International Day of Solidarity (1986) – Special bulletin

 SPECIAL BULLETIN ON THE COMMEMORATION

OF THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY

WITH THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE

1986

CONTENTS

I.  Commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People

II. Texts of statements made and messages received on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, 1986

I. COMMEMORATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE

In accordance with the provisions of General Assembly resolution 32/40 B, operative paragraph 1 (c), the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People arranged a programme to commemorate the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

A special meeting of the Committee was held on Monday, 1 December 1986 in the Trusteeship Council Chamber.  The Chairman of the Committee, the Secretary-General and the President of the General Assembly addressed the meeting, as well as a number of representatives of United Nations bodies and intergovernmental organizations and a representative of the International Co-ordinating Committee of Non-Governmental Organizations on the Question of Palestine.  Messages were also read out on behalf of the President of the Security Council and the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (the PLO), Mr. Yasser Arafat. Text of messages and statements received from heads of State or Government, foreign ministers and others are reproduced below.

A week-long graphic exhibit entitled "Palestinian Cultural Heritage: Embroidery and Artifacts from the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries" was prepared by the PLO as part of the-commemorative programme. It was formally opened by the Chairman of the Committee, Ambassador Massamba Sarré. Six films were also screened during the week at the Dag Hammarskjöld Auditorium, namely: "Native Sons", "Palestinians Do Have Rights", "The Palestinians of 1983", "Gaza Ghetto", "Under the Israeli Thumb", and "The Key".

The commemoration was also observed at the United Nations offices at Geneva and Vienna, as well as in several other cities.

II. TEXTS OF STATEMENTS MADE AND MESSAGES RECEIVED ON THE OCCASION OF THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE, 1986

A. Opening statements

I declare open the solemn meeting of the Committee in observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, convened in accordance with the provisions of General Assembly resolution 32/40 B of 2 December 1977.

It is an honour and a pleasure for me to welcome His Excellency Mr. Pérez de Cuéllar, Secretary-General of the United Nations, His Excellency Mr. Humayun Rasheed Choudhury, President of the General Assembly at its forty-first session and His Excellency Mr. Vernon Walters, President of the Security Council for the month of December.  I welcome also the chairmen of the various United Nations committees and regional groups and the representatives of Member States, intergovernmental organizations and liberation movements, along with representatives of non-governmental organizations, members of the press and all others who are here today.

I will now request everyone to rise and observe a minute of silence in memory of all those who have given their lives in the service of the cause of the Palestinian people.

The presence of so many distinguished guests at this observance is of great encouragement to our Committee in its efforts to promote a peaceful solution to the question of Palestine.  It demonstrates that the international community remains gravely concerned about the continuing tragedy of the Palestinian people and will continue to seek ways to put an end to this situation despite the apparently insurmountable obstacles.  This solemn meeting provides an opportunity for us to rededicate ourselves to the search for a comprehensive, just and lasting solution as well as to reach out to Governments, groups and individuals everywhere to enlist their support in this difficult undertaking.

In the general debate at this forty-first session of the General Assembly, no less than 120 heads of delegation have referred to the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East, the core of which is the question of Palestine, as one of the most dangerous unresolved problems of today.  They have unanimously urged renewed efforts by all concerned in order to proceed towards a negotiated solution acceptable to all the parties to the conflict.

In 1987, it will be 40 years since the adoption by the General Assembly of resolution 181 (II) calling for the partition of Palestine; 20 years since the occupation by Israeli forces of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem and five years since the massacre at Sabra and Shatila.  These are but the most significant milestones in the history of dispossession, exile and suffering of an entire people, a history which has not lost in poignancy or gained in acceptability from having been repeated so often, or having lacked a solution for so long.

The fact that United Nations resolutions on the question have remained unimplemented to this day does not mean that the problem somehow is no longer there, or that the resolutions themselves have lost their relevance.  On the contrary, we should not forget that the Palestinians in the diaspora, in the territories under military occupation, in the refugee camps, continue to look to the United Nations for the attainment of their inalienable rights as defined by the General Assembly and endorsed by the overwhelming majority of Member States, namely, the right to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty, and the right to return.  The United Nations has a clear responsibility to bring about a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the question of Palestine which would result in the exercise of those rights.  At stake are not only the future of an entire people, but also peace and security in the region and the credibility of our Organization itself.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, which my country is honoured to have chaired since its establishment in 1976, has prepared a programme for the implementation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, which has been endorsed by the Assembly each year since then.  As is well-known, the opposition of a permanent member has prevented the Security Council from adopting those recommendations.

Since 1983, the Assembly has laid down the guiding principles, accepted by the vast majority of Member States, for a peaceful settlement through the convening of the International Peace Conference on the Middle East.  The Committee's position is that this Conference would be an objective and concrete measure likely to promote the achievement of United Nations objectives. Such a Conference would provide a legal and political framework acceptable to the vast majority of the international community to enable negotiations to proceed on the basis of respect for international principles and with the participation of all the parties on an equal footing.

Unfortunately, as everyone knows, it has not yet been possible to reach an agreement with regard to the convening of the Peace Conference. The Committee, and the General Assembly, have repeatedly urged those States which have rejected the idea to reconsider their position and to work more constructively for the convening of the Conference and for the achievement of its peaceful objectives.  On behalf of the Committee, I would like once again to reiterate our earnest appeal to the Security Council to take action on the Committee's recommendations as well as on the proposal for the convening of the Peace Conference.

In this regard, the Committee has noted with appreciation that the Secretary-General intends to pursue his efforts for the convening of the Conference.  I would like to seize this opportunity to congratulate once again, the Secretary-General on his tireless search for ways to bring about a peaceful settlement of this question.  We firmly hope that this continuing quest will bear fruit before it is too late.

The Committee would like to emphasize that the question of Palestine has reached a critical stage.  The growing tension and violence in the region, which on occasion have spilled well beyond its geographical boundaries; the deterioration of the situation in the occupied territories; the continuing hardships and insecurity in the Palestinian refugee camps; and all the events of the past year, should persuade everyone, if it was still necessary, that it is now more urgent than ever for all concerned to increase their efforts and muster the political will to finally implement the rights of the Palestinian people and thereby restore peace, security and stability to the Middle East.

For its part, the Committee remains determined to make all possible efforts to promote better knowledge and understanding of the just cause of the Palestinian people and of the United Nations recommendations for its solution, and to mobilize at all levels the international support essential to implementation of the relevant resolutions of the United Nations.

Message from H.E. Mr. Vernon Walters,

President of the Security Council

Let me first thank the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People for the invitation extended to the current President of the Security Council to participate in this special meeting held to commemorate the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

This annual occasion serves to mark the importance the international community attaches to a just solution of the Palestinian problem. We fully recognize that such a solution would prove to be a decisive element in the achievement of a negotiated, just and lasting settlement of the Middle East question.

We are well aware that the situation in the Middle East and the stability of the region have grave implications for the peace and security of the entire world. Despite the seriousness of this challenge, and despite the great and continuing efforts that have been made to find a just and lasting solution to the problem, the situation in the Middle East continues to be one of the most intractable issues facing the international community.

The Security Council has been closely associated with these efforts. It has been called upon many times to direct its urgent attention to the repeated crises engendered by the conflict, and to their consequences. In doing so, the Council has been always aware of the importance of the Palestinian dimension of the problem, and of its relevance in the search for a just and lasting solution.

Guided by its responsibilities under the Charter of the United Nations, the Security Council will continue its efforts to seek a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, including the Palestinian People.

Before concluding, I should like to express the appreciation of the members of the Security Council for the work carried out by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, under the strict guidance of H.E. Mr. Massamba Sarré, Ambassador of Senegal.

Statement by H.E. Mr. Humayun Rasheed Choudhury,

President of the forty-first session

of the General Assembly

It is indeed an honour and a privilege for me as President of the forty-first session of the General Assembly to participate in this solemn observance organized by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. The decision of the General Assembly to commemorate each year the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is yet another manifestation of the support of the world community to its just cause. It is an occasion to reaffirm our solidarity with it in its struggle for self-determination and justice. I do hope that observance of this day will help further to focus the attention of world public opinion on the continuing suffering and hardship faced by the Palestinian people under occupation and in refugee camps, and on the urgent need to promote a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the question.

The problem of the Middle East and Palestine is one of the oldest and perhaps most important questions before the United Nations. Regrettably, despite a number of significant efforts towards promotion of a genuine peace process, this goal still eludes us. Meanwhile, the situation in the area continues to deteriorate. The General Assembly has already determined that the question of Palestine is at the root of the conflict, and no lasting peace in the region is possible until the Palestinian people can realize their inalienable rights. The Assembly has also spelt out the main elements of such a solution. These include the right of all States to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries; the right of the people of Palestine to self-determination and to an independent State of its owns the right of the PLO, the sole and authentic representative of the Palestinian people, to participate on an equal footing with other parties in all efforts, deliberations and conferences on the Middle East; and the withdrawal of Israel from all territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem.

You will recall that in my inaugural address at this forty-first session, I had stated that the vision of the founding fathers of this Organization, as enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, enjoins this Assembly the responsibility of taking a bold and decisive step here and now to find a just and lasting solution to the problem of the Middle East and Palestine. In its continuing efforts to promote this goal, the General Assembly has, during the past three years, adopted a number of resolutions calling for the convening of an international peace conference on the Middle East, under the auspices of the United Nations, with the participation of all parties concerned.  Yet, as we all know, the proposal remains unimplemented as it has not obtained a consensus in the Security Council. On this Day of Solidarity, we need to remind ourselves that the Palestinian people, after all these years, still look to the United Nations for help and support in realizing its inalienable rights. it is imperative, therefore, that we exert all necessary efforts to find a way to move towards negotiations that will lead to a comprehensive, just and lasting solution of the question.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, I would like to pay a well-deserved tribute to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, which, under your able and dedicated leadership, has worked tirelessly to develop guidelines and recommendations for the achievement of our common objectives. The Committee has spared no effort in publicizing the just cause of the Palestinian people and to mobilize public opinion.  Its work in this regard no doubt symbolizes the deep concern of the international community about the continuing conflict in the area and its determination to fulfil its moral responsibility towards the people of Palestine, whose tragedy has lasted far too long. I wish you and the Committee every success in this noble undertaking.

Statement by H.E. Mr. Javier Pérez de Cuéllar,

Secretary-General of the United Nations

We are gathered here today once again to observe the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, in accordance with the wishes of the General Assembly.  This solemn meeting symbolizes the importance which the United Nations attaches to the question of Palestine, and provides an opportunity for the international community to rededicate itself to the search for a just and lasting settlement, based on the full recognition of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.

Events in the region during the past year have the necessity of reaching a solution to this complex problem more urgent than ever.  Unfortunately, despite efforts from many sides, there continues to be an alarming absence of a generally acceptable and active negotiating process.  The present stalemate is of grave concern to us, as it not only prolongs the plight of the Palestinian people, but also encourages resort to extremism and threatens a wider conflagration.  I believe that peace efforts would be enhanced if there were a lessening of the all-too frequent violent incidents which result in the loss of innocent lives.

Given the dangers inherent in the present situation, I believe that a way must be found to initiate a negotiating process as soon as possible. The United Nations has a crucial role to play in this endeavour.  Its machinery, suitably adapted as necessary, can provide a useful framework for this purpose.  From the contacts I have had during the past year, it appears that there is still no consensus on the convening of an international peace conference in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the General Assembly.  However, the idea of an international peace conference appears to be gaining wider support, and a number of procedural proposals have been made in bilateral contacts. I am encouraged that these proposals envisage a central role for the Security Council.  As you know, I have suggested on several occasions that the machinery of the Council could be used to further the search for a peaceful settlement in the Middle East, especially since the Council has a universally recognized responsibility for this important problem with all its implications as a threat to international peace and security.

I continue to believe that peace in the Middle East can best be achieved through a comprehensive settlement that would cover all aspects of the conflict, and involve all the parties concerned, including the Palestine Liberation Organization.  There is now a wide measure of agreement that such a comprehensive settlement should include the following elements: withdrawal of Israeli forces from Arab territories occupied since June 1967; acknowledgement of and respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of all the States in the region and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries; and a satisfactory solution of the Palestinian problem, based on the recognition of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, including self-determination.  In this regard, the question of Jerusalem remains of primary importance.

Thirty-nine years after the Palestine question was first brought to the United Nations, and as a result of recurrent conflict and the lack of a political solution, most Palestinians now live under occupation or in exile. Many of them exist under conditions of extreme tension, hardship and insecurity.  I have been increasingly concerned at the alarming situation in and around the refugee camps in Lebanon where many innocent civilians have been killed, including women and children.  This should not happen. So long as the fundamental problem remains unresolved, it is the duty of all concerned to do everything possible to protect civilian lives and alleviate the extensive human suffering involved.

The vital work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which continues to provide education, medical care and relief services to the Palestine refugees, has gone ahead despite extremely difficult conditions.  It deserves, and needs, the financial support of all States.  Agencies, organs and programmes of the United Nations system, in accordance with their respective mandates, are also continuing to provide economic and social assistance to the Palestinian people, in co-operation with the PLO and the Arab host countries.

The Middle East has not seen peace for several decades. In this year, which was designated the International Year of Peace, let us reaffirm our commitment to leave no stone unturned in the continuing quest for a just and lasting settlement to this important problem.

Mr. Chairman, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, under your able and dedicated leadership, has continued to work untiringly to achieve such a goal.  I take this opportunity to extend to you and your Committee my best wishes for the success of your important endeavour.

Message from Mr. Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the

Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization

On the occasion of the observance of the annual commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I would like to express to you, in the name of our Palestinian Arab people, my brother members of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and in my own name, our profound thanks and high appreciation for inviting me to attend this ceremony. I would like also to express our profound thanks and high appreciation for the unswerving and principled positions of support and solidarity that your esteemed Committee has adopted, on the basis of international legality, on the side of the just struggle of our people, to enable it to exercise its inalienable national rights, including its right to return, to self-determination and to the establishment of its independent State.

Our Palestinian Arab people, like all other freedom-, justice- and peace-loving peoples, look upon this occasion as part of the efforts of the international community to recognize their national and firm rights, to strengthen international legality and its resolution and to redress the wrong done to our people, who is still suffering, ever since the establishment of Israel following the Partition resolution adopted by the General Assembly in 1947.

This meeting has been convened at a time when the sequence of United States-Israeli conspiracies against our Palestinian Arab people and against our Arab nation are being escalated.  This situation increased tension and explosiveness in the Middle East, the Mediterranean region and the whole world.

In occupied Palestine, Israel pursues arbitrary policies and measures which are denounced and condemned by the international community.  On the international level, Israel has been condemned for its violation of international law and United Nations resolutions, and for pursuing the policy of organized State terrorism against the Palestinian people, the Lebanese people and the Arab nation.  You are well aware of the various forms of Israel's arbitrary practices against our people, its rights, its struggle and its national aspirations. These have been documented in many reports and resolutions of the United Nations and its affiliated bodies.  These arbitrary practices include detention, torture, murder and assassinations, collective punishment, expulsion, demolition of houses, expropriation of land and water resources over which Israeli settlements are established, obstruction of the functioning of the institutes of higher learning and universities or their closing down, the arming of Zionist settlers to cause havoc and terror in the land against our people in order to displace and expel them from their homeland.  In addition, these measures include the judaization of the land, the falsification of history and textbooks, and the desecration of Christian and Islamic Holy places, even their destruction. On the international level, this policy has been known as the iron-fist policy, which is executed by the Government of the Israeli war generals, composed of the Alignment and the Likud factions, since for our Palestinian people and our Arab nation there is no difference between the Alignment, under the leadership of Peres, and the Likud, under the leadership of Shamir.  The first party executes the same policies with an iron fist in a velvet glove while the second faction does not need this fig-leaf which is needed by a man like Peres and his Alignment.  Shamir, his generals and assistants have decided that their prime and urgent aim, which they are working at realizing, is the liquidation of the Palestinian people, its cause and institutions, militarily if possible and politically, economically and diplomatically if the military solution proved inaccessible.

Despite the arrogance of power that Israel possesses and despite the unlimited supply of modern war-machinery that is given to it without pre-conditions by the United States Administration, Israel has failed to liquidate our Palestinian Arab people, its armed revolution or the Palestine Liberation Organization, its sole legitimate representative.  This generation of our Palestinian people waged the longest war of resistance against foreign occupation in contemporary history, whether this be inside or outside the occupied territories.  Our people's revolutionary forces waged the longest heroic war of resistance against these forces and resolutely confronted them for 88 days in Lebanon and in besieged Beirut, during the summer of 1982.  Thereafter, our revolutionary forces waged, with our allies, the Lebanese national forces, and with all freedom-loving and honourable people in our Arab nation and in the whole world, the longest and most successful war of attrition against the Israeli occupation forces, which has obliged Israel to withdraw its forces from most of the Lebanese territories. The heroic resistance continued and Israel was obliged to replace its agents by its generals in South Lebanon, in a desperate attempt to stop the escalation of the armed resistance against its occupation and expansionist ambitions of colonialist settlements starting with South Lebanon.

At a time when our people is resisting, side by side with the brotherly people of Lebanon, the Israeli occupation, additional battle-fronts were opened against us with the aim of distracting us from defeating the Israeli occupation and from realizing the inalienable national rights of our people.  These two battles might appear unconnected and related.  In reality, however, they are interconnected since they are two battles in the same war maliciously directed against our peaceful Palestinian people by the United States Administration, which has supplied the training, arming, financing and political protection.

The first battle was waged against the existence of our people in Lebanon with the aim of expelling them from Lebanon and of causing a demographic change on the territory of Lebanon in the service of the original imperialist scheme, namely, the balkanization of Lebanon, i.e., partitioning Lebanon into warring confessional cantons so that the imperialist-Israeli hegemony remains over our area in order to pillage its wealth, to decide its destiny and to control its affairs. Is it not tragic that our Palestinian people in the refugee camps in Lebanon, in Sabra, Shatila, Burj al-Barajneh in Beirut; Miyyeh-Miyyeh, Ein al-Hilweh in Sidon, and Jul al-Bahr in Tyre; Nahr al-Bared and Badawi in Tripoli in north Lebanon; and al-Jaleel and Mar Ilias in the Beqaa' valley are being exposed to repeated annual massacres, which at times have been perpetrated quarterly or monthly and even daily?  Is it not tragic that some of these refugee camps have been subjected to four consecutive massacres, the place of the crime being the same and the victim the same even if the identity of the murderers has changed?  Is it not the right of our people to live in peace, like all other peoples, in its own homeland, and to be able to participate effectively in the civilization march of humanity?

In the name of our Palestinian Arab people, I demand the protection of our people's refugee camps in Lebanon by the United Nations through its forces. Should this not be available, I hope that the Palestine Liberation Organization would be enabled to provide self-protection to our people's refugee camps in Lebanon as a legitimate right of self-defence as long as the central Government of Lebanon is unable to protect these refugee camps because of the difficulties that confront our Lebanese brothers on more than one level and because of the sufferings to which the Lebanese people, alongside their brotherly Palestinian people, are being exposed. Based upon this, I would like to underline that the Palestine Liberation Organization stands on the side of the fraternal Lebanese people, and supports the unity of Lebanon, the unity of its people as well as its territorial integrity and institutional unity.  The Palestine Liberation Organization demands that Lebanon be enabled to formulate its style of living by itself without outside interference, including the rapid withdrawal of the invading Israeli forces from its territory.  We strongly support the role of the United Nations in maintaining peace in the area and support the presence of its forces for the maintenance of peace.  As we have done in the past, we will provide all forms of possible support for the United Nations forces, to enable them to execute the mission to which they have been entrusted by the Security Council and the General Assembly.

The second battle is waged against our people on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip of our occupied territory.  The Israeli aim, with direct and clear-cut support from the United States Administration and from some Western countries, is the continuation of the Israeli occupation of our Palestinian Arab land.  The aim is also to attempt to strike at the Palestine Liberation Organization by imagining that an alternative leadership can be found for the Palestinian people, who will accept to collaborate with the occupation forces and will accept the fait accompli created by the occupation.  Israel has recently announced that it will apply, with one of the States in the region, the policy of functional division by which Israel will take over the responsibilities of defence, settlement and security and the other State will take over the other known municipal functions. The United States Administration has participated in this scheme and declared its support in a practical manner, announcing that it is concerned with the improvement of the living conditions of the inhabitants of the occupied territories.  Further, it appropriated part of its financial aid for this purpose in an attempt to establish new Bantustans in our occupied territories.  Furthermore, the United States Administration attempted to exert pressure on the Jordanian Government to accept this scheme and to go along with it.  We were surprised by the attempts to impose this policy through various means and under different nomenclatures the aim of which is to consolidate the occupation.  In addition, this scheme is being carried out outside the joint Arab action and the safeguards established in the Arab plans of support adopted by the Arab summit conferences to strengthen the steadfastness of our people vis-à-vis the occupation which, according to the resolutions adopted by these conferences, are supposed to be carried out through the Jordanian-Palestinian co-ordination as represented by the works of the Joint Jordanian-Palestinian Committee established by a resolution adopted at the Arab Summit Conference held at Baghdad in 1978. The dimensions of this dangerous United States-Israeli policy have become clear, a policy which attempts to push certain Arab parties into going along with it.  Therefore, our people has absolutely rejected this' policy.  Our people cannot be sold or bought by a handful of dollars. Our people is able to defeat these designs which only aim at the normalization of collaboration with Israel, within the framework of a dangerous scheme whose objective is jeopardizing our people, this cause and land, as well as liquidating its existence and its independent national decision-making effort aimed at helping our people to face the burdens of occupation and to strengthen its steadfastness in all fields of development, whether through international or Arab institutions, and to put an end to the Zionist occupation of our territory and homeland.  In this regard, we commend the role of the United Nations and the other regional organizations that have pursued their co-operation, co-ordination and support for our people.  We further commend the co-operation that has taken place in this regard with the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of our people.

The situation in the Middle East region would not have been so explosive, or tensions would not have escalated on such a scale had it not been for the unjust and aggressive United States policies against our people and the unlimited support of the United States to Israel. Until now the United States Administration has refused to accept United Nations resolutions that call for the recognition of the right of our people to self-determination and to establish its independent State. This right has been documented by international law, resolutions and conventions.  The United States rejection of this law is a flagrant violation of all human principles and ideals, and of democracy.  It is a well-known fact that the right of self-determination is a sacred right.  In addition, it is one of the basis on which the American nation has been established, which it is trying today to disavow and refuse to recognize for our people.  The situation is further complicated by the attempts of the United States Administration to distort our people's struggle and resistance and the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of our people, under the pretext of fighting terrorism.  The policy pursued by the United States Administration, by which it provides the occupation with all kinds of military, financial, economic and political support, has obstructed the peace process in the Middle East for four decades and, consequently, has obstructed the process of construction and development in the area.

The policy of tension pursued by the United States Administration in the Middle East has become the main feature of the policy of the present American Administration and reflects its international policy in a very precise manner.  This policy includes: the obstruction of international détente, the escalation of conventional and nuclear arms-race, the militarization of space, putting the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) on the daily agenda of the arms-race, the American military gangsterism on the high seas and the international water, the occupation of the island of Grenada, the arming of the counter-revolutionary forces in Nicaragua, the provocations against Cuba, the co-operation in bombing the Palestine Liberation Organization's headquarters in Tunis, the bombing of fraternal Libya, which has escalated to the brink of war and explosiveness in the Mediterranean area.

In addition to this policy opposed to our people, to the people of our Arab nation and to the peoples of the whole world, the United States Administration has pursued a policy of total support to Israel which has led President Reagan to boast that his Administration has granted Israel an aid which far exceeds all what previous United States Administrations have done.  In addition to the unlimited political, diplomatic, military, economic and financial support it provides to Israel, the United States Administration has provided it with modern technological assistance to enable it to continue developing its nuclear weaponry.  Furthermore, the United States Administration not only overlooks but also helps Israel's disregard for the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency.  Also, the United States Administration has signed with Israel the Agreement for Strategic Understanding by which Israel has been officially made a party to the American military designs on the Middle East and the Mediterranean region.  The United States Administration also signed with Israel the Agreement on the Free-Trade Zone by which Israel becomes a centre and a conduit for American products not only for the region but also for Africa and Asia, a matter which threatens the existing network of economic relations and co-operation in these areas. The United States Administration has joined Israel to the SDI, a matter which has thrown the area directly into the nuclear arms-race which will have dangerous repercussions on the whole area.  There is further the close security co-operation among the United States Administration, Israel and South Africa, which are presently waging a vicious new campaign against the peoples of the area and the peoples of the African continent, against their aspiration to liberation, independence and sovereignty, through pursuing the policies of terrorism and racial discrimination and firmly controlling their economies, putting them under the yoke of the policies of the World Bank, the debts and their exorbitant interest rates.

Our Palestinian Arab people, under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and despite all its sufferings, will continue to believe in a real and just peace. It will continue to work so that peace should set-in in Palestine, the land of peace, in the Middle East and in the world.

On the basis of these principles, our Palestine National Council adopted resolutions to work with all democratic and progressive forces inside and outside our occupied homeland and started a dialogue with them to establish a just peace.  Hence the meeting that took place a few weeks ago in Bucharest with some of these forces.  Allow me to salute the courage of all those who attended despite the laws of racial discrimination passed by the Israel Knesset, because this meeting has strengthened peace in the face of the elements of war and hatred, not only in the region but also in the whole world.  This meeting is a continuation of the same policy pursued by our people in application of the resolutions of our consecutive National Council meetings.  It is also a challenge to the war generals in the Israeli Government which insists on preventing the realization of peace in the land of peace.

Just peace in the Middle East cannot be realized unless Israel withdraws from all the occupied Palestinian and other Arab territories, including the Holy City of Jerusalem, Al-Quds Al-Sharif, and unless our Palestinian people regain its inalienable national rights, including its right to return, to self-determination and to establish its independent State.  We believe that this aim can be realized by convening an international conference within the framework of the United Nations, with the participation of the States permanent members of the Security Council and of all the concerned parties to the Middle East conflict, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, with equal rights, in accordance with the United Nations resolutions related to the Palestine question.  We appreciate the initiative announced by Mikhail Gorbachev, the Secretary-General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and President Mitterand to form a preparatory committee for the convening of this conference.  We see in this measure a positive and practical step on the road to calling the international conference to be convened.

The Middle East region suffers from another severe problem which has exhausted the peoples of the area and drained its human and material resources.  I mean the Iraq-Iran war which, a couple of weeks ago, has entered its seventh year.  On this occasion of solidarity with the just struggle of our Palestinian people, I renew my call to Iraq and to Iran immediately to put an end to this destructive war.  I reiterate my appeal to the leaders of Iran to accept the peaceful initiatives put forward by the United Nations and its Secretary-General, the last of which was the Security Council resolution which was accepted by Iraq, as well as the initiatives put forward by the Non-Aligned Movement and the Organization of the Islamic Conference to put an end to this war so as to direct all energies towards the process of construction and development.

