A/34/PV.79 General Assembly

The Argentine Republic’s interest in the problems plaguing the Middle East is neither new nor accidental. There are two main reasons for it: on the one hand, full awareness of the threat to international peace and security that is implied in a situation which cannot be resolved in a manner satisfactory to all arties; on the other, the understanding of the sufferings which the peoples of the region have endured for three decades and which Argentina shares, especially through its large communities of Jewish and Arab ongin. Consequently, my country has for many years been participating—as a further expression of our concern— in the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization, through a group of officers of its armed forces. 11. The 1967 war introduced new elements into the situation in the Middle East, making even more difficult a comprehensive solution to the conflict. Argentina’s position was then. as it is now. perfectly clear. On 4 July it did not obtain the required two-thirds majority. Nevertheless, its provisions served as the basis for what later became Security Council resolution 242 (1967), in favour of which the Argentine delegation voted, despite having pointed out in the Security Council that ‘‘we would have preferred a clearer text. such as that submitted to the General Assembly by the Latin American countries in July, which provided for the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from all the territories occupied as a result of the recent conflict’’.* 12. Inline with the position we have maintained since 1967, and by virtue of the principles of justice involved, we cannot but deplore the fact that Israel carries out administrative acts on territories under military occupation which would tend to consolidate and perpetuate an illegal presence and occupation. These same considerations led Argentina to sponsor General Assembly resolution 32/5 of 29 October 1977, concerning ‘‘Recent illegal Israeli measures in the occupied Arab territories designed to change the legal status, geographical nature and demographic compesition of those territories in contravention of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, of Israel’s international obligations under the fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and of United Nations resolutions, and obstruction of efforts aimed at achieving a just and lasting peace in the Middie East’’. This resolution was adopted by 131 votes to 1, with 7 abstentions. We thus shared, and continue to do so, the sentiments expressed by the overwhelming majority of the international community, in an effort to persuade Israel to desist from the measures that it continues to take in the occupied territories, especially the establishment of settlements, given that these policies constitute an obstacle on the road to peace and tend to prejudge the decisions that the Palestinian people might adopt in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the decisions of the Organization. 13. Regarding Jerusalem, His Holiness Pope John Paul II declared before this Assembly, on 2 October this year, as follows: ‘*T also hope for a special statute that, under international guarantees—as my predecessor Paul VI indicated—would respect the particular nature of Jerusalem, a heritage sacred to the veneration of millions of believers of the three great monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.”’ [/7th meeting, para. 24]. The Holy Father’s concern coincides with Argentina’s traditional position on this matter. On 25 September 1971, during the meeting of the Security Council in which resolution 298 (1971) was adopted, the Argentine represertative before that body said: es ‘We know that Jerusalem constitutes one facet of the over-all conflict in the Middle East and we know ' . that we cannot achieve a final solution on the question until we come to a total settlement of the basic problems besetting the region. We understand also the great value and interest that Israel attaches to the city of Jerusalem. . . ‘*There can be no doubt whatsever that at least to the same extent that same value and interest are the heritage of Christians and Moslems. For this reason we are convinced that sooner or later, clearly and internationally, the status of Jerusalem will have to be defined, taking into account adequately and integrally that convergence of historic and religious. . . rights. . . °3 14. Argentina’s position with respect to Jerusalem has not changed. We hope that the parties directly involved in the problem will duly take into consideration this opinion which we believe is shared by a great number of States, and which has been reaffirmed by this Assembly and by the Security Council. 15. The Argentine Republic has no doubt that the implementation of the rights of the Palestinian people constitutes at present a central aspect of the solution to the Middle East crisis. On 22 November 1974, the Argentine delegation stated to the General Assembly as ollows: “The Palestinian people has a full right to selfdetermination and to lay its foundations as a sovereign and independent State, but not at the cost of Israel’s rights. Israel, in turn, has every right to continue to exist as a free and independent State, but not at the cost of the rights of the Palestinians or of the other Arab countries surrounding it.’ 16. Further, on 30 September 1977 the Minister for Foreign Affairs of my country said: ‘‘Those who adhere to rigid positions, trying to overlook the facts around them, and who aspire to the consolidation of transitory territorial conquests by means of measures that have been condemned even by their allies are conspiring against their own interests by postponing and making more difficult an integral solution to the crisis.”*5 5 Ibid., Thirty-second Session, Plenary Meetings, \Sth meeting, para. 206. resources. 18. The Jewish and Palestinian peoples constitute two realities in the Middle East. Neither one nor the other can reasonably continue to ignore the existence of its neighbours and the legitimacy of their rights, without incurring very serious risks, not only for themselves but also for the rest of the world. 1S. All must recognize Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign State within safe and internationally recognized borders. But all, including Israel, must also facilitate the conditions for the Palestinian people to decide their future in freedom and in their own territory, without pre-conditions alien to the spirit of the Charter of the United Nations. We believe thai the time has come for this mutual recognition to be granted. To postpone it would be tan‘amount to delaying dangerously the fulfilment of negotiations which could lead to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace. . 20. This mutual recognition would be facilitated by an international moratorium on the acts of violence that continue to beset the area. All the parties should, without any pre-condition, show their political will through the complete cessation of the use of force int any form. 21. My country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs stated before this Assembly, only a few weeks ago: **. . . my Government once again states its conviction that, until the rights of the Palestinian people are recognized and implemented, the idea of a comprehensive peace in the Middle East will continue to be Utopian. . .”’ [J0th meeting, para. 301.] The implementation of these rights requires the participation of all parties in the search for a negotiated ormula for a peaceful solution of disputes, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations. The Palestinian leadership which could thus emerge should have complete responsibility with respect to their territory as well as their natural resources, without exception. This would give practical effect, without pre-condition, to the concept of self-determination as it is legally and politically understood by the international community. 22. Nor should one reject the help of a neutral moderator at the first stage of the rapprochement. A personality who is considered impartial by both parties could informally play a major rofe in overcoming the barriers that still stand in the way of what we could call prior consultations. 23. Any solution to be arrived at by this or other means should necessarily be acceptable to all the parties involved, and eventually receive the endorsement of the international community. Only in this way could the outcome of the negotiation be lasting and effective. 24. The United Nations would play a central role in this process. A conference under its auspices could bring all parties involved into the negotiation process. It 78 IncnmMbhent nnon the Securitv Canneil ta taka tha 25. Alli the factors that I have highlighted during this statement constitute an inextricable whole whose solution must be undertaken simultaneously. Any partial approach to the problem would carry with it the risk of aggravating the crisis. But however its solution is -worked out, be it step by step or comprehensively, the political good will of all parties is a necessary precondition. As long as this good will is not forthcoming through specific measures to alter the present dangerous state of affairs, peace will continue to elude us. As long as some persist in the implementation of unilateral policies, violence will continue. 26. To believe that security can be achieved by relying on temporary military gains and by turning one’s back on political solutions of a permanent and general nature would demonstrate a failure to face reality whose consequences for the peoples of the Middle East go beyond those that any Government can afford. 27. We believe that an international awareness more conducive to efforts to achieve a better understanding of the problem is slowly beginning to take form. It is wise to encourage those who show willingness to talk and who are able to meet the great challenge posed by the search for progress towards a final peace, accepted by all the parties involved.

