A/33/PV.61 General Assembly

I should like to express my delegation's profound appreciation to Ambassador Fall of Senegal, the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, and to the Vice-Chairmen and Rapporteur, Ambassador Gauci of Malta and the members of the Committee, for their thankiess and tireless exertions not only in promoting the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, victims of an unparalleled and colossal catastrophe, but also in upholding and remaining unwaveringly steadfast in their adherence to the Charter, integrity, moral fabric and resolutions of the United Nations. 2. Many people throughout the world have followed with genuine confusion the dramatic events pertaining to the question of Palestine which have been taking place over the past year. And, as usual, the avalanche of words and events is adding to the confusion in a manner which can only be described as brutally tantalizing. Forem<ist in suffering this agonizing bewilderment are the Palestinians themselves.: . 3. One thing is certain: the whole world, including the Arab world and the Palestinians, is yearning for a just and honourable peace. The terms of peace should mean what they state and state what they mean. And they certainly should be related, meaningfully, to what the whole world, and not just the Palestinian people, understands them to mean and has expressly said they should mean in solemn resolutions adopted over the past 30 years, for no amount of rhetoric can conceal or redress the tragedy of a situation in which a habitat has been severely violated and masses of its people expelled. 4. I shall not go into subjective intentions or motivations, whether they be good or utterly vicious and malignant. Nor do I believe that the very survival and the fate of close to 4 million Palestinians are subjects that lend themselves to the game of power or intemal politics or to any other • Resumed from the 59th meeting. ;~ NEW YORK extraneous considerations which could further jeopardize the fate of tltat ancient and indomitable people. 5. I shall therefore explain objectively why it is that the Palestinian people, with the ov.erwhelming support of the Arab world, the Islamic wodd, the non-aligned world and all the other configurations of Powers and regional groups, genuinely and profoundly belie~e that the agree~ents at present being negotiated, par~c~arly as c~n~el~ed by Israel would resulli in the liqwdatlOn of theIr malienable right 'to return to their ancestral homeland and terminate the ll-year-Iong occupation and in denying them the God-ordained and naturally recognized right to self- determination and self-identification, including statehood. No wonder the much-cherished goal of a just and lasting peace, elusive for almost 30 years, seems today as remote and elusive as ever before. 6. Indeed. an historical examination of the Arab-Israeli conflict proves conclusively that the Arabs, including the Palestinians, have persistently sought to achieve a ~aceful solution of the conflict since as far back as 1949, when they signed the Lausanne Protocol! with Israel un?er the aegis of the United Nations Conciliation CommissIOn for Palestine. It was that Protocol that Israel initialled to gain admission membership in the United Nation&, but sub- sequently reneged on and repudiated. 7'- In fact, of the four wars that have afflicted the Middle East since Israel was established, three were triggered off and intended by Israel. In 1947-1948, seizing on the pretext of a few peaceful protests and manifestations- things that occur in almost every country, sometimes on marginal matters-in which the Palestinians expressed their dismay at the dismemberment of their country, the Israelis, with their penchant and plans for expansion and conquest, unleashed their 80,OOO-strong military machine against a completely unarmed population, it having been effectively disarmed during the British Mandate, and occupied four- fifths of Palestine even before the Mandate came to an end on 15 May 1948. No Arab army had ever set foot in Israel as it had been delineated by the United Nations in its partition resolution [resolution 181 (11)]. And in tpe course of all this, the massive and continuing ordeal of the Palestinian refugees was created, and after 1967 was substantially aggravated, by displacement. 8. In 1956 it was Israel that invaded Egypt. Why? Again, its irresistible appetite for expansion. The 1956 war, as members are all well aware, was a quarrel between France, the United Kingdom and Egypt. What did Israel have to do with that conflict? 10. The 1973 war was the only war that the Arabs legitimately started, on occupied Arab soil, to evict occupying Israeli forces. Going back to 1967, the Israelis have persistently claimed that they had warned Jordan not to join in the conflict. They knew perfectly well that we had a mutual defence agreement with Egypt and Syria, and . Jordan usually honours its commitments. Besides, the Israeli inner cabinet held a secret and emergency meeting between 10 and 11 o'clock in the morning of 5 JUlle to debate whether or not it should announce the destruction of the Egyptian air force, for fear that Jordan might change its mind. It was crystal clear all along, and we knew it, that the main objective of the war was to occupy the rest of Palestine, especially Jerusalem. 11. In the aftermath of the 1967 war Israel claimed that it was holding the population of the occupied territories to ransom for peace, acceptance and security. But, simul- taneously, Israel was working at full speed to col~nizeand settle the occupied Palestinian and other Arab territories, to the point where those lands have become truly unrecogniz- able as a consequence of Israel's relentless and indis- criminate colonization, which leaves less and less land for the Palestinians to live on, let alone establish as a homeland. My delegation in the Special Political Committee has given a detailed compilation of the dimensions and geopolitical implications of such massive colonization. 2 It is the butcher's knife vivisecting what was a small but single territory. 12. This clearly has nothing to do with security, which is always used by the Israeli Government to justify whatever policies it adopts. Thus, when Israel laid claim to Arab Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank on the basis of untenable and spurious historical interpretations, which naturally shocked the rest of the world, the Israelis reverted to their time-honoured security argument, alleging that their so-called security required, and Security Council resolution 242 (1967) permitted, continued and permanent 2/bid., Thirty-third Session, Special ·Political Committee. 