Seventh emergency special session
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
PROVISIONAL VERBATIM RECORD OF THE TWENTY-SEVENTH MEETING
Held at Headquarters, New York,
on Tuesday, 17 August 1982, at 3 p.m.
|
President |
Mr. KITTANI |
(Iraq) |
|
later |
Mr. MAIM |
(Indonesia) |
– Question of Palestine [5] (continued)
xxxxxThe meeting was called to order at 3.35 p.m.
AGENDA ITEM 5 (continued)
QUESTION OF PALESTINE
xxxxxMr. SHAH NAWAZ (Pakistan): The seventh emergency special session of the General Assembly has resumed at a time when Israel's unprovoked invasion of Lebanon, in flagrant defiance of international law and world public opinion, has fully exposed its expansionist designs in the region. For more than two months now, Beirut has been savagely attacked, its population subjected to ceaseless bombardment, and thousands of its innocent civilians have been massacred without mercy.
xxxxxSince the Israeli invasion the Security Council has adopted nine resolutions asking Israel to stop its genocidal war and to withdraw its military forces to the internationally recognized boundaries of Lebanon. Israel's only response so far has been to rain further death and destruction on west Beirut. And yet, we hope that the latest cease-fire, which took effect last Thursday, will hold, so that the bloodshed will stop and political negotiations have a chance to succeed.
xxxxxIsrael enjoys overwhelming military superiority in the region where none of its neighbours can pose a threat to its security. Israel's aggressive onslaught on its neighbors cannot, therefore, be justified on the basis of this wholly contrived issue. At this moment the real issue at stake is the survival of the Palestinian people and the independence and territorial integrity of Lebanon. Israeli policies have long been predicated on the Zionist dream of greater Israel. The invasion of Lebanon marks yet another stage in the Israeli scheme to occupy and annex Arab and Palestinian territories and to drive their inhabitants into permanent exile. Israel has recklessly mobilized its formidable war machine to liquidate the Palestinian nation and its leadership, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), forgetting that the spirit of freedom which inspires the just Palestinian struggle for self -determination cannot be extinguished by brute force.
xxxxxThe heroism, with which the Palestinian people and the Palestine Liberation Organization, under the leadership of Chairman Yasser Arafat, have met the ferocious Israeli onslaught is a reminder of that. The determination of the Palestinian freedom fighters never to accept defeat and to pursue their just struggle regardless of the cost in blood and tears has been proved beyond doubt. Their freedom struggle will continue until their just cause finally prevails. Side by side with that heroic resolve, the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization has shown restraint and political maturity in responding to political negotiations which have won international acclaim and support.
xxxxxIt is time for Israel to realize that guns cannot silence the voice of freedom and. that Palestinian nationalism cannot be suppressed for ever by the employment of violence and terror. It should recognize the futility of looking for a lasting peace which is not founded on the imperatives of justice for the 4 million Palestinian people whose land has been usurped. The crux of the problem, lies beyond Beirut and Lebanon, it lies in the restitution of the national rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to a sovereign State in their homeland, Palestine.
xxxxxThe matter of immediate concern for the resumed session remains the prevention of further bloodshed in west Beirut and the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon. The nine Security Council resolutions adopted in the past two months have repeatedly demanded immediate cease-fire as well as unconditional withdrawal of all Israeli military forces to Lebanon's internationally recognized boundaries.
xxxxxThe General Assembly at its resumed emergency special session late last June adopted also resolution ES/7-5 with overwhelming support from 127 Member States, reiterating the demands of the Security Council and censuring Israel for non-compliance with the Council's resolutions. So far, Israel has ignored those resolutions with impunity and continues to maintain its blockade of west Beirut. It has frustrated every attempt at a cease-fire by renewed bombing and shelling of west Beirut.
xxxxxIt is imperative that the latest cease-fire that has followed Ambassador Philip Habib's arduous efforts not be permitted to be violated once again by Israel in its arrogant pursuit of total military victory. The Lebanese Government and the Palestine Liberation Organization have repeatedly affirmed their readiness to comply with the Security Council's resolutions and to co-operate with the Secretary-General. Responding to the call of the Arab League as well as to the Council's resolutions, the Palestine Liberation Organization has also indicated its willingness to withdraw from west Beirut to agreed destinations. Israel is the only party which needs to be compelled to respect the present cease-fire and to follow the course of political negotiations.
xxxxxThis session of the General Assembly has a two-fold responsibility in addressing itself to the question of restoration of the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Lebanon as well as to the long-standing question of the national rights of the Palestinian people. Under no pretext should Israel be allowed to delay withdrawal of its troops from Lebanon. This session of the General Assembly must therefore endorse the Security Council resolutions relating to the situation in Lebanon and censure Israel for its non-compliance with those resolutions and demand the unconditional withdrawal of Israeli forces to the internationally recognized boundary of Lebanon. As an immediate step, Israel must be made to lift the siege of west Beirut, allowing the PLO fighters to withdraw from that city end to facilitate the deployment of United Nations observers in and around the city.
xxxxxThe General Assembly must also recommend effective measures to guarantee the safety end security of the Palestinian and Lebanese civilian population pending the Israeli withdrawal as well as call for an extensive humanitarian assistance program to alleviate their hardship.
xxxxxOur concern for Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon should not divert attention from the larger issue of the restoration of the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people. The invasion of Lebanon and the destruction of Beirut should stir the world's conscience and underline the need for more vigorous efforts to resolve the Palestinian tragedy. In this context this session of the General Assembly must reaffirm the principled positions adopted in the relevant resolutions of the United Nations in the post. In particular, the General Assembly must reaffirm the principle of non-acquisition of territory by force embodied in Security Council resolution 242 (1967) and reiterate its demand for Israeli withdrawal from the Arab and Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. General Assembly must also call upon Israel to observe the Security Council resolutions relating to the occupied Arab and Palestinian territories, including the Holy City of Jerusalem, in particular resolution 465 (1980), which censures all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition and institutional structure of the Palestinian and Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem.
xxxxxDemands alone by the General Assembly will not suffice. Israel must also be clearly warned of punitive sanctions provided under the Charter of the United Nations if it refuses to withdraw from Lebanon and persists in its defiance of decisions of the United Nations. Israel must be reminded that compliance with Security Council resolutions is a mandatory obligation for Member States under the Charter of the United Nations.
xxxxxIt is our hope that at this session of the General Assembly countries like the United States, which have influence with Israel and have a special responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, will join other Member States in calling upon Israel to respect the decisions of the United Nations. Continued defiance of United Nations decisions by Israel would seriously impair the authority of this world Organization, which serves all mankind in fulfilling its aspiration for universal peace.
xxxxxI wish to take this opportunity to reaffirm the solidarity of the people and Government of Pakistan with the Palestinian people and their national cause and aspirations.
xxxxxIn a message to Chairman Yasser Arafat, President Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq reiterated Pakistan's unswerving support to the Palestinian cause. He said that Pakistan considered the restitution of the national rights of the Palestinian people and Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Arab territories, including Al-Quds, as an article of faith. The staggering devastation caused by the massive and unprovoked aggression committed by Israel in Lebanon has filled the hearts of Pakistanis with anger and remorse. Pakistan, he said, was convinced that no degree of coercion and no amount of manipulation could succeed in denying for long the legitimate rights of the Palestinians.
xxxxxPakistan will continue to render every assistance within its means to enable the valiant Palestinian people to achieve success in their just struggle for self-determination.
xxxxxMr. AL-MOSFIR (United Arab Emirates) (interpretation from Arabic): We are meeting today 10 weeks after the invasion by the Zionist army of the territory of the Republic of Lebanon. Today we are meeting two months and a fortnight after the bombardment carried out by land, air and sea with all the military force available against the civilians of Beirut and the cities of southern Lebanon and neighboring villages along the international frontier of occupied Palestine.
We are meeting today to review aspects of the total destruction inflicted by the forces of Zionist imperialism on Sidon and Tyre and other villages in southern Lebanon and Palestinian refugees and their camps. We note today the ever-increasing number of casualties among children, women and old men in the besieged towns of southern Lebanon. What is happening today in Lebanon is the most serious threat and indeed a time of infamy in the history of modern man – so-called – of the Western democracies, which were in a position to stop this aggressor. What is known as the State of Israel launched a war of extermination against the Palestinian people, feeling that it could finish off the work of driving home the point that the plundered people of Palestine could never return to it.
The Israelis have waged war against the inhabitants of the villages and cities of southern Lebanon and the refugees from the Palestinian camps and those in the Bekaa Valley. This incursion would not have been possible without the indirect and direct support of the United States of America. Bombs, shells, rockets, warships, military aircraft and all weapons of mass destruction used in the siege of Lebanon today are of American manufacture.
Phosphorous shells or bombs, fragmentation bombs, bluster bombs have all been used against the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples, and these are all of United States manufacture.
The United States of America could have stopped this massacre merely by stopping the supply of weapons and putting an end to the economic and political support given to Israel. The United States has not confined itself to supplying its agent, Israel, with all the weapons of mass destruction it needed, but has opposed in the Security Council a resolution whose implementation would have been useful.
Furthermore, it has made it possible for the Government of Israel to set up offices for mobilizing mercenaries among the American people, in order to work with the Israeli invasion armies in Lebanon and in Palestine, territory which was occupied since 1947.
The international community could have done what was necessary to halt this massacre of a nation, and we expected the United States and the Western democracies to do everything possible both materially and morally to support the people in Lebanon and in the Palestinian refugee camps. They were in need of water, medicine and food.
It was necessary to stop this invasion of Lebanon and the massacre of the people of Palestine. But there has been no practical measure taken to meet our expectations. It was as if Lebanon were not part of the Planet Earth and the people living there were not among God's creatures.
The United States of America, during the Iranian revolution and the American hostage crisis, mobilized every available means to the point that they sent an expeditionary force to rescue the Americans held. It called upon the Security Council to meet in emergency session and asked the Council to implement Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, to impose a boycott against the people of Iran: all for about 50 Americans.
And yet this was against 40 million Iranians. The United States also imposed a boycott and called upon its Western European allies to stand shoulder to shoulder with them, and the Western countries responded. But with 600,000 people held hostage in Beirut and more than 20,000 detained in southern Lebanon by the Nazi Israeli forces, nobody worries about what is happening to them. Six hundred thousand people in Beirut alone, without water, electricity, food or any remedies for disease, without supplies for women, children and old people even the sick in the hospitals or outside – are without water, seeking shelter to protect themselves from the danger of American bombs.
Where is the conscience of civilized people in the Western democracies and in the United States? Where is your democracy? Where is your civilization? Where is your defense of human rights? This places a stamp of infamy on your civilization vis-à-vis all other civilizations, because you established Israel in 1947. It was your civilization that gave legitimacy, internationally speaking, to that State in the United Nations.
When there was a coup in Afghanistan in 1979 which brought the Soviet Union into that country, human rights for the Afghan people, from the American point of view, were the focus of discussion, because they had been violated.
The United States called for an emergency session of the General Assembly, and the convening of an emergency session of the Security Council, warning the Far East and Middle East countries to face the possibility of a Soviet invasion of that region. But various officials of the Middle East told the United States that the dangers they foresaw were the dangers from the Zionists, and they were aware of the great Powers' desires to dominate the region.
The United States of America called upon the entire world, through the General Assembly in the emergency session, to support the total withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan, but when the Israelis invaded they did not do the same, and they are not likely to do so now.
Today they are calling upon the Palestinians to leave Beirut, to leave Lebanon, although the Palestinian presence in Lebanon was based upon legitimate agreements between the Government of Lebanon and the Palestine Liberation Organization, which is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Those agreements were concluded in the context of the League of Arab States, but the Zionist invasion forces, who are occupying half of Lebanon, besieging the capital and holding the President hostage, have not been called upon by the United States to withdraw from the territory of Lebanon.