While you are meeting today, in solidarity with our people, I would like to reaffirm in front of you the firm and clear-cut support of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its solidarity with the struggle of the friendly African peoples for economic progress, the improvement of their living conditions and the overcoming of the difficulties they are confronting.  Similarly, we reaffirm our solidarity with the struggle of the peoples of South Africa and Namibia against the racist apartheid régime of Pretoria, the ally of the racist Zionist régime in Tel Aviv. We are absolutely confident that their struggle will be crowned with victory through which the heroic people of Namibia, under the leadership of their authentic and sole representative, the South West Africa People's Organization, will realize their independence and sovereignty, and the heroic people of South Africa will attain their liberty and freedom from the despised apartheid régime.

Our Palestinian people stands on the side of the African front-line States in the defence of their freedom, sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of the repeated aggressions by the racist South African régime.  On this occasion, we express our solidarity with the friendly people of Mozambique and declare our condemnation of the South African régime and hold it responsible for the abominable crimes of air-piracy which caused the death of our friend, the martyr Samora Machel, who was one of the most distinguished African militants and leaders.  We are confident that the people of Mozambique, under the leadership of President Joachim Chissano, will overcome all difficulties and will continue the march of construction and progress side by side with their brothers and friends, the friendly African peoples.

I reiterate our profound our profound thanks and appreciation for your solidarity with the just struggle of our people.  I express to you, Mr. Chairman, and to your Committee our warm wishes of success in accomplishing your duties in order to realize the noble aims for which the United Nations was established.

B. Messages from Heads of State or Government

AFGHANISTAN

H.E. Mr. Haji Mohammad Tsamkanai, Acting President of the Presidium

of the Revolutionary Council of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan

On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I am pleased to reaffirm the unswerving solidarity and support of the people and Government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan for the just struggle of the Palestinian people, under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (the PLO), for the restoration of its legitimate national rights, including its right to self-determination and to establish a State of its own in its homeland of Palestine.

The just cause of the Palestinian people enjoys ever increasing solidarity and support from the progressive people of the world standing at the forefront of the common struggle for independence against imperialism, and zionism.

The people of Afghanistan have been firmly supporting the Palestinians, who are heroically and determinedly fighting to oppose the domination and repression of the aggressive occupying forces of the Israeli Zionist régime and its master, the United States, and to restore their legitimate and inalienable right to self-determination.

We are firmly convinced that the Palestinian people, its untiring endeavours toward the unity of all Palestinian revolutionary forces around the PLO while maintaining its close relations with other Arab peoples and progressive nations, and its determined and resolute struggle, will certainly lead to final victory.

The Government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan is of the opinion that the convocation of an international peace conference on the Middle East with the participation of all interested sides, including the PLO, called for by the General Assembly in its resolution 40/96 of 12 December 1985 and unreservedly endorsed by the Eighth Summit of Non-Aligned Countries held in Harare, would greatly pave the way toward finding a durable solution to the tragic problem of the Middle East.

We condemn the negative attitude of the Israeli Zionist régime and the United States Administration toward the demand of the overwhelming majority of States, and their lack of willingness to reconsider their position on the conference in a realistic manner.

While we condemn the inhuman and expansionist policies of the Israeli Zionist régime against the Palestinian and other Arab nations and the overt and covert support of the United States Administration rendered to it, we would like once again to reiterate our resolute support to and firm solidarity with the Palestinian people in its just struggle.

We are fully convinced that the Palestinian people will be finally victorious.

ALGERIA

H.E. Mr. Chadli Bendjedid, President of the

People's Democratic Republic of Algeria

On this solemn occasion, when the international community is observing the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, I would like, on behalf of the people and Government of Algeria, to congratulate the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People for its unremitting efforts to secure the restoration to the Palestinian people of its legitimate national rights.

The observance of this Day coincides with an alarming deterioration in the situation in the Middle East, where the Palestinian people is facing new challenges in its struggle to regain its freedom.

Stripped of its rights, dispossessed of its property and driven from its country, the Palestinian people is now the object of increasingly brutal repression on the part of the Zionist occupation forces, whose purpose is to break its resistance and force it into exile so as to enable Zionist settlers to establish themselves on its lands and thereby complete the process of annexation of the occupied territories that began in December 1981 with the annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights.

This policy of terror against the Palestinian civilian population is accompanied by the Zionist régime's pursuit of its expansionist and aggressive objectives against the Arab States, as testified to by the repeated attacks on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our sister country, Lebanon, and the savage bombing of Tunisian and Palestinian civilian populations in October 1985.

The persistent denial of the national rights of the Palestinian people, the occupation of its land and of the Golan Heights, the Zionist régime's systematic threat or use of force against the Arab populations and the expansion of Zionist aggression to other geographical areas are all challenges to the international community that seriously endanger international peace and security.

The United Nations must therefore face up to its responsibilities and take the positive measures that the seriousness of the situation demands by putting an end to the criminal actions of the Zionist régime, requiring it to withdraw from the Arab territories occupied by it and enabling the Palestinian people to exercise fully its legitimate national rights, including its right to self-determination, its right of return and its right to establish its own independent and sovereign State in Palestine.

The International Peace Conference on the Middle East, the principle of which enjoys the overwhelming support of the United Nations General Assembly is, in that connection, the only valid framework for securing a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

Algeria, which supports the just struggle of peoples for their freedom and independence, will remain steadfast in providing firm and unflinching support for the Palestinian people in its heroic struggle to regain its freedom, under the auspices of its sole legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization.

BAHRAIN

His Highness Sheikh Isa Bin Sulman Al Khalifa,

Emir of the State of Bahrain

For decades the Arab Palestinian people has endured all kinds of suffering, oppression and maltreatment, on a scale unparalleled in history. Every year the General Assembly of the United Nations discusses the question of the Palestinian people, focuses attention on the abysmal and dangerous situation in which the Palestinians are living as refugees in their own land and adopts resolutions and recommendations condemning Israel and demanding that it cease its abuses and grant the Palestinian people its legitimate rights.

The solution to the question of Palestine, which is the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict, lies in full and complete respect for the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian Arab people and for its sole legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, in accordance with the resolutions of the United Nations and other international organizations.

Israel's inhuman practices, which are incompatible with the most basic principles of human rights and the Charter of the United Nations, manifest themselves in Israel's continuing pursuit of the policy of racial discrimination and its subjection of the Palestinian Arabs to treatment incompatible with human dignity.  At the same time, Israel follows a policy of Judaizing the land, increasing the number of Zionist settlements in the occupied Arab territories, forcibly expelling the Palestinians from their homeland and preventing them from returning, not to mention its desecration of Muslim and Christian houses of worship in Jerusalem and elsewhere.  In spite of that, we note with deep regret that there are those who turn a blind eye to this repugnant racist policy.

Israel must realize that its security, derived as it is from military force, cannot be maintained forever, that the policy of repression, terrorism and expulsion which it practices against the Palestinian Arab people will ultimately come to an end and that its continuing drive to confiscate Palestinian land and establish Zionist settlements on it will be weakened and defeated through the perseverance of the Palestinians, their steadfast resistance and their belief in the justice of their causer The just struggle against oppression will continue, and truth will triumph, since that is the logic of life and the lesson of history.

In conclusion, I wish you and the members of the Committee every success in your humanitarian mission.

BANGLADESH

H.E. Lieutenant-General Hussain Muhammad Ershad,

President of the People's Republic of Bangladesh

Today, as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is being observed all over the world under the auspices of the United Nations, the Government and the people of Bangladesh once again join with the international community in reiterating full and unswerving support to our Palestinian brethren in their just struggle for independence and the realization of their inalienable national rights to establish a State of their own in their homeland, under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization, their sole and legitimate representative, with Jerusalem as their capital.

The question of Palestine remains the crux of the problem in West Asia.  The people of Palestine continues to languish in diaspora.  Israel's arrogant defiance of the will of the international community, the consolidation of its strength hold over the occupied territories and its measures to distort and erase the identity and cultural heritage of the Palestinian people, all constitute an affront to the conscience of humanity with perilous consequences for world peace and security.

On this International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I take the opportunity to pledge once again our total solidarity with our Palestinian brethren and reiterate our wholehearted support for an early implementation of the 1982 Arab peace plan which, inter alia, calls for Israel's withdrawal from all occupied Arab territories, including Al-Quds Al-Sharif, and the restoration of the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to establish its own independent State in Palestine.  We reaffirm that an international conference on the Middle East, under the auspices of the United Nations and attended by all parties including the PLO, the sole legitimate and authentic representative of the Palestine people, remains the only credible and feasible framework to solve the conflict in West Asia and to achieve a meaningful, comprehensive and permanent peace in the region.

CHINA

H.E. Mr. Zhao Ziyang, Premier of the State Council

of the People's Republic of China

On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I wish to express, on behalf of the Chinese Government and people, our firm support and high respects to the Palestinian people in its arduous struggle for the restoration of its legitimate national rights, and our appreciation to the United Nations for its efforts in supporting the just struggle of the Palestinian people and promoting a just and reasonable settlement of the Palestinian question at an early date.

The Palestinian and other Arab peoples have waged protracted struggles to gain their legitimate national rights and recover their lost territories.  In recent years, the Palestine Liberation organization and various Arab countries and the international community at large have made tremendous efforts to seek a peaceful settlement of the Palestinian question.  The Israeli authorities, in defiance of the voice of the international community and a series of United Nations resolutions, have obstinately clung to their policy of aggression and expansion, and refused to recognize the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people. As a result, the Palestinian question has to this day remained unsolved and the Middle East is still subjected to prolonged tension and turbulence, thus bringing about untold sufferings to the people of the various countries in the region and posing a grave threat to world peace.

The Chinese Government and people deeply sympathize with and firmly support the Palestinian and other Arab peoples in their just struggles and are strongly opposed to Israel's intransigent position of aggression and expansion.  I wish to take this opportunity to reiterate that Israel must withdraw from all the Arab territories it has occupied since 1967, the Palestinian people must regain its legitimate national rights and countries in the Middle East should all enjoy the equal right to existence.

China supports the convocation of an international conference on the Middle East question under the auspices of the United Nations so as to seek a just and peaceful settlement of the Palestinian question. We are ready to join the parties concerned and the international community in making continued efforts to promote an early and reasonable settlement of the Palestinian question.  We are convinced that the Palestinian people, under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization and with the support of Arab countries, will ultimately attain its lofty goal of regaining its national rights by strengthening its unity and persisting in its struggle.

CYPRUS

H.E. Mr. Spyros Kyprianou, President of the Republic of Cyprus

On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I wish to reiterate, on behalf of the Government and the people of Cyprus, our firm support to the liberation struggle of the Palestinian people and our unswerving commitment for a just solution of the Palestinian question.

A solution to this long-standing question, which should be based on the relevant resolutions of the United Nations, will undoubtedly serve peace in the sensitive and volatile Middle East region. The struggle of the Palestinian people, under the leadership of its sole and legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, is a struggle for freedom, justice and human rights and dignity.  Like all other peoples in the world, the Palestinian people is entitled to enjoy these rights in an independent and sovereign State of its own.

DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA

H.E. Mr. Kim Il Sung, President of the

Democratic People's Republic of Korea

On behalf of the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Korean people and on my own behalf, I extend warm militant greetings to you and through you to the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Palestinian resistance fighters and people on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

The Palestinian people, under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization, has waged a hard and prolonged struggle resolutely to oppose the imperialists' and Zionists' aggression and suppression and to achieve its legitimate national rights, including the rights to regain its country and return home, the right to self-determination and the right of founding an independent State.

The Palestinian people's just cause enjoys the active support and solidarity of the world progressive people.

The Korean people always stands firm by the Palestinian people against the imperialists and Zionists and will send full support and firm solidarity to its struggle in the future, too.

Believing that the militant friendship and solidarity between the Korean people and the Palestinian people will further strengthen and develop, I take this opportunity to sincerely wish you and the Palestinian people greater successes in the struggle for the final victory of the Palestinian revolution.

DEMOCRATIC YEMEN

H.E. Mr. Haydar Abu Bakr Al-Attas, Chairman of the

Presidium of the Supreme People's Council of

the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen

It is a pleasure, on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, to send you greetings and to praise the efforts exerted by the United Nations for the promotion of international peace and security and the upholding of calls by peoples for liberation and justice throughout the world.

The question of Palestine has been and continues to be one of the most important issues always to be included on the agenda of the United Nations.  For some 38 years the Arab people of Palestine have been subjected to the most cruel forms of oppression and tyranny, murder, expulsion, injustice, destruction of their houses and looting of their property, as well as to various forms of torture, deprivation of the most fundamental legitimate national rights and the intimidation and deportation of nationalist elements in the occupied territories.  All these developments have been accompanied by an escalation of the Zionist entity's continuing aggressive expansionist policy through wars launched against Arab countries.  The Zionist entity has also continued its practice of attempting to efface the traditional and contemporary Palestinian features of the Arab people of Palestine through the establishment of settlements and the expropriation of Arab land by force, thus continuing to inflict grief and distress on the Palestinian people.  The brutal practices, terrible destruction and acts of oppression and cruelty to which the Palestinian people are subjected by the Zionist occupation forces all occur with substantial support from the American Administration, whose aim it is to impose and entrench hegemony in the region, without regard for its security, safety and stability, thus violating all international laws and norms.  It is natural that this policy should meet with widespread and justified resistance on the part of the Palestinian people, all the peoples of the Arab countries and freedom- and peace-loving Powers.

We in Democratic Yemen express our great appreciation of the efforts exerted by you to uphold the just cause of the Palestinian people. We wish to stress a fact which has been highlighted by successive events and developments in the region and reaffirmed in United Nations resolutions: that no just and comprehensive solution can be realized without the full withdrawal of Israel from all occupied Arab territories, including Jerusalem and the exercise by the Palestinian people of all their legitimate and inalienable national rights, foremost among which are their right to return to their homeland, to exercise self-determination under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), their sole, legitimate representative, and to establish their own independent State on their national soil.

We renew our country's affirmation of support for the struggle of the Palestinian people against all imperialist and Zionist plots aimed at giving a permanent character to the occupation of Arab territories, promoting the expansionist settlement policy and intimidating our Arab peoples.

In this connection we praise the international efforts and initiatives being undertaken, both within and outside the framework of the United Nations, to achieve a just and durable peace in the Middle East. The proposals put forward by the Soviet Union are of great importance in ending the state of tension prevailing in the Middle East through the convening of an international conference attended by all parties to the conflict, including the PLO.  As has been confirmed by all the developments in the region to date, these proposals form a realistic and practical framework within which to achieve peace in the region and also contribute to the strengthening of international peace and security.

We are confident that your solidarity meeting, which is an international demonstration in support of the struggle of the Palestinian people, will affirm the unswerving and consistent support of freedom-, progress- and peace-loving nations, peoples and Powers for the struggles of the Palestinian people to exercise their full legitimate national rights and contribute to the efforts of the United Nations to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East.

EGYPT

H.E. Muhammad Hosni Mubarak,

President of the Arab Republic of Egypt

The commemoration of this day represents for us in Egypt and in our Arab region a whole set of meanings, significations and lessons drawn from the experiences of the four decades of the long conflict in the Middle East.

The first of these meanings and significations, whose import is symbolized by this day, is that this vital and ancient region of the world, which was the cradle of the revealed religions, the birthplace of civilizations and the source of cultures and waves of human inspiration over the ages, has been passing through one of the most violent historical epochs, one that has wasted immense human and material potentials.

In the territory of the Middle East, peoples and States have lived, and will live, in coexistence, interacting, intermingling and contributing to the enrichment of human and cultural experience, without origin, race or creed having the negative effect that has characterized human development in other regions of the world. On the contrary, the Middle East is proud that it has taught mankind the loftiest concepts of tolerance, love and brotherhood among men, guided by His words: 'We have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another'.  God Almighty speaks truly.

In the vanguard of these ancient peoples that played an undeniable role in shaping the civilization and history of the region over the ages is the Palestinian Arab people.

Today, when it is the right of the peoples and States of the Middle East to live in peace, security and stability within secure and recognized boundaries, as urged by our international Organization, the Palestinian people, as the oldest of the peoples of this region, is a fortiori more eligible to enjoy this undeniable right.

The time has come to intensify sincere efforts to break the vicious circle of conflict and violence that has dominated our region for 40 years and for us all, as parties directly involved in this conflict, to dedicate 1987 as a year for negotiations for a peace based on justice, with a view to securing the implementation of the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people through the responsible collective efforts of the United Nations and the leadership role of the Security Council and its permanent members, by making careful preparations for the convening of an International Peace Conference on the Middle East with the participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization on an equal footing as a principal and directly concerned party to any peaceful settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict and its crucial element, the question of Palestine.

Our firm position of principle calls for the creation of a firm and cohesive Arab position that upholds and supports the Palestinian cause and Palestinian rights.  The sound approach was, and is, in our estimation, the establishment of a firm foundation of co-operation and co-ordination between Jordan and the Palestinians in their just joint struggle, as embodied in the agreement of February 1985.

Egyptian diplomatic efforts have been, and always will be, the first to support the efforts of the international Organization and the call for implementation of its resolutions and acceptance of their legally binding nature.  In this context, Egypt salutes the outstanding efforts of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and its contribution to the broad campaign to promote the International Peace Conference on the Middle East, Egypt also registers its appreciation for the efforts made by the Secretary-General in his contacts and consultations with the parties to the conflict to create the appropriate regional and international climate that will promote the peace process in the Middle East, under the auspices of the United Nations and under the aegis of its legitimacy.  We urge adherence to that legitimacy and compliance with the will of the Organization.

An early endeavour to convene the International Peace Conference on the Middle East will not only spare the region and the world those reckless waves of violence and counter-violence or the effects of individual or collective terrorism but will open a new page of coexistence and reconciliation among the peoples of the region and their cultures.

The peace, mercy and blessings of God be upon you.

GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

H.E. Mr. Erich Honecker, General Secretary of the Central Committee

of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and Chairman of

the Council of State of the German Democratic Republic

On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the German Democratic Republic reaffirms its solidarity with the just struggle waged by the Palestinian people, under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization, for the implementation of its inalienable rights to self-determination and the establishment of an independent State of its own.

The situation in the Middle East and in the Mediterranean, which has been further aggravated by State-terrorist, aggressive attacks by Israel and others, is alarming indeed.  Again, it becomes clear that peace and stability in the Middle East require a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the question of Palestine.

Collective efforts, for which the United Nations provides the most extensive, universal frame, are needed more than ever in order to bring about Israel's immediate and unconditional withdrawal from all Arab territories occupied since 1967, to ensure the implementation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including its right to the establishment of its own independent State, as well as to guarantee all States and peoples in the Middle East the right to an independent existence and development.

The best way towards achieving this end is convening an international conference on the Middle East, under the auspices of the United Nations, with all interested parties participating, inclusive of the Palestine Liberation Organization.  An essential move in materializing such a conference, which is advocated by a growing majority of States, would be the setting up of a preparatory committee in the framework of the Security Council, as was proposed by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.  This proposal is fully supported by the German Democratic Republic.

I wish to assure you that the German Democratic Republic will also in the future stand up vigorously for the right of the peoples to be granted self-determination as being a fundamental prerequisite for the safeguarding of peace and for the strengthening of international security.

INDIA

Special Message by H.E. Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India

Statement by H.E. Mr. C. R. Gharekhan, Permanent Representative

of India to the United Nations

I should like to begin by reading out the following special message sent on this occasion by H.E. Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India.

"There will be durable peace in West Asia only if the Palestinian people can exercise its inalienable rights of self-determination and the establishment of an independent State in the Palestinian homeland.

"On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the Government and the people of India reiterate their strong and abiding commitment to the Palestinian cause and their firm support to the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of the heroic Palestinian people."

The struggle of the people of Palestine has been a saga of bravery and sacrifice.  We in India always considered its cause as our cause and its struggle as part of the wider movement against colonial rule and oppression. Sympathy and support for the Palestinian people has been a consistent part of India's foreign policy since even before its independence. Right from the time of the first Non-Aligned Summit, the question of Palestine has also been in the forefront of the deliberations and activities of the Non-Aligned Movement.

The international community should redouble its efforts to find a comprehensive solution to the problem of the Middle East and the question of Palestine.  A just and lasting solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict must include the exercise of the right of self-determination by the Palestinian people and the setting up of an independent Palestinian State in Palestine.  Israel must withdraw from all Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by it since 1967, including Jerusalem.

The International Conference on the Question of Palestine, held in Geneva in August/September 1983, has called for the holding of an international conference on the Middle East, with the participation of all parties to the Arab-Israeli conflict, including the PLO, as well as the United States, the Soviet Union, and other concerned States, on an equal footing.  The recommendations of the Geneva Conference were overwhelmingly endorsed by the General Assembly.  The Secretary-General was given the primary responsibility to create appropriate institutional arrangements to guarantee and carry out the accords of the Conference.  We were glad to note from the report of the Secretary-General that an increasing number of countries have supported the idea of this international conference.  We hope that those who continue to oppose it would reconsider their position.

The annual commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is a time for stock-taking and reflection. The Question of Palestine has reached a critical stage.  We hope that all concerned parties would display the necessary political will so that a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to this problem could be found.

I take this opportunity to pay a tribute to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People in its search for a just solution to the question of Palestine.  The Committee's contribution in this regard has been significant.  The programme and implementation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people drawn up by the Committee has been repeatedly endorsed by the General Assembly, by large majorities.  Efforts of the Committee towards the early convening of the Peace Conference and to mobilize public support for the Palestinian cause has been untiring.  In particular, I wish to express our appreciation for the diligent efforts made by the Chairman of the Committee, Ambassador Massamba Sarré.

The Palestine question is a tragedy of our times. A brave people remain without a homeland of their own.  They have the support of the overwhelming majority of the international community.  Their cause is a just one. History has shown that difficult as the road might often seem, in the end justice always prevails.

INDONESIA

H.E. Mr. Soeharto, President of the Republic of Indonesia

On the occasion of the international Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I wish to reiterate, on behalf of the Government and people of Indonesia, our unflinching support to and total solidarity with the Palestinian people in its heroic struggle for freedom and independence.

This year's observance is taking place amidst a most deplorable deterioration of the situation of the Palestinian Arabs in the occupied territories and beyond, caused by Israel's persistent policy of aggression and brutal oppression.  Its illegal occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories has been further intensified through its settlements policies and through confiscation of Arab-owned lands with a view to their total absorption and annexation.  The repressive measures imposed on the Palestinians in those territories, designed to stifle all forms of their political, cultural, social and economic expression, have continued unabated.  At the same time, Israel has not ceased in its vain attempts to destroy, both politically and physically, the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.  Indonesia strongly condemns these actions, as they are in direct contravention to the Charter of the United Nations, basic principles of international law and civilized behaviour, as well as relevant United Nations resolutions.  Such policies and practices serve only to exacerbate the violence and tensions in the region and further complicate efforts toward a peaceful end to the conflict.

The prospects for peace and security in the Middle East hinge on a just solution to the core of the conflict, namely, the denial to the Palestinian people of its inalienable human and national rights.  Any durable settlement must therefore be based on Israel's unconditional and complete withdrawal from all Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, and the restoration of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including its right to return to its homeland, the right to self-determination and the right to establish its own independent State on its national territory.  Only then can the territorial integrity, sovereignty and security of all States in the region be ensured.

The achievement of these essential elements to any solution must remain among the principal objectives of the United Nations.  To this end the Security Council, in its capacity as the organ with primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, is duty bound to facilitate the holding of the International Peace Conference on the Middle East, as repeatedly called for by the overwhelming majority of the Members of the Organization.  We remain firm in our view that the Peace Conference offers the best opportunity to bring peace and justice to that strife-torn region and support the call of the Organization of the Islamic Conference for its convening in 1987.  On this solemn occasion, therefore, Indonesia reiterates its appeal to the permanent members of the Council not to put further obstacles or pre-conditions in the way of the early convening of the Conference and to work in concert with the international community to assure its success.  In this context as well, the participation of the PLO as an equal party in the Conference is a sine qua non for the attainment of a just and durable peace in the Middle East.  It is imperative for all parties concerned to recognize the urgency and compelling logic of the Peace Conference.  For at this juncture in the tragic history of the Palestinian people, the alternative can only be further violence, bloodshed, injustice and suffering as well as the continuing and real threat of wider conflagration.

As a member of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, Indonesia is proud to have been able to contribute to the crucial role the Committee has played in raising the awareness of world public opinion of the plight of the Palestinian people and in advancing its just cause.  On its part, Indonesia will not waver in its steadfast determination to support all efforts to compel Israel to desist from its arrogant defiance of the united will of the international community.

Finally, I should like to express Indonesia's unbounded admiration for the righteous struggle waged by the Palestinian people and the Arab nation as a whole in their quest to restore their usurped rights, and our firm conviction that they will emerge triumphant.

May God Almighty bestow His blessings and wise guidance on all of us.

I am pleased, on the occasion of the commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People to express, on my own behalf and on behalf of the people and Government of Iraq, our appreciation of the sincere and loyal efforts being made by your Committee for the cause of Palestine and for the affirmation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.

We are quite confident that the unrest suffered by our region because of the oppression faced by the Palestinian people and because the Palestinian question remains without a just and comprehensive solution is the focus of very considerable attention and efforts on your part.

Since the Zionists occupied its land and up to the present, the Palestinian people has been exposed to tragedies and disasters such as have befallen no other people in history.  It has suffered oppression, expulsion, slaughter and loss of land and property.

Zionism has applied, and continues to apply, the most repugnant means of repression, annihilation and distortion of national identity against this people in its land and in exile.  It is obvious that in this the Zionist entity is acting in accordance with its aggressive expansionist nature, which is expressed through its persistence in the construction of settlements in the West Bank and the other usurped Arab territories, its occupation of southern Lebanon and its other aggressive expansionist practices.

The gravity of this matter is increased by the unlimited material and moral support which the Zionist entity receives from States that are supposed to bear major responsibilities with regard to issues of international peace and security, and this makes it proceed with these policies, heedless of their serious consequences for the security and stability of the region.

Unquestionably, the will of the international community and the concerned international organizations that express this will do not condone this conduct, which is contrary to the spirit of our contemporary world and to the principles of international law, but reject and condemn it.

The history of peoples also confirms that any people that is robbed of its land, property and rights and has the things it holds sacred exposed to damage and desecration and its future to the threat of extinction unfailingly holds fast to its existence and strives to regain its land, restore its honour and implement its will. Accordingly, the Palestinians' struggle for all of the aforegoing is legitimate and consonant with the logic of history and of life, and their choice of the leadership that is to lead this struggle is a right in the exercise of which they enjoy the support of their brothers and friends.