29th meeting, paras. 4-13; ibid., 31st meeting, paras. 4-13; ibid., 34th meeting, paras. 17-20; and ibid., Special Political Committee, Sessional Fascicle, corrigendum. 14. Israel continues to insist that its security is threatened, while it occupies territory 10 times the size of the land originally allocated to it in 1947. In spite of this, the Arab States directly involved have for the past 10 years been willing to negotiate a jm'it peace on the basis of Council resolution 242 (1967), which would include the termina- tion of all claims or states of be1ligerency and guarantees of the territorial inviolability and independence of all States in the area. Israel, as usual, paid lip-service to the resolution while torpedoing it effectively on the ground. The whole game was a race against time, to confront the world with a new fait accompli. Time is Israel's most precious com- modity, or so it calculates, to enable it to bring in new immigrants, sequester as much land as it can absorb and thus fulfIl its long-standing ambition to take over the whole of Palestine, and 'far beyond, as circumstances may permit. 15. The Israelis have set their navigational instruments in the direction of the goals of expanded conflict and not those of peaceful coexistence, which are rationally based on mutual benefit. But this is a collision course, a time bomb, which can only lead to an expanded explosion. 16. If Israel, as alleged, is concerned about its survival and intends to ensure it through cannibalizing the indigenous Palestinians, then the Palestinian people and the rest of the Arab world will see to it that the international community realizes that their survival is at least as impelling for them as, ID the age of decolonization, dignity and freedom, Israeli empire-building and cannibalism is for the Israelis. 17. The Israelis have always claimed that if only the Arabs would sit down and negotiate with them, then by some magic key all differences would be resolved. Everyone here kriows what a mess the situation is today, when the moment of truth has arrived for the Israelis to decide on 3 Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Pe'rsons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949. 18. In concrete terms, the situation as far as the Pales- tinian people are conrerned is as follows. 19. After they had owned 94 per cent of the land and the country from time immemorial, the Palestinians were left after 1948-1949 with approximately 18 per cent of Mandated Palestine as a consequence of Israeli conquest, sequestration and open defiance of solemn United Nations resolutions on the right of return and a territorial settle- ment. 20. Since 1967, Israeli occupation and colonization have further reduced the share of the land owned by the Palestinians to a mere 13 per cent. One has only to go and see for oneself. 21. The Israelis would not agree to military withdrawal, even after a proposed five-year interim period; they would never concede sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian lands;-they insist on going ahead with unrestricted coloniza- tion; they even refuse to talk to the Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO]. which the United Nations itself, as well as all the Arab States, has recognized as the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people. They have raised a hue and cry over what has come to be known as "linkage" between an accord on occupied Sinai and an accord on the Palestinian and other oc~upied Arab territories. Their objective is unmistakably to divide and weaken the Arab world in order to facilitate their as yet unfmished designs of expansion. How can a viable peace be achieved without a comprehensive settlement, the central single issue of which is the fate of the Palestinian people? 22. And what are the Israelis so furiously objecting to? Civil autonomy to look after the water and sewage systems, education and social welfare? As I stated in another forum, the Palestinian people a mere 60 to 70 years ago elected congressmen, ministers, governors and high military com- m3:l1ders to the seat of an empire in Istanbul. And now Begin Wa!lts to reduce them to civil rule, reservation management as it were. During the British Mandate the Palestinians were given pledges that they would have an independent Palestine, covering the whole of the country, in which both Palestinians and Israelis could live side by side in amity. During the West Bank's unity with Jordan the Palestinians shared power and responsibility at the highest levels. The Foreign Minister was almost consistently a Palestinian from the West Bank. Why then should the Palestinians be elated over a dependent, tenuous and uncertain existence in a tiny portion of their ancestral homeland-a measure affecting a mere one-third of the Palestinian people, with the remaining majority destined to live a life of perpetual exile. Even the displaced persons' return to the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza is made subject to an Israeli veto. 24. We have repeatedly asserted that the 3Q..year conflict should, at long last, be resolved in an appropriate manner and on such a basis that both sides can live with the solution in this generation and in generations to come. This is what happened in Europe, which has been a battlefield for generations; but the solution only came about when all the parties to the conflicts came to the realization that dependence on ephemeral power, no matter how formid- able, was inherently incapable of solving conflicts in the long run and was destined to be counter-productive. It was a state of mind which transcended petty, myopic and fleeting considerations. 25. When the Israelis, acting on the basis' of totally untenable claims to security in the age of long-range rockets and other lethal weapons, refuse to coexist in dignity alongside the Palestinian people in their homeland, one is prompted to remind them of the price the French and the Germans had to pay for such a distorted perspective. Can anyone today imagine German rockets poised against France or vice versa? It sounds silly even to mention it, although merely a few decades ago the Maginot Line and the Siegfried Line were assumed to assure ultimate security. 