The United States of America stands as the guarantor of human rights when it deems fit to confirm violations of human rights in a given country, but it shuts its eyes totally to more serious violations of human rights when it is a matter of Palestinians who are condemned to utter wretchedness and destitution in southern Lebanon, around the capital, Beirut, and in the West Bank, the occupied part of Palestine and the Gaza Strip.
This does not upset Americans because there is a Zionist clique involved in inflicting suffering upon the Palestinians and that clique is known as Israel. There is a Zionist group which dominates the capital and the mass media and exercises its influence on the elections of the executive and legislative authorities in the United States of America.
The United States and those who follow its lead are committing the most serious mistake in history if they believe that the extermination of the PLO in Lebanon or anywhere else in the world will contribute to ending Palestinian endeavors to liberate Palestine from Israeli occupation. Therefore, the way in which those States view history is completely distorted. They are totally wrong in their deductions.
The British believed during the nationalist movement in India under the leadership of Gandhi that by imprisoning him the nationalist movement in India would end. But quite the contrary occurred. The Indian nationalist movement was able to liberate India and imperialism ended there. Hitler felt that by taking Paris, the capital of Prance, he could then do what he liked with the people and enslave its military forces. But we all know that although beaten, France became a revolutionary nation in order to oppose Hitler and overcome him. France itself considered the possibility of putting an end to the leaders of the Algerian revolution in the 1950s, a movement which was led by Ben Bella. They removed the leaders of the Algerian revolution; in fact, that was the first political highjacking organized by a great Power. None the less, the Algerian revolution grew in strength, became consolidated and was able to force the republic of France to recognize its existence. Under the leadership of General De Gaulle, the Government of France recognized that new entity.
The United States thought that it was invincible and that its military force could dominate poor countries and bend them to its will. They started to bomb the people of Viet Nam and to impose an economic and political blockade. However, the great people of Viet Nam, was able to upset that plan and prove that no force on earth can foil the aspirations of a people or defeat the armies of free men.
The problem of Lebanon is one that involves not just the apparent problem of the PLO in its territory. In fact, that is not the problem. If we look to the origin of the problem, it goes back to the 1920s, to the time of the imperialist occupation which came to an end in 1943. But the Lebanese factions were pitted against each other. Today military and financial support for Israel is provided by its allies so that the whole of Lebanon can be taken over.
One aim is to persecute some of the classes of its population so that a situation will result which will be favorable to Israel. Before that we saw the despoliation of Palestine. We have heard it said that southern Lebanon is part of Greater Israel. That began with the dream of Hertzl in 1397 and was repeated in 1919. At the Paris Peace Conference the Zionists put forward that idea again. In 1948 Ben Gurion wrote the following in his memoirs:
Moishe Dayan wrote in his memoirs after 1967 when the Israelis occupied the territory of three Arab States Members of this international Organization:
Since that time Israel has begun to carry out its plans for Lebanon. The following is the goal of Israel: by occupying a large part of Lebanon and taking Lebanese and Palestinian hostages numbering more than 500,000 people, including women, children, the elderly, the handicapped and the sick – by depriving, the people of water, food, electricity, medicine and basic necessities, and by using cluster bombs against the people, Israel wants to force the Palestinian people as a whole to relinquish their rights.
In view of the foregoing, this Assembly session must not allow itself to be held hostage by the United States and its allies. We are obliged to implement the Charter and to expel the State of Israel from the United Nations because it does not respect the resolutions of this body or the United Nations observers, as the Israelis themselves have said. No military or economic assistance should be extended to Israel. We also request the establishment of a special commission of inquiry or a special court or tribunal to judge Begin and his henchmen for the crimes they have committed which are crimes of war. The nature of those crimes is similar to the actions of the Nazi war criminals during the Second World War.
Finally, we should like to say once again that the will of peoples is invincible. It may sometimes take a step backward the better to gain ground. The PLO is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and it, together with the people of Lebanon, will write the history of the Middle East. The Palestinians will return to their homes in Palestine and reclaim those homes despite the support given by the United States to the State of Israel.
The United Arab Emirates hails the people of Palestine and the people of Lebanon who have proved by their heroism and sacrifice that the will of peoples is always invincible and that hopes are never completely dashed despite the forces of terror and persecution.
Mr. OTUNNU (Uganda): This seventh emergency special session of the General Assembly resumes at a most critical time for the Palestinian people. The forcible expulsion and dispossession of the Palestinian people from its homeland in Palestine and the relentless persecution it has suffered at the hands of Israel has been and remains a major blot on the conscience of the United Nations. Yet the developments of the last two months have surpassed even our worst expectations of Israeli intentions and methods. Without any provocation whatsoever, Israel launched a massive invasion of Lebanon on 6 June from the air, land and sea.
Israel did not need any provocation. The present campaign in Lebanon is part of an old Israeli design to dismember that country, and to appropriate the waters of the Litani river. As far back as February 1954, David Ben Gurion wrote to the then Prime Minister of Israel, Moshe Sharett, outlining the design in the following terms:
Israel must not be allowed to succeed in this design on Lebanon. Uganda supports the full restoration of Lebanese sovereignty in order to enable the Lebanese people to determine freely its own destiny. This is why my delegation supported the demand by the Security Council – which demand we repeat here – that Israel must withdraw immediately from every part of Lebanon.
In the 10 weeks since Israel invaded Lebanon, the aggressor has employed methods of destruction and massacre which are reminiscent of the dark period of history that preceded the founding of this Organization. The victims of the indiscriminate shelling of civilian targets, the victims of the cluster and phosphorous bombs, have been overwhelmingly women, children and the elderly. No security concern, no episode in history, can ever justify this carnage and destruction.
How can Israel, a country many of whose leaders and citizens are themselves survivors of an earlier holocaust, embrace and employ these same methods against another people?
If one State can be said to be the product of the United Nations and of the terrible experience of the Second World War, that State is surely Israel. Yet today it is Israel which has made it a routine practice to flout with contempt virtually all decisions of the United Nations.
Since the Israeli invasion of Lebanon on 6 June, the Security Council has adopted no less than nine resolutions on the situation. Regrettably, every single one of those resolutions has been ignored by Israel.
The Security Council was not designed by the founders of this Organization to function as a theatre of the absurd – a sanctum where serious men and women spend hours on end discussing measures which never come to pass because they are either vetoed or, if approved, are subsequently ignored.
Under the Charter of our Organization, Members have conferred on the Security Council "primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security". The decisions of the Security Council are binding on all Members of the United Nations. Thus Article 25 provides as follows:
This article applies in equal measure to Israel as it does to all other Members of the United Nations.
The present trend of defying the Security Council and ignoring Article 25 of the Charter is most dangerous for the future of the United Nations. If this trend is not checked now, the role of the Security Council as the custodian of international peace and security will be eroded beyond repair, and that could well shake this Organization to its very foundations.
But there is another reason – a more immediate reason – why Israel's defiance of the United Nations is of particular concern to my delegation: if Israel is allowed to get away with the invasion of Lebanon and the carnage in Beirut, then other potential aggressors will thereby gain encouragement to embark on similar adventures. In this connection, nobody is watching the developments in Lebanon more closely than the masters of apartheid in Pretoria.
Many times South Africa and Israel seem to act in tandem. Last year Israel invaded Lebanon in July; in August of the same year South Africa launched a massive and devastating act of aggression against the People's Republic of Angola. This year – yet another coincidence – Israel moved into Lebanon in June, and now South Africa has also launched another invasion of Angola.
No country in southern Africa and no country in the Middle East can ever feel secure when the activities of South Africa and Israel routinely go unpunished. It is for that reason that my delegation will support all efforts to bring Israel to order by applying appropriate measures under the Charter.
In the middle of the present genocidal campaign, the leaders of Israel made plain their intention to administer the so-called final solution to the Palestinian problem. This attitude, quite apart from being immoral, ignores all the lessons of recent history. Unlike physical structures, the national aspirations of a people cannot be bombed out of existence.
There is no doubt that the Palestinian people, under the valiant leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization, will emerge out of the bombardment and carnage of Beirut more determined than ever to achieve their national rights, the most basic of which is their right to live in a State of their own in Palestine.
The sooner Israel and all concerned realize this simple but basic fact, the better for Israel and all the peoples of the Middle East. Only the creation of a Palestinian State in Palestine, sooner rather than later, will pave the way for a genuine and lasting peace in the Middle East.
The United Nations must continue to work relentlessly towards the realization of that goal. Uganda, for its part, will spare no efforts to contribute to this endeavor.
Mr. MI Guojun (China) (interpretation from Chinese): Since the beginning of June, when Israel mobilized most of its land, sea and air forces to launch a massive war of aggression against Lebanon, the course of events in the Middle East has become increasingly serious.
In contempt of the norms of international law, and openly refusing to comply with the relevant resolutions of the Security Council and the seventh emergency special session of the General Assembly, the Israeli authorities have wantonly violated the sovereignty of Lebanon, forcibly occupied half of Lebanese territory, laid siege to west Beirut and brutally massacred the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples.
The Chinese Government and people, like all other peace-loving and justice–upholding Governments and peoples in the world, strongly condemn the Israeli authorities for this grave crime of aggression, and call upon the Israeli aggressors immediately, to cease their aggression against Lebanon, lift their blockade around Beirut and withdraw all the forces unconditionally from the territory of Lebanon.
The aim of the Israeli authorities' invasion of Lebanon was obvious. Their attempt was to annihilate the Palestine Liberation Organization, exterminate the struggle of the Palestinian people for national rights and undermine the search for a comprehensive and just solution to the Middle East question. The expansionist ambition they harbor was therefore for everyone to see, and for its realization they resorted to brutal and barbaric tactics. Forces with strength several times greater than that of the PLO were sent to make intermittent attacks on the PLO and the refugee camps.
Israel's aggression resulted in the gross violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon and the tragic death of countless innocent civilians in Lebanon. It has taken a heavy toll on the military strength of the Palestine Liberation Organization and has forced large numbers of Palestinian refugees already homeless to take to the road again.
The Chinese Government and people have the deepest sympathy with the Lebanese people and the Palestinian people for the suffering they have borne, and we have the highest respect and admiration for the Palestine Liberation Organization, whose members, under the leadership of Chairman Arafat, together with the Lebanese soldiers and people, displayed great courage against heavy odds in their heroic resistance to the aggressors. We firmly believe that, although there are temporary military set-backs, the flame of the liberation struggle of the Palestinian people is not to be put out, nor will their cause for liberation be put to an end. They will continue to charge forward relentlessly to carry on their heroic struggle.
It is a well-known fact that, in unleashing this war of aggression, Israel has been aided, abetted and shielded by the United States Government. The United States Government has not only provided military assistance to Israel but has also actively supported and defended Israel in the diplomatic field while exercising pressure on the Palestine Liberation Organization.
This has also repeatedly prevented the Security Council from adopting resolutions which condemn and impose sanctions on Israel. For the deterioration of the Middle East situation and the serious consequences created by Israel's aggression, the United States has inescapable responsibility.
Historical and existing factors, coupled with super-Power meddling, have made the Middle East situation most complicated and turbulent. The worsening of the Middle East situation has serious implications not only for the region involved but also for international peace and security. Many people now hope that a reasonable settlement to the Middle East question can be found so that peace and stability can be brought to the region.*
________
* Mr. Kamil (Indonesia), Vice-President, took the Chair.
