Attack on worshippers/Jerusalem – SecCo debate – Verbatim record

UNITED NATIONS

SECURITY COUNCIL

OFFICIAL RECORDS

THIRTY-SEVENTH YEAR

2353rd MEETING: 14 APRIL 1982

NEW YORK

CONTENTS

S/PV.2353

2353rd MEETING

Held in New York on Wednesday, 14 April 1982, at 4 p.m.

President: Mr. KAMANDA wa KAMANDA

(Zaire).

Present: The representatives of the following States: China France, Guyana, Ireland, Japan, Jordan, Panama, Poland, Spain, Togo, Uganda, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America, Zaire.

Provisional agenda (S/Agenda/2353)

1.   Adoption of the agenda

2. The situation in the occupied Arab territories:

Letter dated 12 April 1982 from the Permanent Representative of Morocco to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/14967);

Letter dated 13 April 1982 from the Chargé d'affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of Iraq to the United, Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/14969)

The meeting was called to order at 4.35 p.m.

Adoption of the agenda

The agenda was adopted.

The situation in the occupied Arab territories:

Letter dated 12 April 1982 from the Permanent Representative of Morocco to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/14967);

Letter dated 13 April 1982 from the Chargé d'affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of Iraq to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/14969)

1. The PRESIDENT (interpretation from French): In accordance with decisions taken at the 2352nd meeting, I invite the representatives of Israel and Morocco to take places at the Council table. I invite the representatives of Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to take the places reserved for them at the side of the Council chamber. I invite the representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to take the Place reserved for him at the side of the Council chamber.

At the invitation of the President, Mr. Blum (Israel) and Mr. Mrani Zentar (Morocco) took places at the Council table; Mr. Mohammad (Iraq), Mr. Naik (Pakistan), Mr. Allagany (Saudi Arabia) and Mr. Kirca (Turkey) took the places reserved for them at the side of the Council chamber; Mr. Abdel Rahman (Palestine Liberation Organization) took the place reserved for him at the side of the Council chamber.

2. The PRESIDENT (interpretation from French): I should like to inform members of the Council that I have received from the representatives of Bangladesh, Guinea, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, the Sudan and the Syrian Arab Republic letters in which they request to be invited to participate in the discussion of the item on the agenda. In conformity with the usual practice, I propose, with the consent of the Council, to invite those representatives to participate in the discussion without the right to vote, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Charter and rule 37 of the provisional rules of procedure.

At the invitation of the President, Mr. Sobhan (Bangladesh), Mr. Coumbassa (Guinea), Mr. Djalal (Indonesia), Mr. Rajaie-Khorassani (Iran), Mr. Zainal Abidin (Malaysia), Mr. Abdall (Sudan) and Mr. El-Fattal (Syrian Arab Republic) took the places reserved for them at the side of the Council chamber.

3. The PRESIDENT (interpretation from French): The first speaker is the representative of Pakistan. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement.

4. Mr. NAIK (Pakistan): This day, 14 April, is being observed throughout the Islamic world as a day of solidarity with the Palestinian people. The people of Pakistan, like their brothers in other Islamic countries, are observing this day with great solemnity in response to the appeal launched by His Majesty King Khaled Bin Abdul Aziz. In Pakistan there is a complete stop-page of normal work in the governmental as well as private sectors, and special meetings and prayers are being held for the rights of the Palestinian people and for the safety and sanctity of the Holy Places in Al-Quds al-Sharif. President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, in a special declaration on the eve of this day, has reaffirmed the deep and abiding commitment of the people of Pakistan to solidarity with and support for their Palestinian brothers in their just struggle.

5. The shock and indignation felt throughout the Islamic world over the reprehensible massacre and violence inside the precincts of the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque this Easter Sunday moved the member States of the Organization of the Islamic Conference to request the convening of an urgent meeting of the Council. The details of this grave incident were given yesterday by my colleagues from Jordan and the PLO, and I shall not go into them. It is our hope, Sir, that under your presidency the Council will be able to ensure the taking of decisions which will prevent further exacerbation of the deteriorating situation in Al-Quds al-Sharif and other Arab and Palestinian territories occupied by Israel and will serve to warn the occupying Power against the recurrence of acts of sacrilege against the Islamic shrines of the Holy City. We have confidence in your wisdom, vast experience and diplomatic skills, which will benefit the Council and enable it to take unanimous action in respect of the grave issue facing it.

6. The Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock are among the holiest shrines of the Islamic faith and carry a special spiritual significance and meaning for the 900 million Muslims throughout the world. Al-Quds is the first Kiblah of Islam, and the sacred precincts of Al-Aqsa are consecrated by the tradition of the ascension of the Holy Prophet-peace be upon him-and remain a most hallowed part of the Islamic legacy. That is why the act of arson which demolished part of the Holy Mosque in August 1969 stirred the deepest emotions throughout the Islamic world, which is now expressing -the same revulsion and concern at the outrageous sacrilege committed inside the precincts of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock this Easter Sunday.

7. The horrifying shooting of innocent worshippers inside the holy precincts of Al-Aqsa Mosque should be a source of grief not only to the adherents of the Islamic faith but to all those who cherish the preservation of the peace of the Holy City of Jerusalem, which represents a unique confluence of the great spiritual tradition of the three great religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This unique tradition was constantly nurtured and venerated throughout the centuries when the Holy City was under Islamic administration. The second Caliph of Islam, Omer Ibn Al-Khatab, who first established Islamic sovereignty over Jerusalem, allowed the Jewish people to return to the city and to their places of worship after an exile of more than 500 years. From that time, under Islamic guardianship, the sacred rights of all these three faiths to the Holy Places in Jerusalem were scrupulously respected and securely guaranteed and the universal spiritual heritage of Jerusalem was fully honored.

8. The tragedy of the Holy City began when Palestine fell prey to colonialism at the turn of the century and, more specifically, since its occupation by Israel in 1967. The sacrilege committed against the Islamic Holy Places is only one aspect of this tragedy. The Israeli authorities have attempted to explain away the violence in A]-Aqsa Mosque as the insane act of a deranged individual. The Islamic countries, reacting to that despicable incident, have also been blamed for fanning the fires of religious hatred. The facts' however, point to the contrary. The successive acts, of the 1969 arson and the latest desecration of A]-Aqsa, the sustained digging underneath its ancient structure and the frequent discoveries of explosives in the vicinity of the Holy Sanctuary cannot be regarded as isolated incidents. They reinforce the deep fears that the Islamic holy shrines in Jerusalem, particularly Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, are facing a real threat of destruction at the hands of Zionist extremists.