26. If peace is to be achieved without any potential destruction and devastation in the interim, as we all hope it will be, then the Israelis must make a searching reappraisal of their attitude to two basic problems. First, they must cease being obsessed with security, for the ultimate reductio ad absurdum of security is the grave. Under conditions of real peace, security considerations would become meaningless, and people's minds and energies would be devoted to more productive and rewarding pursuits. Secondly, the Israelis must recognize their guilt for destroying the lives of the Palestinian people, who never did them any wrong in the past but, on the contrary, welcomed them when many in the world persecuted them. This can be done by restoring their rights to the Palestinians by deeds, not by words, and within a framework of real justice, real restitutbn and real dignity. Then and only then shall we see the dawn of a bright new future, free of fear, guilty cOllsciences and unpredictable catastrophes which can engulf us all. "... the two agreements ... affected the rights of the Palestinian people and the Arab nation and the occupied Arab. territories. These agreements have been made outside the framework of the collective Arab respon- sibility; and are contradictory to the resolutions taken by the Arab Summit Conferences, particularly those held in Algiers and Rabat, and contradictory to the Arab League charter and the United Nations resolutions on the Palestinian issue. "They do not lead to the just peace to which the Arab nation aspires, and as such the conference resolved not to agree to the two agreements and not to deal with whatever consequences may be produced thereof and to reject all related political, economic, legal and other after-effects." [A/33/400, annex, paras. 4-5.J 28. It will be seen that what the Ninth Arab Summit Conference rejected was not peace, but an unjust peace. , The United Nations itself would have acted similarly in the light of its Charter and of its own resolutions on the conflict. A just peace must specifically comprise two basic elements: flISt, Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied in 1967, foremost of which is Arab Jerusalem; and, secondly, the restoration of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, as recognized by the United Nations resolutions and the dictates of natural justice.

The mere fact that the question of Palestine is being considered here in a plenary meeting of the General Assembly indicates the special significance of this question in the search for a settlement for the Middle East problem. Our world Organization has never doubted that the question of Palestine is indeed the key problem in the Middle :~ast crisis. This can be seen from the resolutions adopted by the United Nations on this question. 30. The international community is faced with the fact that, despite the political and moral principles contained in the Charter of the United Nations, for many years a people numbering more than 3 million has been living in de facto exile. Moreover, there are approximately I million Pales- tinians who are living under conditions of Israeli occupation and the Israeli authorities are pursuing a policy which is aimed at depriving them of humane living conditions, or depriving them even of the possibility of 'continued existence. As we can see from the last few years the present unjust situation is being used to try to eliminate the single legitimate representative of the Arab people of Palestine, namely, the PLO, although, of course, it is impossible to eliminate that organization. 4 A Framework for Peace in the Middle East, Agreed at Camp David, and Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty between Egypt and ~srael, signed at Washington on 17 September 1978. 32. The recent separate negotiations on the Middle East problem are really a continuation of the policy which totally disregards the vital interests of the Arab peoples and, in particular, of the Arab people of Palestine. Such a policy is doomed. History teaches us that it is impossible to find a settlement deciding the fate of peoples if the masses of the people who are directly involved do not participate in the solution and if actions are, carried out which contravene the vital rights of those peoples. One thing is clear: however we approach the Middle East problem, any peace that is based on aggression, on the seizure by force of the territory of other peoples, can be neither just nor lasting. Moreover, any peace which disregards the just and vital interests of any State or people in the Middle East cannot be lasting either. 33. Any attempt to resolve the Middle East problem without taking account of the interests of the peoples concerned, including the Arab people of Palestine, can lead only to a dangerous exacerbation of the wholE. situation. Even the former United States Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, who had great experience in matters relating to the so-called "shuttle diplomacy", was forced to recognize that there is no alternative to a global approach to this problem. 34. Today it has become even more obvious that fmding a just and lasting peace in the Middle East requires us to find a solution to the following main issues which are organic- ally linked one to the other. In keeping with resolutions adopted by the United Nations, the countries of the Warsaw Pact, in a recent important declaration [A/33/392- 8/12939J, refen'ed to these issues which are: first, Israel's withdrawal from all AY-at territories it occupied in 1967; secondly, the implementation of the inalienable right of the Arab people of Palestine to self-determination, including their right to form their own State; and, thirdly, ensuring the right to independent existence and development and the establishment of international guarantees for the security and inviolability of the frontiers of all States in the Middle East. 35. Israel's refusal to participate in this spirit in a firm and just political settlement, a..,d Israel's constant flouting of United Nations resolutions are, in the final analysis, the reason for the threat to international peace and security, and not just the peace and security of the Arab peoples. Eloquent proof of the danger presented by Israel is given by the recent events in Lebanon. Today, everybody knows that the Israeli ruling circles, pursuing the imperialist interests of power, are endeavouring to keep the situation in the region explosive so that, should it become necessary, they may be able to internationalize the conflict thus making possible direct intervention by imperialism. They want to drown in blood the national patriotic forces of Lebanon and the Palestinian resistance movement. It is here that we can find the reasons for Israel's delay in imple- menting the mandate of UNIFIL, something which' is referred to in the report of the Secretary-General of the 36. Experience in this world Organization has shown that anyone who is seeking to move towards a just and lasting settlement of the Middle East conflict cannot fail to regard the problem of Palestine as a problem of national self- determination. The just struggle of the Arab people of Palestine has been recognized by the majority of peoples rUld States of the world. The PLO has been recognized thrcughout the world as the one legitimate representative of that people. Reluctance to understand that means disregarding the objective requirements for a just and lasting peace. That is in direct contradiction to the views of this world Organization which have been reflected in many resolutions adopted on this problem. 