The Zionist entity's policies of aggression aimed at opposing and, indeed, suppressing these legitimate rights constitute a factor of unrest and instability in the region and a source of problems and conflicts for all adjacent and non-adjacent States alike.  The history of this entity since the beginning of its presence in the region confirms that it cannot live except amid the crises and problems which it artificially creates so that it may live under their protective covering and that it cannot accept the true, just and comprehensive peace that has the backing of the United Nations, other international forums and the peoples of the world as a whole.

The Zionist entity's support for the Iranian régime, which, for more than six years, has been waging its war of aggression against our country, and its provision of weapons, spare parts and expertise to that régime corroborate these facts and also underscore the fact of its aggressive expansionist ambitions and its role as a factor of unrest and a threat to the peace and security of the region.

Whatever the intricacies of the current international situation that have brought the Palestinian problem to this level of complexity, we are confident that the struggle of the Palestinian people, by virtue of its firm and profound belief in the justness of its cause and its readiness for unsparing effort and sacrifice and under its legitimate leadership, the Palestine Liberation Organization, will realize all the hopes and aspirations of this people for the restoration of its usurped rights.

In this context, we deem it appropriate to emphasize Iraq's firm position of principle in support of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and to stress that the question of Palestine will remain in the forefront of our concerns in the Arab and the international spheres. Until a just and honourable solution is found to this problem – a solution that will restore to the Palestinian people all its inalienable rights to self-determination and to the establishment of its independent State on the soil of its homeland – the region will not enjoy peace, stability and prosperity, and peace and security in the world will continue to be jeopardized.  It should also be stressed that to discuss the future of the Palestinian people in its absence is inconceivable; the Palestine Liberation Movement, its sole legitimate representative, must be allowed to participate in all efforts and conferences relating to the question of Palestine, on a footing of equality with the other parties.

In conclusion, I am pleased to reaffirm that we have every confidence in your efforts and in the continued work of your Committee for the good of the Palestinian cause, given the assiduity, earnestness and effectiveness of your Committee in the discharge of its noble and humane mission.

JORDAN

His Majesty King Hussein bin Talal

of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

I have great pleasure in extending to you, Mr. Chairman, and to the distinguished members of your Committee my deep gratitude and appreciation for your continuous efforts to alleviate the sufferings endured by the Palestinian people as a result of the Israeli occupation of the Arab territories, and the absence of peace in the Middle East.  In this respect, your objective and sobering assessment of the situation, as well as your continuous activities on behalf of the Palestinians, is considered a major contribution towards the realization of justice for them.  The Palestinians have suffered more than any others in recent history from dispossession and displacement.  I have no doubt that your perseverance in this regard has contributed immensely to the consensus idea that the basis for peace between the Arab States and Israel is the attainment of justice for the Palestinian people.

The annual celebration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is testimony to the importance attached by the world community to the alleviation of the Palestinians' plight as well as a clear indication of the awakening conscience of the world to the situation in the occupied territories, and the firm commitment to the principles of justice and equality.  These principles are the only foundation for a safe and secure world based on brotherhood, peace and international co-operation.  In this respect, your staunch defence of the Palestinian people is of great benefit to the struggle for world peace, as well as being a defence of the principle of justice in every corner of the globe.

As for us in Jordan, we have not shirked the responsibilities entailed upon us by our national commitment towards the Palestinian Arab people, which go hand in hand with our moral obligation to uphold the principles of truth and justice.  For we stood side by side with our Palestinian brothers, in the same trench, when they were facing the initial stages of an international campaign to extirpate the Arab identity of Palestine as part of a greater design to do away with the independent and united Arab presence in the region.  The Jordanian and Palestinian peoples stood fast in the face of Israeli expansionism and its attempt to uproot and to destroy the Palestinian's identity as well as his fundamental rights in the land of his fathers.  Together we assumed the shared duty of confronting a dangerous foreign invasion, armed only with a resolute national will and a steadfast faith made manifest in Jordanian and Palestinian unity, itself the rock on which all attempts to destroy the Palestinians and to deny them their inalienable rights will be broken asunder.  We stood by the Palestinians in the past, and will continue to stand by them with all our energies until they can exercise their legitimate rights freely, independent of foreign occupation and control.  We are confident that your genuine commitment to the Palestinian people will allow you to value the historical and pioneering role that Jordan is undertaking in this respect.

Even though the international community has to some measure become aware of the Palestinians' misery and grief, it still has not been able to translate this new realization into practical decisions or positions embodying justice for all of the Palestinian people.  And so it is up to us to work to rectify this abnormal situation through a common effort to realize justice for all, and in the forefront, the Palestinian people.

We have indicated, on the one hand, and the greater majority of nations have supported our stance, that the only way towards this goal is the realization of a comprehensive, just and permanent peace that is founded on the principles of international law and relevant United Nations resolutions. It is for this reason that we signed an accord with the Palestine Liberation Organization on 11 February 1985, whose principles still govern our political actions and whose blueprint we are still following. We also called for the convening of an international peace conference on the Middle East, on the basis of Security Council resolution 242 (1967) and 338 (1973), in which all of the parties concerned shall participate, alongside the five permanent members of the Security Council.  The objective of the Conference is the provision of a just, permanent and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian problem on every level.  We faced no objections in this call from any State except Israel, and its allies who, we believe, are taking this position not so much out of ignorance of the justice of the Palestinian cause as out of selfish self-interest, which has been proven in fact, and to which the noble principles of the United Nations are to be sacrificed.

It is for these purposes, and others, that we find that it is our duty not only to praise and to support your efforts, but to invite you to exert even greater efforts so that Israel's allies and supporters recognize the legitimacy of the Arab Palestinian people's rights, and understand the magnitude of the dangers brought about by Israel's rejection of the appeals to peace.  These efforts must also continue until Israel and its supporters realize that their interests will be served, consolidated and strengthened by supporting international legitimacy and standing by justice and peace.  We are certain that you will find the sincerity of our peaceful intentions and our steadfastness in the defence of our historical rights the best assistance in your task.  The Arabs have repeatedly made clear their desire for a just, comprehensive and lasting peace.  And the Palestinian people has repeatedly gone on record as saying that it is committed to peace and, by so doing, has rejected the attempt to imprison it within the cycle of extremism, rejection and violence, an attempt that would make it all the more easier to annihilate it.

In conjunction with this, our positive response to the resolutions of the United Nations and to the various peace proposals stands in marked contrast to Israel's rejection and intransigence. In fact, Israel has tried to abort these attempts and to render them meaningless by continuing to occupy Arab territories, including Arab Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, and even tried to annex parts of Lebanon while continuing to follow a policy contrary to international legal norms and to universal human rights in the West Bank and Gaza.

The tragedies that the entire region has experienced are deep and many, and the sorrows that the Palestinian people is undergoing are great, but we must not consider these as an obstacle to peace, but an incentive for us to continue to work long and faithfully for the realization of peace.  Let us work in all sensitivity and good faith to make good use of the opportunity afforded us, so that an international peace conference may be convened soon, an action supported by the majority of nations.  Likewise, we value the support afforded the Palestinian people by the world community and its stance beside the Arab people in their call for an international peace conference.

In conclusion, our faith in our historical rights in Palestine cannot be shaken and this same faith runs parallel to our confidence in the aims of the United Nations and in its ability to bring about peace and justice for all the oppressed peoples of the world.  We wish you every success in your noble effort in order that peace and justice may be realized through international and legal means and so that the Palestinian Arab people may attain its inalienable rights, thus putting an end to the misery that it has experienced for a near-eternity.

KUWAIT

His Highness Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait

On the occasion of the observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I have the pleasure to send you, on behalf of the people and Government of Kuwait and on my own behalf, our best wishes fraught with amiability and esteem. While lauding your honourable standing by this ill-treated people, I should also extol all the sincere efforts to support this people who, we believe, deserve every backing, not just by words but by deeds as well.  For nearly four decades have passed since its calamity unfolded and it still suffers from cruelty and still pleads to the international community and world conscience in vain.

It is an incontrovertible fact that it feels bitter and distressed when it sees the aggressor who usurped its homeland, the homeland of its fathers and forefathers, stripped it of its freedom, independence and basic, legitimate rights, including the right to self-determination, disdaining and slighting the United Nations resolutions and violating the international law, as typified by the Charter of the United Nations and the Geneva Conventions.  Moreover, it sees the aggressor building settlements in full swing, mercilessly, uninhibitedly and quite arbitrarily confiscating lands from their legitimate owners, and persisting in his intransigence and opposition to every attempt at finding a just and lasting settlement.  He would not have been able, or dared, to do so if it was not for the unqualified support from some international quarters where the Palestinian people is considered, out of ignorance and jaundice, bereft of rights.

We condemn every policy that could impede the efforts aimed at solving this issue and reaffirm our commitment to uphold this people in the struggle to restore its legitimate, inseparable rights.  How long will its cause still be turning in a vicious circle?  Has not time come yet for its settlement through practical and effective steps?  Ignoring this issue could unquestionably represent a stumbling block for the progress and development of all the Arab countries and the entire region.  There will be neither ease nor calm until the issue has been justly resolved.

Last, but not least, there is still a ray of hope that the major countries will eventually lean toward shouldering their responsibilities for the administration of justice and the maintenance of world peace and security.  The European Community, especially its member States which played a principal role in creating this problem and throughout all phases, can also contribute positively to its solution so that this explosive part of the world can live a new era of prosperity and stability with everyone cherishing cordiality and serenity.

LAO PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

H.E. Mr. Phoumi Vongvichit,

President of the Lao People's Democratic Republic

In the four decades that the United Nations has existed, the peoples of the various parts of the world formerly under colonial or foreign domination have gradually come to swell the Organization's ranks as independent and sovereign nations.  With respect to the Palestinian Arab people, however, fate has decided otherwise.  Through the collusion of the Zionists and the imperialists, the Palestinian people is not only being prevented from recovering and exercising its fundamental rights but also continues to be the victim of brutal and barbarous repression and all kinds of harassment.  Entire generations of Palestinians were driven from their lands and forced to live in exile or in refugee camps.  Even today, Palestinians in the West Hank and Gaza Strip continue to be driven from their homes by the Zionist occupier, as part of its settlement policy.

Each day that passes reveals more clearly the designs of the Zionists and their imperialist protectors: their goal is no longer the security of Israel or peace in the Middle East, as they used to claim, but rather Israel's territorial expansion and the permanent military presence of American imperialism in the region.

They have invented fables to discredit the Palestinian people, whom they wish to exterminate, and the PLO, its sole authentic and legitimate representative, in the eyes of international opinion, by accusing them of being terrorists in order to assume the right to punish them no matter where, but to no avail.  They fool no one, for their own practice of State terrorism against countries which provide refuge or support to the Palestinian fighters or other countries which refuse to bend to their dictates has aroused international indignation and condemnation.  This is reflected both in the relevant resolutions of the United Nations and in the declarations of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, particularly that of the Eighth Summit Conference held recently at Harare.

The Lao People's Democratic Republic, for its part, wishes to reaffirm its adherence to the Harare Declaration, which states that the settlement of the Middle East conflict, at the heart of which is the question of Palestine, requires the total, immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Israel from all the Palestinian and Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem.  It also believes that such a settlement must be achieved within the framework of an International Peace Conference on the Middle East in which all the parties directly concerned, including the PLO and the permanent members of the Security Council, would participate on an equal footing, as called for in resolution 38/58 of 13 December 1983 of the United Nations General Assembly.

In any event, the Lao people and Government wish to reiterate their steadfast support for the just struggle of the Palestinian people under the leadership of the PLO, its sole authentic and legitimate representative, to recover and exercise its inalienable fundamental rights, including the right to establish its own independent State in Palestine.

LEBANON

H.E. Mr. Rashid Karami, Prime Minister of Lebanon

On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I must express my gratitude and appreciation to you and to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People for your efforts to ensure that the Palestinian people may enjoy their legitimate rights to return, to exercise self-determination and to establish their own independent State on their own soil.

Lebanon's unswerving commitment to this cause derives from its faith in the principles of the Organization and in the legitimacy of the Palestinian people's rights.  Lebanon, which has supported the call for an international peace conference attended by all the parties concerned, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, reaffirms the need to hold such a conference and to prepare for it at the earliest opportunity.  A solution of the question of Palestine, which is essentially equivalent to the question of the Palestinian people, will relieve the distresses caused by expulsion and the Israeli practices of harassment against this fraternal people both inside and outside their territory.

It behoves me to express my thanks to the Secretary-General, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, for his efforts to overcome the obstacles to the convening of the international peace conference.

In observing the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the international community is once again focusing its attention on the sufferings and struggle of that people, as a reaffirmation of its solidarity.

Recent events and the dramatic turn taken by the situation in the Middle East have testified once again to the Palestinian people's determination to survive and have shown that no just and lasting comprehensive settlement can be achieved without the complete and unconditional withdrawal of Israel from all the occupied Arab and Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, and the restoration of the exercise of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination, national independence and the creation of a sovereign independent State in Palestine.

The Democratic Republic of Madagascar consistently condemns all Israel's plots, machinations and acts of aggression and also its practices in Palestinian lands, in defiance of international law and United Nations resolutions.  In particular, it denounces the policy of establishing settlements and confiscating land belonging to Palestinian Arabs in order to annex the West Bank and Gaza Strip once and for all.

Madagascar remains convinced that no peaceful solution can be set in motion without negotiations among all the Parties concerned, with the participation of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and that, in all legality, of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the sole representative of the Palestinian people.

The underlying lawlessness of Israel's conduct, despite its vain attempts to take advantage of the contradictions that rule today's world, will continue to be denounced by the entire international community through the relevant resolutions of the United Nations.

Lastly, the Democratic Republic of Madagascar wishes to pay a warm tribute to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, which has worked tirelessly to guarantee the Palestinian people the exercise of its national rights.

The Government of Madagascar, for its part, is fully resolves to continue to participate actively in the work of the Committee.  As in the past, it will continue to support the heroic struggle of the Palestinian people until it finally triumphs.

MALAYSIA

H.E. Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia

The Government and people of Malaysia join the international community in dedicating this day as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people.  Malaysia reaffirms its support for the struggle of the Palestinian people in the restoration of its inalienable rights which have been denied it for so long.

The injustices and sufferings of the Palestinian people must trouble the conscience of the international community.  The United Nations, embodying the collective will of the international community, must continue to assume the primary role towards redressing the injustices inflicted upon the Palestinians who have been dispossessed and uprooted from their homeland. Efforts will have to be continuously pursued by all.  The Palestinian rights to self-determination, independence and statehood cannot be bargained away.

The United Nations has passed many resolutions calling on Israel to respect the rights of the Palestinian people.  Such repeated calls by the international community have fallen on deaf ears as Israel continues with impunity to transgress the rights of the Palestinian people in furtherance of its expansionist policy.  The thrust of the Tel Aviv régime is to create a Palestinian diaspora to annex permanently the Arab lands which it has illegally occupied in its wars of aggression against the Palestinian and Arab peoples.

Despite the obstacles before us, the United Nations must remain resolute in its search for a just, comprehensive and durable settlement. We must continue to reject the attempts by Israel to change the demographic character and legal entity of the occupied territories, including the Holy City of Jerusalem.  It remains an obligation on the part of the international community to resist also all attempts by Israel to obliterate the cultural, religious and national identity of the Palestinian people.

On behalf of Malaysia, I wish to reiterate our support for a just, lasting and comprehensive solution for the Palestinian people in its struggle for its inalienable rights to an independent homeland.  In this regard, Malaysia welcomes the proposal to convene the International Peace Conference on the Middle East which should involve all the relevant parties, including the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the Government and the people of Malaysia once again pledge their continuing and firm support for the Palestinian peoples' struggle for human dignity and justice and its inalienable right to return to its homeland.

MALI

H.E. General Moussa Traore, President of Mali

It gives me pleasure to join the voice of the people of Mali, their party, the Democratic Union of the Malian People, and their Government to that of all peace-loving and justice-loving peoples in expressing to you our deep appreciation for your efforts to affirm the rights of the Palestinian people, in particular, the right to self-determination and sovereignty and to the establishment of an independent Palestinian State.  The Republic of Mali remains convinced that no solution aimed at securing a just and lasting peace will be achieved in the Middle East without the effective participation of the Palestinian people, under the leadership of the PLO its sole authentic representative, in all negotiations concerning the Palestinian question.  I wish to express to you on this occasion our encouragement for the continuation of your delicate task and also our hope that the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will achieve further successes in your work on behalf of the just Palestinian cause.

MAURITANIA

H.E. Colonel Maaouya ould Sid Ahmed Taya,

Chairman of the Military Committee for

National Salvation of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania

On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I am particularly pleased to inform you of our appreciation for the Committee's work for the realization of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

On this occasion, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania reiterates its total and unconditional solidarity with the just struggle of the Palestinian people.  The courageous fight and sacrifices of that people have been a determining factor in the failure of the global plans of zionism, which aspires to extend its hegemony beyond Palestine to Africa and other parts of the world.

In Africa, the apartheid régime, an ally and partner of the Zionist entity, pursues with the same zeal a hateful racist and expansionist policy against the peoples of Namibia, South Africa and the front-line States.  Mauritania is convinced that any solution to the Palestinian problem should proceed from the principles which you, Mr. Chairman, and the members of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People vigorously advocate.  My Government remains true to its principles and will work for the Palestinian people's recovery of all its inalienable rights, including the right to independence and a State in its own territory, and the withdrawal of Israel from all the occupied Arab territories.

I take this opportunity to renew our support and our indestructible solidarity with the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of that people.

NICARAGUA

H.E. Mr. Daniel Ortega Saavedra,

President of the Republic of Nicaragua

On the occasion of the observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I wish to reiterate, on behalf of the people and Government of Nicaragua, the assurances of our unshakeable solidarity with our brothers, the Palestinians.

The Nicaraguan people and the Palestinian people have both been victims of the same imperialist and expansionist policies. For that reason, we are united not only by our suffering but also by our firm determination to defend our inalienable rights and by our struggle for peace.

We are convinced that a solution to the Palestinian conflict and the Middle East conflict can be achieved only if there is full respect for and safeguarding of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.

We again demand that Israel withdraw immediately from all occupied Arab and Palestinian territories and that the right of the Palestinians to return to their homes, to exercise self-determination and to establish their own independent State in Palestine be unconditionally respected.  We again stretch out our hands in common cause to the Palestinian people and to its sole legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, in its just struggle to regain its legitimate rights and, accordingly, peace.

PAKISTAN

H.E. General Mohammad Zia-Ul-Haq,

President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan

In observing the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the Government and people of Pakistan join the international community in renewing their pledge of unstinted support and solidarity with their Palestinian brothers who are struggling for the restoration of their inalienable national rights.

The question of Palestine is one of the most acute problems of our time and requires a comprehensive, just and lasting political settlement.  This settlement must be based on the attainment of the legitimate inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.  The denial by Israel of these rights to the Palestinians is the principal cause of international tension that has persisted for several decades in the Middle East.

Israel's policies and actions betray a strong contempt for the will of the international community, international law and the norms of civilized conduct.  In the pursuit of its expansionist aims, Israel has resorted to repeated aggression and ruthless suppression of the Arab and Palestinian population of the occupied territories.

Pakistan has always extended its full support to the struggle for self-determination by people against colonial and alien domination and foreign occupation and we pay tribute to the heroic people of Palestine who has resisted, with courage and determination, the illegal occupation of its homeland.  Its noble sacrifices for the cause of freedom and justice deserve the world's admiration and support.

H.E. Mr. Mohammad Khan Junejo,

Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan

The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People reminds the international community of its historic and moral responsibility to extend full support to the Palestinian people in its struggle for the restoration of its inalienable national rights.

The total withdrawal of Israel from all the occupied Arab territories, including Al-Quds Al-Sharif, and the realization of the right of self-determination by the Palestinian people, including its right to establish a State of its own in its homeland, remain the indispensable elements for any comprehensive and lasting settlement of the Middle East problem.

The Government of Pakistan strongly denounces Israel for its repressive policies against the Palestinian and Arab people which are the root cause of turbulence in the Middle East and pose a threat to international peace and security.  It is evident that the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people cannot be suppressed by terror and repression nor can they be held in abeyance indefinitely.  Concerted efforts must be made to check and reverse the course of Israeli adventurism and to overcome its intransigence to all initiatives for a just and durable peace in the Middle East.

As an Islamic country, Pakistan is committed to uphold the principle of self-determination and the universal values of freedom and justice.

On this solemn occasion, the people and Government of Pakistan reaffirm their solidarity and bonds of friendship and fraternity with the people of Palestine and its sole legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, in its just struggle for the restoration of its legitimate national rights.

QATAR

His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad al-Thani,

Emir of the State of Qatar

29 November of each year corresponds to the day on which the General Assembly decided, in 1977, that there should be an International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.  As we all know, the adoption of this resolution reflects the fact that it was that day in 1947 – in other words, 39,years ago – that witnessed the disaster of the approval of the plan for the partition of Palestine, which was the beginning of the momentous events that subjected the Palestinian people to unprecedented forms of oppression, injustice and tyranny. This people was expelled from its homeland and dispossessed of its land and the land of its fathers and forefathers. Those who remained in this land have all suffered unparalleled forms of abuse, such as daily humiliation, dispersal and collective relocation, usurpation of their property, destruction and demolition of their houses, curtailment of their freedom, the imprisonment and torture of innocent persons, and the closure of institutes and universities.

As a result of this savage aggression against this historic Arab people, the Arab-Israeli struggle began and the Palestinian question emerged, becoming the core of the intractable crisis which has beset the Middle East and which continues to undermine the stability of that region, jeopardizing its security and spreading untold suffering.  There is unanimous agreement that this crisis has become a matter of concern to the whole of mankind, since its continuation poses a threat to international security and world peace.  This concern is compounded by various kinds of extremist oppression practised by Israel, as demonstrated by its invasion of Lebanon – the southern part of which it continues to occupy, committing the most abominable terrorist crimes against the Lebanese and Palestinian population – and by its savage raids on the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Tunis, raids which cost the lives of many innocent Palestinians and Tunisians. Israel has thereby most heinously violated the sovereignty of the two States.

We gather on this day each year to renew our resolve to support efforts aimed at reminding the peoples of the world and its leading thinkers that the great tragedy of our times is the fact that the Palestinian question, whose constituent elements we have just outlined, remains unresolved, even though not a year has gone by during the past four decades without the United Nations including in its agenda a comprehensive main item devoted to this issue, and without this supreme world organization adopting resolutions reaffirming that the goal of a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East will not be attained unless Israel withdraws from the occupied Arab territories and the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people are recognized.  These rights are, basically, its right to return to its homeland, its right to independence and sovereignty and its right to self-determination in that homeland.  There is no doubt that the whole world has become aware of these truths, owing to the perseverance of the heroic Palestinian people in its mighty struggle, to which we pay tribute.  This struggle is based on its unrelenting determination to achieve the restoration of its legitimate rights and is backed by the efforts of the United Nations, including those of this august Committee, to further the struggle in support of those rights.

The international community is convinced that the best means of achieving positive results that will bring about the desired just and comprehensive settlement of the Palestinian question in all its aspects, in accordance with international legitimacy based on the principles of international law and the relevant United Nations resolutions, is the convening of an international peace conference under United Nations auspices with the participation of the five permanent members of the Security Council and all the parties concerned, including – as a matter of course – the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and the true champion of this cause.

We most strongly condemn true acts of terrorism, whatever their origin. We must all realize that the dangerous developments we are witnessing, with the escalation of acts of violence in the Middle East are, in reality, the natural reaction to the fact that this region is still left without a solution to the issue, which increases the dangers that threaten its security and stability and, in turn, the security and stability of the entire world.  I have full confidence that your august Committee will devote special attention to appealing to the leaders of the truth-, justice- and peace-loving peoples of the world to make all positive, concerted and effective efforts in their power with a view to the convening of the above-mentioned international peace conference, which has been called for by them and by their peoples.

I am pleased to take this opportunity to express once again my deep appreciation and the appreciation of the people of Qatar for the sincere and tireless efforts made by your august Committee with a view to attaining its noble objective of assisting the Palestinian people in the attainment of its rights and supporting its struggle so as to enable it to regain its homeland and live therein a life of dignity, pride and honour.

SAUDI ARABIA

His Majesty King Fahd bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud

King of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

I have the pleasure today, on this International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, to express to you, Mr. Chairman, and to the members of the Committee on the Exercise of Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People over which you preside our profound appreciation and support for your worthy efforts as well as for the role you and your colleagues are playing in serving the cause of the full rights of the Palestinian people, and in mobilizing the efforts of the international community in support of that cause.

I would like, also, to reiterate and reaffirm, on the occasion of this Day, the firm stand of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in supporting the Arab Palestinian rights in Palestine and Al-Quds, as well as in supporting the Palestinian people to secure its full rights, including its right of return and to self-determination, as well as to establish its own State on its own national soil, under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization, its sole legitimate representative.

When we deal with the problem of Palestine and the problem of Zionist aggression against Palestine in the international arena, we must, from the outset, put the problem in its proper perspective.

The problem of Palestine is the problem of a foreign aggression and of an alien colonialist invasion of the country of the Arab Palestinian people.  It is a problem of illegitimate occupation by world zionism of a land owned by a thriving Arab people who had lived on the soil of their country and owned it for thousands of years, in the same manner that all peoples within this international Organization have lived on the soil of their country and homeland.  The illegitimate support that world zionism has received and is still, receiving from responsible Powers, and which helped it to secure what it has realized through oppression and aggression, does not give it the right to usurp the rights of other peoples and does not permit it to impede the process of international co-operation, or to threaten world peace, nor to escalate its aggression against the security of peoples, with total disregard for conventions and of the international will, in this second half of the twentieth century, which has become an era of the implementation of international laws and of the respect of moral, humanitarian, and legal stands.  I would like to express our appreciation for the efforts of your Committee in reporting the oppressive practices being perpetrated by zionism in defiance of the international community and all its values, conventions, and norms.  In the face of this challenge, we are required, that is every Member State in the United Nations is required, to take the firm stand required by the Charter in order to save the blood of the people of the land, to preserve their rights, and to ensure the security of the region.

The Israeli practices in Palestine and other Arab territories that the Israeli troops occupy, and which are escalating without deterrence, give convincing proof of Israel's aggressive designs and its rejection of any desire for a just peace.  The international community must adopt an effective stand that deters Israel from committing what it is committing, and restores the rights to its people.  The road that the Israeli authorities are taking is predicated by the gravest of dangers for the region and its people.  The United Nations in general, and the General Assembly and the Security Council in particular, should uphold their responsibility in the face of these dangers.  The Member States, especially those supporting Israel in its transgression, should realize that, by refraining from taking a firm stand, they are in fact encouraging Israeli irresponsibility in the perpetration of acts that would undoubtedly result in the worst results.

