A/34/PV.77 General Assembly

I wish at this juncture to pay a particular tribute to Ambassador Médoune Fall for the outstanding role he has played, both in his leadership of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and in his over-all contribution to the work of our Organization. 39. I have had the pleasure of working very closely with Mr. Fall for the past eight years, during his tenure of office as Senegal’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations. He has been an effective and articulate spokesman for the cause of justice and freedom, as he has with eloquence and clarity espoused and promoted the objectives of our Organization. I shall always value and cherish the memories of our friendship and close collaboration. 49, Incw request the Rapporteur of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, Mr. Victor Gauci of Malta, to present the report of the Committee. , 41. Mr. GAUCI (Malta), Rapporteur of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People: For the fourth year running, it is my duty formally to introduce the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestin- 43. In particular, the indefatigable Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Fall of Senegal, who has set his stamp of dedication, fairness and eloquence in the way he has guided the Committee, deserves our unanimous commendation. His departure from the United Nations, and in particular from the Committee, on a new assignment fills us with regret, for we shall truly miss him in the future. Today he has again rendered us sterling service in his account of the work of the Committee over the period since we last met to discuss the human drama of the Palestinian people. 44. The report of the Committee is brief and factual. Essentially, the message it conveys is that, despite the endorsement of the recommendations of the Committee by this Assembly for three consecutive years—and on each occasion more strongly than on the previous one—the recommendations have not yet been acted upon by the Security Council; still less has a start been made in their implementation. 45. This in turn means that, once more, we cannot but admit to disappointment and concern, for nothing tangible has been done to alleviate the plight of the Palestinian people. On the contrary, as recent events have shown and as the special Commission appointed by the Security Council has determined, the action on the spot taken by the occupying Power is increasing tension in the area and, unfortunately, retarding the prospects ofa peaceful solution. 46. It is indeed difficult to imagine that real efforts at peace are contemplated when the Prime Minister of Israel proclaims, as he did as recently as June of this year: “If the Arab members of the Executive Council which will emerge from the West Bank elections decide to proclaim Palestinian independence, they will be immediately arrested by the Israeli Army.”’ That these are not mere words has been amply demonstrated in the last few days with the arrest and threatened deportation of the elected Arab Mayor of ablus. 47. These and other official pronouncements, accompanied by long-term plans for further expansion of existing settlements or the establishment of additional ones in the occupied territories, are hardly consistent with the accepted concept of self-determination for the Palestinian people on which the international consensus is becoming more pronounced with every passing year. 48. Even the New York Times, not particularly noted for being sympathetic to the aspirations of the Palestinian people, in an editorial under the title ‘“The West Bank Folly’’, had the following comment on 16 November 1979: “Israel is turning the offer of ‘autonomy’ to Palestinian Arabs into a sham. Under the cover of a developing peace with Egypt, Prime Minister Begin and his Cabinet seem to be doing their utmost to frustrate The article concluded: “One does not have to be Arab to perceive such elementary affronts to human nature.”’ 49. With their past and present historical experience, it is therefore not surprising that the leaders of the Palestinian people are sceptical of the real intentions of Israel, and yet they continue to favour the peaceful approach recommended by the Committee. I believe that this is an important element which all should recognize. 50. It is equally not surprising that the Committee, while continuing to derive encouragement from the consistently favourable response to its recommendations obtained from a growing number of governmental and non-governmental organizations, has had perforce to limit its role over the past three years to three main functions: first, retaining its openness and objectivity; secondly, exercising vigilance over events on the spot; and, thirdly, spreading new information on the various aspects of the question of Palestine. 51. We have from the beginning been open to all sectors of opinion, and we jealously maintain that openness. On the very first day that the Committee meets after receiving its mandate from the General Assembly [resolution 3376 (XXX)}, it invites all sectors of opinion that wish to make themselves heard before the Committee to do so. We have repeated this invitation each year of the Committee’s existence, and every important statement made by any of the protagonists or by others with a potential influence on the question is carefully studied by the Committee. $2. We have also made efforts to give additional explanations on the Committee’s recommendations whenever we have sensed that their exact purport may have been misunderstood. In particular, we have stressed that the paramount importance of this question and the fundamental elements of justice and human rights inherent in the Committee’s recommendations should not be obscured under procedural pretexts. We remain ready at all times to provide any additional explanation that may be requested. 53. Therefore we wish once more to remind all who care to listen that the Committee’s recommendations constitute a prescription for peace, three times endorsed, after very careful consideration, by the international community; these recommendations safeguard the interests and assuage the genuine preoccupations of all States and peoples in the Middle East. The solid foundation of the recommendations springs from their legality. ; 54. The second aspect of our work was to exercise vigilance concerning the events taking place on the spot. Here, unfortunately we have had to raise our collective voices in protest all too often because of several repressive measures taken by the occupying Power that clearly went against the pronouncements, 55. These illegal measures adopted by the Israeli authorities are too numerous to mention individually. They have been recounted by the Chairman of the Committee, in his statement just before mine, and they have been the subject of several letters that we have had to address to the President of the Security Council and to the Secretary-General. They are clearly mentioned in the report. 56. The Committee also felt the need periodically to remind the Security Council of the urgency of the action - that was expected of it by the Committee in its recommendations. In addition, the Committee co-operated fully with the Commission set up by the Security Council to investigate the situation relating to the Arab territories occupied since 1967 and was gratified to note that the views expressed by that Commission coincided largely with those of the Committee. 57. The Committee also expressed its serious preoccupation with the attempts to change the status of Jerusalem. Finally, the Committee felt the necessity to point out serious omissions in certain bilateral agreements, insofar as they related to the rights of the Palestinian people, which were negotiated without the participation of the Palestinians’ recognized representatives and outside the framework of the United Nations on a question concerning which the responsibility of this Organization is particularly heavy. 