Mideast situation – GA begins consideration of Palestine question – Press release

UNITED NATIONS

Press Section

Office of Public Information

United Nations, N.Y.

(FOR USE OF INFORMATION MEDIA — NOT AN OFFICIAL RECORD)

Thirtieth General Assembly

2390th Plenary Meeting

AM SUMMARY

Press Release GA/5371

3 November 1975

GENERAL ASSEMBLY BEGINS CONSIDERATION OF PALESTINE QUESTION

The General Assembly this morning began consideration of the item entitled "Question of Palestine", hearing statements by the representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and of Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Statements under the right of reply were made by the representatives of Lebanon and Jordan.

The Assembly will meet again at 5:30 p.m. today to hear the remainder of the statement of the representative of Saudi Arabia. So far, no other speakers are listed for this afternoon's meeting.

The list of speakers for the debate on this item is to be closed at 5 p.m. tomorrow, 4 November.

Opening the debate this morning, Farovuk Kaddoumi (Palestine Liberation Organization), departing from his prepared text, called on the General Assembly to consider imposing sanctions against Israel, to reconsider Israel's membership in the United Nations, and to create a special committee to combats the activities of Zionism and to end its crimes as the crimes of Nazism and fascism had been ended.

Earlier in his statement, Mr. Kaddoumi declared his organization's “unfaltering adherence to the goal of establishing a national authority in order to found a secular democratic state in all of Palestine". He said "the Palestinian's only homeland is Palestine".

There could be no discussions without participation of the PLO, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, Mr. Kaddoumi said. He rejected partial solutions and a "step-by-step approach". Further, he said that the Palestinians could not be removed from Lebanon, where they had had to go because of the exile imposed on them.

Chaim Herzog (Israel) said the way the General Assembly was dealing with the Middle East problem was "a tragedy of major international proportions".  The Assembly had let itself be dominated by "a group of intransigent extremists" and was encouraging fanaticism instead of accommodation, conflict instead of peace.

The aim of the PLO was the destruction of Israel, he said. The PLO was now "actively involved, in pursuance of its policy of international terrorism, in the disruption and dismemberment of the Republic of Lebanon".

Israel, he said, was carrying on a daily dialogue with a major element of the Palestinian Arabs, laying foundations for advance towards the solution of the Palestine Arab problem on a basis of understanding. "This we shall achieve if the process of negotiation and dialogue in the Middle East is encouraged and not obstructed by this Assembly."

Jamil M. Baroody (Saudi Arabia) gave the first part of his statement this morning. He said he would continue the statement this afternoon and outline suggestions to deal with the problem before the Assembly.

(A MORE DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE MEETING APPEARS IN TAKES 1-15 OF THIS RELEASE)

Thirtieth General Assembly

2390th Plenary Meeting AM

Press Release GA/5371

3 November 1975

ASSEMBLY PLENARY — TAKE 1

The General Assembly met this morning to begin debate on the item entitled "Question of Palestine".

The Assembly, in resolution 3210 (XXIX) of 14 October 1974, voted to invite the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), "the representatives of the Palestine people", to participate in the deliberations of the

Assembly on this question in plenary meetings.  It stated in a preambular paragraph of the resolution that it considered that "the Palestinian people is the principal party to the question of Palestine".

The item entitled "Question of Palestine" was submitted for the agenda of the Assembly on 11 September 1974 by 43 delegations, later joined by 13 others.  In their explanatory memorandum, they said that Assembly had been continuously seized with the problem of Palestine since April 1947.

"In consequence of some of the early resolutions of the General Assembly regarding this issue", the memorandum went on, "a great number of Palestinians have been displaced and forced to endure the status of refugees, and the Palestinian people have been prevented from exercising its inalienable rights, including the right to self-determination, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the recognized norms international law".  Nevertheless, the memorandum stated, the question of Palestine as such had the question of the status and fate of the people of Palestine as such had not appeared on the agenda of any session of the Assembly, even though the Assembly and other organs of the United Nations had dealt with "various aspects, ramifications or consequences" of the Palestine problem throughout this period.

Since 1028, however, the Assembly had recognized and reaffirmed the rights of the Palestine refugees to repatriation and, since 1970, had recognized and reaffirmed the inalienable rights of the people of Palestine, including the right to self-determination, the memorandum stated.  The international community outside the framework of the United Nations had also recognized these rights in recent years. "As the United Nations has borne since its inception in historic, political and juridical responsibility regarding the problem of Palestine", it was incumbent upon the Assembly "to consider the question of Palestine in its true nature and proper form", the memorandum stated.

