A/33/PV.66 General Assembly
THIRTY-THIRD SESSION
31. - Question of Palestine: report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People 1. Mr. PI Chi·lung (China) (translation from Chinese): Thirty years have elapsed since the outbreak of the first Middle East war in 1948. Over the past three decades, the Arab and Palestinian people have firmly opposed Israeli Zionist aggression and expansion and have persevered in their just struggle to regain the national rights of the Palestinian people and recover the occupied Arab terri- tories. Carrying forward their revolutionary tradition of combating imperialism and aggression and displaying :! fighting spirit of dauntlessness, they have won the sym- pathy and support of the Chinese people and the people of the whole world. Since 1965, the Palestinian people, led by the Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO], have carried on the armed struggle under most difficult and complex conditions and, fearing no sacrifice, fighting valiantly and advancing wave upon wave, they have withstood severe tests and have repeatedly dealt heavy blows at the Israeli Zionists. The question of Palestine is a component of the question of the Middle East as a whole. The Arab and Palestinian people, who are engaged in this just struggle, constitute an important force in the current great struggle . of the world people to fight aggression and super-Power hegemonism and to win and safeguard national indepen- dence. They have won broad international support, whereas the Israeli Zionists have become ever more isolated. So long as the Arab and Palestinian people persevere in unity and struggle and make sustained and .·redoubled efforts, the situation will surely develop in a direction more favourable to the Arab and Palestinian people and unfavourable to the Israeli Zionists. This is an irresistible historical trend. 2. Over the past 30 years, the Israeli Zionists have carried' out wanton aggression and expansion and have occupied the whole of Palestine and large tracts of Arab land. As a result, more than 1 million Palestinian people were driven out and became destitute and homeless. Thousands upon thousands of Arab and Palestinian people lost their lives and property. The Israeli Zion~sts have been strongly con- demned by the people of the world for their. aggression, expansion and atrocities. Year after year the United NEW YORK Nations has considered the question of Palestine and adopted many resolutions on it, but the question remains unsolved. Obstinately clinging to their policies of aggression and expansion, the Israeli Zi0nists have refused to recognize . the national rights of the Palestinian people and tG withdraw from the large tracts ofoccupied Arab territories, and are setting up and expanding Jewish settlements on the occupied lands, raising one obstacle after another to the settlement of the Middle East question. Last March, the Israeli Zionists launched another flagrant armed invasion of southern Lebanon, atta~k.ing the camps of the Palestinian armed forces, brutally slaughtering the inhabitants and ravaging the villages there. The facts show that the Israeli Zionists, aggressive in nature and impenitent in their behaviour, have kept on committing new crimes against the Arab and Palestinian people. 3. Why should the Israeli Zionists dare to be so arrogant and intransigent in making themselves the enemy of the over 100 million Arab and Palestinian people? The root-cause lies in the backing and abetment of the super-Powers, which have emboldened the Israeli Zionists. Motivated by their respective global strategic needs, both super-Powers want to make use of the Israeli Zionists in their intense rivalry over the Middle East, in which each of them is employing different tactics of its own. One super-Power has been fostering Israel over a long period. Sometimes, it appears as a "mediator", but in fact its aim remains one and the same, that is, to use Israel for its intervention in the Middle East. It is obvious that the power of the Israeli Zionists could not have become so rampant without the large amount of annual "military and economic aid" from this super-Power, which shields 3nd ba~ks Israel and inflates its arrogance on every occasion. While chanting "support" for the national liberation struggle of the Arab and Palestinian people,' the other super-Power harbours ulterior motives in its doings. It has given a blood transfusion to Israel by sending a steady flow of manpower to it. On the other hand, styling itself the "natural ally" of the Arab people, it tries hard to control certain Arab States under the signboard of "friendship" and "aid". It is sowing dissension and stirring up trouble among them by widening their differences in order to undermine their unity and weaken their strength. In a word, what it has in mind is not at all the interests of the Arab and Palestinian people, but how to bring by every possible means the just struggk. of the Arab and Palestinian people into the orbit of its rivalIY for world hegemony. That is why, despite its IDtense rivalry with the other super-Power in the Middle East, it is actually giving direct and indirect backing and abetment to the Israeli Zionists as well. However, the Arab and Palestinian people have discerning eyes. One Arab State after another determine.~ly abrogated the so-called "fIiendship treaty" with this super·Power, expelled its "advisers" and "ex- perts", and recovered the military bases occupied by it, 4. The recovery of lost territories and the restoration of national rights are a perfectly just cause for which all the Arab and Palestinian people have valiantly fought. The truth is on their side, and the people of the whole w01:1d sympathize with and support them. The experienc_ of struggle shows that adherence to this orientation will provide a solid basis for unity and more powerful struggle and, therefore, the assurance of victory. We are fully convinced that the Arab and Palestinian people, who share identical fundamental interests, will overcome outside interference, eliminate \.!leir temporary internal differences, get further united, persist in struggle and finally realize their national aspirations. The Chinese Government and people will, as always, unswervingly support them in their just struggle against imperialism, hegemonism and Israeli zionism, for the recovery of their lost territories and for the restoration of their national rights. We are firmly opposed to super-Power rivalry, intervention and expansion in the Middle East. We strongly condemn Israeli zionism for its policies of aggression and expansion, and we determinedly will have nothing to do with it. Although the struggle of the Arab and Palestinian people is protracted and complex and they are yet to encounter more difficulties and twists and turns, we are sure they will surmount all obstacles and win final victory in their struggle to recover the lost territories and regain their national r:ghts, so long as they strengthen the!r unity, persevere in their struggle and keep on frustrating the super-Powers' intrigues and machinations. 11. Phase three, which has taken place since 1969, has therefore seen the collective efforts of the third world to correct the colonial injustice perl?:trated against the Pales- tinians. After three decades of deliberately diffuse and piecemeal consideration of the subject, the Assembly decided in 1974 for the first tim~ to deal with the question in its totality, not only as a humanitarian manifestation, but also as a historical, jUridical and political whole. The results this time were very different. The overwhelming majority endorsed the right of the Palestinian people to present their own case and to participate in the delibera- tions, thus implicitly acknowledging that the Palestinians possessed a defmite political entity rather than the hitherto nebulous status of refugees. The Assembly went further. It acknowledged the PLO. as the legitimate representative of . the Palestinian people, a status unanimously endorsed earlier by the Arab summit conference at Rabat in 1974 and, indeed, by the entire non-aligned movement. Resolu- tion 3237 (XXIX) gave concrete expression to this position by granting the PW the status of permanent. observer with the unprecedented ri~t to.participate in the sessions of the United Nations -General Assembly and in all conferences convened by it. To this extent, the United Nations has come full circle in seeking to right the historical injustice that it had itself perpetuated and sanctioned. .., #
The United Nations has a unique responsibility in the question of Palestine and over the destiny of the Palestinian people. The predicament of that people had its genesis in the decisions of this world body, and it is only just and proper that it be resolved exclusively within its confines. .
6. Bangladesh has in the past traced the intimate con- nexion between the destiny of that uprooted people and the history of this Organization. It is a development laced with bitter ironitis, but, we believe, one that must inevitably conform with justice.
7. Three distinct phases mark the history of the Pales- tinian people, each phase closely corresponding t(1 the changing pattern and composition of the membership of the United Nations.
8. Phase one was marked by the domination of the West, which virtually imposed the division of the territory and caused its inevitable outcome-the Middle East problem. Actions by the United Nations to contain the resulting strife, bloodshed and war were ineffectual because the Organization deliberately ignored the crux of the prob- lem-the right to self-determination of the indigenous peop!e. This basic injustice was compounded by a chain reaction of even more serious inequities, as JIe dominant majority in the Assembly sought to justify an untenable and unjust situation. Where, then, were the cries of an automatic majority?
10. But a radical new development was taking place that affected the composition of the world body-a metamor- phosis consequent on the inevitable dismantling of the colonial system. It is a historical irony that, at the very time that the Balfour Declaration 1 was assuming specific sub- stance, President Woodrow Wilson was propounding what are now universally accepted norms, that is, the rejection of the acquisition of territory by force and the right of peoples to se1f·determination, norms that were specifically to be incorporated and sanctified as international law in Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations and Articles 1 and 2 of the Unitea Nations Charter. It was not until 60 years had elapsed since the infamous Balfour letters were issued that their validity for and their appli- cability to the Palestinian people were for the first time perceived by virtue of the entry on the scene of nations which had themselves emerged into sovereign statehood in vindication of these very principles. It is only natural that these States, which had so successfully striven for their freedom, should view with abhorrence the reversal of this process in Palestine.
