CEIRPP meeting – Summary record

COMMITTEE ON THE EXERCISE OF THE INALIENABLE RIGHTS OF

THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE

SUMMARY RECORD OF THE 82nd MEETING

Held at Headquarters, New York

on Wednesday, 15 September 1982, at 10.30 a.m.

Chairman: Mr. SARRE (Senegal)

CONTENTS

Adoption of the agenda

Consideration of the draft report of the Committee to the General Assembly

Other matters

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Corrections should be submitted in one of the working languages. They should be set forth in a memorandum and also incorporated in a copy of the record. They should be sent within one week of the date of this document  to the Chief, Official Records Editing Section, Department of Conference Services, room A-3550, 866 United Nations Plaza.

Any corrections to the record of this meeting and of other meetings will be issued in a corrigendum.

82-56240 0029S (E)

A/AC.183/SR.82 English Page 2

The meeting was called to order at 10.55 a.m.

ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA

1. The agenda was adopted.

CONSIDERATION OF THE DRAFT REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

2. Mr. GAUCI  (Malta), Rapporteur, said that some amendments had been made to the text of the internal working paper before the Committee. In paragraph 4 the last sentence should be replaced by the following text: "The latest incursions into Lebanon caused enormous loss of life and property." In paragraph 36 the last sentence ended with the words "international peace and security" and the remainder of the sentence should be deleted. In paragraph 57 the text should be amended so as to include a summary of the letter which had been sent that day to the Security Council. In paragraph 74 the words "the President of the Committee" should be replaced by "the President of the Council". In paragraph 85, the last part of the sentence should be deleted and a reference should be inserted concerning attendance by representatives of the Committee at the Fez Conference and at the OAU meeting in Tripoli. In paragraph 87 the last part of the sentence should be deleted and the paragraph should conclude with the words "held at United Nations Headquarters on 3 October 1981." Paragraph 92 should be up-dated. In paragraph 94, the word "Division", in the English text, should read "Unit". In paragraph 96, in the last sentence, a comma should be inserted after the words "additional resources" and the following words added "and to redesignate it as a unit,".

3. Mr. TERZI  (Observer for the Palestine Liberation Organization), referring to paragraph 4 said that the word “incursions” did not correctly reflect the situation which had arisen in Lebanon. There had been an 80-day war the aim of which had been to eliminate the Palestinian people and annex Lebanese territory. Accordingly, the Rapporteur might find a more appropriate word such as "invasion" or "war".

4. The reference, at the end of paragraph 87, to the canal linking the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea should be kept; not only was that subject within the competence of the Committee and within its mandate but the Committee had considered it and would have to reflect, in its report, what it had done in that connection.

5. Furthermore, there was a historical event, the recent meeting held in Fez, the conclusions and decisions of which were not only of the utmost importance to the Palestinian people but also included various criteria and opinions which were consistent with those contained in the recommendations made by the Committee. That would have to be reflected adequately in the report.

6. Mr. GAUCI  (Malta), Rapporteur, referring to the suggestions made by the Observer for the PLO, said that he would try to see to it that stronger terms were used in paragraph 4.

7. He suggested that the Observer for the PLO should consult with the representative of Jordan concerning his wish to keep the reference to the canal in the latter part of paragraph 87.

8. Finally, regarding the inclusion of a reference to the Fez Conference, although the Committee had noted the convergence of views with appreciation, it had not had an opportunity to consider the relevant documents in detail. At that stage in the Committee's work, bearing in mind the fact that the recommendations made at Fez would be considered by the General Assembly and that there was very little time to complete the report of the Committee and submit it to the General Assembly, it might not be timely to refer to the recommendations of the Fez Conference at length or to make a detailed analytic comparison between those recommendations and those of the Committee.

9. Mr. MOUSSA  (Egypt) said that he fully supported the suggestions of the Observer for the PLO to the effect that detailed reference should be made to the deliberations held at Fez and to the decisions which had been reached at that meeting.

10. In the last two months, as a result of the invasion and war of aggression by Israel against Lebanon serious situations had arisen, with far-reaching repercussions on the Palestinian people, and they should be considered by the Committee and mentioned in its report.