The denial of Arab rights and the harbouring of the illusion that force alone can change the character of a homeland and redraw the map of the region in this era, under the present world conditions that we are living under, is nothing but far-fetched and irresponsible thinking to the detriment of the lives of peoples and the souls of innocents.  The region will reap nothing except ruination and destruction.

The Arab countries, in their concern to reach a just solution for the problem, forged a framework for the security and safety of the peoples of the region in the Arab peace proposal adopted by the Fez Summit in 1982.  This still remains the aspiration of the region, if the Israeli authorities really seek security and a just peace.  But they have shown no indications yet to encourage that aspiration.

The necessity of securing the Arab and Islamic right in Palestine and Jerusalem is beyond doubt, and there can hardly be an Arab or a Moslem who would ever forfeit that right.  It is the only way to secure peace in the region.  There must be an Israeli withdrawal from all Arab territories, especially Al-Quds for which the Moslem world yearns in an earnestness that is growing stronger with every sunrise.  These are the basic essentials for the peace and security of the region.  I have to express our appreciation and thanks to the United Nations, as a whole, as it is represented by countries that do not hesitate to defend international law and to support the Arab efforts towards arriving at a just peace.  Supporting the Arab and Islamic rights in Palestine and Al-Quds is only a reaffirmation of the Charter of the United Nations and the credibility of its Member States, and an indication that the world's conscience will never deviate from the path of righteousness, irrespective of the obstacles we are witnessing now.

SENEGAL

H.E. Mr. Abdou Diouf, President of Senegal

As the international community observes the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, it is once again my very special pleasure to wish the Committee every success on my own behalf and on behalf of the people and Government of Senegal.

On this solemn occasion, the Senegalese Government, which has always attached particular importance to the observance of this event, would like to reaffirm its determination to continue to spare no effort in the struggle for the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to return to its homeland, to self-determination and to the creation of an independent State in Palestine, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly.

The Senegalese people and Government remain convinced that any just settlement of the question of Palestine will necessarily require the full participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization, as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, in all talks and negotiations aimed at such a settlement.

The Day which we are commemorating here with our usual fervour is especially meaningful in that it demonstrates the desire of the international community to promote the restoration to the Palestinian people of its inalienable national rights and the international community's determination to perform, through the United Nations, its irreplaceable role in achieving that end.

In this connection, I have special pleasure in paying a warm tribute to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People for the committed and responsible work which it has been doing since its establishment.  Through its dynamism and perseverance and despite hostile attitudes the Committee, while helping considerably to present the Palestinian question in its true light, has succeeded in drawing up the only programme for the exercise of Palestinian rights which is acceptable to the people concerned.

It is appropriate here to reaffirm the support that the Senegalese people and Government give to your Committee's recommendations, including that on the holding of an International Peace Conference on the Middle East as a suitable framework for seeking a just solution to the question of Palestine.

The Senegalese Government and I encourage you to pursue your efforts to convene such a conference and assure you of our full co-operation.

SIERRA LEONE

H.E. Dr. Joseph S. Momoh,

President of the Republic of Sierra Leone

Today marks another occasion for Sierra Leone to express its solidarity with the Palestinian people.  Since 1947, the people of Palestine has been deprived of its rights to a homeland, self-determination, independence and national sovereignty.

As a long-serving member of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, we have, over the years, given every support to the Palestinians to recover lost territory and regain their national dignity and sovereignty.  Sierra Leone has established close ties of friendship and co-operation with the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, to identify and associate ourselves with their cause, and be able to contribute effectively to a lasting solution of the problem.

We are aware that the United Nations has, on several occasions, arrived at decisions which, if implemented in their entirety, could have resolved the Palestinian problem.  Regrettably, Israel has been intransigent to the United Nations call for a total withdrawal from Palestinian territory.  We demand the full implementation of the United Nations calls on Israel for a total, immediate and unconditional withdrawal from all Arab territories occupied since 1967 and reiterate our full support for General Assembly resolution 3236 (XXIX).  Finally we call on the international community to consolidate its efforts and pursue relentlessly the just cause of the Palestinians whose inalienable right to self-determination and independence cannot be questioned.  We pledge our unstinted support to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinians in their struggle to liberate their homeland and regain their national dignity.

SRI LANKA

H.E. Mr. J. R. Jayewardene,

President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Sri Lanka wishes to reiterate its support and solidarity to the Palestinian people in its struggle to regain its inalienable rights, including its right to self-determination and return to its homeland.

Sri Lanka firmly believes that the Palestinian question lies at the core of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

The purpose of declaring this day by the United Nations as a day of solidarity with the Palestinian people was to bring before the international community the sad plight of the Palestinian people, and to impress on the urgency of a solution.  Despite many efforts by the United Nations and other international bodies, no satisfactory solution has yet been found and the Palestinian people continues in its misery and suffering.  The international community cannot but feel concerned that the problem has become more complicated, carrying with it the potential for a further armed conflict.

The Solidarity Day would fulfil its purpose if it provided the occasion for the world to understand the Palestinian question in its full depth, particularly the human side, and to redouble its efforts to find an early solution.

Sri Lanka has always stood firmly behind the Palestinian people and has supported its sole authentic representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, to find a speedy solution acceptable to the Palestinian people.  We continue our steadfast support to the Palestinian people in achieving this goal.

SUDAN

H.E. Mr. Ahmad Al-Mirghani,

Chairman of the Presidential Council of Sudan

Every year on this date the world family marks the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, who have been striving tirelessly to regain their legitimate rights and their plundered territory.

The United Nations resolution declaring 29 November to be the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People shows the international community's interest in this crucial cause and demonstrates the renewed support of the community for that people's cause and their legitimate aspirations to self-determination and the establishment of an independent State on their own national territory.  By means of this commemoration and of the talks which took place a few days ago in the General Assembly, the international community has confirmed that the question of Palestine constitutes the very essence of the Middle East conflict and that it will continue to be a live volcano, threatening international peace and security, unless a just and lasting solution is found.

The United Nations has reaffirmed on many occasions that there can be no just and lasting peace in the Middle East without a total, unconditional withdrawal by Israel from all the occupied Palestinian and Arab territories, including the Holy City of Jerusalem, so that the Palestinian people may attain self-determination and return to their homeland and property, establishing a sovereign, independent State on their national soil, under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), their sole, legitimate representative.  The international community reaffirmed these principles at the Geneva Conference in 1983, describing them as essential conditions for the just and lasting peace called for by the entire world.

During their historic revolution in April of last year, the people of Sudan demonstrated their unswerving solidarity with the cause of the Palestinian people under the leadership of the PLO until such time as their legitimate hopes and aspirations are fulfilled.

The efforts exerted by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People enjoy the full support and appreciation of Sudan.  This Committee has played an important role in heightening the awareness of the international community with respect to the suffering of the Palestinian people and to the legitimacy of their cause.  We hope that its efforts will continue so that the struggling Palestinian people may fulfil their aspirations, and we also hope that this year's commemoration by the United Nations may mark an important starting-point on the way to the attainment of our objectives.

SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC

H.E. Mr. Hafez al-Assad,

President of the Syrian Arab Republic

It gives me great pleasure to greet, on behalf of the Syrian people and on my own behalf, your meeting devoted to solidarity with the Palestinian Arab people in its just struggle for the restoration of its usurped rights.

At the mention of the Palestinian Arab people, there emerges before us a picture of the overwhelming wrong that has befallen it as a result of the conspiracy concocted in the capitals of colonialism, in collusion with world zionism.

The Palestinian people, which has suffered, and is still suffering, from aggression the like of which mankind has rarely known, is the victim of the colonialist policy aimed at domination over the Arab homeland, its aims coinciding with those of zionism, namely, the fragmentation of the Arab homeland, the establishment of Israel in its heart as a colonialist outpost and a tool of aggression and expansion.  The United Kingdom and the United States of America played a major role in the implementation of this policy and in enabling zionism to invade and occupy Palestine, to drive out the majority of its great people by means of savage massacres and acts of terrorism, to inflict exemplary punishment on that portion of the Palestinian people which remained in its territory and to subjugate and repress it and confiscate its lands.  Then came expansion through armed aggression into the Arab lands bordering on Palestine with a view to the implementation of zionism's scheme of establishing Greater Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates.

United States and United Kingdom policy is the source of all the sufferings endured by the Palestinian people and the Arab nation as a result of the perpetuation of the grave situation which that policy has created in the Middle East, a situation which presents its threat to world peace and security.  These two States, instead of seeking the establishment of a just peace, as is incumbent on them as permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, have always aided Israeli aggression and helped Israel in its aggression and its violation of the United Nations Charter.  They have made themselves a pro-Israeli party to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The international community, as represented in the United Nations, bears the responsibility for making Israel implement the resolutions relating to the rights of the Palestinian Arab people, especially since it was the United Nations that established Israel by one of its resolutions – the United States pressures brought to bear for its adoption, by a majority of one vote, are still remembered.  That resolution linked the acceptance of Israel to membership in the United Nations to Israel's commitment to the implementations of the principles of the Charter and the resolutions of the United Nations.  Notwithstanding, Israel continues to enjoy that membership in spite of its constant violation of the Charter and resolutions of the international Organization. The cause of the Palestinian people is our central cause in Syria and the pivotal point of our struggle for a just peace in our region.  The way to this peace is to end the Israeli occupation of the Arab territories and to restore the rights of the Palestinian Arab people on the basis of United Nations resolutions and within the framework of an international conference.

Our position is clear, but Israel, supported by the forces of imperialism and colonialism, blocks the way to a just peace and attempts to impose capitulationist conditions on the Arabs through deals concluded within the framework of United States and Israeli conditions.

Syria will continue its support for the just struggle being waged by the people of Palestine until its full national rights are restored.

I wish your meeting success in supporting the people of Palestine and upholding its rights, the restoration of which will be a major contribution to the achievement of the just peace that we are striving for.

THAILAND

H.E. General Prem Tinsulanonda,

Prime Minister of Thailand

On this occasion to commemorate the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I would like to reiterate, on behalf of the Government and people of Thailand, our strong solidarity with the Palestinian people in its struggle for freedom, independence and self-determination. I would also like to reaffirm our support for the attainment of the just and legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians.

Thailand's stand on the question of Palestine has been firm and consistent.  It is based on relevant United Nations General Assembly and Security Council resolutions, particularly Council resolution 242 (1967) and 338 (1973).  Thailand also supports the political struggle if the Palestine Liberation Organization (the PLO), the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinians. The Palestinian people must be allowed to exercise its rights to self-determination, nationhood, sovereignty and independence.  This is what Thailand has supported and called for, not only in the Middle East but also in Namibia, Afghanistan and Kampuchea. At the same time, the legitimate concerns of all States in the region must be respected.

Thailand joins the majority of the Member States of the United Nations in paying tribute to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People for its invaluable contribution and dedication to the Palestinian cause.

Peace in the Middle East has long been overdue.  For 39 years now the question of Palestine, which is the core issue of the conflict in the Middle East, has remained unsolved.  It is the duty of the peoples around the world to support fellow human beings who are still deprived of their inalienable rights. In this regard, Thailand is ready to co-operate with the rest of the international community to fulfil the yearnings of the Palestinians. It is also our hope that all parties concerned would strengthen their political will and redouble their efforts in searching for a just and comprehensive solution as a contribution to the International Year of Peace.

TUNISIA

H.E. Mr. Habib Bourghiba,

President of the Republic of Tunisia

Celebrating the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People gives us an opportunity to express, on behalf of the Government and people of Tunisia, our most sincere congratulations to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People over which you, Mr. Chairman, preside with such aplomb.  Ambassador Massamba Sarré's contribution to the Committee's work reflects the commitment of President Abdou Diouf and the people of our sister Republic of Senegal to the recovery by the Palestinian people of its legitimate and inalienable right to self-determination in the land of their forefathers.  As a member of this Committee, Tunisia appreciates the tireless efforts that the Committee has exerted from the outset and which have been a major factor in sharpening people's awareness of the cruel reality experienced by the despoiled Palestinian people and in proposing a just and comprehensive solution based on international legality.  We have always been firmly committed to international legality, and more than 20 year ago, we rightly wished it to serve as a sound foundation for a feasible and advantageous solution for our Palestinian brothers.

The international community is observing this International Day of 29 November in order to reaffirm its unswerving adherence to the principles of law and justice, on the basis of which we demand that the Palestinian people regain its inalienable rights.  Unfortunately, however, one member of this Organization continues to flout these noble principles, stubbornly refusing to abandon its policy of aggression against the Arab peoples, and the Palestinian people in particular; it continues to pursue, oppress and plunder.  Today, Israel is not only using brute force to terrorize and intimidate the Palestinian and Arab peoples; it is also using a new weapon, which consists of deliberately confounding the resistance of those peoples with acts of terrorism perpetrated by individuals and by States.  In this way, Israel is trying to hold back the resolute march of the Palestinian people towards the goal which it has chosen and set out to pursue, namely, the support and solidarity of the international community.  Thus, armed with this false pretext, Israel continues to brutalize the Palestinian people in the hope of making them remain silent.  Tunisia is convinced that unless the United Nations takes firm, collective action, its Charter, the pertinent resolutions it has adopted, and the principles of international law will continue to be flouted and ignored to the detriment of international peace and security.  In fact, the resurgence of tension in the Middle East, the Israeli attempts to spread the conflict even further and the inhuman practices that constitute the daily lot of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories provide irrefutable proof of Israel's contempt for the most elementary moral principles which are the basis of human rights, international law and the human conscience.  The dangers of such a policy are plan and we cannot rule out the possibility of the region being plunged into another war, with unforeseeable consequences.  This is why vigorous action is needed now more than ever in order to make Israel see reason and avoid the irrevocable. This action is above all the responsibility of the members of our community which, under the Charter, are invested with special powers enabling them to restore peace.

It would be unrealistic to suppose today that a solution to the Middle East problem could be found without ensuring the exercise by the Palestinian people of its inalienable rights under its legitimate representative, the PLO.  Any comprehensive solution to the conflict must necessarily be based on this aspect of the problem. In this connection, Tunisia reiterates its support for the Fez plan, which lays realistic foundations for a just and lasting solution.  In so doing, it does not exclude any initiative which recognizes the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the establishment of its own State and which obtains the approval of its legitimate representative.  The plan for an International Conference on Peace in the Middle East has the advantage of being firmly based on international legality, of advocating the participation of all parties to the conflict without exceptions and of providing a suitable framework for laying down conditions for a comprehensive peace.  We believe that setting up a preparatory committee for the Conference, at the Security Council level, would help to speed up the convening of the Conference if this idea were taken up by the permanent members of the Council.  Once again, the international community is being put to the test. We hope that all the countries that make up that community will prove themselves worthy of their responsibilities as members which have agreed to observe the Charter and the principles of law.

Thus we dare to hope that despite changing circumstances, a surge of human solidarity will not remain in the realm of the impossible and that injustice will not last indefinitely.  Israel must face the facts and admit that stubbornly opposing the will of the international community is detrimental to its own interest and to international peace and security.  Those who still question whether there is any justification in convening the International Conference should realize that such an attitude can only delay the just and lasting solution which is so sorely needed in the Middle East.  Speaking for myself and for the Government and people of Tunisia, I should like to conclude by wishing the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People every success in its commendable efforts on behalf of the causes of peace and justice.

TURKEY

H.E. Mr. Turgut Ozal,

Prime Minister of Turkey

On the occasion of the ninth anniversary of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I would like to convey, on behalf of my Government and on my own behalf, the feelings of support and solidarity of the Turkish nation with the Palestinian people.

On this occasion, I would like to commend the efforts undertaken by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.  I am happy to remind that, last April, Turkey has hosted, in Istanbul, the first Palestinian regional seminar held in Europe.  This seminar has contributed to the recognition of the rights of the Palestinians.

Turkey believes that the recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people is essential for the establishment of a just and durable peace in the Middle East.  Furthermore, we maintain that no settlement to the question can be found unless Israel withdraws from the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem.

We support all peace initiatives to this end.  We hope that the present efforts aimed at overcoming the difficulties in finding an acceptable formula will soon succeed, thus enabling the peace process to move ahead.  I am confident that, with further understanding and support of the international community on the one hand, and with enhanced unity in their ranks on the other, the Palestinian people, under the leadership of the PLO, will achieve its legitimate aspirations.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan,

President of the United Arab Emirates

I wish, on behalf of the Government and the people of the United Arab Emirates, to reaffirm our gratitude to you and to the members of your august Committee for your efforts and endeavours to perform the lofty moral mission which has been entrusted to you.

The designation by the United Nations of 29 November as an International Day for the dedication of assistance to the Palestinian people is of great political and moral significance since commemoration of the Day is associated with the beginning of the calamity which afflicted the land of Palestine in 1947.

It is with pride and satisfaction that we contemplate the great achievements of our international organization in helping peoples under colonial rule to attain their independence, as well as the effective role it has played in settling delicate international issues and its efforts to serve mankind in various spheres.  We therefore more earnestly urge the United Nations, which today represents almost all the countries and peoples of the world, to step up the pace of its endeavours to bring about a comprehensive and just solution to the problem of Palestine, the core of the conflict, and the instability in the Middle East.

The sufferings which have been experienced by the Palestinian people and other Arab peoples are evident to all.  Developments indicate that the deteriorating situation in the Middle East now threatens to spill over beyond the boundaries of the region in which the conflict began.

We take exception to certain international policies with respect to this problem, as we know from experience that such policies will serve only to inflame and to prolong the conflict.

The Palestinian people has demonstrated directly, by means of the hundreds of thousands who have given up their lives in pursuit of this objective, that is will hold fast to its rights and to its territory.  Despite these sacrifices, it has not ceased to affirm its determination to attain a just and durable peace.

We, therefore, like many other peoples and nations of the world, believe that the United Nations' call for the convening of an International Peace Conference on the Middle East, to be attended by all parties to the conflict, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, constitutes an important step in this direction.  We regret that the call to convene the Conference is being held up by the attitudes of certain States which support Israel and continue to ignore the dangers created by such attitudes.

We firmly believe that there is no way to solve this problem unless an opportunity is provided to the Palestinian people to exercise its legitimate rights to return, to practice self-determination and to establish an independent State.  We shall therefore not hesitate to provide all help and assistance to it in its efforts to attain this noble goal.

VIET NAM

H.E. Mr. Pham Van Dong, Chairman of the Council

of Ministers of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam

On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People observed by the United Nations, I would like to convey to you and through you to the people and resistance fighters of Palestine our warm greetings of friendship and militant solidarity.

For many decades now, the Arab and Palestinian peoples have undergone innumerable great sufferings while carrying out an indomitable struggle against the intervention and aggression pursued by the United States imperialists and Israeli expansionists against their fundamental national rights, and are now heroically fighting against the schemes of causing tension, division and pressure in an attempt to impose on the Arab peoples separate accords sought by the United States and Israel.  The entire progressive mankind have been demonstrating sympathy with and support to the Arab Palestinian people and voicing strong condemnation against the policy of expansionism and aggression practiced by the imperialists and Zionists in this part of the world.

The people and Government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam reaffirm their unswerving position to extend resolute support to the Arab peoples' struggle for the defence of their sovereignty, national independence, especially to the just cause of the Palestinian people in its struggle against imperialism and zionism, for their sacred inalienable national rights, including the right to self-determination, right to return and establish an independent, sovereign State of Palestine.

We are firmly convinced that the Palestinian people and its resistance fighters, single-minded and closely united under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (the PLO), their sole and legitimate representative, and with sympathy and support from the peoples in the Arab countries, the socialist and non-aligned countries, the peace- and justice-loving peoples all over the world, are bound to take their revolution to glorious victories.

YEMEN ARAB REPUBLIC

H.E. Colonel Ali Abdullah Saleh,

President of the Yemen Arab Republic

It is my pleasure, on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, to convey to you, and through you to this international assembly, my personal gratitude and the appreciation of the Yemen Arab Republic for the vigorous efforts of your Committee and the United Nations to achieve victory for the just cause of the Palestinian people.

This international demonstration once again indicates, above all, the support of the international community, in the shape of the United Nations, for the right of the Palestinian people to exercise self-determination and to establish their own independent State.  This assembly within the framework of the United Nations proves that the Charter continues to provide a source of inspiration by spreading the principles of truth and justice, liberation, independence and sovereignty for all oppressed peoples.

It would be no distortion of the truth to say that the question of the Palestinian people has been and continues to be the vital and practical touchstone for the credibility of the Charter of the United Nations.  Although the strivings of that people have not yet resulted in the attainment of their legitimate and justified rights, the United Nations has nevertheless been able sincerely to reflect the concern of the international community at the deterioration of the political situation in the Middle East and the continued suffering of the Palestinian people under the yoke of colonization by Zionist settlers.  The decision of the General Assembly to designate this day as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People only serves to confirm the continuation of support and backing for the struggle of the Palestinian people.

The continued suffering of the Palestinian people and the subjection of Arab States to constant Zionist aggression are matters of inescapable moral and historical responsibility for the permanent members of the Security Council.  The "iron fist" policy adopted against the struggle of the Palestinian people and the Arab community has proved incapable of quelling and taming the spirit of battle and defiance.

We wish to reaffirm once again that the essence of the Middle East problem is the question of Palestine.  Unless a just and honourable solution is found to this issue, there will be no stability and security in the region.  Such a solution is possible only if the Palestinian people exercise their legitimate rights and if the Israeli occupation of all occupied Palestinian and Arab territories, including the Holy City of Jerusalem, is ended.

I would like on this occasion once again to reaffirm the determination of the Yemen Arab Republic to assist and support the struggle of the Palestinian people, under the leadership of their sole, legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, to recover their legitimate rights, to return to their homeland and to establish their own independent State on their national soil.

I am pleased to express my deep gratitude and appreciation for your efforts and the role played by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.  These efforts constitute a service to the Charter of the United Nations and to the principles of world peace.

We hope that this occasion will lead to the fulfilment of the Palestinian people's hopes and aspirations for a life of dignity and freedom in their own territory, as well as to the prevalence of justice and truth throughout the world.

YUGOSLAVIA

H.E. Mr. Sinan Hasani, President of the Presidency

of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I would like to express this time again, on behalf of the peoples and nationalities of Yugoslavia, the Presidency of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and in my own name, the full support to, and solidarity with, the heroic struggle of the Palestinian people for freedom, self-determination, independence and its own State on its national soil.

Under the leadership of its only and legitimate representative – the Palestine Liberation Organization – the Palestinian people has shown its readiness to seek a just solution for the exercise of its inalienable rights by peaceful means, through negotiations and On the basis of justice and equality.  Therefore, its determination not to allow any solution without it or at its expense deserves strong support of the international community.

The Israeli policy of force, aggression and expansion represents the main obstacle to the self-determination of the Palestinian people and, over the years, it has prevented all attempts and initiatives for a just, comprehensive and lasting solution of the crisis in the Middle East and of the question of Palestine which is at its core.  However, futile are the attempts to break the will and just aspirations of the Palestinian people by terror and the violation of its basic human rights.

The Palestinian people, who has its full ethnic, geographical, historical, cultural and, through the Palestine Liberation Organization, political identity, is exposed to the most brutal acts of the policy of fait accompli, colonization, annexation and the denial of national identity.  New efforts must be made to put an end to the Israeli policy that denies its rights to the Palestinian people and peace to the whole region of the Middle East and transforms it into one of the most dangerous hotbeds of crisis and a continued threat to international peace and security.

It is our deep conviction that there can be no comprehensive, lasting and just solution to the crisis in the Middle East without an unconditional withdrawal of Israel from all the Palestinian and Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, and without the realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to freedom, self-determination, return to its homes and without its right to establish its own State on its national soil.  It is only in this way that the right of all peoples and countries of this region to independence and secure development within the internationally-recognized borders can be realized.

For 25 years now, the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries has pointed to the need for a just solution of the question of Palestine and the situation in the Middle East. At the Eighth Summit Conference in Harare, the heads of State or Government of the non-aligned countries reasserted once again their full support to, and solidarity with, the Palestinian people.  They urged the United Nations again to provide an adequate framework for a just and lasting solution of the question of Palestine and the entire crisis in the Middle East on the basis of the relevant resolutions and decisions of the General Assembly and the Security Council.  In this connection, they called upon the Security Council to consider the setting-up of a preparatory committee, with the participation of the Council, in order to establish effective ways and means for the holding of an international peace conference on the Middle East under the auspices of the General Assembly.

Together with other non-aligned countries, Yugoslavia considers that it is necessary to invest even more resolute efforts to support, through negotiations, the people determined to realize its right to self-determination, homeland and the place in the community of peoples that rightfully belongs to it.  Expressing full solidarity with the Palestinian people and its legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, Yugoslavia will continue to make its full contribution to these efforts.

ZAMBIA

H.E. Dr. Kenneth D. Kaunda, President of Zambia

On behalf of the Government and the people of the Republic of Zambia, I wish on this special occasion to reaffirm our continued solidarity with the Palestinian people who is engaged in a just struggle for its inalienable rights to freedom, justice and a homeland of its own, in Palestine, under the leadership of the PLO, its sole and authentic representative.  We hold the view that unless the question of Palestine is justly addressed, the tense situation in the Middle East will continue to deteriorate. It is indeed in the best interest of all in the region and the international community at large that a peaceful and comprehensive solution is found urgently in order to end the suffering of the Palestinian people.

We in Zambia believe that peace in the Middle East cannot be achieved by aggressive practices and the intransigency which Israel has for a long time employed.  There must be a genuine attitude for compromise and accommodation in order to create the essential atmosphere of mutual trust and confidence.  We thus, once again, call for the immediate and unconditional Israeli withdrawal from all Arab-occupied territories since 1967.  I reiterate Zambia's firm conviction that Member States of the United Nations should scrupulously adhere to the principle of non-acquisition of territories by force.  To this end, I wish to appeal for the implementation of Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) which provide a peaceful-process for realizing the aspirations of the Palestinians to self-determination and independence in a State of their own.  We believe that if a just solution is found, Israel can peacefully co-exist with her Arab neighbours in secure and internationally-recognized boundaries.  It is in the interest of Israel, as it is indeed in the interest of the Palestinians, to strive for lasting peace in the Middle East.  One way of achieving this goal is by negotiating through multilateral process.  We therefore call on Israel and her allies not to continue rejecting the call for an international conference on the Middle East, which will address all the aspects of the Middle East conflict.

May I, in conclusion, Mr. Chairman, commend you and your Committee for the excellent manner in which you have continued to mobilize international support for the Palestinian people.

C. Messages from Ministers for Foreign Affairs

CUBA

H.E. Mr. Isidoro Malmierca, Minister for Foreign Affairs

On the occasion of yet another anniversary of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I wish to reaffirm the support of the people and Government of the Republic of Cuba for the just struggle being waged by the Palestinian people under the leadership of its sole legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, for the restoration of its inalienable national rights – a struggle which this Committee so nobly champions.