12. It seems to us particularly galling that only now is the" United Nations being challenged as constituting a "tyranny of the majority". At stake on the question of Palestine is not only the vindicat~on of the rights of the Palestinian people but also the validity of the sovereign status of more
13. There is virtual unanimity to the effect that the key to a Middle East solution lies in the settlement of the question of the Palestinian people. There is also' no doubt in our minds that the United Nations has already pronounced itself on the fundamental essentials that constitute the framework of a solution. These are assurances for the realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, first and foremost, to return to their homes and, more important, to self-determination, independence and national sovereignty.
14. It inevitably follows that the people of Palestine are, and must remain, a principal party to any Middle East settlement on an equal footing with all other parties, as laid down in "General Assembly resolutions 3236 (XXIX) and 3375 (XXX), and that their participation is indispensable in all efforts, deliberations and conferences with regard to the Middle East undertaken under the auspices of the United Nations. It equally necessitates that they be represented by their own duly-recognized representatives, th\~ PlO. TIlls cannot be subject to the impositions of Israel or any other country; it is a decision ,:,'hich the Palestinians themselves have taken. '
15. Israel's continued occupation of the lands of the Palestinian people is untenable in international law. It is essentially a de facto and illegal situation based on the unacceptable premise of occupation by conquest. Post facto rationalizations predicated on security interests or claims of legitimacy derived from some past biblical link to an ancient Jewish homeland can have highly adverse and unforeseen consequences affecting virtually every country. Such claims constitute a dangerous precedent which would nullify the fundamental Charter injunction against the acquisition of territory by force.
16. To question these essential premises would be to obscure truth and bolster injustice. These are overt and standing pronouncements repeatedly emphasized by the overwhelming majority of the world community. They are not subject to compromise.
17. Bangladesh fully supports the recommendations of the Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People [A/33/35 and Co".1/Rev.1, paras. 55-58}, recom- mendations which, as the Committee itself underscored, are basically a reiteration of the validity of the recommenda· tions it made to the thirty.first session and which are undiminished by the passage of time. We note and endorse the symbolic significa.'lce attached to the date of 1 June 1977 suggested for the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from territories occupied in 1967, as a reminder of. the urgency of a peaceful solution under United Nations auspices. 'The passage uf each day beyond that date constitutes a continuing indictment of Israel's trespass and illegality.
18. Bangladesh believes that these proposals reflect the collective will of the international community. Given conviction and a genuine desire for peace, the'specific steps recommended by the Committee constitute a ladder to a permanent solution of the problem.
20. In conclusion, the 29th of November constitutes for Bangladesh a very significant day in the context of the Palestine question-for that Waio the day designated for the overwhelming majority of the world:s nations and peoples specifically to reaffirm their solidarity with and support of the Palestinian people, their existence as a separate entity and the realization of their just and inalienable rights to return to their homeland and their right to independence and national sovereignty. We pay a tribute to the people of Palestine for their courage and determination and whole- heartedly support their aspiration to freedom, dignity and statehood.
The question of Palestine came before the General Assembly shortly after the Second World W~r. The United Nations proposed the partition of Palestine into two independent States, one Palestinian Arab and the other Jewish, with Jerusalem internationalized. This plan did not bring peace to Palestine, and the violent situation spread and became the Middle East war, to be halted only by United Nations action. One of the two States envisaged in the partition plan [resolution 181 (II)} proclaimed its independence as Israel, and in a succession of wars expanded its territorial control to all of Palestine. Thus the Palestinian Arab State, as envisaged in the partition plan, was never created. The Palestinian people have struggled for their usurp~d rights ever since. The struggle for the rights of the Pdestinian people has since widened into the Middle East qispute between the Arab States and Israel.
22. Since 1948 there have been fOUT wars, causing human and material suffering, particularly in Palestine and the Arab States. Millions of Palestinians have been forced into exile, engaging the United Nations in a continuing se"arch for a solution to a problem that is potentially a ma~<Jr source of danger to world peace and security.
23. Unfortunately, much has been said about the rights of the Palestinian people, but little has been done to mitigate their plighi:. For a long time the Palestinian question was considered a refugee problem, and consequently the efforts of the international community were directed more towards its amelioration than towards its solution. Con- sequently, the issue of Palestine was not dealt with adequately within the context of the Middle East problem.
24. By adopting resolution 3236 (XXIX), the United Nations General Assembly redressed' an injustice, by
25. First, the question of Palestine is ·he core of the Middle East crisis; no just and durable peace will be attained without fully taking into consideration the ina- lienable rights of the Palestinian people. Secondly, the undeniable right of the Palestinian people to return to their homes and property and to achieve self·determination, independence and national sovereignty, as well as their rigllt to establish their own State, must be guaranteed. Thirdly, the acquisition of territory by force is inadmissible, and Israel has the consequent obligation to withdraw from all the territories it has occupied as a result of its aggressions. Fourthly, there must be participation by the PLO, which is the sole legitimate representative of the people of Palestine, on an equal footing with all the other parties, in any efforts to solve the Middle East problem.
26. The Committee's recommendations have been endorsed by the General AssemHy. The implementation of its programme needs the full support of the Security Council, which unfortunately has thus far been unable to endorse this programme because of the attitude and position taken by some Western members of the Security Council, including certain permanent members.
27. On behalf of my delegation, I should like to appeal to the members of the Security Council to approve without further delay the recommendations of the Committee and to adopt them as a basis for the settlement of the question of Palestine, and consequently the question of the Middle - East as a whole. Many attempts have been made to settle the question of the Middle East, and my country is not in principle opposed to any efforts designed to settle the question by peaceful means. Nevertheless, we consider that such an~ttempt, in order to achieve results satisfactory to all, aot o1"J)' should take into consideration the rights of all parties concerned but should make it possible for all the interested parties to take part.
28. My df~legation is of the view that no collusive and partial agreements and understandings, without the partici· pation of all the parties concerned, can lead to a durable peace in the Middle East, and it is on this basis that my -delegation supports the convening of the Geneva Peace Conference on the Middle East with the participation of the PU) for the attainment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East and the restoration of the inalienable rights of the Palestiniall people.
30. The fate of the people of Palestine is among the most tragic in recent history. More than 3 million Palestinians live outside the boundaries of their country or on the territory occupied by Israel, and more than half of them were forced to leave their homes, their land and their property. Czechoslovakia has the ~.. ~<thest regard for the courageous Palestinian people, who, Jespite their difficult situation, are one of the advanced peoples. The whole world is aware of the firm solidarity of the Palestinian people and of their cultural and political maturity. Despite all the expectations and calculations of their enemies, the Palestinian people have achieved seemingly impossible results. Throughout their heroic struggle for their liberation and against lawlessness, they have not only won much sincere sympathy but have achieved international recog· nition, and no one today can deny the fact that the Arab people of Palestine are one of the peoples of the world. The history of the Palestinian people has proved both to their friends and to their enemies the historic truth that such a people cannot be vanqUished. .•
31. A great contribution to the struggle of the Palestinian people was their organization and unification under the leadership of the PLO, the formation of which was decided upon in Jerusalem in 1964. The people of Palestine thus acquired an organization which has led their struggle for the achievement of their fundamental national. rights. Today,
th~ PLO, despite all attacks, despite all slanders, has been recognized by the international community as the only legitimate representative of the national liberation move· ment of the whole of the P~estinian people.
32. The PLO has achieved major international recognition here in the forum of the United Nations, where in 1974 its delegation took part for the first time in a session of the General Assembly, while resolution 3236 (XXIX) explicitly recognized the right of the Palestinian people to self· determination, national independence and sovereignty and to return to their homes and lands. It was then that the Palestinian question here in the United Nations moved beyond the framework of humanitarian assistance or a simple problem- of refugees, to the confines of which for many years attempts had been ml!de to restrict this question-and indeed these attempts are still continuing-by those forces not interested in the national self-realization of the Palestinians. Above all, the Palestinian question was turned into a political question, a question of the self· determination of a whole people.
