previous vetoes, and anything concerning the rights of the Palestinian people. Thus it buys more time to persist in judaization and annexation.

Israel has always tried to make the issue of its security the basis for the conflict, to make it a justification of all its aggressive policies.  Thus the security pretext is a veil to hide the policy of expansion at the expense of the Arab nation. The settlements Israel established in the occupied territories were soon transformed into military arsenals, which made necessary another security belt around them for their protection.  With this creeping annexation, Israel has found ready justification for aggressive expansionist schemes to be implemented in the future.

The policy of settlements as a spring-board in the annexation of land did not stein from the Arab-Israeli conflict but was originally a Zionist scheme adopted by the authorities of the Zionist entity at its inception, and even scores of years before the inception of that entity.

The Israeli leaders have always intended to control all the Arab Palestinian territories and the neighboring territories. The aggression of 1967 enabled Israel to implement some of its schemes, since it established another fait accompli in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights.  This formed for it an issue in itself and the pretext to shirk compliance with international resolutions which call upon it to effect full withdrawal and to enable the Palestinian people to exercise their right of self-determination. Israel treats that fait accompli as an inalienable right based on its philosophy that it is a State in the process of development and that the judaization process is a continuous process stemming from Israel's very existence. The best proof of that is its persistence in the occupied territories, which it insists on calling "liberated territories", to establish the preliminary structures for annexation, which would inevitably be followed by the undermining of the national fabric of the population of the Arab territories. This could be witnessed in the Golan Heights and, recently, in the West Bank.

This pattern of flagrant, aggressive conduct is pursued in full view of the world, with all the insolence of racism.

In spite of repeated international denunciations of Israel's policy and practices, which abound in the records of the United Nations, the Zionist entity persists in the same approach, disregarding the objections of the international community, and what is witnessed in the occupied territories is but the concretization of this persistent approach.

This racist, aggressive and immoral conduct, which runs unbridled and has persisted in violating all international laws and norms, is coupled with non-compliance with the will of the international community. The Zionist entity has persisted in implementing its policy aimed at Zionizing the area and dismembering its human, geographic and national aspects.

It has been made clear to everyone that Israeli nationalism has become more closed and fanatic in regard to other races than those nationalism's which preceded it and adhered to a concept that was rigid and intransigent. Israel acts vis-a-vis the Palestinian people as a European country acted vis-a-vis the Jews in the second third of this century. Any Jew who escaped from death should not deprive another people of its country and rights and should not condemn that people to a life of emigration and displacement.

We have come again to this Assembly not to review facts and developments the details and implications of which are crystal-clear.  We have come here in order that the United Nations may realize the recent serious, indeed explosive, events that resulted from the aggressive Israeli policies in the occupied territories. The situation in the region can deteriorate further unless the international Organization takes energetic action in its dealings with the Zionist entity, to deter it this time rather than merely condemning it to impel it to respect the international will and to give up the law of the jungle, on which its conduct is based.

The resolutions of the General Assembly concerning the Palestinian issue have repeatedly affirmed the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, foremost among which is the right to self-determination and to the establishment of a State on its territory. We call on the Assembly today to repulse all attempts made by Israel which are in contravention of the principles underlying those resolutions.

The Arab League's determination to support the role of the United Nations and its human objectives is no less than our belief in the justice of the Palestinian cause and the inevitability of its victory. We therefore call on the international Organization most urgently to take the initiative towards the desired change in its positions as regards the Zionist entity, because there is no alternative for the international community except to align itself with what is right in order to overcome evil.

We appeal from this rostrum to the nations of the world to realize that we are at a serious juncture of history. Israel's defiance of laws and its disregard for international codes have become an authentic danger to the future of peace not only in the region, but in the entire world.  The Arabs have shown great self-restraint and maintain confidence in the United Nations. They are still convinced of the necessity and validity of resorting to this body, but continuity in this conduct must be supported by international resolutions that are capable of being implemented and measures that affirm the credibility and effectiveness of the United Nations.

But if the resolutions of the United Nations are to remain merely a moral and legal justification for the legitimacy of our rights, without being enforced in an effective and concrete manner in Palestine and in the other Arab countries, then we shall be close to the brink of the abyss that the United Nations was established to avoid for all mankind.

The meeting rose at 6.40 p.m.