Developments in and regarding the Middle East offer evidence every day that the question of Palestine constitutes the core of the Middle East crisis and that the realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to selfdetermination and national independence is an inseparable part of this question. Actually, the Palestinian people has won this right by its sacrifices in human lives and by its highly developed national consciousness, so that the international community can no longer ignore it, either from the moral cr from the political standpoint. This has also been proved by the general debate at the current session, which kas very clearly reflected a positive evolution in world opinion with respect to the acceptance of the fact that there can be no settlement of the Middle East crisis without the exercise by the Palestinian people of its right to its own national State and without the recognition of the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Of special importance is the fact that this evolution is particularly noticeable among an ever-growing number of West European countries. No one can remain indifferent in the face of the struggte of a people for its survival, for what is invoived here is both a moral obligation and a political responsibility towards peace and security. 29. It is also encouraging that the world is becoming increasingly aware that such a solution to the question of Palestine can be found only within the framework of a comprehensive, durabie and just settlement of the Middle East problem in all its aspects, and that partial and separate steps are not conducive to that end but, on the contrary, exacerbate the Middle East crisis in its 30. No nation that cherishes its dignity can admit that the enjoyment of its national rights should be the subject of negotiations or bargaining among third parties. Therefore the acceptan:e of the fact that only the PLO can negotiate on a footing of equality on behalf of the Palestinian people is a prerequisite to any realistic step towards the settlement of the issue. Actually, not only has it been proved beyond any doubt that the PLO is the sole representative of the Palestinian people, but it is also becoming increasingly clear that the PLO is a responsible factor, contributing to the efforts aimed at a peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine and participating constructively in international life in general. In fact, the PLO co-operates in the taking of important decisions within the framework of the United Nations system, in the capacity of observer; it is a member of many specialized agencies and a participant in international conferences. The PLO is a full-fledged member of the non-aligned movement and of its Coordinating Bureau, to whose activities it makes a positive contribution. Through the PLO, the Palestinian people has realized its national revival; it has become aware of its own strength and has, finally, become an international subject having equal rights. 31. There is no doubt that the Middle East crisis constitutes one of the most acute focal points of crisis, of whose dimensions and iraplications I do not deem necessary to speak today. They are well known, both from the point of view of a regional and global threat to world peace and security, and from that of the responsibility for such a state of affairs. As a matter of fact, we are going to have a special debate on the Middle East. The unchanged Israeli policy of exclusive reliance on ‘force, continuation of aggression and undisguised expansion, as shown by the repeated acts of aggression against Lebancn, not only constitutes an impediment to .a peaceful settlement but also poses a threat to peace in the region and beyond. All the greater, therefore, is the responsibility of Israel and of all those who assist it directly or indirectly. 32. The gravity of the situation in the Middle East, which is even deteriorating in some aspects and particularly the danger hanging over the Palestinian people, makes it imperative to take urgent steps towards a comprehensive settlement of the Middle East crisis and to ensure the exercise of the national rights of the Palestinian people, in particular. For more than 30 years, this nation of more than 3.5 million people, like few peoples in mode:n history, has been deprived of its rights: its very existence is negated; it is subjected to occupation, to the policy of displacement and colonization, to the establishment of settlements and to other ways of depriving the Palestinian people of its national, cultural and religious identity. We are witnesses to such acts every day. The Security Council has debated them on several occasions, and mere recently both the General Assembly and the non-alined countries have condemned the arrest of the Mayor of Nablus. Therefore the question of the realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people is one of the great tests of international solidarity, a test to which all the countries and peoples in the world are put and, I would say, a test of ‘‘the conscience of mankind’’. The sooner we rid 33. The policy of non-alignment, even with regard to this question, provides a most comprehensive platform and points to adequate courses of action for solving the Palestinian question within the framework of an overall settlement of the Middle East crisis. Proceeding from the rejection of any policy of aggression, occupation or intervention, and from the defence of the inaliznable rights of self-determination, national independence and sovereignty, including of course the right of every people under colonial and foreign domination to establish its own State, the non-aligned countries initiated their own actions and supported every effort of the United Nations to implement General Assembly resolutions, especially resclution 3236 (XXIX). At the same time, they lent full support and assistr.s.:¢ to the Palestinian people, under the leadership of :he PLO, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, in its struggle for the realization of its right to self-determination, national independence, establishment of its own State and return to its homeland, in accordance with the principles and decisions of the United Nations. The non-aligned countries have confirmed this on many occasions and have thus provided the broadest and strongest support to, and have become the closest ally of, the Palestinian people in regard to the realization of its historical national aspirations. 34. Yugosiavia’s position regarding this question is well known. We consider that the indispensable framework for 2 curable and just solution was, and has - remained, witidrawal of Israel from all the Arab and Palestinian territories occupied in 1967; realization of the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people, including its right of return and right to establish its own State; and recognition of the right of all the peoples and countries of that region to secure an independent development. This is the basic platform which has been endorsed by practically the whole international communiiy. Only the implementation of this platform can create conditions for a comprehensive settlement and can arrest the downward slide towards a situation that might become uncontrollable, as it would become dependent on circumstances which are an integral part of regional confrontations that are becoming ever sharper, deeper and more global in that region. 35. The report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, in the drafting of which we took part as a Committee member, answers all important questions connected with the settlement of the Middle East crisis. We, of course, support that report in its entirety. W~. wish to stress that the Committee has again fully ccmpleted its task and deserves, therefore, to be commended by the General Assembly. It is most important now to proceed, as a matter of urgency, to the consistent implementation of the proposed measures, especially by the Security 36. Inkeeping with its policy of respect for the right cf all peoples and States to free national and social development, and with its opposition to any aggression and occupation, anywhere and by anyone, Yugoslavia has, from the beginning, been in solidarity with the aspirations of the Palestinian people for liberation and the establishment of a national State. We have consistently advocated a compiehensive, lasting, just and peaceful solution to the Middle East crisis and will continue to lend al! our support to all efforts exerted towards that end, because, as pointed out by President Tito in his recent message: “It is unpardonable that, in the present-day world in which the destinies of all peoples are intexdependent and interrelated, ons should dispute the right of the Palestinian people to its own territorial integrity, independence and freedom, a heritage enjoyed today by all the Member States of the United. Nations.” And he continued: ‘*This makes it incumbent on us, in the interest of peace and international understanding, to exert utmost efforts for stengthening all the actions of the international community aimed at realizing, without delay, the national rights of the Palestinian people because, without the realization of these rights, there can be neither a just nor a comprehensive and lasting settlement of the Middle East crisis.”’

The question of alestine has occupied many meetings of the General Assembly, the Security Council and several other United Nations bodies. The overwhelming majority of States Members of the United Nations is fully convinced that settlement of the Palestine problem is of the greatest significance for a comprehensive and lasting settlement of the conflict in the Middle East and, therefore, for the strengthening of international peace and security. The question of Palestine is basic to the Middle East problem, and there can be no solution of that problem without due regard for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. Finally, the principles on the basis of which the Palestine problem must be settled are very well known and have been widely recognized. 38. However, that preblem has yet to be settled. The Israeli ruling circles continue, as in the past, to ignore the inalienable rights of the Arab people of Palestine. The Israeli occupiers are doing all they can to deprive the Palestinian people of their fundamental rights— rights to which, according to the Charter of the United Nations and other norms of international law, all peoples of the world are entitled—to create a bridgehead for the implementation of their expansionist plans aimed at eliminating the Palestinian people, and, first and foremost, the political vanguard of the Palestinian resistance movement, the PLO. Israeli troops on Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, and in the course of those raids the most modern weapons are being tried out, supplied to Israel by the United States of America. 40. The Egyptian-Israeli negotiations on so-called Palestinian self-rule on the West Bank of the Jordan and in the Gaza District are also aimed at the further colonization by Israel of the occupied Arab lands. It is perfectly obvious that juggling with such terms as ‘‘selfrule’ or ‘‘autonomy’’, as interpreted by Israel, cannot conceal the intention of Tel Aviv to strike a back-room bargain designed to deprive the Arab people of Palestine of their inalienable national rights, including the right to establish their own State. There is no doubt that attempts to decide the fate of the Arab people of Palestine behind their back without the full-fledged participation of their legitimate representative, the PLO, are doomed to failure. 41. This is precisely the idea which was clearly reflected in the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People [A/34/ 35 and Corr.1], which is the basis for the consideration of this agenda item at the current session of the General Assembly. As can be seen from the report, during 1979 the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People worked hard to fulfil its mandate. The main efforts of the Committee were focused on having the Security Council resume its consideration of the recommendations of the General Assembly, contained in resolution 3 1/20 of 24 November 1976, and take the necessary measures to settle the Palestinian problem and to establish a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. 42. Indeed, in the course of several meetings which took place in June, July and August of this year, the Security Council did consider the question of the exercise by the Palestinian people of its inalienable rights. But, as other delegations have already pointed out, because of the well-known position of some members of the Security Council which protect Israel, those meetings did not produce any decision by the Security Council. The draft resolution prepared by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People was never put to the vote, despite the fact that the language of that draft resolution was considered in the Committee by many of its members, including the Ukrainian SSR, only as a compromise, as a minimum which could however play a definite and positive role in the restoration of justice to the Palestinlan neonle. 44. The delegation of the Ukrainian SSR supports those recommendations. The United Nations must make further efforts to restore the inalienable rights of the Arab people of Palestine, in order to achieve genuine and lasting peace in the Middle East. The path towards such a peace does not lie through deals of surrender, made behind the back of the Palestinians in disregard of their vital interests, but through a comprehensive political settlement with the participation on an equal footing of aii interested parties, including the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. 45. Sucha settlement, in the opinion of the Ukrainian SSR, must provide for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from all the Arab territories occupied in 1967, the implementation of the inalienable national rights of the Arab people of Palestine, including their right to establish their own State, and a guarantee of the independent existence and security of all the States in that region.