58. The third element of the Committee’s work involved the dissemination of objective information on the evolution of the Palestine question. In this, the Committee, aided by the Special Unit on Palestinian Rights within the Secretariat, was assiduously active throughout the period under review. Ten major studies have been produced: The origins and evolution of the Palestine problem, which covers, in its part I:1917- 1947,° published in April 1979, the League of Nations period, and, in its part IT: 1947-1977,’ published in May 1979, the United Nations period; The right of return of the Palestinian people,® published in November 1978; The right of self-determination of the Palestinian people,? published in February 1979; An international law analysis of the major United Nations resolutions concerning the Palestine question,'© published in September 1979; The Question of Palestine, published in November 1979; The Status of Jerusalem, also published in November 1979; The International Status of the Palestinian People, published recently; The Question of the Observance of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 in Gaza and the West Bank Including Jerusalem Occupied by Israel in June 1967, in preparation; Acquisition of Land in Palestine and The Status of Fundamental Rights of the Palestinian Partition Resolution, studies which have noi yet been published. 59. The delay in the reproduction of some of these studies is regretted, but it is hoped nevertheless that they will be found useful even for this year’s debate. 6 United Nations publication, Sales No. E.78.1.19. 7 Idem, Sales No. E.78.1.26. 8 Idem, Sales No. E.78.1.21. 61. During our debate last year, the local papers condescended to give prominence once to the fact that the item on Palestine was being discussed at the United Nations, and then proceeded to set out the main points in the statements of two delegations. The other 54 nations that participated in that debate received no mention; their views went completely unrecorded. This was a typical example of the way in which the popular local news media have portrayed the question of Palestine, time and time again in the past and to this day. This is the kind of distortion that the Committee has had to rectify. 62. Against the background of this habitual indifference and distortion, the Committee does not find it surprising that an orchestrated attempt is being made to characterize as biased the studies produced by the Special Unit. When indifference and distortion are the norm, productivity and obiectivity become the exception. But the Committee has always insisted, and will continue to insist, on strict objectivity in whatever it produces. 63. As I have mentioned on a previous occasion, the only biases to which the Committee readily admits are those towards morality, legality and a peaceful approach. As an indication of this, it is sufficient for me to mention that, despite the numerical disparity of the opposing points of view in the Middle East controversy, there is in these studies more frequent reference given to scholarly and official Israeli sources than to Arab ones. 64. These studies make no sensational headlines, no instant news; they contain no arbitrary bias on the question of what is considered fit to print. They simply contain an objective, chronological presentation of the evolution of various aspects of the question of Palestine, so as to enable delegations and the public to form their own enlightened views on the events of the past. The actual experience of the Committee, in its attendance at conferences, has been that the talks that have been given and the studies that have been produced have helped to enhance understanding of the question of Palestine. 65. As we debate this item, let us not forget that, if to us here these reports form an informative source of study, to the people on the spot, to two generations of Palestinians, the events portrayed in them represent an anthology of destitution, of persecution, of strife, of dispossession, of upheaval and uprooting, of death and destruction, and of lingering frustration over hopes unfulfilled. 66. This, then, is the poignant question that still remains before us, incessantly demanding our attention and taxing our resources. 67. We know now—as we knew last year—that an important cross-road has been reached in the situation. We know that the desire for peace and positive change —~ 68. The subject-matter, therefore, is well documented. We are not taking a leap in the dark. On the contrary, the growing international consensus on the parameters of an equitable solution to the question of Palestine is now sufficiently well identified. Public opinion in individual countries without exception, as well as international opinion here at the United Nations, is clamouring for a change, for concerted action, for a peaceful, democratic solution. There is no longer any doubt in anyone’s mind that the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people are now squarely in the forefront of public opinion; no longer can they be arbitrarily frustrated. There must therefore be a corresponding governmental response. And it must come, in the first place, through a unanimous vote here in this Assembly in favour of positive action. This is the year when a major new impetus is needed. The international community can no longer afford indifference, neither can it condone persistently erroneous policies.

The next speaker in the debate is Mr. Qaddoumi, head of the political department of the PLO. I call on him on the basis of General Assembly resolution 3237 (XXIX) of 22 November 1974.

It is my pleasure, at the beginning of this statement, to join all those who have already congratulated you, Sir, on your election as President of the thirty-fourth session of the United Nations General Assembly. Your wisdom and experi- - ence will ensure that the work of this session is crowned with the success for which we all hope. 71. cannot fail to refer here to the role your country has played in promoting peace and justice in Africa and the entire world. Your country has always supported the liberation causes, and Tanzania’s voice has always been and still is an important voice in favour of the cause of the African peoples in their struggle for inde pendence. You yourself, Mr. President, have played a significant role in supporting the cause of peoples in general including the just cause of the Palestinian people. 72. We are pleased also to express our gratitude to Mr. Waldheim, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, for his constant efforts to further mankind’s cause in the United Nations and to raise ever higher the flag of justice and peace. 73. I wish to take this opportunity to express to the Chairman and members of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People our gratitude and appreciation for their untiring efforts to promote the Palestinian cause. That Committee has presented to the Security Council, year after year, reports designed to enable the Council to adopt resolutions relating to recommendations by the General Assembly. 75. The General Assembly’s discussion of the Palestine question this year is taking place at a time when there are events in occupied Palestine, and our region in general, that reveal to everyone the suffering of our people under the racist Zionist occupation and, at the same time, our people’s determination to resist that occupation in order to attain their objective: the liberation of our country and the establishment of a just peace in the region. Those events also confirm that the Palestine question is at the very heart of the conflict raging in our region. The Palestine question is, at the same time, one of the major questions affecting international peace and security. In that connexion, suffice it to mention what is happening within our occupied country and, above all, the newest outburst by our people against Israeli and Zionist arrogance, as well as the events in southern Lebanon resulting from the brutal Israeli aggression against that country, and all the other incidents and events taking place in the Middle East region. 