International Day of Solidarity (1978) – Special bulletin

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SPECIAL BULLETIN ON THE COMMEMORATION

OF THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY

WITH THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE

1978

 

 

 

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CONTENTS

I.  Commemoration of the First 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:

COUNTRY/ORGANIZATION – NAME AND TITLE

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III. Observance of the First International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People by States Members of the United Nations  

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I.  COMMEMORATION OF THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY

WITH THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE

In accordance with operative paragraph 1 (C) of General Assembly resolution 32/40 B, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People was observed in New York and Geneva, as well as in several capitals, on 29 November 1978.

In New York the programme for observance of the Day included a photographic exhibit on Palestinian Rights set up by the Office of Public Information, from Monday, 27 November to Sunday, 3 December and an exhibition of Palestinian works of art from Wednesday, 29 November to Sunday, 3 December. These exhibits were formally opened by the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on Wednesday, 29 November.

From Monday, 27 November through Wednesday, 29 November, a Palestinian film, The Key, was screened at the Dag Hammarskjöld Auditorium.

The photographic exhibit designed by the Office of Public Information was also displayed at the Palais des Nations at Geneva, where a special meeting was held to commemorate the Day.

The main event in the programme of observance of the Day in New York was a special meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, held at United Nations Headquarters on Wednesday, 29 November.

The Chairman of the Committee, the President of the thirty-third session of the General Assembly, the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council for the month of November 1978 were among those who addressed the meeting. The texts of their statements and of messages received from heads of State or Government, Foreign Ministers, the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and others are reproduced below.

II. TEXTS OF STATEMENTS MADE AND MESSAGES RECEIVED ON THE OCCASION OF THE

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE

Statement by the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the

Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian Peoplea_H.E. Mr. Médoune Fall

On 2 December 1977 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted by a very large majority resolution 32/40 B, in which it requested the Special Unit on Palestinian Rights to organize, in consultation with the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, on 29 November every year, an International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

This decision is a further important step in the General Assembly’s constant efforts over the past decade to promote the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.

The commemoration of a Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People also provides an opportunity for peoples everywhere, most of whom have, at one time or another in their history, suffered from colonialism or foreign occupation, to renew their firm resolve to put an end to the unjust conditions in which the Palestinian people have been living for generations.  It should also serve to mobilize world public opinion concerning the need for action by the United Nations to help the Palestinian people to exercise their rights.

Exactly 31 years ago today the General Assembly, by its resolution 181 (II), recommended the partition of Palestine. That resolution, which was adopted despite the opposition of the majority of the population of Palestine, triggered a chain of violent acts, which left a whole people entirely dispossessed.

The Palestinian people, whose right to self-determination had earlier been recognized by the League of Nations, suddenly found themselves driven from their land, dispossessed of their property and, above all, deprived of a homeland. Scattered throughout the world, strangers to their own country and even forbidden to return to it, the Palestinian people became refugees living on international charity.

For more than 20 years the question of Palestine was pushed into the background, and the national rights of the Palestinian people were ignored or regarded only as a humanitarian issue.

As time passed, the Palestinians saw their situation worsen and their chances of returning to their homeland diminish day by day. They were left with only one option: to fight resolutely to draw the attention of the international community to their plight in the hope that it would be able to break the deadlock. They grasped this option with determination, since the long years in exile had destroyed neither their national consciousness nor their attachment to Palestine.

When questioned about the fact that the Palestinian people, after 20 years of exile, remained conscious of their identity, Mr. Hisham Sharabi, Chief Editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies, stated: “To be a Palestinian today, in the Arab countries or elsewhere, means leading a double life. It means being born stripped of one’s rights, one’s inheritance and one’s identity and yet at the same time being aware that all these rights must be restored, regained. It means never for a moment resigning oneself to this loss; and each must act, as his life dictates, by the gun, by words, in his daily activities, or by being the living example of an intolerable injustice.”

This view of the Palestinian situation is today shared by millions of other Palestinians. It expresses the determination of the Palestinian people to recover their rights and also an appeal to the international community to act as swiftly as possible in assisting the Palestinian people to set right the injustice at present afflicting them.

The United Nations, which bears a large share of responsibility for the current fate of the Palestinian people, began to pay greater heed to their urgent appeals for justice, and in the late 1960s it embarked on the process of the restoration of their inalienable rights.

It became increasingly evident that any solution of the Middle East problem, which was monopolizing attention, had to take account of the central question, namely how to resurrect from a state of oblivion the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and to make them part of any attempt at a comprehensive settlement of the Middle East question.

The General Assembly, in resolution 181 (II), recognized the right of the Arab people of Palestine to have, side by side with the Jewish people, an independent State in Palestine. Unfortunately, only part of this resolution was applied, and only the Jewish State came into being. This does not mean that the resolution is no longer valid; the contrary is true. The conditions in which the Palestinian people found themselves – conditions which were unfavourable to the exercise of their right to self-determination – created the major obstacle to its implementation. The dispersal of the Palestinians to neighbouring States, the occupation by Israel since 1967 of the whole of that part of Palestine which, under the terms of General Assembly resolution 181 (II), rightfully belonged to the Palestinians, and the state of war between Israel and the Arab States – all these conditions were hardly propitious to the exercise of the right to self-determination.

In adopting resolution 3236 (XXIX), by which it defined the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, the General Assembly wanted to remind the world of the need to implement its resolutions 181 (II) and 194 (III), so that the Palestinians would be in a position effectively to exercise their right to self-determination.

In resolution 3236 (XXIX) the General Assembly reaffirmed the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including:

(a) The right to self-determination without external interference;

(b) The right to national independence and sovereignty;

(c) The inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted.

This resolution marked. a turning-point in United Nations efforts to restore the rights of the Palestinian people. It was followed by resolution 3375 (XXX) on the need for the participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), on an equal footing with other parties, in peace efforts held under the auspices of the United Nations.

Finally, fearing that its recommendations would not be implemented, the General Assembly established in 1975 the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. This Committee, in accordance with its mandate, was required to consider and recommend to the General Assembly a programme of implementation, designed to enable the Palestinian people to exercise the rights recognized in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Assembly resolution 3236 (XXIX), and to take into account, in the formulation of its recommenda­tions for the implementation of that programme, all the powers conferred by the Charter upon the principal organs of the United Nations.”

The Committee was guided in its work by the following principles:

(a) The question of Palestine is at the heart of the Middle East problem, and, consequently, no solution in the Middle East can be envisaged which does not fully take into account the rights of the Palestinian people;

(b) The implementation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to return to their homes and to achieve self-determination, national independence and sovereignty will contribute to a settlement of the Middle East crisis;

(c) The participation of the PLO, the representative of the Palestinian people, on an equal footing with 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 which are held under the auspices of the United Nations;

(d) The inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force and the consequent obligation for Israel to evacuate completely and speedily any territory so occupied.

I shall speak only briefly about the Committee’s activities, since I dealt with them at length in my statement to the General Assembly on 27 November.

In November 1976 the Committee submitted a report to which were annexed recommendations on the implementation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. Those recommendations were endorsed by the General Assembly in resolution 31/20. Unfortunately, the Security Council, which plays a leading role in the implementation of those recommendations, has been unable to take any decision on them because of a veto by one of its permanent members.

As a result, the Security Council still has before it the recommendations of the General Assembly.

I am bound to deplore the fact that certain States, while recognizing the rights of the Palestinian people, continue to refuse to co-operate with the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. I am left in no doubt as to how to interpret the fact that the representatives of some of those States have found it necessary to send a letter stating that they would not participate in the Day of Solidarity, while at the same time reaffirming their recognition of the right of the Palestinians to a homeland.

I can only say that selectivism with regard to the decisions of our Organization is hardly a constructive approach; that boycotts and other methods of confrontation are hardly likely to promote the spirit of consultation and dialogue which should prevail in the United Nations; and that it is para­doxical, to say the least, to advocate negotiated solutions on the one hand and, on the other, to refuse any discussion with a body set up by the General Assembly in accordance with the provisions of the United Nations Charter.

The Committee has set itself as its main task the promotion of greater knowledge of the Palestine problem among world opinion and the pursuit of efforts to persuade all members of the Security Council to adopt a positive attitude towards the General Assembly’s recommendations, as a basis for the solution of the question of Palestine. In pursuing those two objectives, the Committee is counting on the open-minded co-operation of all Members of our Organization.

Side by side with the efforts of the United Nations, the question of the restoration of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people has made considerable progress in the international community.

The movement of non-aligned countries, the Organization of African Unity and the Islamic Conference have all recognized the rights of the Palestinian people, as defined in General Assembly resolution 3236 (XXIX).

Mention must be made in this context of the statement made by Mr. Leonid Brezhnev, the President of the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, who reaffirmed the need for the Palestinians to establish their own national State.

On 29 June 1977, the Heads of Government of the European Community, at their meeting in London, recognized the need for a homeland for the Palestinian people.

On 16 March 1977, Mr. Jimmy Carter, the President of the United States of America, stated that the Palestinian refugees should be given a homeland.

It is plain therefore that only Israel, as well it night, continues to contest the legitimacy of the Palestinian people’s rights. Yet certain countries, while acknowledging the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, are keen to restrict them and to attach such conditions to them that they become unrecognizable. Let us not forget that the Palestinian people, despite their dispersal, are a mature people.

The results of the elections on 12 April 1976 on the West Bank of the Jordan, which brought victory to the pro-PLO candidates, are proof, if any proof is needed, that the Palestinian people are capable of choosing their own representatives. On that occasion, the choice of the PLO as their legitimate representative was clearly borne out. This being so, and in the light of many other developments, it is a mystery how Israel hopes to achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East without discussions with the PLO.

In concluding, I would reiterate my deep-seated conviction that the United Nations has an important role to play in the settlement of the question of Palestine.

It must take up the challenge of Israel’s systematic and deliberate violations of United Nations decisions. It must continue its vigorous support for the restoration of their inalienable rights to the Palestinians. Thirty years of violence, bitterness and tension have shown that the solution of the Palestinian problem can come about only through a dialogue between the main protagonists, namely the Israelis and the Palestinians, the latter being legitimately represented by the PLO.

It is not the intention of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People to serve as a substitute for such a dialogue. But, in accordance with its mandate, it expects to play a useful role in the search for the elements of a just and lasting settlement of the Palestine question. Accordingly, the Committee will continue to remain open to any suggestions and is willing to commence a dialogue with all the interested parties.

Statement by the President of the thirty-third session of the General Assembly,

H.E. Mr. Indalecio Liévano

As President of the thirty-third regular session of the General Assembly, and in accordance with resolution 32/40 B, I am pleased to participate in the meeting which the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People is holding in observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. We are thus fulfilling a sovereign mandate from the General Assembly, approved by an overwhelming majority of votes, which demonstrates the will of the Member States to associate themselves with the defence of the Palestinian cause.

This association of. the United Nations with the problems of the Middle East began with the birth of the Organization. Since then, the United Nations has acted as a stabilizing factor in a region which for years has been living under ominous portents of war. Many historical factors contributed to the creation of this situation of instability, a major one being the special attraction which this strategic area has had, and continues to have, for peoples and Governments of other regions. There have been constant and continuous migrations — some peaceful and others belligerent — and, while they have produced among the Palestinians a radial, cultural and religious intermingling, they have also brought with them violent antagonistic situations.  Yet is should not be forgotten that in that small region — inhabited since time immemorial by races which have shown particular fervour in the search for fundamental religious truths — originated the three great monotheistic religions which have so profoundly influenced world history.

Today, in this ceremony, we are fulfilling o e of the specific tasks assigned by the Charter to our Organization: recognition of the fundamental rights of one of the peoples that form part of mankind. Our Organization has previously taken similar action along these lines in the same region. It constitutes recognition of a right with which all States ham endowed themselves: the right to live in peace and security, in their ancestral homeland and in full enjoyment of the political, religious and cultural values which they have formed over the centuries. These, in short, are the inalienable rights demanded for the Palestinian people in many United Nations documents.

In a century which some have called the “century of refugees”, the United Nations cannot be indifferent to the ultimate fate of this people. The Palestinians have experienced invasions, defeats and victorious liberations, but there, in the deserts of the Middle East, they have endured, incorruptible, as an expression of their indomitable will to survive. In our times, they have been thrust into the heart of an international conflict of unthought-of dimensions, which has brought them to the brink of dispersion. It is the duty of the United Nations — towards them as towards any other people — to prevent both their dispersion and their constant dependence on foreign Powers. It is therefore only logical that our Organization should use its authority to enable the Palestinians to exercise their rights, including, in particular, the right to return to their homeland and the right to full independence and political self-determination.

Only when there are no outcast peoples in the world shall we be able to say that the United Nations has fulfilled the historic duty it assumed at the time of its creation. Preventing the ancient Palestinian people from becoming an outcast is the purpose of this day of solidarity.

In closing, I wish to commend the Committee and its distinguished Chairman, Ambassador Médoune Fall, for their untiring efforts. As a result of this meeting today, the message will go out to the Palestinian people that their rights have not been forgotten.

Statement by the Secretary-General,

H.E. Mr. Kurt Waldheim

Today we commemorate for the first time the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People as decided by the General Assembly at its thirty-second session.

It is no coincidence that it marks also the thirty-first anniversary of the adoption by the General Assembly at its second session of resolution 181 in 1947 which sought the creation of two states in Palestine as well as the establishment of an international regime for Jerusalem.

The General Assembly has persevered to this day in its efforts to find a just solution of the Palestinian problem. For some time the major focus was in the direction,of alleviating the misery of those who became refugees as a result of the fighting in 1948. We should not minimize for a moment the great achievement of the United Nations in this regard. But we now know that grappling with this humanitarian aspect of the problem is not enough. Consequently, taking into account the increasing political awareness of the Palestinian people, the General Assembly in 1974 began tackling the political aspect of the Palestinian question. In that year, the General Assembly adopted resolution 3236, which reaffirmed the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination, the right to national independence and sovereignty, and the right of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property from which they had been displaced and uprooted.

With a view to giving coherence to its preoccupation with the Palestinian question, and in order to draw up a programme for the implementation of the Palestinian rights enumerated in Assembly resolution 3236, the General Assembly established the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. This Committee has already recommended a programme which has been endorsed by the General Assembly in 1976 and was re-endorsed at the last session of the General Assembly. These recommendations, reflecting the preponderant attitude of the General Assembly, cannot fail to have a significant impart.

For some time now, the international community has clearly understood that a just solution of the Palestinian dimension of the Middle East problem is of overriding importance. It is in this context that the General Assembly last year decided on a programme for the observance of an international day of solidarity with the Palestinian people. By doing so, the General Assembly is desirous of focusing the attention of the international community on the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and giving the widest possible exposure to the facts relating to those rights.

For a mixture of compelling reasons, the situation in the Middle East vitally affects not only international peace and security but the interests of the world community as a whole. Probably no other single subject has so consistently and deeply preoccupied our organization. Four times already since the United Nations was founded, the area has been embroiled in war, with all its tragic consequences for the people of the region and its attendant risks to world peace. However formidable the difficulties are, therefore, we cannot afford to relax for a moment the efforts to find a peaceful way forward. I would like to take this opportunity to underline once again the crucial importance of the Palestinian issue in any search for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

In closing, I wish to command the Committee and its distinguished Chairman, Ambassador Médoune Fall, for their untiring efforts. As a result of this meeting today, the message will go out to the Palestinian people that their rights have not been forgotten.

Statement by the President of the Security Council for the  Month of November 1978,

H.E. Mr. Léon N’Dong

Having received, in my capacity as President of the Security Council for the current month, an invitation to participate in the commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, I should like to express my personal satisfaction at taking part in this commemoration. However, I must stress the fact that this statement does not commit the Security Council as such.

The commemoration of this Day of Solidarity in response to the wishes of the General Assembly demonstrates principally and clearly the concern of the international community to see the Palestinians fully enjoy their inalienable rights, rights recognized and reaffirmed many times by the General Assembly in its resolutions. This day, by its solemn character, should also be an occasion for drawing the attention of world opinion to

a question which has too long remained unresolved.

For more than 30 years, one of the most important questions that the Security Council has had to debate has been that of Palestine, which since 1947 has never ceased to cause concern among the members of this important body of our Organization. The Security Council now has before it recommenda­tions by your Committee which the General Assembly endorsed in resolution 31/20; these recommendations constitute, according to resolution 31/20, the basis for any solution of the question of Palestine.

In considering the report of the Committee, on 27 October of last year, all the members of the Council who took part in the discussion reaffirmed that there could be no just and lasting peace in the Middle East as long as a just solution to the problem of Palestine, based on the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, had not been found.

Allow me to recall here that the Council received a letter this year in which you outlined the principal elements which guided the Committee in preparing its recommendations. These principal elements are the following:

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

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

(c) The participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the representative of the Palestinian people, on an equal footing with other parties, is indispensable to 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 consequent obligation of Israel to evacuate all territory thus occupied.

In this regard, I should like to recall that the Security Council, in resolution 242, adopted unanimously on 22 November 1967, has already emphasized “the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war” and called for the “withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict”.

The Security Council, as the United Nations organ entrusted with primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, will continue to draw its inspiration from the principles of the Charter and from the relevant resolutions of our Organization, in particular its own resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973), with a view to promoting a just solution to the question of Palestine.

Indeed, only strict respect for those principles and for the implementation of the decisions and recommendations of our Organization will make it possible to ensure that all the people of the Middle East, without exception, are given the possibility to exercise their inalienable rights to self-determination and national independence and to live in peace with their neighbours within secure and recognized boundaries.

In that regard, operative paragraph 1 (ii) of Security Council resolution 242 of 22 November 1967 is sufficiently explicit. I quote:

“Termination of all claims or states of belligerently and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force;”.