The original signatories of the reuqest for inclusion of the itme in the agenda were Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Burundi, Chad, the Congo, Cuba, Democratic Yemen, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, the German Democratic Republic, Guinea, India, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Mongolia, Morocco, Niger, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, the Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates, the United Republic of Tanzania, Yemen, Yugoslavia and Zarie.  They were subsequently joined by Bangladesh, China, Cyprus, Dahomey, Ghana, Guyana, Indonesia, Iran, the Ivory Coast, Malta, Nigeria, Togo and Turkey.

On 22 November 1974, after holding a total of 14 meetings of debate on the question, the Assembly adopted, by a vote of 89 in favour to 8 against, with 37 abstentions, resolution 3236 (XXIX), reaffirming the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people in Palestine, including the right to self-determination without external interference, and the right to national independence and sovereignty.

In addition, the Assembly reaffirmed their inalienable right to return to their homes and property, and it called for their return.

The Assembly also recognized the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights "by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles" of the Charter, and it appealed to all States and international organizations to extend support to them in their struggle to restore their rights.

Further, the Assembly requested the Secretary-General to establish contacts with the PLO on all matters concerning the question of Palestine and to report to the Assembly at its current session on the implementation of the resolution.

Under a second resolution adopted the same day (3237 (XXIX)), the Assembly, by a vote of 95 in favour to 17 against, with 19 abstentions, invited the PLO to participate as an observer in the sessions and work of the Assembly and all international conferences convened under the auspices of the Assembly.

Before the Assembly on this item is a report of the Secretary-General prepared in response to resolution 3236 (document a?10265).

The report states that in accordance with the request addressed to him by the Assembly, the Secretary-General had established contacts with the PLO and the Secretariat had been in touch with representatives of the PLO "as the occasion has required".

The PLO, the report continues, had appointed permanent observers to the United Nations in both New York and Geneva and contacts had been established between the PLO and the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), whose activities were "of direct interest to large numbers of Palestinians".

In connexion with the discharge of its responsibilities for the provision of services to registered refugees in Lebanon, UNRWA also maintained contacts on a working level, through its Lebanon field office, with the Committee of the PLO responsible for Palestinian affairs in Lebanon, with which the Agency had earlier established contact at the request of the Government of Lebanon.

(END OF TAKE 1)

Thirtieth General Assembly

2390th Plenary Meeting AM

Press Release GA/5371

3 November 1975

ASSEMBLY PLENARY – TAKE 2

This morning's meeting was called to order by the President of the Assembly, GASTON THORN (Luxembourg), at 11:02 a.m.

He asked delegations wishing to take part in the debate to inscribe their names as soon as possible.  His intention was to close the list of speakers for the debate at 5 p.m. tomorrow, 4 November.

He said he has only two speakers lilsted for this morning and none for this afternoon.

The debate then begain.

FAROUK KADDOUMI of the Palestine Liberation Organization said that, at this time last year, the Assembly experienced an historic day — "a day when you chose to stand by a just and worthy cause and extend an invitation to the Palestine Liberation Organization to participate in the annual deliberations of the General Assembly on the question of Palestine".

He said: "This was your first opportunity to listen to the voice of the victim". For years, he stated, the rostrum had been "commanded by a shrewd, artful aggressor who resorted to all means at his disposal, sparing neither lies, forgery nor deceit, in order to submerge the Palestinian issue and prevent the United Nations from assuming its natural role".

Yassir Arafat, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, had, he said, pleaded not to let the olive branch fall from this hand.  He had asked, Mr. KADDOUMI said, that the Assembly demonstrate to humanity at large that it was possible for oppressed peoples to attain their goals of liberation, justice and peace assisted by the positive contributions of the Organization.

He said, to the heroic people of Viet-Nam, both North and South, "whom United States imperialism has barred from joining the United Nations", that the United States "veto" did not seal their fate in the United Nations.  The time would soon come with the Vietnamese people would occupy their legitimate place in the Assembly, he stated.

He called upon all honest forces in Africa and the whole world to work for the protection of Angola's independence and freedom in accordance with the resolutions of the latest African summit meeting calling for the suspension of internal strife and for national reconciliation.