9. Since the occupation of Jerusalem in 1967, fanatic groups and terrorist organizations have been encouraged and protected by the Israeli authorities in their sinister schemes to destroy the holy relics of the Islamic faith in the Holy City. They make no secret of their hatred for the Arab and Palestinian inhabitants of Jerusalem and openly threaten to demolish everything which symbolizes the spiritual traditions of other faiths and to expel the indigenous population in an attempt to complete the Judaization of the Holy City.

10. The complicity of the Israeli authorities is not confined to connivance at the wanton actions and the dangerous designs of these terrorist organizations; they are themselves systematically engaged in the obliteration of the Holy City's unique historical and spiritual heritage. It is for that reason that, since Jerusalem was occupied, the Council has adopted several resolutions to censure Israeli acts which are aimed at changing the character and status of the Holy City. Resolutions 252 (1968) and 267 (1969) were the two early resolutions adopted by the Council which considered all measures taken by Israel, including expropriation of land and property which tend to change the legal status of Jerusalem, as invalid and called upon Israel to rescind those measures forthwith.

11. After the arson at the Holy Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1969, the Council adopted resolution 271 (1969), which recognized that acts of destruction or profanation of Holy Places and religious buildings, or any encouragement of or connivance at any such acts, may seriously endanger international peace and security. The resolution called upon Israel scrupulously to observe the provisions of the Geneva Conventions and to refrain from causing any hindrance to the discharge of the established functions of the Supreme Muslim Council of Jerusalem, including any cooperation that Council might desire from the countries with a predominantly Muslim population and from Muslim communities 1 in relation to its plans for the maintenance and repair of the Islamic Holy Places in Jerusalem.

12. But as the occupying Power, Israel not only willfully refused to comply with these Security Council resolutions but, in flagrant defiance of these resolutions and others relating to the status of the occupied territories, proceeded with its policy to permanently annex the Holy City and to alter its character and status.

13. In 1980 the Knesset enacted a so-called basic law declaring the Holy City the "capital" of Israel. In its resolution 478 (1980), the Council once again determined that all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying power, that had altered or purported to alter the character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and in particular the so-called basic law, were without any legal validity and must be rescinded forthwith.

14. Clearly Israel has failed to carry out its obligations under the universally accepted norms of international law, particularly the fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 1/ and its measures and policy in respect of the Holy City constitute blatant and repeated violations of the Charter of the United Nations, which forbids the acquisition of territory by use of force.

15. The issue of the preservation of the Holy Places of Islam in Jerusalem in all their sanctity is not a matter of religious belief alone; it impinges directly on international peace and security. It is not only on account of the immensity of their grief and resentment that the member States of the Organization of the Islamic Conference have brought to the Council the consideration of the horrifying crime committed in Al-Aqsa three days ago, but also because without effective measures to guarantee respect for the sanctity of the Holy Places in Jerusalem and preservation of its unique historical and spiritual heritage, and without a remedy for the grievous situation which exists in the occupied territories, the Middle East will soon be pushed to the brink of a catastrophic conflict.

16. For quite some time, we have witnessed in the Council and in other organs of the United Nations harsh and unbecoming expressions from Mr. Blum against all those countries which support the Palestinian cause, accusing them of hypocrisy and immorality. By the same token, he has been describing the United Nations-which ironically was responsible for the birth of Israel-as a "charade of bigotry" and a "cesspool of lies". Even the versions of the representatives of the Islamic countries are not spared these derogatory outbursts. Mr. Blum is also fond of portraying the Islamic people as violent, the Islamic lands as rife with conflict and the freedom-loving Palestinians as terrorists.

17. I do not wish to go into detail, as even a cursory knowledge of the history of this century would reveal to any individual the truth about violence and the stark calumny of Mr. Blum's assertions. The Islamic people, far from being violent, have been the victims of violence and colonialism perpetrated against them for more than two centuries. As for the Palestinian people, their claim to the land of Palestine is as old as civilization itself. They have committed no crimes against the Jewish people. But today their land is occupied, their properties are expropriated and they are being persecuted and systematically expelled from the land they have inhabited for scores of centuries.

18. What the Islamic countries and other peace-loving countries are demanding of Israel in the United Nations is that it abide by the Charter and withdraw from all the Arab and Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 and recognize the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, a sacrosanct principle of international law. The description of the Palestinian people struggling for this right as terrorists and those who support them as hypocrites can hardly, by any measure, be considered a sane interpretation of morality or human values.

19. The death and horror inflicted inside the holy precincts of Al-Aqsa Mosque, last Sunday, which epitomize the terror and intolerance perpetrated against the Palestinian and Arab population under Israeli occupation, have sparked off street demonstrations and agitation throughout the occupied territories. Israeli occupation authorities have resorted to repressive measures which have resulted in indiscriminate killings and scores of casualties. They have even apprehended religious leaders and arrested hundreds of people whose only fault is that they have expressed their outrage at the heinous crime committed in the holy precincts of Al-Aqsa Mosque. This brutality against an unarmed population that is suffering the travail of occupation defies all norms of decency and fundamental human rights.

20. At this moment there is an absolute need for the Council to demand of Israel, the occupying Power, that it put an end to its repression against the Arab and Palestinian population of the occupied territories. The Council must emphatically remind Israel of its responsibility in accordance with the fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and the relevant resolutions of the Council concerning the safety and protection of the Holy Places in Jerusalem.

21. The Council must condemn in the strongest terms the appalling acts of sacrilege that have been perpetrated within the precincts of Al-Aqsa Mosque and deplore the failure of Israel to protect and safeguard the sanctity of that holy shrine. The Council must once again emphasize that any act of destruction or profanation of Holy Places, religious buildings and sites in Jerusalem, or any encouragement of or connivance at any such acts, seriously endangers international peace and security. The Council must also call upon Israel scrupulously to carry out its obligations under the provisions of the Geneva Convention and the principles of international law governing military occupation.

22. Pakistan also feels that the Council should reactivate the Commission established under resolution 446 (1979) to investigate the grave, situation prevailing in the occupied Arab and Palestinian territories and especially the, serious matter of the safety and sanctity of the Holy Places of Jerusalem.

23. Finally, at this stage the Council must make these demands and expect Israel to comply with them. We believe, however; that the sacred character of Jerusalem and its Holy Places cannot be preserved for any length of time if the Holy City continues to suffer illegal occupation, which is at the heart of its present agony.

24. The PRESIDENT (interpretation from French): The next speaker is the representative of the Syrian Arab Republic. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement.