Mr. Chairman, I would like, in conclusion, to add a few words in my capacity as representative of Gabon, a brother country to yours, with which it shares the same ideals of justice and liberty.

The Committee under your guidance is fulfilling its duties with remark­able competence and dedication. Thus, we must recognize that the work of the Committee must be taken into account in the search for a just and lasting solution to the Middle East conflict.

Allow me, Mr. Chairman, to congratulate you and all the members of the Committee for your tireless efforts in carrying out your mandate and in the quest for peace.

Messages from heads of State

AFGHANISTAN

H.E. Mr. Noor Mohammad Taraki, Secretary-General of the Central Committee of the

People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan, President of the Revolutionary Council

and Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan

On the occasion of the commemoration of 29 November as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I would like to take this pleasant opportunity to reiterate the sincere and firm support of the people and Government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan for the heroic and just struggle of the Palestinian people for the restoration of their national inalienable rights usurped by Israel with the backing of imperialism.

The Government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan supports the continued efforts of the United Nations towards finding a just and comprehensive solution of the Middle East problem, based on the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Israel from all the occupied Arab territories and the restoration of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, truly represented by the Palestine Liberation Organization, including the establishment of an independent national State of their own.

Considering the Palestine question as the core of the Middle East problem, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan believes that collusive understandings or partial agreements will not lead to a just solution of the Middle East problem, particularly the Palestinian question. We believe that the best solution to this question could be found through the full participation of all parties concerned, including that of PLO.

It is the moral obligation of all justice and peace-loving countries to stand side by side with the Palestinian people until their final victory.

BAHRAIN

His Highness the Amir of the State of Bahrain, Shaikh Isa Ben Salman  Al Khalifa

Thirty-one years ago precisely, on 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution on the partition of Palestine, which was the pretext for world zionism to attack the Palestinian people and uproot them from their homeland, using various means of terrorism and oppression, as a result of which the Palestinian people have been living for more than 30 years as a displaced people of refugees and exiles who keep appealing to humanity’s conscience, waiting for the United Nations to put an end to the blatant injustice inflicted upon them and to restore their legitimate rights to return and to self-determination.

During that period, four destructive wars have taken place in the Middle East, because of Israel’s refusal to recognize this people’s right to their homeland. Nevertheless, the original problem remains unresolved, in spite of the numerous resolutions adopted by the United Nations, particularly resolution 3236 (XXIX) of 1974, in which the United Nations General Assembly recognized the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, especially their right to return to self-determination, to national independence and to the establishment of their independent State on their national soil. The General Assembly also expressed its total support of the Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

Today, as the United Nations commemorates the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, we are absolutely sure that the international community, which has recognized the legitimacy of the Palestinian people’s rights, will reaffirm and intensify its support of this people so that they may attain their rights and so that just peace may be achieved in the Middle East.

The State and the people of Bahrain would like to express, on this humanitarian occasion, their total solidarity with the Palestinian people in their just struggle against world zionism, of which this people has become the first and immediate victim.

It is our sincere hope that this occasion will remind us all of the duty of the international community towards this people, who still suffer from injustice and deprivation, so that we may all help them to attain their recognized aspirations to freedom, independence and self-determination.

BULGARIA

H.E. Mr. Todor Zhikov, First Secretary of the Central Committee of

the Bulgarian Community Party and President of the State Council

of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria

On behalf of the State Council and the Government or the People’s Republic of Bulgaria and on my own behalf I congratulate you and the Palestine Liberation Organization most cordially on the occasion of the commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

The People’s Republic of Bulgaria, faithful to its international duty, considers the solidarity with the peoples fighting against foreign occupation for self-determination and national independence as an irreversible principle of its foreign policy.

Our country highly values the United Nations efforts aimed at rendering moral, political and material assistance in the struggle to eliminate colonialism, racism, racial discrimination and apartheid, an expression of which is the decision adopted by the General Assembly at its thirty-second session (resolution 32/40B) to proclaim 29 November as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

It is a disgrace to our times that the Israeli Government continues its actions in annexing parts of the occupied territories and establishing there Israeli settlements, displacing the local Arab population, expropriating its property, carrying out mass detentions, plundering archaeological and cultu­ral treasures. These actions generate gross mass violations of human rights, run counter to the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations and pose a threat to world peace and security.

World public opinion has long recognized the fact that the Palestinian issue lies at the core of the Middle East conflict and that a just and lasting peace in that region can only be achieved provided the rights and legitimate demands of the Arab People of Palestine are respected.

The People’s Republic of Bulgaria has repeatedly emphasized that a lasting solution to the crisis in the Middle East can be achieved solely following the path of a complete and unconditional withdrawal of the Israeli troops from all the Arab territories occupied in 1967, the realization of the legitimate national rights of the Arab people of Palestine, including its right to self-determination, creation of its own independent State and return to its homeland in conformity with the relevant United Nations decisions, under guarantees for the independence, the independent existence and the security of all States in the region. The achievement of this end necessi­tates the concerted efforts of all parties concerned, with the participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization on an equal footing as the sole legi­timate representative of the Arab people of Palestine.

The just solution of the Palestinian question is not feasible outside the framework of a comprehensive settlement of the Middle East problem. Any separate negotiations whatsoever, conducted behind the back of the Arab nations and against their interests, will not only render difficult the resolution of the Middle East question but can also lead to new complications of the situation in that region. In this connexion, we welcome the decisions adopted at the Baghdad Conference as a major success of the patriotic forces in the Arab world unanimously condemning the Camp David deal.

Permit me, dear Comrade Arafat, to assure you that the People’s Republic of Bulgaria shall continue in the future as well to lend its active support to the just and valiant struggle of the heroic Arab people of Palestine against imperialism, zionism and reaction, for the realization of its inalie­nable right to live in freedom, independence and peace.

CYPRUS

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

On the occasion of the observance of November 29 as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, I wish to underline the necessity for the application of the relevant United Nations resolutions which can ensure peace and stability in this sensitive area of the world.

I would like to add that it is imperative that the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people should be thoroughly respected.

Cyprus will continue to play its modest role in this question.

DEMOCRATIC KAMPUCHEA

H.E. Mr. Khieu Samphan, President of the Presidium of the State of Democratic Kampuchea

On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I wish, on behalf of the people and Government of Democratic Kampuchea, to reiterate the expression of our unfailing support for the just struggle of the Palestinian people.

The Palestinian people have been struggling valiantly for decades to exercise their sacred national rights. At the present time, despite the obstacles created by the rivalry between the imperialist and expansionist great Powers in the Middle East, the Palestinian people are stubbornly continuing their struggle. The ideals, the sacrifices and the valuable experience of their struggle will continue to enlighten the Palestinian people in their march towards victory.

The people of Kampuchea fully understand the essence of the struggle of the Palestinian people and the other Arab peoples. The people of Kampuchea are currently contending with the barbarous acts of aggression and annexation Perpetrated by the emulator of Israel in South East Asia, supported by the expansionist great Power. Just as the Palestinian people and the Arab peoples are contending with the barbarous acts of aggression and annexation, perpetrated by the Israeli Zionists, the people of Kampuchea are struggling to ensure that Kampuchea does not suffer the same fate as Palestine and that Democratic Kampuchea may be able to live and progress as an independent, neutral and non-aligned country. For that reason the people of Kampuchea understand the full extent of the sacred and legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people.

The Palestinian problem remains the key to the problem of the Middle East. The peoples and countries of that region will be unable to live in peace and their independence cannot be guaranteed so long as the Palestinian people have not exercised their inalienable national rights. The people and Government of Democratic Kampuchea will always firmly support the struggle of the Palestinian people, under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization, to exercise their national rights, in particular their right to return to live in their country, the right to decide their own future and the right to establish an independent Palestinian State on Palestinian land.

We are convinced that by their stubborn struggle, waged in common with the joint struggle of all the Arab peoples and supported by the people of the world, the Palestinian people will surely be victorious.

In conclusion, we wish you and the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People further success in your efforts on behalf of the just Palestinian cause.

EGYPT

H.E. Mr. Mohammed Anwar El Sadat, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt

The United Nations celebration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is a reaffirmation of the commitment by the world community to uphold the noble principles on which the Charter is based and a reflection of the belief in the necessity of establishing an international order of justice, equality and the respect for the rights of peoples.

The brotherly Palestinian people has been subjected during its glorious history to attempts to destroy its national identity, sometimes to the extent of denying its very existence and trying to destroy this existence physically and morally. All these attempts, in addition to being alien to the basic elements of legality and justice, were the main reason of the unparalleled human tragedy which our area faced. This also led to a long period of tensions, wars and destruction to the people of the area, where enormous human and material resources were squandered instead of being channelled towards development, welfare and prosperity.

During this long period, Egypt, supported by all the Arab countries and peace-loving States and nations inside and outside the United Nations, led the call for the necessity of the restoration to the Palestinian people of their national rights in order to achieve the just and durable peace which could secure for all peoples of the area the right to live in peace in their countries without fearing any threats or aggression.

Egypt’s belief in, and commitment to, these lofty principles led her to face Israel in political and military confrontations, the latest of which was the Ramadan/October war. This war made it clear beyond any doubt that the achievement of peace in the Middle East must be based on the principles of international legality, on the recognition that the Palestinian question is the core of the problem and that the restoration of the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian People is the basis for the establishment of a just and comprehensive peace.

Egypt’s peace initiative, which was supported by the entire world, came to emphasize the lessons and results of the October war and to underline the fact that the Egyptian people are determined to shoulder their national responsibilities and to continue steadily on the road of establishing a just, durable and comprehensive settlement.

The celebration today comes at a time when Egypt – as it has always done is undertaking one of the most difficult battles, the battle of establishing peace in the area based on justice, the principles of international law and respect for the right of peoples to self-determination.

Egypt succeeded at Camp David in creating the framework which, while leading to Israel’s withdrawal from Sinai, will open the road to the Palestinian people for the restoration of their rights and the creation of their national authority on their own land. We are also working at the Washington talks to translate this framework into concrete steps in order to realize the hopes of the Arab nation and specially the Palestinian people. This noble battle requires creative efforts, far-sightedness and courage from all the parties. It also requires the world community to continue firmly to support justice and rights as it had always done in different United Nations organs and at the meetings of the Organization of African Unity and Non-Aligned Conferences.

I have the pleasure on this occasion to express our appreciation of the positive role Played by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People in supporting the Palestinian people inter­nationally, particularly at the United Nations, which has a special respon­sibility to safeguard the rights of peoples.

The Egyptian people will continue to be faithful to their role and responsibilities, drawing their strength from their belief in God and in the justice of the Arab cause, determined to work seriously to establish just, durable and comprehensive peace, safeguarding the rights of the peoples of the area and in particular the rights of the Palestinian people. We are looking forward to the day when this people will enjoy freedom in their homeland and contribute by their creative energies to mankind’s progress towards development and prosperity.

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

The German Democratic Republic welcomes the recommendation of the thirty-second session of the United Nations General Assembly to observe 29 November as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. This date is an occasion for us to reaffirm our strong adherence to the world-wide demand that the inalienable rights of the Arab people of Palestine to self-determination and establishment of a national State of their own be implemented.

Solidarity with and aid to the suffering Palestinian people and their only legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, have been a concern of all people in the German Democratic Republic for many years.  Also in the future we will offer our solidarity and assistance to the peoples in the Middle East in their struggle for a just and enduring Middle East settlement.

I seize this opportunity to affirm again, in the name of the German Democratic Republic and in agreement with United Nations resolutions, that a just and enduring solution to the Middle East conflict requires the complete withdrawal of the Israeli troops from all Arab territories occupied in 1967, safeguards for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and guarantees of the security of all States in the Middle East. Those key questions can be settled only by reconvening the Geneva Conference on the Middle East with the equal participation of all interested parties, parti­cularly the Palestine Liberation Organization. The German Democratic Republic, therefore, decidedly opposes the policy of separate arrangements which can solve none of the basic problems of the Middle East conflict but tend to exacerbate the situation in that region of the world.

HUNGARY

H.E. Mr. Pál Losonczi, President of the Presidential Council of the Hungarian People’s Republic

On behalf of the Presidential Council and Government of the Hungarian People’s Republic as well as on my own behalf, I extend my greetings to the special meeting in observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

The Hungarian People’s Republic, in complete conformity with the prin­ciples of its foreign policy and in full harmony with the purposes and principles of the United Nations, lends its support to the struggle of the long-suffering Arab people of Palestine, which is carried out under the leadership of their sole legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, for the assertion of their national rights and for the establishment of their sovereign and independent State.

It gives us satisfaction that the United Nations has embraced the just cause of the Arab people of Palestine and makes efforts for its realization. We are convinced that the United Nations can effectively assist in the attainment of this noble goal. The Hungarian People’s Republic resolutely supports the efforts of the United Nations to this end.

We consider the special meeting as an outstanding demonstration of solidarity with the Arab people of Palestine.

While welcoming the special meeting, I take the opportunity to reaffirm our support for the just struggle of the Arab people of Palestine and the activities of the United Nations directed at assisting that people.

IRAQ

H.E. Mr. Ahmed Hassan Al-Bakr, President of the Republic of Iraq

It gives me pleasure, on the occasion of the commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, to commend resolution 32/40 adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 2 December 1977 on this matter, that resolution which sincerely expresses the feelings of the broad masses throughout the world and their true position on the question of Palestine. I am pleased also to take this opportunity to express the deep appreciation of the Government and people of Iraq for the laudable efforts made by your Committee to achieve the adoption of this resolution and for the large-scale preparations which your Committee has made for the commemoration of this day. Iraq’s position on the question of Palestine and the Middle East problem has always been clear, explicit and steadfast. Iraq regards it as a central and fateful Arab issue to which the people of Iraq are committed, just as all the members of the Arab nation and their countries are committed to it and concerned about it. Iraq regards the struggle for the restoration of the Palestinian Arab people’s rights to Palestine and the occupied Arab territories as a national responsibility, and it is incumbent upon all the countries of the Arab nation to provide all forms of backing and support for this struggle, inspired by this deep patriotic feeling. Realizing the gravity of the stage through which the Arab nation is currently passing, Iraq took the initiative of convening the Ninth Arab Summit Conference at Baghdad at the beginning of the current month of November, and the Conference produced historic resolution of far-ranging importance regarding the question of Palestine, which expressed a united Arab position upholding Arab solidarity.

We appreciate the efforts which you are making to define the rights of the Palestinian people and their historic issues, in all their humanitarian and tragic dimensions, and to achieve solidarity with the Palestinian Arab people and gain support for them on a broader international scale. We assure you that Iraq, for its part, has made its preparations for the commemoration of this day as fully as possible, employing to this end all available capaci­ties, prompted by its steadfast national positions of principle.

In conclusion, we wish your meeting all due success and respect.

JORDAN

His Majesty Hussein ibn Talal, King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Jordan shares with the whole world this solemn occasion, the Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, in their tragedy and their struggle, in their suffering and steadfastness, in their pains and hopes. It is an occasion which arouses our deepest humanitarian feelings, because it represents a battle waged by justice against a foray of injustice. It is a dedication of the meanings of a free and dignified life which inspired the Charter of the United Nations with all the covenants, charters and resolutions that have stemmed from it to ensure for man the security of his homeland, his heritage, dignity, survival and sacred freedom.

History, both ancient and recent, has never witnessed a tragedy with the magnitude of the one that has befallen the Palestinian people, who have been uprooted from the land that belonged to their fathers and forefathers since the dawn of history, and arbitrarily condemned to homelessness, suffering, occupation and the loss of identity, of heritage and of glorious history, which has so generously enriched the human civilization from their holy land, the cradle of divine religions and the place to which years the hearts of believers all over the world.

Jordan, which has lived and continues to live the tragedy of the Palestinian people in all its dimensions, and has played host to more than 1.5 million Palestinians forced out of their homes by brutal force and recurrent atrocious aggression, takes the opportunity, on this solemn occasion, to express its unswerving and unflagging solidarity with its brethren, the Palestinian people, in their struggle to recover their usurped rights and to live in their holy land in freedom and dignity.

Jordan would like also to extend its greetings and,to express its appreciation to the United Nations on its International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. It considers this Day as a sincere and heartfelt expression of the international community’s upholding of its Charter, its ideals and its dignity by its steadfast stand for right, good and the cherished just peace; by its stand as a strong bulwark against the infringement and encroachment on this right, so that humanity, represented by the United Nations, may continue its march for the good, right, progress and peace based on justice.  Let this day, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People be a radiant torch that dissipates the darkness of injustice and gloom.

Jordan calls upon all States Members of the United Nations to shoulder their responsibility to save the Palestinian people from their present calamity, which poses a danger beyond the boundaries of the Middle East region, threatens world peace and security and imposes on the States of the world the duty to look beyond their narrow national interests in their approach to this tragedy, in order to safeguard the ,Charter of the United Nations and the conscience and values of mankind.

KUWAIT

His Highness Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, the Emir of Kuwait

It gives me great pleasure to address the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

We welcome any initiative of this kind designed to express sentiments of support and solidarity with any people who have been the target of oppression while struggling for a just cause and for the triumph of good over evil.

The tragedy of the people of Palestine is a vivid and glaring example of the unprecedented injustice the Palestinian people have endured for the past 30 years, Their homeland was occupied by invaders and they were up­rooted and expelled from their homeland. They remained throughout this Period a homeless people struggling for recognition of their rights and restoration of their homeland.