(END OF TAKE 2)

Thirtieth General Assembly

2390th Plenary Meeting AM

Press Release GA/5371

3 November 1975

ASSEMBLY PLENARY – TAKE 3

Continuing, the representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Mr. KADDOUMI, expressed categorically condemnation of apartheid in Southern Rhodesia and South Africa, and said that the PLO fully supported the peoples of Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia in their struggle against white minority rule.

Arab-African solidarity served the cause of world peace, he said, and promoted the interests of peoples and their social and economic development.  With this in mind, he said, "we appeal to our brothers, especially in the oil-producing Arab States, to assume their full responsibilities by aiding economic development in Africa".

Regarding Cyprus, he said that its people were being subjected to "a vicious United States scheme", and he supported all constructive efforts to protect the independence, sovereignty, neutrality, and territorial unity of Cyprus.  Peace and security of the neighbouring regions, he added, required the abolition of all foreign bases on the island, followed by the reinforcement of the democratic foundations of Cyprus' political system.

The Korean people, he said, had struggled for years against United States military occupation and rule.  The time had come to achieve Korean unification by peaceful means, once all foreign bases were removed and occupation forces withdrawn.

The representative of the PLO said that, historically, the Arab and European peoples had had close cultural relations.  It was imperative that new ties, based on mutual understanding and co-operation be established between the Arabs and the Europeans.  Accordingly, he said, the Palestine Liberation Organization fully supported the Arab-European dialogue which was intended to attain mutual co-operation at all levels and develop the positive stance of some Western European States towards the just Palestinian cause.

Mr. KADDOUMI said that resolution 3236 of 22 November 1974 reaffirmed the national rights of his people in Palestine, including their right to return to their homes and property, their right of self-determination without external interference and their right to independence and sovereignty.  This, he noted, was followed by resolution 3237 according the PLO full observer status at the United Nations and recognizing the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestine people.

Moreover, he said, the two resolutions recognized the right of his people to all measures at their disposal for the restoration of their rights in accordance with the aims and principles of the United Nations Charter.

It was therefore, he said, that his delegation had returned from the Assembly to their people in exile and in occupied Palestine with a sense of optimism.  Since then, he said, new horizons had opened which had permitted the consolidation of the PLO's international status, the broadening of the international recognition accorded to it, and the expansion of the support for its cause.

 (END OF TAKE 3)

Thirtieth General Assembly

2390th Plenary Meeting AM

Press Release GA/5371

3 November 1975

ASSEMBLY PLENARY – TAKE 4

Continuing, the representative of the PLO said that every international conference that had been convened since last year's session had reaffirmed its support of his people and their national struggle, while at the same time condemning the position of their "Zionist enemy and its imperialist ally, the United States".

Mr. KADDOUMI said that he wanted to make a special reference to some changes that had started to take place in European policies vis-a-vis the Palestine Question.  Slowly but surely, he said, some European countries had begun to take into account the legitimate national aspirations of the Palestinian people to establish their independent national authority and to solve the problems resulting from their dispersion and exile.

He made particular mention of France's leading role in this sphere.  France had truly set an example for other European States to follow in its pursuit of a more objective and just policy, he said.

The representative of the PLO said that, unfortunately, the joint forces of repression, imperialism and Zionism, using all means of manipulation and terrorism, had collaborated to shake that international solidarity.  Jointly, they had challenged the international will and waged a ruthless campaign, planning and scheming in the hope of restoring the initiative to their own camp, he said.

The representative of the PLO said it was tragic when a super-Power, like the United States, possessing enormous resources of information and intelligence agencies, continued to insist on ignoring the essence of the crisis in the Middle East.  Moreover, he said, the United States was unreservedly committed to pursue the policy drawn by Israel to fragment the issue and score false victories through deceit.

The United States, he said, had continued to seek distorted solutions, deluging Israel with more arms and drowning the region in more problems and further complications.

He said: "There can be no peace in the region without justice, and no justice without the full recognition and ultimate attainment of the national rights of our people."  Also, he said, "no international conference is permitted to discuss the Palestine problem in isolation from the Palestine Liberation Organization or in its absence".

In the light of experience since 1948, he rejected all attempts which sought partial solutions to the problem.  "Whether they emanate from this Assembly or from outside it, we repudiate these fragmentary approaches to what has come to be wrongly termed the Middle East crisis and what we rightly call the Palestine question", he said.