25. Mr. EL-FATTAL (Syrian Arab Republic): When on that dark day of 31 August 1969 the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem went up in flames, Israeli spokesmen described it as an individual act committed by a mad-man; and when on Sunday last worshippers inside the Dome of the Rock were riddled by bullets and armed occupation forces invaded the shrine, it was again explained away as an act of a madman. Other such outrageous acts are being committed and will be committed by the same kind of madmen. Ironically, the victims are persons protected by the fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.

26. Threats by Israeli groups to blow up the entire Haram al-Sharif are dismissed as raving by madmen, such as Rabbi Kahane. And these are but a few additional examples: the assassination in 1948 of Count Folke Bernadotte, the United Nations Mediator on Palestine; the massacres at Deir Yassin and Qafr Kassem; the blowing up of the King David Hotel. Such acts and many others have similarly been attributed to lunatic individuals or groups.

27. Are note the excavations underneath the Haram al-Sharif, which are corroding the very foundations of that most beautiful of Holy Places, being carried out by a group of deranged people? Was note the infamous Israeli master plan for the City of Jerusalem-the sole aim of which is to obliterate the character of the entire City-conceived and is it not being executed by the same obsessed minds?

28. No rationalization on the part of the Zionist establishment, neither excuses nor justifications, can any longer be used to claim that Israeli acts are being committed in the name of God-a god who was invented by the founders of Zionism but whose features and characteristics are today incarnated in the shapes of Begin, Sharon, Shamir and others.

29. This recent premeditated armed invasion of one of the holiest shrines of Islam was meant to insult the faith. Nor was the deep-felt world reaction unexpected. Israel is seeking to create conditions in order to inaugurate the third phase of its ominous design in the occupied territories, that is, the mass exodus of the inhabitants, those who resist in Jerusalem, in the West Bank, in Gaza and in the Syrian Golan Heights.

30. The hour may not be appropriate for us to recount the history of Jerusalem. Yet I find it necessary to remind the Council that whenever a calamity befell the Holy City anger and anguish pervaded the lands of Islam. When in the eleventh century the Haram al-Sharif was confiscated and handed over to a new order of knights, a famous Arab poet, Abi Wardi depicted the grief of the whole nation in the following words:

"Our blood we have mixed with overflow of tears

"When our line of defense was no more.

"A man's worst weapon is tears

"To shed when war is waged with cutting swords.

"Oh, ye sons of Islam, behold

"Onslaughts on all sides!

"How can you close your eyes

"To a calamity that awakens those who are sound

 asleep?

"How long will Arab heroes endure such injury  

"And submit to disgrace from barbarians?"

31. That injury was endured for almost a century until Saladin restored Jerusalem to its legitimate owners. Today the staunch resistance put up by students, workers, women, intellectuals, farmers and teachers all over Palestine and the Golan Heights demonstrates that patience has run out when unarmed Palestinian children are shot and killed because they raise a flag; when a student throws a stone at a charging armed vehicle; when a man tears up an Israeli identity card; when a merchant closes his shop, knowing, that it will be vandalized; when a girl marches in a demonstration; when a strike enters its tenth week in the Golan Heights-when all that is happening, the whole world watches with awe. In the face of this heroism we invite the United States Administration to defend once again the barbarian behavior of its "democratic friend and ally”.

32. I would conclude by saying that resistance grows and spreads in so far as oppression inherent in occupation grows.; and Israeli oppression is that of a settler-colonialist seeking the land without its people. In the words of David Hirst, a correspondent of the English daily newspaper The Guardian, the Israeli motto in the case of Jerusalem, as in the case of all occupied territories, is: “We take the land first and the law comes after.” The same journalist, David Hirst, says:

“Taking the land has always been Zionism's basic impulse. Taking it in Jerusalem was a sacred compulsion. They”-the Zionists-“applied to the Holy City essentially the same methods they had learned in the pioneering frontier days. In a frantic program of expropriation and construction, immigration and settlement, they sought to obliterate, as quickly as possible and by sheer physical presence, the remaining Arab claim to Jerusalem.

33. The tragic events of Jerusalem have only strengthened our unswerving determination to regain our usurped rights. Today the eyes of both Muslims and Christians arc turned towards Jerusalem, whose inhabitants, whose shrines, whose very institutions are at the mercy of an enemy who is psychopathically racist, exclusivist, exclusionist-an enemy bent on destroying our common Arab culture and heritage so finely embodied in Jerusalem.

34. Need we remind the Council that Israeli policies and practices in the West Bank, Gaza and the Syrian Golan Heights exacerbate further the grave threat to world peace and security arising from Israeli lawlessness?

35. Need we remind the Council that unless and until it shoulders its responsibilities, Israel will continue -its expansionist and annexationist practices, aided and encouraged by the United States? The Council is requested-and we say this with due respect for all its members-to apply mandatory sanctions and all other possible coercive measures under Chapter VII of the Charter in order to deter Israel from destroying the very foundations of world order that the Charter provides for.

36. Israel is not a peace-loving Member State; that is declared in General Assembly resolution ES-9/1, of 8 February 1982. Its expulsion, therefore, from the United Nations is a cogent step in order to preserve the integrity and the credibility of the United Nations system as a whole.

37. The PRESIDENT (interpretation from French): The next speaker is the representative of Malaysia. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement,

38. Mr. ZAINAL ABIDIN (Malaysia): Sir, like other representatives who have addressed the Council before me, let me first congratulate you on your assumption of the presidency of the Council for this month. I wish also to express my delegation's appreciation to all members of the Council for giving me the privilege of participating in its deliberations today.

39. The attack and cold-blooded murder committed by an Israeli soldier against innocent Muslims at prayer in the Al-Aqsa Mosque represents a despicable act of sacrilege and a direct attack on the religious and spiritual sensitivities of all Muslims all over the world. The Government and people of Malaysia condemned this action-an action which not only took innocent lives, but also destroyed the sanctity and sacredness of the second-holiest shrine of Islam and the Dome of the Rock. That the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest Islamic shrines, had to suffer such sacrilege from a member of the Israeli armed forces is symptomatic of the utter contempt and ill intention of the Israeli authorities towards the Palestinian people. It is a contempt bred in the Zionist tradition and its dream of perpetuating control over all the occupied territories, at the expense of their rightful inhabitants.