11. Moreover, many initiatives had been made relating to the question of Palestine originating not only in organs and agencies of the United Nations system but also in those outside the Organization but relevant to the matter: all of them should be mentioned.

12. Furthermore, in the paragraphs relating to the Non-Aligned Movement, attention should be drawn to the absence of specific references to the meetings held recently in Cyprus and Kuwait, in particular, the Kuwait Plan of Action. Those omissions should be remedied so that the report should be as broad and detailed as the subject required.

13. Mr. BURAYZAT  (Jordan) said that he agreed with the representative of Egypt and emphasized that the report must be very full and must include absolutely all the initiatives relevant to the matter.

14. Mr. KRAVETS  (Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic), referring to the proposal made by the representatives of Egypt and Jordan, reminded the Rapporteur of the initiative of the socialist countries to convene an international conference on Palestine, in which all parties concerned would participate, with a view to achieving a just political solution to the problem.

15. Mr. RAHHALI  (Morocco) said that he agreed with the Observer for the PLO and the reprsentative of Egypt concerning the need to include a reference to the conclusions of the Fez Conference and to the sixth session of the Jerusalem Committee of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which had been held in Morocco, in May 1982.

16. The CHAIRMAN  said that, as far as possible, all important initiatives and meetings relating to the question should be included in the draft report. He then suggested that the Committee should adopt those paragraphs which posed no difficulties and asked the delegations of Egypt, Jordan, the Ukrainian SSR and the PLO to submit, in writing, what they wished to see included in the draft report.

17. Mr. TERZI  (Observer for the Palestine Liberation Organization) asked the Committee to note, with satisfaction, the agreement that existed on many aspects between the Committee's recommendations and the Fez Declaration and requested that the Declaration should be annexed to the report.

18. The CHAIRMAN  explained that that would not be advisable, for if the Fez Declaration were included others might ask for other declarations to be included; he asked that the report be considered paragraph by paragraph.

19. Paragraphs 1 to 17 were adopted.

20. Mr. SOMOGYI  (Hungary) requested that the part of paragraph 17 which referred to the third sub-group should be numbered paragraph 18 in the report.

21. The CHAIRMAN  agreed but he pointed out that, for the purposes of the current discussion, the existing numbering would continue to be used.

22. Mr. KRAVETS  (Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic) suggested that paragraphs 18 and 19 should be placed after paragraph 104 of the draft report.

23. The CHAIRMAN  agreed with that suggestion and asked the secretariat to take note of it.

24. Paragraphs 18 to 28 were adopted.

25. Mr. KRAVETS  (Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic) suggested that paragraph 29 should be amplified by a reference to resolution ES-7/4 after the words "in its resolution 31/20 and in subsequent resolutions"; he would submit that amendment in writing later.

26. The CHAIRMAN  said that the matter would be discussed with the representative of the Ukrainian SSR.

27. Mr. TERZI  (Observer for the Palestine Liberation Organization) suggested that in paragraph 30 the words "the Israeli leaders had not only made claims" should be replaced by "Israel had not only made claims". The paragraph referred to "the paralysis of the Security Council", but the Council was not paralysed, it was merely inactive, and it was known who was holding it back.

28. Mr. KRAVETS  (Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic) agreed with the Observer for the PLO that the reason for the Security Council's inability to act must be explained; he considered it essential to mention that one member of the Security Council had blocked the adoption of the relevant decisions.

29. Mr. LOGOGLU  (Turkey) said that, in his opinion, the references made in paragraph 30 to the Security Council and the international community were superfluous. He agreed with the Observer for the PLO that the reference to "Israeli leaders" was incorrect and that the report should speak of "Israel". In addition, he suggested that the words "had proceeded to action" at the end of the second sentence should be replaced by more comprehensive wording, to wit, "had continued the steady annexation of the occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip".

30. Mr. GAUCI  (Malta), Rapporteur, supported the suggestion made by the representative of Turkey and proposed that, the end of the second sentence should be reworded as follows: "Israel had not only made claims to the occupied Arab territories but had proceeded to action to speed up the process of steady annexation of the occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip". The remainder of the paragraph with the reference to the Security Council and the international community, should be deleted.