The question of Palestine is the core of and the key to the Middle East question. The Chinese Government has always held that a comprehensive and just settlement to the Middle East question can be found only on the basis of restoring the national rights of the Palestinian people, respecting the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the Arab States and removing super-Power intervention. The Chinese delegation Wishes to avail itself of this opportunity to reiterate its firm view. Israel must withdraw from the Arab territories it has occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem. The national rights of the Palestinian people must be restored, including their right to return to their homeland, the right of self-determination and to establish their own State. All States in the Middle East should have the right to enjoy peace, independence and existence. The Palestine Liberation Organization, as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, is entirely entitled to participate on a equal footing in all efforts for a comprehensive and just settlement of the Middle East question. We are convinced that as long as the Palestinian people and the other Arab peoples can overcome their differences and strengthen their unity against outside forces and persist in their struggle they will certainly win final victory.
The serious issue we are now facing is that Israel remains adamant in its aggressive stand. Neither will it withdraw from Lebanon or from the other Arab territories it occupies nor will it recognize the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people. Peace in the Middle East still faces serious threat. It is therefore incumbent upon the General Assembly of the United Nations to adopt firm and effective measures, including various measures of imposing sanctions on Israel in order to put an immediate end to Israel's aggression. By that act the United Nations would be making its due contribution to safeguarding the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, the norms of international relations, as well as peace in the Middle East and in the world.
Mr. JAMAL (Qatar) (interpretation from Arabic): The world today is witnessing a succession of episodes in a dreadful massacre unprecedented in history; the massacre that Israel has been committing for more than two and a half months against the people of Palestine in the territory of Lebanon and in flagrant defiance of the international community. While the history of Israel is replete with crimes and challenges to the will of the international community and to the resolutions of the United Nations, what is happening today in Beirut and in other parts of Lebanon is still further evidence thereof. This situation is outrageous. This is pure genocide, launched by the new adherents of nazism against the people of Palestine and Lebanon. On the pretext of liquidating the Palestinian cause they have destroyed the capital of an Arab country, buried its civilians under the rubble and bombed continuously and indiscriminately in all directions.
The world has realized that Israel's invasion of Lebanon was not just a mere reaction. Since July 1931 the Palestinian resistance has been respecting the cease-fire. That is a fact confirmed by many parties including pro-Israeli international authorities. It is obvious that Israel had been long preparing to liquidate the Palestinian cause by exterminating the Palestinian people and its sole and legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization. The first stages of this policy were carried out early last spring in the West Bank when the Israeli occupation authorities began to uproot the local Palestinian institutions under a policy of terror and intimidation. The problem became worse when the Israelis stepped up the pace of their campaign against the Palestinians in southern Lebanon, threatening them with the severest military action. After preparing its plans, Israel unleashed its latest attack which has been rightly described as the most deadly and brutal. Entire population centers and towns have been destroyed and their inhabitants buried under the rubble. Entire towns have been crushed under the indiscriminate Israeli bombardments. The public services have been wiped out. The Palestinian refugee camps – the target of racist malice – have been razed to the ground and their survivors left without shelter.
Israel has lost no opportunity to bludgeon the Palestinian resistance in southern Lebanon. The predominant idea in the mind of the Israelis with regard to solving the Palestinian problem is the need to disperse this people so as to destroy its national, social and political identity. The last Israeli act of aggression is comparable to the Nazi atrocities because it was aimed at exterminating the largest number of Palestinians: this took place in the areas populated by Lebanese and resulted in enormous casualties among the innocent civilian population and in the destruction of the Palestinian refugee camps in order to disperse once again the Palestinian people and deal a deadly military blow against the Palestinian revolution.
Even if Israel's crime in Lebanon was premeditated, it would not have had the audacity to cause such a human tragedy or to commit an international crime if the international community had taken effective action against it. International negligence has increased and the proof of this is that the resolutions adopted by the United Nations against Israel have remained a dead letter. That is one of the factors which have encouraged Israel indirectly to commit its crime. If the history of the Zionist entity is characterized by challenges to the international will and by an under-estimation of that will, the history of the United Nations clearly shows that it is powerless to take up the challenge.
The General Assembly must, therefore, before it is too late, undertake to restore to the United Nations its flawed credibility. For that purpose, it must adopt measures to enable the Organization to settle international disputes and to enforce the will of the international community in order to safeguard peace and security in the world.
The fact that the United Nations has been unable to enforce its resolutions confirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to the establishment of an independent, State on the soil of Palestine, including the Holy City of Jerusalem, is due to the scorn shown by Israel, fully supported by the United States which provides it with limitless political, military and economic assistance, for the international community. To capitulate when faced with this situation would be tantamount to recognizing the ineffectiveness and futility of the Organization, an idea which we reject since the Organization was created to last. The Organization must not therefore remain indifferent to the maneuvers of a rebel member which constantly defies the principles of the Charter, international law and all the resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council.
The delegation of the State of Qatar, motivated by its sincere desire to safeguard the credibility of the United Nations and to ensure respect for the will of the international community, supports the call for the Israeli leaders to be judged as war criminals in an international tribunal which the General Assembly could decide to establish in accordance with the international Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted on 9 December 1948, in accordance with a resolution adopted on the subject by the General Assembly on 13 December 1946. Article VIII of this Convention provides that:
There is no lack of evidence that Israel is waging a war of genocide against the Palestinian people. Since the Nazi leaders were judged as war criminals in the Nuremberg Tribunals, the perpetrators of this dirty war which is raging in Lebanon must also be brought before an international court in which they will be unable to hide behind the American veto.
Our aim is to consolidate the role of the United Nations and restore its credibility. We are addressing ourselves once again to this Organization in the hope that it will again play a useful role in the maintenance of international peace and security, and this will be possible only if Israel is forced to end its aggression, to lift the siege against Beirut, to withdraw its troops from Lebanese territory and to implement all the General Assembly resolutions on the question of Palestine. Unless this matter is settled, it will never be possible to restore peace in the Middle East and international peace and security will continue to be threatened.
Mr. TINCA (Romania) (interpretation from French): Like others who have spoken before me have emphasized, the emergency special session of the General Assembly on the question of Palestine is meeting for the third time this year at a time of extreme gravity for peace in the Middle East and the world owing to Israel's aggressive actions in Lebanon which have been carried out on a hitherto unprecedented scale. The massive invasion of Lebanon by Israeli troops has claimed, and continues to claim, a large number of victims among the Lebanese and Palestinian civilian populations and has caused incalculable destruction and material damage, thus further impeding a just and lasting solution of the problem in the Middle East.
The Romanian Government has strongly censured and condemned these aggressive actions. In expressing the deep concern of the Romanian people over Israel's aggressive actions in Lebanon, President Nicolae Ceausescu recently said:
Also, we must do everything possible to enable the Lebanese political forces to decide through national reconciliation how to develop their own country.
The increased tension in the region following the Israeli military actions in Lebanon demonstrates once again the need to bring, about through peaceful means and negotiations a just and lasting global settlement of the situation in the Middle East, one based on Israel's withdrawal from the Arab territories occupied since 1967, on a solution of the Palestinian people's problem by means of the recognition of that people's inalienable rights, including its right to self-determination and the establishment of its own independent State, and on guaranteeing the independence and sovereignty of all States in the region.
As has been emphasized repeatedly by my country, following the example of the large majority of States in the world, the solution to the problem of the Palestinian people on the basis of respect for its national rights constitutes the key to a peaceful settlement in the Middle East. That is why in wish to take this opportunity to insist that all the efforts being made now to solve the problem of west Beirut, as well as of Lebanon, must facilitate a solution to the Palestinian problem with a view to finding an over-all solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Romania has many times shown its solidarity and support for the Palestinian people's cause, its legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and the implementation of their legitimate rights and aspirations to a free and independent existence within their own national State.
As a firm proponent of the right of peoples to self-determination and national independence, Romania considers that anything which contributes to affirming and promoting the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people is in the interests of peace. On the other hand, any ignoring or violating whatsoever of those inalienable rights is totally incompatible with the interests of peace and the establishment of normal relations of mutual confidence. True peace and security can never be achieved by using force, by ignoring international legality or by denying the right of other peoples to a free and independent existence. The facts show us most compellingly that force and war, far from contributing to the solution of problems, only further complicate a very serious situation and lead to still more deadly new armed conflicts.
It is both a vain and tragic illusion and a historic error to believe that the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people to live in their own State – free, sovereign and independent – can be stifled by armed repression. Israel must understand that the Palestinian people have a right to a homeland, to live in freedom and to organize their own lives. Israel must understand that it is not through military means that it can ensure peace on its borders but rather -through its immediate withdrawal from Lebanon and from all occupied Arab territories, through mutual recognition and through recognition of the right of all peoples in the region to a free, independent existence, including the Palestinian people. As President Nicolae Ceausescu stated a few days ago,
The present debate on the question of Palestine sheds light again on the need to enhance the role of the United Nations in the process of bringing about a settlement of the Middle East situation. We feel that at its special session the Assembly must call most firmly for compliance with the resolutions recently adopted by the Security Council in the matter of Lebanon. It is clear that the repeated violations of the cease-fire, the continuation of military operations, including those against Beirut, are liable to make a possible solution even more remote.
This is especially true given the agreement on the departure of the Palestinian military forces from Beirut and we believe that it is necessary strictly to observe the cease-fire and to provide appropriate safeguards for the implementation of this operation in complete safety. It is also necessary to allow United Nations observers to be deployed in the area of the Lebanese capital and to lift without delay the siege of the city and to allow aid to be brought and distributed to the civilian population which has been so sorely tested.
It is the opinion of Romania that rigorous compliance by each State with the decisions adopted by the United Nations is in the interest of all nations, because those who ignore or refuse to implement today the decisions of the United Nations endanger their own independence since tomorrow those same practices will be brought to bear against them.
The very idea of a negotiated solution, for which in our view there is no other rational alternative, necessitates as a logical and physical corollary the establishment of an international negotiating framework under the auspices of the United Nations with the participation of all parties concerned, including the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, as well as all other States which may be able to make a, positive contribution to the solution of the very complicated problems of the Middle East.
On the basis of this imperative for a political solution to the, Middle East conflict and in reaffirming its solidarity with the just cause of the Palestinian people and expressing its determination to work tirelessly towards a. comprehensive settlement which can lead to a just and lasting peace in the area, the Romanian Government and public opinion in my country hold that the extremely grave tension that persists in the Middle East demands that all States act with the utmost responsibility so that the situation may be solved urgently through negotiations and that a, just and lasting peace may be established among all peoples in the region.
Before I conclude, I wish to reaffirm Romania's determination to contribute in the future, as it has already done in the past, to the solution of the delicate and difficult situation in an area of importance that is vital also for the peace and tranquillity of the Romanian people.
It is our hope that the present debate and the decisions that the General Assembly may take at the end of this emergency special session will be able to make a genuine contribution to the realization of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, to a just and lasting solution of the problems of the Middle East and to the achievement of a comprehensive peace in the area.
Mr. HOANG BICH SON (Viet Nam) (interpretation from French): First of all, I should like to congratulate Ambassador Kittani of Iraq on his accession to the presidency of this extremely important emergency special session of the General Assembly on the question of Palestine and to wish him every success in his responsible task of conducting the business of this session.
Since I am speaking here for the first time, I should like to take this opportunity to convey my warm greetings and to offer my friendship and co-operation to my colleagues who represent fraternal and friendly countries on five continents participating at this session.
It is not yet two months since the last emergency special session adopted resolution ES-7/5 by an overwhelming majority of votes, condemning Israel for its refusal to implement Security Council resolutions 508 (1982) and 509 (1982) in which the Assembly demanded that Israel withdraw immediately and unconditionally its armed forces from Lebanon, at the latest by 6 a.m. on 27 June 1982.