33. For our Organization another fundamental relation- ship has now become very natural: that the peaceful and
"... a step backwards and they are not an auspicious
fram~work for a just and comprehensive pe&ce in our region. These agreements simply heighten tension in the region by introducing new elements which are a threat to intemational peace and security." [59th meeting, para.104.J
34. In a statement by the represe'ltives of the Com- munist Labour Parties and Governments of Bulgaria, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Poland, the USSR and Czechoslovakia on 23 November in Moscow, there was a clear expression of
"... the conviction that such separate anti·Arab deals are an impediment to a comprehensive politi!:al settlement in the Middle East in keeping with the interests of all the peoples of that region, including the people of Israel, .and are contrary to the interests ofintemational peace and to the content of the resolutions of the United Nations."
35. Czechoslovalja has always expressed its conviction that a really stable peace in this explosive region can be secured only on the basis of a comprehensive settlement, with the participation of all the parties involved, including the PLO, and must absolutely be based on the complete withdrawal of Israeli military forces from all the Arab territories o~cupied by the aggressor in 1967; the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Arab people of Palestine, including their right to self-determination and to the formation of their own independent State; and the provi. sion of guarantees to all the States parties to the conflict of the right to an independent existence and to security.
36. We feel, as we have always felt, that the most suitable way of reaching such a settlement is through the Geneva Peace Conference with all the parties involved, including the PLO, participating.
37. The development of events recently, the attempt that is being made to perpetuate the subjugation of the Palestinian people and the threat ofnew explosions confirm our conviction that the resumption of the work of that Conference has become increasingly inevitable.
38. The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic will continue to give its support to the Arab people of Palestine and its representative, recognized by the United Nations, the PLO in their just struggle for the creation of an independent State within the framework of a comprehensive settlement in the Middle East.
39. We are determined to strengthen our relations with the Palestinian people in the future, and thus con~ributeto the strengthening of the unity of the national 'liberation movement, which is so necessary for the struggle which is being waged by the Arab people of Palesti!!l~ !.'!d all
41. Mr~ NAIK (Pakistan): Of all the issues on the agenda of this session of the Genera! Assembly those concerning t1'e conflict in the Middle East cont5nue to pose the most critical threat to world peace and security. The problem of Palestine is at t1).e heart of the dispute in the Middle East and, unless it is·resolved in accordance with the dictates of justice and equity, there will be no peace in that region.
42. Pakist311 is a member of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. We have participated actively in its work and w"' endorse whole-heartedly the guidelines :;;nd recommendations con- tained in its report regarding the resolution of the question of Palestine. I should like to take this opportunity to pay a sincere tribute to Ambassador Fall of Senegal for his able leadership and guidance of this important Committee.
43. The past year has witnessed almost continuous diplo- matic and political movement in the Middle East. The full impact of these developments will become clear with time. Nevertheless, it is apparent that a peace formula which is acceptable to all parties in the Middle East has not been agreed upon so far.
44. Such a peace formula must recognize the legitimate rights.of the Palestinian.peQple, for it must be remembered that the problem in the Middle East is one which primarily involves the destiny of a people, the Palestinian nation. The territorial occupation of Arab lands by the use of force, for all its gravity, is but one of the consequences of the dispute over the question ofPalestine.
45. The basic principles for the resolution of the question of Palestine are enunciated in paragraph 58 of the Com- mittee's report {A{33{35 and COn'. J!Rev.1J; We agree that Palestine is at the heart of the problem of the Middle E~t and that no solution can be envisaged without takiJig account of the 'rights of the Palestinian people; that fulfJ1ment. of the rights of the Palestinian people would contribute to a solution of the Middle East crisis; that the PLO should participate on an equal footing wit..'l all other parties in l!!l efforts, deliberations and conferences. under United Nations auspices regarding the Middle East; and that . the inadmissibility of the acquisition. of territory by force should be recognized and upheld in the context of the Palestine question.
46. The most important prerequisite f9r peace in the Middle East is the establishment of a Palestinian.national State in Palestine. It is rather irrelevant to speak of autonomy for the West Bank, since neither Israel hor any other party, apart from the PLO, has the legal right to give or not to give autonomy, to this territory. Talk of autonomy may well be construed as implied acceptance of
47. The rostoration of the Holy City ofJerusalem to Arab sovereignty involves the deepest emotions and sensibilities of not only the Arab people but the entire Islamic world as well. There is no ambiguity in the stand of this Organi- zation with rogllrd to the Holy City of Jerusalem. It was mllde explicit in three resolutions initiated by Pakistan in 1967, The inAdmissibility of the acqUisition of territory by military conquest was made applicable specifically to the Holy City of Jerusalem in Security Council resolution 267 (1969). Moreover, General Assembly resolutions 22S3 (liS-V) and 2254 (ES.v) declared null and void the t\lQSum taken by Israel to annex the Holy City of JttUWml. The restoration of Jerusalem to Arab sover- cl&nty is llI\ ossentialllnd integral part of the elements ofa ,just and llSting settlement in the Middle Enst, and no Arab or Moslem people Cln reconcile itself to allOWing the Holy City of lorus.lem to continue to suffer the agony of Israeli Oi:eupltion,
48, The United Nations has i fundamental responsibility to ensure the restoration of the national and legitimate .rigb.ts of the Palestinilln people. This responsibility arises front the involvement of the United Nations in the initial mjustiee wbich led to the creation of Israel and the DilSporaof the Pnlestinian people.
.9. We hope that It this session the General Assembly will ~ inooct ~in setting {)ut the framework aa"'l.d printiplM for I just Ind comprehensive settlement in the MiddM &st ~ teflected in the resolutions of the United ltQ~ m tht 'OOI\~ence of the intemational com-
llWmity~ l~ this ""Y it ctm serve to narrow the gap between ~ ~:tiMs ~f th~ who are ~king to negotiate peace :tr:ld ~~ who &re roml\\ltted to strugsle for a more ~~ve -set&ment ()f the underlying problems in ~MiMlt~
~. mre ltmly ~ls'tk ~d ~~:ptlblt basis fur a settlement :m'ftbe lMiilOile £a'St &spme is lOne which IllS been endorsed
~'teill'y ~ :the umted Nations. Over th~ p3St years
~conJeJlSus Ms 91e~tm tbe basis ()f Se~urity CoUhell :resolutions~ (1%7):and 33'8 i(l973)~ but ~sotmng inro JIl!C0U1tt Gtm-m81 ~:ssenib1Y T$l)lation 3236 (XXIX)-thl.t a ~e :mrdtastin:g peace in the Middle Ent win requiM .1mleli 1Witirdtawlil from :an rOCCl!lpied Arab tem~ iircluilitm, 1 "'repeat, -tl1eHrilyCity dfj~~ ad the 'lStomfien nfihe nll.tianal :and ~1:im* rights of the 1?alestinian-people. No ~com!irelIensive -settlement iC&ignore 'ibese :c0nditimlS. Any :settlement 'Which tircumvml'ts these
:pIeIequimes~orpea:cev.rilltJe -tenu01!1S;at'hest.
'31. in j8JlY 'event, it ;should 'be 'apparent by 1WW that '!Jllle
~tiniannati0n -'cannot be ·e1immat~d; unT ,CD lit 1be ~djn a -futalsettJement_ With >every ~'ti~ ~ toVelY ~tIavesty, lhe Pwtinian 'Struggle 1r'as ~grown more
"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....
u ••• 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 aspira- tions. The heroic struggle of our Palestinian brothers is supported by an overwhelming majority ofthe nations of the world. The day is not far off when their sacrifices will be crowned with success.n2
We observed yesterday for the fi-st time the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Permit me, therefore, at the outset to express my delegation's best wishes and to reaffirm to the people of Palestine Ethiopia's solidarity with them in their just struggle for the restoration of their inalienable rights.
54, The observance ofthat International Day ofSolidarity yesterday was a victory for the Palestinian people, as it constituted a clear commitment by the international community to the Palestinian cause-and this despite innumernble SCt'lernes calculated to eras-e the national identity of a people whose only crime is its steadfast opposition to the forces of occupation and aggression. The tragedy of the Palestinian p~ople has beeD. their historic misfortune as a victim of past imperialist Powers and contemporary e>;pansionist conquerors. From the days of . the Ottoman Empire to the present, the people ofPalestine have been subjected to successive waves of imperialist, colonialist and expansionist aggression. Yet, an indomitable will to uphold the cause ofjustice and the heroic struggle for the restoration of their inalienable rights identifies the character ofthe Palestinians. In our view, there can hardly be any doubt today that the question of Palestine con- stitutes the heart of the problem of the Middle_East. No matter how complex and intractable an issueIt is made to appear by some, the question of Palestine is first and foremost a question ofthe denial ofjustice to a people that Ms been uprooted and made a strangerin its ownland.
