Mideast situation/Palestine question – Letter from Israel

Letter dated 26 April 1985 from the Permanent Representative of Israel

to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

On the eve of 20 April 1985, an Israeli naval vessel on routine patrol sighted an unidentified ship approaching Israel's coast. When the ship refused to halt and identify itself, the patrol boat fired warning shots. The unidentified ship opened fire, including rocket fire, and tried to escape. The patrol boat fired back and sank the ship. One body was recovered; 19 were apparently drowned. The remaining eight crewmen were rescued. They said they had set out from an Algerian port where they had received special training. They were ordered by Khalil Wazir, a, Fatah "deputy commander", to attack three civilian targets in Israel. A PLO spokesman in Baghdad announced that same day that "several of its units were headed for Tel Aviv to carry out commando activity".

This aborted attack is merely the most publicized of several recent PLO attacks. On 20 April, David Caspi, a Jerusalem taxi driver, was murdered as he was driving home. A PLO spokesman in Amman said the PLO murdered Caspi to avenge the recent arrests of PLO terrorist Abu el-Nur and his collaborators. And two days earlier, on 18 April, the "Voice of the PLO" in Baghdad claimed responsibility for a bomb that had exploded in Jerusalem that day. This terrorist campaign should dispel any notions about the PLO's supposed tilt toward moderation. There is no moderation of any kind from an organization that gloats over the murder and bombing of the innocent and which seeks to terrorize an entire city. The PLO has proved once again that beyond vague formulations intended for public consumption outside the Middle East, it continues to espouse terror, and terror alone, as its modus operandi and its raison d'être.

I have the honour to request that this letter be circulated as a document of the General Assembly, under item 33 of the preliminary list, and of the Security Council.

(Signed) Benjamin NETANYAHU

Ambassador

Permanent Representative

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*A/40/50/Rev.1.