If the tragedy of the Palestinian people, which is frequently called in diplomatic Practice, ‘the Middle East problem’, remains without a solution, and if the right of this people to their homes and homeland is not recognized, the inevitable result will be further aggravation of tension and turmoil in international relations. Hence it is the duty of the international community and every society dedicated to the cause of justice and freedom to accord to the Palestinian people and their sole legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, support and assistance to enable them to regain their rights and return to their homeland.

It is a cause of great optimism to see such a meeting convened in which the desired solidarity is clearly reflected and which expresses sincerely the support of the free man for his oppressed brother until he regains all his rights. We all believe in right and justice, which must ultimately triumph. Whether we are States or individuals, we strive for a peace based on right, equity and justice. We cannot achieve this noble goal without extending active support to the causes of oppressed peoples, such as the people of Palestine.

I am confident that the Palestinian people will receive the support and fair treatment it deserves from the international community.

I wish you success in your great efforts.

LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA

H.E. Colonel Mu’ammar Al Qaddafi, Secretary-General of the General

People’s Congress of the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

The designation this year of a day of solidarity with the Palestinian people represents evidence that the international community recognizes the fact that among the peoples of the world exist the Palestinian people who have been expelled from their country, whose land is occupied, and who have the right to return to their homeland. If this was not the case, why would the United Nations designate a day of solidarity with the Palestinian people?

Why are the nations of the world expressing their solidarity as they have decided to do? They have decided to as an expression of their solidarity with these people and their tragedy, with their right to return to their occupied homeland, and with their right to establish their State on the entire soil of their homeland.

It is indeed unfortunate that, while the United Nations has taken this position towards the Palestinian people, these very same people are ignored outside the community of the United Nations. While on the one hand it is regrettable, on the other it is also only natural since those who are conspiring outside the United Nations are, in actuality, conspiring against the United Nations, against civilization, as well as against their own people whom they rule through their parties, their money and their swords.

This day of solidarity, proposed by the United Nations, is an interna­tional act of unmasking the attitudes of those conspirators who disregard the Palestinian people. It is an act of condemnation and denunciation of their vicious schemes.

I am addressing you both as an Arab and as an individual whose country is a Member of the United Nations; this gives me the right to speak about my brothers the Palestinians, and as a Member about the United Nations, to empha­size that this international solidarity is a historical testimony to the justice of tee Palestinian cause. This will be considered as international support for the struggle of the Palestinian people until its victory over Zionist racism, the enemy of humanity and peace.

I congratulate you on the political and historical awareness that the United Nations has shown under your leadership.

MADAGASCAR

H.E. Mr. Didier Raisiraka,

President of the Democratic Republic of Madagascar

On this International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I join with the Malagasy people, its Supreme Council of the Revolution and its Government in order to transmit our warmest congratulations on the untiring efforts which you have constantly made with a view to restoring the full rights of the Palestinian people, namely, their rights to self-determination, sovereignty and independence and the right to establish an independent Palestinian State. The active participation of the Democratic Republic of Madagascar in the work of the Committee is simply the expression of the profound conviction of the Malagasy people that no just and lasting peace can be found in the Middle East without the effective participation of the Pales­tinian people under the leadership of the PLO, its authentic representative in all negotiations concerning the Middle East. I wish to express to you on this occasion our high appreciation of the way in which you fulfil the noble and delicate tasks which the entire international community has entrusted to you in this field. May the observance of this day create a new impetus for reco­gnition of all the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, the sole condition for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

MALI

H.E. General Moussa Traore, President of the Military Committee of  National Liberation

and head of State and Government of the Republic of Mali

As a part of its courageous efforts in patiently searching for just and lasting solutions to the Palestinian tragedy, the international community has decided to observe 29 November as a day of solidarity with the heroic Palestinian people. On behalf of the people of the Republic of Mali, who are constantly mobilized in the defence of just causes, I take this opportunity to renew our militant solidarity with the martyred Palestinian people and to urge the international community to redouble its efforts to restore to the Palestinian people their legitimate and sacred rights.

MAURITANIA

H.E. Colonel Al-Mustafa Ould Muhammad Salek, Chairman of the Military

Committee for National Recovery and head of Government of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania

At a time when your Committee is holding this extraordinary meeting, it is my duty to commend the noble task which you have undertaken and which is in complete conformity with the basic rights of peoples.

Yes, you have been working to relieve the sufferings of a people who still live in camps on the charity of others. And it is deeply disturbing that the conditions in which the Palestinian people live should not gain them the sympathy and support of those who claim to be defending human rights all over the world.

It is the obligation of the entire international community to put an end to the injustice suffered by the Palestinian people. And I am absolutely sure that the courageous and steadfast struggle waged by the Palestinian people, under the leadership of their legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, will inevitably result in final victory. Your own contribution constitutes a strong support in this respect.

I would like to assure you that the Mauritanian people, as well as the Military Committee for National Recovery and the Government of Mauritania, will always stand by you in defending the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

MOROCCO

His Majesty Hassan II. King of Morocco

Praised be to God.

Blessed by His Prophet and may He grant him salvation. Peace be upon you and may God bless you.

It is indeed gratifying for us to take this opportunity of the commemo­ration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People to send you this message and to express to you our full support and utmost backing for the great efforts you are making, so that the struggling Palestinian people may secure their legitimate rights and enjoy, like all other peoples, the exer­cise of the rights set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Charter of the United Nations.

The Kingdom Of Morocco, which considers the Palestinian question as sacred and which has provided, and will continue to provide, all means of consolidating, supporting and backing the Palestinian people’s struggle, so that they may reco­ver their legitimate rights and be able to return to their homeland, exercise their right to self-determination and establish their own State on their own land, reaffirms its firm conviction that the Palestinian question is the crux of the Middle East problem and that peace will not be established in this important area until the Palestinian people are enabled to exercise their legitimate national rights and to participate in all Palestinian Liberation Organization, in its capa­city as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

On this occasion, we appeal to all States Members of the United Nations and to all peace- and justice-loving forces to stand by this true Arab people, who have been and still are being subjected to all kinds of displacement and exter­mination so that this people may recover their rights and dignity. We call upon these forces to exert all means of pressure on Israel to make it stop building settlements in the occupied Arab territories, and to relinquish its policy of Judaizing historical and archaeological sites and holy places, a policy which aims at obliterating entity and existence of the Palestinian people, despite all the resolutions adopted by the United Nations and the other international organizations within the United Nations system.

The Palestinian people, who have declared their dedication to peace based on justice and who are claiming their right to return to their homeland, as well as their right of self-determination to conformity with United Nations resolutions, deserve this commemoration by the peoples and States of the world of this Day of Solidarity, and they deserve to obtain all their rights and to establish an independent State of their own.

May God grant you success in your work for the cause of humanity, right and justice.

Peace be upon you and may God bless you.

PAKISTAN

H.E. General M. Zia Ul Haq, President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan

The Government and people of Pakistan have watched with deep concern the persistent denial of the fundamental national and human rights of the Palestinian people. The tragedy of Palestine is further underlined by the fact that the just demands of its people remain unfulfilled despite having received the support of the international community. It is a measure of the courage and determination of the indomitable people of Palestine that, instead of being discouraged by the intransigence of those who aim to obliterate their identity, they have not faltered in their quest for regaining their homeland and full recognition of their national rights under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Pakistan has always considered the solution of the Palestinian question the key to peace in the Middle East. The injustice perpetrated against the people of Palestine and the untold sufferings inflicted on them for over three decades are a standing rebuke to the conscience of mankind.

The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, which is being celebrated today under the aegis of the United Nations, symbolizes the recognition by the world community of the inalienable rights of the people of Palestine. The people of Pakistan have indissoluble cultural and religious links with their Palestinian brethren, and will continue as always to extend to them unflinching and steadfast support for the realization of their just aspirations. The heroic struggle of our Palestinian brothers is supported by an overwhelming majority of the nations of the world. The day is not far off when their sacrifices will be crowned with success.

QATAR

His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, Amir of the State of Qatar

The question of Palestine is a comprehensive issue comprising interrelated elements and interconnected components. In the United Nations this question has retained this, its true character, from the time when it arose more than 30 years ago up to the present. Whenever a matter relating to its is brought before the Security Council or the General Assembly, it is included in the respective agendas of these two major organs of the supreme international Organization as coming under the item relating to the over-all issue, the ‘Question of Palestine’.

The over-all ‘Question of Palestine’ has become a problem of extreme gravity, with multiple interrelated aspects, because it is at once a political, legal, economic, humanitarian, ethical and religious problem. This problem lies at the heart of the international crisis known as the ‘Middle East crisis’, which resulted from the implementation of acts constituting successive links in the chain of Israel’s policy of aggression and its ex­pansionist ambitions, whereby its aggression extended to Palestine and to other Arab lands in Egypt, Syria and Jordan. It is a problem which is distinguished from all other international problems by the fact that it is unprecedented in history, because never before has an aggressor driven an entire people from their homeland in order to usurp it for itself and take that people’s place in its homeland on purely religious grounds.

The whole world has reached a consensus regarding the necessity of arriving at a comprehensive, just and peaceful settlement of the Middle East crisis. A consensus has likewise been established on the fact that failure to achieve such a settlement presents an imminent threat to peace in the region which may result in the flare-up of a new war there and which could sooner or later lead to the outbreak of a third world war.

Since the question of Palestine unquestionably constitutes the root, essence and core of the Middle East crisis, it was natural that a consensus of opinion should be reached on the fact that the settlement of the Middle East crisis makes it imperative to find a just and comprehensive Solution to that question.

In performance of its primary duty, namely, the maintenance of interna­tional peace and security, the United Nations has convened, with a view to arriving at such a solution, more than 1,000 meetings in its various compe­tent organs. As a result of these meetings these organs have adopted some 200 resolutions. But all these meetings and resolutions have come to nought, and one half of the Palestinian Arab people have continued living the tragic life of displaced persons, far from the soil of their homeland, while the other half have remained subject to the yoke of Israeli occupation of that land, suffering the bitterness of humiliation and the various forms of degradation and oppression.

In the face of this horrendous situation and the enormity of the dangers involved, the General Assembly, on 10 November 1975, adopted resolution 3376 (XXX) establishing the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. That historic resolution reaffirmed those rights and, in particular, the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination without external interference, their right to national independence and sovereignty and their right to return to their homes and to restoration of their property there.

The aforementioned resolution gave the Committee a basic mandate comprising two major parts :.the first, to prepare a programme of implementation designed to enable, the Palestinian people to exercise the inalienable rights referred to, taking into consideration the action taken by the Security Council in that regard, and secondly, to assumed responsibility for focusing international concern on the achievement of progress towards a just solution to the question of Palestine and for keeping the attention of the international community directed towards the ordeal of that people, in order to strengthen international solidarity with them in their tragedy.

In implementation of the second part of the Committee’s mandate, the General Assembly, on 2 December 1977, adopted resolution 32/40B establishing within the United Nations Secretariat a Special Unit on Palestinian Rights, entrusted, inter alia, with the organization, in consultation with the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, commencing in this year, 1978, annual observance of 29 November as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

I am greatly pleased to be given this opportunity to send greetings, on my behalf and on behalf of the people and Government of the State of Qatar, to this meeting held today in the forum of the United Nations for the purpose of focusing the attention of the whole world on the gravity of the overwhelming danger which threatens international peace and security as a result of the perpetuation of Israel’s aggression against Palestine, that precious part of the great Arab homeland, and to the unprecedented criminal consequences of that aggression, namely, the dispersion of the Palestinian Arab people from their homes, the occupation of their land, the desecration of the holy places of Islam in this land, extreme coercion and oppression of those of this people who remain there in a way which exceeds in its savagery every conceivable limit with regard to the violation of legal and ethical norms and of religious and humane values, not to mention the flouting of the purposes and principles of the United Nations and the resolutions which the Organization has adopted for the implementation of these purposes and principles.

Unquestionably, the convening of this meeting in the forum of the supreme international Organization on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is an event of profound significance, affirming the conviction of the international community, which is represented in this Organization and whose conscience and will are expressed through the Organization’s resolutions, of the justness of the Palestinian cause and the necessity of finding for the Palestinian question, on the basis of those resolutions, a solution which is comprehensive and just with regard to all aspects of that question.

The purpose of the observance of 29 November of each year as the annual day for the expression of international solidarity with the Palestinian people is to remind the international community that aggression unprecedented in history with regard to the unparalleled injustice which it inflicts on a whole people is still – contrary to the will of the international community – oppressing the members of this people, in spite of all the efforts which have been and are being made, within the United Nations and outside, to put an end to it peacefully. Our greatest hope is, therefore, that this reminder will convince the leaders of the world that the time has really come for their duty of solidarity with the Pales­tinian people, which they have been supporting within our supreme international Organization through the adoption of its resolutions on the question, and outside it, through the adoption of its resolutions on the question, and outside it, through the numerous statements which they have made in support of those rights.

A consensus has been reached in the international community that there will be no peace in the Middle East without recognition of the aforementioned legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and that the genuine threat to this peace presented by the perpetuation of Israel’s aggression against the, Arab territories exposes international peace and security to the greatest of dangers. Accordingly, the Arab nation, in calling today upon the leaders of the world and, in particular, the leaders of the big Powers, which bear the greatest share of responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, to extend assistance to the Palestinian Arab people for the restoration of their full rights, is only calling upon them to perform the duty imposed upon them by the United Nations Charter, which they are committed to respect, namely, the duty laid down in Article 1 of the Charter to take effective collective measures for the removal of threats to international peace and security and for the suppression of acts of aggression which constitute breaches thereof.

It has become a duty incumbent on the peoples and Governments of the world to organize their efforts to strengthen United Nations endeavours to put an end to Israel’s defiance of their collective will and to erase the great stigma of Israel’s total disregard of this will.

The Arab State of Qatar, hoping that the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People will help to bring about this solidarity in a positive and effective form that will ensure this fraternal Arab people the full restoration of their rights, expresses the wish that this day may be fully successful in the achievement of its lofty goals and that the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will have the utmost success in the discharge of its meritorious functions.

ROMANIA

H.E. Mr. Nicolas Ceausescu, President of the Socialist Republic of Romania

The observance within the United Nations of an International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People provides me with the opportunity to reaffirm in this way, too, the solidarity and support of the Romanian people for the just struggle being waged by the Palestinian people for recognition of their legitimate rights to self-determination, including the establishment of their own independent State.

Romania has constantly advocated a political settlement, through negotiations, of the problems of the Middle East, with a view to arriving at a lasting and just peace, based on the withdrawal of Israel from Arab territories occupied after the 1967 war, on the solution of the problem of the Palestinian people, in accordance with their right to self-determination, including the establishment of their own independent State, and on the guarantee of independence and territorial integrity of all the States of the region.

A just solution of the question of Palestine would provide the corner-stone for the achievement of a just and lasting peace in the region, for the assurance of the territorial integrity, independence, sovereignty, security and tranquillity of all the States in this part of the world and for the creation of a climate of peace. Romania is firmly convinced that this key issue in the building of peace cannot be solved without the direct participation in the negotiations of the Palestinian people, and their representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, as their legitimate, authentic and acknowledged representative.

Romania considers that it is now more necessary than ever to intensify activity aimed at achieving an over-all political settlement of the problems of the Middle East and that there is a need to take action with a view to finding the means of ensuring the participation of all countries and all the interested parties in an over-all settlement of the conflict in order to strengthen co-operation and solidarity among all the Arab countries concerned. In this spirit, we consider that it would be particularly important to hold, under the auspices and with the active participation of the United Nations, an international meeting – either by reconvening the Geneva Conference or in another form – with the participation of all of the countries concerned and of the PLO, as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

On the basis of the analysis of the current international situation and of the contradictory trends that have appeared in the world, Romania considers that there is an overriding need for all progressive, democratic and anti-imperialist forces and for all peoples waging a determined struggle to achieve their independent development to unite their efforts, strengthen their solidarity and develop their collaboration with a view to achieving a just political settlement, through negotiations, of all the problems of contemporary life in order to eliminate all hotbeds of tension and war, and to initiate new relations among States, based on complete equality, respect for national independence and sovereignty, and non-interference in internal affairs. Within this framework, we believe that it is also necessary to act in order to achieve an over-all settlement of the complex problems of the Middle East, including the realization of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, in order to establish a just and lasting peace, corresponding to the interests of the peoples of the region and of, the entire world.

In expressing my conviction that the United Nations will continue its efforts to achieve a settlement, at the earliest possible opportunity, of the Middle East conflict and to enable the Palestinian people to attain their legitimate aspirations, I address to you, and through you to the United Nations, heartfelt greetings and best wishes for success in activities devoted to the cause of peace, freedom, national independence and collaboration among peoples, with a view to bringing about a better and more just world.

SAN MARINO

Their Excellencies Mr. Ermenegildo Gasperoni and Mr. Adriano Reffi,

Captains Regent of the Republic of San Marino

The celebration of Solidarity Day with the Palestinian people is joined by the people of San Marino who, animated by the moral strength derived from the ancient tradition of peace and liberty, follow with constant attention the Middle East situation and the painful consequences which have caused and continue to cause much suffering to the heroic Palestinian people.

The deep Middle East tension has largely proved to all the people that any conflict settlement other than one based on the means of peaceful negotiations is impossible, that territorial occupation provokes irremediable wars which are fought with the dispersion of the people and the annihilation of regional individualities.

In this context, the people of San Marino believe that all nations, whether big or small, have the right to a territory on which they can build their own state and make it prosper, safe from any armed aggression, from any political and economic condition, and from any external interference.

In the full respect of people’s life and self determination and in the name of the people and the Government of the Republic of San Marino, we express our full solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people to whom we wish a cessation of every suffering and the definitive and stable settlement in the region with equitable and territorial borders universally respected in time.