Mr.. MiIi1IIi (Kenya), Vice-President, took the Ouzir:.
SS, Re1egUed to the status of refugees for decades~ the &lestin.:ms hav~ been denied their fundamental rlglrt to a homebnd. Since the redressing of this gross injustice is the rcmx of the matter~ it is evident that no half-hearted metiI!reS 'CHi ensure the fulfilment of Palestinian aspira- timrs..
57. It is therefore obvious that, as long as Palestinian rights are subordinated to the interests of others, current efforts made in this regard will neither promote nor enhance the prospects of durable peace in the region. In this respect, my delegation also wishes to reiterate its conviction that the PLO must be ensured full participation on an equal basis in all negotiations directed towards the peaceful and final solution of the problem of the Middle East,
63. To speak of the responsibility of the United Nations in the question of Palestine is to express a self-evident truth. .And yet it was necessary for the Palestinian people to make many sacrifices before the world community gave it its full solidarity and for the General Assembly, at its twenty-ninth session fmally to adopt resolution 3236 (XXIX), which restored the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people, and at that same session to grant observer status to the PLO. 58. Moreover, the Israeli policy of expansl0msm, its intransigence and the machinations of imperialist as well as of some other States to confuse. the real issue must be condemned as retrograde, constituting a threat to peace and security in the region.
59. It has now become more than ever abundantly clear that recognition of and respect for the inalienable right of the Palestinian p~ople and the attainment of peace in the Middle East are inseparable. Where justice i~ denied peace cannot be attained. Ethiopia firmly supports the legitimate and inalienable right of the Palestinian people to establish their national homeland under the leadership of the PLO. We therefore call upon the United Nations to discharge its responsibility and fully to implement the relevant resolu- tions and decisions adopted on the question. As stated by the Ethiopian Foreign Minister in the general debate of this session of the General Assembly on 11 October 1978:
66. Faced with those challenges, the Palestinian resistance, strengthened by the solidarity of all the peoples of the world, continues to exemplify-,despite plots to the con· trary-the will of the Arab nation to free itself of the colonial and imperialist yoke. Moreover, the Palestinian resistance which forms part of the historical process of the liberation struggle of peoples shows the indomitable will of a people to recover its inalienable- rights and toachiive its national aspirations. It ~s precisely thanks to its struggle and the irreplaceable instrument that it was able to acquire to help it in that struggle, namely, the ,PLO, its sole and legitimate representative, that the Palestinian people has mam.tged to achieve recognition for its existence and -the justice of its cause, as well as its determination to recover its rights. 60. In the intemsts of peace and justice in the Middle East, Ethiopia urges Israel once more fully -to implement all the. resolutions and decisions adopted by this Organization on the question of Palestine.
"Ethiopia supports all meaningful efforts designed to remove the connequences of aggression and ensure the restoration of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. The Government of Ethiopia firmly believes that Israel must unconditionally withdraw from all Arab territolies occupied since June 1967, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations. We are also convinced that no accord can be just and lasting unless"-and until-"it takes into full cognizance the rights of the Palestinian people to establish their own national homeland under the leadership'of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole spokesman and legiti· mate representative of the Palestinian people." [31st meeting, para. 176.J
67. The Palestinian cause cannot thus be subject to any concession or to deals aimed at seeking a solution tl:1at not only ignores the national rights of the Palestinian people and its organization, the PLO, but which is, moreover, 61. Mr. BAGHLl (Algeria) (interpr2tationfrom French): aimed at strengthening Israel in its intransigence and The question of Palestine is certainly not new -nor little encouraging it in its policy of aggression, annexation and known to the members of the international community, territorial expansion. The invasion ofsouthern Lebanon is because it has been a feature in the life of the United an excellent example in this regard. To adopt such an Nations since its inception, having been on the agenda for attitude would be to accept the logic ~f the occupier; it 30 years now; it is in fact at the very heart of the Middle would be tantamount to sacrificing the fundamental prin- '."__M.E.a.st.c.ri.Si.S'.Al.th.OU.gh••it.is.o.ti.o.se...to.r.eCal.l.th.e.hi.'s.to.n.'ca1•••Cl.,p.le.S.O.f.o.u.r.c.h.art.e..r.an.d.th.e f.e.le.V..,an.t.de.Cl.'S.io.n.S.O.f.th.e.
62. No one is entitled to ignore the tragedy at present being experienced by the Palestinian people which are obstinately denied their right to national existence, the right of each individual to return to his homeland J the right to independence and, consequently, to freedom.
64. Taking as its texts the very resolutions of our Organization, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People has just for the third time, presented a report to the Genera! Assembly, a report which is as exhaustive as it is complete. I should like to avail myself of this opportunity to pay a sincere tribute to the members of that Committee and its Chairman, Mr. Fall of Senegal, for the devotion and objectivity that they have shown.
65. While formerly we deplored the negative attitude of the Security Council because of the position of one of its members concerning the Committee's recommendations, which provide a basis for a solution of the Palestinian problem. today we cannot but deplore the immobility of the Security Council, whose main responsibility is, none the less, ensuring international peace and security.
68. Israel has too often defied our Organization with impunity. it has always shown an attitude of contempt vis·l·vis United Nations decisions. The aid and complicity from which it benefits have allowed it tD enjoy at leisure the fruits of its aggression, which it transforms into a' bargaining chip to be used against the victims of its awession. As proof of this we have the obstinllCy of the Tel Aviv regime in rendering its conquests irreversible by establishing new settlements on Palestinian lands and changing the demographic and other characteristics of the occupied territories.
69. Algeria, for its part, wishes to assert once again that no undertaking aimed at truly promoting a just and lasting solution can be viable unless it satisfies the national rights of the Palestinian people and restores all occupied Arab territories, including Jerusalem.
70. The PLO is the sole ;tnd legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. No other spokesman could make the authentic V01ce of the Palestinian people heard.
71. If here before this Assembly we have regularly affirmed our determination to promote, in so far as we can, a timely solution in keeping with the Charter and the relevant resolutions of our Organization, and if at the time we welcomed the United States-Soviet Union joint com- munique of 1 October 1977, it is precisely because we intend in this search for a solutio:n to abide by international legality.
72. In a..'ly event, no deviation, no personal initiative, no isolated act can shake our faith in the justice of the cause of the Palestinian people or our faith in its fmal victory and in the inevitable victory of the Arab people.
For three decades now our Organization has been dealing with the Palestine problem and we still await a just and lasting solution. The heroic Palestinian people are perseveringly waging a hard struggle. They have shown great patience as they wait for the international community to restore justice. Ever since the time that Palestine was under the Mandate of Great Britain, and ever since the United Nations adopted in November 1947 its historic resolution on the partition of Palestine {resolution 181 (I1)}, the conscience of the whole of mankind has been appalled to acknowledge that for 30 years now the international commwlity has been confronted with incredible difficulties in trying to fmd a solution to a cause which has been recognized by all to be just. Indeed, the question of Palestine is the cause ofa people that has been the victim of aggression ever since 1917, since zionism obtained the nefarious Balfour Declaration which has been so much exploited by Palestinian Judaism.That Declaration created a national Jewish Zionist homeland in Palestine, to the direct detriment of the rights, the interests lUld the land of the Arab people of Palestine. Then came the resolution on
74. From the very first day the Palestinian people under· stood that its national existence was at stake and it rebelled repeatedly. After the partition of Palestine the Zionist entity became even more powerful and, instead of endeav- ouring to satisfy the Arabs of Palestine and instead of practising a policy of coexistence, it began to uproot the Arab population, evicting them from their lands. That entity tried, physically, po!itically and in every way to eliminate the Palestinian national character and to sub- stitute for the indigenous inhabitants Jewish colonists which it brought from all parts of the world. Israel has consistently practised a policy of provocation against the Palestinians and against all the countries of that region, and this has led to the successive wars of which the Middle East has been the scene and which have constantly threatened international peace and security. This clearly reveals Israel's expansionist colonialist policy designed to ensure its domi- nation over the peoples of the region and to Judaize both the religious and the cultural features of the land by usurping the lands and the rights of others by the use of force.