(END OF TAKE 4)

Thirtieth General Assembly

2390th Plenary Meeting AM

Press Release GA/5371

3 November 1975

ASSEMBLY PLENARY – TAKE 5

The representative of the PLO, Mr. KADDOUMI, went on to say that the recent tension and resulting bloodshed in Lebanon were "tragic examples of the consequences of the United States policy in the Middle East". While it pretended to advocate peace in the area, he said, the United States actually served the Zionist policy of aggression, by sustaining the Israeli entity through the infusion of billions of dollars and sophisticated military equipment.  The gifts, he said, enabled Israel to impose its racist policy on the whole area.

"The events taking place in Lebanon test the credibility of our strategic vision, our vision of the establishment of a democratic non-sectarian state", he stated.  The enemies of the revolution, both inside and outside the region, he said, were under the illusion that they could undermine the Palestinian presence in Lebanon, a presence caused by Zionist usurpation of the Palestinian homeland and imposed by the conditions of exile.

He said that the step-by-step policy inspired by the United States was bound to backfire, just as the Zionist and imperialist policies in Lebanon had backfired.  In his view, the proposals of the United States could not but end in failure, for they were designed not to promote world peace and enhance global security, but rather to mask the intensification of tensions and the creation of conditions for the outbreak of war.

On behalf of the PLO, he expressed deep concern for the independence, sovereignty and unity of Lebanon.  The struggle was for the liberation of Palestine and the establishment of a democratic State in that scared territory, he said.  "We will never accept a homeland other than Palestine", he declared.

He asked if Mr. Kissinger needed the October was, two years of negotiations supplemented by billions of dollars and enormous quantities of sophisticated weapons, merely to achieve a partial withdrawal encompassing no more than 13 per cent of the Sinai, then how much more would be required in the way of time, money, weapons and wars to accomplish total withdrawal from all occupied Arab territory?

Regarding the secret undertakings of the Sinai Accord, he said that those given by the United States to Israel were an affront to resolutions of the United Nations upholding the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination and independence and recognizing the Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole legitimate representative.

The United States' commitment to Israel not to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization, he said, was unassailable evidence that, despite all the wars in the Arab region and despite the danger of renewal and escalation of war, the United States and Israel persevered in pursuit of their policy of oppression, aggression, usurpation and denial to the Palestinian people.

(END OF TAKE 5)

Thirtieth General Assembly

2390th Plenary Meeting AM

Press Release GA/5371

3 November 1975

ASSEMBLY PLENARY – TAKE 6

Mr. KADDOUMI of the Palestine Liberation Organization went on to say that he wished to express "our denunciation of all measures which ignore the totality and indivisibility of the Palestine question – such as a disengagement of troops here, a partial solution there, or a stage-by-stage settlement, the discussion of the problem of Jerusalem, the review of the fate of UNRWA, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip".

To treat them as separate items, as subjects unrelated to one another would, he said, only lead to further complications, inevitably precipitating tension and causing war.

The General Assembly, he said, was required "to take effective and operational measures to deter Israel, to contain the Zionist danger and to put an end to both".

Departing from his prepared text, Mr. KADDOUMI called on the General Assembly to consider sanctions against Israel and reconsider its member ship in the United Nations, while creating a special committee to combat the activities of Zionism and put an end to its crimes, as the crimes of Fascism and Nazism had been ended.

Today, "we are closer to war than to peace", he stated.  All solutions offered by the United States have made the danger greater and the problem more complicated.  The Judaization of villages, settlements on the West Bank, Gholan, Sinai and Gaza and desecration of sanctities in Jerusalem continued, he noted, as did the actions of the Israelis against the Palestinian refugees.

Returning to his prepared text, he said: "The United States has introduced nuclear armament into our area through its ally, Israel."

He said that the deliberate attempt of the Zionists to confuse Judaism as religious faith with Zionism, a backward, racist ideology, was clear evidence of the Zionists' manipulation of the Jewish faith, which was, in his view, to be greatly respected and honoured.

The denunciation of Zionism, he said, was an additional manifestation of the progress the United Nations had made in its awareness of the racist ideas and ideologies which threatened contemporary humanity.

He said that the PLO advanced the liberation of the Jewish individual whose suffering Zionism had continuously exploited to justify its more aggressive, dangerous and racist plans which menaced society and retarded freedom of all peoples.