Five years have elapsed since the General Assembly in its wisdom adopted by an overwhelming majority its historic resolution 2236 (<XIX), pursuant to which it affirmed in the most explicit way the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, in particular the right to selfdetermination, the right to independence and national sovereignty, and the right for those Palestinians who had been displaced and uprooted to return to their homes and property. 47. The whole world hailed that decision as a major contribution to the cause of peace and justice in the Middle East, since it placed, once and for all, the Palestinian problem in its true dimensions. The representatives of Israel and its traditional allies had tried for more than a quarter of a ceritury to submerge that problem in humanitarian considerations, while in fact the problem was a highly politica: one and its solution is the essential pre-condition to the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. 48. Since the adoption of the aforementioned resolution, intense efforts have been made by the United Nations to implement it and to that end, pursuant to General Assembly resolution 3376 (XXX), was established the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. As its name indicates, this Committee’s mission is to promote the complete realization of the legitimate aspirations.of the Palestinian people. In the exercise of its functions— which it has discharged with a great deal of dedication despite numerous difficulties—the Committee has submitted to the General Assembly a series of recommendations that are both just and timely and which have been endorsed by the General Assembly in resolutions 31/20. 32/40 and 33/28. 50. By their very wide acceptance, therefore, those recommendations—despite certain reservations and distortions formulated against them by some for wellknown reasons—constitute a sound foundation for the settlement of the Palestine question. To disregard those recommendations is to disregard the deep-seated, legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people and, ina word, means prolonging the situation of tension now existing in the Middle East. 51. For the present debate in the General Assembly on the question of Palestine to be positive, it should, in my delegation’s view, be focused on the obstacles and difficulties that have prevented until now the implementation of the recommendations of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. In this connexion, my delegation wishes to express its appreciation to Mr. Médoune Fall, Chairman of the Committee, for the very clear and lucid way in which he submitted the Committee’s report yesterday [77th meeting] and for the enlightened guidance that he has given for over three years to the work of that Committee, of which the Lao People’s Democratic Re- _ public is a member. 52. It appears from the Committee’s report, which is now before the General Assembly, and from the very able presentation of its Chairman at our 77th meeting, that the efforts to promote the implementation of the Committee’s recommendations, pursuant to paragraph 9 of General Assembly resolution 33/28 A, have again in 1979——as was the case in the two previous years—come up against the inertia of the Security Council which, owing to the negative attitude of one of its permanent members, has not been able to take a decision on the positive and concrete measures proposed by the Committee. This very deplorable situation should be ended at all costs, because it is a serious challenge to the fervent wishes of the overwhelming majority of the members of this Assembly and seriously undermines the credibility of the United Nations. 53. Moreover, by blocking any beginning of a solution to the Palestine problem, which is considered and recognized as being the heart of the problem of the Middle East, this situation seriously endangers peace and security in that part of the world, and even in the world at large. In addition, it encourages Israel to pursue the intensification of its policy of attrition against the PLO, which is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and against all Palestinian patriots who have shown sympathy for the PLO, with a view to establishing—through elements at its service—its socalled internal autonomy on the right bank of the Jordan River and the Gaza Strip. 55. In the occupied territories, the conclusions of the various organs set up by the United Nations to investigate Israeli practices have shown that there have been cases of torture and massive violation of human rights ° committed by the occupying authorities, and that the latter have pursued a systematic policy of establishing settlements, thereby flouting the Charter, the relevant resolutions of the United Nations and article 49 of the fourth Geneva Convention.’ The best illustrations of that policy have just been given in the recent decisions of the Israeli Government to establish, despite univer- - sal condemnation, new settlements and to repeal the +provisions that prohibited Israeli companies and citizens from acquiring lands in occupied Arab territories. It is greatly to be feared that, as a result of these new measures, the Palestinians will shortly be led, in one way or another, to hand over their lands ‘to the occupiers who, one day, having nothing more to gain, will just throw them into refugee camps. In this connexion, the recent arbitrary arrest of the Mayor of Nablus, an arrest accompanied by deportation measures, constitutes—if, indeed, that were needed—a very enlightening example of what I have just said. 56. All those acts constitute a very serious challenge to our Organization and to the international community as a whole. 57, In the present conditions of violence and tension existing in the Middle East because of Israel’s hegemonistic and expansionist policy, we wonder how ‘long the Security Council—or, more precisely, the Government of the United States of America, which has threatened to use its right of veto to defend Israel— will continue to let itself be led by the nose by the authorities of that country? How much longer will it close its eyes te the suffering and humiliation of the Palestinian people and other Arab peoples who are victims of Israeli-imperialist aggression? Any delay in finding a just and lasting solution to the Palestinian problem will only increase the suffering and tension in that part of the world. 58. Basing itself on facts and events that have occurred in the occupied territories in the last few months, our Organization must no longer let itself be taken in by the deceptive prospects of the Camp David agreements and of other partial peace agreements. Those agreements, which have been vigorously rejected and condemned by practically all Arab countries and by the Sixth Conference of the non-aligned countries, will have the sole effect of perpetuating and strengthening the Israeli occupation of Arab territories and will result in the indefinite postponement of the exercise by the Palestinian people of their inalienable rights. _ 7 Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949 (United Nations. Treaty Series. pation on an equal footing of the PLO in all peace negotiations, which must take place ix conformity with the relevant resolutions of the Untied Nations. 60. All these elements for a just and equitable settlement of the problem are reflected in the recom- . mendations of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, which have already been endorsed three times by the General Assembly. Besides endorsing them for a fourth time, the General Assembly ought, this year, te consider how best it can induce the Security Council to take positive measures With a view to the practical implementation cv these recommendations. 61. The delegation of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic is prepared to support any initiative to that effect.