The will of the international community expressed in that resolution was not carried out, and since that time the war has worsened daily in a particularly distressing way, and the Security Council successively adopted resolutions 511 (1982), 512 (1982), 513 (1982), 515 (1982), 516 (1082), 517 (1982) and recently 518 (1982) on a number of practical measures. None the less, in disregard of all international jurisdiction, Israel continues to use all its naval, land and air forces to attack savagely the areas east and west of Beirut and southern Lebanon.
Those acts of aggression, involving genocide and the most barbarous terrorism, caused the death of tens of thousands of innocent people among the Lebanese and Palestinian population.
It is absolutely clear that Israel could never behave so arrogantly and would not dare so cynically to defy the Arab peoples and all progressive mankind unless it had this solid alliance with a power of great economic and military potential.
Everyone knows that this war of aggression was launched by the Washington-Tel Aviv strategic alliance with the aim of liquidating the Palestinian patriotic forces, of annexing Lebanon, and finally installing American-Israeli colonial domination throughout the Middle East.
The history of our time has shown that force and chicanery can never crush the spirit of patriotism nor the will for peace or independence of a people.
The people of Palestine, the people of Lebanon and the other Arab peoples are determined to defend their sacred, legitimate and inalienable national rights.
In its statement of 26 July last the Government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam reaffirmed its resolute solidarity and unswerving support for the just struggle, which will certainly triumph, of the People of Palestine, whose sole authentic representative is the PLO, and for that of the people of Lebanon and the other Arab peoples.
The people and Government of Viet Nam are convinced that, despite the harsh and difficult present circumstances, the people of Palestine, this heroic people and the other indomitable Arab peoples, who enjoy the unanimous support and sympathy of all progressive mankind, will certainly win the day.
No Power, whether the leader of imperialism or of the most reactionary forces, will force the Palestinian people to submit.
Together with many previous speakers, my delegation is ready to support any practical and effective measures designed to oblige Israel to comply with the relevant resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and the Security Council with a view to finding a just, comprehensive and lasting solution to the problem in the Middle East which would ensure the exercise of the inalienable national rights of the people of Palestine and the other Arab peoples and guarantee peace and security in the Middle East and throughout the world.
Mr. SYDER (Portugal): The seventh emergency special session of the General Assembly on the question of Palestine has resumed at a time of increased tension in the Middle East. Portugal welcomes the reconvening of this emergency special session as it clearly reflects the profound concern that the international community has been expressing at the situation prevailing in Lebanon as a result of the Israeli invasion.
The Portuguese Government has been following the events in Lebanon with the gravest concern, in particular the attacks against west Beirut which lately have been intensified inflicting further suffering on the Lebanese and Palestinian populations. Portugal is appalled at the toll in human lives, especially among the defenseless civilian population and the destruction caused by the escalation of Israeli military actions. We strongly condemn the disrespect for human life that such actions have revealed and the blatant violation of the most elementary rules that govern international relations and of the fundamental principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter.
During the past two months, the Security Council has approved eight resolutions concerning different aspects of the present crisis. They have the full support of the Portuguese Government. The Security Council has demanded that Israel withdraw all its military forces immediately and unconditionally from Lebanon and that all parties cease all military activities within Lebanon and across the Lebanese-Israeli border, it has authorized the deployment – and increase in number – of United Nations observers in and around Beirut, to help to maintain a cease-fire and to report on the situation there and has asked Israel to co-operate fully in the efforts to secure their effective deployment, as requested by the Government of Lebanon- it has requested respect for the rights of the Lebanese and Palestinian populations, namely the lifting of all restrictions on the city of Beirut in order to permit the free entry of supplies to meet urgent needs of the civilian population in the city.
Israel has chosen to ignore those repeated calls. It has invaded and occupied, and continues to occupy a major part of the territory of a sovereign State Member of the United Nations. It is not only continuing but increasing the intensity of its military action in that country.
We are aware that intensive negotiations have been undertaken for some time now to resolve the present crisis, involving the parties most directly concerned and also the Ministers of the League of Arab States and the Special Representative of the President of the United States of America, Ambassador Philip Habib. We very much hope that these efforts will prove successful. In this context my Government believes that an immediate, effective and full cease-fire, repeatedly called for by the Security Council and the whole international community, is a fundamental first step towards creating an atmosphere more favorable to the success of the negotiations and further peace efforts.
The immediate task of the international community is to deploy all possible efforts to restore the security and territorial integrity of Lebanon. For this purpose, it is of particular importance that all foreign armed forces leave Lebanese territory. There is also an urgent need to increase the humanitarian assistance to the population suffering from the tragic events. To this end, free access by all relief organizations should be granted in compliance with the relevant Security Council resolutions.
Much has been said in our Organization about the drama of the Lebanese people, whose problems have been gravely compounded by the use of their country as a stage for struggles that are not their own. However, we should not minimize the complexities of the situation. Lebanon is an integral part of a region which is in the grip of a long-standing conflict. We believe that for Lebanon to fully emerge from its drama wider issues in the Middle East conflict have to be addressed end resolved. Lebanon's territorial integrity, sovereignty and unity can be permanently ensured only in the framework of a comprehensive settlement in the Middle East capable of bringing a just and lasting peace to the area.
We are fully aware of how complex the situation in the Middle East is, and of how deeply entrenched are the roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the question of Palestine, which, in our view, remains central to any solution to the problem.
Portugal has consistently held that a fundamental element in the negotiation of a just, durable and comprehensive Middle East peace settlement must be the realization of the rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people, the most fundamental of these being that of self-determination. In the search for the full expression of Palestinian rights and in the reflection of hopes of the Palestinian people it is clear that the Palestine Liberation Organization plays a distinctive role. We believe that the PLO, as the most significant representative of the Palestinians, should participate in the negotiations on the implementation of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people within the framework of a comprehensive solution to the Middle East problem. In our view, until such role is acknowledged by all principal parties concerned in the conflict, major obstacles to a settlement will remain. It is ever more important that Israel come to terms with the establishment of an independent Arab Palestinian State for no dialogue will ever be possible between the parties if Israel persists in calling the PLO "the terrorist PLO" or – for that matter – while the PLO insists in including in its Covenant the destruction of the so-called “Zionist entity".
A comprehensive settlement also requires the total withdrawal of Israel from all territories occupied since 1967, including Arab Jerusalem. The acquisition of territory by the use of force is inadmissible. Israel must abide by the principles of international law not only in recognizing that principle but also in respecting the relevant international conventions while still occupying those territories.
On the other hand, that settlement must respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area, including Israel, and their right to live in peace and security within internationally recognized boundaries.
These are the basic guidelines that determine our approach to the question of Palestine. In the Middle East conflict with its many and complex underlying issues, involving the reconciliation of conflicting rights, no settlement can be imposed on any party. Only through negotiation and dialogue can a just solution be achieved.
We all acknowledge that the events in Lebanon have a grave impact on the situation in the Middle East, which is at a most critical juncture. It is not the first time in the troubled history of the Middle East that the situation has reached a turning-point. Indeed, every war is a turning-point. Let us hope that this nay be the last one and that an agreement on the immediate crisis will be reached which, besides bringing it to an end, may pave the way for reaching a global settlement of the question of Palestine.
However, this will happen only if the spirit of mistrust that has been dominant among the nations in the region is replaced by a spirit of dialogue and conciliation. It can only be implemented if guns are silenced, allowing for the voices of all. peoples of the area to be heard.
Mr. SYTENKO (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) (interpretation from Russian): I should like again to welcome Ambassador Kittani to the lofty post as President of the resumed seventh emergency special session of the General Assembly on the question of Palestine and to wish him success in carrying out the complicated and responsible tasks facing him.
I should also like, on behalf of the delegation of the Soviet Union, to express the warmest welcome and the most sincere sympathy to the delegation present here of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) headed by the leader of the Political Department of the Executive Committee of the PLO, Farouk Kaddoumi. That delegation present today represents -the heroic Palestinian people who are fighting bravely and with self-sacrifice in defense of their inalienable rights to freedom and independence.
As recently emphasized in the telegram to the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the PLO, Yasser Arafat, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, L. I. Brezhnev:
The interventions of the majority of delegations at this session have shown that the expressions of sympathy and solidarity by the Head of the Soviet Union with the fight of the Palestinian patriots are broadly shared throughout the entire world. That is not a chance happening. It can be stated with certainty that never before has the General Assembly of the United Nations met at such a dangerous time or at such a critical period, not only for the fate of the Arab people of Palestine but also for the fate of all the peoples in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Slightly more than two years ago, during the first stage of the work of the seventh emergency special session of the General Assembly, we noted the incredible suffering and deprivation which had befallen the Palestinian people. The General Assembly at that time adopted the relevant resolutions and decisions. Those decisions were intended to end that intolerable situation and to ensure for the Palestinians an opportunity to have an equal and independent existence side by side with other peoples and States in the Middle East.
Unfortunately we must note that even today the decisions of the General Assembly not only have not been implemented but the way to their implementation has been hindered by new obstacles, while the Palestinian people themselves have become the object of blatant genocide.
The top leaders of Israel, having carried out a completely unprovoked massive aggression in Lebanon, have set for themselves the task of destroying the Palestinians, especially that group of the Palestinians that is carrying on an organized fight for the national rights of the Palestinian Arab people.
Here it would be appropriate to mention the words of one of the initiators of the Lebanese tragedy, General Sharon, in the Israeli Parliament. Without mincing words, he stated:
But he was speaking about an organization which legitimately represents the Arab people of Palestine, an organization which here in the United Nations has, to be precise, observer status.
The aggression in Lebanon has quite clearly shown that the Israeli leaders have been hatching expansionist plans against Lebanon as well for a long time. Few examples can be found in contemporary history of such reckless conduct, of such trampling upon elementary standards of international law, sovereignty and the independence of States, of the fundamental right of man, the right to life, as Israel has demonstrated during its armed invasion of Lebanon.
For more than two months now the civilian population – women, children, and the elderly – has been subjected to the Israeli military use of very harsh and inhumane types oil weapons and ammunition which are outlawed by international conventions. I am referring to fragmentation and cluster bombs and phosphorous shells. There are tens and tens of thousands of dead and wounded and hundreds of thousands of people have been deprived of shelter and home, There are vast ruins – all that remains of cities and villages destroyed Palestinian refugee camps, countless numbers of destroyed monuments to the history and culture of Lebanon's past.
Those are the results of Israel's bloody aggression in Lebanon. We are especially alarmed by the barbarity shown by the Israeli military machine in its assaults against the Lebanese capital. It is no accident that the tragedy of Lebanon – and especially the tragedy in Beirut – have revived mankind's memories of the darkest pages of recent history, rivaling the tragedies of the peoples of Europe in the years of the black plague of fascism and the tragic fate of such cities as Warsaw, Lidice, Coventry, Oradour – not to mention the thousands and thousands of other populated areas and cities in the Soviet Union pitilessly destroyed by the Hitlerite Nazis.
The international high-level commission which was established as the result of a decision of the seventh emergency special session of the General Assembly on 26 June of this year for the purpose of investigating and determining the extent of human and material losses in Lebanon as a result of Israeli aggression was not allowed by the Israeli occupiers onto Lebanese territory. It is clear that Israel is doing this intentionally, in an effort to conceal from world opinion the fact of its interventionist forces' crude violation of the elementary norms of humane conduct and international legality, including the well-known Geneva Conventions.