75. If Israel has realized, through its oppressive policy, certain provisional gains, it has also revealed its real objectives and the extent to which it respected inter- national law, the law to which it owes its very existence. It is very clear now that Israel has understood that, by pursuing this policy, it is only embarrassing those who wish to support it and that therefore that policy will never lead to peace.
76. The efforts made by the United Nations at all levels to remedy this situation deserve our admiration and our appreciation, because the search for effective means of resisting and facing the Israeli intransigence has moved very far ahead. This evolution expresses the aspirations and objectives of the overwhelming majority of the peoples represented in the United Nations, but of course the implementation of the resolutions emanating from the General Assembly has been hindered by the lack of unity in the Security Council. None the less, because of their spirit of continuity and the forcefulness of their political content, those resolutions have pJayeg a very valuable role in bringing about a change in world public opinion; they have also given a powerful impetus to progress towards peace.
77. .The delega!ion of Morocco, hjlving taken cognizance of document A/33/35 and Corr.l/Rev.l, which contains the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, together with the statements by its Chairman and Rapporteur -at the 59th meeting, wishes to commend the efforts exerted· by that Committee under the chairmanship of Mr. Medoune Fall of Senegal. That Committee has worked with perseverance to uphold the inalienable rights of the Palestinians and to explain the situation with perfect lucidity to the General
78. We should like to congratulate the members of the Committee for the objectivity and realism which charac- terize this report, which is a link in the series of efforts made by the United Nations to ensure respect for the rights of the Palestinian people.
79. We wish to express our satisfaction concerning the Committee's conclusions, which reaffirm that the question of Palestine is at the very heart of the problem of the Middle East and that its solution is an indispensable prerequisite for the solution of the other aspects of the Middle East problem. The Committee has emphasized the fact that the policy of annexation and colonization pursued by Israel in all the occupied Arab territories will ine5cap- ably have unfortunate results and will make the problems even more complex. It has also stated that any comprehen- sive and just settlement must recognize the right of the Arab refugees, in accordance with the provisions of General Assembly resolution 194 (Ill), to return to the homes from which they were evicted.
80. The Holy City of Jerusalem, a shrine of the. three revealed religions-Judaism, Christianity and Islam-cannot under any circumstances be placed under the sovereignty of
th~ Jews, who represent only 1.5 per cent of the more than 1.2 billion believers.
81. On behalf of Morocco I wish to express to the Secretary-General of this Organization our very sincere thanks for and great appreciation of the constant and untiring efforts that he and his collaborators have exerted in the search for a just and lasting solution of the Palestine problem, more specifically by the creation of the Special Unit on Palestinian Rights within the Secretariat of the United Nations, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 32/40 B.
82. The position of my country as regards the question of Palestine is well known. Morocco, WhiC:l is Moslem and Arab, believes that this is a sacred problem which has direct relevance to us. Morocco, which is both an African and a non-aligned State, believes, as do our brothers, that the aspirations of the Palestinian people are just and legitimate. The people of Morocco supported the struggle of the Palestinians; we gave them moral and material support during the first uprisings in Pale~!ine at a time when Morocco was itself still a Protectorate and even during the British Mandate over Palestine. Furthermore, Morocco paid its tribute of blood at the side of its Palestinian, Syrian and Egyptian brothers during the Ramadan war of October 1973. For all these reasons, the identity of the Palestinian . people, as far as we are concerned, is not negotiable. At the Arab summit conference in Rabat in October 1974 on the initiative of His Majesty King Hassan 11, the vital role played by the PLO as the leader of the liberation movement and the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people was stressed. Since that time, the PLO has become the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people in all international bodies. If Israel decides to cease to ignore the very existence of the Palestinian people and if it sincerely desires to achieve peace, it is absolutely essential
"The Kingdom of Morocco, which considers the Pales- tinian question as sacred and which has provided, and will continue to provide, all means of consolidating, support- ing 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-deter- mination 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 efforts made to secure a just and lasting peace, represented by the Palestinian Liberation Organization, in its capacity as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people."3
84. His Majesty's message expresses with perfect lucidity the viewpoint of :Morocco, and we hope that peace will be achieved through a comprehensive and just solution of all the problems of the region resulting from the policy of fait accompli pursued by Israel and its disregard of the rights of an entire people, which of course stirs up feelings of hatred and animosity and inevitably hampers the search for a peaceful solution, based on justice and equity.
85. In conclusion, on behalf of my delegation I wish to appeal to all countries to reaffirm their support for the recommendations to the General Assembly with regard to the exercise of the inalienable rights of the struggling people of Palestine, in such a way as to serve the cause ~f international pea;e and stability. and enable all of us to make our contribution to the settlement of the question of the Middle East, which represents the greatest challenge faced by the United Nations.
Sinet; 1947 I have been addressing myself to the subject of Palestine and the political incursions of the Khazars into that land. In fact, it was in 1947 that we witnessed the exertion of pressure, especially by the central and eastern European Jews, in order to ensure the partition of the land of Palestine. None of our jews-by which I.mean the Sephardic Jews, the Jews who are Sernites-had a hand in the partition of Palestine.
87. It is indeed ironic and paradoxical that Jews, whose ancestors were converted to Judaism only eight centuries after Christ, should make of religion a motivation for a political end.
88. I feel constrained to go into the history of this question, to go to the roots of Judaism-sometimes touching upon Christianity and Islam-so as to elucidate the evolution of the question. I hope that members of the Assembly will then be able to judge how unjust the
89. I am a humble student of history. I come from the area we are discussing. I am from the Middle East. Once in the Security Council, I said to Mr. Tekoah, the then
repre~entative of Israel, "Do not go too far, lest one day you 'arouse the ire of those who are not Jews." He answered, "That is anti·Semitism". I believe that originally Mr. Tekoah came from Russia-he had a round head- through Shanghai. And yet he was saying that I, a Semite, was anti-Semitic. Despite all my good intentions, he became emotional. I hope that whoever is sitting here now as representative of Israel will note that I am not going to cast aspersions at the Jews or even at the Zionists, who are the cause of all this trouble. I consider all of them to be human beings. I feel sorry for them. Why I feel sorry for them will become clear as I proceed with this statement.
90. I have read the Old Testament time and again since I was a young man. I have read the New Testament also. I have read the Koran seven or eight times. Thus, I am not talking for the purpose of propaganda; I shall cite sources and interpretations, as much as is humanly possible in the limited time ] have today, in order to make clear what this question of zionism is.
91. Our Jews-not the Khazars, who were converted to Judaism eight centuries after Christ-originated, according to the Old Testament, from Vr of the Chaldees, the western part of Iraq. That was the town of Abraham. Many people, even Jews and Arabs who are not versed in these things, think that the word "Hebrew" comes from the Semitic word that means "crossed": they crossed and came down to the land of Canaan. In fact, the word "Hebrew" comes from a Semitic word that implies that the Jews of those days had to depend on mules and donkeys as beasts of burden. The Arabs in the Arabian peninsula had to depend on camels. That was natural, because the land of Canaan was a rugged land but not a desert land. I remember from my childhood that in Syria, in Palestine, in Lebanon the land was rugged. Because the land is rugged, the animals have to have hooves; in the Arabian Peninsula the sand lends itself to the feet of camels.
92. The word "Jew" comes from the name of the fourth son of Jacob. And here we come to the beginning of the history of the Jews in the land of Canaan. I did not give the name "land of Canaan" to Palestine. It is in the Bible. It was known as the "land of Canaan" and extended from almost the northern part ofSyria down to Suez.
93. Who were the Canaanites? They were Semites, like our Jews. Many of them became urbanites instead of, like the Bedouins, tending their sheep, going from one oasis to another. In other words, they were city-dwellers.
94. Jacob and his 12 sons came down to the land of Canaan-I refer members to Genesis, chapter 34. They subdued some of the Canaanites, unfortunately by sub· terfuge. Of course, the Jews did not have a monopoly on subterfuge or deceit~ after all, in Semitic languages war is called "the art of deceit". They killed the males by subterfuge. The son of the King fell in love with one of
95. When Jacob found out about this, he was mad at his sons. He asked, "Why have you done this? ". That shows that he was essentially a good man. Some of his sons were too. Benjamin was a good fellow. Judah, the fourth son, was a devout son, and the word "Jew" comes from the name of that fourth son of lacob.