76. These incidents have increased considerably since the Camp David agreements'' were signed. We expect the escalation to continue to such a degree that there will be a risk of a general explosion if the international community does not make every effort to prevent this conflagration, confront the Zionist aggression, put an end to United States support for the aggression and take the practical measures required to bring about a just peace. 77. Perhaps some among us who are not fully familiar with the situation in our region might ask how agreements which were described by the parties as **peace agreements’ could lead to an escalation of the tension, to all these misdeeds and crimes. We would reply to them that these agreements, for which the United States bears the lion’s share of responsibility, make no mention of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and return to their homeland; they ignore the rights of the Palestinian people and of each Palestinian—and this at a time when mankind is fighting resolutely to defend human rights. Through these agreements an attempt has been made to side-step these rights, thereby enabling the Zionists to confirm their occupation of the Palestinian homeland, encouraging Zionist aggression against Arab territories and allowing the Zionist racists to perpetrate the worst forms of racial discrimination against our people. 78. The parties to the Camp David agreements took it upon themselves to discuss and take decisions on the Palestinian cause in the absence of the Palestinian people, which alone has the right to decide its fate, and without taking into account the views of the international community, which is concerned with the maintenance of peace in our region, including Palestine. Thus, those parties have usurped the right of the Palestinian people and the right of the international community, which participated in the drafting of the resolutions on the Palestine question. ‘1 A Framework for Peace in the Middle East. Agreed at Camp David, and Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel. signed at Washington on 17 September 1978. eople who have grouped together outside their homeand, Palestine. 30. These agreements have encouraged the Israeli Governmeni to give a new interpretation to the resolutions of the Security Council, by undermining the principles on which this international Organization is based. They have also enabled the Zionist movement to push on with the establishment of settlements in our occupied territories, despite all the international objections, and to steal the water that belongs to the people of ralestine, the water they have used for their land and their cattle for thousands of years. The Zionist programme of settlement for the next five years has just been published. Studies show how much our people need water, the Israeli Government having stolen half of it for use in its settlement operations. 81. Under the guise of those agreements, the Israeli authorities have arrested an elected mayor in the West Bank, Mr. Bassam Shaka’a, pending his expulsion ona ‘retext that is worse than the crime itself, as the wellnown proverb says. Their justification for that measure is. a private conversation between the Mayor of Nablus and a Zionist officer, in which the former said that he was convinced that the continuance of the occupation would only perpetuate the resistance. Hence we witness the punishment of a person on account of his beliefs and ideas—all this despite the Geneva Conventions, aud in particular article 49 of the fourth Convention, '* which prohibits the deportation of individuals or groups of individuals from occupied countries. A Zionist military court has endorsed this odious crime in the name of justice, thereby violating the sacred principle of justice. It is clear that the expulsion of the Mayor of Nablus ts a further step in a whole chain of acts in which more than 1,560 of our leaders have been expelled since 1967, in addition to the hundreds of thousands of individuals who have been expelled by force from Palestine since 1948. Recently, in his memoirs, Yitzhak .abin has explained the role he played in the dispersal of the populations of Lod and Ramla, on the instructions of Ben-Gurion. 82. in speaking of the crime constituted by the arrest of the Mayor of Nablus, we wish to express our appreciation of the resolution adopted in this connexion by the General Assembly a few days ago [reselution 34/29), and we appeal to the international community to continue to exert every effort to prevent his deportation and to examine the matter thoroughly. 83. Adso under the guise of those agreements, the Israeli authorities are continuing their aggression in — '2Gsreva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, No. 97% a IRM 84. In view of this description of some of the results of the Camp David agreements, it is not surprising that in th<. rind of our people they are linked to war rather than to peace, especiaily since the United States has thereby agreed that weapons to the value of some $5 billion will be granted to Israel and Egypt. It is not difficult, even for those who have not followed the events in the region, to recognize that this is a true statement of the position. It is time the American people understood this and urged their Government to review its policy vis-avis the people of Palestine and the Palestinian question. It is also time for the international community to unite in its efforts to persuade the United States to put an end to its present policy and to embark upon the proper path, that is, the recognition of the national rights of the Palestine people. It is high time the United States Government reviewed its position and realized the connexion between the increasing animosity in the world and in our region towards it and its policy with regard to the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause as embodied in the Camp David agreements. 85. Liberation is the spirit of our century; a just peace its objective. We, the PLO, are proud to embody the spirit of our century and to express it through our revolution. 86. We shall continue our struggle for liberation, which will lead us to a just peace, and we shall continue to fight so that the people of Palestine may have a life of dignity in their country and so that all men throughout the world may live in peace. 87. Our armed struggle against occupation will continue as long as any part of our land is not free and as long as our people is oppressed. It is our legitimate right to resist the occupier. All international conventions recognize the fact that we have this right, and in this connexion I should like to refer to the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples [resolution 1514 (XV)]. Anyone who— even in good faith—advocates the ending of the armed struggle while we continue to be occupied, is taking a position against the law and on the side of the occupier, thus sabotaging human values. 88. Our people are resisting under very difficult circumstances ‘” our occupied country. Begin’s Government has announced that the West Bank and Gaza are art of Israel and that autonomy applies to the people, but not to the territory. [t has called the West Bank Judaea and Samaria, has encouraged its people to build settlements and the Israeli violations of human rights. 89. Is it not the right and the duty of our people to resist this odious racist occupation? That is why we find our children throwing stones at the enemy’s soldiers, for they are convinced that resistance to occupation is one of their most sacred duties during this year—the International Year of the Child—and represents their contribution to the happiness of children throughout the world. We find our men on the look-out for, and resisting the enemy’s military concentrations. This resistance will continue until the occupation has ended and the crimes committed by the Zionist occupier have been stopped. We expect those who are free to offer their support for this resistance until final victory, just as they supported many peoples’ resistance in Europe against the Nazi occupation and the resistance of the liberation movements in Asia and Africa against colonialism. 