For years the international community has witnessed the expansionist and genocidal policy which the Government of Tel Aviv has pursued against the Arab people and, in particular, against the Palestinian people.

Israel, in complicity with the Government of the United States – which under cover of its "strategic alliance" is seeking to impose a solution to the Middle East conflict that takes into account only United States imperialist interests – has repeatedly violated those people's most fundamental rights.

Given the present international situation, which is characterized by an aggressive imperialistic policy that manifests itself in the constant use of force, intervention and interference in the internal affairs of other States, the international community and particularly the United Nations must adopt effective measures designed to resolve the existing crises and prevent new crises from arising.

In the Middle East, in particular, it is necessary to combine efforts so that all parties concerned may participate in serious negotiations on the various aspects of this problem which has turned into a generalized conflict although its central nucleus is the Palestine question.

Clearly there can be no solution to the crisis unless the right of the Palestinian people to establish its own sovereign and independent State is taken into account.

With that goal of peace and justice in mind, the United Nations and, in particular, the Committee over which you so nobly preside has made innumerable efforts to find a just and lasting solution to the question of Palestine. The convening of an International Peace Conference on the Middle East under the auspices of the United Nations and with the participation of all parties concerned, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, would be the most suitable framework and the appropriate forum for that purpose.

Cuba reaffirms its support for the convening of that Conference and urges other countries to give it their support too. The entire international community has a responsibility to seek peace in the Middle East.

Accordingly, we reiterate once again that the Palestinian people may always rely on the unshakeable support and full solidarity of the Cuban people in its untiring struggle against imperialism and zionism to secure its right to self-determination and the right of the refugees to return to their homes and to

create an independent State in Palestinian territory.

I take this opportunity to thank you, on behalf of the Government and people of Cuba, for the role you are playing as Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, in support of the legitimate struggle of that heroic people.

GHANA

H.E. Dr. Obed Y. Asamoah,

PNDC Secretary for Foreign Affairs

It gives me great pleasure, on this memorable occasion, to reaffirm, on behalf of the Government and people of Ghana, unequivocal support for the people of Palestine under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (the PLO). The observance of this solemn occasion provides yet another opportunity for reinforcing the awareness of world opinion about the facts underlying the Palestinian problem.

It is a matter of deep regret that the momentum generated a couple of years ago in galvanizing international support for resolving the Palestinian problem is now on the wane. This unfortunate situation has not only worsened the plight of millions of Palestinians who continue to be denied fundamental human rights, but has presented a false picture of political calmness in a situation that is potentially dangerous. It is the hope of the Government and people of Ghana that both sides would exercise the maximum flexibility and the spirit of give-and-take at this critical juncture so that an acceptable solution can be found to this problem.

In this regard, Ghana remains convinced that, for a comprehensive and lasting peace, justice will have to be done to the Palestinians. It is also the view of Ghana that those the Palestinians themselves have selected as their leaders should be allowed to participate in all international negotiations on the Palestinian question without any pre-conditions.

GREECE

H.E. Mr. Karolos Papoulias, Minister for Foreign Affairs

As in the past, so today, the international community is called to commemorate the quest for justice of the Palestinians, in celebrating the Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. It is a quest which is indeed lying at the centre of the Middle East problem. Its long and tortuous path has increasingly alerted governments all over the world that there cannot possibly be any peace or prosperity for the peoples in the region as long as the issue of the future of the Palestinians remains unresolved.

In accordance to well-established principles, Greece believes that, as all the States are entitled to exist within secure and internationally recognized borders, so must the Palestinian people equally be given the opportunity freely to exercise its right to self-determination with a view to the creation of its own independent State.

The settlement of the problem, already long overdue, will only begin to take shape if the Palestinians are given the opportunity to participate, along with all others concerned, in the peace process, through their sole legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization.  Greece will continue to encourage their struggle for self-determination and the creation of their own State.

Furthermore, Greece has always strongly supported the task of the United Nations and the work of its competent special body, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, and emphasize the role it can play in adherence to the existing resolutions of the General Assembly and of the Security Council for the settlement of the issue. In conjunction with the above, Greece would like to stress the issue of the withdrawal of Israeli troops from all occupied territories since 1967.

Finally an international conference of all the parties that have legitimate rights and interests in the area could be a major contribution towards a peaceful solution.

Greece will continue to support the tireless efforts undertaken by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People for the accomplishment of its difficult but vital task. It is our belief, which is accompanied by the ever-growing feeling that an increasing number of people all over the world are awakening to the magnitude and importance of the problem, that peace and stability in the region and the rest of the world can only be reached through a just, lasting and comprehensive settlement of the question of Palestine.

JAPAN

H.E. Mr. Tadashi Kuranari, Minister for Foreign Affairs

On the ninth International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I wish to extend, on behalf of the Government of Japan, cordial greetings to you, Mr. Chairman, and to the other members of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

In reflecting upon the plight of the Palestinian people, we find it profoundly regrettable that there are no signs that the situation has improved, nor any prospects for the settlement of the Palestinian question.  Needless to say, the Palestinian problem is at the core of the Middle East issue as a whole, and until that problem is settled, a just, lasting and comprehensive peace cannot be achieved in the Middle East.

For the realization of peace in the region, it is essential that Israel should completely withdraw from the Arab territories that it has occupied since the 1967 war, and that the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination, should be recognized and respected in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.  The right to self-determination includes the right to establish an independent State.  At the same time, the right to exist of all States in the region must be ensured.

I am pleased to note on this occasion that international awareness of the Palestinian problem is growing year by year.  I take this opportunity to affirm that I will spare no effort in extending assistance to the Palestinian people.  The Government of Japan has in fact already extended to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) cash contributions totalling $69 million, and food assistance with a total value of $42 million. Furthermore, Japan has decided this year to co-operate with the UNRWA school-construction project in Jordan.  My Government also began last year to receive Palestinian trainees and is this year considering technical co-operation to the UNRWA vocational training centre.

I wish to appeal to the Palestinian people so that it makes further effort to strengthen its solidarity and, from a realistic point of view, it works towards a solution of the Palestine problem through negotiations in which all parties concerned, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, participate.  It is my earnest hope that, through those efforts, peace will be realized in the Middle East as soon as possible.

LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA

H.E. Mr. Jadallah Azzuz Al-Talhi, Secretary of the General

People's Committee of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

The commemoration each year of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People symbolizes the growing conviction of the international community with respect to the justice of the Palestinian cause and the legitimacy of the struggle of the Palestinian people to attain their evident and inalienable national rights, foremost among which are their rights to exercise self-determination and to establish their own independent State on all of their national soil.

This international occasion clearly reflects the conscientious political commitment of the international community to support for the Palestinian people's battle to protect themselves in the camps, where they are threatened with annihilation, and to defend their cause in international circles, where that cause is threatened with abandonment.

This conviction and commitment reflect the self-evident facts of the conflict in the region, foremost amongst which is the fact that the Palestine problem lies at the heart of the Middle East crisis and that peace and stability cannot be achieved in the Middle East unless a just and lasting solution is found to the question of the Palestinian people, taking into account the inalienable rights of that people.

The Zionist entity has for the last 16 years refused, and continues to refuse, to recognize the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories. It continues to refuse to co-operate with the Committee or to permit it to visit the occupied Palestinian territories, in a shameless and conspicuous attempt to conceal the nature of the Zionist occupation authorities' practices in the occupied Arab territories, which constitutes a flagrant violation of international instruments and norms. These practices have been condemned by the General Assembly of the United Nations in clear and specific resolutions at each of its sessions.

The determination of the Israeli entity not to recognize your Committee or to co-operate with it derives from the policy of aggression and expansion pursued by the Zionist entity.  No precedent has been established in ancient or modern history for that racist policy other than in the case of South Africa, where we observe another racist régime which bases its power on the same ideological concept as that used by the racist Zionist régime in occupied Palestine.  Zionist theory embraces the principle of selection or superiority on the basis of religious legends and purity of blood, while the racist régime in South Africa embraces a theory of selection based on race and colour.  The victims of these two quasi-Nazi theories are the indigenous inhabitants and legitimate owners of their respective homelands and resources. The two régimes practise a policy of tyranny and oppression against the indigenous inhabitants with the aim of forcing them to flee and so evicting them from the land.

These two movements are the two most odious racist movements seen in history.  Yet, despite the international consensus in condemning them, there are still some who support them, pitting their faith in a strategic alliance with one and in constructive engagement with the other.

The United States of America has in fact, since the conclusion of its strategic agreement become a direct partner of the Zionist entity, bearing the lion's share of responsibility for all the aggressive and expansionist wars initiated by the Zionist entity for the purposes of expansion and the establishment of Greater Israel. The United States is also responsible for the policy of contentiousness towards and disregard for relevant United Nations resolutions, foremost among the examples of which is the denial by the Zionist entity of the rights of the Palestinian people to return to their homeland, to exercise self-determination and to establish their own state.

The international community is today more than ever before calling for increased efforts and support for the Palestinian people and the triumph of its  just struggle.

International solidarity with the Palestinian people gives tangible expression to the world's rejection of aggressive and racist Zionist policies and practices.  It also constitutes indirect condemnation of any strategic or non-strategic alliance with the Zionist entity, since such an alliance will serve only to ensure the military superiority of the Zionist entity and to encourage it to persist in its disregard for United Nations resolutions and the will of the international community.  International solidarity with the people of Palestine is equivalent to clear condemnation of the positions of those whose words are inconsistent with their deeds, those who speak of the rights of peoples to self-determination and self-defence but who remain as silent as the grave when discussion turns to the rights to self-determination and self-defence of the Palestinian people.

World solidarity with the Palestinian people, and the measure of commitment and sympathy thus implied, is in fact a true indication of the desire of the international community to defend the principles upon which the United Nations was founded, the purposes laid down by the Charter and the aims inherent in the concept of human rights.

We express our gratitude and appreciation for the efforts of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and we also praise its efforts to awaken the conscience of the world and to reveal the true nature of the aggressive racist Zionist policies and practices perpetrated by the Zionist entity.  We are Confident that the Committee will eventually be successful in mobilizing international public opinion and making it aware of the justice of the Palestinian cause, the legitimacy of the Palestinian people's demands and their right to defend those demands by all the means at their disposal.  If world solidarity with the Palestinian people endures and increases, it will inevitably bring closer the day of the Palestinian people's triumph and the realization of all their legitimate and justified hopes.

While expressing our gratitude and appreciation for the efforts of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, we strongly condemn the position of the Zionist entity with regard to the Committee, its non-recognition of the Committee's mandate and the entity's refusal to grant it permission to visit the occupied Palestinian territories in order to carry out its assigned task of investigating illegal and illegitimate practices in occupied Palestine.

I have no need to emphasize that the Palestine refugee question, despite its importance, is only one component of the question of Palestine.  While it is true that the question of Palestine can be solved only by a solution of the Palestine refugee question, it is also true that a just, lasting and comprehensive solution of the Palestine refugee question can be achieved only through a solution of the question of Palestine.  The question of Palestine concerns an entire people which has been driven from its homeland by terrorism and violence, whose land has been usurped by force and aggression and which has been stripped of its rights through coercion and deceit.  This question may be solved only through recognition of the established, legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, foremost among which are their rights to return to their homeland, to exercise self-determination, to declare their independence and to establish their own State on all of their national soil.

OMAN

H.E. Mr. Youssuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah,

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs

On this day every year, the States of the world express their solidarity with the Palestinian people with a view to the restoration of its land and the exercise of its right to self-determination and to the establishment of an independent State in its homeland. This underscores the fact that the crisis in the Middle East, the core of which is the Palestinian question, which we debate session after session, is one of the most dangerous threats to peace and security in our region and in the world as a whole. It therefore poses a major challenge to the credibility of the international community in its efforts to uphold the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

This International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, which we commemorate each year in conformity with General Assembly resolution 32/40 B of 2 December 1977, reaffirms the sacred and inalienable rights of this people, and the need for international action at all levels so that these rights may be exercised in full.

In conclusion, I should like to take this opportunity to express our deep appreciation to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People for its efforts at the international level to find a just and lasting solution to the problem of the Palestinian people.

REPUBLIC OF KOREA

H.E. Mr. Kwang Soo Choi, Minister for Foreign Affairs

On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I wish to reaffirm, on behalf of the Government and people of the Republic of Korea, our continued support for the Palestinian people in their struggle fully to exercise its inalienable rights to self-determination and to achieve national independence.

The question of Palestine, for decades, has been one of the most critical and challenging problems facing the international community.  As the legitimate demands of the Palestinian people continue to go unmet, the situation in the Middle East remains highly unstable and volatile.

Despite the aspirations and common efforts of all the peace-loving peoples of the world, as expressed by the adoption of Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) and other relevant resolutions adopted by the United Nations and other international organizations, the question of Palestine is yet to be resolved and tension in the region is still high.  We are particularly concerned about the magnitude of the suffering the Palestinian people have been subject to, resulting from the continuing instability in the area. It is this humanitarian dimension involved that makes the early settlement of the Palestine question all the more imperative.

The Republic of Korea has repeatedly urged that every effort be made and every possible avenue be sought to achieve the settlement of the Palestine question as early as possible, with a view not only to strengthening the peace and security in the region but to alleviating and mitigating the long suffering befallen upon the Palestinian people.  It is the strong conviction of the Republic of Korea that the settlement of the Palestine question should be based on the spirit of peace and reconciliation by all the parties concerned and also be worked out in a manner which can ensure a just and lasting peace in the region.

To achieve a durable solution of the Palestine question, the Republic of Korea believes that fundamental principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, particularly the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, the peaceful settlement of international disputes and the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force, should be recognized and fully respected. On the basis of this conviction, the Korean Government reiterates its position that a settlement of the Palestine question should include the following:

1. The legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination, should be exercise to the fullest;

2. International disputes should be settled not by force but through peaceful negotiations, and acquisition of territory by force is inadmissible;

3. The Israeli forces should withdraw from the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem.

In commemorating this solemn occasion, the Government of the Republic of Korea renews its firm commitment that it will continue to do its part, as it has done before, to help create the international environment conducive to the early settlement of the Palestine question, and also to extend humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people who has been enduring the scourge of conflict with the display of sheer courage and determination.

Finally, I take this opportunity to pay a high tribute to the Chairman and members of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People for their endeavour to bring about a peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine.

UKRAINIAN SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC

H.E. Mr. Vladimir A. Kravets, Minister for Foreign Affairs

On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, we express our deep appreciation to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People for its untiring efforts to fulfil the mandate given to it by the General Assembly.  Israel's aggressive designs, as well as Washington's anti-Arab and anti-Palestine policies, continue to cause acute tensions in the Middle East.  In these circumstances, it is ever more necessary and urgent to achieve a comprehensive and just settlement in the Middle East, on the basis of the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all Arab territories occupied since 1967, as well as on the basis of the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the creation of an independent State. Achievement of these goals without delay requires holding an international conference with the participation of all interested parties, including the Palestine Liberation Organization (the PLO), the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, as well as take up immediate practical steps to convene such a conference, rather than the separate defeatist deals to which imperialists and circles close to them instigate the Arabs. Of great importance in this context is the recent Soviet proposal to establish, in the framework of the Security Council, a preparatory committee of the international conference on the Middle East.  Activities of the Committee to mobilize public support for the convening of such a conference also deserve our appreciation.  The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic expresses its unwavering solidarity with the just struggle of the Palestinian people for the realization of its inalienable national rights. Unity of the PLO guarantees the successful outcome of its courageous anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist struggle.

Taking this opportunity I wish you, Mr. Chairman, and all members of the Committee every success in your work aimed at the speedy realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. I would like to assure you that representatives of our Republic will continue to participate actively in the work of this important United Nations organ and in the fulfillment of its important task.

D.  Messages from Governments

BULGARIA

H.E. Mr. Boris Tsvetkov, Permanent Representative of Bulgaria

to the United Nations, on behalf of the Council of Ministers

of the People's Republic of Bulgaria

On behalf of the Bulgarian people, we extend to the Palestinian resistance movement and to the Palestinian people cordial greetings on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, as well as sincere wishes for victory in its difficult struggle to attain its inalienable national rights – the right to self-determination and the right to a free, independent and democratic State on its own land.

The People's Republic of Bulgaria unswervingly supports the Palestinian patriots and the Arab national liberation movement. The Bulgarian people hope that the Palestinian resistance movement will be able to re-establish its unity and cohesion on a principled, anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist and patriotic basis, and strengthen its joint action with the Arab peoples who firmly and coherently oppose Israeli aggression, imperialist, Zionist and reactionary plots, and any attempts to draw the Arab peoples, into separatist deals or acts of capitulation, to the detriment of their basic national interests.

Be assured that the People's Republic of Bulgaria will in future not wave in its solidarity with the struggle of your people and other Arab peoples for the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East through the convening of an international conference on the Middle East, under the auspices of the United Nations and with the participation of all the parties concerned, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of the Arab people of Palestine.

BYELORUSSIAN SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC

H.E. Mr. Lev I. Maksimov, Permanent Representative of the

Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic to the United Nations

As in previous years, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People was widely observed in the Byelorussian SSR in 1986. Many features in the periodical press, on television and on radio were devoted to the occasion.  A greeting by the USSR Council of Ministers to the Palestine Liberation Organization, in connection with the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, was proclaimed and published, expressing the solidarity of the Soviet people with the valiant struggle by the Palestinian people to exercise its inalienable right to self-determination and secure a truly just Middle Eastern settlement, and stressing that the unity of the Palestinian movement, based on anti-imperialist principles, and its oneness with the patriotic forces of the Arab world safeguard the success of that struggle.

The general public in the Byelorussian SSR was provided with detailed information on the special meeting at United Nations Headquarters devoted to the International Day, where a statement was also made on behalf of the Byelorussian SSR, and on the debates at the United Nations on the questions of Palestine and the situation in the Middle East during the forty-first session of the General Assembly.

At meetings of public representatives and in media features, attention was drawn to the need for an immediate settlement of the Palestinian problem, which lies at the heart of any Middle Eastern settlement, and the restoration to the Palestinian people of its inalienable rights, including the right to self-determination and the foundation of their own sovereign State. It was stressed that an international peace conference on the Middle East, held under United Nations auspices, in which all interested countries could take part – including the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people – could represent a positive step in that direction. In this regard, unanimous support was expressed for the proposal by the USSR, endorsed in General Assembly resolutions 41/43 D and 41/162 A, to create a preparatory committee, with the participation of the permanent members of the Security Council, to take the necessary action to convene an international conference on the Middle East.

The main obstacle to collective efforts to bring about a universal, just and lasting peace in the Middle East is Israel's expansionist, anti-Arab policy course, which is being pursued with the full support and assistance of the United States and international zionism.

The workers of the Republic, like all Soviet people, fully support the consistent and principled policy of the Community Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet State regarding the question of a Middle Eastern settlement, reaffirmed by Mr. Mikhail Gorbachev, the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, during his recent visit to India; the nub of that policy is the pressing need for a just, comprehensive and lasting settlement to the Middle Eastern problem, based on complete, unconditional withdrawal of Israeli forces from all occupied Arab territories and the restoration of the Palestinian people of its inalienable rights, including the right to self-determination and the foundation of its own sovereign State in accordance with existing United Nations resolutions, but based on the guaranteed right of all States in the region to independent existence.

The working people of the Byelorussian SSR express their solidarity with the struggle by the Arab people of Palestine to exercise its inalienable national rights and to secure a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

H.E. Mr. Jaroslav César, Permanent Representative

of Czechoslovakia to the United Nations

On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Arab people of Palestine, we extend to you and all the Palestinian people cordial greetings and congratulations on behalf of the people of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.

The Czechoslovak people closely follow and support in every respect the courageous and just struggle of the Arab Palestinian people for the implementation of its inalienable national rights, including the right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent State on the soil of its homeland.  Along with all progressive and peace-loving forces of the whole world, we resolutely condemn the aggressive policy of the ruling circles of Israel, supported by American imperialism.  An indispensable condition of success in the struggle of the Palestinian people, in our view, is the firm unity of the Palestinian resistance movement on an anti-imperialist and democratic basis, as well as a resolute position of solidarity with its just cause on the part of all the Arab countries.

The dangerous development of the situation in the Middle East proves convincingly that all separate and unilateral steps toward resolving the Palestinian question that ignores the rights of the Palestinian people play only in the hands of Israel's expansionist plans and increase the tension in the region. The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic therefore fully supports a just, comprehensive settlement of the situation in the Middle East through the convening of an international conference, with equal participation of all interested parties, including the PLO, as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

We are deeply convinced that, through joint and resolute efforts by all progressive, democratic and anti-imperialist forces of the Arab countries and of the whole world, the Arab Palestinian people will achieve final victory in its just struggle for the implementation of the noble goals of the Palestinian revolution.

HUNGARY

Mr. Miklós Endreffy, Deputy Permanent

Representative of Hungary to the United Nations

On the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, we extend, on behalf of the Hungarian people, sincere best wishes to the Palestinian people and the Palestine Liberation Organization struggling for a just cause.

The Hungarian people follows with understanding and sympathy the struggle of the Palestinian people for its inalienable national rights, its right to self-determination and the right to establish an independent State of its own.  We are convinced that a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Middle East crisis is only possible through an international peace conference, to be held with the participation of all the parties concerned, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.  The settlement of the crisis would not only benefit the peoples and States of the region, but would also make a significant contribution to the cause of world peace.

In the spirit of solidarity with the Palestinian people, the Hungarian people earnestly wishes success to crown your efforts to restore the unity of the Palestine Liberation Organization and to strengthen co-operation between the forces struggling for a just Middle East settlement.

GUYANA

H.E. Mr. Noel G. Sinclair, Permanent Representative

of Guyana to the United Nations

This year, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is being observed in an environment that has not facilitated the search for a solution to the Palestinian question. The occasion finds us once again saddened by the bitter realization that the Palestinian people still continues to be denied its inalienable and legitimate rights to self-determination and to a homeland.  That notwithstanding, the Palestinian people, led by the Palestine Liberation Organization, its authentic representative, has maintained a relentless struggle against Israel's continuing intransigence and aggression.

What cannot be denied is that the cause of the Palestinians, over the years, has generated an increasing momentum of support throughout the world.  Countries, peoples and organizations, the world over, including Jewish forces within Israel itself, have rallied to the cause and have condemned the injustices and oppression practiced on the Palestinians.  In this respect, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People must be lauded for its single-minded and unswerving commitment to finding a solution to this tragic problem.

The realization of a homeland for the Palestinians is long overdue. Its plight, as it struggles for the right to exist in a State of its own, must be given the urgency and attention that it deserves by the international community.  But the Palestine question does not stand in isolation.  It is the core of the Middle East situation.  For this reason, more than ever before, every effort should be made to convene an international conference on the Middle East as a valuable step forward in the search for peace in the region.

The Government of Guyana has always stood firmly and unequivocally in support of the legitimate rights of the Palestinians.  We have been a member of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People since its creation and have worked with dedication, in unison with other like-minded members, to help to bring about a situation where freedom for the oppressed Palestinians can eventually be achieved.

Today, as we observe this Day of Solidarity, Guyana wishes to reaffirm its support and solidarity with the Palestinian people.  It is our hope that the day would not be too far distant when, like other peoples of this Earth, it can live in peace and freedom, and in the dignity of its own homeland.

MONGOLIA

H.E. Mr. Gendengiin Nyamdoo, Permanent Representative of Mongolia

to the United Nations, on behalf of the Council of Ministers

of the Mongolian People’s Republic

On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people and on behalf of the Mongolian people, the Government of the Mongolian People's Republic reaffirms its militant solidarity with the Palestine Liberation Organization and the heroic Palestinian people and sends them warm congratulations.

The Mongolian people, together with all progressive forces, categorically condemns the ever-deepening 'strategic co-operation' between the imperialist and Zionist circles of the United States and Israel, which are escalating their aggressive intrigues against the Arab peoples, including the Palestinian Arab people. They are threatening the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and the Syrian Arab Republic with armed aggression, undermining the sovereignty and independence of the Lebanese people and openly flouting the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.

We feel that the realization of the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to establish its own State is central to a comprehensive and just settlement of the Middle East problem. Our Government continues to believe that the convening of an international conference under the auspices of the United Nations with the participation of all interested parties, including PLO, is the only sensible way to achieve such a settlement. The Mongolian People's Republic supports the constructive proposal to establish a preparatory committee with the participation of all the permanent members of the Security Council in order to start preparations for such a conference.

We feel that in present circumstances it is especially important to strengthen the unity and solidarity of the Palestinian resistance movement and to step up co-operation among the Arab countries against the aggressive intrigues of imperialism and zionism.

We wish the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, PLO, every success in its efforts to combat the conspiracy of the reactionary forces and to realize the right of the Palestinian people to establish its own State and to find a just solution to the Middle East problem meeting the vital interests of all Arab peoples.

UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS

H.E. Mr. A. M. Belonogov, Permanent Representative of the USSR

to the United Nations, on behalf of the Council of Ministers of the USSR

On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, we congratulate the Palestinian people and its vanguard and sole legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The Soviet Union supports the courageous struggle of the Palestinian people to realize its inalienable right to national self-determination and achieve a truly just Middle East settlement.

The success of this struggle will be ensured by the unity of the Palestinian movement in its anti-imperialist ideology and by its solidarity with the patriotic forces of the Arab world.

E. Statements of Regional Groups at the United Nations

GROUP OF AFRICAN STATES

Mr. José Luis Jesus, Chargé d'Affaires A.I. of Cape Verde

and Chairman of the Group of African States for the month of December

Those of us who, in one stage or another of the history of our countries, have suffered the burden of violence, abuses, discrimination, injustice, and the humiliation of foreign occupation and colonial domination, understand very well the suffering to which the Palestinian people has been subjected over the last four decades.

Dispossessed and driven out from its homeland, this people has become the victim of one of the most enduring and tragic conflicts of our time.

The injustice and untold suffering caused to the Palestinians have found universal condemnation and made of the Palestine question a central and constant preoccupation of the United Nations since its very inception.

In an attempt to reduce the injustices and restore the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, thus putting an end to this dramatic saga, innumerous resolutions have been adopted by the United Nations, countless international seminars and conferences have been held, mediation efforts have not been spared, peace initiatives tabled, and yet, after four decades of destruction and agony, the question of Palestine is still before us.

These various attempts and efforts made by the international community to bring about peace in the Middle East and justice to the Palestinian people have been fruitless owing to the lack of co-operation on the part of Israel which instead has been taking actions that have made a negotiated settlement a more difficult task. These actions are well-documented and have been considered and condemned, time and again, in this Organization.