SENEGAL

H.E. Mr. Leopold Sedar Senghor, President of the Republic of Senegal

At the time when the United Nations is commemorating for the first time the Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, who have been struggling for 30 years for the exercise of their inalienable right to return to their homeland, to self-determination and to the establishment of an independent State in Palestine, I would like, on behalf of the Senegalese people and Government, to convey to you my fervent wishes for the success of this historic Day.

This event is all the more significant because it is the United Nations which has taken the initiative, thereby reaffirming its primary responsibility for the restoration of the inalienable rights of the Palestinians and its duty to continue to play an active and constructive role for the attainment of that goal.

It is our conviction that a just settlement of the question of Palestine can be achieved only under the auspices of the United Nations, with the participation, on a footing of equality, of all interested parties, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, in its capacity as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

In this connexion, it gives me particular pleasure to pay ,a tribute to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People for the valuable, serious and outstanding work which it has accomplished since its establishment. Through its perseverance and sustained action, your Committee has helped to present a true picture of the question of Palestine and has contributed towards the formulation of the only programme acceptable to the Palestinians for the implementation of their rights.

This is the occasion for reaffirming the support of the Senegalese Government and my own support for the recommendations of your Committee, as a basis for a just settlement of the question of Palestine.

The Senegalese Government and I myself encourage you to persevere in your efforts, and we assure you of our full co-operation.

By working to promote the rights of the Palestinian people, you are serving the ideals of peace and justice which are the very foundation of the United Nations.

SEYCHELLES

H.E. Mr. France Albert René, President of the Republic of Seychelles

I was extremely pleased when, by resolution 32/40B of 2 December last year, the General Assembly established the Special Unit on Palestinian Rights and requested it, in consultation with the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People to organize the annual observance of 29 November as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. For, despite praiseworthy efforts by some, for far too long, the international community as a whole has not paid the attention it should have to the problems of the Palestinian people nor has it lent its full weight and energy to resolving them.

My hope if therefore that the solemn observance of this day will not only focus attention on the continuing plight of the Palestinian people but will stir the conscience of all of us to act positively to help them secure their rights, at an early date.

SOMALIA

H.E. Mohamed Siyad Barre, President of the Somali Democratic Republic

On this great occasion when the international community is commemorating the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I wish on behalf of the Government and people of the Somali Democratic Republic and in my own name to reaffirm our solidarity with and support for the just cause of Palestinian people.

The Somali Democratic Republic has consistently supported the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty in Palestine, and their right to return to their homes in the land which they and their ancestors inhabited from time immemorial.

We are gratified that the international community and particularly the General Assembly has come all out in support of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people as was expressed in the General Assembly resolution 3236 (XXIX). In this connexion, Israel has been condemned by the international community for her usurpation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and her violation of the international law, and the provisions of United Nations resolutions.

We highly commend the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People under the able chairmanship of Ambassador Fall for its untiring efforts.

It is the sincere hope of the Somali Democratic Republic that the United Nations and in particular the Security Council will take decisive action in support of the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people, so that the injustices caused by Israeli aggression and expansionism will be redressed without any further delay if peace is to be restored in that past of the world.

SYRIA

H.E. Mr. Hafez Al-Assad, President of the Syrian Arab Republic

It is my pleasure, on this day devoted by the United Nations to the support of the Palestinian Arab people, to commend the selection of this day, 29 November, for the celebration of this occasion – I feel that this selection is an indication that the injustice that was inflicted on the Palestinian people on 29 November 1947, the day the General Assembly decided to partition Palestine, is about to be terminated forever.

The United Nations resolution to devote an international day to the support of the Palestinian Arab people comes today as an expression of the realisation by the international Organization of its great responsibility in respect of the Palestinian question, this question having arisen as a result of the resolution on partition which was adopted in contradiction with the Charter, with international law and with the facts of history and under pressure from the colonialists and the imperialists who were influential in the adoption of the international resolution at a time when most of the world’s peoples and States were not repre­sented in the United Nations as they are today.

Proceeding from the feeling of regret engendered by the fact that the resolution on partition has resulted in the Palestinian People’s being uprooted and their homeland occupied, the General Assembly has subsequently tried, particularly since 1974, to restore to this people their inalienable national rights. Thus it has recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization as the representative of the Palestinian people, and its resolutions have called for the return of this struggling people to their homeland, for their right to self-determination without foreign interference and for the establishment of their independent national State on their national soil. Israel, however, has refused to comply with what is right and with the will of the international community and continues to violate the Charter of the United Nations and its resolutions. This state of affairs has resulted in the continuation of the state of war and in the lack of security in the Middle East, the most important zone in the world, and has led to four wars and a great number of armed conflicts and brought the world to the brink of a world war.

It is a just peace which we seek and which the international community represented in the United Nations seeks. But this peace cannot be established until Israel has withdrawn from the occupied Arab lands and until the Palestinian people have obtained their rights and, like the rest of the peoples in the world, have established their independent state under the auspices of the United Nations and in conformity with its Charter.

TUNISIA

H.E. Mr. Habib Bourguiba, President of the Republic of Tunisia

By commemorating the first International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the international community is doing justice to this people and recognizing the necessity of restoring to them their legitimate and inalienable rights.

For some years, and in particular since my tour of the Middle East in 1965, I have stated that the situation prevailing in the Middle East derives its origin from the Palestinian problem and that the settlement of the conflict in this region in indissolubly linked with the solution of that problem.

We have always maintained that the Palestinian issue is not a dispute between Arabs and Jews but that it is, above all, the cause of a people robbed of its territory by force and defrauded of its most legitimate natural rights.

We still believe that the question of Palestine is essentially no different from other colonial problems; the situation is similar to that prevailing in southern Africa, or even more tragic, because zionism actually aims at the elimination of one people and its replacement by another.

The Palestinian people have therefore been forced to resort to armed struggle to preserve their existence and assert their inalienable national rights.

Without any assurance of a peaceful, just and equitable solution, it will be a good while before they can be expected to slacken in the struggle which they are waging under the aegis of the PLO, an organization which has acquired its legitimacy in combat.

It is high time for the international community to react effectively to impose peace in that part of the world – the durable peace which will enable the Palestinian people to recover their dignity, return to their homes and exercise their right to self-determination and national sovereignty.

By deciding on this Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the United Nations is providing additional proof that it is still the guarantor of justice.

Tunisia feels it its duty to respond to the appeal of the international Organization and to commemorate this historic Day.

In so doing, it expresses its unremitting support for the just cause of the Palestinian people and the steadfast will of the Tunisian people to stand always on the side of justice and right.

UGANDA

H.E. Al-Hajji Field Marshal Dr. Idi Amin Dada, V.C., D.S.O., M.C.,  C.B.E.,

Life President of the Republic of Uganda

On this first International Day of. Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I wish on my own behalf, the Government and the entire people of Uganda to salute and commend you personally and through you the Palestinian people for the many sacrifices which have characterised the struggle for justice, peace and dignity against the Zionists and imperialists who dispossessed our brothers and sisters of their homeland.

The Palestinian problem is indeed the core of the Middle East problem. There cannot, therefore, be a solution to the Middle East problem unless and until the Palestinian people regain their homeland and exercise their inalienable right to self-determination.

I take this opportunity to appeal to all the Palestinian people and indeed all the Arab brothers to unite and forget the differences which the Zionist enemy takes advantage of.

I wish to assure you, dear brother, and all the Palestinian people of our total and unflinching commitment to the Palestinian and Arab cause. I am confident that with the increasing awareness of the Palestinian problem, through programmes designed to suit this International Day, all peace-loving forces will rally behind Palestinian People until the final victory is achieved.

UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS

H.E. Mr. L.I. Brezhnev, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR

and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

In connexion with the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I send heartfelt comradely congratulations to you and your comrades and to the entire Palestinian Arab people.

The celebration of this day throughout the world is a patent manifestation of solidarity with the just struggle that is being waged by the Arab people of Palestine for the realization of their inalienable national rights, including their indisputable right to establish their own State. Thanks to its steadfastness, courage acid firmness of principle in this difficult struggle, the Palestine Liberation Organization has won all-Arab and international recognition as the sole lawful representative of the Palestinian people, and become one of the advance guards of the Arab national liberation movement.

The just cause of the Palestinians enjoys the unswerving support of the countries of the socialist community and of the progressive and democratic forces of the whole world. The Soviet Union will continue in future firmly to support the Palestinian people in their struggle for the realization of their legitimate national rights. We shall not swerve from our policy of principle, aimed at the achievement of a comprehensive settlement and the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

I wish the friendly Palestinian people and their political vanguard – the Palestine Liberation Organization – success in the struggle for the achievement of national independence and statehood.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

His Highness Shaikh Zaid Ben Sultan Al Nahian,

President of the United Arab Emirates

In the name of the people of the United Arab Emirates, I greet you and acknowledge, in all gratitude and pride, your efforts in support of the Palestinian people and for their attainment of their indisputable and inalienable rights.

We see in this commemoration and in the choice of this particular day, 29 November, as the Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People an expression of the United Nations’ recognition of the injustice which it inflicted on that people in 1947 by partitioning their homeland and failing to prevent the aggressor and usurper from forcing that people out of that homeland.  We also see this commemoration as an indication of resolute determination on the part of the international community to eliminate that injustice and to help the Palestinian people in their struggle to regain their rights.

I would like to assure you that we, for our part, will spare no effort to support that struggling people and to give them every assistance so that they may regain their rights.

YEMEN ARAB REPUBLIC

H.E. Colonel Ali Abdullah Salih, President of the Yemen Arab Republic

and Commander-General of the Armed Forces

On the occasion of the United Nations commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the struggling Palestinian people, I am pleased to transmit to you on behalf of the people and Government of the Yemen Arab Republic and on my own behalf, our heartfelt greetings and to express to you our support, affirming our solidarity with the efforts of the United Nations and the stand which the Organization has taken for Arab rights in order to enable the Pales­tinian people to obtain the restoration of their legitimate national rights to self-determination and to the establishment of their national State on their national Palestinian soil.

The Yemen Arab Republic, in its belief in the principles of the United Nations as enshrined in the Charter, calls upon all justice- and freedom-loving States to stand firmly by the rightful Palestinian Arab cause, in support of the principles on which the United Nations is founded and for the establishment of peace based on justice in the Middle East. In so doing, we reaffirm our full support for the struggle of the Palestinian people under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

We wish you every success in your great task.

YUGOSLAVIA

H.E. Mr. Josip Broz Tito, President of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, observed by the United Nations for the first time this year, is confronting the consciousness and responsibility of all countries and peoples of the world once again with the extremely disturbing fact that the suffering endured by the Palestinian people for 30 years has neither been removed nor alleviated.

In the present-day world, in which the destinies of all people are inter­dependent and interrelated, it is inadmissible that one people – the Palestinian people – be denied the right to its own territory, integrity, independence and freedom, that is, to the achievements enjoyed today by all the State Members of the United Nations. “‘This disquieting fact makes it incumbent upon us to pledge ourselves most resolutely, in the interest of peace and international under­standing, to the reinforcement of all efforts of the international community aimed at the immediate realization of the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people.

I am deeply convinced that, without the realization of these rights, it is not possible to achieve a just, comprehensive and lasting settlement of the Middle East crisis, the core of which is the Palestinian problem, and, consequently, without the solution of this crisis, it is not possible to establish peace security and co-operation among all the countries and peoples in that region.

Yugoslavia has from the very outset held the view, and continues to believe, that, in order to achieve these objectives, it is essential for Israel to withdraw from all the territories occupied after 5 June 1967 as well as to enable the Palestinian people to decide its own destiny in peace and freedom and to exercise fully its legitimate rights to self-determination, independence and sovereignty, including the right to establish its own State.  These rights emanate from the Charter of the United Nations and from the numerous resolutions adopted by the United Nations so far and endorsed by the overwhelming majority of Member States. It is also of the utmost importance that the Palestinian people be represented, in all forums and negotiations concerned with and exploring possibilities for the settlement of the Middle East crisis and the question of Palestine, by its sole legitimate representative – the Palestine Liberation Organization, which is a full-fledged member of the non-aligned movement and a permanent observer to the United Nations.

We witness, regrettably, Israel’s persistent occupation and denial of the rights of Palestinians, as well as attempts at solving the Middle East crisis by disregarding these rights. Such a state of affairs constitutes the main obstacle to the establishment of a just and durable peace in the Middle East.

I should also like to take this opportunity to point out that the non­aligned movement, which comprises the great majority of States Members of the United Nations, and other democratic forces in the world demand that the world Organization use all the means at its disposal in order to intensify pressure on Israel with a view to making it comply with the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council.

The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People offers us the opportunity to pledge once again the most resolute support of socialist and non-aligned Yugoslavia to the just struggle of the Palestinian people for freedom, national independence and identity. It is my hope that this Day of Solidarity will encourage the international community to exert additional efforts towards an urgent settlement of the Palestinian question, which is again on the agenda of the current session of the General Assembly. In these efforts, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People occupies an important place.

I should like to avail myself of this occasion also to extend, in this way, my best wishes to the friendly Palestinian people whose just struggle Yugoslavia will continue to support fully, as in the past, inspired by the Charter of the United Nations, by the lofty objectives of the non-aligned movement and by humane ideals.

Messages from heads of Government and a Deputy Prime Minister

DEMOCRATIC YEMEN

Mr. Ali Nasser Muhammad, member of the Politburo of the Yemen Socialist Party

and Chairman of the Presidential and Ministerial Council of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen

It is my pleasure, on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, to greet you and to salute the great efforts exerted by the United Nations in support of the causes of the deprived and struggling people, among which the Palestinian people occupy a pre-eminent place.

The stand taken by the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, in reaffirming its total and absolute support of the struggle waged by the Palestinian people under the leadership of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, their sole legitimate representative, is essentially based on the justice of the struggle waged by the Palestinian people in order to return to their lands and to regain their legitimate right to establish their independent State.

Thus our stand on this cause, as expressed in more than one international forum, has always been precise and clear. This is because we consider the Palestinian question as the core of the Middle East conflict, and this is why we have totally rejected the outcome of the Camp David meeting, which we see as a misrepresentation of our Arab causes, and of the cause of the Palestinian people first and foremost.

In conclusion, we wish your commemoration every success.

INDIA

H.E. Mr. Narangi Desai, Prime Minister of the Republic of India

On the occasion of the special meeting being held by the Special Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People to commemorate the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I would like to convey the best wishes of the Government and people of India for the welfare and prosperity of the Palestinians. They have been uprooted from their hearths and homes and have undergone great suffering and hardship. They have our full sympathy. I would like to reaffirm the support of the Government of India for their just cause and their inalienable rights to have a homeland of their own.

MALTA

H.E. the Hon. Dom Mintoff, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Malta

The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People coincides with a crucial phase in their heroic and just struggle. The Government of the Republic of Malta has stood solidly by the Palestinian people in the pursuit of their legitimate rights, in particular their right to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty. On this occasion, therefore, the socialist Government of Malta proclaims its solidarity with the Palestinian people, stresses its determination to continue full support of the Palestinian cause and openly states its firm belief that no lasting peace is possible in the Middle East without the full participation of the Palestinians.

SAUDI ARABIA

His Royal Highness Fahd Ibn Abdul Aziz,

Crown Prince and Deputy Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

It is my pleasure on the occasion of the Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People to seize this opportunity to express to Your Excellency our deep appreciation for the excellent efforts exerted by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, under Your Excellency’s chairmanship, for the purpose of the support of this people’s just rights.

I wish on this occasion to emphasize the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s steadfast position in its full support and continued assistance for the struggle of the Palestinian People to reclaim and exercise their inalienable national rights, including their return to their homeland and their right to self-determination. No doubt, Your Excellency is aware of the intransigence of the Israeli authorities by their complete indifference to these rights, which are in complete harmony with international law and the United Nations Charter. Hence, the Israeli attitude continues to pose a serious threat to international peace and security.

That is why the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is convinced that a full and just settlement in the Middle East can never be achieved without taking into consideration the complete withdrawal from all the territories occupied by Israel, in the forefront of which is Jerusalem. Furthermore, there will be to self-determination and their right to national independence and sovereignty.

Therefore, we do hope that this Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People will be a good opportunity for peace-loving peoples and countries everywhere to support the right of all peoples subjected to foreign domination and occupation to self-determination, liberty and independence in accordance with the United Nations Charter.

Messages from Ministers for Foreign Affairs

CUBA

H.E. Mr. Isidoro Malmierca, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba

On the occasion of the commemoration, on 29 November, of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the Government and people of the Republic of Cuba, through the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, wish to convey to that heroic people the expression of their unfailing solidarity.

In times such as these, it is more necessary than ever that the forces dedi­cated to peace and progress, the Arab peoples and the rest of the world, should join together with the PLO, which has been recognized by international organizations as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, to intensify the struggle to restore the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to independence, self-determination and sovereignty and to establish their own State.

These rights were reaffirmed once again in the most recent report of the General Assembly, which was submitted by the Committee over which you preside, and which also states that the results of the Camp David conference are not in conformity with the resolutions of the United Nations and that no solution to the Middle East problem can be envisaged without taking into account the inte­rests of the Palestinian people.

GUYANA

H.E. the Hon. Rashleigh Esmond Jackson, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Guyana

On this International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People – 29 November – the Government and people of Guyana reaffirm their support for and solidarity with the dispossessed people of Palestine in their just and legitimate struggle for the restoration of their national rights including the right to a homeland.

Over the years, Guyana has consistently maintained that at the heart of any search for a just, lasting and comprehensive solution to the complex Middle East situation lies the Palestinian question, i.e. the recovery by the Palestinians of their inalienable national rights.

The attainment of these rights has been frustrated by the intransigence of Israel through inter alia the continued illegal occupation of Arab territories and by changing their demographic character.