90. The PLO, while leading its people’s resistance, pursues its potitical struggle and exerts maximum eforts for the extablishment of a just peace. While we hold with one powerful hand the olive branch, we lift the rifle with the other equally powerful hand. The PLO has done everything possible to facilitate the work of UNIFIL since it was established in southern Lebanon, and has been faithful to its commitments to the Secretary-General, who has recognized in his reports the very responsible role of the PLO in this field. The PLO has also responded positively to the Secretary- General’s appeal to maintain calm and not to be provoked by aggression and has renounced activities on the Lebanese borders. The Tenth Arab Summit Conference, held at Tunis from 20 to 22 November of this year, reaffirmed the right of our people to resist on all Arab fronts. All this is being done in order to stop Israeli aggression against southern Lebanon and to enable Lebanon to exercise sovereignty over the border strip that is under Israeli domination through the forces of Major Saad Haddad, which are controlled by Israel. 91. Earlier, the PLO responded very positively to the joint Soviet-American statement of 1 October 1977, in which the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people were confirmed.'? We viewed this as a positive sign in favour ofa first important step towards the implementation of United Nations resolutions for the establishment of a just peace. But, because of Zionist pressure, the United States did a quick turn about in the position it had taken in the communiqué and adopted instead the unilateral solution that led to the Camp David agreements. '3 Joint statement on the Middle East issued on | October [977 by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Secretary of State of the United States of America is their capacities as Co-Chairmen of the Peace Conference on the Bela. mo. 1977, the PLO decided to establish a Palestinian State in all those areas of Palestine that would be freed by the withdrawal of the Israeli occupying forces. We have supported all the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly defining the way in which the people of Palestine can exercise its inalienable rights, and especially its right to self-determination and national sovereignty and its right to return to its homeland. 93. ‘che PLO has, onall these occasions, expressed its wii to attain a just peace, to respond to world public opinion, to respect its commitments towards the international community and to reaffirm its confidence in the international Organization. This evolution in the PLO’s position was taking place while the Zionist enemy was intensifying the pursuit of its racist, expansionist objectives and persisting in defying the international will. The Zionists were shocked by the idea of the unified democratic Palestine put forward by our National Council and which would guarantee justice and equality. When we announced our plans, the Israeli Government reacted by annexing Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, persisting in its concept of a racist ‘‘Great Israel’’ spread over the entire land of Palestine where the racist Zionist dogma would be in full control. From this land, the Israelis would rule the Palestinian people and would dominate other Arab peoples as well. While zionism attacks our national charter under the pretext that it speaks of destroying Israel—when all it speaks of is the liberation of Palestine—we find it proclaiming openly, in the platforms of most of its parties, the determination of the Zionist movement to seize all of Palestine and other Arab territories in Sinai, the Golan Heights and the West Bank. At the same time, Israel continues its policy of bringing the Jews of the world to our homeland to replace the children of our people who continue to be expelled through various methods. 94. The PLO will continue to build up the institutions of our people and further its development in all spheres. We are proud of what we have accomplished and hope to do even more. Our revolution has been a renascence of life and a restructuring of society. Thus, the struggle has begun, within the framework of this revolution, in the fields of science, education, health, art, administration and in other fields. The Palestinian will has been embodied in the PLO through democratic institutions starting with popular bodies in the various group centres and ending at the National Council and the Executive Committee. In the PLO we have also supreme councils for education, culture, science and youth. We have the Red Crescent for matters of health and the National Fund for questions of finance and economy. We have established secondary schools and 95. This struggle of ours is part of the struggle of the Arab nation, which in its entirety aspires to a just peace and to build its future, all the while being aware of the . responsibilities it has vis-a-vis the world because of its strategic position as well as its civilization and its various resources. At the Ninth Arab Summit Conference, at Baghdad,'* after the signing of the Camp David agreements, the Arab States carefully formulated the appropriate reply to those agreements and stated the principles on the basis of which a just peace could be achieved, and those were the very principles that have been adopted by the international wili represented by your Assembly. 96. The Tenth Arab Summit Conference held in Tunisia a few days ago,'* reaffirmed the resolutions of the Baghdad Conference—and ofall other Arab summit conferences in general——that called for the liberation of all Arab territories occupied since the aggression of June 1967, including Arab Jerusalem, and rejected any situation that would undermine the total sovereignty of the Arabs over the Holy City. It also reaffirmed the commitment to restore to the Arab Palestinian people its national rights, including its right to return to its homeland, its right to self-determination and its right to establish an independent Palestinian State on its land under the leadership of the PLO, the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Once that State is created, the Arab States will support it in all aspects and at all levels. The resolutions of that Conference have shown that the Palestinian cause is the cause of all the Arabs and that no party has the right to forsake that commitment. The Conference also adopted important resolutions concerning the crisis in southern Lebanon in which it condemned the Zionist Israeli aggression in all its forms, holding that aggression responsible for the sufferings imposed on the people of southern Lebanon and rejecting the Israeli hegemony which aims at interfering under any pretext in the internal affairs of Lebanon. 97. The majority of the world we live in supports liberation and aspires to a just peace. That majority responded to our struggle aad adopted clear positions with regard to the Camp David agreements, which will neither lead to the liberation of the Palestinian occupied territories nor will they realize a just peace; therefore, the majority :ave either condemned, opposed or exercised caution towards those agreements. 98. But the opposition to these agreements is not limited to the Arab group, it also includes the Islamic States. The Tenth Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers, heid at Fez from 8 to 12 May 1979, adopted a resolution coademning the Camp David agreements [see A/34/389, annex II, pp. 34-40], considering them "1S Held from 2 te 3 November 1978. '6 For the Final Declaration of the Tenth Conference, see document A/34/763, annex. 99. The Sixth Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, held at Havana in September last, also adopted a resolution condemning those agreements and declaring that it ‘‘Condemns energetically all the partial agreements and separate treaties which constitute a flagrant violation of the rights of the Arab nation and of the Palestinian people, the principles of the Charters of the OAU and the United Nations and the resolutions adopted in different international forums on the question of Palestine and which impede the aspirations of the Palestinian people to return to their homeland, to self-determination and to exercise full sovereignty over their territories; “‘Bearing in mind that the Camp David agreements and the Egypt-Israel Treaty of 26 March 1979 constitute a partial agreement and a separate treaty that mean total abandonment of the cause of the Arab countries and an act of complicity with the continued occupation of the Arab territories and violate the inalienable rights of the people of Palestine, condemns the Camp David Agreements and the Treaty between Egypt and Israel’’ [see A/34/542, annex, sect. VI A, resolution No. 2, paras. 