The United Nations was seized of the question of Palestine as early as two years after its birth. The distortions and falsifications which have infiltrated public discussions over the past three decades have been equalled only by the inexplicable failure of this esteemed world Organization to take a single concrete step to restore legality or to achieve redemption for the victimized Palestinian peopie, whose caiastrophe is unique in the annals of contemporary history. 63. Itis therefore a breath of fresh and unpolluted air that, under the guidance of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, a booklet has been published which narrates objectively and succinctly the tragedy of the Palestinian people in its factual historical perspective and in its continuing awesome unfolding according to the master plan of Israel and the world Zionist organization and their supporters, which has as a goal nothing less than the national obliteration of the Palestinian people throughout the whole of their ancestral homeland. This resuscitation of the facts is a well-deserved and fitting tribute to Mr. Médoune Fall, the Ambassador of Senegal, who has done so much to clarify the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people in an uphill struggle against great odds. For the mere term ‘‘Palestinian rights’’ has hitherto been considered unmentionable by misguided sectors in some parts of the world, under the spell of Zionist brain-washing and control. I am sure that representatives will agree with me when I state that the United Nations will always acknowledge him as one of its most dedicated and courageous statesmen when he concludes his outstanding tenure in office at the end of this year. 64. This booklet, entitled The Question of Palestine, deserves the highest commendation for having condensed into a scant 31 pages the sequence of events, which had been blurred or buried by mountains of debris and a gigantic campaign of cover-up and distortion which could only be cleared away by careful reading. But how many people in the world are able or motivated to dis through volumes and learn the truth? 66. First, the historical narration of the long panorama of Palestinian history, while encompassing the whole of Mandated Palestine, is predominantly focused on the iand of Canaan—now the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem—and hardly mentions the indigenous people of four fifths of Palestine, the Philistines. Palestine had been their exclusive abode for thousands of years and the Israelis had never wrested an inch of territory from them. They are a substantial component of the Palestinian melting-pot and it is after the Philistines that the land of Palestine is named. They are, of course, the creators of the great Minoan civilization. This four fiftiss of Palestine is not even related to the mythology of the ‘‘promised lJand’’, still less to Eretz Israel. Yet it comprised the great bulk of what came to be known as Israel in 1948, 67. My second correction concerns the western wall of the Haram Esh-Sharif Holy Sanctuary, which encompasses the Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. The early part of the report refers to the destruction of the Temple by Titus in 70 A.D. and makes reference to the western wall as the only remnant left of the Temple. In fact, the same source used in the report—namely the fiadings of the international commission appointed in 1930, with the approval of the League of Nations and under a neutral former Foreign Minister of Sweden, to inquire into Jewish and Moslem claims regarding this spot—asserts emphatically that the wall and the pavements indisputably belong to the Islamic Waqf foundations. It acknowledges that the yews have the right of prayer on the site, which right had been granted to them by Saladin in the twelfth century. 68. The extensive excavations made in and around this location over the past 12 years have not unearthed a single piece of evidence that the western wal! had any connexion whatever with the Temple. It is simply a part of the great, historic wall which completely surrounded the Islamic Holy Sanctuary. As to the right of Jews to pray and venerate there, our position is that they have always had that right, but any unlawful claims to possession are simply invalid. 69. The report on the question of Palestine has exploded numerous myths and put forward irrefutable facts which have thus far been largely ignored in public discussion. I shall highlight some of these facts. 70. First, despite Israel’s claims to legitimacy on the basis of the secret Balfour Declaration of 1917, Britain itself acknowledged in 1939 what an authority had stated, that ‘‘The most significant and incontrovertible fact is, however, that by itself the Declaration was legally impotent. For Great Britain had no sovereign rights over Palestine, it had no proprietary interest, it had no authority to dispose of the land. The Declaration was merely a statement of British intentions and no more.”’ ® Sol M. Linowitz, ‘‘The Legal Basis for the State of Israel’, American Bar Association Journal, vol. 43, 1957, p. 522. **_,.their existence as independent nations can be provisionally recognized subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a Mandafory until such time as they are abie to stand alone.” 72. Even the author of the Balfour Declaration himself conceded that ‘‘so far as Palestine is concerned, the [Allied] Powers have made no statement of fact which is not admittedly wreng’’. 73. Thirdly, to spur Zionist immigration, the slogan spread abroad by the Zionist schemers was: ‘‘A land without a people for a people without land’’. The same thing was said about making deserts bloom, even though we know that in most parts of Palestine there is so much rainfall—for instance, in Upper Galilee—that it is already green without anything having to be done about it. And the deserts are still mainly deserts, because there is no water te make them green. And yet it was said all over the world: ‘‘making the deserts bloom’’. This notwithstanding the fact that there were 800,000 Palestinian inhabitants, a substantial number for a small country in the early part of the twentieth century. What was the population of Britain in the eighteenth century? Five million. What was the population of America in the eighteenth century? Five million. Palestine had a population of 800,000 in the early part of the twenticth century. Yet the Zionists claim that Palestine was a land without a people, and that they were people without a land. 74. Fourthly, the King-Crane Commission, which consisted of two Americans, had in its report to the Allied Commission pointed out, inter alia, that since ~ ‘‘the non-Jewish population of Palestine—nearly ninetenths of the whole—are emphatically against the entire Zionist programme”’, its implemensation would be a *‘violation of the principle [of self-determination] and of the peoples’ rights though it [be] kept within the forms of law’’. 75. Fifthly, the Haycraft Commission in 1921, the Shaw Commission in 1929, the Hope-Simpson Commission in 1930, and the Peel Commission came to identical conclusions in analysing.the causes of Palestinian resistance. 76. The Palestine Royal Commission, which had carried out an extensive investigation in 1937, stated: ‘After. . . studying the ccurse of events in Palestine since the War, we have no doubt as to what were ‘the underlying causes’. . . They were: ‘*(i) The desire of Arabs for national independence. (ii) Their hatred and fear of the establishment of the Jewish National Home. 9 Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers: the Paris Peace Conference, 1919, Department of State publication 3009 which brought about the ‘disturbances’ of 1920, 1921, 1929 and 1933. **(ii) They were, and always have been, inextricably linked together... .”’!9 77. In 1937 the Commission came to the same conclusion as did Professor Arnold Toynbee in 1968 regarding the forcible conversion of Palestine into a Jewish State against the will of the Arabs, thus withholding national self-determination when the Arabs were a majority in Palestine, and conceding it only when the Jews were a majority. The essence of the Palestine question was summed up in 1968 by Professor Toynbee, one of the greatest historians of all time. He wrote: ** All through those thirty years, Britain [admitted] into Palestine, year by year, a quota of Jewish immigrants that varied according to the strength of the respective pressures of the Arabs and Jews at the time. These immigrants could not have cume in if they had not been shielded by a British chevaux-defrise. Ef Palestine had remained under Ottoman Turkish rule, or if it had become an independent Arab State in 1918,’’ —as it should have— **Jewish immigrants would never have been admitted into Palestine in large enough numbers to enable them to overwhelm the Palestinian Arabs in this Arab people’s own country. The reason why the State of Israel exists today and why today 1,500,000 Palestinian Arabs are refugees is that, for thirty years, Jewish immigration was imposed on the Palestinian Arabs by British military power until the immigrants were sufficiently numerous and sufficiently weil-armed to be able to fend for themselves with tanks and planes of their own.” I remember that in 1936-1937 the British had as many as 100,000 troops in the small territory of Palestine. Toynbee continues: ‘*The tragedy of Palestine is not just a local one; itis a tragedy for the World, because it is an injustice that is a menace to the World’s peace.”’ 78. We have always maintained that, though we were disenchanted with the dismemberment of Palestine by the General Assembly partition resolution of 29 November 1947 [resolution 181 (11)], it was the Israelis who torpedoed its implementation. The Palestinians did protest for two or three days, but the Israelis expleited the few incidents to implement their strategic plan, called ‘‘Plan Dalet’’, which had been prepared Well in advance and was designed not only to establish control in the areas allotted to the Jewish State but to extend it to the areas designated for the Arab State. 79. We witnessed full-scale military attacks from the first week, but the all-out launching of the operation to occupy territories of the Palestinian State took place as soon as British control had weakened and started disin- . indeed mind-boggling. 