CEIRPP recommendations – Letter from CEIRPP Chairman

GENERAL ASSEMBLY SECURITY COUNCIL

Thirty-fourth session Thirty-fourth year

Item 24 of the preliminary list*

QUESTION OF PALESTINE

Letter dated 30 March 1979 from the Chairman of the Committee on

the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People

addressed to the Secretary-General

The Committee on the exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People has authorized me, as Chairman of that Committee, to transmit to you its opinions with regard to recent developments concerning the situation in the Middle East.

I take this opportunity to remind you that the Committee has made recommendations on the implementation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people which were supported by the General Assembly as providing a possible basis for the settlement of the question of Palestine. These recommendations are based on the following principles:

"(a) The question of Palestine is at the heart of the problem of the Middle East and consequently no solution to the Middle East problem could be envisaged without taking into account the rights of the Palestinian people;

"(b) The realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to return to their homes and to self-determination, independence and national sovereignty would contribute to a solution of the crisis in the Middle East;

"(c) The participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the representative of the Palestinian people, on an equal footing with all other parties on the basis of General Assembly resolutions 3236 (XXIX) and 3375 (XXX) is indispensable in all efforts, deliberations and conferences on the Middle East undertaken under the auspices of the United Nations;

"(d) The inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force and the obligation which devolves on Israel to withdraw completely and quickly from all territory so occupied." 1/|

May I also remind you that in resolution 33/28 A, adopted on 7 December 1978, the General Assembly declared that "the validity of agreements purporting to solve the problem of Palestine requires that they be within the framework of the United Nations and its Charter and its resolutions on the basis of the full attainment and exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right of return and the right to national independence and sovereignty in Palestine, and with the participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization".

The Committee accordingly notes with regret that these principles, which were supported by the General Assembly, were not taken into consideration in recent negotiations on the question.

If statements by the Prime Minister of Israel to the Israeli Parliament, as reported in the press, to the effect that Israel would never return to the pre-5 June 1967 frontiers and that Jerusalem would for ever be the capital of the Israeli State and that there would never be a Palestinian State on the West Bank of the Jordan and in the Gaza Strip, are to be believed, it can be stated that Israel continues to oppose resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council on the question of Palestine and is carrying out actions that are contrary to the spirit and the letter of those resolutions and to the principles of international law.

The Committee therefore expresses its concern with regard to recent developments the consequences of which seem to it by no means conducive to the implementation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, as defined by various organs of the United Nations, and which, moreover, do not deal in a sufficiently specific manner with the Palestinian problem, which is recognized as being at the heart of the Middle East conflict.

I should be grateful if you would have this letter distributed as an official document of the General Assembly under item 24 of the preliminary list, and of the Security Council.

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1/ Official Records of the General Assembly, Thirty-third Session, Supplement No. 35 (A/33/35 and Corr.l), para. 58.