6-7]. 100. The States of the socialist bloc, too, have opposed those agreements and have condemned them, indicating that they represent a threat to world peace, and not a step towards peace. This attitude has been expressed in scores of occasions. 101. Those agreements have not been spared criticism and reservations on the part of certain Western States and others; this proves that, day after day, the world is becoming increasingly aware of the fact that those partial and isolated agreements cannot possibly serve as a framework for a just peace. Consequently, there is an absolute and urgent need for a new initiative, within the framework of the United Nations, which would involve all parties concerned, including the PLO, and would provide 2 comprehensive and iust solution to the Middle East crisis which would guarantee the rights of the Palestinian people that have already been defined by the General Assembly. 102. International opinion is more and more convinced that the Palestinian question is at the heart of the conflict in the Middie East and that there can be no just and lasting peace without resolving that problem and guaranteeing the Palestinian people their right to self- 104. The United States and Israel are wrong if they think that oppression and pressure will make our people capitulate and renounce their rights. The question of Palestine is at the very heart of the struggle of the Arab nation and all its people. Because of its dimensions and because of the role that Jerusalem plays as a spiritual symbol for Judaism, Christianity and Isiam, this question is of vital importance for hundreds of thousands of peopl? and calls for very rapid, responsible and meaningful action in order that a solution may be reached on the basis of United Nations resolutions. 105. Petroleum does not, therefore, constitute the basis for the support for the Paiestinian cause, as Zionist propaganda would wish the West to believe although Arab petroleum does represent both a resource and a weapon for the Arabs. 106. I should like to remind the United States of America that, as a super-Power, it has a major and very serious responsibility, because if it does not recognize the will of the world and continues to give unreserved support to Israel, this will undermine peace throughout the world, create imbalances and lead to a conflagration that will extend beyond the borders of the region of the wliddle East. 107. We have recently observed certain positive signs that have emerged in American scciety. The American blacks, who represent an important part of American society, have begun to have contacts and consult:itions with representatives of the PLO—contacts which we welcome. They have said that it is not possible to continue to ignore the Palestinian pecple or the PLO. This is the beginning of a rejection of the Zionist blackmail of the American people. Furthermore, in the news media, we are beginning to discern a movement in the direction of recognition for the PLO. 108. In the United States administration, however, we observe contradictory attitudes vis-a-vis the Palestinian cause, attitudes which stem from Israeli blackmail and are manifested by certain abandonments of position. The strongest proof of this is the fact that the 109. There is no doubt that, in view of its strategic position and its oil wealth, the Middle East is a focal point of world attention today. The Palestinian cause is at the heart of all this, for any change in our region is linked—either positively or negatively—to that cause and that is proved by the current events ia our region. Just as it is impossible to ignore the existence of 4 million Palestinians who are the most educated people in the region, so is it equally impossible to find a solution to the problem of those people without recogzizing their nationa! rights. 110. The region has been, up to the present, the scene of four wars whose victims number in the thousands. Those wars have been caused by the Palestinian question and by Israel’s persistence in its attempts to wipe out Palestine and its people from the map of the Middle East. I can say that, unless we arrive at a just solution of the probiem of our people, there will: be in the region, from time to time, further wars which could inflame larger areas and assume different dimensions. 1i1. That is why, in order to prevent any new spilling of blood and step the danger of future wars, the Unite Nations is in duty bound to take practical me..cures designed to enable our people to exercise their inalienable national rights, and it must not limit its activity to the adoption of political positions. 112. Those who believe that it is possible to persuade the racist Zionists to comply with the resolutions of this Assembly and withdraw from the occupied territories are mistaken, because experience has shown that such expectations are nothing more than a mirage. A recent instance of this occurred in the Security Council when the threat of the use by the United States of its right of veto—subject, in turn. to Israel’s will—prevented the achievement of a forriwia which could have served as the foundation for 2 just peace. {13. Not only did the United States threaten to use its right of veto, but it continues to promote the masquerade of autonomy which the parties to the Camp David agreements are vainly attempting to impose upon our people, which is resisting in our occupied land. Let us stop a moment together and ask ourselves the following question: how can Menachem Begin’s formula for autonomy be imposed on our people without our having been consulted or having been present at the drafting of this formula, which goes completely against our will? And what were the results of the negotiations relating to autonomy? Was autonomy not rejected by our people in occupied Palestine, who made it known that all those pursuing that path are traitors, and by the elected Palestinian leaders? Was autonomy not refuted by our Palestinian people in exile and by the PLO which is the only legitimate representative of the people of Palestine? 115. Since its thirty-first session, the General Assembly has adopted resolutions which were submitted to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights ’ of the Palestinian People. In its recommendations, that Committee made reference to a series of United Nations resolutions, especially resolution 3236 (XXTIX), which provided a time-table for the Palestinian citizen to exercise his right to return to his home, and for the Palestinian people to exercise its right to selfdetermination and the right to set up its own independent State in its own country of Palestine. 116. In March 1977 our National Council assessed those recommendations, considered that they were a positive step towards the realization of our inalienable natioxal rights and, therefore, towards a just solution of the Palestinian question which wouid ultimately lead to a just peace in the Middle East. 117. Since 1976, the General Assembly has teen asking the Security Council to study those recommendatiors and adopt decisions on the subject. But the Security Council is bound hand and foot by the fact that the Government of the United States continues to use or threaten to use its right of veto. 118. The PLO, supported by the great majority of members of this General Assembly, considers that the time has come for the Government of the United States of America to renounce its aggressive and obstructionist policy, so that the Security Council may assume its historical responsibilities in conformity with the United Nations Charter. The Security Council must collaborate with the General Assembly in adopting a resoiution that would guarantee to the Palestinian people the opportunity to exercise its national rights.