40. The indignation and outrage of the Arab population in Jerusalem and of all Muslims the world over, including those in my country, at this blatant sacrilege should be clearly understood. Was it not only 13 years ago that an attempt was made to burn down the Al-Aqsa Mosque? To treat the latest incident lightly and to feel that the Israelis could easily ride over the strong tide of world reaction would be, in our view, a serious mistake and a gross underestimation. The attempt to belittle the incident as the work of a mentally-ill soldier, a madman, cannot absolve Israel from responsibility for the incident and for the events that followed in Jerusalem and the occupied territories.

41. The Government of Israel has always been quick to use the harshest language against any Arab suspected of using violence against an Israeli national. But in the latest incident at Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock-an incident that certainly deserves more than Israel's customary harsh language-we cannot but notice an unusually mild reaction. The attempt to play down the incident and the ease with which the so-called mentally sick soldier, with a gun in hand, passed through the Israeli security check-points indeed give strong grounds to believe that the killing and the desecration of A]-Aqsa could not be an isolated incident, but part of a bigger conspiracy to terrorize and demoralize the Arab population, which is now in the midst of a struggle for its basic rights. Indeed it would be difficult for my delegation to conclude otherwise, after having seen the systematic action of the Israeli authorities to deny the Palestinians of their legitimate rights.

42. Just two weeks ago, the Council met to consider Israel's action dismissing the democratically-elected Mayors of Nablus and Ramallah and disbanding the Municipal Council of Al-Bireh. That action, together with the suspension of the civil liberties of the inhabitants in the occupied territories which followed the Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights, exacerbates the already fragile situation in the area. The responsibility for the increased tension and violence in the region must rest squarely with the Israeli Government, which has consistently violated the letter and spirit of the fourth Geneva Convention, of 12 August 1949,1 and defied all resolutions of the United Nations relating to the Middle East. My Government has on numerous occasions in the past spoken out against the policies of Israel in the Middle East, and it is only appropriate on this occasion to reiterate our total opposition to the recent Israeli measures against the elected representatives of the Palestinian people.

43. As the Council meets today to consider the desecration of one of Islam's holiest shrines, the storm -cloud of further threat to the Palestinians looms large. Thousands of Israeli troops are gathered on the southern border of Lebanon, poised to strike against the Palestinian people there. As members of the Council are well aware, Lebanon has in the past suffered heavy damage and loss of life as a result of Israeli attacks on its people. In its attempt to obliterate the legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people, Israel has caused heavy casualties among innocent people. The people of southern Lebanon are living under the specter of the Israeli threat of aggression and annihilation. The latest reports of Israel's concentration of troops and heavy armor along the border have once again created renewed fear of the threat of Israeli aggression against Lebanon, with serious consequences for peace and stability in the region. The attendant danger of widening the conflict is real. I wish therefore to voice my delegation's concern at the tense situation along the southern Lebanese border and at the threat of the possible outbreak of new Israeli attacks into Lebanon.

44. Turning back to the issue before the Council today, which constitutes a part of the total threat to peace and security in the area, I wish to stress my delegation's conviction that Israel, as the occupying Power in the occupied Arab territories, exercises a major responsibility for the event that took place in the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Its failure to safeguard the sanctity of the holy shrine and its attitude towards the whole incident are indeed deplorable. We join other delegations in urging the Council to express its strong condemnation of the incident and to demand that adequate measures be taken by Israel, as the occupying Power, to protect this holy Islamic shrine.

45. The Malaysian Government considered it its moral and religious obligation to associate itself with other members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in calling upon the Council to meet in order to deliberate and to take the necessary action on such a serious issue. This is a manifestation of our solidarity with the Islamic community and a re-strengthening of our resolve to further the Islamic cause and the preservation of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people under the leadership of the PLO. It is indeed our hope that the draft resolution that will be submitted will receive the unanimous support of the members of the Council.

46. The PRESIDENT (interpretation from French): The next speaker is the representative of Saudi Arabia. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement.

47. Mr. ALLAGANY (Saudi Arabia): Sir, on behalf of my delegation I wish to seize this opportunity to congratulate you on your assumption of the presidency of this body. We are confident that with your skill and experience you will guide the proceedings the Council is now embarked on fairly and in a manner that is consistent with the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law. I wish also to express my thanks to you and to the members of the Council for allowing me to participate in these proceedings.

48. One of the greatest enigmas of the present era is that a small entity of fanatic and-paranoid zealots, which has formed itself into a Government on the conquered land of another people, should be able to become a member of the civilized international community under the disguise of being a peace-loving State that "'unreservedly accepts the obligations of the United Nations Charter and undertakes to honor them from the day when it becomes a Member of the United Nations'".2/

49. That declaration was a complete fraud and deception, for Israel has not abided by, but rather has violated, every General Assembly and Security Council resolution adopted before and since its admission under General Assembly resolution 273 (III). What is most baffling, and gravely destructive of the Organization, is that the international community has been able to do absolutely nothing to implement its resolutions or to deter Israel from its persistent defiance of the will of the international community expressed on the basis of the Charter. I do not like repetition, but my Government believes-and I am certain that the vast majority of the Member States genuinely share, its belief that Israel is going to cause the end of the United Nations and bring about a return to the law of the jungle, particularly when it finds powerful friends who are able to see virtue in all its evil deeds.

50. The problem, of course, is that power politics is being over-played, to the degree of exhausting scruples or moral principles. No one in the Organization can possibly believe that the colonialist, racist and totally insensitive policy pursued by Israel, and its expansionist, repressive and inhuman measures in the occupied territories conform to the provisions of the Charter, to the established resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and the Security Council, to the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949,1/ to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 3/ and to the various relevant provisions of international law. Any statement to that effect betrays collusion with the policy and practices of Israel and indeed helps to accelerate the explosion of the time bomb which has been assembled in the Middle East and which, without question, will gravely jeopardize international peace and security.

51. Irrespective of the merits or demerits of Council resolution 242 (1967), Israel was required to withdraw its armed forces from the territories occupied in 1967, on the clear premise that the acquisition of territory by war was inadmissible. Despite that resolution Israel proceeded immediately with the annexation of East Jerusalem and with the confiscation of thousands upon thousands of acres of Arab lands in order to establish settlements for armed hostile Jews whose sold doctrine and ambition is to grab and grab, and in the process to drive the Palestinian Arabs from their ancestral homelands.

52. Israel's Prime Minister and the members of this Cabinet have made no attempt to disguise their plans of robbery and gangsterism inspired by a self-imbued concept of being the chosen and above the laws of ordinary mankind, by sheer racism and contempt for the human dignity of their Arab victims.