The policies of and measures taken by Israel aimed at displacing, dispossessing and harassing the Palestinian people obviously cannot contribute to the creation of a political climate conducive to a final settlement of the conflict. The massacres of violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people, and the continued denial of its right to have a State of its own in the land of its ancestors cannot help to bring peace in the region.

The complexity and difficulty of this situation are compounded by the continuation of the occupation and the taking of measures directed at the annexation of Arab territories by Israel, in defiance of international law and United Nations resolutions.

These actions, measures and policies of Israel have not only created obstacles to the achievement of a just and lasting solution to the Palestine question, but have also contributed to the deterioration of the situation in the Middle East.

The history of the last decades has shown that the Palestine question is at the core of the Middle East conflict. The failure to achieve a solution to the Palestine question has, indeed, affected substantially the stability of the Middle East and the surrounding areas.

One of the cardinal principles of the United Nations to which African countries attach the greatest importance and respect is the principle of the non-use of force in international relations. It is therefore distressing to witness the blatant and persistent violation of this principle by Israel.

The practice of using force as a means of settling disputes or conquering territories, which has long been abandoned by the community of nations and is today universally condemned, has been contemptuously revived by Israel, in defiance of the well-established practice and norms of international law, of which the Charter is an important source.

No country can legitimately claim security and peace for itself while at the same time indulging in practices which threaten the very peace and security of others.

The security and recognition that Israel seeks cannot be found and preserved without satisfying the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people. Peace for all States in the Middle East cannot be constructed upon the annexation by Israel of Jerusalem, and its illegal decision of extending its laws, jurisdiction and administration to the Golan Heights. Neither can peace in the region be brought about when, in accordance with recent statements, the Israelis indicated their intention to extend settlements in the occupied territories.

We believe that all States of the Middle East have the right to existence in peace, within secure and internationally-recognized borders.

We also believe that peace in the Middle East is possible and achievable, if Israel recognizes and respects the right to self-determination, independence and national sovereignty of the Palestinian people, including the right to establish its own State, if it ends its illegal occupation of the Arab territories, withdraws from the territories it occupies since 1976, including Jerusalem, and refrains from taking actions such as the expropriation of Palestinian land and the establishment of settlements in Palestinian territory.

This solemn commemoration once again gives us the opportunity to focus the attention of the international public opinion on the need to further the efforts aimed at achieving a negotiated settlement of the Palestine question and the Middle East conflict.

We hold the view that these efforts should ensure peace and security to all peoples in the region and reinstate the Palestinian people in its legitimate rights to self-determination and to establish its own sovereign and independent State.

In this regard, the early convening of the International Peace Conference on the Middle East that has been called for by the General Assembly provides a useful framework in the search for peace in the region. The recommendations of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and the Fez Peace Plan, among other initiatives, offer important guidance to the work of this Conference.  We praise the efforts made by the Secretary-General in connection with the convening of this Conference. We hope that the countries that have not welcomed this decision of the General Assembly will reconsider their position for the sake of peace in the region. The Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, must participate in this Conference, on an equal footing with all concerned parties to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

In conclusion, I wish to pay tribute to the Palestinian people, who has paid and continues to pay a high price for its dignity and rights as a people. Its history and culture and aspirations shall not sink into oblivion. Its existence as a society with its own cultural identification in an independent and sovereign State of its own is a matter of the most sacred justice. It enriches as well the diversity of cultures, traditions and societies that makes the history of human kind a precious treasure and a sublime endeavour of universal togetherness.

The observance of this Day should inspire us all in renewing our efforts and commitments towards achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Middle East conflict, including the question of Palestine. Your personal efforts in this endeavour, Mr. Chairman, and those of the other members of this Committee have been much appreciated.

GROUP OF ARAB STATES

H.E. Mr. Mohammad A. Abulhasan, Permanent Representative

of Kuwait to the United Nations and Chairman of the

Group of Arab States for the month of December

On behalf of the Arab Group, I have the pleasure to express to the members of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People our gratitude and appreciation for the persevering efforts they exert to carry out the mission with which the General Assembly entrusted the Committee, efforts that aim at enabling the Palestinian people to exercise its enduring, inalienable rights, including the rights of return and self-determination by establishing its independent State in Palestine. Observing the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is a quite telling evidence of the commitment of the United Nations to support the Committee's mandate and the Palestinian people's struggle for regaining its homeland.

History proved that no cause drew a more considerable attention and a broader international support than the Palestine issue did. This issue falls within the scope of the United Nations responsibilities by virtue of international customs and legitimacy. And the United Nations, particularly the General Assembly, have adopted numerous resolutions and measures assuring the lawfulness of this cause and the legitimate demands of the Arab Palestinian people. The world Organization has always reaffirmed the legitimacy of implementing the stipulations and terms of those resolutions in accordance with the provisions of international law and the principles and goals of the Charter of the United Nations in a manner that ensures the Palestinian people the full exercise of its legitimate rights.

Despite the justness of the Palestinian cause and the legitimacy of its resultant demands, in all its various dimensions, the Palestinian people still suffers from homelessness and refuge-seeking and is still subject to Israel's aggression and oppressive policies. It lives under the yoke of settlement-style colonialism, with all the persecution, oppression and racism practiced inside occupied Palestine, and the horror and the psychological instability of being hounded in a planned and co-ordinated manner by the Israeli occupation authorities, outside occupied Palestine and in every reachable exile, with the aim of dampening the Palestinians' patriotic spirit, obliterating their identity, dislodging their leadership and even annihilating them physically. It is evident that those Israeli practices and violations of the simplest elementary human rights are incompatible with the provisions of the international covenants on human rights.

Since the emergence of the Palestine question and the tragedy of its people, the Zionist forces and their proponents have been bent on distorting the true image of the Palestinian people and on depicting them as terrorists. Those forces seek to promulgate such distortion and to slander the Arab Palestinian people with false accusations as part of a vicious media campaign that targets by all available means and methods the legitimacy of the Palestinian struggle to catch up with the nations that attained their liberty and independence.

The Arab Group is still hopeful that the world, and particularly the major countries which bear a special responsibility for maintaining international peace and security, will recognize the perils threatening peace and security in the region as a result of denying the Palestinian people the exercise of its legitimate rights. The Group still fosters the hope that big countries, especially the United States, will stand impartially by rightness and justice, and will solemnly seek to find a solution to the Palestine issue through the full and complete recognition of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, particularly its right to self-determination, its right of return, and the right to establish its independent State in Palestine by applying the principles of the Charter and the relevant United Nations resolutions.

In this context, we wish to refer to the Arab peace initiative declared in Fez in September 1982 which was based on the legitimacy of the United Nations role and resolutions. It also provided practical guidelines for a just and enduring solution to the question of Palestine.

It is worth noting that the report and recommendations of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People that were submitted to the thirty-first session of the General Assembly, and have since been endorsed and reaffirmed, are still unfulfilled because of the negative position adopted at the Security Council which prevented the Council from endorsing those recommendations.

The Committee's recommendations and its conclusions on the necessity of finding a just and lasting solution to the question of Palestine must be implemented. The first step towards that end lies in convening an international conference on peace in the Middle East under the auspices of the United Nations, provided that all parties to the conflict, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, participate in it on equal footing as called for and endorsed by the General Assembly. The Arab States stress the importance and necessity of focusing all efforts of the international community on holding this conference as swiftly as possible. We also look to the United Nations for an effective role in preparing for this conference and in standing up to the forces that prevent the world Organization from utilizing its ability and shouldering its responsibilities to rectify matters through enabling the Palestinian people to exercise its inalienable rights. The primary goal of convening this conference should therefore be to insure the Palestinian people's rights to self-determination, repatriation and the creation of its independent State in Palestine by securing Israel's unconditional withdrawal from all occupied Arab territories, including Jerusalem.

Finally, it gives me pleasure to express the support of the Arab Group for the work of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

GROUP OF ASIAN STATES

H.E. Mr. Mohammad A. Abulhasan, Permanent Representative

of Kuwait to the United Nations and Chairman of the

Group of Asian States for the month of December

It gives me pleasure to address you in my capacity as Chairman of the Asian Group for this month in this solemn celebration which the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People holds on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

The Asian nations share the entire international community's belief in the significance of this occasion and its imperative function of keeping alive the memory of the Palestinians' suffering and their natural right to a free, dignified and independent life on their national soil, the right to which all other nations are entitled.

For its part, the United Nations expressed, through numerous resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council, the paramount necessity of solving the Palestinian question in a manner consistent with those resolutions. However, the Palestinian people and its just cause have regrettably not made any progress towards a solution. Rather, its suffering has been exacerbating year after year, and the issue has become a brooder for threats to peace and security and, unless remedied, will remain so.

The Asian countries are of one mind in their deep concern about the developments and complications of this issue. They believe in the imperative of ending the tragedy of this people, and of giving it the opportunity to contribute with the rest of Asian and all other nations to the unfolding process of human civilization, leaning in so doing on its heritage which reaches far back in history and on its acknowledged contributions throughout the ages to the enrichment of civilization and the progress of mankind.

What the Middle East region most yearns for is peace: the lasting and just peace that will not be achieved until the Palestinian issue, as the essence of the Middle East problem, has been settled, through an international peace conference held under the auspices of the United Nations, in conformity with the numerous resolutions, and in which all parties to the problem would participate, including the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The Asian Group hopes that this International Day, which we observe with the other nations of the world, will be a stimulant for redoubling international efforts to solve this issue and an incentive for putting an end to the Palestinian people's tragedy, in order to accomplish peace in the Middle East region, the home of the Prophets and the cradle of heavenly religions, those religions which center on, and call for, the principles of justice, equality, rightness and peace.

The Asian Group, which I am honoured to chair, leans toward the one and firm belief that peace must return to the land of peace.

GROUP OF EASTERN EUROPEAN STATES

H.E. Mr. Harry Ott, Deputy Foreign Minister and Permanent

Representative of the German Democratic Republic to the

United Nations and Chairman of the Group of Eastern

European States for the month of December

First, I wish to thank you for the invitation to participate in the special meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, held today to commemorate the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. In my capacity as Chairman of the Group of European States, I would like to take this opportunity to extend our greetings to the entire Palestinian people and its sole legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, assuring it of our unwavering solidarity. The annual observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People has become a good tradition of the United Nations and the majority of its Member States.  On that day, States and peoples illustrate by vivid examples their manifold and unrestricted support for the just cause of that sorely afflicted people.

Also, during the forty-first session of the General Assembly, it has become once again clear that a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the entire Middle East conflict cannot be achieved without the implementation of the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people.

On the other hand, the annual commemoration of this International Day of Solidarity shows that, despite extensive efforts, no solution to the question of Palestine has been found as yet and that, after almost forty years, the Palestinian people is still denied its inalienable rights, especially its right to national independence and sovereignty. It is well known where the reasons of the continued existence of the Middle East conflict with its core, the question of Palestine, take their roots – a conflict which, under the conditions of our nuclear and space age, is endangering more than ever international peace and security. The main obstacle to a peaceful settlement is the continued occupation by Israel of Arab and Palestinian territories as well as the refusal to recognize the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

Against that background, there is, a growing conviction that the convening of an international peace conference on the Middle East is the only realistic way towards solving the manifold and complex problems affecting one another, including the question of Palestine, in the interests of all States and peoples of the region as well as in the interests of international peace and security.

There is also a growing recognition that such a solution must be brought about without further delay. Therefore, the proposal on the establishment of a preparatory committee within the Security Council as an important practical step along the road towards an international conference on the Middle East has been widely supported.

The establishment of such a committee would be appropriate to expedite the convening of the conference and to set in motion at last the process towards a solution. We regard the discontinuation of the policies of aggression and occupation, Israel's withdrawal from all territories occupied since 1967, the granting of the inalienable rights to the Palestinian people and the recognition of the right of all States of the region to a secure and independent existence as the basis for a comprehensive, just and lasting solution of the Middle East conflict.

A number of relevant proposals based on those principles have been submitted by several States. A comprehensive, just and lasting solution of the Middle East conflict, if it is to be achieved swiftly, requires political will, circumspection and a sense of realism. Determined action by the international community should be taken also, in line with the demands contained in General Assembly resolution 40/96 C, where the Assembly "calls upon the Governments of Israel and the United States of America to reconsider their position towards the attainment of peace in the Middle East through the convening of the Conference".

In my capacity as Chairman of the Group of Eastern European States, I would like to use this opportunity to reiterate our firm solidarity with the just struggle of the Palestinian people and the Palestine Liberation Organization. We will continue to support all endeavours by the United Nations and the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People towards a solution of the question of Palestine.

We are firmly convinced that the recognition is gaining ground, that stability and security and the well-being and development of nations in an increasingly interdependent world can only be ensured under conditions of peace, also in the Middle East.

GROUP OF LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN STATES

H.E. Mr. David Samudio, Jr., Permanent Representative of Panama

to the United Nations and Chairman of the Group of Latin American

and Caribbean States for the month of December

Allow me first to thank the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People for inviting me, as Chairman of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States for this month, to participate in this special meeting in observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The recent debate on the question of Palestine during the current session of the General Assembly confirmed the international community's profound interest in the situation of the Palestinian people and the widespread support that exists for its cause.

The debate also confirmed, once again, the acknowledgement by the international community of the fact that a just solution to the Palestinian problem is essential if a general and lasting peace is to be achieved in the Middle East.

There is already a widespread conviction that no lasting solution to the Middle East conflict is possible unless there is genuine acknowledgement of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and unless that people participates duly in any future settlement. These rights, which have been reaffirmed time and again by the General Assembly, include the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty and to establish its own independent State in Palestinian territory, and the right of the Palestinians to return to their homes and properties.

Another political principle, which the international community accepts as being indispensable for a peaceful solution in the Middle East, establishes the right of every State in the area to exist and to live within secure and internationally recognized boundaries with justice and security for all peoples, which also implies recognition of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, and actual enjoyment by that people of its rights.

The situation in the Middle East is a complex one. Not only does it seriously affect the stability of the region, but it could also have repercussions beyond the region. The tense situation that prevails there constitutes a real threat to international peace and security.

The all too frequent reports of violence in the area underscore the urgent need to take real steps to work out a comprehensive negotiated political settlement that would bring peace and justice to that troubled region.

This noble objective, which the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and the entire international community so long for, will be achieved when the question of Palestine, the main element in the Middle East conflict, is resolved on the basis of Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) and implementation of the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly.

In his report on the work of the Organization for 1986, that distinguished Latin American, Mr. Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Secretary-General of the United Nations, referring to the situation in the Middle East, expressed the deep concern of the entire international community when he stated that “… there is at present an alarming absence of a generally acceptable and active negotiating process. Experience shows all too clearly that such a stalemate encourages resort to extremism and risks the recurrence of wider violence. A way must be found to initiate, as soon as possible, a negotiating process with the participation of all concerned.”

We realize that there continue to be deeply-rooted differences; nevertheless, we Latin American and Caribbean countries adhere to the principle of the peaceful settlement of disputes and we are confident that through dialogue it will be possible to allay suspicion, create an atmosphere of greater trust and overcome the differences so that all peoples of the region may have real hopes of peace which they so richly deserve.

In conclusion, I should like to express our very sincere gratitude to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and to its brilliant and indefatigable Chairman, Ambassador Massamba Sarré of Senegal, for the important work it is doing to promote the cause of the Palestinian people and to enable that people to exercise its rights.

F. Statements by United Nations Committees

SPECIAL COMMITTEE AGAINST APARTHEID

H.E. Mr. Guennadi I. Oudovenko, Permanent Representative

of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic to the United Nations

and Acting Chairman of the Special Committee Against Apartheid

On behalf of the Special Committee against Apartheid and on my own behalf, I would like to thank you as well as the other members of the Committee on the Exercise of the inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People for inviting us to participate in this solemn meeting.

The observance every year of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People at the United Nations is an eloquent recognition of the struggle of this people to recover its inalienable and legitimate rights. This special meeting is also a reflection of the deep concern of the international community over the problem of Palestine and part of the continuous support lent to the Palestinian people in its just struggle under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, to enable it to exercise its inalienable rights to self-determination and the establishment of its own independent State on its land.

The question of Palestine is one of the few issues which have remained in the limelight of the international community since the inception of the United Nations. The overwhelming majority of the Member States of the United Nations hold the view that the non-settlement of this issue constitutes the underlying cause of tensions in the region and the core of the Middle East conflict. The dangerous situation in the region is, above all, the result of the ongoing illegal occupation of territories by Israel and its refusal to recognize the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including its rights to self-determination and the establishment of its own State.

Today, the Palestinian issue is being raised with exceptional gravity and in a new light owing to the serious deterioration of the Middle East conflict, one of the main reasons of which is the aggressive and expansionist policies of Israel.  The current exceedingly complicated and dangerous setting in the Middle East demands immediate and decisive actions on the part of all States that support the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.  By failing to deal with the stubborn realities of this increasingly desperate serious situation, we open the door to further repression, suffering, instability and violence.

The international community has been deeply concerned with the question of Palestine, with the policies of apartheid of the racist régime of South Africa as well as with Namibia.

The agony of the Palestinian people and that of the South African and Namibian peoples is virtually identical.  They are oppressed and deprived of their rights to freedom and self-determination.  In both cases, Israel plays an important role. At a time when the oppressed peoples of Palestine, South Africa and Namibia are going through crucial phases in their struggle for freedom, it is quite important to emphasize the ways in which South Africa and Israel support each other. Israeli assistance to South Africa in the military and nuclear fields has become a serious obstacle to the efforts of the United Nations to eradicate apartheid and a threat to regional and international peace and security.

The magnitude and diversity of the relationship between Israel and South Africa is a source of great alarm for all freedom- and peace-loving peoples.  The concept of co-operation between countries generally should aim at improving the quality and conditions of life of the people concerned. This aspect loses all meaning when we are dealing with the co-operation between Israel and South Africa because this alliance aims at exploiting the Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories and the Africans in South Africa and Namibia.

The collaboration between Israel and South Africa in the political, economic, scientific, military and nuclear fields aims at destruction and domination in order to serve hegemonistic purposes.

As in the past years, the collaboration between Israel and South Africa continues to be a major concern of the international community. A number of resolutions have been adopted by the United Nations and other international and regional organizations which strongly condemned the continuing and increasing collaboration between Israel and South Africa, especially in the military and nuclear fields.

The Special Committee against Apartheid has consistently followed the development of relations between the two countries with increasing concerns and has annually reported to the General Assembly.

In the Political Declaration adopted by the Eighth Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, held in Harare from 1 to 6 September 1986, it is stated:

The General Assembly, in its resolution 41/35 C on the relations between Israel and South Africa, demanded that "Israel desist from and terminate forthwith all forms of collaboration with South Africa, particularly in the economic, military and nuclear fields, and abide scrupulously by the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council."

We are confident that the Palestinian, South African and Namibian peoples will relentlessly continue their genuine and just struggle until their objectives are attained. Those who are engaged in the search for peace in the Middle East and Southern Africa should note that the only peaceful solution can be attained by involving the true and authentic representatives of the peoples concerned, that is, the Palestine Liberation Organization, the African National Congress of South Africa, the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania and the Southwest Africa People's Organization, in any negotiation leading to a just and lasting peace in those regions.

I take this opportunity to reaffirm, on behalf of the Special Committee against Apartheid, our unswerving solidarity and support for the Palestinian people and its just struggle to regain its inalienable rights.

On this day, we also pay tribute to those who fell under fire because of their resolve and determination to recover their national rights.

We are convinced that, with the growing support of the international community, the valiant struggle of the peoples of Palestine, South Africa and Namibia will be crowned with success before too long, because of their unshakable determination to resist occupation and oppression regardless of the sacrifice required.

SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON THE SITUATION WITH REGARD TO THE

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DECLARATION ON THE GRANTING OF

INDEPENDENCE TO COLONIAL COUNTRIES AND PEOPLES

H.E. Mr. Oscar Oramas-Oliva, Permanent Representative of Cuba

to the United Nations and Acting Chairman of the Special Committee

The annual observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, established by a considered decision of the General Assembly, serves to focus the attention of the international community on the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and to give the widest possible exposure to the plight of this people, who continues to be deprived of that right. The observance not only is a measure of the international community's deep concern for the Palestinian people, but also reflects its recognition that a just solution of the Palestinian problem is of overriding importance. The Palestinian question is the core of the entire Middle East problem and there can be no solution to this problem without the restoration of the rights of the Palestinians.

As we are all aware, the situation in the Middle East not only vitally affects the stability in the region but carries a potential threat to the peace and security of the entire world. Despite the gravity of this threat, and despite the tremendous efforts that have been made to find a just and lasting solution to the problem, it continues to be one of the most intractable issues facing the international community. The fact that peace in the Middle East has eluded us for so long indeed dictates us to intensify our search for a solution. Our commitment to this goal must be reinforces with a sense of urgency.

Members of the Special Committee attach great significance to the mobilization of international opinion towards the attainment of the objectives of the United Nations on the question of self-determination for all people under alien or colonial domination. We are profoundy aware of the power of an alert and informed world public opinion in the struggle against injustice, oppression and alien and colonial domination. I am confident therefore that our meeting today will serve not only as a reminder for the Organization that it must redouble its efforts in the finding of a just solution to the question of Palestine, but also as a clear message to the world at large in solidarity with and support for the cause of the Palestinian people. In doing so, we shall be serving the cause of justice and peace.

The situation today remains most critical and explosive, as uncertainty, discord and violence continue to prevail in the area. On this important occasion, it becomes all the more important therefore that we firmly rededicate ourselves to the promotion of a genuine and lasting settlement of the Middle East conflict.  However, as I stated at the outset, the attainment of such an objective will continue to elude us unless the core of the Middle East conflict – namely the Palestinian question – is resolved. We must therefore work diligently for the realization of that objective and for the creation of all the conditions favourable to a just and lasting peace in the area. These include the realization of the inalienable right of the Palestinian to self-determination, including the right to establish an independent State, the right of all States in the area to an independent existence and the strict observance of the principle of non-acquisition of territory by force. In this connection, we are mindful of the call by the General Assembly, in its resolution 38/58, for an early convocation of an international peace conference on the Middle East.

This important day provides us with an appropriate occasion to reiterate once again our solemn commitment and determination to extend maximum support to the Palestinian people and to associate ourselves with the defence of its noble cause. In this context, and in keeping with the relevant decisions of the General Assembly, it is incumbent upon all of us to work closely and to co-operate fully with the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People in the discharge of its important task, to enable the Palestinian people to decide its destiny in accordance with its freely expressed wish and its true aspirations. For only through our collective efforts and through the complete implementation of the relevant decisions of the United Nations can the injustice inflicted upon the Palestinian people be corrected.

Before concluding, I should like to acknowledge with appreciation the very important work carried out by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People under the outstanding and dedicated leadership of H.E. Mr. Sarré, Ambassador of Senegal.

SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE ISRAELI PRACTICES

AFFECTING THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE POPULATION

OF THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

H.E. Mr. Nissanka Wijewardane, Permanent Representative

of Sri Lanka to the United Nations and

Chairman of the Special Committee

On behalf of my two colleagues of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories, and on my own behalf, I have the honour to convey to you this message on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

Since its establishment eighteen years ago, following the 1967 hostilities and the ensuing territorial occupation by Israel, the Special Committee has continuously endeavoured to put before the General Assembly a clear and complete picture of the situation in the occupied territories as it affects the human rights of the civilian population.

The persistent lack of co-operation of the Government of Israel with the Special Committee, which has been illustrated by a constant denial by the Israeli authorities of the opportunity to visit the occupied territories, has not prevented the Special Committee from fulfilling its mandate in an accurate way and from reflecting in its reports a faithful picture of the reality of the human rights situation in the occupied territories.

Having examined and analyzed, as in previous years, the information and evidence put before it, the Special Committee has drawn the conclusion that the situation in the occupied territories suffers from a continuing deterioration as regards respect for the human rights of the civilian population.

The implementation by the Israeli authorities of the iron-fist policy in the occupied territories, marked by a notable increase in the number of arrests and the severity of sentences imposed, even in the case of minors, by a revival, on a large scale, of practices contradictory to recognized standards of international humanitarian law, such as the issuing of administrative detention, expulsion and deportation orders, and by the use of the reprehensive practice of collective punishment, has provided the background for the escalation of violence, which has also been illustrate by an increasingly hostile attitude of the settlers towards the civilian population. This climate of tension has led to an aggravation of the incidents occurring daily in the occupied territories, often causing demonstrations and strikes, usually followed by the establishment of curfews and various other restrictions, and resulting, in the last analysis, to yet more violence.

In addition to such forms of harassment, the civilian population in the occupied territories continue to be the victims of severe limitations in the exercise of their fundamental freedoms. The right to freedom of movement is hindered by various obstacles such as house or town arrest orders, trade unions are being threatened and their leaders harassed, newspapers are submitted to censorship and closing measures, various obstacles are limiting the functioning and development of educational institutions and the free expression of the Palestinian cultural identity.

Furthermore, attention needs also to be drawn to the plight of those Palestinians who are still outside the occupied territories and are persistently being denied by the Israeli authorities the enjoyment of their fundamental right to return to their homeland.

In view of the foregoing, I should like once again, together with my colleagues of the Special Committee, to make an appeal to the international community to assume its responsibilities towards the civilians in the occupied territories, by sparing no efforts to help them assert the rights and freedoms of which they have been deprived.

UNITED NATIONS COUNCIL FOR NAMIBIA

H.E. Mr. Hocine Djoudi, Permanent Representative of Algeria

to the United Nations and Acting President of the

United Nations Council for Namibia

On behalf of the United Nations Council for Namibia, I should like to express our gratitude for the invitation to participate in this International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The United Nations Council for Namibia can certainly grasp fully the significance of this commemorative meeting. The obvious parallel between its mandate and that of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, like the close analogy between the ordeal of the Namibian people and that of the Palestinian people, bring our two bodies together in the common cause of promoting the inalienable rights of peoples fighting for their freedom.

Every day brings new evidence of the systematic usurpation of the lands of the Palestinian people by the occupying Power and that Power's attempt to perpetuate its domination over the plundered territories. The development and illegal establishment of settlements have led to the expropriation of more than 60 per cent of Palestinian lands. This expansionist policy is moreover being carried out in all the occupied Arab territories, as the relevant United Nations report shows.

In occupied Palestine, armed raids on educational establishments, house searches, the destruction of homes, physical violence and the persecution of Arab citizens have become a part of everyday life. The purpose of the resulting oppression is to pressure the Palestinians to flee their lands. Moreover, the Palestinians are pursued even in the refugee camps, which are under constant attack and face many difficulties, including the blocking of medical or humanitarian aid intended for them.

Even places of worship do not escape Zionist desecration in occupied Palestine. We well remember the serious acts perpetrated against the sanctuary of Haram Al-Sharif last March. That attack on a place sacred to millions of Muslims the world over has been followed by the criminal self-styled proclamation of the city of Al-Quds as the eternal capital of Israel, which the international community condemned unanimously and the Security Council declared null and void.