(END OF TAKE 6)

Thirtieth General Assembly

2390th Plenary Meeting AM

Press Release GA/5371

3 November 1975

ASSEMBLY PLENARY – TAKE 7

Continuing, the representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Mr. KADDOUMI, said that the Ambassador of the Zionist entity to the United Nations had resorted the threat and deceit in a hopeless attempt to respond to the resolution condemning Zionism.

The Zionists, he said, should be the last to raise the subject of anti-Semitism and anti-Semites, for in essence, Zionism was only another face for anti-Semitism.  Zionism, like anti-Semitism, he said, alleged that no Jew, irrespective of his country, belonged to the nation in which he lived.  It called on each Jew to leave his country and society in order to colonize the country of another people – the Palestinian people – and replace them by the use of force and terror, he said.

It was no wonder, then, he said, that United States Ambassador Patrick Moynihan – "whose views and diagnosis of the problems confronting black Americans have been characterised as racist, especially his advocacy of " 'benign neglect' "- that he should rally to the support of his Zionism, threatening the United Nations and warning it of the consequences of its actions in adopting such actions.

The Palestinian people, he said, were by no means alone in the militant struggle against Zionism and imperialism. Its friend, the Soviet Union, "maintains a responsible and constructive stand in opposition to Israeli aggression", he said.  The Soviet Union had, Mr. KADDOUMI said, consistently endorsed the rights of the Palestinian people and the struggle of the Arab nation for freedom and progress.

He said he wished to declare the PLO's "unfaltering adherence to the goal of establishing a national authority in order to found a secular democratic State in all of Palestine". There he said, Moslems, Christians and Jews would dwell together in brotherhood, equality and an openness to the world and live free from all fear and anxiety.

He said, "The Palestinians' only homeland is Palestine.  Their sole aim is to liberate this homeland and live in it in peace."

He noted that, other than the Palestine Liberation Organization – the official voice and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people – "there exists no party which can speak for our Palestinian people".

(END OF TAKE 7)

Thirtieth General Assembly

2390th Plenary Meeting AM

Press Release GA/5371

3 November 1975

ASSEMBLY PLENARY – TAKE 8

CHAIM HERZOG (Israel) said that nothing could illustrate better the depths to which the United Nations had been dragged down than the debate which was taking place.  He knew that the debate would go on, that Israel would be subjected to "a flood of vituperation and hate", and that the debate would be followed by the consideration of "a resolution in which the first major international anti-Semitic attack on Jewry since the days of Hitler is to be proposed".

Was this the purpose of the United Nations? he asked.

In going through all the discussions in the various Committees in the General Assembly, in evaluating the anti-Israel speeches during the discussion of subjects which bore no relevance whatsoever to Israel, such as apartheid, even Korea, he found that as mush as 30 per cent of all the time spent in this General Assembly was devoted to the small Jewish State.

A major portion of the Assembly's time was devoted to an "outpouring of hate and vilification" against his country.  Was this the purpose for which the United Nations had been established? Had all the problems facing the world been solved?  Were the hundreds of millions of hungry, ill-fed masses of the world being cared for?

It seems to him that the name of this Organization should be changed to reflect its true nature, that it be officially changed to" "The United Nations Organization for the Castigation and Vilification of Israel".

A handful of extremists had imposed their will on this Assembly, he said, and they would continue, day in, day out, to direct their attacks on a small Jewish State "which is being attacked in such a concentrated manner, I suspect, for no other reason than because it is small and because it is Jewish".

(END OF TAKE 8)

Thirtieth General Assembly

2390th Plenary Meeting AM

Press Release GA/5371

3 November 1975

ASSEMBLY PLENARY – TAKE 9

Continuing, the representative of Israel, Mr. HERZOG, said that the General Assembly would "live in infamy", because, while a nation in the Middle East was "bleeding to death", being strangled by internicine warfare", this world assembly had no time for that tragedy because it was too busy castigating a free and socially advanced country in the Middle East.

History would recall that "an entire Christian community faced mortal peril while the world looked on in silence and the only voice raised in this hall was the voice of Israel", he stated.

History would also recall, he said, that this General Assembly had admitted to observer status last year the organization which tried, in the so-called "Black September" in 1970, to destroy the kingdom of Jordan and had listened today to the representative of that organization, "while it was actively involved, in pursuance of its policy of international terrorism, in the disruption and dismemberment of the Republic of Lebanon".