53. What is happening in the illegally occupied territories is not God's will, for God does not countenance injustice. It is the evil work of evil men and Israel should remember that what is done by man -can be undone by man. Had the Israelis been a little more rational and not blinded by their insatiable greed, they would have foreseen that they were following an irreversible course that could lead only to their own destruction. Of course we are not so blind as not to admit that such a situation will hurt everyone in the region, but Israel can be assured that it and its supporters will be the biggest losers. It is obvious that the arrogant Zionists have learnt very little from history.

54. It is also obvious that Israel has already sown the winds of racial and religious fanaticism and that a dangerous and uncontrollable cyclone is already in the making. One need only cite the developments that have taken place in the last two months. The annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights was immediately followed by the appointment of a so-called civilian to administer the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. This self-proclaimed-but truly ignorant-expert on Arab affairs immediately proceeded, high-handedly and ruthlessly, to dismiss the duly elected mayors and municipal councils on the West Bank or to divest them of their inherent authority-two of those mayors had already been maimed by Israeli explosives; two others had been deported at an earlier stage. He has placed some under house arrest and with the aid of his troops and armed Jewish settlers he has proceeded ruthlessly to stamp out all opposition to his repressive measures. This has been followed or accompanied by the shooting and killing of unarmed young men and women and by deliberate and calculated efforts to suppress and stamp out all national sentiment among the Palestinians there and force them to submit to new concoctions called "village leagues", which are being armed and financed by the occupation administration and given the authority to process all claims and complaints by the local inhabitants. The purpose is, of course, to replace the elected municipal councils, which represent the will of the people, by new bodies that are lavishly paid to implement the will of the occupiers. One of these so-called village leagues had received $20 million from Israel to be distributed to mercenaries for arms and other benefits-as reported in The New York Times of 23 March. The leading Israeli English-language newspaper, The Jerusalem Post, in an article reprinted in The New York Times of 1 April, described the situation as follows:

"The leaders chosen for the village leagues were some of the most discredited persons in the West Bank community, even before they agreed to collaborate with Israel, and their adjutants regular ruffians who commanded … plain loathing."

55. The recent measures I taken by Israel in the West Bank, Gaza and other illegally occupied territories are totally illegal and unwarranted and devoid of any legitimacy. They are part of a chain of illegal and illegitimate actions that have been taken by Israel since its establishment, in particular since 1967. In the recent developments it is not the duly-elected representatives in the West Bank who are guilty of any irregularity of conduct; it is the Israeli authorities and Mr. Milson-a so-called professor-and his fanatic mentor Ariel Sharon, who have decided to eliminate every source 'of opposition to their annexation plan for the West Bank, as they had done with the Syrian Golan Heights. It was not the unarmed students, protesting and demonstrating in their towns and villages, who committed a breach of the peace, but the Israeli troops and armed settlers who fired on them, 'killing and wounding scores of those youths-some of whom were no older than 14 or 15 years of age. It was not the shop owners who closed their shops in protest, who committed any crimes, but the high-handed Israeli troops who broke the locks on the shops and opened the shops to be easy targets for looters under the protection of Israeli arms. It was not illegal for duly- licensed Palestinians to build homes on their own lands; it was illegal for the armed and protected Israeli settlers, whose unlicensed homes were built on stolen Arab lands, to intimidate those Arab builders and stop them from proceeding with their legitimate pursuit. It was not illegal for the Palestinian Arabs to travel to and from their towns and villages in the West Bank; it is the height of illegality and despotism to encourage Israeli militant convicts like Meir Kahane, a so-called rabbi, to don military uniforms and arrest and beat Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank, as reported in The New York Times of 18 February. That Israeli Jew was, or is, a United States citizen who has been imprisoned both in the United States and in Israel on criminal charges involving violence. While in the United States, which he visits at will, he advocates the emigration of all American Jews to Israel. While in Israel he wrote a book entitled They Must Go, in which he advocated an even more extreme policy of expelling all the Arab inhabitants from Israel and the occupied Palestinian and other Arab lands.

56. The constant but totally unconvincing excuse that the Israeli oppressors give is that the elected mayors are PLO agents. In fact they conveniently pretend to see a PLO agent in every demonstrating youth, in every Palestinian who resents colonialism and aspires to self-determination. In the highly advertised Israeli democracy there is no room for dissent by any Arab against the "benevolent" and "democratic" confiscation of all Arab land and the uprooting of the unarmed population, supplanting them with foreign indoctrinated Jews who are determined to see an expanded Israel free of its Arab inhabitants. As the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz wrote in an article reprinted in The New York Times of 23 March:

"the Government has decided to continue with Israeli rule in the territories as though they have already been annexed. In these circumstances it does not require PLO directives in order to inflame the Arab population."

57. Following an extensive visit by Mr. Anthony Lewis of The New York Times to Israel and the West Bank, he wrote the following in that newspaper's issue of 1 April:

"Mr. Milson funneled money for West Bank communities through the village leagues, for roads and other needs, denying local councils permission even to bring in foreign donations. The village league ‘adjutants' were armed with submachine guns and trained by Israeli settlers.

"The tactics were exactly those that have been used by colonial Powers against fractious natives: push aside the real political leaders and try to deal with backward rural elements. In old Rhodesia for example, Ian Smith used to produce tribal chiefs as black representatives. Expectably the device was just as unsuccessful in the West Bank."

Mr. Lewis went on to state, sarcastically:

"All this, Mr. Milson explained, had to be done to smooth the way for negotiations on West Bank autonomy. Exactly: now that the inhabitants have been provoked, pushed toward extremist views, put under curfew, they will quietly sit down to accept permanent Israeli control. There is the true Commentary mind:"-a reference to the periodical Commentary, known for its extremist Zionist views-with apologies to Mrs. Kirkpatrick-" the denial of uncomfortable realities, the arrogance, the infantile belief that total power can be yours if you talk loudly."

58. The most recent episode, the armed attack on Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, is a clear indication that the cyclone has already built up sufficient force to become uncontrollable. The terrorist Alan Goodman, who stormed into the Holy Mosque and fired into the praying crowd, killing and wounding a number of innocent people, is a man from Baltimore who has been caught up in the cyclone of zealotry, fanaticism, racism and utter hatred. Goodman is a deranged individual, but he is not alone. He is an integral part of a deranged social and political entity. He is a member of the Israeli army, which is being deployed to subdue the Palestinian inhabitants of the West Bank and the occupied territories. The soldiers who rushed to Masjid al-Aqsa, ostensibly to arrest Goodman, actually went there to save him from the wrath of the unarmed Arab civilians who were there. The same soldiers fired into and at the Mosque, killing and wounding a large number of other agitated civilian Arabs. According to a report published by The New York Times on 12 April, when orders finally were issued to the troops to withdraw, one of them threw a tear gas grenade near the open door of the Mosque, blowing the smoke into the Mosque and driving out the persons praying inside, coughing and wiping their eyes. One elderly man was carried to an ambulance and "a few of the troops walked away laughing". Of course, to the sadistic Israeli troops, the shooting, the killing, the desecration and the mischief played with tear gas bombs were all a source of fun and amusement.