31. Mr. TERZI  (Observer for the Palestine Liberation Organization) supported the amendments proposed by the Rapporteur; the new text should, however, refer to "the occupied Arab and Palestinian territories" and not to "the occupied Arab territories".

32. Paragraph 30, as amended, was adopted.

33. Mr. ALI  (Oman), referring to paragraph 31, said that his delegation was opposed to the statement that the General Assembly's recommendations were the "only internationally acceptable framework" within which to find a solution to the question of the Middle East; that statement did not take into account recent events, such as the summit meeting at Fez, and accordingly, the text should indicate that the General Assembly was "part" of the international framework mentioned.

34. The CHAIRMAN  observed that the paragraph summarized a statement he had made in 1980 and that at that time the Committee had considered that its recommendations would continue to be the proper international framework for a settlement of the question of the Middle East. In any case, he did not remember the exact words he had used at that time and would ask the Secretariat to obtain a copy of his statement so as to clarify the point.

35. Mr. SREENIVASAN  (India) said that, although the reference in the second sentence of paragraph 32 to the change in the position of the Western European States towards Israel was correct, it should be remembered that those States had confined themselves to doing what the rest of the world had done earlier. He therefore suggested that, in order to have that fact reflected for the draft report, the second sentence should be amended to read: "It was gratifying that several Western European States had joined the immense majority of the international community in censuring Israeli activities…".

36. Mr. TARASYUK  (Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic) said that, although India's amendment improved the wording of paragraph 32 slightly, only one group of countries was included in the reference to the Western European States. His delegation felt that the passage should speak of the session in general and not just of a few States.

37. Mr. TERZI  (Observer for the Palestine Liberation Organization) said that, as he understood it, the entire paragraph really dealt with the Western European States, since it spoke of the "association" of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the negotiations, an idea dear to those States. The rest of the world talked not of the "association" but of the "participation" of the Palestine Liberation Organization on an equal footing.

38. The CHAIRMAN  suggested that the representatives of the Ukrainian SSR and India and the Observer for the PLO should confer with the Rapporteur in order to work out an acceptable wording for paragraph 32.

39. Mr. LOGOGLU  (Turkey) asked whether there was any specific reason for the reference in paragraph 32 to Israel's attempts to make Jerusalem its permanent capital and whether that did not imply that an attempt to make it the temporary capital would be acceptable.

40. Mr. TERZI  (Observer for the Palestine Liberation Organization) suggested that the word "permanent" should be deleted from paragraph 32.

41. Paragraph 33 was adopted.

42. Mr. HAMMAD  (United Arab Emirates) suggested that reference should be made in paragraph 34 to Israel's occupation of "a considerable part" of Lebanon and not only to its occupation of "southern" Lebanon.

43. Mr. ALI  (Oman) observed that paragraph 34 referred to the "illegal" Israeli invasion and asked whether invasions could be “legal”.

44. The CHAIRMAN  agreed with that comment and said that the adjective "illegal" should be deleted.

45. Paragraph 34, as amended, was adopted.

46. Paragraphs 35 to 37 were adopted.

47. Mr. TERZI  (Observer for the Palestine Liberation Organization) pointed out that the Committee's resolutions and recommendations affirmed that the PLO should "participate on an equal footing" in negotiations or discussions on the future of the Palestinian people. Accordingly, he asked that the word "association" in paragraph 38 should be replaced by "participation".

48. The CHAIRMAN  said that he had no difficulty with the change proposed by the Observer for the Palestine Liberation Organization, although he felt that there was no basic difference between the two terms in French.

49. Paragraphs 38 to 43 were adopted.

50. Mr. TERZI  (Observer for the Palestine Liberation Organization), referring to paragraph 44, said he did not understand exactly what was meant by the statement that the United Nations was the organization which "had presided over the creation of the State of Israel", and proposed that that phrase should be replaced by "had created the State of Israel".

51. Paragraph 44, as amended, was adopted.

52. Mr. LOGOGLU  (Turkey) said that the Committee's hard work in preparing the various draft resolutions should be reflected somewhere in the section under consideration.

53. The CHAIRMAN  said that a new paragraph would be drafted on the preparation of the draft resolutions by the Committee.

54. Mr. TERZI  (Observer for the Palestine Liberation Organization) said that the words "including Jerusalem" had accidentally been omitted from the third line of paragraph 45, after the words "occupied Arab and Palestinian territories".