80. The world had been brain-washed into believing that the Arab armies had entered Palestine to nip the Jewish State in the bud. If ever there was a premeditated plan of unbridled conquest and aggression against a whole people, it is Israel’s ongoing plans to cannibalize the Palestinian people. 81. If there is any doubt that that was the case, it was proved in May 1949, when the two sides agreed to the Lausanne Protocol,!! which would have solved the question of Palestine on the boundaries of the partition established by General Assembly resolutions 181 (ID and 194 (IID, conceding the Palestinian State and the right of return. Israel reneged after signing the Protocol, and, Israel having been refused admission to membership of the United Nations, the Israeli representative assured the United Nations right from this rostrum of his Government’s willingness to comply. He elaborated as follews his Government’s policy on partition: ‘“*With regard to the status of Assembly resolu‘ions in international law, it was admitted that any which touched the national sovereignty of the Members of the United Nations were mere recommendations and not binding. However, the Palestine resolution was essentially different, for it concerned the future of a territory, subject to an international trust.” The same applies to Namibia. 82. The Israeli representative went on to say that: “Only the United Nations as a whole was competent tc determine the future of the territory, and its decision, therefore, had a binding force.”” 83. We have seen how binding this pledge has been on Israel. To complete the ‘‘Plan Dalet’’, Israel launched on 5 June 1967 a self-confessed, premeditated and sneak all-out air and ground attack against three Arab States Members of the United Nations. Aggression against any of us was an attack on all, by solemn commitment, national oblig.::;on and the regional collective security system which the Charter has sanctified. 84. In the aftermath, on 26 June 1967, we pleaded before the United Nations for peace based on justice, without which peace can only be illusory and transient. The sages of old have preached that might does not confer right. For justice is the essence of harmony in national and international relations and the integrity of their virtue. Any contravention of justice carries with it the seed which ultimately assures the perpetrator’s undoing. We had warned against complacency in permitting an aggressor to reap the spoils of his aggression, in flagrant violation of the law of nations. the sanctity of 85. As I speak today, our earlier forebodings have, by the enormity of the violations, surpassed all conceivable constraints and elementary prudence. These are 86. We have had to endure [2 years of anguish, consternation and unmitigated catastrophe. While any glimmer of hope in the search for a just and lasting peace has consistently eluded all our efforts and has been callously snuffed out in the dark alleys ofa sinister aiid awesome unknown, our countrymen and kinsmen, in prolonged captivity and chains, have witnessed the devastating spectacle and process of individual and national dissolution. 87. A downward spiral of shrinkage and retrogression has been their daily ordeal and nightmare. Casting aside ail the provisions laid down in the Hague Convention of 1907'2 and in the subsequent fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 relative to the protection of civilians, victims of occupation, the Israeli occupiers have been treating their victims as impediments to be removed rather than as human beings, endowed by their Creator with inalienable human rights, among which are sanctity of life, freedom. and the meagre resources of land, water and enterprise, without which their continued survival in their ancestral homeland stands in mortal jeopardy. 88. Arbitrary and whimsical misrule, when an innocent victim knows not how tomorrow will unfold, is the worst type of tyranny. Will his land be confiscated? Will his water be seized? Will his son or daughter be confined to the mer..iess and inimical gaoler, ever hungry for an additiona: prev? Will one in the course of an insufferable existence, however advanced in age, be punished or banished across a cease-fire line for merely uttering a protest? The Mayor of Nablus is the latest victim. He has been on a hunger strike in gaol for 12 days and his wife has today taken refuge in the Red Cross facility in Arab Jerusalem and started her own hunger strike. 89. What remains, one wonders, of what are commonly and solemnly known as human and civil rights, let alone the political rights of national identity and self-determination which are the birthright of every person on this planet? 90. The facts are more eloquent than any words can portray and the facts are gruesome and grim. As recently as July of this year, a Security Council Commission!* definitively established that 27 per cent of the occupied territories of Arab Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have already been devoured and colonized; 27 per cent of the inhabitants are there no longer, notwithstanding the categorical General Assembly resolution 2452 (XXIII) of 19 De- 12 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The Hague Conventions and Declarations of 1899 and 1907 (New York, Oxford University Press, 1915). eration or embellishment, what is happening is the slow death and gradual demise of a whole peopie, both physically and psychologically. 92. Obnoxious as every alien occupation inherently is, it is doubly inimical when it is blatantly transformed into the systematic despoliation and colonization of almost every corner of the Holy Land. In the Golan Heights, it is quasi-total, in the words of the Security Council Commission. 93. By means of organized violence obtained and sustained largely from the outside, Israeli occupation is diligently and unilaterally delineating on the ground what Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 .(1973) had envisaged being accomplished by multilateral negotiations and agreement under appropriate United Nations auspices, and with the participation of all parties concerned. . 94. Security Council resolution 242 (1967) went beyond the elimination of the consequences of Israeli aggression against three Arab States. It spilled over into the far broader dimensions of attempting finaily to solve the tragedy of the close to 4 million people of Palestine, both under occupation and in exile. It is therefore incomprehensible and indefensible that the Palestinian people, who are the most intimately and directly concerned and whose fate is being ordained, should be excluded from participation in the resolution of their own fate. I need hardly assert that the PLO has been universally recognized as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. That fact has been repeatedly asserted by this Assembly. 95. Indeed, almost 30 years ago, the parliamentary act of unity between the East and the West Bank, passed unanimously on 24 April 1950 in the unified State of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, specifically provided in article IT: ‘|. . its reaffirmation of its intent to preserve the full Arab rights in Palestine, to defend those rights by all lawful means in the exercise of its natural rights but without prejudicing the final settlement of Palestine’s just cause within the sphere of national aspirations, inter-Arab co-operation and international justice’’. 96. The fate of all the Palestinian Arab rights is currently being considered ina final settlernent. It would be a travesty of justice if such a final settlement should take the form of a monologue rather than a dialogue, by the exclusion of the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people from the shaping of their destiny and the determination of their own future. 97. It is unnecessary to reiterate that the Palestinian dilemma is at the core of the Middle East conflict. Once it fo emanlenA willie A Geen ele ALI 2 ta. 98. Jordan’s commitment to a just and lasting peace has been consistent and persevering. Nobody in the know would contest this fact. Why then has Jordan, in concert with the whole Arab world, balked at the current peace efforts which are being pursued outside United Nations auspices? The answer is clear-cut and overwhelming. Jordan has found itself with no alternative but to reject the Camp David agreements because of very substantive and inescapable considerations. The reasons are manifold, but they can be summed up as follows. 99, First, the framework prescribed for a solution to the problem of the occupied territories, the foremost of which is Jerusalem, is a priori flawed, inasmuch as it specifically tolerates an indefinite perpetuation of military occupation. This is a far cry from Security Council resolution 242 (1967), reiterated in resolution 338 (1973), which stipulates in no uncertain terms the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force, and calls for the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from the territories occupied in 1967, including, of course, Arab Jerusalem. The provision in the Camp David agreements about the relocation of Israeli troops to specified areas within the occupied territories is no more than a military, and perhaps political, convenience. It does not end military occupation. One can walk the streets of New York, London or Paris and hardly come across a single soldier. Does this mean that there are no military forces in those three great countries to defend their realms? Certainly there are such forces, but they are stationed in the positions where they should be to defend their own country and citizenry. 100. Israeli military relocation, on the other hand, can only be intended to perpetuate the subjugation of the occupied people, like ‘‘Big Brother’ watching over the good behaviour of subdued subjects. And if reasons of security are advanced, we should emphatically point out that the weak are invariably more in need of security than the strong. Furthermore, the premises of a lasting peace can never rest on the sharp edge of a bayonet, but should be based on good will, amity and voluntary mutual acceptability through equity. 101. Secondly, Jordan vehemently rejects any proposition which would reduce its proud and closest kin and partners to the status of tutelage under Israeli overlordship. That is an insult to human dignity and an affront to an indomitable people, whose hallowed land had been the cradle of civilization and a beacon of light for countless generations. 