Mideast situation/attack – Letter from Israel

Letter dated 3 February 1987 from the Permanent Representative of Israel

to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

On 1 February 1987, a bomb exploded on a public bus travelling from Haifa to Jerusalem. The bus, Egged number 940, was carrying civilian commuters on a regularly scheduled route between the two cities. The blast injured nine passengers, one seriously.

The next day, 2 February, the Fatah faction of the PLO headed by Yasir Arafat assumed responsibility for the attack in simultaneous broadcasts from Tunis ("Palestine News Agency") and Baghdad ("Voice of the PLO").

In an attempt to justify this blatant act of terrorism, the PLO resorted to a flat lie. The civilian bus, it pronounced, was actually a "military" one, and the civilian passengers were not civilians but "enemy soldiers".

This is typical of the PLO's tactics – both the attack and the distorted "explanation".  The PLO knows that its long-standing policy of terrorism has become repugnant to many in the international community.  To justify the continuation of that policy, it resorts to outright fabrication. In this case, the PLO attempted to portray a civilian bus as a "military facility" and a cowardly atrocity as an "act of heroism".

The fight against terrorism requires that its false claims be exposed and its perpetrators punished. Israel, along with all other nations dedicated to the pursuit of peace, will continue to do both.

I have the honour to request that this letter be circulated as an official document of the General Assembly, under the item entitled "The situation in the Middle East", and of the Security Council.

(Signed)  Benjamin NETANYAHU

Ambassador

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