In the present circumstances relating to the Middle East, Guyana wishes to reiterate to the Palestinian people, led by their authentic representatives, the Palestine Liberation Organization, (the PLO) of its continuing support until a just and lasting peace is achieved.

INDONESIA

H.E. Dr. Mochtar Kusumaatmadja, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the

Republic of Indonesia

On the occasion of the commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the Government and people of Indonesia join the other members of the international community in extending their unfaltering support to the determined efforts of the Palestinians to achieve their noble aims and aspirations. At this crucial juncture in their struggle for the achievement of their inalienable rights, this act of solidarity on the part of the international community can go a long way in transforming their aspirations, for which they worked so long and hard, into a reality.

Indonesia has always maintained that the question of Palestine is at the heart of the Middle East conflict. Pursuant to that view, Indonesia has always been consistent in its support for the cause of the Palestinians and has maintained that the solution of the Middle East conflict cannot be separated from the elimination of the injustices and humiliation inflicted upon the Palestinians. Furthermore, such injustices cannot be redressed as long as the territories belonging to its rightful owners are under continued occupation by force of arms.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, has made steadfast efforts towards making progress which would serve the interests of all the parties concerned. The Committee can be proud of the very useful work it has accomplished in the past.

I am pleased to reaffirm Indonesia’s support for the people of Palestine and to express the belief that their efforts will inevitably result in the attainment of their sacred goals. On behalf of the Indonesian people and on my own behalf, I reiterate our historic commitment to the cause of the struggle of the Palestinian people for the restitution of their legitimate rights and the restoration of freedom and justice in the Middle East. It is my earnest hope that the day when all Palestinians will enjoy freedom and liberty and take their place in the comity of nations is not far away.

MALAYSIA

H.E. Mr. Tengku Ahmad Rithauddeen, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia

The decision of the thirty-second session of the United Nations General Assembly to organize an annual observance of 29 November as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is an important step to promote greater awareness of the tragic plight of the Palestinian People. It will also encourage understanding of the efforts of the United Nations to promote the restoration to those unfortunate people of their inalienable rights and the urgency for concrete measures towards that end.

Malaysia has long recognized that the question of Palestine lies at the heart of the whole Middle East conflict and hence the importance of the Palestinian role in the overall solution of the problem. There can be no just and comprehensive solution so long as the Palestinian people are robbed of their lands, homes and properties and Israel continues illegally to remain and settle in the occupied Arab territories.

Today, on this solemn occasion, I welcome the opportunity to renew once again Malaysia’s pledge of continued steadfast support for the Palestinian cause and reiterate our firm solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle to realize their inalienable national rights to return to their homelands and to achieve self-determination and independence.

OMAN

H.E. Mr. Qais Abdul Muneim Al-Zawawi, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of the Sultanate of Oman

On the occasion of the commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I wish to affirm to you and through you the well-known position of Oman and its full solidarity with the hopes of the fraternal Palestinian people for self-determination and for the establishment of their inalienable rights.

SUDAN

H.E. Mr. Rashid Al-Tahir Bakr, Vice-President and Minister for

Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Republic of the Sudan

I have the honour to convey to you the deepest gratitude and appreciation for the magnificent effort which you are making to affirm the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. Unquestionably, the fact of your having been honoured with the chairmanship of this Committee is proof of the confidence placed in you and your profound knowledge of the dimensions of the cause of the heroic Palestinian people.

All elements of the international family have now begun to realize fully the suffering to which the Palestinian people have been exposed since the establishment of the State of Israel on the territory of Palestine in 1948 and which then took the form of the uprooting of a large number of the people of Palestine, their expulsion from their homeland and the settlement of alien Zionist elements in their homes and on their territory. Since that time, Israel has persisted in pursuing a policy of expansion in the remaining part of the territory of Palestine, to the point where it has imposed its military domination over the whole of Palestine and portions of the territory of the Arab States bordering on Palestine. This expansion has led to the expulsion of ever-increasing numbers of Palesti­nians from their country, so that today two thirds of the Palestinian people are in the position of refugees, living in camps and yearning for the day when they will return to their country. Numerous resolutions have been adopted by the United Nations for the restoration of the rights of the Palestinian people. Indeed, Israel itself, When it joined the United Nations, undertook to implement General Assembly resolutions 394 (V), 181 (II) and 194 (III), which call for the return of the refugees to their homes and the compensation of those who prefer to remain outside Palestine. However, this commitment on the part of the Zionist State has never been carried out, and this State has continued to enjoy membership of the United Nations up to this day. It has, moreover, persisted in following an expansionist racist policy in blatant defiance of the international community and in flagrant and continued violation of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Israel has endeavoured to remove the Arab population from the Arab territories which it occupied in a series of wars of aggression which it waged on its neighbours during the 1950s and 1960s and to replace that Arab population with immigrants from all parts of the world. I do not think that there is any need on this historic occasion to draw attention to the methods used many times by this racist State to induce the citizens of many countries of the world to leave their homes and emigrate to Israel in circumstances which might at the time have aroused considerable inquiry. In this way, Israel began to expand in size and its population to increase, while the Palestinian people in exile increased in numbers as a result of successive their homes, even after 1967, and Israel’s continued policy of establishing new settlements in the occupied territories. The international community has endea­voured to affirm the rights of the Palestinian people and their right to return to their homes and to establish their homeland on their territory under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization, around which the Palestinian people have rallied, both in the occupied territories and in exile. However, these efforts have, to date, failed, and the situation in the region now presents a threat of the outbreak of an armed confrontation and may turn into a situation the extend of which cannot yet be estimated. The establishment of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People should there­fore help to give the international community a deeper understanding of the dimension of this just cause and thereby promote the adoption of all possible measures to strengthen and support the Palestinian cause by providing effective material aid to the Palestine Liberation Organization, in its capacity as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and by condemning and rejecting the alterations which the Zionist entity is endeavouring to introduce in the Palestinian lands under its domination, in an attempt to change their natural, demographic, economic, cultural and religious characteristics.

Unquestionably, the selection of this day, 29 November of each year, as an International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People will help to remind the peace-loving peoples of the world of the just cause of the heroic Palestinian people and to urge them to aid them in their just struggle for the restoration of their territory and their right to return their homeland. We are confident that the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will, through its sincere endeavour, work for the conti­nuation of the effort of the international community to support the Palestinian struggle and to enable the Palestinian people to obtain the restoration of their legitimate riots. The Sudan, for its part, will work for the realization of these lofty goals through the international communities to which it belongs, such as the non-aligned group, the Islamic group, the African group and the Arab group, and will also continue to participate in all international gatherings dedicated to this cause and to give them the necessary moral and political momentum, in order that they may attain the end which we all desire and thereby put an end to the tragedy of the Palestinian people, so that they may recover their rights and dignity and take their place among the peace-loving people of the world.

TURKEY

H.E. Mr. Gündüz Ökçün, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey

On the occasion of “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People” I would like to express, once again, the belief of the Turkish Government that in the achievement of a just and durable peace in the Middle East, the legitimate rights of the Palestinian Arab People, including the right to decide their own future, should be taken into consideration.

The Turkish Government recognizes as fundamental the principle of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force and considers it necessary that all the Arab lands occupied by Israel be returned.

Turkey, as a constituent member of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People contributes to the valuable efforts undertaken by this Committee for the achievement of their legitimate aspirations.

The Turkish people want to see an end brought soon to the long lasting sufferings of the Palestinians and to see justice done in this tragic problem.

I avail myself of this opportunity to reiterate the position of my Government in lending support to the right of the Palestinian people to have their own homeland.

VIET NAM

H.E. Mr. Nguyen Duy Trinh, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam

On the occasion of the Solidarity Day with the Palestinian People, 29 November 1978, on behalf of the Government and people of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, I would like to extend my warm greetings to Your Excellency and, through you, to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

At a time when imperialism and Israeli Zionist aggressors are scheming to ignore the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights and deny the role played by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, this Solidarity Day constitutes a great encouragement to the Palestinian people.

Together with the progressive people of the world, the Vietnamese people warmly welcome the Solidarity Day with the Palestinian people and reaffirm our resolute support to their struggle for national rights, including the right to establish an independent state on their motherland as well as to the people of Arab countries in their struggle for the recovery of all Israel-occupied territories.

We hold that any correct solution to the Middle Past problem must include Israel withdrawal from all occupied territories and participation of PLO representative.

Messages from Governments

ANGOLA

H.E. Mr. Elisio Figueiredo, on behalf of the Government, people and

Central Committee of the MPLA-Workers’ Party of the People’s Republic of Angola

On behalf of the Government and people of the People’s Republic of Angola, as well as the Central Committee of the MPLA – Workers Party, the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of Angola to the United Nations expresses the revolutionary solidarity of all Angolan militants with our Palestinian comrades, led by their sole legitimate liberation movement, the Palestine Liberation Organization.

On this day of solidarity with the Palestinian people, it is the duty of the international community, and first and foremost of those of us who have also known a colonial past, to reaffirm our support for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination and independence, their right to return to their homeland.

The care of Palestine represents one of the most flagrant contraventions of human and national rights, and the continuing colonization of occupied Arab territory represents one of the most blatant contraventions of international law. We strongly condemn what we are witness to the expulsion of a nation from its ancestral homeland, the racist and colonial rule over occupied territory and its inhabitants, the establishing of illegal colonial settlements on occupied land, and the denial of the right of return to the Arab inhabitants of Palestine. There is no place in the world today for colonialism, least of all settler colonialism, whether in the Middle East or in southern Africa.

Till the independence of the people of Palestine, the struggle continues.

THE PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION

Mr. Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Executive Committee and

Commander-in-Chief of the Palestine Revolutionary Forces

I am addressing you on behalf of Palestine, the Palestine of the past, the present and the future, the Palestine of the Prophets, the martyrs, the displaced persons and those fighting for freedom. I am addressing you on behalf of the territory, land, people and cause of Palestine.

I am addressing you from our towns and villages which are being destroyed by Israeli occupation and from the refugee camps which racist imperialist Zionist aggression is turning into test-sites for its weapons.

My words to you stem from our people’s insistence on life and their resolve to repel aggression within our occupied territory and outside it, a resolve which has existed since the first conspiracy to drive them out, which was perpetrated in 1948 with Israeli bayonet points. My words to you stem from our inalienable legitimate right to return to our homeland and our right to self-determination and to establish our independent State.

My words to you are based on the position of the leadership of the legitimate struggle of my people, our people’s patriotic and humanitarian rejection of the conspiracies aimed at their physical, political and moral annihilation and the valiant and just resistance of our people against all forms of settlement away from the soil of our Palestinian homeland. I stress to you, and through you to the world as a whole, that the cause of peace is an indivisible whole and that talk of world peace that is not linked with talk of justice and the removal of oppression is the language of hypocrisy and a disguised call for the continuation of wars and their tragedies. Hence derives the outstanding value of this historic day decreed by the General Assembly of the United Nations for international solidarity with the Palestinian people, as a sincere expression of the true concept of world peace and as a magnificent culmination of the efforts of the peoples of the world in support of the just cause of our people, their solidarity with out people’s heroic struggle, their affirmation of the justice of our people’s goals and their acknowledgement of the great injustice inflicted on our people. This historic day marks a serious endeavour whereby the international family expresses its rejection of the perpetration of this injustice and its resolve to strive for its elimination. This day further affirms the respect of the international community for the noble values and mighty achievements realized by mankind through its long and arduous struggle and enshrined in the principles of the Charter of the United Nations. It signifies insistence on these principles and concern to protect them from the efforts of those who seek to impede the course of justice, stem the tide of history and exploit the suffering and oppression of peoples. It affirms the international community’s loyalty to and support of the political and human rights of oppressed peoples who are deprived of their homeland, freedom, equality, independence and sovereignty.

This day is a day of solidarity with all national liberation movements, with which the Palestine Liberation Organization stands together.

It is the day on which the United Nations affirms its loyalty to its mission, its defence of its role and the effectiveness of its resolutions and puts forward its concept of just and lasting peace in our region. Its timing comes as an appropriate international response to the approach and accords of Camp David, which aimed at casting into oblivion Palestinian existence and Palestinian rights, tried to sanctify Israeli occupation of the territory of occupied Palestine and violated international legality.

This day reflects world solidarity with us, this solidarity which is one of the sources of our strength, together with the strength with which the Arab nation provides us through its solidarity and its historic links with our cause and our people at all levels, both popular and official, both at the base and at the summit. Your solidarity with us, this magnificent and noble world solidarity, is the first harbinger of the triumph and independence of our struggling people.

We assure you – and it is upon the shoulders of you all that the responsibility for the attainment of the aspirations and dreams of the peoples of the world for peace, freedom and national independence, free from oppression and aggression, rests – that our participation with you in the realization of all these values lies fundamentally in our legitimate, just and persistent struggle for the formulation of the terms for peace, which cannot be established in the Middle East except on the basis of the implementation of the inalienable rights of the’ Palestinian Arab people, these rights whose acknowledgement by the United Nations has served to enlighten the world conscience with a vision of true peace and armed it with the criterion of truth which distinguishes between the process of fake peace engaged in at Blair House and the just peace towards which our people and the peoples of the world as a whole aspire. Any policy which denies the essence of the struggle in the Middle East, namely, Palestine and its people, their rights, their four million individuals, its land and its Liberation Organization, will be nothing but a delusion of world public opinion and the United Nations and a transgression of its resolutions supporting the right of the Palestinian Arab people to return to their right to self-determination and to establish their independent State on their national soil. To divest the concept of peace of the essential component of Palestinian rights is an endeavour to divest the United Nations of the principles of its Charter, its role and the effectiveness of its resolutions.

We are a people who are aware of our national and international responsibilities, and we are a part of mankind and benefit from and, in turn, benefit human civilization. We are in solidarity with mankind with regard to its destiny and its aspirations for the consolidation of world peace based on justice and equality. We are the people of the land of peace, the holy land of Palestine, loyal in our patriotism to it and dedicated to its mission. But when the Israeli Prime Minister declares, after the decision to make him co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, that our occupied Palestinian land will remain occupied forever and that Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, thereby defying all the resolutions of your international Organization, to which he owes his office and the existence of his State, he thereby sets himself up as a godhead of war and aggression and an enemy of justice and peace. It will not be possible to eradicate Jerusalem from the consciousness of millions of human beings and divest it of its illustrious cultural significance in order to make it a capital of aggression and racism.

Jerusalem will continue to be our Jerusalem and the Jerusalem of all of you, a place of pilgrimage for all believers and the capital of its Palestinian people.

Our blood in the Middle East is not oil or water; it is the salt of the earth at the time of tilling and its gunpowder at the time of repression.

And when they refuse to accept the ear of grain from our hand, they force a grenade into our other hand. We shall derive strength from the history of our country and brotherhood, from its sanctity, that the land of Palestine may complete the fulfilment of its mission.

On behalf of the steadfast Palestinian people in our occupied land and our struggling masses in the land of the diaspora, from the ever-renewed vigour of my people, from their unity and the unity of their land and from the olive-tree whose branch I have borne to you, I bring to you the greetings of our people and extend appreciation to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dr. Kurt Waldheim, who is aware that Palestinian peace is fundamental to world peace. I express gratitude also the Chairman and members of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and to all our friends and allies among the non-aligned States, the African States, the Islamic States, the socialist States and the friendly States who support our just struggle and our legitimate and inalienable rights. I renew the commitment of my people, as embodied in its sole legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, offering the requisite participation in the process of creating new norms for relations among nations, norms which are based on freedom, justice, peace and progress.

There is a flag which, must take its place among the flags of the States of the world at the United Nations, namely, the flag of our Palestinian Arab people, the flag of their independent national State. Let us work together to raise this flag over our fine Palestinian land.

Long live Palestine.

Long live the solidarity of peoples.

Long live freedom. Long live justice. Long live peace.

Statement by a Committee of the General Assembly of the United Nations

H.E. Mr. Leslie 0. Harriman, Chairman of the Special Committee against Apartheid

I must confess that I had some trepidations about accepting your invitation to address this special meeting; my fear was that I would have no meaningful contribution to make as Chairman of the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid.  For the Special Committee is concerned with the problem of racist domination and oppression and settler colonialism in South Africa.

The more I examine the words I have just utilized, the more I see the relationship between them and the situation in Palestine. I would not wish to go into the details because we all understand them, the Special Committee has, of course, been concerned with the collaboration

between Israel and the apartheid régime in South Africa. It made a further report on the matter to the General Assembly a few days ago.

There is also, on the other hand, the close relationship between the liberation movements of the black people of southern Africa and the Arab people of Palestine because of the common problems they have faced.

Again, I need say very little on these aspects which are well-known.

I felt compelled to come here again because of the campaign that has been unleashed against this committee and against this particular observance by people who seem to see the very term “Palestinian Rights” as a red rag.

The Special Committee against Apartheid itself experienced similar boycotts and defamation, especially in its early years, and is even now subjected to attacks by some fringe elements.

My colleagues in the Special Committee have felt that the Committee has a duty, as an organ of the United Nations, to share its experience with this Committee on this special occasion.

I may recall that when the problem of apartheid was brought to the United Nations in 1952 by Asian and African States, there was a difficult struggle to get it on the agenda, although the issue was very clear and although the Assembly had already taken up many allegations against other States in a cold war posture and in a cold war context. A commission which was then established to study the problem had to be disbanded after three years because of opposition by Western and other States.

I may also recall that no petitioner from the South African liberation movement could be heard in this Assembly until 1963. The President of the African National Congress could only sit in the visitors’ gallery in 1946.

A letter by Professor Matthews in 1952, on behalf of the ANC, could not even be issued as a document of the United Nations.