The resolution which this Assembly would be called upon to adopt was only a continuation of the declared PLO policy, embraced by the Arab States, to employ all means for the purpose of destroying Israel.  The resolution tried to achieve by the back door what the Arabs had failed to achieve through the front door over the past year in advocating the expulsion or suspension of Israel from the United Nations.

The Assembly was aware of the fact that the process of negotiation in the Middle East designed to bring about a peaceful solution was well under way, Mr. HERZOG continued.  In face, the various elements of the Sinai Agreement between Egypt and Israel were being implemented by both sides this very day.  The majority of the nations represented in the Assembly expressed the hope during the general debate that the agreement would be the forerunner of an ongoing process towards peace in the Middle East.

Against this stand, he said, there was the policy as set out by the PLO representative today and earlier, set out unequivocally in an address by its leader, Yassir Arafat, when recently addressing a conference in Baghdad, to the effect that: " We shall not allow any Palestinian or Arab side… to recognize Israel or conciliate with it…"

The representative of Israel said that the issue facing the Assembly today was one on which it could not evade responsibility. Either it could accept the basis of Security Council resolutions 242 and 338 and the machinery set up thereby in the Geneva Conference under the joint chairmanship of the United States and the Soviet Union as a framework within which to conduct peaceful negotiations and move along the road to ultimate peace in the area, or alternatively, the Assembly could support the philosophy of the PLO that a political settlement was doomed to failure.

(END OF TAKE 9)

Thirtieth General Assembly

2390th Plenary Meeting AM

Press Release GA/5371

3 November 1975

ASSEMBLY PLENARY – TAKE 10

The representative of Israel, Mr. HERZOG, went on to say that the proposed resolution in its various elements called in effect for the destruction of Israel, adding for good measure the expulsion of Israel from the United Nations, the imposition of sanctions, and in fact every device calculated to destroy a Member nation.  It would set up a committee which would be biased and prejudiced against Israel, the main purpose of which would be to neutralize and block the existing machinery which was in operation, and which was designed to move the war-torn Middle East toward peace.

The manner in which the General Assembly was dealing with the Middle East problem was "a tragedy of major international proportions", continued Mr. HERZOG.  This forum should be acting as one whose purpose was to encourage negotiations, to strive for consensus and compromise, but, instead, this body, by allowing itself to be dominated by a group of "intransigent extremists", was encouraging dissent instead of accord, intransigence instead of compromise, fanaticism instead of accommodation and conflict instead of peace.

In opposing any resolution that might be proposed by the PLO, he was by no means implying that Israel did not recognize the existence of a Palestine-Arab problem.  The PLO was "an uneasy coalition of a varying number of feuding terrorist organizations torn amongst themselves and unable to achieve any consensus on any problem apart from a vicious and nightmarish fate for every man, woman and child in Israel".

As for the so-called democratic secular State in which Moslems, Christian and Jews would, as it were, live in amity and equality, he asked why no democratic secular State had risen so far in the Arab world.

Mr. HERZOG said it was necessary to look at Lebanon today, to look at the more than 800,000 Jews who had left to been driven out of the Arab countries of the Middle East and North Africa since 1948.  It was necessary to look at the tortured existence of the 4,000 odd hostages left in Syria today "to see what the fate of the Jews of Israel would be if the PLO nightmare would be realized".

The interesting fact was that the influence of the PLO in the Middle East was declining in inverse ratio to the noise it was creating abroad, he said.  Since the adoption of resolution 3236 last year, numerous acts of terrorism have been carried out by the PLO.  He cited among other acts, the attacks on women and children in Kiryat Shmona, the killing of over 20 children in Ma'alot, the arrest of PLO terrorist in Rabat and in Spain for planning to assassinate the heads of Arab States attending the Arab summit in Rabat.

(END OF TAKE 10)

Thirtieth General Assembly

2390th Plenary Meeting AM

Press Release GA/5371

3 November 1975

ASSEMBLY PLENARY – TAKE 11

Continuing, the representative of Israel noted that PLO activities had been curtailed in Egypt, and there had recently been mass demonstrations on Egypt denouncing them.  They were not allowed to enter Jordan or to conduct a any activity there.  They were tightly controlled by the Syrian Government.  The only place where they were free to be active was Lebanon, "with the catastrophic and tragic results which are evident for us all to see today".

Mr. HERZOG went on to say that the President of Egypt announced last week that he had instructed his ambassador to submit a resolution to this Assembly calling for the inclusion for the PLO in the Geneva Conference.  The framework of the Geneva Conference had been created by Security Council resolution 338, which, in turn, based itself on Security Council resolution 242, a resolution unreservedly rejected by the PLO.