37. Here I should like to say that the staff of this Organization must be guided by our resolutions. We cannot endorse the practice which was followed regarding the mm in connexion with the InternatiOI.al Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. 38. Flagrantly disregarding and flouting the resolutions of the United Nations and world public opinioil, Israeli leading circles in the Arab territories they have occupied, are intensifying their policies of terrorism, oppression and racial discrimination and driving the Arab population from its own lands. Any illusions that might have been enter- tained in connexion with the separate negotiations were dispelled by the statement of the Israeli Prime Minister on 26 October this year to the effect that Israel was entitled to establish itself throughout -Palestine and also on the West Bank :md in the Gaza Strip. 39. In other words, the Zionist policy of expansionism and colonization in the occupied Arab territories is being presented as an age-old right belonging to Israel. In keeping with that approach, Israeli settlements are being set up in the occupied territories and the demographic structure of those territories is being changed by force. The danger of this policy is being increasingly recognized. The Ministers for Foreign Affairs of non-aligned countries, at their Conference in Belgrade, in July, confmned the right of the Arab States and the PLO to confront, by all means possible, any solution or settlement at the expense of the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people (see A/33/206, p.130). 40. We noted with great satisfaction that the Ninth Arab Summit Conference in Baghdad, in which the PLO partici- pated on an equal footing, cond~mned and rejected imperi:l1ist attempts to split the Palestinian people into two parts: on the one hand, the so-called inhabitants of the Gaza Strip and West Bank and, on the other hand, the refugees. Statements by Arab leaders who are living as Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories to the effect "The people of the German Democratic Republic reaffirm their solidarity with the Palestinian people and its sole legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and have been. supporting them for many years. We will continue in future to offer our support and solidarity to the peoples of the Middle East in their struggle for a just and lasting settlement." 41. Eve!)' people has an inalienable right to their own State. However, the rullng circles in Israel refuae to recognize that th j Arab people of Palestine have this right, although they themselves insist on that right for their own people. In their national myopia, they even go so far as to claim their own right to other territories which do not even belong tl) Israel. The question of statehood is natuWly one of decisive importance to the Palestinian people. The Palestinians want at last to live together again in their own State and to build their own life. The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights ofthe Palestinian People, in its report to the General Assembly, once again stressed the right of the Arab people of Palestine to establish tIWr own State, ll..'1d put forward the following recommendation in that connexion: "As soon as the independent Palestinian entity has been established, the United Nations,- m co-operation with the ·States directly involved and the Palt;stinian entity, should, taking into account General Assembly resolution 3375 (XXX), make further arrangements for the full implementation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, the resolution of outstanding problems and the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the R.pon, in accordance with all relevant United Nations resolutions". [A/33/35 and Corr.l/ReY.1, para. 72 (g).) . 42. Only a few days ago the Chairman of the PLO, Yassa Arafat, made some important points showing that the PLO adopts an extremely realistic approach to the imple- mentation of its right to establish a State and, for example, is willing to give security guarantees to neighbouring States_ This constructive position taken by the PLO should be given due weight in the capitals of certain Western States.It is time that certain States abandoned their negative position on the rights of the Palestinian people and the Pill. 43. As for the· (iell'man Democratic Republic, the Chair- man of the Central Committee of the Sud~tlist Unity Party of Germany aad Chairman of the Councll of State of the Gennan Democratic Republic, in the telegram mentioned earlier sent on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, also said: "This day is for us a further opportunity to reaffirm our unwavering support for the world-wide demand for the exercise of the inalienable right of the Arab people of

The question of Palestine, which the General Assembly is considering at this time, is a familiar one and has been discussed at length here at the United Nations. The restoration of all the national rights of the Palestinian people in its homeland, which has been usurped by the Israeli Zionists by means of violence and armed aggression, presents one of the most worrying international problems. A just solution to that problem is of particular importance because what is at stake above all is the destiny of an entire people which for several decades has been the victim of barbarous aggression and has been forced to live as a refdgee population without land, without a country and without shelter. A just solution to that problem ~~ essential . for the establishment of genuine peace and stability in the Middle East and for ending the explosive situation which continues to preVail in that area, threatening peace and security throughout the world. 