This wave of repression on the part of the occupier, however, far from quelling the courageous struggle of the Palestinian people, serves as its catalyst. The Palestinian people, which has never paused in its fierce struggle for the liberation of its territory, each day gives greater proof of its determination to regain its inalienable rights. The acts of resistance currently taking place in occupied Palestine, and particularly in the city of Al-Quds under siege by the Zionist army, are ample proof of that heroic nation's resolute determination to achieve a free and sovereign existence and of its unity behind the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole authentic representative which it chose for itself over 20 years ago. This is the time to pay tribute to that unrelenting struggle, to honour the memory of its martyrs and to assure the Palestinian people of our unwavering support for its just cause.

Let us recall that, in its resolution 252 of 1968, the Security Council reaffirmed that the acquisition of territories by force is inadmissible and contrary to the fourth Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949. The contempt shown by the occupier for that resolution, and for all General Assembly resolutions on the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people and on the Middle East, shows just how dangerous Israel's conduct is for international peace and security.

Israel's opposition to the holding of an International Peace Conference on the Middle East follows the same logic. This conference, called for by the General Assembly in resolution 38/58 C, enjoys broad support among the international community but needs still greater support if it is to be convened. The Security Council should use its authority to achieve this objective, which has been identified as an appropriate medium for restoring the national rights of the Palestinian people and achieving a global, just and definitive settlement of the Middle East problem.

In conclusion, I should like to express the support of the United Nations Council for Namibia for the tireless efforts of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People to mobilize political, moral and material support for the Palestinian people's just struggle to regain its national rights. I should also like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on the exemplary manner in which you have chaired this Committee. Your work does honour to Africa and reflects well on that continent's unswerving commitment to the triumph of the right of all peoples to self-determination, independence and respect for their sovereignty and national integrity.

G. Statements by intergovernmental and other organizations

with observer status at the United Nations

LEAGUE OF ARAB STATES

H.E. Mr. Chedli Klibi, Secretary-General

of the League of Arab States

On 29 November thirty-nine years will have elapsed since the General Assembly adopted a resolution stating the commitment of the international community to the partition of Palestine and guaranteeing a homeland and a State for the Palestinian people. Yet, although the United Nations has reaffirmed, at each annual session of the General Assembly, the substance of that resolution, the Palestinian people continues to live in exile and dispersion as a result of Israel's refusal to recognize this unfortunate people's fundamental rights in conformity with international legality.

All through the same period, the Arab States have unceasingly reasserted on the international scene their commitment to a solution of the Palestinian problem through negotiated means backed by the international will. Their latest initiative to this effect is to be found in the 1982 Arab Summit resolution, known as the Fez plan. This plan, as you know, calls for a negotiated peaceful settlement sponsored by the United Nations and guaranteeing the security of all the States of the region, as well as the inalienable, recognized the United Nations, rights of all peoples living there.

All international initiatives, whether before or after the Fez plan, recognize in one way or another the Palestinian people's right to self-determination.

The problem, however has taken a new turn since the Prime Minister of Israel stated, in a speech delivered on 20 October 1986 at the Knesset, that his government "will seek to intensify the building of Jewish colonial settlements over all the territory of Eretz Yisrael, and that there is no difference between this or that area of Israel as there is only one people, the people of Israel, and only one land, the land of Israel". You, undoubtedly, measure the extreme gravity of such a position, which puts an end to any hope that the international community could achieve a peaceful settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The declarations of the Israeli Premier are based, in fact, on the negation of the very concept of "occupied territories" and, hence, of all related United Nations resolutions. This means barring the road to any initiative seeking to implement the rules and principles of international law.

As I call your attention to these new and grave developments, I remain convinced that you take the full measure of their impact on the quest for peace in the region, and that you, no doubt, share my view as to the need of an international action, particularly on the part of the Security Council permanent members, who assume basic responsibilities for the preservation of world peace and security.

I believe you equally share the view that it is high time the Middle East issue is submitted again to the United Nations and, in particular, to the Security Council which could consider the possibility of calling an international conference in order to define the terms of a guaranteed peace among all States of the region, including the independent Palestinian State. Such, in fact, is the approach underlying the 1982 Fez plan, and one that is likely to build up mutual confidence among the parties to the conflict and ensure a lasting peace in the region.

H.E. Dr. Clovis Maksoud, Permanent Observer

of the League of Arab States to the United Nations

The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People comes at a time of great anguish. The stage through which the Palestinian question is passing and the suffering being experienced by the various sectors of the Palestinian people require that we translate the spontaneous solidarity which our Palestinian people receives from the international community into practical steps to hasten the implementation of the resolutions which have, on many occasions, defined and affirmed its rights and which have conferred on its struggle against Zionist occupation the international legitimacy that makes the Israeli occupation a blatant violation of that legitimacy and the perpetuation of this occupation and of the violation of Palestinian rights the natural and legal grounds for divesting the Israeli entity itself of all legitimacy.

Accordingly, it is our view that the reopening of the file of the Palestinian question has become an honoured cause, since Israel has assiduously persisted in its occupation and in its frustration of the efforts of the international community to bring about the implementation of the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to the establishment of its independent State on the soil of its homeland.

Israel's continued occupation of Arab territories and its establishment of colonialist settlements there with a view to aborting the establishment of any independent Palestinian national entity on any portion of the occupied and usurped territory is but a deliberate operation designed to rob this international Organization of its credibility, in addition to Israel's determined pursuit of expansion, annexation and intimidation.

In view of this persistence, it has become clear to us that it is necessary to call upon the international community, from the standpoint of commitment to the Charter of the United Nations, to respond to this blatant challenge to the international will by giving serious thought to the possibility of imposing sanctions under the Charter as a means of deterring this Israeli persistence in frustrating all efforts and initiatives for true and lasting peace in the Middle East.

The Arab nation declares that the completion of its national existence is contingent upon the Palestinian people's attainment of its own free and independent national existence.

This organic interrelationship between our national commitment and the rights of Our Palestinian people to self-determination is the fundamental, premise of the League of Arab States, of which the Palestine Liberation Organization is a member and whose primary commitment and national responsibility is the cause of the liberation of the Palestinian people.

On the Day of Solidarity, we reaffirm this commitment and responsibility.  Solidarity demands the intensification of intellectual endeavours to cast light on the disinformation campaign being carried out by zionism against the struggle of our Palestinian people, terming its heroic resistance against occupation terrorism". This means that solidarity includes the conduct of an international campaign to create awareness of the facts of the situation and to counter Israeli racist allegations aimed at covering up the inhuman practices of the occupation and Israeli attempts to divert the eyes of the world from the pressing truths that can save justice and rights in Palestine.

Solidarity also demands the intensification of diplomatic efforts.

ORGANIZATION OF AFRICAN UNITY

H.E. Mr. Martin Adouki, Permanent Representative

of the Congo to the United Nations, on behalf of the

current Chairman of the Organization of African Unity

By its dynamism and the richness of its historical contribution to the whole of human civilization, the region of the Middle East was naturally destined for a most prosperous future.

What do we see however? A steady build-up of hatred and passion, increasingly eluding the control of States and of reason.

At the centre of this hotbed of tension, which today threatens to sweep away in its turmoil not only the Middle East but other parts of the world also, is the Palestinian question.

At a time when the Palestinian people is waging a remarkable struggle against an implacable enemy and most often in heroic circumstances which require all the material and moral resources of an entire people, it is most timely that the international community should reaffirm its support for that martyred people, on the occasion of this International Day of Solidarity.

On behalf of the Organization of African Unity and its Chairman, His Excellency Mr. Denis Sassou-Nguesso, President of the People's Republic of the Congo, we renew here the assurance of that solidarity with the Arab people of Palestine which has been expressed already in several ways and on various occasions.

Africa has always advocated clearly the enjoyment and exercise by the Palestinian people of its most inalienable rights.

Last July, at Addis Ababa, the twenty-second Conference of Heads of State and Government of OAU adopted resolution CM/Res.1057 in which it reaffirmed "its total support for the Arab countries victims of Israeli aggression and its support for the Palestinian people in their just struggle to recover their usurped rights and their occupied territories".

Here at the United Nations, the General Assembly, aware of the serious damage which certain Powers' policy of collaboration does to the eradication of the odious policy of apartheid and to the accession of Namibia to independence, has often established, in order to denounce it, the link between the sufferings of the Palestinian people and those of the struggling peoples of southern Africa.

We could also single out as clear proof of Africa's presence at the sides of the Palestinian people the fact that the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People is presided over by you, Mr. Chairman, in whom we are happy and proud to recognize the shrewd representative of a sister African country, Senegal.  Africa's attitude symbolizes a loyalty to the ideal defended by the Palestinian people.

That ideal can be summed up in a concept, that established by the right of peoples to self-determination, sovereignty and independence, the meaning of which is so well known to us Africans.

The stake in the struggle of the Palestinian people is therefore crucial. This people is no longer struggling only to recover its usurped rights, in particular the right to a homeland in accordance with the Partition Plan adopted by the United Nations in 1947, but is now also facing a veritable campaign to suppress its national identity, which takes the form, inter alia, of the colonization of the occupied territories and the occupation of the Arab part of Jerusalem.

Generally speaking, the unilateral measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic make-up and institutional, social and cultural structures of the occupied territories have been declared null and void by many United Nations resolutions, in particular, General Assembly resolution A/40/161 A-G.

As this meeting marks the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the situation in Jerusalem is very tense, as the Permanent Observer of the PLO reported in a letter dated 24 November which was distributed to the Security Council.

By imposing its order and its law as the only valid ones, by driving from their homes thousands of Palestinians to whom the "right of return" is quite simply denied, by resorting systematically to intimidation and all kinds of harassment, the occupying Power is violating the Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949 relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.

Because of its persistence and its seriousness, the situation in the Middle East resulting from the Palestinian question has become so acute that, since 1974 and 1978 respectively, it has required the presence of two international peace-keeping forces, the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force in the Golan Heights and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

The dedication of the members of those forces and the heroic efforts of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, while attesting to the seriousness of the problem, also demonstrates the difficulty of the situation created by Israel's refusal recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization as a legitimate representative of the people which is challenging its policy.

Having permeated the entire fabric of the political, economic, social and cultural life of most of the countries of the Middle East, the Palestinian question is now gaining ground in other countries and regions of the world, occasionally creating political dramas which sometimes are almost on a par with the daily tragedy experienced in the Middle East.

It is therefore essential that everything possible to be done to find all appropriate solutions to the drama now being played out, which stems first and foremost from the problem of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.

Africa has every reason to be concerned about the fate of that region of the world, to which it is linked by both geography and history. Together, Jews and Arabs, the trustees of cultural values and religions that were born or blossomed on the banks of the Nile have, to our mind, several reasons to respect each other. What we need now is a sound prior basis for negotiation, founded on justice and equity.

This is what President Denis Sassou-Nguesso meant when he said on 2 October last in the General Assembly:  “in the Middle East, we advocate a just and lasting peace, together with mutual respect for the sovereignty of all States in the region, the restoration of those territories that have been taken by force, and the recognition of the right of the Palestinian people to a homeland”.

Because of its dimensions and its repercussion, the Middle East question is a universal problem which requires the co-operation and goodwill of all, in particular all the interested parties without exception, in order to restore the buoyancy of that creative dynamism with which the land of the Middle East is embued.

An international conference organized under United Nations auspices, assured of the participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization, now more than ever constitutes the ideal framework for launching a process of just and lasting peace, the only viable alternative for the Palestinian people, the Middle East and the world.

ORGANIZATION OF THE ISLAMIC CONFERENCE

H.E. Mr. Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada, Secretary-General

of the Organization of the Islamic Conference

I have the honour to declare the wholehearted participation of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in the commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People and to reiterate its total solidarity and unstinted support for the people of Palestine in its valiant struggle against Zionist aggression, oppression and expansionism.

The decision of the General Assembly in 1977 to observe this Day every year underlines the support of the international community for the just and legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people for the restitution of its inalienable national rights of self-determination, of return to its homeland and the establishment of an independent and sovereign State in Palestine.

The denial of Palestinian national rights as a result of Zionist usurpation and occupation of Palestine and the large scale oppression, carnage and dispersal to which the Palestinian people has been subjected for the past four decades constitute the core of the Middle East conflict. However, Israel's policies of violent oppression and terrorism against the Palestinian people have not been successful in annihilating the Palestinian nation. In fact, the systematic and barbaric suppression perpetrated upon the Palestinian people has only strengthened its resolve relentlessly to pursue its struggle for the restitution of its inalienable and universally-recognized rights.

The international community has enunciated the principles of a just and lasting solution to the Palestine question through resolutions adopted by the General Assembly, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference. These include the total withdrawal of Zionist occupation forces from Palestinian and Arab territories, including the Holy City of Jerusalem, the restitution t the Palestinian people of its inalienable national rights, including its right to a sovereign State in Palestine under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization, its sole legitimate representative, and the right of all States in the region to live in peace within secured and recognized borders. These principles have been reiterated in the resolutions adopted by the Twelfth Arab Summit Conference, held in Fez in 1982, and endorsed by the subsequent Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers and the Fourth Islamic Summit held in Morocco in 1984.

The Zionist entity has foiled all initiatives and efforts by the international community for a comprehensive and lasting solution of the Palestine question.  It has continued to pursue its aggressive, expansionist and annexationist policies.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference believes that only the proposed international Peace Conference on the Middle East, with equal participation by all concerned parties, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, provides an opportunity to establish a just and lasting peace in the region. It therefore calls for the earliest possible convening of the preparatory committee for the Conference with the participation of the PLO, the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

I call upon the international community and particularly those States which continue to assist Israel despite its obduracy and rejection of peace, to should their responsibility and to fulfill their commitment to justice and equality by facilitating a solution of the Palestinian question, based on the restitution of the Palestinians’ inalienable rights. Failure to do so will only result in the perpetuation of conflict, turmoil and uncertainty in the Middle East and an accentuation of the threat to international peace and security.

ORGANIZATION OF THE ISLAMIC CONFERENCE IN NEW YORK

H.E Mr. Abdellatif Filali, Minister for Foreign Affairs

and Co-operation of the Kingdom of Morocco, in his capacity

as current Chairman of the Organization of the Islamic Conference

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

I am pleased to address this esteemed gathering on this occasion, which has become a symbol of the solidarity of the peoples and States of the world with the steadfast people of Palestine, which has been unremittingly struggling for more than half a century in defence of its homeland and for the restoration of its usurped land and rights.

What is known as “the Middle East problem” first arose as a result of the usurpation of the land of this militant people, the expulsion of its sons from their homeland and the establishment of an alien entity on the greater part of the territory of that homeland.

It was not strange that this entity should build its whole policy on the logic of force in order to be able to keep what it had usurped.

The question of Palestine is thus the basis, core and essence of the conflict in the Middle East, and a comprehensive, just and acceptable solution to it is the logical and sound approach to the solution of the problem which has ramified and spread in the Middle East region, but what solution is this of which we speak?

My country, which is honoured by the fact that its King is the Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee and of the Islamic Summit Conference, has stated repeatedly and on many occasions its belief in the right of the Palestinian people to the restoration of its alienable and irrefutable rights to return to its homeland, to self-determination and to the establishment of its independent national State in Palestine, its land, with the Holy City of Jerusalem as its capital and under the leadership of its sole legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization. On the basis of this belief, Morocco has also affirmed its absolute commitment to aiding and assisting the people of Palestine and providing all means of support to it for the restoration of these rights.

Accordingly, the Kingdom of Morocco does not consider any solution to the Palestinian problem to be comprehensive, just and acceptable that does not guarantee the reinstatement of the Palestinian people in these rights and enable the Palestinian people, represented by the Palestine Liberation Organization, its sole legitimate representative, to participate in the preparation and acceptance of that solution as a party together with the other parties concerned.

My country has therefore affirmed its commitment to the General Assembly resolutions calling for the convening of an international conference, under the auspices of the United Nations, to find a just and lasting solution to the problem of Palestine and the Middle East, with the participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization together with the other parties concerned and with the participation of the Soviet Union, the United States of America and the permanent members of the Security Council.

For the same reasons, seeking the establishment of peace based on justice in this vital region of the world, my country joined the fraternal States members of the Group of Arab States in drawing up the Arab peace plan now known as the "Fez plan”, which has been adopted by the States of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and in which many States of the world have found a sound basis for a solution to the problem.

In view of the situation, the international community is called upon to redouble its efforts to make Israel comply with the will of the international community and with its many resolutions aimed at enforcing right and laying the foundations for peace based on justice in Palestine and the Middle East. I do not doubt for a moment that the concentration of peace- and just-loving strength assembled here is capable of bringing us closer to the day when we shall see the militant people of Palestine with its rights restored and see the banner of peace flying over the Middle East.

May the peace, mercy and blessings of God be upon you.

A. Statements by representatives of national liberation movements

AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA

Mr. M. Mnumzana, Representative

The African National Congress (ANC) takes this opportunity to express its total solidarity with the struggling people of Palestine at a time when the forces of reaction, led by Israel and her allies, are leaving no stone unturned to destroy the unity of the Palestinian people by attempting to disrupt and destroy its vanguard organization, the Palestine Liberation Organization (the PLO), and isolating it from its natural allies, the countries of the region.

The similarities in the methods used by our enemies are such that we are convinced that these enemies are acting in collusion. The reactionaries, led by the apartheid régime and its allies, are frantically busy destroying the unity of the struggling people of South Africa and Namibia and are making attempts to isolate SWAPO and the ANC from their natural allies, the frontline and neighbouring States.

It is clear that it is a tactic of the racist régime, Israel and the United States to bring about conflict and destabilization of the countries in the Middle East and Southern Africa. The financial and material support of counter-revolutionary organizations such as UNITA and RENAMO in Mozambique, and the killing of President Machel are all in aid of this objective. Similar tactics are used in the Middle East – the United States and Israel and encouraging conflict among the States of the region.

An offensive has been launched in the imperialist mass media to label the liberation movements as terrorists and communist agents. This is to direct attention of the international community away from the issue of the legitimate struggles of the Palestinian people and the South African and Namibian people.

Considering the similarities in our struggles, in that our peoples have been declared aliens in the land of their birth by people who are racists under the cloak of zionism and apartheid, our affinity for solidarity is natural.

We are convinced that, in spite of this offensive by apartheid and zionism in collusion with the United States, the Palestinian people will rally around its organization, the PLO, to maintain a solid front against all obstacles. We are also convinced that the struggle of the Palestinian people will gain strength from day to day.

We have no doubt that the people of South Africa and Namibia will attain their freedom and that the people of Palestine will regain their land.

The African National Congress, on behalf of the people of South Africa, wishes the Palestinian people and its vanguard, the PLO, unity and strength to final victory.

PAN AFRICANIST CONGRESS OF AZANIA

Mr. Ahmed Gora Ibrahim, Chief Representative

At the very outset, on behalf of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, the custodian of the genuine aspirations of the oppressed and dispossessed people of Azania, allow me most sincerely to thank you and the Committee for extending an invitation to the Pan Africanist Congress to participate in this solemn meeting in solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters. We believe that the invitation is both logical and inevitable. Our Palestinian brothers and sisters have been the victims of the same colonial plot as the Azanian people. It was, it will be recalled, British colonialism which in 1910 handed over South Africa to the white settler minority, to the total exclusion of the indigenous majority. Hence today, the international community is faced with the question of apartheid, that is, the dispossession of a people and the rule of a foreign minority in apartheid South Africa. It was the same British colonialism which in 1917, under the so-called Balfour Declaration, handed over Palestine to international zionism to the total exclusion of the indigenous Arab Palestinian people. Hence today, a situation where we have foreign occupation of Palestine.

British imperialism created these two entities, one in the northern part of the African continent, and the other in the strategic southern part of the African continent for various strategic purposes. We are convinced, just as much, that the sole cause of the problem in Southern Africa today is the policies and practices of an illegal racist minority régime. The problem in the Middle East too arises from the illegal occupation of Palestine by a settler minority and the total exclusion of all the fundamental and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people by the settler minority régime.

We are convinced also that only the total destruction of the apartheid régime and of zionism, both local and international, can lead to a just solution to the problems of the Middle East and Southern Africa. it is also ironic indeed that the régime in South Africa, which once totally identified itself with Hitler's Germany, and many of the South African leaders, who were for pro-Nazi activities during the Second World War, are today applying methods which they take from the Zionists in occupied Palestine. The methods that they are using today in order to torture the people inside the country, the methods that they are using to attack neighbouring States, even occupying the territories of those neighbouring States, are those that they have learned and are learning from their Zionist mentors in occupied Palestine.

On this day, we, of the Pan Africanist Congress, extend once more our solidarity to our Palestinian brothers and sisters. We say to them that their struggle is our struggle simply because we are both victims of the same colonial past, and, given the conditions that exist today, we believe that through unity and perseverance – that we have been showing, and that they have been showing in occupied Palestine – victory in the final analysis will belong to the Palestinian and Azanian people.

I. Statements by non-governmental organizations

INTERNATIONAL CO-ORDINATING COMMITTEE FOR

NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS ON THE QUESTION OF PALESTINE

Message from Dr. Donald Betz, Chairman of the ICCP,

delivered by Ms. Rabab Hadi of the November 29th Committee

On behalf of the International Co-ordinating Committee for Non-Governmental Organizations on the Question of Palestine (ICCP), I wish to thank the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People for its kind invitation to participate in today's proceedings and to address this solemn meeting. We recall that this is the second year that you invited the ICCP to speak as a representative of the global NGO community. Other members of the ICCP are speaking today at United Nations ceremonies at Geneva and Vienna.

I am here today representing the non-governmental organizations from around the globe that participated in the United Nations Third International NGO Meeting on the Question of Palestine, which was convened in Vienna from 2 to 4 July 1986. In spirit, the ICCP hopes it speaks for the additional hundreds of NGOs worldwide who are unable to attend the international meeting, but who are working diligently in their respective regions for peace with justice in the Middle East.

We credit and thank the United Nations, the Committee and the Division for Palestinian Rights for assisting us in building and expanding the global network of NGOs active on the question of Palestine. Beginning with the preparations for the International Conference on the Question of Palestine in 1983, many NGOs realized for the first time that there were literally hundreds of additional groups on every continent individually working to influence public opinion on this issue by disseminating information in a variety of ways to their publics and their political leaders. Up to that time there had been little contact and co-ordinating among them.

Last year, I reported how the NGO network had grown. Regional co-ordinating committees are now firmly established in Europe and North America. Organizational infrastructure has begun in Asia and Africa and we look to a similar pattern of organization for Latin America in the near future. What this signifies is that there exists across the breadth of this planet an interlocking network of groups, numbering in the hundreds, who refuse to accept the status quo with reference to the question of Palestine and the pursuit of genuine peace in the Middle East. Some of their voices have been faintly heard in the past. But as NGOs speak in unison in this issue, others will listen.

The ICCP is pleased to announce that the collaborating NGOs worldwide have proclaimed 1987 as the "Year of the Palestinian People", for it marks four decisive dates in their history. For 1987 will be the seventieth anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the fortieth anniversary of the partition of Palestine and the non-implementation of General Assembly resolution 181 (II), the twentieth anniversary of the 1967 war and the occupation of all of Palestine and the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Lebanon resulting in the massacres at Sabra and Shatila.

Throughout this important year, the ICCP and all NGOs collaborating on the question of Palestine will be encouraging activities worldwide to augment public awareness of the significance of these events, the role of these events in denying the Palestinian people its most fundamental rights, and the linkage to the no peace-no security impasse that dominates the Middle East. We plan to disseminate this message in a variety of unique and distinctive ways over the coming year and look to utilizing more effectively the recent documents on Palestine produced by the Committee and the Division.

We, therefore, urge the United Nations General Assembly to proclaim 1987 the Year of the Palestinian People.

This summer, the NGOs participating in the International Meeting unanimously adopted the Vienna Declaration. They reaffirmed their commitment to the convening of the international Conference on Peace in the Middle East, as approved by the United Nations in General Assembly resolution 38/58 C. They called for the right to self-government of the Palestinian people, including its right to create its own independent State in Palestine. They recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization (the PLO) as the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and affirmed that only the people can decide who should represent them.

The unique objective of this International Meeting was its focus on action. it concentrated its energies in workshops in human rights, development and aid, peace and information and networking with the expressed purpose of identifying a few, specific projects upon which the global NGO community could concentrate in the coming year.

A direct result of their deliberations at Vienna is the establishment of an NGO liaison office at Vienna. On their own initiative, the organizations have acted to create this important link in the emerging NGO global network. This was a project nurtured by many over the past four years. The office is now open and actively working for the rights of the Palestinian people and the search for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. The ICCP and the NGO community are proud of this accomplishment, but envision it as but a single step on the path to ultimate success.

The ICCP office at Geneva will co-ordinate a number of anticipated projects, including the events and publicity linked with the 1987 anniversaries, and important tours of Palestinian women and youth through North America and Europe throughout the year. The aim of these speaking engagements is to communicate the impact of United States and Israeli policies on the daily lives of Palestinian families and to counter prevailing negative stereotypes of the Palestinian people.

Several North American organizations will concentrate public attention on Palestinian women through the convening of a conference in Washington, D.C. in March 1987, organized by the Palestine Human Rights Campaign and endorsed by both the North American Co-ordinating Committee and the international Co-ordinating Committee. North American NGOs will also concentrate on enhancing public awareness of the linkage between Israel and South Africa.

Also, in light of the Vienna Declaration, the ICCP expresses its support for those Israeli citizens opposing the unjust law which bars contacts between Israeli citizens and representatives of the PLO. The recent testing of this legal outrage by the meeting in Romania resulted in the arrest of four Israeli citizens. They are to be punished for pursuing peace. The irony of this situation should not be lost in this house of peace.

I think it is clear that the international NGO movement is actively advancing the cause of peace through the above-mentioned agenda. We have genuinely appreciated all the counsel and assistance offered over the years by you, Mr. Chairman, the Committee and the Division. We are soberly aware of the financial constraints impacting on the United Nations, yet we call upon you in your capacity as Chairman to use all available means to secure the necessary support for the regional symposia and international meetings so vital to the continuing growth of this movement. We count our bonds to the United Nations and this Committee among our most formidable assets and look to increasing the level and dimensions of our co-operation. We will always remember that the co-ordination of this grass-roots phenomenon sprang from the NGO forums at the 1983 United Nations Conference on Palestine.

We NGOs come from across the globe to these symposia and meetings at our own expense to express graphically our solidarity and support for the Palestinian people, and we are fully prepared and eager to create further bonds through our networking in order to produce a formidable force for peace in the Middle East. This peace must be based on justice for all peoples, including self-determination for the Palestinians.