As we have been told, for example, by the head of the French public opinion information center, tens of thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese military prisoners are languishing in Israeli camps in southern Lebanon and are being subjected to systematic torture of all kinds. Through their bloody actions in Lebanon the leaders of Israel have built around themselves not that wall of security about which they like to speak so frequently, but, rather, a wall of hateful condemnation and scorn. Aggression and terrorism, elevated by them to the level of state policy, are leading Israel not to peace and prosperity but to the dead-end of hatred and alienation. The evil acts being carried out in Lebanon, from the historical point of view, amount to a crime by the leaders of Tel Aviv against their own people as well.
The responsibility for the blood-letting and genocide caused by Israel at the expense of the Palestinians and Lebanese is borne not only by the leading circles of that State but also by the current United States Administration. The policy of full support for the aggressor which has been pursued by the United States in connection with the events in Lebanon has wet with universal condemnation. It represents a practical manifestation, an inalienable part, of a global policy of the most aggressive circles of current American imperialism. That policy is intended primarily to ensure American hegemony in world affairs and to bring under American control the human and natural resources of other countries.
That is precisely the reason why, by encouraging the aggressive and expansionist policy of Tel Aviv, Washington is striving, as it says, under cover of affirming the military-political presence of the United States in the Middle East, to surround that region with a network of its own military bases and supply areas for its rapid, deployment force, which would be more aptly described as a force for rapid interference in other peoples' affairs. That is why the American Administration essentially aid not even lift a finger to end Israeli aggression and force the aggressor to leave Lebanese territory. Not only did it not lessen its assistance to Israel, but it opened wide its own military supply bases and arsenals for the Israeli war machine. Furthermore, it did everything possible to hinder the adoption in the United Nations Security Council of decisions intended to apply even the bare minimum of sanctions against Israel.
The script of this bloody spectacle called "Peace for Galilee" is something in which the American Administration has chosen for itself unseemly role of ensuring the political and diplomatic protection of the actions of the aggressor. As we have said – repeatedly and I emphasize once again – Israeli aggression in Lebanon is the direct result of the so-called strategic co-operation between Tel Aviv and Washington. At a time when Israel is tightening ever more the noose of its blockade of Beirut and is dropping ever greater tonnage of deadly bombs and shells, the United States, in the guise of the peace-making efforts of Habib, is exerting political and psychological pressure on the defenders of the Lebanese capital and has blocked attempts by the international community, including the Security Council, to call to order the unbridled aggressor.
But in spite of the efforts of American diplomacy, armed aggression in Lebanon, for Israel and for the United States as well, is turning into a major political and moral defeat. It is intensifying the isolation of the aggressor and its protector in the international arena.
As is known, for its part the Soviet Union, from the very first hours vigorously condemned Israeli aggression; it demanded an immediate halt to that aggression and the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanese territory. The main task now is for Israel fully to implement forthwith the decisions of the Security Council that have been adopted since 6 June this year.
In that connection, the Soviet delegation wishes to emphasize that the more united the forces opposing Israel's military adventurism became; the greater the number of States demanding that the aggressor be reined in, the more quickly and the more reliably will that aggression be ended.
Events in Lebanon have constantly been – and currently are – the center of attention of the Soviet Government, and this is testified to by the answers given by the head of the Soviet State, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, to questions asked in the newspaper Pravda and by the letters to the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, and to Yasser Arafat.
The Soviet Union, not in words but in deeds, has been advocating the just cause of the Arabs, and it will continue to give support and assistance to the victims of Israeli aggression, the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples, and to all who are giving a rebuff to the Israeli aggressor and are striving for a genuine settlement and lasting peace in the Middle East.
We are deeply convinced that the tragedy in Lebanon raises once again, and most emphatically, the question of the need for the achievement of a comprehensive Middle East settlement on a just and firm basis. Life itself demands that we seriously and responsibly get down to work and Set aside the fully discredited policy of separate deals. The lasting, eternal peace which was trumpeted in Tel Aviv and Washington after Camp David has turned into a bloody fight which has been carried out by Israel in Lebanon. This peace is very costly for those who have been living in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, as well – the Golan Heights the West Bank of the Jordan, the Gaza Strip – where Israeli occupiers, with flame and sword, are trying to break the will of the Palestinians and other original inhabitants of those regions and to impose upon them a hired group of quislings.
One thing should be quite clear, and this is convincingly indicated by events in Lebanon: that the Palestinian problem will not be solved by force of arms, that the will of the brave protectors of the just cause of the Palestinian people cannot be broken, no matter how harsh the trials they may undergo. Without solving the Palestinian problem, the very heart of the Middle East conflict, we cannot seriously talk about the establishment, of any kind of lasting and firm peace in the Middle East. That can be achieved only with the participation of the representatives of the Palestinian people, in the form of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
With regard to the question of a settlement in the Middle East, these problems are intertwined with the vital interests of many States and peoples of that region, and also with the vital interests of peoples in neighboring States of the region. Therefore, it is understandable that the elimination of the source of tension in that volatile part of today's world and a complete end to the Arab-Israeli conflict can be brought about only by collective efforts if this problem is tackled by all interested parties. Where, if not at the negotiating table, is it possible and necessary to try to reconcile varying points of view and approaches? Where, if not in some representative international forum, is it possible to search for mutually acceptable decisions and agreements on the fundamental aspects of a comprehensive Middle East settlement? This is precisely the value of the proposal made by the Soviet Union to convene an international conference on the Middle East.
For its part, the Soviet Union, as Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev has emphasized, is prepared to work practically along these lines and to co-operate loyally with all who would like to make their contribution to the establishment of a just and stable peace in that region.
The basis for a practical consideration of the Middle East problems and a solution to them is to be found in the numerous resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly relating to the various aspects of the situation in the Piddle East, including the Palestinian problem.
We should like especially to highlight the repeatedly confirmed fundamental principle of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by the threat or use of force. In other words, the Israeli forces must be withdrawn from all Arab territories occupied by them in 1967, the Palestinian people must be given a chance to exercise its inalienable right to self-determination and to the establishment of its own independent State.
We are firmly convinced that a just and lasting peace in the Middle East can be achieved only if there is a guarantee of the right of all States and peoples of the region to an independent and secure existence. All of these principles are based on the generally acknowledged norms of international law and on the provisions of the United Nations Charter. Their implementation would be confirmation of one's commitment to the lofty goals proclaimed by our Organization – and, principally, our commitment to the cause of ensuring universal peace and the security of peoples.
The Soviet delegation hopes that this emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly on the question of Palestine will measure up to the tasks facing it; that it will take those decisions that will effectively promote a situation whereby the Palestinian Arab people will finally have its own lands, its own homeland and its own State.
Mr. EKLOM (Finland): This seventh emergency special session of the General Assembly resumes in a particularly complex Political situation. Though we have resulted to deal with the question of Palestine, it is obvious that in the prevailing situation ire are all deeply preoccupied with the tragic events in Lebanon. The Government of Finland has followed those events with mounting concern and deep anxiety. Contrary to its initially declared intentions, Israel has continuously escalated its violence in Lebanon, causing untold suffering to thousands of people, including the innocent civilian population. Israel's acts have assumed the dimensions of a full-scale war. Since the beginning of the present crisis in early June, Israel has turned its back to the will of the Security Council.
Finland joins the rest of the world community in condemning Israel for the invasion of its northern neighbor, a sovereign State Member of this Organization. As other States Members of the Organization, Lebanon, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, has the right to protection against the threat or use of force against its territorial integrity or political independence. Respect for the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of Lebanon is a prerequisite for the restoration of Lebanese authority over its own territory. The fact that the integrity of Israel has not at all times been respected in no way legitimizes the present; Israeli action.
Difficult and delicate diplomatic efforts are currently under way with a view to finding a solution to the Lebanese crisis. While it is too early to predict the outcome of those efforts, any Government notes with satisfaction the reports that progress is being made towards a negotiated settlement. We for our part feel that the United Nations, in accordance with its purposes and principles as defined in the Charter, should do its utmost to contribute to finding a negotiated solution to the present problems.
While the immediate concern of the international community at the moment is the crisis in Lebanon, that crisis is but a consequence of the unresolved question of Palestine, for which this emergency session has been reconvened. Time, and recent events in particular, have shown that the core of the Middle East problem is recognition of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.
No one questions that the right of the Palestinians to national self-determination must be part and parcel of a comprehensive settlement in the Middle East. Finland continues to support the right of the PLO to participate in the negotiations on the implementation of the legitimate rights of the Palestinians within the framework of a comprehensive solution to the Middle East problem.
Finland remains committed to a political settlement of the Middle East conflict through negotiation in accordance with the basic documents of the United Nations, Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973), governing the achievement of such a solution. Beyond the immediate task of bringing the conflict and bloodshed in Lebanon to an end, the international community should make full use of the various proposals which, from different premises, aim at a comprehensive solution of the problem of the Middle East. As we all know, elements of these proposals are also currently, under consideration in the Security Council.
Resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) have lost none of their relevance. If anything, recent events serve to underline the continuing validity of the basic principles embodied in them. Israel must withdraw from Arab territories occupied since 1967. It is equally imperative that the right of Israel and all other States in the area to exist within secure and recognized borders be respected and guaranteed.
In a recent statement the Foreign Minister of Finland had occasion to underline that over and beyond the human suffering caused by the tragic war in Lebanon, this war also constitutes a series of undeniable failures and even humiliations for this Organization. It should therefore be a concern of all to initiate a thorough reappraisal of all aspects of the capacity of the United Nations to deal effectively with international crises and conflicts. All Member States should join in this endeavor.
Mr. KHWAJA WASIUDDIN (Bangladesh): The fact that the seventh emergency special session of the General Assembly had to be resumed less than eight weeks after the last session bears testimony to the gravity of the situation in the Middle East. The continued Israeli invasion of Lebanon has shocked the world and it poses the gravest danger to international peace and security. The latest Israeli actions have made it apparent that Israel is bent upon acting in the most immoral and unlawful manner, in complete disregard of all canons of international law and justice and of the Charter of the United Nations. The Government and people of Bangladesh have expressed in the strongest terms their condemnation of Israeli aggression against Lebanon and have reaffirmed their total and unflinching solidarity with their Lebanese and Palestinian brethren.
The Israeli invasion of Lebanon is not an isolated act of repression but constitutes another link in the long chain of Israeli policy of relentless expansion, its unabated aggression against its Arab neighbors and its ruthless design to eliminate the Palestinian nation. The question of Palestine is at the core of the Middle East problem. The heart of the matter is simple: a people deprived of its birthrights, dispossessed of its lands, forcibly uprooted by aliens, demands correction of a grave injustice. It is a political problem: the struggle of a people for its inalienable national rights – to determine its own destiny. This reality was deliberately obscured by treating the problem on not a political but a humanitarian plane. After a quarter century of dismal deliberations on the problem of Palestine, the United Nations General Assembly in 1974 finally dealt with the question in its totality in encompassing all aspects – historical, political and juridical. The General Assembly thus – in its resolution 3236 (XXIX) – unambiguously spelt out the inalienable rights of the Palestinians, including their right to self-determination, national independence, sovereignty and return to their homes and property from which they had been forcibly evicted. The resolution also endorsed the right of the people of Palestine to present their own cause and participate in any peace negotiations through their sole and legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
The United Nations, through the Security Council and the General Assembly, has repeatedly tried to bring justice to the suffering Palestinian people. But one of its Members – Israel – has deliberately and arrogantly rejected one United Nations resolution after another and openly flouted the voice of this world body. In the face of growing universal consensus in favor of the Arab and Palestinian cause, Israel intensified its policy of aggression, illegal settlements and annexation. After making its moves to change the status of Holy Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights moves which were condemned unequivocally by the international community Israel unleashed a reign of terror in the occupied territories. The Israeli invasion of Lebanon is a stark manifestation of Israel's relentless expansion, its unabated aggression against its Arab neighbors and its ruthless design to eliminate the Palestinian people and its sole and legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
In pursuit of that design, Israel violated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon and unleashed its war machine against defenseless Lebanese and Palestinian people. Thousands of innocent men, women and children have already been massacred, while hundreds of thousands of others are suffering the terror inflicted upon them by the Israeli military onslaught. We have seen one town after another in Lebanon razed to the ground. The capital city of Beirut is under siege, and incalculable destruction of the city has been caused by the deliberate and relentless action of the Israeli invaders. Then, to top it all, west Beirut has been cut off from supply of water, food, electricity and medical supplies.