50. The tragedy which the Palestinian people has ex- perienced for a long time and the difficulties being faced by the Arab peoples and countries are a direct consequence of the aggressive policy and interference of the two imperialist super-Powers, the United States and the Soviet Union, in the Middle East, of their many plots to divide the Arab peoples, to undermine their struggle against the Israeli Zionist aggressors and to speculate on the just cause of the Palestini~ people. SI. The American imperialists have always used and continue to use the State of Israel, a State which was mant..,factured by imperialism and international zionism, as the policeman of the Middle East region. They have done everything possible to strengthen the military machine of the Israeli Zionists and to aid and abet their aggressive acts against Arab peoples. They have undertaken large-scale diplomatic and political efforts to perpetuate the con- sequences of Zionist-imperialist aggression in the Middle East. The Soviet social-imperialists, for their part, have also lent direct assistance to the Israeli Zionists by sending thousands of men to Israel to serve as cannon-fodder and to settle in the occupied Arab lands. They have supported and encouraged !sra '~'s policy of aggression by all kinds of anti-Arab devices and ma..loeuvres. 46. The struggle of the Palestinian people is a just struggle which enjoys the respect, admiration and support of peoples all over the world. The Palestinian people has never acted against anyone and has never violated the rights of others. It has fought and continues to fight only to recover its fatherland, to stand up for its national rights and to put an end to the killings, sufferings and deprivations that its enemies, the Zionist aggressors, the imperialists and various reactionary forces, have inflicted upon it for many years. Th~ Palestinian people, like any other nation, has the right to live frea and independent in its country. 52. All the events occurring to<4y show how right were the true friends of the Arab peoples when they w2,rned them of the dangerous nature of the plots hatched py the two imperialist super-Powers under the guise of a s~lution of the problems of Palestine and of the Middle East through negotiations and conferences or on the basis of plans and proposals submitted frequently by the American impe- rialists and the Soviet social-imperialists whether jointly or separately. 47. No Zionist or imperialist slander denigrating the struggle being waged by the Palestinians, who are fighting for the survival of their nation and for the future of generations to coma, can be believed. 48. The struggle of the courageous Palestinian people has been and continues to be the main obstacle to the realization of the aggressive and expansionist ambitions of the Israeli Zionists in the Middle East and to the greed of the two imperialist super-Powers, the United States of America and the Soviet Union, which compete to establish their hegemony and domination in that region of the world. For that reason all the enemies of the Arab people have always directed the spearhead of their aggressive and conspiratory activities first of all against the armed national liberation struggle of the Palestinian people. It is those activities that have rendered a settlement of the problem of Palestine so difficult and complex. 53. It is true that at present the Palestinian people and their armed resistance movement must face many and serious difficulties. The imperialists, the Zionists, their allies and collaborators are feverishly trying to eliminate the question of Palestine, to stifle the Palestinians' national liberation struggle, and to deny them their national identity and their right to live free and independent in their country. 54. Not too long ago, the American imperialists in order to conce~ their conspiratrrial activities and hoodwink public opinion were paying lip-service to the rights of the Palestinian people, and even publiciZing their alleged 49. Developments this year have once again borne witness to the fact that the Israeli Zionists, thanks to the political, SS. The Israeli Zionists think perhaps that the moment has come for them to harvest the fruits of their aggression. The imperialist super-Powers certainly think that they will benefit from circumstances and find a new pretext to intensify their rivalry and interference in the Middle East and to impose the sinister plots they have instigated against them on the Arab peoples and countries. 56. But we are certain that, ID the last analysis, all enemies of the Paiestinian and Arab peoples will find their calcula- tions mistaken. The Palestinian and Arab peoples have acquired vast experience in their struggle against Zionist- imperialist aggression~ interference and the hegemonistic designs of the two imperialist super-Powers in the Middle East. They have the strength and the means to continue their struggle to thwart the plans (If their enemies. . 57. The Palestinian people has gone through very difficult periods in its long struggle for liberation and national independence. It has been tempered in the course of that struggle. It has resisted and recovered whenever its just cause has been in danger. The Palestinian people and the PLO, which is the sole representative of the will, rights and interests of that people, have clearly and firmly stated that they will not allow their cause to be sacrificed and that they are resolved to reaUze their aspirations through their struggle and by the force of their arms. 58. In their just struggle the Palestinian people is neither alone nor isolated. It enjoys the solidarity and support of peoples throughout the world and of all progressive public opinion. The Israeli Zionists, imperialists, and social- imperialists cannot force Arab peoples either to renounce their struggle to liberate the occupied Arab territories or their duty to lend assistance and support to the Palestinian people. 59. Ttte Albanian people and the People's Socialist Repub1ic of Albania have supported and will firmly support the just cause and the national liberation struggle of the brother Palestinian people. In his message addressed on 27 October of this year to Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Albanian people, Enver Hoxha, stressed: "Bearing in mind the love and sincere friendship they feel towards the brother Arab peoples, the Albanian Labour Party and the People's Socialist Republic of Albania have made clear the danger of the many plots of the imperiali5ts designed to divide the Arab peoples and lead them into diplomatic traps in so-called conferences under imperialist sponsorship, with the aim of pillaging Arab lands, sacrificing th'3ir rights and, above all repu- diating the Palestinian cause.