59. Israel was created on the basis of illegitimacy and fraud. Fraud continues to be the essence of its policies. It attacks and cries wolf and deludes itself that the world will accept the results regardless of the means used to achieve them. Israel has established a couple of illegal settlements in the Sinai. The other day we heard a Western statesman describe the evacuation of these settlements as a traumatic experience for Israel. There are already more than 70 illegal settlements on the! West Bank and expeditious efforts are in progress to build more illegal settlements as soon as possible to foreclose any possibility of self-determination for the Palestinian people. No one seems to consider this a traumatic, or rather a tragic, experience for the legitimate inhabitants of that part of Palestine which is being stolen in broad daylight. Or are the Palestinian Arabs less human and thus unable to suffer the trauma of already having lost part of their country and witnessing the loss of the remaining part?

60. Once again, I urge the Council to give more sense and seriousness to its resolutions. Israel's measures cannot and must not be condoned in any circumstances. The members of the Council know this in their hearts. Emotions in the Arab and Islamic countries are totally inflamed-inflamed by the insane policies and practices of the Israeli authorities. In response to public sentiment in these countries, His Majesty King Khaled Bin Abdul Aziz, King of Saudi Arabia and Chairman of the Islamic Summit Conference, has appealed to all Islamic countries to observe a work stoppage on this 14th day of April in solidarity with and support for the Palestinian people in the occupied territories. I sincerely hope that the Council and the entire international community will not fail to give honest expression to their revulsion at and condemnation of Israel's dangerous policies and practices.

61. Mr. NUSEIBEH (Jordan): I apologize for intruding in the debate when there are other names on the list of speakers, but I feel that what I have to say is very germane to what we are discussing.

62. Now there has been a pervasive view, more or less ambivalently expressed, that the criminal act committed on Sunday was the act of a deranged soldier. I have before me the text of a press statement concerning a conference which was held in Jerusalem by the Islamic Higher Council, as well as by other public institutions, and I believe-in fact it says this, in a footnote-that a cable of protest from the Islamic Higher Council containing that text has been sent to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

63. I believe that because of the importance of that press statement and the light which it throws on what happened on Sunday, I may be excused for reading out some of it; I hope it will be distributed as an official document to the members of the Council. That statement, dated 12 April, reads:

"In the Name of Allah, the Merciful and Compassionate,

"The Islamic Higher Council in Jerusalem had earlier convened an emergency press conference, in which the Council outlined concisely some of the events to which the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque had been exposed and also outlined in categorical terms the warnings which it had addressed to the responsible officials on the highest levels in the Israeli Government.

"It had requested them to shoulder their responsibilities in preventing what happened yesterday or what might happen in the future against this great sanctuary.

"Today, and in the light of the new facts, disclosures and consequences which have become evident in consequence of the outrageous acts which occurred yesterday and what accompanied and followed those sad events, the Islamic Higher Council wishes to state the following:

"l. The number of those who were murdered yesterday" -that is, Sunday-was two; and the number of the wounded exceeded 100.

“2. The forcible assault of the criminal soldier was only an initial phase of the criminal operation. It has been established that firing did not emanate from him alone but from many directions and, in particular, from the western wing of the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque as well as from the roof of the religious school which belongs to the Islamic Higher Council and is under the occupation of the Israeli armed forces, which had expelled the students who were taking Islamic studies there. This proves that the operation had been well prepared and co-ordinated in advance of the actual event.

“3. The assault upon the structure of the Dome of the Rock resulted in damage to it.

“4. The grand glass mosaic panel at the entrance to the gate of the Dome of the Rock from its western side was totally destroyed; and serious damage was inflicted on the Dome of the Rock and on the marble pillars within it.

“5. Such an operation should not be allowed to happen without warning of the serious consequences which result from enabling armed civilian organizations to impose their authority on the people and to regard themselves as responsible for the land because they are fully armed"-presumably this refers to the armed Israeli settlers.

"This has enabled these organizations to carry out acts of abduction and wanton assassination as they see fit, drawing their support from the authority which had been accorded to them by the Government to perpetrate acts against the people, who are totally devoid of any arms.

"Therefore, we take this opportunity to demand of the Government that it put a stop to these acts of provocation and to place upon it responsibility for all the events and consequences that might occur.

“6. The precedent which occurred at the holy Ibrahimi sanctuary and has resulted in depriving the 'Moslems from freely performing their prayers makes it imperative upon us to warn of the serious consequences which would accrue to the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque in consequence of the occupation of Al-Aqsa Mosque by the Israeli forces and their forbidding the worshippers to perform their religious duties. Such a situation gravely contradicts the Islamic Sharia law which absolutely forbids any closure of the Mosque to the worshippers for any reasons whatsoever and under any circumstances.

“7. The description of the criminal in the official statements as deranged is rejected and should not be issued by any responsible Government; for it is unreasonable that one of the regular soldiers in its army, who is required to pass a medical examination, should be allowed to carry arms amidst other soldiers. If anyone alleges that this criminal is deranged, then what can be said about the other soldiers who assisted him in the firing spree from the western area? The Islamic Higher Council rejects the statements of the responsible Israeli officials, which contained audacious and clear distortions against the Islamic Higher Council, and the attempts of the Israeli officials to offer excuses for the events which occurred.

"We shall move forthwith to perform our worship at the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque."

That statement emanates from the Islamic Higher Council and all national institutions and public bodies.

64. I would add that the members of the Islamic Higher Council did move to go and say their prayers at the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque. Venerable and elderly persons such as Sheikh Sa'ad Aldin Alami were put on a truck and taken away by the security forces. Thus they were prevented from performing their prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

65. I believe that this clarifies the situation and the misconception that has surrounded this whole incident all along that it was the work of a lone, deranged individual. The facts have now been disclosed. They were witnessed by hundreds of persons present on the spot. This proves that it was a well planned, well co-ordinated attack against the Al-Aqsa Mosque and not the work of a lone, deranged individual.

66. The PRESIDENT (interpretation from French): The next speaker is Mr. Clovis Maksoud, Permanent Observer of the League of Arab States, to whom the Council has extended an invitation under rule 39 of its provisional rules of procedure. I invite him to take a place at the Council, table and to make a statement.

