SecGen address before the Israel Foreign Relations Council and UN Assn of Israel – Press release/Rev.

SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS IT IS ESSENTIAL FOR ISRAEL AND HER

ADVERSARIES TO COMMIT THEMSELVES TO COMPREHENSIVE PEACE

Following is the text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's address on "Israel and the United Nations" to the Israel  Foreign Relations Council and the United Nations Association of Israel, in Jerusalem today:

I am pleased to join you today on my first official visit to Israel as Secretary-General of the United Nations.  I have been here many times over the years, most recently as Under-Secretary-General  for  Peacekeeping Operations. Very early in  my career, I served as a civilian  official with the United Nations Emergency  Force. So, in visiting Israel, I am again amongst people I  know well, people with whom I  know I can work in  pursuit of the goals we share and hold dear; among friends.

I  have come  at a time  of considerable uneasiness  in the region:   over tension  concerning  Iraq,   over the slow  pace of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, over the absence of movement on the other tracks of  the Middle East peace process.

I have come to the Middle East to listen and to learn, to hear the concerns of the leaders and peoples of the region, to reflect together  with you, and to reassure you of the support  of the United Nations  and of  its Secretary-General, in helping to resolve these complex issues.  I know that Israelis and Arabs alike long to lead peaceful, stable lives, lives free of fear and upheaval.

My first message to the Israeli public concerns the peace process.  Almost two  decades ago, your nation welcomed President Sadat to Jerusalem and made peace with a former enemy.  And five years ago, almost  no one, not even in this land  of  prophets and  visionaries,  would  have predicted  that  such dramatic gains could be achieved in your relations with the Palestinians.

But the political map of the Middle East has changed profoundly.  Israelis and  Palestinians  have  begun to  treat  one another  as  partners, not  as enemies.  Of course, many  problems  remain.  No  one  said that  forging  a lasting peace would be easy.

At such times, we must remember  the comprehensive peace settlement that the Oslo  process has brought firmly  into view.   The simple fact  remains:  the pre-Oslo  status quo was  untenable; there is no viable alternative to Oslo; and potentially grave consequences loom should the process fail.

I am painfully aware that the Oslo accords have not marked the end of violence and terror among Israelis and Palestinians.   More than 100 Israeli civilians, among  them many  women and children,  have lost  their lives  in senseless and  despicable acts of  terrorism, including several  devastating bomb attacks in the heart of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Many innocent Palestinians have also fallen victim to extremist violence; more than 40 were killed during prayers at the  Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, a site sacred to both Jews and Arabs.

And only  28  months ago, on one of the saddest days in the recent history of  the region,  a man  for whom  I have  enormous respect,  admiration  and affection, Prime  Minister  Yitzhak Rabin,  became  a  martyr of  the  peace process which he himself had led.

That was  indeed a  mournful day  for Israel,  the region  and the  world.  Israelis  and  Palestinians, I  pray,  will  not  allow  the peace  process, launched so  valiantly by Yitzhak Rabin and his Palestinian  partners, to be taken hostage by the enemies of peace.

They will not, I pray, surrender to those extremist elements who kill and maim in order to wreck the peace  process.  So  my first message  is this:  Israelis and Palestinians must persevere.   There is no alternative, unless you want relations with your Palestinian partners, and perhaps others, to regress and revert to the enmity of old.

My second  message concerns  United Nations  itself and  our long  history together.   It  will surprise  none of  you to  hear me  describe the United Nations as an indispensable institution in today's global era.

The founding of Israel and the founding of the United Nations are connected in spirit and in history, in  promise and  in peril.    Indeed, Israel's birth was enshrined in a  historic United Nations resolution:   the partition plan  of 1947.   When  war erupted  with the  proclamation of  the State  of Israel in 1948, the  United Nations stood by Israel.  The Security Council  called  for   an  immediate  ceasefire  and  established  a   truce commission.

The efforts of Ralph Bunche to help produce  a negotiated solution won the Nobel  prize  for  peace.    Before  and  since,  United  Nations officials, civilian  and military,  made the  ultimate  sacrifice  in search  for peace between Israel and its  neighbours.  First among  all, of course,  was Count Folke Bernadotte.

In the decades since, the United Nations has represented the international community's abiding interest in  a comprehensive,  just  and lasting peace in the Middle  East.  The Oslo negotiations  are  founded on Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, which are a  cornerstone of Israel's peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan.

On the  ground, the United  Nations Relief and Works  Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the Office  of the Special Coordinator in the  Occupied Territories, the  United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations  Children's  Fund are  among  the  myriad of United Nations organizations providing much-needed humanitarian and economic assistance to the Palestinians.   Our peacekeeping  operations have,  for decades,  helped maintain stability in this area.

I  am well aware, however, that  for many Israelis the image of the United Nations has not lived  up to its founding  spirit.   I know that the  United Nations is regarded by many as biased against the State of Israel.