162. Their provisional sovereign independence over Palestine was recognized almost 60 years ago by the League of Nations. And now, when decolonization has all but been accomplished, we are being asked to acuiesce in their diminution to so-called self-rule, with isparate and critical reservations, and bereft of any meaningful attributes of freedom, geographic cohesion, self-determination or independence, either present or 104. What is more, such demeaning self-rule and internal settlement would apply to the-existing and substantially reduced inhabitants, and not to their territory. Mr. Begin wants sovereignty over that territory. This clearly means that when the inevitable process of mortal attrition takes its course, as surely it will, the israeli aggressor will be there, waiting to inherit the and. 105. Thirdly, in spite of repeated United Nations resolutions and the accepted norms of human rights, the displaced, the dispossessed and the refugees, in prolonged dispersal and excruciating agony—which only a refugee can fully comprckend—will remain in exile in perpetuity, save for a tiny few who may be repatriated at the selective pleasure of those in occupation and subject to their veto. 106. Even under such circumscribed conditions, by the end of the five-year transition, those who return will find hardly any land on which they can settle if the Israelis persist—as they insist they will, and indeed do now—in their self-proclaimed policy and practice of relentless sequestration, colonization and annexation. In short, the Palestinians, the lawful owners of the country and of the land, and the amalgam of all the peoples who have inhabited the country since the dawn of history, indeed for 7,000 years, have been treated as objects and impediments to be dispensed with in due course, and not as free and lawful citizens of their own ancestral homeland. 107. Fourthly, a peak of tragic irony reaches new heights of incomprehensible insensitivity in the role assigned to Jordan, without either its knowledge or consent. The role that is envisaged is that, along with the forces of occupation, it should take part in policing, aiding and abetting the forces of occupation during the interim transition, not towards the attainment of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to freedom, self-determination and dignity, but towards a precarious and novel form of blatant and ill-disguised subjugation. * 108. This is a role which Jordan could in no circumstances countenance, for it is a country that is imbued with the great legacy of our Arab and Islamic heritage. Jordan can never be a partner in the enslavement of other peoples and, most emphatically, not of our brothers and sisters with whom we share one legacy and nationhood and have shared a common sovereignty in conditions of dignity and equality, until adversity struck its fateful blow. 109. We have often been asked this: if the current peace process is as intolerable as we state it to be, what positive alternative do we have to offer? I wish to take this opportunity to stress that the Ninth Arab Summit Conference, which was held at Baghdad from 2 to 5 November 1978, and the Tenth Arab Summit Conferrocess which accommodates the ultimate Israeli objectives of expansion, annexation and dominance, while ignoring a meaningful redemption of the inalienable and sacred rights of the Palestinian people. Although we do not claim to innovate a magic panacea for resolving such a conflict, our positive response has been to the effect that the peace effort should be put back on the right track and should be inspired by guidelines emanating from natural justice—principles prescribed by laws, human and divine—and resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council which have given expression and embodiment to those eternal scales of justice. 110. But a crucial imperative is that it takes two parties to achieve peace. It is of pivotal importance, therefore, that the Israeli leadership and people engage in deep soul-searching and fundamental reappraisal of what their real aims and objectives are or should be, for the moment of truth has arrived when basic decisions must be made without ambivalence or equivocation. 111. As we have been stating repeatedly since 1967, the Israelis can have either the occupied lands or peace but, verily, they cannot have both. Their foremost choice must necessarily be whether or not they opt to live in peace, amity and conditions of equality and justice with their neighbours. If they do, then all other issues, including security, can be rationally discussed with all the parties directly concerned, under United Nations auspices. This may well be the last chance for a peaceful solution for a long time to come. 112. If, on the contrary, Israel chooses the goal of monolithic and exclusive annexation and hegemony over the whole of Palestine and beyond, in a spiral of military expansion, then no time or effort need be expended in a futile exercise of unfulfilled expectations. We are not here to deceive our peoples or our masses. The consequences would inevitably turn a conflict of decades into a struggle of generations. 113. For our part, we shall reconsider, and indeed are considering, our options, in consonance with our national interest, security and survival. We are confident of the unflinching support of the overwhelming majority of mankind, as represented in this Assembly. Our confidence derives from the justice of our cause, the moderation of our course and the impeccable fidelity of the United Nations to its own noble principles, its Charter and the resolutions which are inspired by its letter and spirit. There can and should be no complacency towards States which arrogate unto themselves the formulation of their own avaricious laws and policies, in total disregard of the mainstream of universal human values. 114. It is needless for me to reiterate that this applies not only to the question of Palestine and the conflict in the Middle East but in equal measure to the plight of our brethren in Namibia, Zimbabwe and all other areas where racial oppression is still entrenched. In both instances, injustice, as an Arabic proverb states, might have one day of triumph, but justice will inevitably witness its one thousand days. 116. It should be a haven for benevolence, goodness, devotion and communion with divine providence. It should be a universal meeting place for all those who believe in the inherent goodness of mankind, which the Creator of the universe ordained. Exclusive sectarian, parochial and terrestrial claims and ambitions should never compromise its universal message. 117. [feel impelled to declare that, as far as our people are concerned, we would rather perish than suffer their alienation. Any lasting settlements must never overlook or belittle the intense and deeply rooted emotions which bind our citizens—both Christian and Moslem— and our coreligionists of the Islamic world to the serene and glorious city of God and man. 118. Israeli military withdrawal from Arab Jerusalem is a prerequisite to any just and lasting peace. Freedom of worship and movement and openness can be guaranteed and assured for the adhcrents of all faiths, within a matrix of peace as well as a collective international commitment. 119. There is a world to win, and a world to lose, by a judicious and prudent approach to the hallowed City of Jerusalem. The world cannot afford to ignore its fate, its unique message and its ultimate impact upon world peace and spiritual concord. What else can I state on the question of Palestine? 120. There are only afew remarks I should like to add. I should like to remind the Ambassador of Israel, who spoke this morning, that, if anyone has anything to do with the advertising industry, as he has accused the Arab countries of having, it is Israel and its supporters. Israel does not have to learn. It teaches, because, with the World Zionist Organization, it owns that industry and has manipulated it in one of the biggest operations of deception that history has ever known. That being the case, the Ambassador of Israel has expertly described this morning what the advertising industry does and is intended to do. Since we are pupils, I think we might benefit from his advice: ‘‘to dull the mind, to numb the participants until they obediently, and out of pure exhaustion, repeat the prescribed slogans at the prescribed time.”’ [78th meeting, para. 27.] But, to the dismay of the Ambassador of Israel, this technique has not been working at all in the United Nations. Why? Because its Members are highly learned and articulate and they know what is right and what is wrong, and therefore are resistant to mass manipulation. They are unable to swallow a hoax that is one of the biggest in history. The Ambassador of Israel can insult their discerning judgement but cannot insult their integrity and 122. I should like to ask in what ways the Israelis - maintained, and the representative of Israel said this morning ‘‘for 3,000 years and more maintained. . . unbroken links’’ to Palestine, when their entire stay there was a very short sojourn. We all know that, because we have read history. 123. What about the indigenous Palestinians who never left Palestine for 7,000 years of recorded history? Were they invisible? Did they use masks to hide their presence? Or were they ‘‘present-absent’’, as the Israelis would wish them to be? During their brief sojourn in and invasion of Palestine, do not Israeli records acknowledge their fights in the lands of Canaan, which they called ‘‘the land of milk and honey’, Philistia, the coastal and plain areas of Palestine, or are we to understand that the Israelis had been fighting phantoms and mirages, or simply that history is mere mythology? If the representative of Israel is willing to repudiate his own holy books, we are not, for we regard them as sacred books. 124. {agree with Ambassador Blum when he states that, ‘‘even if a large part of the nation was driven from one exile to another, many stayed on’ [ibid., para. 35]. Indeed they did, and they are at present an integral part of the Palestinian people, many of whom became Christians or Muslims over countless generations. But, as ‘Koestler'* proves, it certainly does not apply to the Eastern European Jews, the Khazars, who adopted Judaism eight or nine centuries ago as a religion, but have no roots whatsoever in the land of Palestine, and no relationship to the Semites. Those are the people who engineered the uprooting of the Palestinian people through the Zionist ideology. 