67. Mr. MAKSOUD: I should like to take this opportunity, Sir, to congratulate you on your assumption of the presidency of the Council. I should like also to recall our friendship with the people of your country and the peoples of the African nations in general. Along with the people of your country and the other peoples of Africa, we are engaged in a common struggle, and we have common aspirations. We have no doubt that your wise guidance of the deliberations of the Council will help achieve realization of the desired objective.

68. Once again the Council is meeting to deliberate on and to resolve an issue pertaining to Israel's occupation of the Palestinian and other Arab territories. It seems that the frequency of the Israeli aggressions against the Palestinian and other Arab peoples is intended to be a form of psychological warfare that Israel and Zionism are conducting against the Security Council and the mechanisms of the United Nations to rob them of effectiveness and consequence. It is this deliberate psychological warfare that leads Israel and some of its supporters to seek to project the idea that our resort to the Council is simply a repetition of complaints that have characterized our relationship with the United Nations since the emergence of the Palestinian question in 1947. This frequency is projected as though the Arab States were trying to utilize the United Nations and the Security Council as a platform from which to verbalize their frustrations inasmuch as international diplomacy and the options of peace have been unable to achieve effectiveness and credibility.

69. The nagging complaints about our resort to the United Nations are echoed in our own Arab national constituency and we are therefore caught between these two poles. Within the Arab nation Arab people ask why we keep going to the United Nations when the Security Council and the various other mechanisms are helpless and seem to be paralyzed when any attempt is made to deter Israeli aggression, expansion and racism. We who represent the various Arab States and our Governments and our heads of State are asked by people throughout the Arab world: Why do you go to the United Nations when you know that there is a built-in veto that will underwrite Israeli objectives and policies? In doing so you are merely accepting the impotence of the United Nations, we are told.

70. But despite the legitimate frustrations that the Arab peoples feel about the United Nations, we know that coming here is not an exercise in futility. We are keen to make the diplomatic option credible. We are keen to make the United Nations mechanism effective and respected. We are keen to interpret the Charter of the United Nations as it was intended to be interpreted. We are keen to see the very many resolutions of the General Assembly and other United Nations bodies constituting a jurisprudence worthy of respect and implementation. We are keen to see an end put to Israel's violations of international law, its contempt for General Assembly resolutions, its defiance of Security Council resolutions and its utter dependency, on a built-in veto exercised by the United States, as it has done during the last two weeks.

71. We recognize that this is a great challenge and we should therefore like to repeat that, despite the frustrations and anger prevalent throughout the Arab nation, our firm belief and conviction are that the United Nations can salvage its credibility and establish legitimacy.

72. That having been said, it is also necessary to realize that the Organization of the Islamic Conference, through its spokesman the Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee, has submitted this complaint because the Israeli action hits at the basic spiritual values, convictions and beliefs not only of all Arab peoples but also of Islamic peoples throughout the world. It is as if Israel is trying to dance on the nerves of the population within and outside Palestine, as if Israel is seeking' to project its innocence by focusing on the deranged character of one of its army members.

73. It is rather amazing that a Mr. Hinckley sought to assassinate the President of the United States and yet the whole judicial process of this country has not yet determined whether or not Mr. Hinckley is deranged. But when an Israeli soldier goes and massacres one of the holiest places of Islam, in one of the holiest places of Palestine and one of the holiest cities of the world, there appears to be an instant realization that he is deranged. Or if a more objective assessment is attempted, it is claimed that he is on the lunatic fringe, trying to act out the Zionist fantasies about exterminating the other in the land of Palestine-“the other" being the Palestinians. In this case we find Alan Goodman is described as "deranged" in order to absolve the entire Israeli occupation mechanism of its primary responsibility for, implementing the articles of the fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.1/

74. Any attempt to describe the reality of the situation in the occupied territories is distorted by Israeli representatives, because they believe that by undermining their critics credibility in advance, they can destroy the content of the criticism.

75. Alan Goodman is part of the lunatic fringe of another political lunatic fringe, headed by Kahane; Kahane is part of another lunatic fringe-Gush Emunim, the party of the armed settlers marauding in the occupied territories; Gush Emunim is part of the Herut lunatic fringe; the Herut is part of the Likhud lunatic fringe; and the Likhud is part of the lunatic fringe of the Zionist movement, but it is today dispensing power. Where does it stop? Do we not see that this chain reaction has its roots in the Deir Yassin attack, for which Mr. Begin and his Irgun were at the time denounced as part of the lunatic fringe of the Zionist movement?

76. Perhaps the description of Alan Goodman as being on the lunatic fringe and of Mr. Kahane as being part of another lunatic fringe might be valid. If so, what we are witnessing is that, in the whole structure of the Zionist unfolding of its expansionist and aggressive plans, lunacy is becoming institutionalized and a State policy. It is here that we have the dangerous consequences and the threat to regional and international peace.

77. It is no use trying to absolve the criminal ab initio or to individualize and personalize a criminal act against one of the holiest places. What we are witnessing today is a chain reaction that lies in the very essence of the philosophy upon which Israel is predicated. Does it not express itself in the so-called Law of Return, which allows anybody, whether from Baltimore or Australia, to become part of the Israeli armed forces just because he is a Jew, while those Palestinian people are denied the fight to return to their homes because they are non-Jewish?

78. If any country in the world treated the Jews, in terms of immigration, in the same manner that Israel treats non-Jews, that country would be rightly condemned as anti-Semitic. I wonder how the members of the Council would describe institutionalized discrimination against non-Jews coming back to their homes in Palestine.

79. We are told that this individualized act is not worthy of the time of the Council. Yet what this act has detonated, in terms of our legitimate anger, throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds must make us all begin to re-examine the functions of the Security Council. We are finding that this act has been made possible by the permissiveness produced by the exercise two weeks ago of the veto of the draft resolution denouncing the Israeli authorities' dismissal of elected mayors and calling on Israel to rescind its decision disbanding the elected Municipal Council of Al-Bireh. That veto created an atmosphere whereby Israel felt that it had advance protection for subsequent acts of aggression. For this policy not only made it Possible for the Israeli army to allow one of its functionaries to strike in a trigger-happy manner, but also created an atmosphere of 'permissiveness for acts against those who merely wanted to say their prayers, and against the passive demonstrations of people in Jerusalem and, today, in Gaza and, earlier, in Nablus, Hebron and other places. It accounts for the trigger -happy behavior of the Israeli occupation army and the illegal settlers in the occupied territories.

