Mideast situation/Palestine question – Letter from Israel

Letter dated 2 December 1985 from the Permanent Representative of Israel

to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

Much has been made recently of the PLO's alleged intention to "limit" terrorist attacks to the "occupied territories".

Two things come to mind immediately.  First, the obvious:  Nothing justifies terrorism, not even its geographical limitation.  The slaughter of innocents, the butchering of children and the murder of the elderly are evils wherever they take place.

But there is a second, less obvious, point.  How does the PLO define "occupied territory"?  Many rushed to interpret Arafat's recent statement on this matter as referring to Judea, Samaria and Gaza.  But what does the PLO say?

In an interview with the BBC on 10 November 1985, Abu Iyad, head of Fatah's military department, said, "When we say occupied Palestine … we consider all Palestine as occupied …  Our resistance will be everywhere inside the territory and that is not defined in terms of the West Bank and Gaza alone."

Another PLO leader, Farouk Qaddoumi, told the French daily Quotidien de Paris that "Israel is occupied territory … whether it was conquered in 1967 or earlier in 1948 …  We speak of all the territory that is Palestine."

By the PLO's own admission, then, its aim remains the liquidation of all of Israel, considered "occupied territory" in its entirety.  The PLO's brutal method, terrorism, is therefore applicable throughout Israel.  Here are two examples in the last month alone that illustrate the PLO's unrestricted policy of murder:

On 13 November 1985 a bomb exploded in a Haifa market crowded with shoppers.  The PLO claimed responsibility over Baghdad radio.

On 25 November 1985 Baruch Jahan was stabbed while shopping in Jerusalem, the third such stabbing in three weeks.  (Significantly, the PLO leader Abu Jihad told the Gulf daily Al-Bayan on 18 November 1985 "that stabbing and strangulation are part of the armed struggle".)

In PLO parlance, then, "armed struggle" is a euphemism for terrorism and "occupied territory" is a substitute for the State of Israel within any borders.

I have the honour to request that this letter be circulated as an official document of the General Assembly, under agenda items 38 and 129, and of the Security Council.

(Signed) Benjamin NETANYAHU

Ambassador

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