The general debate at the present session of the General Assembly has quite clearly confirmed that there is a consensus in the international community to the effect that the rights of the Palestinian people are at the very heart of the Palestinian question, which in turn is the basis of the Middle East problem, and that no peace is possible in the Middle East without a solution of the Palestinian problem. The great majority of delegations which referred to the Palestinian question in their statements agreed that partial solutions and separate treaties would not be likely to bring about a just and lasting peace in the region. 120. The prospects for peace and stability in the Middle East are today further away than ever, because of the collusion of Anwar El-Sadat with Israel and the United States. This has encouraged the Zionist entity to reinforce its barbarous aggression against the Palestinian people and Lebanon. ‘‘The Camp David agreements and other accords concluded between tie Egyptian government and the Zionist entity, which has committed aggression against the Arab nations, aided and abetted by American imperialism, are an attempt to deprive the Arab Palestinian people of their rights to their homeland. They also constitute a grave colonialist threat to the Arab nations, as well as a threat to peace in our region. The allegation that these agreements are a step on the way towards peace is without any foundation.”’ The President of Iraq went on to say: ‘‘The genuine meaning of the two Camp David agreements and of the separate peace treaty is a . strengthening of the racist aggressive Zionist entity and the reinforcement of its occupation, making it possible for it to reap the fruits of its aggression and open the doors to American imperialism so that it may extend its influence over and exploit the whole Arab region. This would only lead to a continued escalation of tension and conflict in that strategic region and will have very serious and adverse consequences for the security and prosperity of the whole world, especially if we take into consideration the aspect of the nuclear blackmail now being practised by the Zionist entity by means which are well known and which do not escape anyone’s attention.”’ 122. Iraq has determined its position on the solutions proposed for the Palestinian cause in the light of the ollowing principles. First of all, the aggressor must not be rewarded for its occupation and aggression; therefore it is not possible to grant the aggressor the right to occupy legitimately the territories of others. Secondly, authentic Palestinian citizens must not be deprived of their historical national rights in their own homeland of Palestine. Thirdly, the problems of the Jews of the world must not be resolved at the expense of the Arabs, their rights and their existence. Fourthly, a ‘‘realistic attitude’ in international policy cannot be based on concessions required of one side alone, the Arab side, but must take into account national rights, as well as the realities of the problem which show that for thousands of years Palestine was a nation of Palestinian Arabs, whereas the presence of Jews in Palestine was a passing phenomenon which lasted a very short while, concerned only part of Palestinian soil and resulted from the use of force against the indigenous inhabitants. Fifthly, the solution must not be part of an international plan for the partition of the Arab world, the continuance of its division, exploitation and involvement in international confrontations. 123. On the basis of these premises, iraq has affirmed its conviction that the solutions proposed for the question as a whole disregard the rights of the Arabs, ignore historical realities and actual facts and serve the illegitimate Zionist ambitions which are abetted by United States imperialism. 124. After the 1967 aggression, the Arab position has been characterized by its refusal to negotiate with Israel or to recognize it, and by its demand that the rights of all. QW iat f_H a abt a el Pb et thermore, the Arab States recognize that they do not have _ the right to settle the Palestinian question so long as the Palestinian people and their representative, the PLO, are there to demand their inalienable national rights, beginning with the right to return to their homeland and to decide their own future. This shows that the Arab- Zionist conflict cannot be settled by an agreement be- ‘tween the Arab States whose territories are occupied and the Zionist entity, but is a conflict the essence of which is the cause of a people, and which no Arab State - “has the right to resolve, separately, on behalf of that” people. 125. Israel was unable to obtain from any Arab régime the recognition of the Zionist entity over Palestinian territory without isolating that régime from its commitment to the Arab and international principles and resolutions relating to the rights of the Palestinian Arab people, rights which have been ignored by Israel from the outset. Sadat has completely aligned himself with the Zionist position against the interests of the Palestinian people by adopting the following attitudes: first, Opposition to the siruggie of the Palestinian people for the restoration of tiisir rights and bringing to trial the Palestinians who act against the security and integrity of Israel, the usurper; secondly, the PLO has not been invited to take part in the negotiations that are now taking place concerning the West Bank and Gaza; thirdly, the question of the autonomy of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza is being discussed in violation of the resolutions of the United Nations which recognize the right of the Palestinian people to sovereignty over their own territory; fourthly, Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Camp David agreements, although Israel claims that it is its eternal capital; fifthly, the future of Israeli settlements in occupied Arab territories is not discussed, despite the fact that the Zionist party still claims that Israel has the right to sovereignty over such territories and that it will not dismantle any of those settlements, but rather will increase their number; sixthly, the occupying authorities are not even committed to at least stop the establishment of new settlements or the demolition of Arab dwellings and the expulsion from the country of their occupants; seventhly, approval of the presence of the Israeli occupying forces in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, indefinitely, under the pretext of ensuring the security of Israel; eighthly, commitment by Egypt not to conclude any treaty that would oppose the obligations under the treaty it signed with Israel; in the event of a conflict between the obligations of Egypt under that treaty and its other obligations, the obligations under the treaty with Israel are the ones to be adhered to and to be fulfilled. 126. this commitment made by Sadat to Israel is the clearest proof that the Israeli-Egyptian treaty, which is based on the Camp David agreements, is not a balanced one and is not based on the principle of the sovereign equality of States. That commitment, which is contained in article 6, paragraph 5, of the Israeli-Egyptian treaty, is contrary to Egypt’s commitments under Article 1923 of the TInited Nafions Charter. which stimulates According to the treaty, Egypt is committed to give precedence to a State which has violated the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and its resolutions, as well as the conditions of its admission to membership in the Organization. 