What we are witnessing is nothing else but genocide being committed against the Palestinian people. But the Government and people of Bangladesh are convinced that the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people cannot and will not be denied to them, and that their sole and legitimate representative, the PLO, cannot and will not be eliminated.
The latest example of Israeli lawless behavior in to by found in its contemptuous rejection of resolution ES-7/5, adopted by the last special session of the General Assembly, as well as Security Council resolutions 508, 509, 511, 512, 513, 516, 517 (1962), all of which demanded, in clear terms, that Israel cease hostilities and withdraw its forces from Lebanon.
The Israeli invasion of Lebanon has dangerous implications for international peace and security, and the international community must take a resolute stand to halt Israeli terrorism and barbarity against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples. The United Nations, which is responsible for the creation of Israel has a solemn responsibility to bring the tragedy of the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples to an end. The Israeli design to eliminate the Palestinian people and its true and legitimate leadership, the PLO, is apparent and must be challenged. Failure to do so will irretrievably erode the moral authority of this Organization on which rest our collective aspirations for a civilized world order.
The failure of the United Nations in the past to act firmly and decisively has only encouraged Israel to intensify its aggression and barbarity. In the present circumstances it is imperative for the United Nations to proceed urgently, with all the authority and resources at its disposal to avert a further blood-bath and secure the implementation of its resolutions.
The recent events have also demonstrated beyond any shadow of doubt that there can be no peace in the Middle East without a total withdrawal of Israeli forces from all occupied Arab and Palestinian territories, including the Holy City of Jerusalem and without the restoration of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to an independent State of their own. It is also essential that the PLO – the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people – should participate in any peace process and on an equal footing. My delegation will fully uphold the adoption of any concrete and effective measure by this body for bringing an end to the Israeli aggression and for the promotion of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.
In conclusion, echoing the sentiments expressed by our Head of Government, General Ershad, in his message to Chairman Yasser Arafat of the PLO, I should like to reaffirm the complete solidarity of the Government and the people of Bangladesh with our Palestinian brethren and pledge to stand by them in this hour of trial.
Mr. BALETA (Albania) (interpretation from French): The resumption for the third time of the seventh emergency special session of the General Assembly is in itself evidence of the continued deterioration of the serious situation that has persisted for such a long time in the Middle East. The Arab peoples and in particular the Palestinian people have for decades, been the victims of a ferocious and uninterrupted imperialist-Zionist aggression. The many escalations of this aggression have given rise to very serious consequences for the Arab peoples and have created very tense situations in the Middle East and serious dangers for peace and stability in that area and in the whole world.
The imperialist-Zionist aggression in the Middle East has recently undergone a new criminal escalation of very dangerous dimensions with the fascist barbaric attack launched by the Israeli Zionists against Lebanon. Abominable crimes, large-scale and monstrous massacres, especially of the civilian population, terrorism and real genocide practiced by the Zionist war machine against the Lebanese and Palestinian people have profoundly angered and alarmed progressive peoples and public opinion.
The Albanian people has always followed with sorrow and concern the drama that the fraternal people of Palestine has endured for many years, driven by force of arms from its homeland, far from its homes ravaged by the Israeli Zionists by aggression. At the present time the Albanian people and the Socialist People's Republic of Albania condemn with the greatest indignation the new crimes and barbaric acts perpetrated against the Palestinian and Lebanese people by Israel and by American imperialism.
The bloody tragedy which the Israeli Zionists, supported and protected directly by American imperialism, have caused in Lebanon demonstrates once again that the Zionists and the imperialists always ignore the standards of law, morality and reason and place no limits on their aggressive, barbaric and inhuman activities when they are concerned with extending their aggression and when they believe the time has come to implement their expansionist designs. The bloody events in Lebanon prove still better that the Israeli Zionists and the American imperialists are acting like the worst aggressors of all time, like the Fascists, the Nazis, the imperialists and the socio-imperialists on other occasions. They do not hesitate to use enormous military forces and great quantities of the most sophisticated and deadly weapons in order pitilessly to destroy a small country like Lebanon, to bathe a people in blood, to kill thousands of people in the space of a few hours in order to carry out criminal intentions and fulfil expansionist ambitions.
The Israeli Zionist aggression in Lebanon was in no sense launched as a punitive expedition as the authors attempted to show at the outset. On the contrary, right from the beginning it was a real large-scale aggression prepared carefully along time in advance by the executioners of the Palestinian people and of the Lebanese people, by the Zionists and their American imperialist masters. This aggression is an integral part of the global plan which the United States and other imperialists have been attempting to carry out in the Middle East for a long time by using Israel as a shock force, by instigating and encouraging its expansionism, so as to thus dominate the entire Middle East, to control the wealth of that area and to exploit the Arab peoples. The facts show that this aggression is also a result of the unbridled rivalry and the endless bargaining that is always going on in the Middle East between the United States and the Soviet Union. The aggression against Lebanon is also part of a long chain of harmful consequences of various plots hatched against the Palestinian people and other Arab peoples by the imperialist super-Powers, either jointly or separately, which have always sought to prevent the implementation of a just and lasting solution to the problem of Palestine and the problem of the Middle East in general. Their objective, in the final analysis, is to maintain an unstable, disturbed and complicated situation there of neither war nor peace. It is clear that the aggression in Lebanon has been conceived and carried out with the objective of continuing and completing the harmful process which began with the Camp David accords.
In spite of the intense deceitful propaganda campaign undertaken by the Zionists and the imperialists it is clear in the light of the facts that the Israeli Zionists, like in the past, have launched their aggression in Lebanon after having received the blessing of the American imperialists and after having co-ordinated all their plans and maneuvers with them. Each intensification of the war operations and each act of aggression by the Israeli Zionists in the Middle East, recently and in the past, has been preceded by exchanges of visits at the highest military and political level between Israel and the United States and after every escalation of aggressive activities the United States, under the cover of efforts to mediate in order to establish a cease-fire or to find so-called political solutions, has attempted to consolidate the gains of the aggressor and to impose more burdensome conditions on the victim.
It is the American imperialists who have manipulated the bloody hand of their agent, Israel, during the aggression in Lebanon. The Zionists have launched their attacks after having been well supplied and equipped with huge amounts of American weapons and after having prepared with the United States all the details of the military campaign and of the political, diplomatic and propaganda game to be played. Then the Zionist aggressors rained American bombs on Palestinian and Lebanese children, old people and women in Beirut and in other Lebanese cities, the emissary of American imperialism in the Middle East utilized all means, intrigues and diabolical tricks in order to serve the interests of Israel and of the United States to the detriment of the victims. In vain the United States is attempting cynically to put some distance between itself and the misdeeds committed by Israel by declaring in a very low voice from time to time that it is concerned over certain harsh actions by the Zionists and that they can no longer influence Israeli policy.
The launching of the aggression by the Israeli Zionists against Lebanon was also encouraged by the anti-Arab activities and intrigues of the Soviet socio-imperialists in the Middle East. Verbally the Soviet socio-imperialists have come out in favor of Lebanon and the Palestinians. But that has not succeeded in concealing the fact that in this case too they have stabbed the victims of Zionist aggression in the back. They have been in agreement with and have supported actions and documents which equate the aggressor and the victim. The Soviet Union has made a great deal of noise about the events in Lebanon through political statements and diplomatic maneuvers and especially through its propaganda machine. But all of this has not been motivated by the slightest desire to help the Lebanese and the Palestinian peoples. On the contrary, the Soviet Union, like the United States, is concerned about its own expansionist and hegemonist interests in the Middle East.
The socio-imperialists have openly stated that the reason for their concern was the fact that the Middle East is close to the southern boundaries of the Soviet Union and that any development in that region affects the interests of the Soviet Union. The legitimate interests and sufferings of the peoples which have fallen victims to aggression, as in Lebanon, do not count in the eyes of imperialists and socio-imperialists.
The Albanian and Palestinian peoples are paying very dearly today for the rivalry and blackmail of the imperialist super-Powers in the Middle East which encourage Israel's aggressiveness enormously. Other peoples may pay as dearly also at other times, either in the Middle East or in other areas. Although sad, the events taking place in Lebanon provide all peoples, in particular the Arab peoples, with another example that should teach them a lesson. They prove that Israeli zionism is the ruthless enemy of the Arab peoples and will not willingly renounce expansion and aggression. Indeed, it is the intention of the Zionists to repeat, elsewhere, on the same pretexts and using the same methods as in Lebanon, the fanciful dream of creating Greater Israel. It turns out to be true once again that the super-Powers and the imperialist Powers cannot be the guarantors of the rights and interests of peoples. It is illusory to think that they can in any way help the Arab peoples to re-establish their rights; they seek only to prevent the Arab peoples from forming a combat unit and from bringing about the triumph of their cause and that of the Palestinian people.
The criminal goals pursued by the Zionist aggressors in Lebanon and their imperialist patrons have already become well known. They are seeking to destroy Palestinian resistance, suppress the struggle for national liberation of the Palestinian people, and eliminate the Palestinian cause. They are seeking to extend Zionist occupation of Arab territories in order to force the Arab peoples to give up their right to the territories already occupied by the Israelis, to abandon their Palestinian cause and, finally, to submit to the diktat of the Zionists and imperialists.
As we have said many times, we remain convinced that the Zionist and imperialist enemies and all other enemies of the Arab peoples will not succeed in achieving their goals. The cause of the Palestinian and Arab peoples is a just one. Their struggle is just. Those peoples will win and exercise their rights regardless of the present situation in the Middle East and in spite of the dreams that their enemies might have. The experience of those peoples throughout history has taught us that a people fighting for its right, for self-determination and national independence, cannot be beaten and will conquer its enemies.
We remain convinced as always that the heroic Palestinian people, thanks, to their efforts and struggle under the leadership of the PLO, their sole legitimate representative, and counting on the support of the fraternal Arab peoples, will regain their inalienable national rights and their homeland which has been usurped by the Zionist occupiers. No one has the right, and no one will be able, to take decisions regarding the future of the Palestinian people. It is for them, and them alone, to decide their destiny in keeping with their legitimate rights.
The Albanian people firmly supports the just struggle of the Palestinian people to return to their homeland, regain their homes and fully re-establish their national rights. We have always admired, and continue to admire, the superhuman efforts of the Palestinian people to preserve their national identity in spite of sacrifices and sufferings which are enormous and have lasted for a long time. There can be no other way to solve the problems or the Middle East than through a just and definitive solution of the Palestinian question.
The Albanian people supports the Lebanese people against Zionist aggression. This aggression must end without delay and Lebanese national sovereignty must be restored and respected by ending the Israeli occupation of and interference in their country.
Mr. ZARIF (Afghanistan): The resumption of the seventh emergency special session is not only timely and appropriate but also extremely important in the light of the present deplorable situation in Lebanon. The Palestinian people have been subjected to the most inhuman suppression and suffering for over three decades. But no time in history did they face a war so brutal as the one being waged against them in Lebanon today. For over two and a half months the fascist régime of Tel Aviv, using ultra-modern weapons of mass destruction, has massacred thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese.