96. I am going into history in order to give the Assembly the background of this question.
97. The Israelis tell us that there is no such thing as Palestine. But they forget that it-was the land of Canaan. They forget that the word "Palestine" was used even by our Jews. Where did the word "Palestine" come from? It came from the word "Philistine". The Cretans settled in many parts of the world-among other places, in Gaza. Everyone who has delved into the past record of our civilization knows about the Isle of Crete and about Knossos. The Cretans were like the Phoenicians, who were the Canaanites of Lebanon. When they settled in Gaza; the Cretans, who were far ahead of the people surrounding them, called their land "the land of the Philistines"..
98. Our Jews, whether or not they lived at that time in what they established as Israel and Judah, two kingdoms, did not stay for more.than three or four centuries, but the Canaanites had been there not for centuries but for millenniums. They say Palestine did not exist~d,although the land of Canaan is mentioned in the Old Testament they neglect it altogether.' Then they say, "God gave us Palestine." This is a fundamentalist view. Many times from this rostrum Mr. Abba Eban, one-time Foreign Minister of Israel, usea (u flourish his hands and say, "We are the chosen people of God, and God gave us Palestine." I would say to him, "God was not parcellin~outland to people." If - He were to consider the Jews or the Arabs or anybody else to be His own people, He would be a discriminator, and we are fighting discrimination in the United Nations. So this premise is wrong. We' are living in the industrial and technological age. Of course, the people of the Middle East who witnessed the springing up of three monotheistic religions were tribal or semi-tribal and believed in magic and mythology and believed in theology. But whether they
99. Who can believe in Noah's Ark today? But if you are a fundamentalist, whether you are a Jew or a Gentile, you say, "Yes, God became angry at the world and he told Noah to build an ark, and he asked him to take a male and a female of each kind of animal and put them in the ark." As I have asked from this rostrum, Did he have a microscope to find out which of the small creatures was male and which was female, ami could he get all the animals of the earth into the ark in time before the flood came? This is fiction, but fiction that can be used to play on the emotions of people. This is nothing new. It has happened before and even in our day. Look at what happened in Guyana: a madman plays on the emotions of simple- minded people and they commit suicide. As was stated by Gustave le Don in La Psychologle des Foules4-the psycho- logy of the masses-the emotions of people can be aroused even though they are intelligent.
100. Therefore the premise that God gave the Jews Palestine is a wrong premise. The whole logic of zionism is based on the idea that God put Palestine on a tray and said, "This is your land." But let me show the irony of it. When Christ came, the Romans were occupying Palestir:.e, and all the Romans wanted was to have their power established and to be respected as the people really in authority. So they gave the Jews, who happened to be in Israel and Judaea then, a great deal of latitude. All the Romans wanted was to have their laws respected. Finally, the fundamentalists made it difficult for the Romans, and then none other than the Aramaean, Jesus, tried to be a reformer of the Jews. He saw that they were observing the word and neglecting the spirit of their religion, emphasizing the ritual rather than the ethic. He was a reformer. This did not sit well with our Jews-I have not yet come to the Khazars- and they asked that he be crucified. Many Jews were di!!enchanted and became Christians-even Saint Paul, who was coming to chastize him. Saint Paul.was a Roman citizen. He passed by Damascus and descended on Palestine. The Jews could have crucified him had they laid hands on him.
101. Then for several centuries after the Romans Byzantium was the ruling power. That was, of course, the eastern part of the Roman Empire. What did Byzantium do? Byzantium used religion as a motivation for political ends, in order to rule the people-the Christian people. Ethnically the Byzantines were not Semites. It so happened that in the seventh centJry Islain sprang up and spread, and many who were disenchanted with Christianity, because of Byzantium, became Moslems. So a good portion' of the people of Palestine had been Jews. They became Christians' and then they became Moslems. Incidentally, historically speaking-to give you the background- Jerusalem had been established at least 1,500 years before Joshua, who was a Semitic Jew, stormed Jericho and then conquered Jerusalem. Its name was Uru Salim, the City of Peace-like the Ur of the Chaldees, where AbrahllJil was
4 Gustavc Le Bon, The Oowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (London, Ernest Benn Limited, 1947).
102. Then what-happened? As Islam emerged on the scene there was a clash between Byzantium and the Moslem Arabs who came from the Arabian Penin~ula. Many of the Arabs, before they were Moslems, had come to the land of Canaan, as I said, and they were the first citizens, or rather the builders, of Jerusalem. So how can the Khazars say, "God gave us Palestine"?
103. Those Khazars were tribes in the northern tier of Asia. We know that ethnologically theirlanguage belonged to the northern tier. It is rather strange, but scholars have found out that many of the Finns had an affinity with those Khazars, who were pagans, but there is nothing wrong in being. a pagan. This was in the eighth century after Christ, and a wave of them came and settled in southern Russia, which was known later as Bessarabia. Another wave came and settled near the Caspian Sea. The Byzantines of the eighth century asked them to become Christians. It was ala mode to worship one God. The pagans had many gods . but it was thought that it was better to worship one God. They toyed.with the idea but were afraid that if they became Christians they might be dominated by the Byzan- tines and people in the seat of power who would use religion for their own purpose. They did not want to lose their power.
104. In Islam there were no missionaries, :md no Moslem asked those pagan Khazars to become Moslems. The Jews were the only people in·the area who had one God, so they corresponded with the Jews and they thought, "Well, we might just as well become Jews". Their ancestors had never laid eyes on Palestine.
105. Then, skipping over the centuries, we come to the end of the nineteenth century, when Dreyfus was persecuted on the grounds that he sold military documents to the Germans. That was a famous case at the close of the nineteenth Century, the Dreyfus Affair, and those of you wno are a little conversant with history will know about Zota, who created a stir in Paris with his article J'accuse. Dreyfus was imprisoned and finally exiled to Devil's Island, which was somewhere in the Caribbean, and then he was pronounced innocent, and returned to France.
106. During the Dreyfus Affair, the Neue Freie Presse, a Viennese paper, sent a correspondent by the name of Theodor Herzl-who happened to be a Jew descended from the Khazars, not from our Sephardic Jews-to Paris to
107. Do not think that only the Christians did that. There were also the Moslems. First, many Arabs toyed. with the idea of using the Caliphate as a means of spreading their temporal power over Moslems who were not ethnically Arabs. They failed. Then, our Turkish brothers, the Ottomans-the Caliphate was transferred to the Ottomans in Baghdad in 1516, or something like that-tried the same thing also, but they did not try very hard and decided it did not work.
108. The Khazars are all Europeans, and well-educated, and those who have delved into history will know the history I am talking about. They now want to use-as the Christians had tried and failed to do and as the Moslems had tried and failed t,... jo-a religion, in this case Judaism, as a motivation for political ends, and they wanted to form a nationality out of a religion. It cannot be done. How many Jews are there in Palestine now? Two million? Three million? There are 16 million Jews in the world. The Zionists play on the emotions of the rich Jews here. Incidentally,.rich Jews in the United States and elsewhere send money which they deduct from their taxes. But th~y do not want to go there; they feel they are American Jews. But if you are Jews, you are the chosen people ofGod, and you know how you can play on the emotions of people. And here comes the crux of the matter: in this great country, the United States, the host country, the Jews have· seen to it that they own and/or manipulate the mass media of information. As I said, with all due respect to demo- cracy, it has been reduced to a process of democracy by subscription and contribution. There is the campaign; American Jews pay money and the papers say, "Ifyou are going to be a good Congressman and support us, you will be elected." That is why 72 Senators three or four years ago toed the line and followed whatever Israel wanted in the Senate of the United States. And that is democracy! Mr. Truman, when he was approached by his own State Department, which said: UIt is not in our interest to antagonize the Arabs and create a problem"-that was when the British gave up their Mandate and threw it into the lap of the United Nations because they became insolvent after the Second World War-said, "Gentlemen, tell me, how many Americans of Arab origin do I have in my consti- tuency'?" That is in his own memoirs. Such were the machinations.
109. The Zionists talks of its being justice that Israel was created, and I, simple-minded as I was in 1925 at the age of 20, made a trip to Jerusalem and asked the Grand Mufti, none other than Hadji Amin al-Husseini, "Why don't you
110. Those Khazars, whose motivation was to create a State of their own, say "God gave us Palestine", as if God distinguishes between one ethnic group and another. I am talking about the traditional God, not about the conceptual Creator of the universe.