I know that Israelis see hypocrisy and double standards in the intense scrutiny  given to  some of  its  actions,  while other  situations fail  to elicit  the world's outrage and condemnations.  I know that  Israelis are offended when other  nations' delegates leave the room as Israelis rise to speak.   Abba Eban, one of the most eloquent and effective diplomats ever to grace the United Nations  halls, was at  one point so discouraged by  events at the  United Nations that  he wrote, "The  world seemed to  belong to  our foes."

I would like to respond  to your concerns with a solemn pledge:  I  believe that it [is] time to  usher in  a new  era of relations  between Israel  and the United Nations.   Everyone stands to  benefit:   Israelis, Palestinians, the rest of  the Arab  world, and the  international community in  general.  My contacts with Israelis over the years convince me that we can, together, overcome the suspicion and misunderstanding.

One  way to  write  that new  chapter  would  be  to rectify  an  anomaly: Israel's  position as the only Member  State that is  not a member of one of the regional  groups, which means it has no chance of being elected to serve on main  organs such  as the  Security Council  or the  Economic and  Social Council. This anomaly should  be corrected.  We must uphold the principle of equality among all United Nations Member States.

The  normalization of  Israel's status  within the  United  Nations would help normalize Israel's view  of the United Nations.  The United Nations  is not just a political body, and there is much more on its agenda than Middle East issues.  Israelis know this already, but increased participation can only promote a more balanced view of the United Nations work.

I see great potential  here.  Israel already  contributes more to the work of  the United  Nations  than  most people  realize.   I  am  thinking,  for example, of  Israeli experts  serving on  human rights  bodies, on  election observation  teams,  and of  Israeli  medical  teams  sent  to help  deliver emergency relief to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Israel has still more to gain by participation  in all  that  the  United Nations  seeks to achieve in peace and development.

But normalization cannot happen unless Israel has confidence on  another, much deeper  level.   Israelis were  understandably enraged  last year  when Israel was accused  in the Commission on Human  Rights, which, as you  know, is a body made  up of Member States,  of injecting Palestinian  children the AIDS virus.

Such baseless allegations  are totally unacceptable and deserve  universal condemnation.   I have  said on more than  one occasion that I  would expect all such  statements to be challenged  whenever and wherever  they are made. Having chaired  the opening session of  this year's  Human Rights Commission just last  week, I  am pleased  to say  that the  allegation was once  again condemned.

Indeed, I would like to underline this message by citing the statement of Ambassador Miroslav Somol, the Chairman of  last year's Commission, which he delivered on 16  March:  "It  is essential that our debates  are carried out in a manner observing  basic standards of mutual respect.  Allegations  that contain racist,  xenophobic, anti-Semitic, discriminatory  or other  similar unacceptable features must be avoided because  they are not compatible  with the established working procedures or with a kind of code of conduct of this distinguished body.  As the  outgoing Chairman with specific experience in facing  such  a difficult  situation  and  allegation, I  would  strongly appeal that all speakers, be it  representatives of Member States, observers or non-governmental  organizations, respect these limits  in order to  avoid hurting  any  nation, race,  religion,  or  vulnerable  group  of people  in discussion."

I hope  this statement  can put this  issue behind  us once  and for  all. Still, the  broader fight  against anti-Semitism  must be  addressed.   This year marks  the fiftieth anniversary of  the Universal  Declaration of Human Rights.

We  must  use  the occasion  to  denounce  anti-Semitism  in  all  of  its manifestations.   This brings me to the lamentable resolution adopted by the General  Assembly  in  1975,   equating  Zionism  with   racism  and  racial discrimination.   That was,  perhaps, the  low-point in  our relations; its negative resonance even today is difficult to overestimate.  Fortunately, the General Assembly rescinded the resolution in 1991.

I now come to the third and most difficult message of my visit.   It is easy to talk of peace and to express regret about the past.

It  is not so easy to present challenges,  especially to sovereign nations facing  the kinds of  difficulties that  Israel faces.  But  at this crucial moment, that is precisely what I need to do.

As  Secretary-General of the  United Nations,  I am now, as  I have always been, a friend  of Israel.  But  I am also a friend  of those with whom  you may not always see  eye to eye.   Here is my  challenge.  I want  Israel and its partners to make the difficult choices required for peace.

As  a friend, it gives me no  pleasure to recite a list  of the grievances which  the international community  has against  Israel.  But I  think it is important for  you, my  Israeli friends,  to try  to  understand that  those grievances do not come  out of a clear  blue sky.    Here is what  the great majority of the  Member  States  of the  United Nations  say:   they regard Israel as having been responsible, directly  or indirectly, for  provocative acts that undermine goodwill and spark hostilities.

In their view, Israel has not abided by Security Council resolutions.  They point out that you have been slow to fulfil your obligations under the Oslo agreements, and that you have made your implementation conditional  in a  way that the  Oslo accords did not.  They  see that you have expanded old settlements, and  started new  ones.   They are  concerned by the  closures, roadblocks  and   other  restrictions  that   aggravate  the  economic   and humanitarian crisis  facing the  Palestinians.   They  regret other  actions that  take from  Palestinians their  homes,  their  land, their  jobs, their residence permits -their very dignity.

