CEIRPP meeting – Press release

U N I T E D    N A T I O N S

Press Section

Office of Public Information

United Nations, N.Y.

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

Committee on Rights of                               Press Release GA/PAL/12

 Palestinian People                                  30 March 1976

9th Meeting (AM)

PALESTINIAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE AGREES TO ASK SECRETARY-GENERAL TO

CONDEMN PUBLICLY ISRAELI ACTIONS IN OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES

Continues General Debate with Statement by Pakistan

     The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People agreed this morning to request the Secretary-General publicly to condemn recent Israeli actions in the occupied Arab territories.

     In taking the action, the Committee accepted a proposal of Rezso Banyasz

(Hungary), who was supported by Rachid Driss (Tunisia).  Mr. Banyasz said that

"new brutal attacks and several killings had been committed by the Israeli

police and military against innocent Palestinians in the occupied territory".

     Mr. Banyasz suggested that the Committee urge the Secretary-General "to

express the feelings of the Committee and the international community as a

whole by condemning the brutal Israeli attacks and by requesting the Israeli

authorities to immediately stop harassment against the people of the occupied

territories".

     The Committee also continued its general debate this morning, hearing a

statement by the representative of Pakistan.

     In addition, following a procedural discussion initiated by the representative of Tunisia, the Committee decided to invite the Secretary-General, the Arab League and the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to express their views on the work of the Committee and to request the Secretary-General to invite the members of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine to make their views known.

     The Commission, composed of France, Turkey and the United States, was

established by the General Assembly in 1948 "to assist the Governments and

authorities concerned to achieve a final settlement of all questions"

(resolution 194 (III) of 11 December 1948).

     The Committee will meet again at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow, 31 March, to hear

statements by any delegations who wish to speak in the general debate.  It will then go immediately into informal session to begin discussing proposals and recommendations for its report which is to be submitted by 1 June and considered by the Security Council as soon as possible thereafter.

     Established by the General Assembly under resolution 3376 (XXX) of 10

November 1975, the Committee was asked to consider and recommend a programme of implementation designed to enable the Palestinian people to exercise their

rights, including the right to self-determination without external interference, and the right to national independence and sovereignty.

     An unofficial outline of the Committee's report to the Security Council

has been prepared by the Rapporteur of the Committee and was circulated to

members this morning.  It calls for the report to contain an introduction, the

mandate of the Committee, organization of its work, recommendations and a

seven-part summary of the deliberations of the Committee, as follows:  role of

the Committee; right of return; right to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty; essential elements of a Programme of Implementation of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People; proposals concerning steps to ensure implementation of the Programme;  interrelationship between the question of Palestine and the Middle East problem; and future work of the Committee.

     At its meeting on 17 March, the Committee established an eight-member

working group — Afghanistan, Cuba, Guinea, India, Malta, Senegal, Tunisia

and the Palestine Liberation Organization — to begin drafting its report

and to meet simultaneously with the Committee when it is working in closed

session.

     Statement of Pakistan

     NASEEM MIRZA (Pakistan) said it could not be denied that the issue of

Palestine lay at the root of the problem in the Middle East.  His country

remained convinced that a gross injustice had been done when it was decided

to install an "outside people" in Palestine and to create a separate State

for them.  That had led to three wars, countless outbreaks and an arms race.

     The area, he continued, had become the "cockpit for the clash of

various interests" and the peace of the world was threatened.

     He said the essence of the issue was the restoration and exercise of the

inalienable rights of the Palestinians, including the rights to self-determination  national unity, independence and sovereignty, in their own land, as well as the right of the Palestinians to return to their own land and property.

     Pakistan's support of the just cause of the Palestinian people was

motivated not only by Pakistan's close ties with them but also by the fact

that they were a suppressed and oppressed people and that their cause was

just, Mr. Mirza stated.

     In regard to the PLO, he said it was heartening to see that the stand

taken by the Islamic countries in 1974 had become generally accepted in the

United Nations as the basis for a solution to the problem.

     The PLO, he continued, was the representative of the Palestinian people,

a fact that had been recognized by the United Nations in particular, and by

the international community in general.

     His delegation endorsed the view of the PLO representative that the

exercise of the individual right of the Palestinian to return to his homeland

was a sine qua non of the right of the Palestinian to exercise his inalienable

rights.

     He also endorsed the view that the first phase of the exercise of the

right  of return — as a priority of time only — should consist of the

return of persons displaced since June 1967 and that their return should not

await any political or territorial arrangements.

     His delegation also shared the view that Israel should desist from

establishing new settlements in the occupied territory.  In addition, he felt

that the fourth Geneva Convention should be applied and that action should be

taken to arrange the return of persons displaced since 1948.  In that respect,

an agency should be created and a fund established.

     The representative of Pakistan said the Committee should not be inhibited

from forwarding its views to the Security Council on the ground of expediency or by fear of a veto.  He suggested that informal contacts be established and

maintained with representatives of States not members of the Committee which

were considered by the Committee to be capable of playing a positive role both

in the Security Council and the General Assembly.

     The Committee's recommendations, which should be made without any

compromise of principle, should be formulated in such a way that they would

gain general support in the Council and the Assembly, he stated.

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