125. We very deeply deplore and condemn their persecution in Europe, as we deeply deplore and condemn the fact that an innocent third party—the Palestinian people—should have been chosen to pay the price. 126. Ambassador Blum’s reference to the late King Feisal of Iraq was not only blatantly distorted, but untrue. His private secretary, the late Mr. Awni Abdul Hadi, in my many meetings with him in his library at Cairo a few years ago, denied the whole story as misrepresented by the Zionists. King Feisal did not object to real Jews going to Palestine, in measured numbers, to live there as the Arabs have done throughout history. Indeed, whenever the Jews were persecuted, it was the Arabs who told the Jews: ‘‘You are welcome to take 19 Arthur Koestler, The Thirteenth Tribe—The Khazar Empire and its Heritage (New York, Random House, 1976). ate King Hussein, preferred to lose his throne and be sent into exile to Cyprus to die a lonely death. He also gave up the unified Arab domains envisaged in the Hussein-McMahon correspondence rather than forfeit one inch of Palestine as an Arab country. 127. As for Ambassador Blum’s wily expression that the League Mandate encompassed both sides of the River Jordan, may I remind him that the Mandate forbade, in 1922, the application of the infamous and unlawful Balfour Declaration in Jordan, which became sovereign and independent in 1946. 128. Inthe first place, the British, as I said earlier, had no legal authority to grant it in 1917. But even the illegal grantor had withheld it from Jordan, with the approval of the League of Nations in 1922. 129, Since Ambassador Blum has made spurious comparisons between the vastness of the Arab world and what he regards as little Israel, I should like to remind him that the true comparison should be with the vast countries to which most Jewish immigrants naturally belong, not with the tiny homeland of the indigenous Palestinian people. And, besides, morally speaking, it is like saying to another man or woman: ‘You have nine children and I have none. Why don’t you agree to give up one of your children?”’ . 130. The Palestinian people have their own inextricable links to their homeland in Palestine in their own right, regardless of whether the Arab world is 5 million square miles or 5,000 square miles. The Israeli attitude totally ignores the inherent worth of the individual and of a small people, as are the Palestinians. Why do not the Palestinians begrudge Israel the luxury of having 10 to 15 million Americans of the Judaic faith, or 3 million Jews who belong to another super-Power, or their wealth, or their awesome influence in circles of power all over the world? 131. When the Israelis begin to think of the tragedy of the Palestinian people in human terms, then, and only then, will there be any prospect of a viable peace.

The importance accorded by the United Nations to the Palestinian problem is not only natural but is, at the same time, vital in the process of establishing a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. There is now a growing conviction in the world of the validity of the princip!e constantly advocated by Egypt: that this problem is the core of the whole situation, and that its just solution constitutes the basis of a lasting peace in the area. It is acknowledged today that the Palestinian people is not inferior to the other peoples in the world that have regained their liberty. Therefore it is beyond any dispute that this people should regain its liberty and exercise its right to self-determination. Ever since 1947, the United Nations has been continuously seized of the Palestinian question, a matter which has been reflected in numerous resolutions and initiatives by our world Organization, in an effort to achieve a just and peaceful settlement of this vital problem. 134. Fortunately, the importance accorded to the Paiestinian issue by the international community, represented here by the General Assembly, comes at a time when the world will celebrate, two days hence, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. That is a day when the people of Egypt and Egyptian institutions will participate with other countries in the world in expressing solidarity with the cause of the Palestinian people. The commemoration of that day by the United Nations is evidence of the importance that the Organization attaches to the question of Palestine, because the United Nations has a special responsibility to protect the peoples of the world and to enable them to regain their rights, especially the Palestinian people, Egypt took part in last year’s celebration which took place at the United Nations and will participate this year as well, on 29 November. President El- Sadat expressed Egypt’s support and solidarity at last year’s celebration, in the message he sent to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and to the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. President El-Sadat stated: ‘The brotherly Palestinian people has been subjected during its glorious history to attempts to destroy its national identity, sometimes to the extent of denying its very existence and trving to destroy this existence physically and morally. All these attempts, in addition to being alien to the basic elements of legality and justice, were the main reason for the unparalleled human tragedy which our area faced. This also led to a long period of tensions, wars and destruction suffered by the people of the area, where enormous human ‘and material resources were squandered instead of being channelled towards development, welfare and prosperity. ‘‘During this long period, Egypt, supported by all the Arab countries and peace-loving States and nations inside and outside the United Nations, led the call for the necessity of the restoration to the Palestinian people of its national rights in order to achieve the just and durable peace which could secure for all peoples of the area the right to live in peace in their countries without fearing any threats or aggression.’’!® 135. Egypt’s opposition to all forms of exploitation, colonialism and neo-colonialism is an irrevocable and well-documented fact. Furthermore, its opposition to racism, racial discrimination, foreign occupation and “*In the Middle East, no one has endured what the valiant Palestinian people and the people of Egypt were able to sustain. No single people in the Middle East has suffered as much as they have suffered.”’ [15th meeting, para. 120.} 136. Egypt has persevered in its struggle in all fields since the war of 1967. Just as it went to war with all the courage required, now it has embarked upon the battle of peace, a battle to ensure the restoration of the rights of the Palestinian people. For wise men the battle for peace is even more arduous than the battle of war. Nothing is easier than to go to war, with all its sufferings, but the battle for peace, with all the historical responsibilities it involves, is even more delicate and difficult. It requires the same aptitudes and the same strength as the battle of war. Egypt has proved in the two battles that it is fuily aware of its responsibilities and is prepared to act on the basis of them. 137. Egypt’s conviction concerning those principles has enabled it to oppose Israel in political and military confrontations. Just as it accepted Security Council resolution 242 (1967) and co-operated with Mr. Gunnar Jarring, the Special Representative of the Secretary- General for its implementation, it exercised its natural right to defend its territory. At the same time, it welcomed all peaceful initiatives during the first six years of the Israeli occupation, and especially the creation of the ‘‘committee of wise men’’ of the OAU, and it afterwards entered the glorious October war in order to thwart the conspiracy to impose the fait accompli and the perpetuation of the state of ‘‘neither peace nor war’’. 138. In his statement, Egypt's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs has emphasized to the Assembly that: ‘“‘In both instances, Egypt was committed to peace. Its co-operation with the peace initiatives was not for tactical purposes in an attempt to score temporary propaganda gains, but was motivated only by its firm belief in the principles advocated by the United Nations Charter and its commitment to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war. . . Egypt did not resort to arms as an end in itself; rather, it took that course as a means of shattering the stalemate that had been imposed upon our region. . . Representatives will no doubt recall that at the time when Egyptian armed forces were shattering thé Bar- Lev Line, undertaking the historic crossing of the Suez Canal. . ., President El-Sadat called for the convening of an international peace conference with the participation of all interested parties, including the representatives of the Palestinian people, to seek a just and durable peace. It was the October Ramadan war that made it nossible for the Palestinian 139. Egypt is working patiently and perseveringly to restore Arab and Palestinian rights, in the face of Israeli occupation. Withdrawal from Sinai is only a part of the total withdrawal from all occupied Arab and Palestinian territories, including the Holy City of Jerusalem. What Egypt is seeking is a comprehensive settlement. Israel cannot claim sovereignty over any occupied Arab or Palestinian territory, because sovereignty belongs to the people living in those territories; sovereignty belongs to the Palestinian people. It should always be recalled, therefore, that the commitment within the framework of the Camp David agreements!’ was the implementation of the Security Council resolution in all its parts, respect for the United Nations Charter and the principles of international law, zs well as the participation of all the parties concerned with the solution of the Palestinian problem in all its aspects ane the restoration of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. Within this framework, Egypt would thus recover its occupied territories; Syria would recover its territories; Lebanon would recover its territorial unity; most importantly, the Palestinian people would regain their rights to their lands and self-determination; and Israel, likewise, would ensure its own security within the framework of reciprocal security, not at the expense of others’ rights. 