55. The CHAIRMAN  said that the inadvertent omission of the words referred to by the Observer for the PLO would be corrected.

56. Paragraphs 45 to 56 were adopted.

57. The CHAIRMAN  said that a reference to the latest letter sent to the President of the Security Council had been added to paragraph 57.

58. Paragraphs 57 and 58 were adopted.

59. Mr. TARASYUK  (Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic) said that the Committee's recommendations to which paragraph 59 referred had been presented to and adopted by the General Assembly not at its thirty-sixth but at its thirty-first session, since when the Assembly had merely reaffirmed them.

60. Paragraph 59, as amended, was adopted.

61. Paragraphs 60 and 61 were adopted.

62. Mr. RAHHALI  (Morocco) said that in the first sentence of paragraph 62 it might be wise to specify the Member States which had requested the Council to meet again on 13 April 1982.

63. The CHAIRMAN  said that the Security Council would be consulted about the names of the requesting countries so that they could be added, in brackets, to paragraph 62.

64. Paragraphs 63 to 65 were adopted.

65. Mr. TERZI  (Observer for the Palestine Liberation Organization) said, with reference to paragraph 66, that the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the PLO had indicated his readiness to comply with resolution 509 (1982) not in his personal capacity but on behalf of the PLO, so that the opening of the paragraph should read: "The Government of Lebanon and the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization". He stressed that "Palestinian Liberation Organization" in the English text should be replaced by "Palestine Liberation Organization".

66. Paragraph 66, as amended, was adopted.

67. Paragraphs 67 to 78 were adopted.

68. Mr. TERZI  (Observer for the Palestine Liberation Organization) said that there was no reason to include paragraphs 79 and 80 in the draft report, since the Government of the United States had taken the initiatives described in order to undermine the work of the United Nations and without consulting any United Nations body or, of course, the Palestinian people.

69. The CHAIRMAN  said that the intention in including those paragraphs had simply been to record, in accordance with an apparent general consensus, certain facts which might have a bearing on the subject under discussion, without detracting from the mandate of the Committee or the obligations undertaken by the United Nations in relation to the Middle East.

70. Mr. BURAYZAT  (Jordan) said that it might be possible to satisfy all delegations by replacing the words "who conducted direct negotiations with the Israeli and Lebanese Governments" in paragraph 79 by "who conducted negotiations with all parties involved in the Lebanese crisis".

71. Mr. TERZI  (Observer for the Palestine Liberation Organization) said that the wording proposed by Jordan was not relevant to his objection, and he repeated his earlier arguments for not including the two paragraphs in the report.

72. Mr. TARASYUK  (Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic) said that, without wishing for the moment to make a political judgement on paragraphs 79 and 80, his delegation, like the Observer for the PLO, had strong reservations about their wording.

73. The CHAIRMAN  suggested that the two paragraphs should be left in abeyance and discussed later with the delegations concerned.

74. It was so decided.

75. Mr. HAMMAD  (United Arab Emirates) said that in the fourth line of the English text of paragraph 81, the word "the" should be added between "Israeli withdrawal from" and "territories".

76. Mr. TERZI  (Observer for the Palestine Liberation Organization), supported by Mr. RAHHALI  (Morocco) and Mr. BURAYZAT  (Jordan), said that placing paragraph 81 under the heading (d) "Reaction to developments in the Lebanon", was inappropriate, and suggested that it should be included in section 3, "Attendance at Conferences", or section 4, "Action taken by other organizations".

77. Mr. BURAYZAT  (Jordan) said that his delegation had not yet been able to study the official documents of the Fez meeting; nevertheless, he doubted whether paragraph 81 accurately recorded the proceedings of that meeting.

78. The CHAIRMAN  said that the reference to the measures adopted at the Fez meeting would be developed further on the basis of official documents.

79. Mr. RASOLONDRAIBE  (Madagascar) agreed with previous speakers concerning paragraph 81 and associated himself with the comments made by the representative of the Ukrainian SSR and the observer for the PLO regarding paragraphs 79 and 80.