The establishmentof the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People three years ago was welcomed by my Government as evidence of the determination of the General Assembly to give a new impetus to the search for a Middle East settlement. We also we!'~med the adoption of resolution 31/20 endorsing the Committee's programme of action, since the programme was in full accord with resolutions on the Palestine question adopted over the years by the General Assembly and by the Security Coun,~ll. 61. We strongly agree with the Committee when it says in its current report [A/33/35 and Co".l/Rev.lj that the validity of its recommendations remains undiminished with the passage of time. Indeed, recent events make it highly important that the basic principles laid down by the Committee as essential for the solution of the Palestinian problem be reaffirmed, and that efforts to impleme~t its recommendations be intensified. 62. The heaviest responsibility in this regard)ies with the Security Council, which has yet to respond to the will of .the international community .on Palestinian rights. My delegation therefore commends the Committee for calling the attention of the Security ~ouncil, other bodies and the chief parties to the Middle East conflict to the principles which must govern a just and lasting peace. 63. As the Committee has stated, and as the international community has recognized in a clear consensus, the Palestinian question is at the heart of the Middle East conflict. The·overwhelming majority of Member States have expressed the belief that a Middle East settlement cannot be achieved unless the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people are duly taken into account. Recognition ofthis fact was first expressed in resolution 194 (Ill) of 1948, which lifu.:.ed the acceptance of Israel as a Member of the world Organization with the right of the Palestinian refuge~~ to return home or be compensated. It was expressed more recently in resolution 3236 (XXIX) reaffirming the inalien- able right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty in Palestine. 64. The General Assembly could not do less than reaffirm the rights of the Palestinians, who, unlike their Zionist usurpers, are not seeKing to establish claims based on events that happened 2,000 years ago to a people who no longer exist. They are seeking the right to return to their homes and property and to fulfil their aspirations to nationhood in the area which they and their ancestors have inhabited from time immemorial. They are seeking to redress the injustice 66. In this context my delegation is happy to note that the Special Unit on Palestinian Rights has been established within the United Nations Secretariat to promote and give maximum publicity to the Palestinian cause. The organi- zation of the annual observance of 29 November as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is strong evidence that the international community recog- nizes the dimensions of the tragedy tha.t besets hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and has made many of them refugees twice in a lifetime. 67. My delegation believes that the time is long overdue for the Security Council to deal in a specific way with the vital question of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, and nationhood in Palestine-a matter which was not adequately covered by its resolutions .242 (1967) and 338 (1973). 73. Those policies, together with recent statements by Israeli leaders with regard te a strictly limited autonomy for the West Bank of the Jordan, confirm Israel's intransigence on the question of the establishment of an independent Palestinian State. The Zionists' defiance of United Nations resolutions on the question of Palestine and their refusal to co-operate with the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People must not go unchallenged. Furthermore, their persistence in applying their racist policy in violation of the human rights of the Palestinian and Arab people in the territories occupied in 1948 and 1967 is inadmissible. Those aggressive and expansionist policies have been recently illustrated by Israel's invasion of Lebanon and by its continued political and military interference in the affairs of that country. The Lebanese aggression is part and parcel of the Israelis' effort to find a final solution to the problem posed by the refusal of the Palestinians to be relegated ·to obscurity or oblivion. The international community must ensure that they do not succeed in their monstrou::; plan. 68. The Security Council has been prevented in the past from taking action along these lines because of the likelihood that the veto would be used by Israel's sup- porters among the permanent memb~rs of the Security Council. We hope that the Council will soon take up again in support of Palestinian rights the question of Palestine, of which it is still seized, and that the views expressed last October by many of the Council's members will prevail. 69. Another question rightly emphasized by the Com- mittee is that of the role of the PLO, which is the representative of the Palestinian people and the guardian of their inalienable rights. The Palestinian people are a principal party to the Middle East conflict. That conflict cannot be resolved without the participation of their representative, the PLO, in all conferences or negotiations aimed at a Middle East settlement. 74. In this situation the General Assembly must call once more on Member States to increase the isolation of Israel at the diplomatic, economic, political and military levels. It must also call on the Security Council to respond positively to the will of the international community. and take decisive action in support of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian pel'Jple. We hope that the efforts to these ends of th~CommiHeeon the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will be successful, and we urge the General Assembly to adopt the Committee's report. 70. In exercising the right to choose their own represen- tative body the Palestinians have shown their support for the PLO. As the Committee's report indicates, their support is demonstrated once again in petitions, addressed to the Secretary-General and signed by Palestinians from the occupied Arab territories, reaffirming that the PLO is the :. sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. My delegation fully suppoi'ts the Committee in stressing that the participation of the PLO is indispensable to a just and lasting settlement of the Palestinian question in particular, and of the Middle East problem in its wider context.