When the Special Committee against Apartheid was established by a General Assembly resolution in 1962, it became the first committee in the United Nations history to be boycotted by the Western Powers.

Perhaps there have been more vetoes and threats of vetoes on apartheid in the Security Council that on any other issue. I have not had time to count.

But the Special Committee has carried on its work, in faithfulness to the principles of the Charter, and we have today achieved greater understanding in the world of the inhumanity of apartheid and of the inalienable rights of the oppressed people of South Africa.

I feel that there is an inescapable lesson in this experience of the Special Committee. The United Nations and its committees cannot be dis­heartened by criticism, but must maintain and remain faithful to principles because world opinion will lend its support when it is acquainted with all the facts.

One is amazed at the hysterical outbursts in some quarters whenever there is mention of the inalienable rights of an oppressed people – I fear the word because I cannot pronounce it property but in its true sense – even today, on the eve of the thirtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; I wonder why this is so.

When one speaks of the rights of the black people of South Africa who are denied even elementary rights, some people immediately conjure up the image of the white settlers – their kith and kin – being thrown into the sea. The fact is, of course, that it is not Africans who are endangering the future of whites in Africa, but the brutality of the racists and the encouragement of the racists which they receive from their friends abroad.

felt that I needed to emphasize this fact since I saw that the results of a public opinion poll among Jews in Israel only a few days ago indicated that three quarters of the people agreed that it is impossible to arrive at full and final peace without solving the Palestinian problem. Yet, some people abroad, who profess to be friends of the Jewish people in Israel, do not want even to recognize that there is a Palestinian problem at all or that there are Palestinian rights.

In South Africa and in Palestine, there are serious and complicated problems inherited from the past, for which the international community must find solutions.

In South Africa, there is the legacy of 300 years of racism, under colonial and settler rule, formalized by the British handing over of power to the white minority 70 years ago and institutionalized with the victory of the apartheid régime in 1948.

In Palestine, there is the legacy of colonialism and the problems arising from the abandonment of the mandate by the same British in 1948.

It is perhaps an accident that the apartheid régime was established in South Africa two weeks after the State of Israel was proclaimed in Palestine in May 1948.

Both problems are difficult, but they must be solved or there will be wider conflict with enormous repercussions. There cannot be a lasting solution unless the international community adheres strictly to principles.

A “kith and kin” approach, devoid of principle, is disastrous. Especially where this “kith and kin” approach is practised across the oceans. It becomes even more difficult and more dangerous.

In the case of South Africa, the Special Committee and the liberation movements and African States have recognized and denounced black traitors. They have, without hesitation, commended whites who have identified themselves with the liberation struggle. They include Afrikaners, English-speaking people and a number of people of Jewish origin and I myself met several of them on my travels as members of the delegations of the liberation movement.

We have commended the Netherlands for its opposition to apartheid, despite their historic relations with the Afrikaners. They have recognized that the true friends of the Afrikaners are those who persuade them to abandon racism and go for justice and human dignity.

The Special Committee against Apartheid has always recognized that the problem of South Africa should be solved, by the people of the country on a basis of equality. The United Nations, the Member States and non-governmental organizations, can only assist in the process of upholding the principles of justice and lending support to the oppressed people.

The oppressed people have a right to choose their own liberation movement and their own leaders. No one can impose leaders on them and they have a right to choose the means of their own struggle.

When we say this, people bring in the problem of terrorism. Our position is simple. All terrorism – all killing and maiming of innocent people – by oppressive Governments or against the people they should protect or against neighbouring States or other combatants in a conventional war or in a guerilla war, must be prevented. Genuine liberation movements have always tried to avoid such acts because they are counterproductive.

But if we discuss the rule of war rationally, there cannot be a licence to oppressive Governments and restrictions on liberation movements.

In South Africa, the racist regime has shown no concern for the lives of the black people and has resorted to inhumanity in dealing with the members of the liberation movements. In addition, there have been numerous acts of terrorism against helpless victims of repression by vigilante groups, very few unknown, and I can only refer to the murder of Professor Richard Turner a year ago by such groups.

On the one hand, the national liberation movement has been most careful in avoiding the killing of innocent persons. Yet some people accuse it of terrorism, and the hysteria is likely to grow as the armed struggle develops. I have mentioned some principles because the inalienable rights of the South Africans or of the Palestinians are inextricably linked in the question regarding these principles.

Struggles of peoples for their rights may lead to conflicts between nations and become complicated. The resulting conflicts between States may be decided by negotiations among Governments. But no one can impose a solution on a people and expect it to last.

The South African regime, I may recall, has often called for dialogue with African States but the African States on principle rejected such dialogue which must start inside the countries involved.

The Special Committee has been concerned about the growing collaboration between Israel and South Africa. One of the most pernicious aspects of this collaboration has been the assistance provided to the apartheid régime by the propaganda apparatus of Israel and its friends – a propaganda apparatus used not only by South Africa against blacks who seek freedom but against the Palestinians. The Special Committee itself has often been violently attacked.

I speak as one who ardently wishes to see a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. I speak as an African, inspired by the vision of the Pan-African leaders for a new world in which all men and women can live as equals, and that includes Jews and Arabs, as much as people of African descent.

The Special Committee, however, had to do this its duty in publicizing the collaboration between Israel and South Africa.

Moreover, we hoped that the friends of Israel would persuade it not to link its fate with that of the apartheid régime which is doomed to extinction, but to extricate itself and align with the rest of the world and with justice.

I would like to hope that a few recent developments show that the leaders of Israel are not immune to public opinion and especially world opinion.

I have in mind their announcement or willingness to comply with the arms embargo against South Africa; we are yet to see this materialise, and there was the recent refusal of the Israeli ambassador to attend a play at a segregated theatre in Pretoria.

We hope this trend is not a red herring!

In that same spirit, I would like to express the hope that the efforts of this Committee, and of the Palestinian people themselves, will lead to a greater understanding and support for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.

Statements by regional groups of States at the United Nations

Group of African States

CHAD

H.E. Mr. Beadengar Dessande, Permanent Representative to the United Nations

You have been so kind as to invite me, in my capacity as Chairman of the African Group in the United Nations for the month of November, to join all those gathered here today to commemorate the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. I should like to express my deep gratitude for having been thus enabled to participate in this solemn meeting, which expresses the wishes of the General Assembly, emphasizes the international community’s concern and draws the attention of international opinion to the distressing question of Palestine.

Once again the question of Palestine is brought before the General Assembly of the United Nations. History bears out our belief that the international community is right today in continuing to express its indignation at the continued occupation of Palestine.

Africa as a whole again expresses its grave concern over Israel’s persistence in its usurpation of Palestine, its flagrant refusal to recognize the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and its racist and expansionist policy. This attitude constitutes a flagrant defiance of the international community and a constant and consultative violation of the principles of the Charter and of the resolutions of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It is hardly necessary to mention on this occasion that the Middle East crisis arose first and foremost from the denial of the Palestinian people’s right to national existence and that the continued aggravation of the crisis is essentially due to a deliberate desire to ignore the root of the problem, which is the restoration of their national rights to the Palestinian people.

The report of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (A/33/13) highlights this refusal.

This informative report well and truly proves that more than 1,757,269 persons registered as refugees with UNRWA, a people who had lived in peace before the creation of the State of Israel are now dispersed throughout the entire world.

Practices in the occupied territories show the extent to which the occupying State, in defiance of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of civilian Persons in Time of War, is flagrantly violating natural law.

Paragraph 129 of the note by the Secretary-General concerning the report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories (A/33/356 of 13 November 1978) reads :

“The Special Committee has stated, from its very first report, that the fundamental violation of human rights lies in the very fact of occupation. This is itself the direct cause of the day-to-day pattern affecting the life and liberty of the civilians in the occupied territories. Their life is marked with a pattern of incidents involving various forms of violence and repercussions of these incidents. The number of arrests recorded by the Special Committee during the Period covered by the report amounts to 1,192. This is but a minimum figure since it is based on reports on the Israeli press which is subject of censorship. To this number must be added those cases that go unreported and several other reports which refer to the arrest of ‘several’ or ‘dozens’ or ‘a large number’ of persons (the Committee observed over 20 such reports during the year). The same considerations apply to the information concerning incidents: 319 specific reports of incidents were recorded by the Committee. Several of these arrests and trials are the consequence of the incidents referred to, although a large proportion of the trials reported concerned non-violent offences. The pressure caused by the large number of arrests on the military tribunals is evidenced by the fact that a second tribunal has been established in Nablus to reduce the large number of outstanding trials”.

Thus, the peoples who are devoted to the cause of peace and liberty are aware that the Palestinians are facing the same sufferings as the Africans in South Africa, such as arbitrary arrests and court decisions. As are the Africans, in South Africa, the Palestinians are tortured and humiliated in Israeli prisons.

Africa has long been defining and continues to define its position on the Palestinian problem. Without the satisfaction of the national rights of the Palestinian people and the restoration of all occupied Arab territories, including Jerusalem, non-initiatives directed towards promoting a just solution can be effective. Obviously, the attainment of such a goal requires the compliance of the international community with its own decisions, the restoration of unity in the Arab ranks and the unremitting affirmation of international solidarity on a scale commemorate with the vast conspiracy against the Palestinian people.

Africa believes that the key to peace in the Middle East lies in the just solution of the Palestinian issue. The United Nations would achieve this aim if, by imposing respect for the principles of the Charter and by firmly applying its own decisions and recommendations, it allowed all the peoples of the Middle East the opportunity to exercise their inalienable rights to self-determination and national independence and to live in peace within firmly established national boundaries.

Before closing I should like, as the representative of Chad, to convey to you, as Chairman and as representative of the sister-country of Senegal, my warmest congratulations on the talent and dedication you have brought to the chairmanship of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. I extend these congratulations also to the members of the Committee for their valuable work under your enlightened guidance, on behalf of the Palestinian people.

Group of Arab States

H.E. Mr. Mansur Rashid Kikhia, Permanent Representative to the United Nations

LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA

On this day of International Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I would like, on behalf of the Arab Group, to reiterate our full support to the struggle of the Palestinian people and its sole legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, in their struggle for their inalienable rights.

I would also like to stress the following:

First, the just cause of the Palestinian people is at the heart of the Middle East problem; consequently, we stress our belief that no solution in the Middle East can be envisaged which does not fully take into account the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people.

Secondly, we stress our belief that without the realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to return to their homes and to self-determination, independence and national sovereignty the Middle East question cannot be solved.

Thirdly, we therefore emphasize that 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.

At this time, when events are taking place on the Middle East question, we should recall the recommendations which the Committee on the Exercise of Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People has made on the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, which the General Assembly has already endorsed, as a basis for the solution of the question of Palestine in the last two sessions.

I will also seize this opportunity to thank the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian”People for its efforts to promote the implementation of its recommendations.

We thank the United Nations for its decision to organize the annual observance of 29 November as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. We thank all those who helped in making this first observance take place today. At the same time, we urge the United Nations, and especially the Security Council, to take more practical measures to stop the aggression of the Zionist entity, this racist entity which was defined as such by the General Assembly in 1975.

Our greetings and support to the Palestinian people in its heroic struggle.

Our greetings and support to our Palestinian brothers who are suffering under the yoke of occupation.

We thank all friendly nations and all peace and freedom loving people of the world for their support to the just cause of the Palestinian people.

Group of Asian States

IRAN

H.E. Mr. Fereydoun Hoveyda, Permanent Representative to the United Nations

On the occasion of the first annual observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, we Member States who comprise the Asian Group declare our spiritual brotherhood with the people of Palestine. We support the legitimate goals and aspirations of Palestinians to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination without external interference and the right to independence and sovereignty as a nation.

For 30 years the displaced people of Palestine have suffered the neglect of world opinion. Refugees have endured the squalor and deprivation of a marginal existence with only the intermittent concern of more fortunate states. Since the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, Palestinian people have witnessed a concerted effort by that occupying power to establish Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands, to disrupt the social, cultural and political character of the Palestinian traditions and to demoralise a proud and independent population who seek their own unity.

In keeping with General Assembly resolution 3236, the Asian Group lends its enthusiastic support to the principles and objectives in that resolution which inter alia stated:

1. Reaffirmation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people in Palestine, including the right to self-determination without external interference and the right to national sovereignty;

2. Reaffirmation of the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property from which they had been displaced and uprooted;

3. Full acknowledgement that only through a realisation of these inalienable rights by the Palestinian people can a just and lasting peace be established in the Middle East;

4. Recognition of the right of the Palestinian people to retain its rights in all means in accordance with the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations;

5. Appeal to all States and international organizations to extend their support to the Palestinian people in its struggle to restore its rights, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.

The Member nations of the group of Asian States have experienced a wide variety of struggles to emerge as independent and unified entities. We resolve, in conjunction with these observances of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, to commit our moral resources to attaining a full restoration of similar rights to the people of Palestine.

In conclusion we applaud the establishment of the annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People through General Assembly resolution 32/40 B; the bonds of solidarity between States who seek justice and freedom for their people transcend political and spatial barriers. Those bonds unite us in common pursuit of peace.

And also I wish to commend, Mr. Chairman, your own dedicated efforts and the efforts of the members of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

Group of Eastern European States

POLAND

H.E. Mr. Henryk Jaroszek, Permanent Representative to the United Nations

Mr. Chairman, let me first of all express my thanks to you and to the membership of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People for having invited me in my capacity as Chairman of the Group of Eastern European States for the month of November to address this special meeting to commemorate the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

Speaking on this solemn occasion on behalf of a number of socialist States, I wish to reiterate our firm support for the just cause of the Arab people of Palestine, struggling for its national rights, freedom and independence. The socialist countries supported and welcomed General Assembly resolution 32/40 B, as well as other United Nations activities in favour of the full realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.

The position of the socialist countries on the question of Palestine has been well known. Since the very beginning we have been lending our support to the speedy realization of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to its own independent state. This approach is manifested, among other things, in the active participation of the socialist States in the work of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

It has been widely recognized, also in United Nations resolutions, that the question of Palestine forms the core of the Middle East problem. It has also been proved many a time that the lack of a solution to this pressing international problem continues to aggravate the situation in the Middle East.

The main responsibility for this situation is to be borne by Israel which, while ignoring all the rights of the Palestinian people, continues its defiance of United Nations resolutions and disregards the voice of international community.

It is our considered view that a just and lasting peace in the Middle East cannot be established without the achievement of a just solution of the problem of Palestine on the basis of attainment of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, represented by the Palestine Liberation Organization. In fact, participation of the PLO is essential in all negotiations in which the interests of the Palestinian people are involved.

It is also clear that the solution of the problem of Palestine cannot be reached without a political settlement in the Middle East. However, the road to peace in the Middle East leads through a comprehensive solution, including the withdrawal of Israel from all occupied Arab territories, realization of the inalienable rights of the Arab people of Palestine, including its right to an independent state, and safeguarding the right to independent existence and security of all States of that region. The best way of achieving these aims would be the resumption of the Geneva Peace Conference, with the participation of all interested parties, including the Palestine Liberation Organization.

In conclusion, I would like to pay tribute to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People for its persistent efforts in favour of the speedy attainment of these rights.

We rest assured that the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People will further enhance the just cause of and the struggle for the rights of the Palestinians. As the Vice-President of the All-Poland Committee for the National Unity Front put it in his cable to Chairman Yasser Arafat – “…The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, which is observed under the auspices of the United Nations and is an important event for the Palestinian people, for the Palestine Liberation Organ Organization and the international community, constitutes an emphatic reiteration of the growing world-wide support for the just Palestinian cause”.

We wish that cause all success and stand ready to continue our consistent support for it.

Group of Latin American States

ECUADOR

H.E. Dr. Miguel A. Albornoz, Permanent Representative to the United Nations

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People has been so good as to invite the Chairmen of the regional groups to participate in commemorating this International Day.

Although the Latin American countries have differing views on the various aspects of this question, our presence at this meeting should be regarded as an expression of our desire to co-operate in the solution of the Palestinian problem in the light of the United Nations resolutions directed towards this end, and does not imply any modification in the positions taken by member countries of the Group.

For Latin America, a region of the world in which national and inter­national life are modelled on principles which have prevailed for over a century and a half of independence, it is of fundamental importance that occupation by force should not confer territorial rights, and that the principle of the self-determination of the peoples should be respected; the Latin American countries therefore believe in the need to work for just and lasting peace in which all States may live in tranquillity. These principles have guided the Latin American countries in the various initiatives they have taken or supported over the past three decades concerning the Middle East as a whole, and the Palestinian people in particular.

Our region has at all times expressed its support for the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination and has advocated just settlements in which all interested parties would participate freely.

The United Nations must be the laboratory of peace; its message must be one of justice, not of animosity, and its actions must be of conciliation and co-operation, not violence and condemnation; its language must be the language of brotherhood and, therefore, mutual respect, which also means self-respect and dignity; its purpose must be to reduce tension and not to fan it; its actions must be constantly directed towards seeking for peace, for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, with the withdrawal of armed forces from the occupied territories and respect for and recognition of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of all States of the region and their right to live in peace, free from threats or acts of aggression.

Thus on this significant date for the countries of the Middle East, a region of primordial importance for the security of the world, we reiterate our hope that peace and justice may reign in the places of the world which are sacred for the peoples of various regions who believe in the religions which originated in them. For the Latin American peoples, places such as Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives, the Hebron road, Jericho, Bethlehem and the Jordan Valley, which are mentioned in United Nations documents, are biblical names which are evoked with veneration in the teachings and prayers of our religions and have a spiritual connotation of love and concord, not of conflict.  These religions which inspire the faith of hundreds of millions of hum beings contain a message which is consonant with the purposes of the United Nations and with the everlasting ideals of mankind.