80. Mr. SHEHATA  (Egypt), referring to paragraph 82, said that, for the sake of consistency with the format of earlier paragraphs, mention should also be made of the sponsors of the draft resolution, Egypt and France.

81. Mr. TERZI  (Observer for the Palestine Liberation Organization) said that, if extensive reference was to be made to the draft resolution, it would be necessary to state that one of its sponsors had insisted on the right of the Palestinian People to establish a Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza as well as on PLO participation in all peace negotiations. Besides, the reference to the withdrawal of forces had been superseded by what was happening daily in that area. If the sponsors of the draft resolution had themselves postponed their initiatives in the matter, it would be pointless to include further references in paragraph 82.

82. Mr. SHEHATA  (Egypt) said that he did not consider it was necessary to go into details concerning the draft resolution. He clearly recalled that the proposal of France and Egypt had been submitted to the Security Council following very close contacts between the sponsors and the PLO. In a particularly important statement, a representative of the PLO had spoken very positively about that proposal. Although subsequent events had rendered the text of the draft resolution somewhat out of date, the third part, whose basic principles remained valid, was still in effect, and should still be considered by the Security Council.

83. Mr. SREENIVASAN  (India) said that paragraph 82 ought not to appear in the part of the report under the heading (d) "Reaction to developments in Lebanon", because it dealt with measures taken by the Security Council.

84. The CHAIRMAN  said that everyone agreed that paragraph 82 should appear under heading (c), "Action within the Security Council". He suggested that an attempt should be made to reflect the contents of the original draft resolution, referred to in that paragraph as clearly as possible.

85. Mr. RASOLONDRAIBE  (Madagascar) said that he felt that paragraph 82 was in the right place, but that heading (d), "Reaction to developments in Lebanon", should be deleted, as should paragraphs 79 and 80, since they did not refer to measures adopted by the Security Council.

86. The CHAIRMAN  said that it was necessary to give a proper idea of what had taken place and that the question of deleting a section or re-drafting it would be considered at a later meeting.

87. Mr. TERZI  (Observer for the Palestine Liberation Organization) requested that the number of the record of the relevant Security Council meeting should be indicated so that it would be possible to know exactly how the draft resolution had been presented.

88. Paragraph 83 was adopted.

89. Mr. SREENIVASAN  (India) proposed that the draft report should be referred for consideration to a working group, since there were a number of unresolved questions which the Committee could not discuss thoroughly in a plenary meeting. Once the working group had received the report, the plenary Committee could consider it more expeditiously.

90. Mr. SHEHATA  (Egypt) said that he felt that the convening of the working group should be postponed until general comments on the subject had been made in the plenary Committee. In that way, the working group could take them into consideration and its task would be facilitated.

91. The CHAIRMAN  said that the question of time available had to be taken into account, since the report had to be submitted before 1 October. The suggestions made by the representatives of India and Egypt might be combined, as the working group would be open, and any delegation interested in one or more questions could participate in its debates. Moreover, most of the work on the draft report had been completed and consequently, if a working group should meet, its members would be well informed.

92. Mr. LOGOGLU  (Turkey) pointed out that the Committee had begun consideration of the draft report in plenary meetings. It did not seem necessary to change that procedure, since most of the report had already been considered and only one or two more meetings would be required in order to approve it as a whole.

93. The CHAIRMAN  said that the Committee would meet again soon to complete consideration of the draft report and approve it.

OTHER MATTERS

94. Mr. TERZI  (Observer for the Palestine Liberation Organization) said that Israel was currently pursuing an aggressive and racist policy against the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territories, as was reported fully in the daily press. Taking advantage of the fact that public attention was currently focused on the situation in Lebanon, Israel was creating new settlements, refusing to give contracts to dissident teachers and imprisoning an increasingly large number of persons. He therefore wondered if it would be possible for the Chairman to request a meeting of the Security Council to consider those developments in the light of Security Council resolution 446 (1979) and other resolutions.

95. The CHAIRMAN  made reference to the second Summit Conference of Heads of Arab States, which had been convened to review the situation in the Middle East and which he had attended at the invitation of the King of Morocco. He would make a longer statement on that meeting at a later date, but at the present stage he wished to note that the decisions taken at the Summit Conference were similar to the Committee's recommendations.

The meeting rose at 1.25 p.m.