Another year has passed with the question of Palestine still unsolved, and with each passing year it'has become more and more evident that the realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people 71. In its effort to keep the essential elements of the Palestinian question in view the Committee also recalls the principle that territory must not be acquired by force, and reminds us that the questions of Pai~stinian rights and of Israel's illegal occupation of Arab territory are inextricably bound together. As the Committee pointed out in its report 72. Since 1967 Israel has stubbornly persisted in imple- menting policies that have been widely condemned by the international community for their flagrant violation of international law and the resolutions of the United Nations. As we know, those policies have been: the outright annexation of Ar?.~ territory; the forced removal of Arab populations; the ~,.pplication of harsh and inhuman treat- ment to the native population of the occupied territories, particularly to Palestinian prisoners and detainees; the establishment of Jewish settlements on Arab territory; and large-scale attempts to alter the geographical, demographic, cultural and religious features of those areas. All those policies violate the fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, to which Israel is a party. 77. It has again become evident that the failure to reach a just settlement in the Middle East crisis over the past years is due to the persistently negative attitude of Israel towards the implementation of the relevant decisions of the United Nations and its continuing disregard for the legitimate concerns of the international community. What is more, the aggressive posture of Israel has even been intensified, as is clearly evidenced by this year's Israeli invasion of Lebanon and other new acts aimed at the ultimate colonizaticn of the occupied Arab territories. 78. We firmly believe that a comprehensive and lasting solution of the Middle East crisis can be achieved on the basis· of Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) and other relevant decisions of the Council and the General Assembly. 79. The question of Palestine is fundamentally of a political nature. It should not De seen fn its humanitarian dimensions alone, important and tragic .is they are, or only as a problem of the refugees, as some would like to see it. It should be solved in accordance with relevant United Nations resolutions, particularly General Assembly resolu- tions 3236 (XXIX) of 22 November 1974, 3375 (XXX) of 10 November 1975, 31/20 of 24 November 1976 and 32/5 of 28 October 1977. 80. A just and lasting solution of the Middle East problem has to take into account the legitimate rights and interests of all States and peoples in the region, rights and interests which can be best secured and guaranteed at the Geneva Peace Conference on the Middle East wi:.h the participation of all the parties concerned, including the PLO, the recognized and lawful representative of the Arab people of Palestine. 81. Any attempt to solve the Middle East problem through separate deals can only further aggravate it at the expense of all the peoples of the region. We consider as unacceptahle any proposed solution that would hamper the realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and that would not take due account of the position of the PLO. 82. Poland steadfastly supports and will continue to support the just cause of the Arab people of Palestine struggling for their national rights, freedom and national independence, inseparably linked to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. "The Middle East conflict continues to be a perennial threat to peace and security, not only regionally. May we once again reaffirm that the road to peace in the Middle East leads through a comprehensive implementation of the provisions of the well-known resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council, and not through deals of a separatist nature. Any solution should comprise the return of all Arab territories occupied by Israel, the exercise of the right to independent statehood of the Arab people of Palestine, and the guaranteeing of the security of all States of the region. Only the resumption of the Geneva Peace Conference on the Middle East with the participation of all parties con- cerned, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, the only representative of the Arab people of Palestine, can bring about a settlement of the conflict ther'~." [12th meeting, para. 137.} 84. The Polish delegation has studied attentively the important report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Falestinian People. We consider the document to be a valuable contribution to a better understanding of the plight of the Palestinian people and to finding means of improving its situation, as well as to the solution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. 85. The strict implementation of the rights of the Arab people of Palestine-as has been underlined from this forum by most speakers-is the crux of a just and lasting settlement in the Midd10 East. With this view in mind, the Polish delegation highly commends all the 'Committee's efforts and expresses its support of the Committee's conclusions and recommendations.

The Palestine problem was inherited by the United Nations in its first years of existence. The responsibility for seeking a just solution of the Palestine problem was accepted by the United Nations. After investigating many different possibilities) the United Nations proposed the partitioning of Palestine. We are all too well acquainted with the developments that followed. Rather than settling an issue, it created a problem that, over the years, has been aggravated and. has brought about three decades of attrition, strife, suffering, war and destruction. The basic issues have, in the process, been obscured. 87. The question of Palestine has been the undoubted cause of the continuous state of crisis in the Middle East that has consumed the resources and almost the entire capacity of that region. The situation has frequently deteriorated to the point of not only threatening to engulf that region in tragic conflagration but also of threatening the peace and security of the entire world by embroiling forces and interests ·even from ou~side the region. The Palestine problem is, indeed, the core of the Middle East problem, and the solution of one problem without the solution of the other is not possible; they are indivisible. A just and lasting peace in the Middle East cannot be established except through the solution of the Palestine question, the root-cause of conflict in the region, in 88. The Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries at their Fifth Conference in Colombo in 1976, reaffirmed total and effective support for the Palestinian people in their legitimate struggle to recover their inalien- able national rights in Palestine, which comprise: their right to return to their homeland and to recover their property, as guaranteed by United Nations resolutions; 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; their right to exercise freely their sovereignty over their territory; and their right to establish their national independent Pales- tinian authority as an expression of their own will and a confrrrnation of their national identity.7 The fIfth non- aligned summit conference called fUIther for the intensifi- cation of co-ordination between the non-aligned movement and the PLO as the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