In Latin America there is the especially close link of cowman roots because of the influences of Moslem culture in the fields of arts and sciences Which it received through Spain; all this intensities our cowers about the problems affecting the Arab peoples, as in the case of those relating to the Palestinian people; and on this day we express our best wishes for the peaceful fulfilment of their destiny..

Statements by intergovernmental organizations with observer status at the United Nations

ORGANIZATION OF AFRICAN UNITY

H.E. Mr. Dramane Outtara, Executive Secretary

In its resolution CM/Res.630 (XXXI), the Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity, after reaffirming its support for the decision in United Nations resolution 32/40 B to commemorate, in solidarity with the Palestinian people, a day to be celebrated on 29 November each year, invited the peoples of the African States, and all peace-loving peoples, to support the Palestinian people in their just struggle to liberate their territory and return to their homeland.

This resolution was approved unanimously by the Heads of State and Government of the OAU at their fifteenth Summit Conference held at Khartoum in the Democratic Republic of the Sudan last summer.

It is therefore a very agreeable duty, on behalf of the Secretary-General of our organization, to confirm to you, Mr. Chairman, how much we appreciate your invitation to join in the ceremony today. For us your invitation is a tangible expression of the solidarity which links your Committee with the Organization of African Unity in the difficult but noble and exalted task of restoring liberty, dignity and social justice to mankind.

Before proceeding further, I should like, Mr. Chairman, to convey to you the sincere congratulations of the Organization of African Unity for the very valuable work which has been carried out and for the commendable efforts which your Committee has made ever since its establishment to contribute to the solution of the Palestinian problem, despite the many enemies and denigrators of the Palestinian cause. The developments which have taken place over the last 12 months quite clearly show how delicate and difficult the task of your Committee is. The enemy delaying tactics in order to perpetuate the deprivation of the Palestinian people and keep them in the permanent refugee status to which imperialist plots have relegated them.

Your Committee deserves to be encouraged and congratulated, especially for the work of clarification it has done since its establishment. This has helped thwart the confusion campaigns carried out by the enemy, present to the world the objectives of the struggling Palestinian people and foil the efforts to impose an international conspiracy of silence against the deprived people of Palestine.

For some years now, the Organization of African Unity, true to its political philosophy, which embraces the liberation of peoples, the restoration of their dignity and the advent of an era of social justice, has taken a position on the Palestinian problem. This position was confirmed once again by the Heads of State and Government of the OAU at their fifteenth Summit Conference last summer, when, after adopting resolution CM/Res.630 (XXXI), which I have already mentioned, they adopted resolution CM/Res. 632 (XXXI) on the Palestinian Problem.

In the latter resolution, the Heads of State and Government first of all, in the preambular part, recall that the Palestinian problem is the core of the conflict in the Middle East and that the PLO is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. They reaffirm also the legitimate character of the struggle being waged by the Palestinian people under the leadership of the PLO with a view to recovering their national rights; and they reiterate their conviction that it is impossible to achieve a just and durable peace without Israel’s withdrawal from all the occupied Arab territories and its recognition of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

Still in the preambular part, they denounce the repeated Israeli acts of aggression against the Palestinian people, both inside and outside occupied Palestine, as evidenced by the daily acts of repression and terrorism and by the establishment of settlements and the alteration of geographical, demographic and cultural features, which constitute an overt and glaring violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. These acts of aggression reached their climax when Israel invaded southern Lebanon, thus confirming its aggressive and expansionist nature.

In the eight operative paragraphs, the Conference of Heads of State and Government reaffirms its total and effective support for the Palestinian people under the leadership of the PLO, their sole legitimate representative, and their right to return to their homeland, to sovereignty, to self-determination and to the establishment of their own independent State.

The Conference also reaffirms its support for the Palestinian people in their legitimate struggle by all available means, including armed combat, for the sake of their recovering usurped rights. It concurs with the recommendations of the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, particularly the right of the Palestinian people to return to their homeland, to self-determination and to the establishment of their independent State.

Mr. Chairman, this is the clearly expressed position of the Organization of African Unity on the Palestinian problem. This position is based on the conviction of the African countries that the Palestinian cause is also an African cause.

On this Day of Solidarity, neither the Palestinian people, nor the Organization of African Unity, is asking the international community for either pity of charity. They ask and demand that the peace-loving peoples of the world should make every effort to restore justice to a people who have suffered too long and have been sorely injured in body and soul.

Thirty years have gone by, and the injustice committed in 1948 is still continuing with the complicity and support of those who, by creating the State of Israel, created this injustice. If 30 years later the State of Israel is still in existence, the Palestinian issue too is a tangible reality; the Palestinian people have survived and have on more than one occasion shown vitality and their strength. Nothing, neither the power of money nor the force of arms, can impose silence on them or make them abandon their goal, which is to regain their usurped rights.

It is also futile to cover one’s eyes or block one’s ears in the hope that the problem will disappear. It is only by taking full stock of the Palestinian problem and having the moral courage and intellectual honesty to face it that it will be possible to solve it. Thus, on this Day of Solidarity, the international community must undertake to work more forcefully and more vigorously, and also more vigilantly and with more perseverance, to ensure that everyone accepts the reality of Palestine and the rights of the Palestinian people, because this acceptance is the sine qua non for any settlement of the Middle East problem, of which the Palestinian question is the core.

ISLAMIC CONFERENCE

H.E. Dr. Amadou Karim Gaye, Secretary-General

More than 30 years ago today, the United Nations, by resolution 181 (II) of 29 November 1947, resolved to create on the ancient soil of Palestine two distinct territorial entities, each having an equal right to exist; it thus gave birth to two sovereign States, a Palestinian Arab State and the State of Israel, both solemnly recognized by the international community.

It is instructive in retrospect to note that General Assembly resolution 273 (III) of 11 May 1949 linked Israel’s admission to membership in the United Nations to two essential conditions:

(i) Israel’s undertaking to respect the Charter and the’ obligations of the United Nations;

(2) Acceptance of that very resolution 181 of 29 November 1947 which provides for the de jure existence of the Palestinian Arab State.

With bitter irony, fate has taught us throughout the last 30 years what store Israel set by those solemn undertakings.

Of Arab Palestine, whose existence the United Nations sanctioned in 1947 along with that of the Hebrew State, there remain before our eyes only dislocated, fragmented territories occupied by Israeli forces.

The experience of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories during this long period has been one of oppression practised in disregard of international conventions on the protection of civilian populations in times of armed conflict.

Along with oppression, they have endured plundering of their lands, seizure of their property and expulsion from their homeland.

What we are witnessing is the application of a policy for which zionism laid the foundations many years ago.

Even before the creation of the State of Israel, Ben Gurion had declared without hesitation:

“We can accept the creation of a Jewish State in part of Palestine as a first step; but then, to establish the great Israeli nation … we shall occupy subsequently all of the remaining areas which, according to our aspirations, constitute the land of Israel.

“The land of Israel, for us, includes the whole of Transjordan; the north of the Yarmuk River, as well as the Litani River in the South of Lebanon.”

The essential truth, another Zionist figure, Yashik Hoben Forat, recently added, is that there will be no Jewish State without the expulsion of the Arabs and the confiscation of their lands.

And we know that, in the course of 1976, 17,000 people because subject to evictions.

Similarly, we are daily witnessing the establishment of new Jewish settlements in the occupied territories and in the very heart of Jerusalem.

The number of Jews in Jerusalem, which was 10,000 in 1918, reached 290,000 in 1967 in 1967 and 390,000 in 1976. The Israeli authorities already estimate the number at 500,000 in 1980.

For them, it is a matter of gradually creating Jewish settlements in adjacent areas in order to give rise, in a geopolitical framework, to a “material reality” which can be invoked in justifying a border.

The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, which the international community is celebrating with us today, 29 November 1978, thus becomes a day of law and of justice, a day for affirming the rule of law over force, a day for affirming the perennial nature of justice and law.

The United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People has admirably analysed the decisive steps which may lead to the establishment in the Middle East of a stable peace, that is, a peace based on respect for the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.

As you have said, Mr. Chairman, it is for the United Nations, in co­operation with the States directly concerned and the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, to take the necessary steps to enable the Palestinians displaced between 1948 and 1967 to exercise their right to return to their homes and recover possession of their property in accordance with United Nations resolutions, particularly General Assembly resolution 194 (III) and Security Council resolution 237 (1967).

And, as you have also said, when the Palestinians have returned to their homes, when they have recovered their property, when an independent Palestinian entity has been established, the Palestinian people will then

be in a position to exercise their right to self-determination and to decide on the form of Government of their choice, a decision which they must take without foreign interference.

In short, let it be said once again, once and for all, that the question is one of restoring and confirming the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people:

Their right to return to Palestine and, fundamentally.

Those are the principles which have always guided the activity of the Islamic Conference, from its first Summit at Rabat in 1969 to its Ninth Conference at Dakar from 24 to 28 April 1979.

These same principles were recently reaffirmed at the eighth session of the Committee on Jerusalem, held at Jiddah on 19 and 20 November 1978.

The use of brutal force for the last 30 years against the Arab peoples of the region, and especially against the Palestinian people, cannot erase the traces of a long Arab and Moslem history with which Arab Palestine and Al-Quds will always be identified.

The policy of avoidance practised by the Zionist authorities cannot lead to a constructive solution to the problem of Jerusalem, Palestine and the occupied Arab territories.

Even less can it mask the tragedy which the Palestinian people have been living for more than 30 years.

It cannot extinguish the resistance of the people conscious of their rights and their identity.

It cannot alter the faith of a people struggling for their survival. In commemorating this day, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, we are commemorating at the same time this unity of destiny which links the Governments of the member States of the Islamic Conference, this unity of destiny which links all justice-loving men and peoples.

For Islamic peoples and communities throughout the world it is the Palestinian question which constitutes the essence of the Middle East con­flict.

For the Governments of the Islamic States, as for the international community, to disregard the reality is to place the peace and security of the region in dire jeopardy.

Indeed, Jerusalem and the Palestinian cause have always been the fundamental problems with which the Islamic Conference has been concerned.

Any concession on these questions would be inadmissibly at variance with the principles and objectives which led to the creation of the Islamic Conference.

To commemorate the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is, for us, to affirm that no agreement can affect the destiny of the Palestinian people unless it respects the right of the Palestine Liberation Organization to participate as the sole legitimate representative of that people, on an equal footing with other parties, in all meetings held in international or other forums on the question of Palestine and peace in the Middle East.

To commemorate the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is to affirm, with the dispassionate certainty that all just causes inspire, that history offers no example of an entire people committed to a national liberation struggle which has not led to victory over domination based on violence and force.

This is the case today for Arab Palestine, and for the Palestine Liberation Organization.

This is also the message which the Islamic Conference addresses to the PLO and to occupied Palestine on this International Day of Solidarity with the entire Palestinian people.

LEAGUE OF ARAB STATES

H.E. Mr. Amin Helmy II, Permanent Observer to the United Nations

In view of the expansionist racist policies of Israel, the problem of Palestine is the unique agony of our time.

The misery of Palestine is not only a cultural and racial problem but also a dilemma of people uprooted from their national homeland and forced to live in tents under severe and inhuman conditions as refugees. Yet these Palestinian refugees remain the target of indiscriminate brutal attacks by Israel where thousands have been killed in cold blood. The latest Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon where thousands of Palestinians were slaughtered and thousands more displaced is still alive in the memory of all peace-loving nations. As if Israel is not merely satisfied with forcing the Palestinian people to become refugees, it also is trying in vain to demolish the Palestinians identity. To accomplish such atrocities, Israel constantly mobilises the media which is largely influenced by Zionism for their evil interests, distorting the facts and the realities of the Palestinian problem. In so doing, Israel claims that is has inherited biblical rights in Palestine while the Palestinians have no right there. They continue to say that they are bands of terrorists which should be isolated from the international community because they threaten the existence of Israel.

This is hypocrisy par excellence. Israel the aggressor is shown as the victim and the real victim, the Palestinian, is depicted as the aggressor.

The International community, however, has continually refuted Israel’s flagrant insults to its intelligence. The world is fully aware now of the core of the problem of Palestine despite all the distortions aimed by the Zionist influenced media. The Palestine Liberation Organization is recognised universally as the authentic legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. The struggle of this Organization has been confirmed as pertinent and legitimate. Moreover, through its consequent resolutions the General Assembly established the scope and dimensions of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. To that end the General Assembly also institutionalized these Palestinian rights through the establishment of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. These are more examples of the world community’s awareness of the sayings of this problem.

The just stand of the international community with regard to the Palestinian problem implies without any doubt the insistence of this community that the rebellious conduct of Israel should be corrected and restrained. The role of the Security Council comes to the fore. The Security Council is the only world body empowered to enforce the recommendations of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

Restoring the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people is not merely the concern of the Palestinians but it is equally a vital matter for the international community as well. This is because of the fact that the politics and the economics of the Arab world is the matter of strategic interest to the world and because of the just cause of the Palestinians themselves. In admitting that the Palestinian problem is the core of stability in the area, it is clear that a solution of the Palestinian problem based on justice will not only stabilize the Middle East but also international peace and security.

In commemoration with the Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the Arab League would like to re-emphasise that the Arabs and the Palestinians in particular will continue their struggle by all means until the Palestinians regain their usurped national lands, where Muslims, Christians and Jews will live as they have done so before – in peace, harmony and equity.

Statements by other intergovernmental organizations

CO-ORDINATING BUREAU OF THE NON-ALIGNED STATES

H.E. Mr. B. J. Fernando, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations

It is my privilege to make this brief statement on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on behalf of the Co-ordinating Bureau of Non-Aligned countries. At the Conference of Non-Aligned Foreign Ministers, the Declaration adopted called for an annual commemoration of 29 November was an International Day for Solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The Non-Aligned Movement has always steadfastly supported the inherent and inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty in Palestine. The heads of States of Non-Aligned countries reaffirmed their total and effective support to the Palestinian people in their legitimate struggle to recover their inalienable national rights in Palestine by declaring that those rights constitute:

(a) their right to return to their homeland and recover their property as guaranteed by United Nations resolutions;

(b) their right to self-determination without any outside interference, in keeping with the principles of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;

(c) their right to freely exercise their sovereignty over their territory:

(d) their right to establish their national independent Palestinian authority as an expression of their own will and a confirmation of their national identity.

Since the last summit of heads of States or Government of non-aligned countries, all non-aligned gatherings have expressed their unequivocal support of the Palestinian people. At the Conference of Foreign Ministers of Non-Aligned countries held at Belgrade only a few months ago, they decided to call for the convening of a special session of the United Nations consecrated to the study of the Palestine question, with a view to adopting measures leading to the implementation of the United Nations resolutions relevant to the withdrawal from Palestine and Arab-occupied lands and the realisation of the national and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. At Belgrade, Foreign Ministers affirmed further that a just peace in the region of the Middle East cannot be established except within the framework of a solution based on total Israeli withdrawal from all the occupied Palestinian and Arab territories and on the basis of restoring to the Palestinian people their national, legal and ina­lienable rights and to practice these rights”.

Permanent peace in the Middle East is inextricably linked with the Palestinian question. The question of Palestine is at the core of the struggle in the Middle East and any attempt to ignore this fact will not serve the cause of permanent and durable peace in that region. The Palestinian people have suffered much and long. It is our duty not only to understand their cherished goals but also to take into account the anguish in their hearts and to support all efforts to secure these goals.

As a member of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices in Occupied Territories, it was my sad duty to investigate instances of violations of human rights in occupied territories. That investigation had to be carried out even without the right to visit the occupied territories and without direct testimony from the many Palestinians who continue to suffer there. The rectification of this situation, it is needless for me to add, is a historic duty of the United Nations.

Finally, I wish to renew the pledge of the non-aligned countries to totally support the Palestinian people in their legitimate struggle to fully recover their inalienable rights in Palestine.

Messages  and statements from non-governmental organizations with observer  status at the United Nations

AFRO-ASIAN PEOPLES SOLIDARITY ORGANIZATION

Mr. Abdel Rahman El Sharkawi, Secretary-General

The Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity Organization warmly welcomes your decision to establish a special unit on the Palestinian rights in the framework of the United Nations Secretariat.

The Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity Organization, on the occasion of the 29 November International Solidarity Day with the Palestinian People, reaffirms its constant stand and unreserved support of the Palestinian people’s struggle to realise their inalienable rights to establish their own independent sovereign state in their homeland under leadership of the PLO, their sole genuine representative. Peace in the Middle East can only be achieved with the solution of the Palestinian question and complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from occupied Arab territories. AAPSO welcomes the resolution of the United Nations General Assembly ban on the provision or sale of arms to Israel.

WORLD PEACE COUNCIL

It is a great honor for the World Peace Council to participate in this ceremony organized by your Committee whose work is so important for the very future of the Palestinian people, for constructing a just and lasting peace in the Middle East and thus for international peace and security.

On this International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the WPC is proud to reaffirm its unflinching commitment to support the courageous and indomitable Palestinian People in its struggle for its inalienable rights, for self-determination and for national independence.

The WPC has called upon its 130 national committees to observe this day on every continent, as part of our ongoing action to focus world public opinion in support of the just cause of the Palestinian People and in support of the pertinent United Nations General Assembly and Security Council resolutions and the United Nations Charter.

We have constantly sought to expose the continuous brutally repressive practices perpetrated against the Palestinian People in the occupied territories. The WPC has also protested the continuous aggression of Israel against the Lebanese and Palestinian people and its obstruction of the re-establishment of the authority of the Lebanese Government in southern Lebanon in contravention of Security Council resolution 425.