Friends,  I ask  you  to accept  that the  great  mass of  world  opinion, including many countries that are sympathetic to  Israel and to the  Israeli dilemma, genuinely  feels that Israel  is doing  a great  disservice to  its cause and  to its  standing by persisting  with these practices.   And  that despite  its   position  of   strength  —   economically,  militarily   and scientifically —  Israel has  not seemed  ready for  reasonable compromise. The promise of 1993 has become the  crisis of expectations of 1998, for both peoples.

I ask Israel to accept that, just as you are entitled to ask your Palestinian partners to do their best to live up to their side of the bargain under the agreements reached, so they too are justified in asking you to fulfil your obligations.

In my talks in the region, almost every Arab leader I have met has expressed strong support for a just and comprehensive peace with Israel.   I take  encouragement  from  that.    But  I  have found  those  same  leaders depressed about the stalled state of  the peace process; sceptical about the good  faith of  the current  Israeli  Government;  inclined to  suspect that Israeli conditionality marks an unwillingness to carry out your side of  the bargain. I have found, in short, a crisis of confidence.

There is a way out of this crisis of confidence, a  way well known to all.  A road map exists.  It  is for you and your partners to follow it, past  all obstacles  and  exits,   to  its  logical,   inevitable  destination   —  a comprehensive peace settlement.  And just as there  is peril in driving  too fast, so in this case is it dangerous to move too slowly.

We are  engaged  in a process  that will  either move forward or will move backwards, but  that cannot  for long  remain stalled.    It is,  therefore, essential  that Israel  —  and her  adversaries in the region  —  commit themselves to a comprehensive peace based on the principles enshrined in resolutions 242 and 338, and reflected in the Oslo accords — most fundamentally, land  for peace.  It is the only principle that has a chance of bringing peace to this land.

At the same time, I would like to  reiterate the unequivocal commitment of the United Nations, and  my own personal commitment,  to uphold the right of all peoples to  live in peace,  and to pursue  their daily  lives free  from terror, threats and acts of aggression.

I wold like to take this opportunity to make clear to you  the nature, the demands and the promise  of the agreement I  reached with the  Government of Iraq.  I went to Baghdad,  with the full authorization of all members of the Security Council,  in search  of a peaceful  solution to the  crisis.   That crisis has, at least for now, been averted.

The mandate of the Security Council has been reaffirmed.

The access of United  Nations inspectors has been not only restored, but expanded to include any and all sites.  The authority of the Executive Chairman of the United Nations Special Commission has been acknowledged and strengthened.

Whether the threat to international peace and security has been averted for all time is now in the hands  of the Iraqi  leadership.  It is  now for them to  comply in  practice with what they  have signed on paper.  If they do, it will bring nearer the day when Iraq can fully rejoin the family of nations. In the meantime, the expanded "oil-for-food"  programme should help alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people.

The agreement reached in  Baghdad was neither a  "victory" nor a  "defeat" for any  one person,  nation or  group of  nations.   Certainly, the  United Nations  and  the  world  community  lost  nothing,  gave  away  nothing and conceded  nothing of  substance.    But by  halting, at  least for  now, the renewal of  military hostilities in the  Gulf, it was  a victory for  peace, for reason, for the resolution of conflict by diplomacy.

In closing, I would  like to congratulate you on the occasion of  Israel's fiftieth  anniversary.   You have  chosen  to  describe this  anniversary as marking  "an era of hope for peace".  For my part, I sincerely hope that, in this new  era, the United Nations  will be  seen in Israel as  a vehicle for realizing the universal values of the Jewish people.

I emphasize the universality of those values because I believe that the values of tolerance and mercy, of respect and  the dignity of  all peoples, are inherent to the human rights of the entire human race.  They are rights that are longed for by all, and rights that belong to all.

During this  fiftieth anniversary  year  of the  Universal Declaration  of Human Rights,  I have said,  and I have  said often, that  human rights  are African  rights, Asian rights,  American rights  and European  rights.  They are also Palestinian rights and Israeli rights.  I have  said also that true faith  elicits respect, while fanaticism breeds hatred.   The problem, in my view, is not faith.  The problem, all too often, is the faithful.

I have  illustrated my appeals to  human rights and  my fervent belief  in their universality  by citing  a  call from  the  depth  of the  unique  and universal horror of the Holocaust.

Allow me to quote Martin Niemoller:

"In Germany  they came  first for the  Communists, and I  didn't speak  up because I wasn't a Communist.   They came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.  Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.  Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I  was a Protestant.  Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."

I come today to speak up  —  for Israel, for the Palestinians, for peace.  For when we speak up, individually  and collectively, with one  voice or with a multitude of  voices, we can and we  must overwhelm the  sounds of war.

We  can and we must overcome the seeds of intolerance.  We can and we must forge  the peace  and  justice  that  all  peoples  seek, that  all  peoples deserve.

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    *  Reissued to correct transcription errors.