My delegation remains con- vinced that the Palestinian problem is at the very heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict and is the key to war or peace in the Middle East. The establishment of a just and lasting peace in the region pres\!pposes the recognition and the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. The elements of these rights are indivisible and include the rights of the Palestinian people to return to their homeland, to self-determination, to exercise freely sovereignty over their territory, and to establish their independent national State in Palestine. It is necessary to maintain these rights in their entirety in dealing with the question of Palestine and the Middle East. 89. Those propositions should not be considered nar- rowly, as being valid for non-aligned forums alone. They are universal in character and should be acceptable to all of us who will cherish the fundamental values of a just inter- , national order. Fundamental rights and the right to self-determination cannot be denied to the Palestinian people on grounds of expediency. The report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People has stressed once again that the paxtici- pation of the PLO, the representative of the Palestinian people, is indispensable to a just and lasting settlement of the question of Palestine, which is at the heart of the Middle East conflict. 94. We are similarly convinced that the participation of the PLO, the sole legitimate representative of the Pales- tinian people, on an equal footing with all other parties is indispensable to all efforts exerted under the auspices of the United Nations towards the restoration of those national rights of the Palestinian people. 95. The majority of States Members of this Organization have a sincere desire for a lasting peace in the Middle East and realize that it cannot be achieved by ignoring the basic problem. That is one of the reasons why the United Nations is now laying great stress on the central role of the Palestinian issue within the complex situation in the Middle East. It has become a principal subject, the focus of world attention. We believe that the United Nations and its organs, the Security Council in particular, should take appropriate action to facilitate the exercise by the Pales- tinian people of their r~ghts in accordance with the Committee's recommendations/A/33/35 and Corr.l/Rev.l, paras. 55-58J. These recommendations would also assist in finding a solution to the conflict in the Middle East as a whole. 90. In order to exercise the right to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty, the evacuation of the territories occupied by force is essential, indeed vital. It is only upon the return of the Palestinians to their homes and with the establishment of an independent Palestinian entity that the Palestinian people will be able to exercise their right to self-determination and to decide their form of government. 91. In the meantime, Israel is reinforcing and increasing its settlements and entrenching its position in the occupied territories, whica makes the problem mere difficult of solution. This would only lead eventually to the liqUidation of the Palesthle question and to the denial to the Palestinian people of their national rights. This makes the situation in the region more explosive and poses a dire and imminent threat to international peace and security. brael must withdraw from all the territory it has oc·cupied by force. The fundamental principle of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force and the consequent obligation to withdraw completely and speedily from any territory so occupied, and that principle's direct appli- cability to the Middle East, cannot be over-stressed. 96. It is the view of my Government that by adopting resolution 31/20 by a very large majority and thus endorsing the Committee's recommendations as a basis for the solution of the question of Palestine, the General Assembly took a major step towards the recovery by the . Palestinian people of their rights, which is a prerequisite to the establishment of a just peace in the Middle East. The recommendations continue to be valid; they seek only the implementation of the resolutions and decisions already adopted by our Organization. 97. My country is a member of the Committee, and in joining it w~ took into account Hungary's well-known position regarding the rights of the Palestinian people- namely, its wish that justice be done, in conformity with the principles of the United Nations Charter, to all peoples of the Middle East, including those of the Arab countries and of Israel. 92. My delegation would, finally, wish to express its grave concern that this problem has continued for so long- 7 See document A/31/197, annex IV, NAC/CONF.S/S/RES.9. 99. The obstruction of the will of the international community threatens international peace and security and perpetuates the injustice suffered by the Palestinian people. To ignore the fact that the Palestinian question is the core of the conflict in the Middle East does not serve the cause of world peace. Yet there is one State among us which continues to ignore reality. It is the State of Israel, which rejects even the principle of initiating a direct dialogue with the true representatives of the Palestinian people. This indicates the unrealistic and reckless character of Israeli policy. We all understand that it is an historical mistake on the part of Israel not to recognize the undeniable right which the Palestinian people have to their own independent homeland. The existence of the Palestinian people is a fact, so their right to exist must be recognized, and they must be allowed to establish an independent national State. Unless that is done, our hopes for a climate of security, trust and mutual respect in the region will be vain. It is time for Israel to renounce its policy of annexation. 100. At the present time we are witnessing attempts to deepe)1 the confusion about the rights and the future of the Palestinian people and their representation and to frustrate efforts to reach a comprehensive and just settlement, replacing it by partial measures. The efforts to resolve the conflict in the Middle East by means of separate deals cannot change the situation fundamentally, and the roots of the conflict remain. We are convinced that the tension in the region cannot be removed, nor can peace be brought about, by manoeuvring to make separate deals. We are of the opinion that a truly just and comprehensive settlement can be achieved only through a return to collective efforts by all parties concerned. 101. I should like to take this opportunity to express the firm belief of my Government that there must be a limit to the postponement of the reconvening of the Geneva 103. Events over the years have given conclusive proof that the Arab-Israeli conflict cannot be resolved outside the framework of the Geneva Conference-which, by the way, has two Co-Chairmen, the Soviet Union and the United States, with all the rights and duties that this involves and entails. I should like to emphasize once again that the way to give peace a real chance in the Middle East and put an end to a dangerous potential source of war is through the holding of a peace conference, with the Soviet Union and the United States acting as Co-Chairmen and with the participation of all States directly involved, and of the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. The meeting rose at 12.45 p.m.