111. Then there was the propaganda of the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, and even now they sometimes say, "We went to Palestine. It was a land without a people." But Palestine was filled with people. And they say, "We were a people"-meaning the Jews-"without a land, so we went and made the desert bloom."
112. These are the ploys that the Zionists use to try to condition the minds of gentile Europeans, some of whom are fundamentalists and believe in the Old Testament-and in the New Testament-literally rather than in its essence "Oh, those poor Jews. Palestine was empty." The popu- lation of Palestine was made up of 7 per cent Jews and 93 per cent Palestinians, who were either Moslems or Chris- tians, and the irony, the tragedy, of it is that a good proportion of that 93 per cent had been the original Jews, and they too, are out of their country now.
113. Can the Israelis contest what I am saying, other than by resorting to vilification? As I have pointed out time and again, they say: "This is a fait accompli; look at the holocaust when we were in Germany." We are all sad about what happened in Germany, not.only to the Jews but also to the Germans and to others besides the Germans. As Yakov Malik once told me, "We have stopped crying, although we lost 20 million in the Second World War." But the Jews are still crying. And they always repeat this cliche about 6 million Jews. Of course we are sorry; we are sad that anybody should lose his life in war. But they use rubrics, slogans, cliches, to condition the minds of the gentiles and of the gullible Americans-and many Western Europeans; they try to condition them by such cliches and slogans..
114. Who do they think they are? I still feel sorry for them; I still feel sorry for 90 per cent of the Zionists, because they have been conditioned too. And do you know that the Israelis treat the Sephardic Jews as second-class citizens? The Isn~elis are Europeans, you lq}.0Y{. Many Jews have told me that; do not think I am fabricating it, you representative of Israel. 'You have no claim on Palestine, except on the false premise that God gave you Palestine. What if the Red Indians of this country said "God gave us the new Hemisphere; you whites get out of here"? They live on thetrreservations. It is'a question of power. Are the Zionists powerful? No. They are.powerful by virtue of the arms that the West has sent them.
115. A few years ago, I remember, when we cut off our relations with Germany, the late Konrad Adenauer ofWest Germany promised our leaders not to send arms either to the Arabs or to the Jews. And our American friends, after having created Israel, what did they do? They exerted pressure on Mr. Adenauer to send arms from the depots
116. And those beaten Germoos had to pay billions of dollars in reparations to Israel because some Jews who were Germans and others that were not Germans lost their lives there. Have you ever heard of anything like that? These were Germans. It is sad that they lost their lives, to Hitler or otherwise. But the Germarls had to obey' "kIy; they knew that the Zionists would fan the r I of hatred against Germans everywhere, particulr Jl the United States of America, where they had permeated the social fabric, the mass media, manipulating money. You have only to read a book written by a Jew by the name of Alfred Lilienthal.1tis a recent book, calledTheZionistConnection. S
117. You have only to read another book, by the father of none other than Yehudi Menuhin, which he called'The Decadence of Judaism6-on account of the Zionists. The Jews, if left to themselves, would all be good Americans, good Englishmen, good Germans-good citizens of any country in which they happen to be-because many of them identify themselves with their country of birth and origin. But the Zionists, those Khazars, do not leave them alone: they have ambition; they want to rule; and they want to penneate the Middle East. This is why it is not in their interest to have p~ace; they want tension there.
118. And let me tell them from this rostrum-and this is for the twentieth or twenty-fifth time-that unless the Palestinians, the people of the land, regain their land there will be no peace in the Middle East, and a world war may be triggered off by miscalculation. If some of the Zionists try to inculcate in themselves the idea of M~sada, if they see they are going to lose, they will let the innocent Bmt:ln.g them commit suicide. And how will they do this? Pedjap;~ by using weapons of mass destruction, whether atomk or other. .
119. This is mass psychosis.
120. Mnst of the 150 nations here iii the United Nations are manipulated by the propaganda of the Zionists. I feel sorry for them, because they do not seem to be able to adjust to the people that surround them. Fait accompli? This is a relative term. The world is predicated on change. Not one minute, not even one second, duplicates itself in questions of growth and retrogression. These are cliches. Words are not mathematical formulas. If the Israelis do not adjust and adapt, now that they are there, there will be no peace. But they want their own way.
S Alfred M. Lilientbal, The Zionist Connection: ·What Price PeQce? (New York, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1978). 6 Mosbe Menubin, The DeCQdence of Judllism in Our Time (Beirut, The Institute for Palestine Studies, 1969).
122. Look at the, propaganda; it is nothing new. This propaganda, "God gave us Palestine"-come on; how many times have I told you that God is not in the real-estate business? And you Americans, of course, neither you nor the British are responsible, but when did God give you the power of attorney to transfer to others land that was not your own? Why did you not open Texas or Kansas for the Jews? And when you British had the Empire, why did you not send the Jews to the expanses of the Empire?
123, Why Palestine? Even Balfour, with all the criticism I have of him, did not tell the Jews that they could hr-ve a State; he said that the civil and political rights of the indigenous population-I am paraphrasing~should be respected. Whom do they think they are fooling?
124. And Western Europe is still impressed by the machinations of the J~ws and those in the seat of power. The Western European member States only had to attend the observance yesterday of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People-I think only Belgium and Australia had the courage to be there-at least to watch; nobody asked them to participate. And where were the oth~rs, L'1cluding the United States? They did not want to be there, ~~ order no~ to antagonize-who did they not want toant~gonize1 -the Zionists·, those Khazars, those usurpers of tilt: I.-md of PaleCltme.
125. Where is justice? Where is self-determination? They have gone by the wayside. Are they empty words? Well, the historical backgrow~d I have given is enough to tell what happened in the land ofPalestine.
126. We come now to today. The past is gone and mmy mistakes have been made by many leaders, but what shall . we do now? I shall say for the hundredth time; what we can do now: adapt and adjust; return the land to its owners. the Palestinian-people.
127. The latest I have heard is that Yasser Arafat-and I stand to be corrected if I am wrong-said that if the Palestinians were allowed to go back to the West Bank, Gaza and whatever country was allotted to them, he would be willing to see United Nations forces, guards or whatever one wants to call them, stationed for some time between Israel and the newly constituted Palestinian State.
129. Nobody knows what God is. At one time Julius Caesar, a very intelligent man, thought himself so powerful that he should be made a god, but Brutus and Cassius made art end of him. Your own people will make an end of you when they get fed up with you. We do not want that to happen. Then the people would breed another fellow like Hitler who will say "We are fed up with those Zionists." We do not want that to happen to you. I am not saying that facetiously. You are human beings. Why do you not act like other people, not like an elite. Who are you? You have two eyes, a nose-I have a bigger nose than many of you European Jews; I am a Semite-two ears and a mouth; you are human. But please realize that, in being your own worst enemies, ultimately you will cause trouble not only fot the Arabs of Palestine, the indigenous people of the land, but also for yourselves, because there is an end to peoples' patience. When will you see the light? 1do not pretend to be l teacher. I am a humble student ofhistory. I have read history and seen what has happened. When will you learn?
130. We are in a critical period of history in modern times. If you are going to develop the Masada mept~lity you may came a chain reaction that may end in a gk..Jal war. There will be nopeace-·not merely not in the Middle East but even in the whole world-unless the Palestinian people, many of whom were Jews, regain their homeland and exerciJe their right to self-determination.
131. You came to the land ofCanaan, a Semitic land, and' stayed there 2,000 or 3,000 years ago calling it Israel and Iudah. 111at is past. All right, you suffered so much and some people who had Utopian ideas like Herzl thought you might be able to fmd refuge in the land of Palestine, in the land of Canaan, but that Utopia tUr.Ied into a nightmare-a ni3f1tmare to you, to the people of Palestine, to the people surrounding you and to the people who are impoverished in ~ West. You here in the United States and elseWhere, look at your inflation. Did you not see what happened after the Fm World War? I witnessed it in Europe; I was a young lUl. There was hidden taxation, but noW what is inflation? A self-evident tax of 10 per cent a year ofyour substance, your capital, and sml you go and uphold unjust QUIeS. Why? Becau.se you have power?