The representative of Israel observed that the aim of the PLO was the destruction of Israel.  He asked if anyone could expect his country to approach the Geneva Conference on such a basis, to talk to a group subscribing to such a doctrine.  The idea was unacceptable, he said.

The major part of historic Palestine was the present-day kingdom of Jordan, said Mr. HERZOG.  The bulk of the Palestinian Arabs, 80 per cent of them, lived in Jordan, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.  Approximately 1.5 million of them, including those living in the West Bank, were Jordanian citizens and held Jordanian passports. It must be obvious, he said, that the problem could and should be solved in the context of a peace agreement between Israel and Jordan.

The representative of Israel said that two major events relating to Palestinian Arabs had occurred during the past week.  In Lebanon, the PLO was an "active participants in the process of the disintegration of a nation, bringing death, murder, economic disaster and physical destruction to an Arab people".  In the territories administered by Israel, meanwhile, orderly, democratic, secret elections had taken place for the local authorities, despite the opposition of the PLO to their being held.

If Israel were indeed such a "hell on earth" for the Arabs, as the proponents of the proposed resolution claimed, why should freely elected Arabs be serving in the Israeli Government?  Why should an Arab be serving in his own delegation? Why should the first Arab woman mayor in the whole Middle East have been elected in Israel? Why should Arab officers and men be serving of their own volition in the Israel Defence Forces, border forces, and police force, in many cases in command of Jewish troops?

Why should hundreds of thousands of Arab tourists be crossing freely into Israel every year? he asked.

(END OF TAKE 11)

Thirtieth General Assembly

2390th Plenary Meeting AM

Press Release GA/5371

3 November 1975

ASSEMBLY PLENARY – TAKE 12

Mr. HERZOG went on to say that Israel lived in close daily contact, on a basis of mutual respect and dignity, with over 1 million Palestinian Arabs.

Israel was proud that, despite pressures and provocations over the years, in which the most heinous crimes had been committed by terrorists, his country had never carried out the death penalty.  It was proud of the fact that the gross national product had grown in the West Bank and Gaza, that the unemployment rate had dropped, that the number of schools had increased, that there was complete freedom of movement in Israel to and from the West Bank and Gaza Strip and for visitors from the East Bank (including visitors from all the Arab countries).

Israel, he went one, was proud of the absolute freedom of religion granted to all beliefs, in which all holy places were autonomously administered by the respective religious authorities.

A daily dialogue with a major element of the Palestinian Arabs, he said, had brought about a greater degree of mutual understanding than had ever been achieved before, and had developed daily grass-roots Arab-Jewish co-operation in all fields of human endeavour, medicine, agriculture, commerce, politics, science and higher education.

Israel, he said, was proud that it had created the foundation from which to advance further towards the solution of the Palestine Arab problem on a basis of growing understanding.

"This we shall achieve if the process of negotiation and dialogue in the Middle East is encouraged and not obstructed by this Assembly."

For its part, Israel would continue on its path towards peace irrespective of the result of the vote in this Assembly, he said.  "We are confident that we shall not be alone in pursuing this path", he stated.

(END OF TAKE 12)

Thirtieth General Assembly

2390th Plenary Meeting AM

Press Release GA/5371

3 November 1975

ASSEMBLY PLENARY – TAKE 13

The PRESIDENT said that the list of speakers would be closed at 4 p.m. tomorrow, 4 November.  He announced also that there would not be an afternoon meeting of the plenary.

JAMIL M. BOROODY (Saudi Arabia) said that the Jews in Europe since the days of the Edwards in England had been persona non grata and had been expelled.  In other parts of Europe, they were not allowed professions, so turned to money lending.

At the same time, and for hundreds of years before, the Jews had been persona grata in the Arab world.  There had been no persecution of "the people of the book" in the Arab world.

He noted that the prophets of Judaism were the prophets also of Islam.  He added that the three monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, were in effect three branches of one religion.

At the time of the French Revolution, the Jews had become enfranchised, he said.  Before that, the was regarded as less than a second-class citizen.  Shakespeare had used Shylock as archetypally villainous.

He said that, in the Arab world, the people of the Middle East treated the Jews as themselves, part and parcel of the culture of the region.