80. It is equally a fact that Jerusalem was illegally annexed and declared the so-called eternal capital of Israel. Yet that went unchecked, even though Jerusalem is not, and cannot be, anywhere but in the heart-land of Palestine.

81.   By annexing Jerusalem and deliberately defying the whole international community, Israel felt that it had license to do at will whatever it wants, whenever it wants. Then, defying and showing contempt for the Council draft resolution [S/14943] which called upon Israel, the occupying Power, to allow the mayors of Halhoul and Hebron to return to their functions, Israel thwarted its implementation. A sequence of unimplemented resolutions demonstrates that contempt is an integral part of Israeli policy and attitude towards the United Nations.

82. Does the United Nations remain helpless? Are we to remain hopeless before this staggering insult to the international community?

83. Today we are being told that everybody must calm down because on 25 April Israel might withdraw from the Sinai. It is amazing that the intention is to paralyze the other partners to the Camp David accords. If Israel commits a violent act the United States State Department comes out and says: "We deplore violence on all sides." But why? One cannot equate violence as a matter of plan, of conquest and of coercion with violence as a reaction, as in the West Bank and Gaza, where children of Palestine are defying the military establishment of the occupying Power.

84. Moreover, Israel wants to penalize our great Arab brother Egypt for even making a statement in favor of the PLO. Israel underestimates the inherent national commitment of Egypt to the Arab world's legitimate causes. Israel is utilizing the Camp David accords to silence the other partners, but at least one of the partners has a firm commitment to the aspirations of the Arabs that will not for long be silenced.

85. Israel is trying to keep everybody off balance: "If you do not allow us to create and proliferate more settlements in the occupied territories, then southern Lebanon is endangered."

86. Then there is the utilization by the Israelis of language reminiscent of the Holocaust: "Exterminate the PLO". The very utilization of the words "extermination", "finishing off", "removing" and "uprooting" creates a situation in which the Arab people's patience is being strained to the breaking point.

87. The Council has heard the statement by the representative of Saudi Arabia and the statements by the representative of Malaysia and others, who not only have documented the arrogant attack against the holy institutions of Islam in Jerusalem but have documented and described the legitimate anger. Israel wants to keep us all off balance. If we do not accept its occupation and annexation of the Golan, then it will blackmail us in southern Lebanon. If we try to ensure the full implementation of the Council resolutions on southern Lebanon, then Israel will proliferate illegal settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. If the Egyptians object to what the Israelis are doing in Jerusalem and in the West Bank, then the Israelis will threaten that the postponement of withdrawal from Sinai might be a credible option.

88. What Israel wants to do is to keep everybody hostage-to keep the world community hostage-to its reckless policy and to its attempt to play havoc with the future chances of peace and justice in the region. So, today, this issue-this attack and act of aggression against the Holy Places of Islam in Jerusalem -is the focus of the interrelationship of all the dimensions of the Palestinian question and the Israeli-Arab conflict. That is why the time has perhaps come to take the situation in hand: the United Nations-the Security Council-must go beyond condemnation; it must impose a deterrent-a credible disincentive-to Israel's conducting any further acts of aggression and expansion, and must make any subsequent aggression costly for it. At stake is far more than what appears on the surface. At stake is the legitimacy of the United Nations or the success of Israel's attempt to delegitimize not only Palestinian rights and Arab territories but also the sanctity of many of our spiritual and moral values and imperatives.

89. The PRESIDENT (interpretation from French): The representative of Israel has asked to make a statement in exercise of his right of reply, and I call on him now.

90. Mr. BLUM (Israel): In my statement yesterday I expressed the fear that this debate would be exploited with a view to playing upon religious sentiments of millions around the world. I appealed to the Council not to permit the voice of intolerance and prejudice to prevail here [2352nd meeting, para. 43].

91. It would seem that our appeal went unheeded. The succession of statements that we have heard today clearly bears out our worst fears. It is quite obvious that the speakers who have been lined up here have only one intention: to fan the flames of religious incitement and intolerance. Amazingly, some of these speakers then become very upset when they are accused of bigotry. In other words, it is perfectly permissible to act as bigots, but it is bad when bigotry is pointed out.

92. The representative of Pakistan stated here that I had expressed disdain and contempt for Islam. What is this if not bigotry, Mr. Naik? The Government of Israel, and I myself, have the highest regard and respect for Islam, and indeed for any faith. More than 600,000 of our citizens are Muslims. We have no respect for bigots and for those who abuse religion, like Mr. Naik, and who spread lies in the Council and elsewhere. We heard from Mr. Naik that the tragic event of last Sunday took place in the At-Aqsa Mosque. Surely he must know that what he told the Council was untrue. Then he said that I had accused the United Nations of being a cesspool of lies. Surely he must know that this is another lie. I challenge him to prove exactly when and where I used those words; I perfectly willing to interrupt my statement to enable him to come forward and to prove me wrong. He will not do it because he knows that what he said is untrue.

93. But he was not the only bigot here. We have just heard the most recent sermon of Mr. Maksoud. I do not recall a statement by Mr. Maksoud when the Great Mosque in Makkah was taken over by several hundred raiders two and a half years ago. I do, not recall Mr. Maksoud coming before the Council on that occasion to sermonize. And I do not recall the representative of Saudi Arabia coming before the Council on that occasion to ask for a condemnation of his country.

94. Then we also had of course the representative of Syria, who treated us to his characteristic lucidity- and profundity of thought. I felt he would want to inform the Council about the shelling and destruction of scores of mosques and churches in Syrian Lebanon by his Government. Surprisingly, he made no reference, to those events.

95. So the representative of Jordan is in good company. But one wonders how he could make the statements that he did make in the Council, willingly passing over the simple fact that it was precisely on the same spot where the tragic event of last Sunday occurred that King Abdallah of Jordan was murdered in 1951. Did he then come before the Council to ask for the condemnation of Jordan?

96. Did anyone ask for a Security Council meeting when Pope John Paul II was attacked last year? Did anyone ask for a Council meeting when the “Pieta” of Michelangelo was damaged by a deranged individual several years ago?

97. So what is this if not bigotry? What is all this exercise if not an attempt to play on the religious sentiments of millions of people around the world? Let me therefore repeat my appeal to the Council: Do not permit the bigots to have their way. Do not permit the voice of intolerance and prejudice to prevail here.

The meeting rose at 6.30 p.m.

______________

NOTES

1/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, No. 973, p. 287.

2/ General Assembly resolution 273 (III).

3/ General Assembly resolution 217 A (III).