132. The Arabs had four empires. We got drunk with power and wealth and we fell-and rightly so. Do you think you CID maintain yOW' power on injustice? Where is the 1kiitiihEmpire? It went down the drain, as I said to Lord Caadeo, a friend of~,in the S;,curity Council. Where is she Fnmdt Empire? Let us leave aside the four Arab empires. Anyth.iAg boed on injustice, greed and power
134. Please, you Israelis, if I have not knocked sense into you I never shall. I pray the conceptual God-not the traditional God, Who, allegedly, created man in his own image. He could have created in His image, instead of that constipated biped who is called man and who stinks, the deer, the peacock, the birds. But all that is fiction. Do not play on the emotions of others. I pray to the conceptual Creator of the universe, to the mystery of life on this earth, that you will see the light and that we wiIJ see the light with you, so that we may turn a new leaf and establish lasting peace in the world.
The n;ne member States of the European Com- munity, on behalf of which I am now speaking, have repeatedly stressed the importance they attach to the question under review. They have done so not only in the debates of the General Assembly, but also in statements outside this Assembly. Our declarations of November 19737 and of June 19778 are examples of this preoc- cupation. They reflect the common conviction of the nine Governments that the Palestinian problem is a crucial one in the Middle East conflict; it is therefore inescapably linked to a solution of the Middle East conflict as a whole.
136. The Foreign Minist~r of. the Federal Republic of Germany again stressed, in his statement on behalf of the nine Governments in this year's general debate, that such an over-all soh..cion should be founded on the principles which the nine members of the Community set out in their London declaration of 29 Iune 1977, namely:
"... the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force; the need for Israel to end the territorial occupation which it has maintained since the conflict of 1967; respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of every State 'in the area and its right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries; and recognition that in the establishment of a just and lasting peace, account mU;Jt be taken of the legitimate rights of the Palestinians." 18th meeting, para. 169.}
The nine countries have consistently stressed that all these aspects must be. taken.together.
137. Within the indivisible framework of these principles the Foreign Minister of my country, in his statement on behalf of the nine members of the Community, made it quite clear that an over-all Middle East settlement will only be possible if the legitimate right ·of the Palestinian people to give· effective expression to their' national identity is
7 Declaration of the Nine Foreign Ministers of 6 Novem''er 1973 in Brussels on the Situation in the Middle East. 8 Declaration on the Middle East adopted by the Her.ds of State or Government of the European Communities on 29 June 1977 in London at the meeting of the European Council.
138. While calling on Israel to recognize these legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, the nine countries have at the same time insisted on the necessity for the Arab side, including the Palesti1)ian people, to recognize Israel's right to live in peace within secure and recognized borders. The nine countries have noted in this respect with satisfaction that Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 388 (1973) have been accepted by both Israel and its neighbours. This is indeed a basis for any meanL'lgful and successful peace-making process.
139. The'nine members of the Community have carefully followed the events that have occurred since the last General Assembly and especially the courageous initiative of the President of Egypt, Mr. EI-Sadat, and the Camp David meetings. These events have, in the view of the nine States, renewed hope for a settlement of the bitter Middle East conflict, which has caused so much human suffering in the area and has threatened wc,.ld security for the past 30 years. It is in this framework that the nine countries have paid a tribute to the achievements of the participants in the Camp David meetings. In view of the peace efforts now under way, the nine countries continue to hope that the result of the Camp David meetings will prove to have been an important step on the path to a just, comprehensive and lasting peace settlement. It is only natural in this context that in the ongoing peace efforts the question of ~srael's recognition of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people should have become a crucial issue. If such an over-all peace settlement is to be achieved, the representatives of the parties to the conflict, including the Palestinian people, must participate in the negotiations in an appropriate manner to be worked out in consultations between all the parties concerned.
140. With regard to the report of the Committee on tLe Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, I should like to recall once again the reservations expressed on this subject on previous occasions by the nine States members of the Community. As for the Committee's recommendations, we reiterate our belief that they suffer from the same fundamental lack of balance as the resolu- tion that created the COIlL.'11ittee.
141. Let me terminate this statement by repeating the appeal of the Foreign Minister of the Fedeflll Republic of Germany in the general debate on behalf of the nine countries m~mbers of the European Community, that no obstacle should be placed in the way of movement towards a just, c:omprehensive and lasting settlement in the Middle East.
We have now heard the last speaker in the debate this afternoon. I now call on the representative of the Syrian Arab Republic, who has asked to speak in exercise ofhis right of reply.
In his statement in the Genera! Assembly this morning, and also in his statement made on 24 November [58th meetingJ, the representative of Israel
"For 18 centuries the Zionist passion-the lor.ging for Zion, the dream of the restoration and the ordering of Jewish life and thought to prepare for the return-pulsed in the Jewish people." {65th meeting, para. 71.J 9
He went on to say:
"The Jews were never a people without a homeland. Having been robbed of their land, Jews never ceased to give expression to their anguish at their deprivation and to pray for and to demand itsretum." {Ibid., para. 72.J9
He meant the return of the land of Israel. However, after assuring us that Jerusalem has been and will ever be the one and only eternal capital of Israel, he ends by saying:
"One of the most astonishing elements in the history of the Jewish people-and of its land-is the continuity, in the face of thtl circumstances. of Jewish life in that country." {Ibid., para. 74.]9
He meant, of course, Palestine.
144. I have here in my hand and before you a book by Theodor Herz) entitled The Jewish State, published by the American Zionist Emergency Council, New York, 1946. I need hardly say that Herzl is regarded by Zionists through- out the world as the founder of the modem Zionist movement. His book, The/ewish State, is regarded as the modem political bible, if ,I may ~e permitted the expres- snon, of the Zionist movement. I shall ~~ote, ifI may, some
pz.~agraphs from the book, The Jewish State, so that representatives can be quite sure about the substance of the charges made by the Israeli representative and his falsifi- cations of history. I will quote these paragraphs in exercise of m:,' .:mt of reF~Y to the charges made by the Israeli repres, '~. ,,,tive, who would have us believe that the link between zionism and the' Jews, on the one hand, and Palestine. on the other, is one that is eternal and has never been broken at any time in history.
145. I now read from HerzI-s book;
"On October 22, 1902, a Conference between Joseph Chamberlain, the Colonial Secretany [at that time], and Herz) took place. Chamberlain had been in the Colonial Office since 1895. He held an influential position in the councils of the British Goyernment. He was a man of strong will and political integrity. Herzl submitted his plan for the colonization of Cyprus and the Sinai Peninsula, which included El Arish....
"Chamberiain said that he could speak definitely only about C-iPrus. The Sinai Peninsula came under the
u ••• The next task before Herzl was the organization of the Commission"-to investigate and explore Cyprus, Sinai and El Arish.
UThe Commission met with great difficulties. There was opposition by the Turks. There was misunderstandings between Herz) and Greenberg"-the head of the Commis- sion-uHerzl himself went to Egypt in order to bring the negotiations to a conclusion and to straighten out difficulties. His intervention in no way improved the situation.
U... The Egyptian Government did not receive with favour the outline of the concession. Herzl was received on April 23rd by Chamberlain, who had just returned from his African journey. CJ-:amberlain listened to the report given by Hem on the work of the Commission. Both regarded the report as unfavourable. Then Cham-
berJ~ made this remark:
U 'On my travels I saw a country for you, Uganda. On the coast it is hot, but in the interior the climate is excellent for Europeans. You can plant cotton and sugar. I thought to myself, that is just the country for Dr. Hem.'''
"An attempt to have Chamberlain intervene with Egypt was not successful. 'That being the Cli3e', said Chamber-
146. I shall read just one more excerpt from the chapter entitled uPalestine or Argentine? ", and here Herzl writes:
UShall we choose Palestine or Argentine? We shall take what is given us, and what is selected by Jewish public opinion....
UArgentine is one of the most fertile countries in the world, extends over a vast area, has a sparse population and a mild climate. The Argentine Republic would derive considerable profit from the cession of a portion of its territory to us. The present infiltration of Jews [for this purpose] has certainly produced some discontent, and it would be necessary to enlighten the Republic on the intrinsic difference of our new movement.n11
147. I believe that it is needless to add or to explain anything. This is history speaking for itself and, moreover, as it was written by Herzl himself. Yes, it is Herzl himself, the father-founder of modern zionism, who in this book refutes the allegations and fabrications of the Zionist representative this morning.
The meeting rose at·6.15 p.m.
10 Theodor Herzl, 171eJewish State (New York, American Zionist Emergency Council, 1946), pp. 59-63. Quoted in English by the speaker. 11 Ibid., pp. 95-96. Quoted in English by the speaker.
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