127. Iraq condemned the Camp David agreements and the Egyptian-Israeli treaty which is based on those agreements, because those agreements and that treaty are inequitable and were imposed upon one of the parties under duress. It is also contrary to the binding rules of international law, such as those prohibiting the recognition of a status quo established by force— including the fruits of aggression—and agreements and treaties signed under duress. 128. All this is clearly stipulated in article 53 of the 1969 Convention on the Law of Treaties,’ as well as in article 34, which is binding under international law and which stipulates that no ctligation or right can be imposed on a third party without the clear agreement of that third party. This article is based on an cld rule, which is considered to be ene of the most important and fundamental rules of international law. Article 29 of that Convention provides that agreements or treaties have no force beyond the frontiers of the countries signing such treaties. This means that parties to an agreement or a treaty, whether bilateral or multilateral, cannot extend its application to peoples or territories that are distinct from the State parties to such a treaty. 129. But Sadat has arrogated to himself the role of intermediary in the name of the Arab nations and Palestinian people without authority from anyone. As for Israel, with the support of the United States, it has set itself up as the trustee of the Palestinian people and the master of their future. 130. The Camp David agreements are designed to divide the Palestinian people and to grant to the people of the West Bank and to the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip administrative self-rule that would apply to the population but not to the land or water sources, because the latter would remain under Israeli domination. Israel, moreover, would decide who should—or should not—represent the Palestinians, and would establish, for those residing in the occupied territories, a policy worse than that in effect in the bantustans of racist Africa. Israel wishes to set up Zionist settlements, even in the ‘“*bantustans”’ to which it has confined the Arabs, in order to annex them all to Israel. As for the Palestinians who are dispersed outside Palestine, and who represent two thirds of the Palestinian population, and those who have been under Israeli occupation since 1948, they have no rights at all and no future whatsoever in the eyes of the Zionists and of the United States of America. 131. Among the tragic contradictions is the fact that . 132. When the dimensions of the dangers inherent in the Camp David agreements became apparent, Iraq sought to unify the Arab world and called for the convening of the Baghdad Conference in November 1978. .As a result of the efforts of the majority of the Arab States that attended that Conference, Arabs have unanimously condemned the Camp David agreements. Thus, the Zionist-United States-Sadat gamble failed— that gamble according to which a succession of separate eace treaties with the other Arab countries, in particuar those Arab States having territory occupied by Israel would have followed suit. Thus, Sadat found himself isolated and alone in his capitulation to Begin and to the Zionist plan to liquidate the Palestinian cause. 133. The Baghdad Conference reaffirmed the commitment of the Arab nation to a just peace based on the total withdrawal of Israeli forces from all the occupied Arab territories, including Arab Jerusalem, and on the guarantee of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to return, to selfdetermination and to the establishment of their independent State in their homeland. This is unanimously recognized by the international community today and there exists no alternative to these basic principles if a just and lasting peace is to be established in the region. 134. The Islamic countries at their last Conference, at Fez, the African countries at their Monrovia session and the non-aligned countries at their Havana Conference, all announced their rejection of the Camp David eements and, indeed, any agreement that ignored, directly or indirectly, the inalienable rights of the Palestinian Arab people. Ali those States have also affirmed their total support for the rights of the Palestinian people and for the PLO, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. 135. Itis pertinent to mention here that at the Tenth Arab Summit Conference, held at Tunis last week, important resolutions on the subject of the Palestinian question were adopted unanimously. I would refer, for example, to the following: ‘‘While reiterating their condemnation of the Camp David accords and the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty and their categorical rejection of those documents and all that they imply, the Arab Kings, Presidents and Emirs emphasize that the solution must be a comprehensive one based on the principle of the liberation of all occupied Arab and Palestinian lands nel shen fll wn nneernee ~F thw Hehe .f eh Na1n 225.22. eople in the occupied Palestinian lands and their eroic resistance to the most odious form of racist occupation and to the policy of Judaization, expulsion, settlement and assaults on their heritage and holy places and calls for greater solidarity, the escalation of the struggle against the self-rule conspiracy and the intensification of international support for that struggle in order to thwart and defeat the Zionist occupation plans. ‘The Conference condemns the policy which is being pursued by the United States of America in connexion with the latter’s role in the signing of the Camp David accords and the Egyptian-Israeli treaty and emphasizes that the continuation of that policy will have an adverse effect on the mutual relations: and interests of the Arab countries and the United States of America.’ [See A/34/763, annex.] 136. It might also be relevant to mention here the resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 23 November on the subject of the universal realization of the right of peoples to self-determination [resolution 34/44}. This resolution condemns all partial agreements and separate treaties, which constitute a flagrant violation of the rights of the Palestinian people and the principles of the United Nations and the resolutions adopted by the various international organizations on the subject of the Palestinian question, and which prevent the Palestinian people from realizing their aspirations to return to their homeland and to exercise their right to self-determination and full sovereignty over their own territory. 137. For all these reasons, and in view of the legal questions to which I have referred, {raq asks for condemnation of the Camp David agreements and all other agreements or treaties—partial or separate—that may be concluded with the aim of eliminating the Palestinian cause and liquidating the national rights of the Palestinian Arab people. It is the duty of the international community to awaken the parties to the Camp David agreements from their dream of having the Israeli will imposed on the region through Israeli military force, with the total support of the United States and in collusion with Sadat. On the contrary, that will encourage Israel to be even more arrogant, to establish new settlements, to annex even more occupied Arab territories and to expel their inhabitants. That will perhaps encourage Israel even to wage a new war to achieve the supreme Zionist goal: the establishment of Greater Israel. We all know that, today, Israel is ready to use the nuclear weapon in order to achieve the expansionist, racist, colonialist plan to which I have referred. .