As time passes the situation is becoming more critical. The brutal war of genocide continues as the number of its victims increases every day. The continued siege of west Beirut, the lack of water, food and medicines, and the barbaric shelling of the city by air, sea and land have exposed the heroic Palestinians and Lebanese who are still in the city to the real threat of complete extermination. The valiant resistance of the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples against the Israeli aggressors is yet another brilliant page in their history of courage and determination. The courageous Palestinian people and their sole, legitimate vanguard, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) deserve the deepest respect of the freedom-loving peoples of the world. Inhuman suppression and torture have not broken their will, but have made them more determined to achieve their inalienable rights, the rights which are recognized by the vast majority of the Members of the United Nations but disregarded and denied by Israel.
Israel totally disregards international laws and norms and opposes United Nations resolutions. In fact, this has been the pattern of behavior of Zionists for over three decades. The Zionists are guilty of a long list of criminal conduct and lawlessness against the Palestinian people and the Arab States of the region. The attach on the Iraqi nuclear facilities, the annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights, the barbaric suppression of the Arab people of the occupied territories and the aggression against Lebanon are but a few manifestations of its atrocities which clearly show the true criminal nature of the fascist-terrorist régime.
In its criminal conduct the Zionists have enjoyed the total support of their godfather, United States imperialism. Thanks to the military, financial and political support provided to it by the United States, that self-proclaimed headmaster of the so-called civilized and free nations, Israel has been able to engage in the most uncivilized and horrendous mass murder and to get away with its total defiance of United Nations resolutions and world public opinion.
The proceedings of the resumed seventh emergency special session of the General Assembly in June of this year demonstrated the complete isolation of United States imperialism and its strategic subservient, Israel, in their war against the Palestinians and the Lebanese, as was evidenced by the vote on resolution ES-7/5 Israel has the full consent and assistance of the United States in the war in Lebanon. In fact, the war against the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples is an. integral part of the over-all strategic design of United States imperialism that is being implemented in collaboration with the Zionist entity in order to secure further footholds in the region, which the United States considers as one of the "areas of its vital interests".
With the United States-Israeli strategic alliance and the infamous Camp David deals, the Israeli ruling circles have been given a free hand in their acts of aggression. Experience shows that Israel became bolder and more brutal in its aggressive acts after the signing of the Camp David deals and the "strategic alliance". This is a warning to those countries of the region that are following a policy of appeasement towards Israel. The quest for land and aggrandizement under absurd pretexts will sooner or later endanger the sovereignty and territorial integrity of those countries as well.
The logic of doing away with the Palestinian problem by totally annihilating the Palestinian people is reminiscent of the nazi mentality, which is now being perpetuated by the very victims of that medieval philosophy. Israel does not need gas chambers to eradicate the Palestinian people since it has turned the whole city into an inferno by continuous use of cluster, phosphorous, napalm and fragmentation bombs.
Dozens of refugee camps have been razed to the ground by barbaric bombing and later bulldozed to prevent their future use. Villages, towns and cities were burned to ashes. As a result, 100,000 over Palestinian refugees and Lebanese civilians have lost their lives or were seriously wounded and hundreds of thousands have become homeless.
The Zionists have detained several thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians in concentration camps, where they are subjected to torture and other inhuman treatment. A number of them have been beaten to death by the fascist authorities. While the attention of the world public is focused on the situation in Beirut, the Israeli occupying authorities have tightened their grip on the illegally occupied territories. The latest atrocities by the Israelis in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the abolition of the elected municipalities are more recent examples of the Israeli suppression of the population of the occupied territories.
The conscience of humanity can no longer tolerate the massacre of innocent men, women and children. The people and Government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, while condemning in the strongest terms the genocidal policy of the Israeli terrorists, express their unconditional support to the heroic peoples of Palestine in their just struggle to achieve their inalienable rights, including their right to establish an independent State, without which no lasting and just pence can be envisaged in the Middle East. However, the most pressing and urgent issue right now is the most fundamental right of the Palestinian people: their right to life, which should be safeguarded by all means. The criminal Zionist régime should not be allowed to continue on its genocidal spree.
We demand the immediate cessation of Israeli aggression and the unconditional withdrawal of Israeli forces to the internationally recognized boundaries of Lebanon.
Ever since June 1982, Israel has violated resolutions 508 (1982), 509 (1982), 511 (1982), 512 (1982) and other recent resolutions of the Security Council and resolution ES-7/5 of the General Assembly.
Systematic and blatant defiance of the resolutions of the most authoritative organ of the United Nations by Israel has provided us with sufficient reason and argument to state categorically that Israel is a war-mongering, non-peace-loving, arrogant entity, whose presence in this world body is a heavy burden on the conscience of decent mankind.
We demand that provisions of Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter be applied since the credibility of this Organization and respect for the principles of its Charter are at stake.
Mr. BOLD (Mongolia) (interpretation from Russian): For two months now, the Lebanese tragedy has continued. What is happening in this long-suffering land is not a war in the normal meaning of the term. This is blood-letting and vandalism unparalleled in contemporary history in its severity.
Tens of thousands have been killed and wounded – mostly civilians – women, children and old people. Three of the largest cities in southern Lebanon have been completely destroyed. Thirty-two villages and 14 refugee camps have been razed to the ground and whole blocks in the Lebanese capital have been turned into ruins, and this is by no means a full list of the crimes committed by the Israelis. And the Zionists are using such barbaric means of mass destruction as cluster, fragmentation and phosphorous bombs and an embargo on food supplies. The fact that the population of the town has been deprived of water and electric power and that no humanitarian help has been allowed in and also there has been no supply of medical requirements shows that the Zionists, methods of waging war are not one whit different from the fascist ways.
What is being wrought by the Israelis in Lebanon, can only be called a genuine genocide against the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples. Never has the racist essence of zionism been so brazenly revealed.
The Israelis, with their customary effrontery, call zionism their national liberation movement. As everyone knows, in 1975 the United Nations General Assembly recognized and condemned zionism as one of the forms of racism and an ideology embodied in the policies pursued by the Tel Aviv authorities as a denial and flouting of the legitimate rights of the Arab people of Palestine and an attempt to rub shoulders with the reactionary forces of imperialism and racism.
As everyone knows, the resolution adopted by the United Nations on 29 November 1947 envisaged the creation of two independent States in the territory of Palestine: an Arab State and a Jewish State. The Jewish State was allocated territory that was equivalent to 56 per cent of the entire area of Palestine. However, from the very first day of Israel's existence the. Zionists proceeded, step by step, to occupy the contiguous territories. Thus after the Arab-Israeli war of 1948-1949, 80 per cent of the land of Palestine was found in the hands of the Zionists. As a result of the June 1967 aggression, they succeeded in seizing the entire territory of Palestine.
Thereafter, in 1968, the then Defense Minister Moshe Dayan said:
The result of the Israeli aggressions over all these years and the boastful deprecation of Moshe Dayan show that zionism, first and foremost, means unrestricted expansionism, to which any country and any people in the Middle East may fall victim.
The present criminal adventure of the Israeli military against the sovereign State of Lebanon is undoubtedly a further stage in the implementation of the far-reaching plans of Zionist expansion which aims to establish the domination of Israel in this part of the world.
All the aggressive actions of Israel are being carried out in full accord with the military and strategic plans of imperialism in the Middle East, with the direct encouragement and constant support of the United States.
The aggression against Lebanon, we can say, is the logical outcome of the Camp David collusion, since it pursues the aim of destroying the Palestine Liberation Organization, breaking the will of the Palestinian people and imposing on it so-called autonomy according to the American-Israeli recipe.
Certain official representatives of Israel and the United States have continued to try to justify this barbaric aggression by calling it Israel's exercise of its right to self-defense. I do not think that anybody apart from them would be able to utter such hypocrisies.
It is perfectly obvious that Israel could not conduct itself in such a provocative way, completely ignoring world public opinion and the numerous resolutions and requirements of the Security Council and General Assembly of the United Nations, particularly the last nine resolutions of the Security Council, if the United States had not given its comprehensive economic, military, political and diplomatic assistance and support. Therefore, the responsibility for the bloody exploits of Israel in Lebanon should be borne by the United States.
The position of the Mongolian People's Republic on the Middle East problem is well known and remains unchanged. The Government and the people of Mongolia have always been on the side of the Palestinians who are fighting for their national legitimate rights and strongly condemn the criminal activities of the Zionists vis-à-vis the indigenous population in the occupied Arab territories and their armed aggressions against the neighboring sovereign States.
Our attitude to the present events in this region was clearly expressed in the statement made by the representative of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Mongolian People's Republic on 9 June of this year. In particular it says:
The tragic events in Lebanon have once again cogently illustrated that there is no alternative to a comprehensive settlement of the Middle East Problem, which is advocated, as before, by the overwhelming majority of States, including our own, and the time has now come to take appropriate steps to restrain the Zionist expansionists. This is required by the most elementary norms of human morality and the fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter and international law.
It is quite obvious that the time has now passed for separate deals, verbal maneuvers and unjustified optimism.
Mr. EL-FATTAL (Syrian Arab Republic) (interpretation from Arabic): Since 4 June 1982 Israel has been waging its fifth war against the Arab nation of Lebanon. It has let loose an inferno of bombs over Beirut, Lebanese cities and villages and Palestinian camps.
On 6 June the onslaught started under a deluding and deceptive slogan, but a slogan typical of Zionist logic, "Peace for Galilee".
The Israelis perpetrated the most hideous massacres and the most heinous deeds. They killed thousands of innocent Palestinian and Lebanese citizens. They destroyed cities, villages and infrastructures. They displaced hundreds of thousands and detained in concentration camps thousands of inhabitants whose backs were marked with the sign of the cross, following the practice of the Nazis in their concentration camps.
At the same time, as part of its aggression against the Palestinians and the Lebanese, Israel committed acts of aggression against the Syrian forces in Lebanon serving as part of the Arab deterrent forces.
Based on our absolute right to self-defense, our armed forces stood up to the Israeli aggression and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. Hundreds of Israeli and Syrian planes, thousands of tanks, and scores of thousands of our soldiers were engaged in fierce battles in which the Syrian soldiers fought with outstanding valor to repulse the aggression, to protect the land of Lebanon, and to defend the Palestinian revolution.
The Syrian soldiers in Beirut stood side-by-side with the Lebanese and Palestinian fighters to defend the capital, Beirut, which withstood the onslaught and managed, in spite of the siege imposed upon it, to defend the dignity of Lebanon and all of the Arabs.
Syria has assumed its national responsibility to challenge the aggression, to shed its blood and to make sacrifices because Israel, through its aggression against Lebanon, has aimed, and is aiming, to extend its hegemony over this sister country and to crush the Palestinian revolution and create conditions for attacking Syria, the bastion of steadfastness and defiance.
There is no doubt that the current Israeli aggression could not have happened had it not been for the United States of America providing Israel with military, economic and political assistance. It is no longer a secret that the aggression against Lebanon had Washington's blessing. We consider that the United States is responsible for the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent people who were murdered or wounded by Israel with American weapons. Our children, our women and our elderly, the victims of the aggression, do not differentiate between the identity of the pilot and that of the manufacturer of the plane, the gun, the cluster bomb or the phosphorus bomb. All of them are American weapons paid for by the American taxpayer, who is suffering from an acute economic crisis. The share of every Israeli that Israeli who fights the Arabs and threatens international peace and security – of the American gross national product is $1,000 per annum, while starvation is claiming the lives of thousands in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
I wonder how many States represented in the General Assembly have a per capita income exceeding $300. The Israeli child, the Israeli woman, the Israeli. soldier and the Israeli criminal each received $1,000 per annum of the American gross national product. There are millions in Latin America, Asia and African who are starving to death.
The delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic places great hope in this resumed session, since it has been convened not only to affirm the rights of the Palestinian people, including its right to self-determination, its right to return to its homeland and its right to establish its own independent State in Palestine but also to stand up to the imperialist Zionist plot aimed at the physical liquidation of the Palestinian people and the destruction of their national entity when that entity, which is embodied in the PLO, has become a concrete reality recognized throughout the world.
This Zionist conspiracy is not only aimed against the Palestinian people in their camps in Lebanon but is also designed at the same time to bring our Arab people in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights down to their knees and humiliate them. But our people will not kneel. I say it to the United States of America and to Israel: our people will not kneel and will resist by all means at its disposal. Zionism wants, through genocide, to eliminate the legitimate holder of the right, so that this may help it to establish a greater racist settler-State extending between the Nile and the Euphrates.
It is obvious to us that the Israeli aggression and the accompanying mass murder against both Palestinians and Lebanese and the destruction of villages and cities is but the implementation of a new phase in the Israeli expansionist policy. The Zionist movement and successive Israeli Governments have never concealed, for the information of the American delegation, their intentions to expand in the south of Lebanon and to seize its fertile lands and abundant waters. The most recent indications show that Israel is behaving in Lebanese territory as if it is the master who intends to stay and colonize the land. The Israeli military movements towards the north of Beirut – and we were reminded of this by the representative of Lebanon in his letter addressed to the President of the Security Council a few days ago – are but an attempt to expand the scope of its aggression.
Therefore, it is incumbent upon the required session to take effective measures to force Israel to implement Security Council resolutions 508 (1932) and 509 (1982), which embody the Security Council's commitment to the immediate Israeli withdrawal from all Lebanese occupied territories to the internationally recognized Lebanese borders, since those two resolutions provide for the cease-fire. In addition, it is also incumbent upon the resumed session to bring the necessary pressure to bear on the United States of America in order to induce it fully to recognize the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, in particular its right to self-determination and its right to establish its own independent State in Palestine.
Is the international community not yet convinced that the Camp David conspiracy hatched by America to fulfil its aggressive strategic aims in the region has allowed and encouraged Israel to commit aggression against Lebanon and the Palestinians living in that country, just as it previously encouraged Israel to accelerate its usurpation of the occupied Arab territories and annex Jerusalem, declaring it the capital of world zionism, and the Golan Heights. All of those actions deriving from an ideology, declared to be racist by the General Assembly, declared to be racist by the General Assembly, demonstrate that it is not possible to rake an accurate international response to the international aggression unless the United Nations imposes the most severe sanctions against Israel in accordance with Chapter VII of the Charter, since Israel has violated its commitment under the United Nations Charter and since the General Assembly declared that Israel has violated the conditions of its membership in the United Nations, thus proving that it is not a peace-loving State. Depriving Israel of its membership in the United Nations or, at least, excluding it from participating in the work of the General Assembly is imperative for the States Members of the United Nations.
The Ambassador of Uganda, whose country is a member of the Security Council, drew our attention this afternoon to the synchronization, the simultaneous nature and the co-ordination of the aggressive practices of Israel and the practices of the racist Pretoria Government, which proves to all that Tel Aviv, like Pretoria, must be completely isolated both internationally and regionally.
In conclusion, the Syrian Arab Republic will not hesitate to assume its national responsibilities to put an end to the Israeli occupation of every square inch of Arab territories. The region will never know peace so long as Israel persists in its expansion, colonization, murder and displacement. The Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Syrian. Arab Republic affirmed in the Ministerial Meeting of the non-aligned countries, held in Cyprus:
Mr. EL HOFARI (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) (interpretation from Arabic): The fact that we are meeting in this resumed session for the third time to consider the cause of the Palestinian people indicates the importance attached by the international community to this cause and is an expression of its support for the struggle of the Palestinian people, this heroic people, which has been steadfast in the face of the fascist, racist, Zionist aggression for more than a third of a century, this people, which was displaced from its land and against which the worst massacres in history were perpetrated without mercy for children, women or the elderly. The whole world has witnessed in the last two months another series of massacres which have claimed the lives of thousands of innocent people. The world has condemned this aggressive Zionist action for which there is no justification and has become even more convinced that Zionist policy is based on murder, destruction and terrorism, as is the racist, fascist, nazi policy being pursued by the racist regime of South Africa. This became obvious to world public opinion after it witnessed on television the barbaric actions of the Zionist aggression, its indiscriminate continuous brutal bombing and its acts of genocide against the Palestinian and Arab peoples in violation of all international norms, laws and agreements. The Zionist regime did not stop there but persisted in its defiance of the international community by its rejection and ridicule of United Nations resolutions, although it was such resolutions which contributed to its existence when the United Nations approved of the establishment of the racist, nazi, Zionist State. We recently witnessed the representative of that entity rejecting the resolutions of the Security Council and attacking his closest allies of yesterday simply because of their condemnation of the Zionist aggressive actions for which they could find no justification.
We all know that this regime could not have waged repeated acts of aggression and not have occupied the territory of sovereign States but for the position of the American Government, which supports it and provides it with all forms of economic, financial, military, human and technical assistance. The position of the United States embraces more than full political support in the Security Council and the use of the right of veto against any draft resolution not approved of by the Zionist entity. To all intents and purposes the United States has abdicated this right to the Zionist entity, and this encourages that entity to persist in its expansionist policy of aggression. It could even be said that the United States urges and encourages that entity to persist in its aggression. This became quite obvious when the United States took action in the Security Council to prevent the condemnation of the Zionist entity for its invasion of Lebanon and was thus completely isolated from the rest of the members of the Council.
In addition to this political support, the weapons used by the Zionist enemy are American weapons which continued to flow to Israel throughout the period of aggression. Moreover, the financial assistance is continuing and increasing and American mercenaries, encouraged by the American Government, are leaving to participate in the aggression. This morning the NBC network showed them at the gates of Beirut. The United States, through its intervention in the affairs of the region, through its continuous support of the Zionist entity, its imposition of the Camp David accords and its encouragement of the Zionist aggression against Lebanon, designed to eliminate the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian resistance, is implementing the strategic alliance between itself and the Zionist entity. The world must understand the American position and its consequences which place the region in jeopardy and undermine international security in the region.
The Arab nation, a civilized age-old nation, is capable of facing up to all the challenges imposed upon it. It is capable of deterring the aggressor and will never accept capitulation or acquiescence despite the mobilization of the forces of evil and despite the plots hatched against it. The will of the peoples is invincible and history does repeat itself. As this nation repulsed all forms of colonialism in the past, it is capable of defeating its enemies once more. After the failure of the Security Council to take a decision affirming the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people as a result of blackmail by a permanent member through the use of the veto, the General Assembly must take practical action to support the Palestinian people and to assist it in the achievement of its legitimate rights. It must adopt a decision to expel the Zionist entity from the Organization in view of its persistent contempt for it. It must condemn the American policy, based on encouraging the aggression. It also must take practical steps to abolish the right of veto which is used to block resolutions in the Security Council.
We confirm our solidarity with the Palestinian people and the PLO and our full and firm support for the legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people to restore its usurped rights.
Our files are full of disregarded resolutions and we must assume the responsibility incumbent upon us in accordance with the Charter in order to achieve the peace sought by the peoples of the world.
The PRESIDENT: The observer of the League of Arab States has asked to be allowed to make a statement in reply.
Such statements should be limited to 10 minutes and made by delegations from their seats.
Mr. MAKSOUD (League of Arab States): This morning we heard a statement by the representative of Israel in which crocodile tears were shed about trampling on the sovereignty of Lebanon. It is amazing how the juxtaposing of facts becomes a recurrence reminiscent of a previous racist regime's lies – told by the Nazis – as if the repetition of a lie becomes a substitute for truth.
Who trampled on Lebanon's sovereignty? Who went to the Security Council dozens of times to complain about the trampling on Lebanon's sovereignty? It was the Lebanese Government, through its Mission to the United Nations, which went repeatedly to the Security Council to complain that Israel was trampling on its sovereignty – not only in its territory but also in its skies by its repeated violation of its air space, its borders and the Armistice Agreement.
Therefore, when Israel says that it does not covet a single inch of Lebanese territory, there is the precedent of the March 1978 invasion which was the prelude to the current invasion in which Israel, unwilling to withdraw, vicariously established a mercenary regime, provided it with ammunition, cover, logistical support and a radio station – inside Lebanese territory – violating not only the territorial sovereignty of Lebanon but also, and equally important, preventing the Central Government of Lebanon from exercising its administrative, political and managerial authority in the south of the country.
The audacity with which Israel's crocodile tears are shed without interruption for Lebanon's sovereignty must be submitted to careful scrutiny. The attempt by Israel to claim that it protects certain sections of the Lebanese population at the very tire when, as we all know, the Israeli Zionist ideology institutionalizes discrimination, persecution and the disfranchisement of anyone who does not qualify by virtue of religious affiliation to be an Israeli. The double-talk of claiming to protect Christians in Lebanon when its own Christian Israeli citizens in Ikrit and Kfar Bar-am are prevented from returning to their homes because the Maronites of those Israeli towns are considered to be security risks; when the mayors of various towns in the occupied territories are removed; and when the Catholic Archbishop of Jerusalem is expelled from his archdiocese.
What is it that gives Israel the temerity to come – during its invasion of Lebanon, its reckless bombardment of civilian population and refugee Palestinians – and claim that it has no quarrel with Palestinian Arabs when it is well-established by all objective reports that Israel intends to eliminate the Palestinian refugee camps in Ein Al-Hilweah, Burj al Barajinah, Shatila, Sabra and other places? Its intention is not only to fight the PLO freedom fighters but also to destroy once and for all the capacity of the Palestinian people to return to their names and homeland in Palestine and also to prevent them from becoming a distinct national entity even in refugee camps, thereby trying to put them down by force and to Drove that there is no such thing as a Palestinian entity either in a Diaspora or inside what the Israeli representative calls Judea and Samaria.
What is it that makes the Israelis seek to create the demographic isolation and mutilation of Lebanon so that the Palestinians are dispersed into the various cities of Sidon, Tyre and Beirut without being able to return to the perimeter of their socio-national existence? It is the fact that they want to eliminate once and for all the Palestinian personality and thus upset the balance in the demographic structure of Lebanon so that partition becomes inevitable and a substitute homeland for the Palestinians in the other parts of Lebanon.
Is that how Israel cares for Lebanon's sovereignty? Is that the proof that they have no quarrel with Palestinian Arabs, when we are witnessing the politicizing of the Palestinian entity and the Palestinian people? What is it that makes the invading army surrounding Lebanon's capital, on seeing the civilian population – women carrying their children and buckets of water, order the people entering west Beirut to drop the water? The answer is an ideology of barbarism. It is that recklessness that has made it necessary for the General Assembly to meet in emergency special session, because the world community will not and cannot tolerate Israel's taking international law into its own hands and constituting a law unto itself.
There is no need to respond to the personal remarks made about my gesticulation. Of course I gesticulate in anger because Israel's attempt to paralyze the world community has reached such intolerable dimensions that it is playing havoc not only with the United Nations Charter and its resolutions but also with world peace.
The meeting rose at 7 p.m.
Document Type: Letter, Multimedia
Document Sources: General Assembly, General Assembly 7th Emergency Special Session
Subject: Agenda Item, Golan Heights, Human rights and international humanitarian law, Jerusalem
Publication Date: 17/08/1982