We have been referred to as the “grass-roots”, we but only the tip of the iceberg, the vanguard of people from varying political, cultural, economic and religious systems who recognize that injustice has been the norm for Palestinians, and that peace and tranquility will be forever strangers to the Middle East and our world, until the world acts to rectify the situation.

We NGOs come together at United Nations-sponsored symposia and meetings, and on our own. We come from Asia, Africa, North America and Europe and, importantly from the Middle East, including Israel. We come to greet old friends and to make new allies. We come to be reminded that we do not labour alone, but to co-operate to produce a workable programme of action for the coming year. We come to recommit ourselves to revitalizing that global network for peace which is needed if peace is to come to the Middle East. We come to work on behalf of the Palestinian people, to learn how we can effectively react to emergency situations and the violations of basic human rights.

We are not governments. We are voluntary associations of people who understand fundamentally that the question of Palestine is, above all, a human saga. To always reduce it to statistics, charts or historical treaties, robs Palestinians of their essence, their humanity. The Palestinian people is precisely that, a vibrant PEOPLE, men, women and children, laborers and artists, doctors and clergy, mothers and sons. They are, in fact, so very much like any of us, except that they are homeless, stateless and blocked from expressing their national rights, rights that all peoples claim to be inalienable in our time. We come together to oppose avidly any stereotype that seeks to reduce Palestinians to faceless categories, to be ignored or persecuted.

We, the ICCP and the NGOs, believe that we can tell the Palestinian story to that decisive part of the world, to those people who are not diametrically opposed to Palestinian self-determination in principle, but who are essentially uninformed or misinformed about the facts. We are organizing globally to relate the story about people to people, and to our respective Governments, if they have not yet joined the global consensus on Palestine and the rights of the Palestinian people.

To accomplish our ends, we must build strong coalitions. We must expand co-ordination, establish regional committees in all parts of the globe and continue our association with the United Nations. We look with great anticipation to forging strong ties with new groups, especially with peace groups, including those in Israel who labour under adverse conditions.

The time for rhetoric is behind us; the time for action, co-ordinated, purposeful, effective action is now and in the future. And, in these days of trial and difficulty and beyond, we must draw our fortitude, our bottomless reservoir of conviction, from the unfailing courage displayed for us daily by the men, women and children of Palestine. Recalling their struggle should certainly bolster us in our simple trials. Their steadfastness will help us continue to carve stones of hope out of the mountain of opposition until that mountain no longer stands.

The year 1987 will be the Year of the Palestinian People.

NORTH AMERICAN CO-ORDINATING COMMITTEE FOR

NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS ON THE QUESTION OF PALESTINE

Ms. Ethel W. Born, Chairman

The North American Co-ordinating Committee for Non-Governmental Organizations on the Question of Palestine (NACC) meeting in Boston, held from 16 to 18 November 1986, unanimously expressed the desire for a message of support and solidarity to be sent, affirming once again our solidarity with the approximately 4 million Palestinians, especially those living in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel and those in the refugee camps. We support them in the exercise of their inalienable rights and commit ourselves to work towards this goal as stated in the Declaration of the North American Regional, Symposium on the Question of Palestine held from 11 to 13 June 1986 at United Nations Headquarters, New York.

We are pleased to report that several of the NACC will be present at the 1 December observance, including the Chairman. We are pleased also to know that the Chairman of the International Co-ordinating Committee will be speaking on behalf of all the NGOs on the question of Palestine.

We look forward to this day of great importance and to participating in the activities which have been planned.

ARAB LABOUR ORGANIZATION

Mr. Al-Hashimi Benani, Director-General,

Arab Labour Office, Baghdad

The celebration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, coincides with a time when the Palestinian people in the occupied land is being subjected to the worst kind of persecution and inhuman practices, represented by constant aggressions waged against innocent Arab citizens, forcing them out of their land and home, and also ceaseless arrests, closing of universities and schools, confiscation of lands, establishment of settlements, the attempt at judaizing the land and the education as well as at the distortion of the Arab Palestinian personality.

The expelled Palestinian people who are residing in camps in Lebanon, are being constantly subjected to ferocious attacks of the Israeli air-force in addition to the vicious attacks waged on these camps by local sectarian militias. These camps were transformed into unbearable hell and camps of death brought by the bombs of jetfighters and tanks as well as by the diseases and the epidemics that are widespread as a result of the siege imposed on these camps.

We appeal to the Secretary-General, in the name of the Arab Labour Organization as well as the production parties of the Arab homeland (governments, businessmen, workers), on this International Day, to put an end to these massacres and aggressions and to achieve the aspirations of the Palestinian people, its right to establish an independent State on its land under the leadership of the PLO, its sole legitimate representative.

BERTRAND RUSSEL PEACE FOUNDATION LTD.

Mr. Ken Fleet, Secretary

On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation wishes, once again, to express its full solidarity with the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people for genuine self-determination in its own sovereign State.

Many people have been shocked by the recent revelations in the British press of the extent of Israel's nuclear capability. An urgent question for us is how the international community can be mobilized to bring its weight to bear for a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East, and the dismantling of the Israeli nuclear arsenal.

CUBAN MOVEMENT FOR PEACE AND THE SOVEREIGNTY OF PEOPLES

The Cuban Movement for Peace and the Sovereignty of Peoples calls for an end to the violent fighting in which the Shiite militias of the Amal movement and the Palestinians defending the refugee camps in Lebanon have been engaged for several days. The losses caused by these bloody confrontations have been deplorable. Such confrontations have again brought death and suffering to the Palestinians, who since 1948 have been victims of Zionist aggression and expansionism. These new acts of aggression serve the designs of the Americans and the Zionists, the principal enemies of all Arab peoples – enemies who waylay and poison minds against the just causes of peoples. In the complex situation in the Middle East, the Palestinian cause is the focal point of efforts to establish a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

The Cuban Movement for Peace and the Sovereignty of Peoples reiterate its militant solidarity with the Palestinian people and the just right of that people to a free and independent State.

INTERNATIONAL PROGRESS ORGANIZATION

Mr. Robert W. Thabit, Representative

On this anniversary of the Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the International Progress Organization – a non-governmental organization with headquarters at Vienna, wishes to reaffirm its support and solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The years continue to pass and with the passage of each year, the Palestinian pain and suffering continues to multiply. Between the events of 29 November and today, the international community has counted 39 years of continual denial and oppression of the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination. Throughout these years, the fate of the Palestinian people has been locked in the vicious cycles of colonial violence. These cycles are ever-widening and have, thus far, spilled over to the Arab populations of Lebanon, Syria, Libya and Tunisia. Contrary to the directives and expectations of the civilized international community, the flagrant violations of human dignity and the continual denial of national sovereignty have persisted, and no end is in sight.

As the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, the Palestine Liberation Organization (the PLO) has continued to advance faithfully and jealously guard the national aspirations of the Palestinians. The PLO has survived several attempts to destroy it, hinder its democratic structure and undermine its credibility. The very survival of the PLO is indicative of the enlightened support it receives from its constituency, the Palestinian people. The PLO has consistently demonstrated to all liberation movements that the relation with its Palestinian constituency is worth of respect and emulation. Through their exemplary will to survive and through the democratic channels of the PLO, Palestinians were always successful in breathing life and confidence into all ranks and levels of the PLO, including the chairmanship of Mr. Yasser Arafat.

Where the survival of a nation is jeopardized and when the basic right to self-determination is suppressed, a great injustice can only result. Such a grave injustice has resulted in the case of the Palestinian people and with a magnitude that has merited the continuous attention of the international community for decades. How long, we ask the international community, how long must people cry out before they are heard and attain their statehood, and how far can we allow colonial aggression to inflict its evil upon the integrity of international peace and order.

We submit that the international community can and has to do more. It was never intended for the great institution of the United Nations to play the passive role of a historian counting the years of pain and suffering which the Palestinians are still experiencing. As peace with justice is a prime objective of the United Nations, the majority of its Member States in general and the PLO in particular have the responsibility of uniting behind the peaceful intent and objectives of all the United Nations resolutions until peace with justice is achieved. We have the responsibility of alleviating the Palestinian pain and suffering, for our role is actively to shape a better human future. A future in which the Palestinian people are left homeless and without their fundamental rights would be a costly defeat to us all, for without human essence these can be no-real United Nations.

MIDDLE EAST FELLOWSHIP OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Ms. Vicki Tamoush, Representative

On behalf of the Middle East Fellowship of Southern California, please accept our sincere wishes for the continued efforts on behalf of the Palestinian people.

Through education, enlightenment, and the pursuit of human rights, we stress to you our commitment to the just cause of the people of Palestine.

Although the obstacles to peace and justice seem insurmountable, we join you in steadfastness to wage peace against war.

MOROCCAN ASSOCIATION FOR SUPPORT FOR THE PALESTINIAN STRUGGLE

Mr. Abou Baker El Kadiri, Secretary-General

I have the honour to address you, a fighter for the Palestinian cause and a great diplomat of Senegal, a brother country of Morocco.

On behalf of the Moroccan Association for Support for the Palestinian Struggle, which includes representatives of political parties, trade unions and other vital forces of Morocco, and at a time when the international community is observing the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I should like to express the concern of our Association at the fact that Palestinians in Jerusalem and throughout occupied Palestine are being deprived of legal protection. They are victims of repressive legislation and of humiliating and degrading racist practices, such as mass arrests, acts of torture and outright killing, confiscation of property and destruction of dwellings.

Our Association considers that this Zionist policy is aimed, above all, at the expulsion of the Palestinian people, the annexation of its lands and the destruction of its cause. The policy constitutes a flagrant violation of international law, of The Hague Convention of 1907 and of the Geneva Convention of 1949.

In condemning that policy, our Association reiterates its unconditional support for the struggle of the Palestinian people under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (the PLO), its sole legitimate representative, to achieve self-determination and the restoration of its territory. To that end, we continue to believe that the application of the Arab Fez plan and the convening of the International Peace Conference on the Middle East with the full participation of the PLO would contribute to the search for a global, just and lasting solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

We should like your Committee to consider the fate of the Palestinian victims of the above-mentioned segregationist practices and to condemn the death threats directed at the Palestinians in refugee camps in Israel and Lebanon. We commend the work accomplished under your guidance by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, and request you to make the contents of this message known to the distinguished members of the Committee as well as to the entire international community.

MOVEMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY LEFT

Mr. Jaime Paz Zamora, Secretary-General

The Movement of the Revolutionary Left of Bolivia expresses its complete solidarity with the rights of the Palestinian people and its just cause of self-determination and sovereignty.

POLISH COMMITTEE FOR SOLIDARITY WITH THE

PEOPLES OF ASIA, AFRICA AND LATIN AMERICA

Mr. Jerzy Markiewicz, Secretary-General

Key observances of the anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations resolution on the partition of Palestine into Arab and Israeli States will be held in Warsaw on 28 November, with the participation of representatives of civic organizations, political parties, the PLO and others.

Regional soiree meetings to mark the occasion will be held concurrently in different Polish towns.

The observances will be accompanied by a mass media information drive, including a special television feature programme on the Middle East and Palestinian cause.

SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE OF THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

Mr. Kurt Seibt, Representative

It is an honour for me to convey to you cordial greetings from the German Democratic Republic Solidarity Committee and all of the German Democratic Republic citizens active in the solidarity movement, and best wishes for a successful meeting to mark the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. On this occasion, I should like to assure you, Mr. Chairman, and the other honourable members of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People that the Solidarity Committee of the German Democratic Republic and the special forces active within it will continue to work for the just Palestinian cause, in accordance with the pertinent United Nations resolutions.

We are following developments in the Middle East with great concern. The hotbed of conflict which has now been smouldering there for almost two decades poses a threat to peace and security not only in that region, but throughout the world. The complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Arab territories occupied since 1967, the implementation of the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people, including its right to establish a State of its own, and also guarantees of sovereignty and security for all States in the region represent essential conditions for bringing about a comprehensive, lasting and just solution to this conflict.

The only realistic way to achieve this is therefore to convene an international Middle East peace conference with the participation of all parties concerned, including the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Attempts by certain imperialist quarters, notably the United States and Israel, politically to eliminate the PLO can only have a negative bearing on the situation in the Middle East.

As in previous years, the Solidarity Committee has undertaken a number of activities both nationally and internationally to support the just Palestinian cause. In early June 1986, for example, the two-hour documentary "Palestine – Chronicle of a nation" was shown in Berlin's biggest cinema. This film came into being with the assistance of the Solidarity Committee and other German Democratic Republic institutions.

The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People was marked with a major event. Once again, we have invited a whole number of young Palestinians to undergo training at vocational centres, universities, colleges and technical schools. Numerous wounded and sick Palestinians have received and are continuing to receive medical treatment in the German Democratic Republic at the invitation of our committee. This year, too, over 50 Palestinian children came on holiday to the German Democratic Republic.

In this way, it proved possible in 1986 to develop further our established relations with the PLO, the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Eloquent testimony to this was provided notably by the wide-ranging intensive talks held with the organization's officials and leading figures.

Within the context of the system of international NGOs, in early July, at the Vienna International Meeting of NGOs on the Palestine question, our committee became a member of the European Co-ordinating Committee.

Permit me to assure you that the Solidarity Committee will continue to make its contribution to the worldwide endeavours to achieve progress in settling the Palestine issue.

I wish the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People great success in achieving its noble aims.

SOVIET AFRO-ASIAN SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE

On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, commemorated according to the United Nations General Assembly resolution, the Presidium of the Soviet Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee warmly greet the Chairman and all the members of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

The activity of the Committee aimed at the achievement of a just settlement of the Palestinian problem and a comprehensive peace in the Middle East is highly appreciated by the Soviet people who, together with all the good-will peoples notes the importance of the role of the United Nations in defence of the inalienable interests and rights of the peoples who are subjected to different forms of suppression and aggression.

As it is known, the Soviet public has undertaken widescale and diverse activities to support the just cause of the Arab people of Palestine.

Representatives of the Soviet Solidarity Committee took an active part in the meetings initiated by the Committee and non-governmental organizations in support of the just Palestinian cause, for the implementation of constructive United Nations decisions on the Palestinian question, for the convocation of an international conference on the Middle East as soon as possible.

Using this opportunity, we would like to assure you, Mr. Chairman, that the Soviet Solidarity Committee will further contribute to the cause of the exercise by the Palestinian people of its inalienable rights, including the right to self-determination and the creation of an independent State of its own.

SOVIET PEACE COMMITTEE

The Soviet Peace Committee extends its greetings to today's solemn meeting of your Committee at United Nations Headquarters on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. We highly appreciate the noble activities of the Committee and the United Nations in general for the realization of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, including its right to self-determination and national independence, and a just settlement in the Middle East. The Soviet Peace Committee, widely observing this International Day, expresses its solidarity with the just cause of the Palestinian people and reiterates the call for the convening of an international conference on the Middle East, with the participation of all parties concerned, including the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. We wish the Committee all possible success in its noble activities.

SOVIET WOMEN'S COMMITTEE

We send our whole-hearted greetings to the Palestinian women and all the Palestinian people on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. On behalf of the Soviet women, we express our unflagging solidarity with the just struggle of the Palestinian people, under the leadership of its only legitimate representative, the PLO, for ensuring its inalienable rights, including the right to establish its own independent State. We stand for the convocation of an international conference on the Middle East, the soonest, with the participation of all interested sides, including the PLO. We express our confidence that the valiant struggle of the Palestinian people, its unity and co-operation with all the world peace-loving democratic forces, will lead to victory the just course of the Palestinian people.

WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL DEMOCRATIC FEDERATION

On the occasion of 29 November, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF), on behalf of millions of women all over the world, expresses once and again its full, unqualified solidarity with the just struggle of the Palestinian people, among them thousands of women – in and outside the occupied Arab territories – who are heroically defending their legitimate rights. We admire the courageous resistance of the Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons and concentration camps spread throughout Israel and the Arab territories illegally occupied by Israel since 1967.

We highly appreciate the steadfastness of the Arab Palestinian citizens in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip who are suffering savage racist repression by the Israeli Zionist authorities. These inhuman practices are being applied to a growing extend against Palestinian inhabitants, in violation of the International Convenants on human rights, the Charter of the United Nations and the resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly.

The WIDF strongly condemns the continuous Israeli policy of war, occupation and aggression which not only threatens the sovereignty and national independence of the Arab States but has the basic aim of exterminating the Palestinian people. Through this policy Israel is shamelessly undermining the basic prerequisite for peace in the Middle East region, namely the recognition of the inalienable rights of the Arab Palestinian people to self-determination, to return and to establish its own independent State on its national territories under the leadership of the PLO, the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Israel concluded a separate capitulation agreement with the imperialist and other reactionary forces in the region in order to smash the resistance of the Palestinian people and other Arab patriotic forces and in that way to do away with the Palestinian problem.

The WIDF is deeply concerned about the disastrous fighting in and around the Palestinian camps in Lebanon. We urge an immediate halt to the clashes which will only play into the hands of Israel and help it to continue its occupation in South Lebanon and in the occupied Arab territories and to prevent the implementation of the just and comprehensive solution needed for the Palestinian cause in the interest of the Palestinian people and its struggle for its national rights. We call also for urgent action to protect and stabilize the life of Palestinian people in the camps.

The WIDF highly appreciates the efforts made by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and all other United Nations bodies concerned in support of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. We would like to point out that, despite these efforts and the tireless, heroic liberation struggle waged by the oppressed Palestinian and other Arab peoples still living under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and South Lebanon, Israel is continuing the same policy of trampling the United Nations resolutions under foot and interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, threatening the peace in the Middle East and throughout the whole world.

The WIDF would like to seize this opportunity to express its firm support for the just cause of the Palestinian people. We call upon the international community and peace-loving forces to urge the convening of an international conference on the Middle East to be held as soon as possible in conformity with General Assembly resolution 38/58 of 13 December 1983, with the participation of the PLO and all other parties concerned, on an equal footing, which will guarantee the legitimate and inalienable right of the Palestinian people to achieve a just and comprehensive settlement of the crisis.

The WIDF would like to assure the Palestinian people, among them thousands of women, that we will use every occasion to demand the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Arab territories occupied since 1967, an end to the Israeli colonial policy in the occupied territories, the dismantling of Israeli settlements and an end to the repression and atrocities undertaken against the Palestinian people.

WORLD FEDERATION OF DEMOCRATIC YOUTH

Saleem O. Altamimi, Secretary

The date of 29 November is annually observed as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

The World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY), in marking this occasion, reiterates its principled position in solidarity with the just struggle of the Palestinian youth and people against imperialism, zionism and reaction, for the achievement of their inalienable national rights, the top of which is their right to self-determination and the establishment of their independent State on their national soil under the leadership of the PLO, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

The occasion, this year, coincides with the Assembly of WFDY member organizations who, in their capacity, were second to none in giving all forms of support to the Palestinian cause, the core of the Middle East crisis and the central cause of the Arab people.

Next year, it will be forty years since the adoption by the General Assembly of the resolution on the partition of Palestine according to which a Palestinian State should have emerged into existence, and twenty years since the Israeli occupation of the West Sank and the Gaza Strip in 1967. This fact in itself underlines the intransigence of United States imperialism and Zionist Israel and their scorn of international laws and denial of the national rights of the 5 million Palestinians, a third of which is suffering under Israeli military occupation and Israel's policies of suppression, deportation, collective punishment, torture, discrimination, cultural deprivation, land confiscation and the mushrooming of Israeli settlements all over the occupied territories.

Two-thirds of the Palestinian people are dispersed in the neighbouring Arab countries and all over the world, suffering from the United States/Israeli genocidal wars and their policy of state terrorism, and also from the harassment of the Arab reactionary régimes and horrendous aggressions, provocations, massacres in their refugee camps.

It is the belief of WFDY that a comprehensive solution of the Palestinian question, and a just and durable peace in the Middle East can be achieved by a fully potential international conference under the auspices of the United Nations, with the participation on an equal footing of the PLO, together with all the partners of the conflict and the five permanent members of the Security Council. All other separate deals and agreements not only were proven futile but also aggravated the situation in the region, resulted in more aggressive actions and wars and endangered the real chances for peace in the region and consequently in the world.

The World Federation seizes this occasion to hail the heroic struggle of the Palestinian people under the leadership of the PLO and appeals to all its members and friendly organizations to strengthen further their solidarity and multiply their support to this struggle; the WFDY Bureau recommends that this statement be read out in the final session of the Assembly of its member organizations on 29 November.

WORLD FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS

Ms. Marie Frybortová, Secretary

On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the World Federation of Trade unions (WFTU) expresses its firm support to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People in its tireless efforts to assure the implementation of the resolutions of the United Nations on the rights of the Palestinian people.

The WFTU has consistently mobilized workers and their trade unions throughout the world in support of the Palestinian people's struggle for unconditional Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Arab territories, including Palestine, and for the attainment of its inalienable national rights, including its right to return to its homeland, to self-determination and the establishment of its independent sovereign national State in its own homeland.

An increasing number of workers and national trade union centres have, during recent years, actively responded to the calls of the WFTU for support to the Palestinian people's struggle and the efforts of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. Today, labour and trade unions are in the forefront of the forces and groups who are actively engaged in supporting your efforts and the efforts of the United Nations at large aiming at the achievement of a just and durable peace in the Middle East.

The WFTU and its member organizations throughout the world are convinced that no durable peace in the Middle East can be achieved without the fulfillment of the Palestinian people's inalienable national rights as recognized by the United Nations. Experience during recent years has demonstrated that disregarding this fact as well as attempting to impose solutions that perpetuate occupation and violate United Nations resolutions only aggravate the situation and lead to more misery, injustice and bloodshed.

The WFTU and its member organizations fully support the call and efforts for convening an international conference on peace in the Middle East, under the auspices of the United Nations, which would discuss ways and means of putting into practice United Nations resolutions on the Middle East conflict and on the rights of the Palestinian people. Participation on an equal footing in the conference should be open to all concerned parties, including the USSR and the United States, as well as to the PLO in its capacity as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. It is the firm conviction of the WFTU and its member organizations that all efforts should be made to assure the convening of such a conference without further delay. The WFTU is fully prepared to devote its efforts to further mobilize workers and their organizations as well as world public opinion in general towards this end.

The WFTU would like to assure the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People of its continued support and dedication to the fulfilment of the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people.

WORLD MUSLIM CONGRESS

Mr. Khalid Ikramullah Khan, Assistant Secretary-General

It would be most kind if a message of good wishes on behalf of the World Muslim Congress and its Secretary-General, Dr. Inamullah Khan, is conveyed to the special meeting as well as our commitments to the United Nations resolutions on the just and meaningful solution of the issue of Palestine, and our commitments to the rights of the Palestinian people to return to their homes and property in Palestine from which they were displaced and uprooted, as well as our support for the just rights of the people of Palestine to self-determination without interference and to national independence and security, including the right of establishing their own sovereign State in Palestine.

J. Closing statement

PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION

Mr. Farouk Kaddoumi, President of the Department of

Political Affairs and Member of the Executive Board

of the Palestine Liberation Organization

I have the pleasure, at the close of this meeting convened by the United Nations in commemoration of the day of solidarity with the Palestinian people, to convey to you, on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its leadership, and on my own behalf, our thanks and appreciation to those delegates who have participated in this commemoration.

I have pleasure also in expressing my deep appreciation for the messages of solidarity sent by Their Majesties and Their Excellencies the Kings and Heads of fraternal and friendly States on this occasion, in support of the Palestinian people and its just struggle for the restoration of its legitimate national rights.

Let me not omit, Mr. Chairman, to address to you personally and to the members of the Committee over which you preside, which is concerned with the implementation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, our heartfelt thanks for your valuable and continuing efforts to bring the Palestinian people closer to its firm national goals.

This annual commemoration is an expression of broad international concern about the necessity of resolving the Palestinian question and the necessity of the return of the Palestinians to their homeland and their homes in order that peace and security may prevail in the Middle East region.

Mankind, which still suffers from the greed and the illegitimate ambitions of the imperialist States, must free itself of all its shackles through its daily struggle and through the solidarity of all peace-loving peoples in this struggle to achieve freedom for all and to preserve the national independence of all peoples.

The United Nations realizes that colonialism, oppression, racism, zionism and hunger are chronic plagues of mankind in our present age. It appears that our war to put an end to these plagues will be a long one, lasting many years as long as there are greedy States that protect racism, defend zionism, practice racial discrimination and oppression and impose colonialism on other peoples of the world or exploit the peoples of developing countries by various inhumane methods.

Our Palestinian people looks forward hopefully to that day when it will be able, with other peoples, to free itself from occupation and dispersion and to implement its inalienable national rights to self-determination and to the establishment of its independent State on its national soil, Palestine; but this Palestinian people is daily exposed to fresh racist savagery perpetrated by extremist racist gangs that have burnt down dozens of houses, demolished many estates and farms and practiced the most repugnant forms of murder and torture within our occupied lands.

At the same time, regrettably, our Palestinian camps in Lebanon are exposed to armed aggression aimed at shattering the morale of our Palestinian masses, extinguishing the spark of resistance in its soul and attempting to scatter the Palestinian people once more. But I am confident that all these desperate attempts will fail to impose capitulation on our people or to prejudice its independent national identity or kill its will to revolt and resist.

This international organization, under whose protection we live, inspires us with hope, in spite of the practices of the imperialist forces, foremost among them the United States of America – practices aimed at halting the movement of the United Nations, paralyzing its effectiveness and rendering ineffective its wise resolutions for the elimination of colonialism, the eradication of racism, saving the peoples from wars of aggression and the maintenance of security and independence.

The peoples of South Africa and Namibia still suffer racial discrimination and the aggressive conduct of the apartheid régime in South Africa. The people of Nicaragua also suffers from a continuing United States blockade and United States aggression. United States imperialism is still recklessly persisting in its folly and encouraging and inciting mercenary groups and forces to launch cowardly attacks against the militant Nicaraguan people.

The United States Administration harbours undeclared goals, and its acts are inconsistent with its words and its promises. It stirs up wars of intelligence, conspiracy and sedition among neighbouring peoples. This shameless conduct on the part of a major Power has rendered ineffective many of the activities of the United Nations and its powerful instrument, the Security Council.

With all these dark and gloomy pictures of the state of mankind, the United Nations has to some degree contributed to the prohibition of wars of aggression and relieved tension in various parts of the world. At the same time, it has rendered great services and realized notable achievements in many other areas, such as education, the combating of disease and the provision of food to millions of hungry people, and by its existence and its progress has created a framework for co-operation and fruitful joint international action.

Mr. Chairman, I reiterate my thanks to you, to all the friends in the delegations participating in this commemoration and to the Secretary-General of the United Nations for your continuing support of the Palestinian people and its just struggle. We wish this international organization – the United Nations – and the peace-loving peoples of the world, well-being, progress and prosperity.

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