It gives me pleasure, while we consider the item concerning the Palestinian cause, to express my country’s appreciation and gratitude to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights 139. As we discuss once again in this Assembly the question of Palestine, we must not lose sight of the aspirations of the contemporary world to freedom, justice and equality. We must clearly remember the sincere determination of mankind to support the causes of the oppressed people, under the yoke of colonialism and racial persecution. 140. ‘The Palestinian cause is the cause of a people whose territory has been usurped, a people expelled from its homeland, a people whose sons have been obliged to live in camps, while another part of this people is still suffering under the yoke of a system of persecution and racial discrimination. 141. The discussion of this question requires an understanding of the nature of the racist Zionist régime, on the one hand, and of the deep roots of the Palestinian cause, on the other. We must understand the causes of the problem if we wish to be just and fair and to correctly establish the facts. 142. The roots of the Palestinian cause go back to the end of the nineteenth century, when settler colonialism was at its peak. It was during that era that the Zionist plans were drawn up for the colonization of Palestine through the sending in of waves of Zionist immigrants. That immigration was preceded by the spreading of groundless rumours by the Zionists that the Arab population of Palestine was smali. At the same time, rumours were spread about prospects of prosperity for the oppressed Jews of Europe. And when zionism, allied with colonialism, succeeded in obtaining the Balfour Declaration,'® it began practising, within Palestine, the worst forms of terrorism in an effort to make the Palestinian people accept the Zionist solution and abandon Palestine to the newly arrived invaders. 143. The Palestinian problem is the case of a colonial invasion aimed at the expulsion and the annihilation of an entire people for the benefit of a group of immigrants from overseas, thus applying the principle of “‘get out of there so that I can move in’’. 144. The usurpation of Palestine by the Zionist movement was based essentially on a policy of violence, forced expulsion and alliance with world colonialism. That is the root of the danger of zionism, which is a colonialist movement that is an enemy of all the peoples struggling against colonialism, for the cause of liberation is basically indivisible. That was very clear from the attitude of zionism, which supports the Government of South Africa and opposes the liberation movements in Africa. It is clear from zionism’s repeated aggressions, supported by colonialism, against the Arab States, with the aim of annexing even more territory. 145. The plundering of Palestine and the dispersion of its inhabitants are based on the principle of racism that guides the Zionists. I would refer here to General Assembly resolution 3379 (XXX). Zionism wishes to rid 146. Zionist expansion in Palestine and in the neighbouring Arab States is only an extension of the Zionist plans to swallow up Palestine and subjugate the other parts of the Arab homeland. For the expansionist complex is deeply rooted in the Zionist movement and is at the forefront of its objectives, to be achieved by any means, including the acquisition of more territory by force, the worst fforms of collective punishment, the expulsion of indigenous inhabitants, the refusal to allow the return of Arabs who were forced to leave their countries—despite the numerous resolutions adopted by the United Nations on this subject—and the expulsion of leaders of the ‘Palestinian people. And at the same time as Israel engages in all these practices against the Palestinians, it opens its doors to receive Zionist immigrants arriving from all parts of the world. 147. From the very outset, the Zionists realized that they could not establish themselves in Palestine unless there were constant waves of immigrants. Thus, they have striven to appeal to emigrants and to mercenaries to achieve their expansionist aims, sometimes using to that end duplicity and falsehood to attract certain Jews, and sometimes holding out the prospect of profits to attract adventurers and those who like to play for high stakes—and all this to camouflage zionism’s colonialist and expansionist nature. Geographical and territorial eXpansion has been and remains one of the pillars of the Zionist policy; it is the foundation of this racist and colonialist movement. 148. Palestine has been the field of tenacious Arab resistance against the alliance between zionism and colonialism. The Palestinian people have defended their land and their heritage with deep conviction and determination, and they continue to this day to make enormous sacrifices in the defence of the sacred Arab character of their country. The faith of the Palestinian people in the justice of their cause increases day by day; it is strengthened by the hard life of the refugees in camps. It is reflected in their determination, reinforced each day, to reject any plans designed to liquidate their cause. 149. ‘Today all peoples struggling against colonialism support the Palestinian cause; the conscience of the world and world public opinion support the Palestinian cause; and the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people are recognized by all international organizations, starting with our own Assemblv. 150. That increases our responsibility when we try to discuss the question. Solutions that would disregard the 151. The Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya reaffirms its total commitment for the Palestinian cause. We endorse it as our own. We also reaffirm our solidarity with the Palestinian people and the Arab nations in their struggle against the Zionist invasion. 152. Since the very beginning, zionism has tried to realize its expansionist aims in Palestine by evicting its Arab owners and establishing settlements on their lands with a view to absorbing all the new immigrants. Accordingly, it has proceeded with the establishment of those settlements on a large scale, thereby ignoring the rights of the refugees to return to their homeland. I refer here to paragraphs 24, 25 and 28 of the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People [A/34/35 and Corr. 1]. In order to consolidate the Israeli occupation on Palestinian land, that settlement policy, which zionism practised at first discreetly, is now being practised openly and arrogantly in the heart of the regions inhabited by the indigenous Arabs. This fact alone shows the extent of Zionist determination to implement their plans that aim at seizing Palestine and Arab territories, particularly if we take into account the increasing pressures being at the same time brought on the Arabs to force them to abandon their homes and lands. The policy of establishing Zionist settlements in Palestine and Arab territories runs counter to the provisions of the Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949 and the pertinent resolutions adopted on the subject in the United Nations. The measures adopted by the Zionists and the tremendous changes they made to the city of Jerusalem—and I refer here to paragraph 31 of the Committee’s report— 153. The policy of establishing and occupying settlements, practised by the Zionist against the Arab Palestinian people and the Arab nation, could not have been carried out had Israel not been supported by imperialism, particularly by the United States of America. For it is the United States of America that helps the Zionist economy through financial assistance, donations, loans and also provides the Zionist entity with bombs and weapons of mass destruction, and it is also the United States of America that backs it in all international forums. 154. For its survival, zionism has always depended, since ancient times, on its alliance and collusion with the powerful forces of colonialism to be able to achieve its expansionist plans based on violence, terrorism and destruction. Colonialism has always been and remains the first ally of zionism against our Arab nation and that has caused the colonialist invasion in Palestine. Our - Arab nation, in confronting that invasion, is confident that victory will be on its side, for it is struggling for a just cause, the Palestinian cause.

Members of the General Assembly have before them document A/34/703 which contains a request that the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States be given an opportunity to address the Assembly on agenda items 24 and 25. The General Assembly also has before it document A/34/ 714 in which a delegation has expressed reservations regarding this request. 156. May I take it that it is the wish of the General Assembly to accede to the request that the Secretary- General of the League of Arab States be invited to address the Assembly in the course of the debate on agenda items 24 and 25? It was so decided. The meeting rose at 1.15 p.m.