Attacks in Israel – Letter from Israel

Letter dated 27 October 1980 from the Permanent Representative of

Israel to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

I wish to draw your urgent attention to two further outrages perpetrated by the terrorist PLO in Israel with intent to cause indiscriminate murder and havoc.

     Both of these attacks took place yesterday, 26 October 1980. The first occurred at Ramat Gan, east of Tel-Aviv, when an explosive device went off at a bus-stop, wounding one civilian. The second incident occurred at a hitch-hiking post outside Jerusalem, where an explosive device also went off and wounded 14 persons, including several soldiers who had been on home leave. As usual, the PLO immediately boasted of its responsibility for these outrages through its news agency in Lebanon (as reported by the Associated Press at Beirut).

I should point out that hitch-hiking is widespread in Israel and, in the interests of road safety, official hitch-hiking posts have been designated throughout the country. The PLO favours attempts on these posts since, as with other public places such as bus-stops and open markets, they offer relatively easy ways of striking against men, women and children in Israel going about their daily business. Thus, for example, on 26 August 1980 an attempt was made on the hitch-hiking post near the Achim Junction, in the coastal plain south of Gedera, without causing injury. The PLO, as is its wont, immediately took responsibility for that incident on its radio station in Lebanon.

As regards yesterday's outrages, the timing was also significant. It was staged to coincide with the official state visit to Egypt by President Yitzhak Navon of Israel – the first of its kind by a President of Israel to any Arab country, and a symbol of the new reality emerging in the region as a result of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty signed in March of last year.

The PLO outrages in Israel yesterday give further proof, if such were necessary, that the PLO is a sworn enemy of peace in the Middle East.

I have the honour to request that this letter be circulated as an official document of the General Assembly, under agenda item 26, and of the Security Council.

(Signed)  Yehuda Z. BLUM

Ambassador

Permanent Representative of Israel

to the United Nations