We are convinced that the cause of the Palestinian people is the cause of the vast majority of humanity who fervently desire peace, national liberation, and an end to imperialism, colonialism, repression and racism in all its forms.

The United Nations General Assembly, in its wisdom, has clearly stated that the only way to establish a just and lasting peace in the Middle East at the earliest possible time, is to guarantee the full participation of the Palestinian people through its sole legitimate representative, the PLO, in all deliberations concerning peace in the region.

In light of these universally recognized realities, we are gravely concer­ned about the results of the Camp David decisions which actually legalize and prolong Israeli occupation of Arab territories, thus increasing the dangers of instability, war and bloodshed in the area. By ignoring the main issues at stake, particularly the inalienable rights of the Palestinians, the causes of the conflict are perpetuated.

The Camp David agreements turn the West Bank and the Gaza Strip into official Israeli colonies. They, in effect, sanction the establishment of Israeli settlements. They sanction the continuing oppression and uprooting of the Palestinian population and the confiscating of their land.

The deliberate ignoring of the PLO in these negotiations, undermines the fulfillment of the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people and flies in the face of overwhelming world public opinion, the United Nations Charter and relevant United Nations resolutions.

The WPC strongly abhors this legalization of occupation and aggression!

On this occasion, we reiterate our unswerving stand that a durable and just peace in the Middle East can only be achieved through complete Israeli withdrawal from occupied Arab territories and the attainment by the Palestinian people of their inalienable national rights including their right to establish their own independent sovereign state as stipulated in the resolution of the UN Security Council and General Assembly. There must be such a comprehensive settlement with the full participation of the PLO. There can be no peace without the Palestinian people! There can be no peace without the PLO.

The WPC, as part of its renewed efforts to these ends, is now in the process of preparing an International Conference in Solidarity with the Palestinian people, to be held in the near future. In addition, we are producing a special publication focussing on solidarity with the Palestinian people and on the goal of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

Mr. Chairman, Ramesh Chandra, President of the WPC has asked me to convey to this meeting that the WPC stands with the Palestinian people until final victory and to assure you of our total support in the crucial and noble efforts of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian people. We wish you every success.

Statements by other invited speakers

ARAB-AMERICAN UNIVERSITY GRADUATES (Palestine Human Rights Campaign)

Dr. James Zogby

We thank you for the invitation extended to our Palestine Human Rights Campaign to participate in this Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people.

We meet today to express our support for the rights of the Palestinian people.

The entire modern history of the Middle East has resolved around the systematic denial of the national rights of the Palestinians to exist as a people and live in peace in their own land.  The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip regions of Palestine has added yet a new and frightening dimension to this denial of rights involving, as it does, the violation of a broad range of human rights.

We meet today to say “enough” to this history of injustices.

We meet today to express our support for the rights of the Palestinian People:

their right to return to their homes;

their right to be represented by their chosen leadership – the Palestine Liberation Organization;

their right to live as a free and independent ‘people with full national sovereignty.

It is important as we meet today to note the details of this continuing nightmare that is visited daily upon millions of Palestinians.

while we meet –

the wave of arrests that began last Thursday in the West Bank and Gaza continues. Those arrested are mainly young intellectuals.

They have been charged with no crime – but are accused only of speaking out against the “Camp David Agreements”.

From reports we have received, they are being interrogated and beaten daily.

We know the name of about two dozen of these new “Prisoners” – one of them is Mahmoud Ahmed Khalasi. He is a student at Bir Zeit University. He is still recovering from an operation he underwent only one month ago – in which one of his kidneys was removed.

Mahmoud was arrested three days ago – he has been treated badly and interrogated daily and has not yet been allowed to sneak with his attorney.

and while we meet today –

Nadel Fayez al Afoury, a young Palestinian from Nablus begins a six-month term as an Administrative Detainee.

He has already been in prison for three months – he has been charged with no crime and he will not be brought to trial – but the Administrative Internment committee has ordered his to be held until April 1979.

Nadel was a healthy man three months ago – today he is insane; He cannot speak, nor can he care for his bodily needs.

His wife, who was only allowed to visit him after two months of internment was shocked and terrified at the sight of her husband who had been so tragically transformed by his captors.

Nadel is only ode of over 20 such Administrative Detainees.

and while we meet –

The Kalandia children – 13 children under 16 years of age whom the Red Cross verified were beaten until they signed confessions and who were imprisoned for six months to one year – await an Israeli Supreme Court ruling which may prolong their imprisonment.

and while we meet –

Dr. Hanna Nasir, President of Bir Zeit University and Abdul Jawad Salah, Mayor of al Bireh sit in exile having been forcibly expelled from their homes by the Israeli military over four years ago. They are only two of over 1,600 Palestinian leaders who were so expelled by the occupation authorities.

And they are only 1,600 of the over 2,000,000 Palestinians who live in exile today.

and while we meet –

Palestinian-owned land continues to be confiscated to build “Jewish-only” settlements, or “security areas”, or roads – not only in the West Bank and Gaza – but recently in the Galilee village of Deir Hanna, where Israel continues its three decade-old policy of “Judaizing” (i.e. removing Arabs from) the Galilee.

and while we meet –

This Palestinian nation of exiles, and captives, and prisoners, continues to resist this oppression and continues its struggle for freedom.

After decades of machinations that saw their homeland promised to another people; after 30 years of harsh mandate occupation by the

British military; and after being uprooted from their homes and forced to wait in refugee camp in hopes of being able to return to their homes!

or after 30 years of life as third class citizens in Israel; and for others, after 11 years of military occupation on the West Bank and

Gaza; and after tens of thousands of their kin have become the helpless victims of massacres with their camps and villages being devas­tated by artillery, napalm or simple murder — after all of this mountain of crimes against them, owing primarily to their courage and their tenacity, still they have not surrendered their demands for their national and human rights.

As we evidence today, the vast majority of humanity supports these just demands of the Palestinian people.

Only a few states led by the United States remain outside of this international consensus.

This is why we are here today. To express our support for the just demands of the Palestinian people.

And to speak on a loud and clear voice to those states who have up until now not responded to the call.

We must say to them,

“if you are truly concerned for human rights — how can you ignore the violations of Palestinian human rights

“if you truly wish to see peace established in the Middle East — then you must support the rights of the Palestinians — for there can be

no Middle East peace without full Palestinian rights”.

We, in the Palestine Human Rights Campaign, address our special attention to the fact that our government has chosen to boycott these meetings.

Our Ambassador, Andrew Young, has called this event a “misuse of United Nations funds”.

In doing so, we feel that the United States has turned a deaf ear to the causes of human rights and peace with it so ardently claims to pursue. This does not surprise us, for while claiming to maintain these goals for the peoples of the Middle East – evidence of their commitment is difficult to find.

For example, while the U.S. Government called for an investigation into the Israeli practice of torture of Palestinian prisoners – it allowed Israel to investigate itself and give itself a clean bill of health.

And while there exists a U.S. law which makes it illegal for the U.S. to give military and foreign aid to countries which are violators of human rights and while the U.S. State Department report shows Israel to violate Palestinian rights in at least five significant areas — still Israel continues to receive the lion’s share of U.S. military and economic aid.

And while the United States has expressed a concern for “Palestinian Rights” it proceeded together with the Egyptian and Israeli governments at Camp David to define away all meaningful Palestinian rights and instead of offer only continued occupation or exile to the Palestinian people.

We conclude that it is not only as a result of the racism and expansionism of the Israeli government that Palestinian rights are violated – but it is also due to the policies of our own government that the Palestinian people are denied their national and human rights.

Our Palestine Human Rights Campaign calls on the United States Government to speak and act in one voice:

to condemn the recent wave of arrests in the West Bank and Gaza – and to demand that all those arrested be freed;

to condemn the continuing expansion and “thickening” of the Israeli settlements in the occupied lands — and to act in a decisive way to end this illegal Israeli policy :

to cut off all aid to the State of Israel until it desists in its systematic violation of Palestinian human rights;

and finally,

to commit itself to the recognition of Palestinian rights by :

recognizing the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, as outlined in the United Nations resolutions on the Palestine question,

recognizing the Palestine Liberation Organization as the representative of the Palestinian people, calling on Israel to end its  occupation of Palestinian lands.

Our Palestine Human Rights Campaign declares its intent to intensify our efforts to build a mass movement of the American people – to mobilize public pressure to change U.S. policy into a policy committed in both word and deed to human rights and peace.

We have no illusions about the difficulties we face – but we will proceed. The American people have built mass movements before – evidence:

– the great struggle of our working-class for the eight hour work day;

– the continuing courageous struggles of our oppressed minorities for civil rights;

– and our anti-“Vietnam War” movement.

In each instance we overcame great obstacles and produced significant changes.

And in this struggle to build a mass movement to defend Palestinian rights I know we shall succeed.

Today our numbers are small – but our movement is growing and our voices shall be heard.

And it is our firm intent that not only our voices be heard in the United States – but more importantly that through our movement the voices of:

Mahmoud Ahmed

Khalasi Nadel Fayez al Afoury

Hanna Nasir and Abdul Jawed Salah

the Kalandia children

and the people of Deir Hanna

shall also be heard,

that is the goal toward which we shall work –

that is why we join with you today –

in the name of peace

in the name cf human rights

in the name of the national and human rights of the Palestinian People.

Other messages received

HUNGARY

World Federation of Democratic Youth

On the occasion of 29 November, International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, the World Federation of Democratic Youth, on behalf of millions of young people the world over, reiterates its militant solidarity and full support for the just struggle of the Palestinian people under the leadership of PLO, for their right to self-determination and establishment of their own independent state. We note with great concern that the Camp David agreement prepared, conducted and manipulated by imperialism, Zionism, and Arab reaction, constitutes a dangerous state for the development of the situation in the Middle Nast. It takes more difficult the seeking for a global solution for the conflict and increases possibilities of new Israeli aggression against the Arab countries. We salute all the efforts and positive steps taken by the Arab democratic and progressive forces for the strengthening of their unity and joint action as reflected in the Arab People’s Conference at Damascus. We call on all democratic and progressive youth to spare no effort to intensify solidarity actions with the Palestinian Arab people in their just struggle.

POLAND

All-Poland Committee for the Nations Unity Front

Mr. Wit Dramich, Vice-President

On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, please accept the most heartfelt wishes from the authorities of the Polish People’s Republic and the people of Poland to the Palestinian people and the Palestine Liberation Organization, under your chairmanship, for the realization of your national aspirations.

Your struggle for an independent existence, enjoying as it does general recognition and support, is particularly close to us of Poland, since in the course of history we have ourselves frequently demonstrated that freedom and independence are of supreme value.

That is why we have been steadfastly stressing that a lasting, just and comprehensive settlement of the Middle East crisis cannot be achieved without the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from all the Arab territories occupied since 1967 nor without the implementation of the inalienable rights of the Arab people of Palestine, including its rights to self-determination and to its own statehood. Such a goal can only be achieved through collective efforts by all parties concerned, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Any unilateral attempts to impose separatist solutions are not bound to bring about lasting peace to serve the genuine interests of all States and peoples of the region and thereby will not eliminate the state of tension, in the Middle East.

The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, which is observed under the auspices of the United Nations and is an important event for the Palestinian people, for the Palestine Liberation Organization and the international community, constitutes an emphatic reiteration of the growing world-wide support for the just Palestinian cause.

On this important occasion, which has our full support, may I reiterate the most cordial wishes of the authorities of the Polish People’s Republic and the Polish people for your heroic struggle to be crowned with the liberation of the Palestinian people and its accession to statehood, in conditions of peace, independence and security.

ASSOCIATION OF MOROCCAN FRIENDS OF THE UNITED NATIONS AND

STUDENT MISSION ASSOCIATION (UNESCO CLUB)

Mr. Mustafa Ibn Maslud, Chairman

It gives the Association of Moroccan Friends of the United Nations and the Student Mission Association (UNESCO Club) great pleasure to avail themselves of the opportunity of the commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, which was decided upon by the United Nations, to express our strong support for the great efforts being extended to enable the valiant struggling sister Palestinian people to attain their legitimate rights and enjoy, like all peoples, the exercise of the rights laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Charter of the United Nations.

Our above-mentioned organizations, which hole the cause of the Palestinian people sacred and which have provided and will provide all means of backing and support for the struggle of the battling Palestinian people so that they may obtain the restoration of their legitimate rights, be enabled to return to their homeland, determine their own future and establish their independent State on their own land, reaffirm their deep-felt belief that the issue of Palestine is the crux of the Middle East problem and that the establishment of peace in that important region will not be attained unless the Palestinian people are enabled to exercise their legitimate rights and to participate in all the efforts expended to establish just and lasting peace, represented by the Palestine Liberation Organization, in its capacity as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

On the occasion of this important day, we appeal to all States Members of the United Nations and to all peace- and justice-loving forces to stand by this true Arab people, who have been and are being exposed to the most extreme forms of dispersion and annihilation, so that they may regain their rights and dignity. We call upon them to exert all means of pressure on Israel in order to make it cease building settlements in the occupied Arab territories and renounce its policy of the Judaization of historic and ancient landmarks and holy places – a policy which aims at effacing the existence and presence of the Palestinian people, in spite of all the resolutions adopted by the United Nations and the other international organizations within the United Nations system.

The Palestinian people, who have proclaimed their dedication to peace based on justice and who seek their right to return to their homeland and to self-determination, in accordance with the resolutions of the United Nations, are indeed worthy to have the peace-loving peoples and States of the world commemorate the Day of Solidarity with them, to obtain all their rights and to establish their independent State.

PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION

Mr. F. Qaddoumi, head of the Political Department

It gives me a great pleasure to thank all of you, on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization, for your participation with us in celebrating this day which our international Organization devoted to the expression of the world’s States and people’s solidarity with the just and legitimate struggle of our Palestinian Arab people.

Indeed, we believe that our celebration of this day, on this vast level of international participation, truly expresses the extent of increasing international support and backing which the Palestinian people and their sole legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization enjoy; this people who struggle for the values and principles upheld by the United Nations, namely: their right to liberty, sovereignty and independence, their right to return to their homeland – Palestine – their right to self-determination and the establishment of their national independent State on their national soil.

On the other hand, our celebration of this day symbolizes the determination of the international community to put an end to all forms of colonialism and domination, and all kinds of racism and racial discrimination, which our Palestinian people and other brotherly African peoples are still undergoing, the way most of the third-world States did in the recent past, and from which they had been liberated thanks to their fight and struggle.

Also, this day symbolizes, in the first place the great importance the world’s peoples, including ours, attach to the United Nations as an appropriate framework to solve international Problems and to establish a just and long-lasting international peace, and a new international economic order based on the respect of sovereignty, justice and equality for all peoples.

We have just heard the message that the Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization Executive Committee, Mr. Yasser Arafat, addressed on the occasion we are celebrating. And I had the honour of addressing you, the day before yesterday, in the General Assembly, at the start of the discussion concerning the Palestinian question during this session, as we laid down, with objectivity and clarity, our view of the stage the Palestinian question is going through, and of the situation in the Middle East.

Therefore, I shall be brief and will simply dwell on the facts that the United Nations itself continually emphasized in many of its resolutions.

It has been universally agreed upon that the Palestinian question is the crux of the so-called Middle East conflict, and it is a question of a people whose land was usurped, whose soil was occupied, and whose members were displaced and deprived of the exercise of their basic political and human rights.

Moreover, the question of Palestine is that of every people fighting against colonialism and racism in all its forms. Briefly, it also is a question of freedom and free people everywhere.

Our People fought for more than half a century in extremely painful and difficult circumstances, and against the arrogant forces of imperialism and Zionism, which continue to plot against the Palestinian people up to nowadays.

The only choice our people have is to maintain the struggle as long as these forces refuse to recognize our people’s established and legitimate national rights. Also, your continued support and backing within and outside of the United Nations, constitutes a very important and essential factor in the implementation of these rights.

Given the fact that the question of liberty in the world is an indivisible one, it follows that the Question of world peace is indivisible too. Hence, achieving peace in the Middle East region is part of the process to achieve peace in the entire world.

The whole world became convinced that this desired, just and lasting peace will come about only if the established national rights of the Palestinian people were recognized, namely: their right to return to their homeland, their right to sovereignty, independence, self-determination as well as to form their own State, led by the Palestinian Liberation Organization on their own soil.

Finally, I reiterate our deep thanks for your participation and solidarity with us, and our appreciation of invaluable efforts you are making to serve freedom and peace.

III. OBSERVANCE OF THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE

PALESTINIAN PEOPLE BY STATES MEMBERS OF THE UNITED NATIONS

The Secretariat has to date received reports from 35 States Members of the United Nations on the programmes in these countries, both of Governmental involvement and other institutions, including NGOs and support groups. In all instances, the United Nations Information Centres played a central role in both the organization of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People and the dissemination of information concerning the plight of the Palestinian people.

In addition a special commemorative programme was held at Geneva at which meeting His Excellency Ambassador M. Kante of Mali, a member of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, presided.

The UNESCO programme held in Paris among others was addressed by its Director-General.

His Excellency Ambassador B. Rabetafika of Madagascar, also a member of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, addressed the Commemorative meeting held at Brussels.

In all the countries where commemorative programmes were held, the first International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People received wide coverage in the press, radio and television. In a significant number of countries, messages from heads of State or Government or other high ranking government officials were read. The diplomatic corps, the national of various countries and their organizations participated in the programmes. At least 12 countries mounted exhibits and screened films concerning the plight of the Palestinian people. Reports of the observance have been received from:

Australia, Bahrain, Burundi, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Cameroon, Chile, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Ghana, India, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritania, Morocco, Peru, Pakistan, Portugal, Romania, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, United States of America, United Arab Emirates, Yemen Arab Republic and Yugoslavia.