He recalled that Herzl had been sent to cover, as a reporter, the Dreyfus affair in France.  That, he said, was the background of Zionism, resulting in Herzl's book The Jewish State.  Herzl saw this as the solution to the problems of the Jews in Europe.

Before World War I, he went on, the Jewish population was less than 6 per cent of the population of Palestine.  Even after intensive immigration, in 1945, the Jewish population was only about one third, he stated.

Mr. BAROODY said that the Balfour Declaration had been made because the United Kingdom was losing the war.

At this state, Mr. Moynihan (United States) got up.  Mr. Baroody suggested that he should stay and listen.  Mr. Moynihan sat down.  Mr. Baroody said he hoped Mr. Moynihan, as a professor, would now improve his knowledge.

Mr. BAROODY went on to say that President Wilson and Senator Cabot Lodge had been isolationists, as had been most Republicans and Democrats during World War I, and the British had had to lobby to get them into that war.

(END OF TAKE 13)

Thirtieth General Assembly

2390th Plenary Meeting AM

Press Release GA/5371

3 November 1975

ASSEMBLY PLENARY – TAKE 14  

Mr. BAROODY went on to say that "our Jews" had never wanted a Jewish State in Palestine, because they were Semites.  However, the Europeans, and their "extension, the United States", had wanted the Palestinians to "pay the price" for European persecution of the Jews.

The representative of Saudi Arabia said the European Jews were Khazars, converted to Judaism in the seventeenth century. They had lived in the Caspian, which was now a part of Russia, and had become Jews because of a conflict between the Moslems and Byzantium, he said.

The converted Jews was not a Semite, he continued.  Nor, for instance, were the Nigerian Moslems Semites, he added.

Terrorism had been brought to the area by the Stern Gang and one Irgum Zvai Leumi, he declared.  It was the Zionists who had blown up the Kind David Hotel, who had killed Lord Moyne and Count Bernadotte and who had hanged British "tommies".

Now these terrorists wanted to be regarded as respectable, he said.

The French Maquis had fought their enemies and were regarded as heroes, he stated.  When the Palestinians fought to get their land bank, they were called "terrorists".

Mr. BAROODY said the European Jews said "God gave us Palestine", but their ancestors had never seen Palestine.

He asked for an afternoon plenary meeting in order to conclude his statement.  He said he wanted to make a number of suggestions at that time.

If there was not granted, he said, he would continue his statement now.  He said he did not care what The New York Times or other Zionist newspapers said about him.  He would speak.

The Acting President, MEDOUNE FALL (Senegal), said the representative of Saudi Arabia could continue this afternoon, but the representatives of Lebanon and Jordan wished to exercise their rights of reply this morning.

The procedure was accepted, too.

(END OF TAKE 14)

Thirtieth General Assembly

2390th Plenary Meeting AM

Press Release GA/5371

3 November 1975

ASSEMBLY PLENARY – TAKE 15  

KHALIL HADDAD (Lebanon), speaking under the right of reply, said the representative of Israel had sought again to use events in Lebanon for the service of Zionism, which was a form of racism.

What was happening in Lebanon was not the result of  religious differences but a political conflict escalated by the actions of the Zionist entity, which refused to comply with United Nations resolutions on the rights of the Palestinians and which had carried out repeated aggressions against the territory of Lebanon and refugee camps, he said.

He reserved the right to reply in detail later to the remarks of the representative of Israel, which were "an attempt at intervention in the affairs of Lebanon".

SHERIF ABDUL HANID SHARAF (Jordan) said the Israeli representative had attached extremism and intransigence, yet he had not presented one constructive proposal regarding the Palestinian people, the theme of this debate.

The Israeli representative, he said, had distorted facts by trying to confuse Palestinian rights with inter-Arab politics. He said the fact remained that Palestinian rights had been usurped.  

He said the validity of the Palestinians' seeking their own homeland and their right to return there could not be denied by the Assembly.

The representative of Israel, he went on, had tired to distort the fact the Palestine and Jordan were separate countries.  The Palestinians had the right to their own soil.

Israel must end its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, where Palestinians were, and must allow those who had been expelled to return to their homeland, he declared.  It was a mockery and a joke to talk about Israel's humane policies in the occupied territories.  The same thing was said about apartheid and the Bantus tans, he added.

The Assembly adjourned at 1:40 p.m. until 3:30 p.m.

(END OF TAKE 15 AND PRESS RELEASE GA/5371)

[ga5371.PDF]