140. Egypt would not have embarked upon this arduous task had it not taken the following basic facts into account. 141. First, the Palestinian issue is the crux of the problem and the core of the conflict. Consequently, its solution is a sine qua non condition for the achievement of a settlement of this thorny Middle East problem. 142. Secondly, the Palestinian issue is a complex, multifaceted one that requires us to leave no stone unturned and no possibility unexplored so as not to participate, once again, in a policy of missed opportunities. 143. Thirdly, what would be reached are transitional arrangements which would pave the way to the solution and alleviation of some of the sufferings of our brethren in the occupied lands, provide the opportunity for mutual recognition and open the door for negotiations between the parties concerned. 144. Fourthly, in all this, Egypt does not speak on behalf of the Palestinian people. I repeat: in all this Egypt does not speak on behelf of the Palestinian people. It has not and does not claim to have the right to speak for that people, which alone has the right to speak concerning its future or to choose its. own representatives. 145. Fifthly, in all cases, the Palestinian people has the final word wth regard to the form and substance of the Palestinian questicn. 146. Egypt is very aware that the Camp David framework does not constitute the final settlement of 7 A Framework for Peace in the Middle East, Agreed at Camp David, and Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty between Fovnt and Israel. siened at Washineton an 17 Sentemher 1978 Mr. Sinclair (Guyana), Vice-President, took the Chair. 147. The question of Palestine is gaining broader support every day. During the last year alone, we have witnessed the following examples of that support. First, the statement issued by the nine European countries on 18 June 1979 [A/34/344-S/13423] in which they emphasized Security Council resolution 242 (1967) but expressed their recognition of the fact that the legitimate rights of the Palestinians, including their right toa homeland, will have to be taken into consideration in the establishment of a just and lasting peace. The statement of the nine countries particularly deplored the Israeli Government’s position on Israel’s claim of ultimate sovereignty over the occupied territories and its policy of establishing settlements, which run contrary to the tenets of resolution 242 (1967). The second example is the resolution on the Palestinian question adopted by the Council of Ministers of OAU, at its thirty-third ordinary session, held at Monrovia from 6 to 20 July 1979, in which the OAU emphasized its support for the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people [A/. 34/552, annex I, CM/Res.725 (XXXIID). A third example of this support is the resolution on the Middle East question and the Palestinian problem adopted by the 66th Inter-Parliamentary Conference, held at Caracas from 13 to 21 September last. In that resolution, the representatives of the world’s parliaments expressed their support for the General Assembly resolutions, emphasized the necessity of reaching a comprehensive settlement among all parties concerned, including the PLO, and called for Israeli withdrawal from all occupied territories, including Arab Jerusalem [see A/34/ 619, annex I, Res.I[}. In its continuous contacts with the representatives of the world’s peoples, Egypt has always advocated the adoption of such resolutions. 148. These are only a few examples of the growing support for the question of Palestine. 149. Egypt strongly deplores Israeli measures against the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territories, such as the continuation of the settlements policy, which allows Israeli citizens to buy Palestinian lands, and the expulsion of elected Palestinian representatives such as Mr. Bassam Shaka’a, the Mayor of Nablus, to name only a few. Egypt has not hesitated to re-emphasize its opposition to those measures both inside and outside of the United Nations, and it will continue its efforts to stop the policy of settlements— which it deems to be inconsistent with a just and comprehensive peace—and the deportation of elected Palestinian representatives. 150. I shall not deal in detail with the report prepared by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, although we have some observations and reservations on some of its paragraphs. Mr. Médoune Fall has presented an excellent exposition of the efforts exerted by the Committee to safeguard and consolidate the rights of the Palestin- United Nations resolutions; as well as reaffirmation of the principle of the inadmissibility of acquisition of territories by the threat or use of force; reaffirmation of Security Council resolutions on the Middle East and the question of Palestine, particularly resolutions 237 (1967), 242 (1967), 252 (1968), 338 (1973) and other relevant resolutions and an affirmation that the Palestinian people should be enabled to exercise its national inalienable rights including its rights to selfdetermination, national independence and sovereignty and the right of Palestinian refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours to do so, as well as the right of those choosing not to return to receive compensation for their property, in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and General Assembly resolutions, in particular, resolution 194 (II) of 11 December 1948. 151. Those are the main elements of the draft resolution prepared last August by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. My delegation considers that this draft contains important elements which our Organization could approve and by which it could abide. My delegation calls upon all States to adopt those elements, whether in the General Assembly or in the Security Council. 152. The Palestinian cause is very dear to each and every Egyptian, and Egypt will accept no less than the right of self-determination for the Palestinian people; what is the right of one people cannot be denied to another. After all the sacrifices made by the Egyptian people, Egypt cannot accept any infringement of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. What the Egyptian people have done and will continue to do is only their duty towards their brethren, the Palestinian people, which has the inherent and absolute right to recover its land, to have a State of its own, to enjoy security, and to raise its own flag. 153. In this context, I should like to recall what Egypt’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs has emphasized to the Assembly: that Egypt based its policy on support for the PLO until the vast majority of the 154. A last word concerning the question of Jerusalem, which is a special and sacred place for the Egyptian people. Our position is that Arab Jerusalem is an integral part of the West Bank, that it should not be occupied by Israel and that it should be restored to Arab sovereignty. Therefore Egypt calls for the implementation of United Nations resolutions concerning Jerusalem. 155. The Palestinian cause is now at a cross-roads. It needs all material support from all wise people who recognize that peace in our sensitive area—and not only in that region but throughout the world—cannot be achieved without the restoration of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, through their regaining their freedom and their homeland.

It is my pleasure to begin my statement by expressing, on behalf of my delegation, to the Chairman and members of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People our appreciation for the efforts they have exerted in preparing for this session a report [A/34/35 and Corr.1} which reflects honesty and impartiality, and aims at finding a lasting and just solution for the Palestinian cause. 157. The events and developments that have taken place in the region since the Committee submitted its rst report to the thirty-first session of the General Assembly, which adopted it by resolution 31/20, have proved the validity of the recommendations of the Committee, and I think that what has occurred in the time that has elapsed since then has not at all detracted from those recommendations but has rendered them even more acute and urgent. Current events in the Middle East conflict reaffirm the urgent need to accelerate implementation of those recommendations. _ essential principles of international law and the numerous United Nations resolutions, its pursuit of its aggressive annexationist policy, its racist practices and its refusal to recognize the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people are all factors that prevent any solution to this conflict being found, thus exposing the Middle East region to ever-increasing tension and threatening peace and security in the world as a whole. 158. If the developments in the Middle East region over the past two years have led to anything at all, it is to the crystallization of two absolutely undeniable facts. 159. The first fact is that a just solution to the Palestinian question is the key to peace in the Middle East, and that the key to peace in that very important region of the world cannot be produced unless the legitimate rights of the Palestinian Arab people are taken into consideration. The second fact is that the PLO is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Any effort and action that is not geared to those two basic realities will not bring peace to the Middle East. 160. There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the recommendations of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, adopted by the General Assembly over the past three years, are based on recognition of those two basic realities. Thus the universal recognition of those recommendations constitutes practical expression reflect- 161. Therefore the Government of Qatar would like to appeal to Western States, which are tied to Arab States by cultural, historical, political and economic trends. based on mutual interest, to take yet a further step by giving official diplomatic recognition to the PLO, as the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and also by recognizing the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. 162. The question of Palestine, which has been one of the standing agenda items for some 30 years now, has not diminished in urgency over these long years. Quite the contrary, I think it is now even more acute, more complex and even more dangerous for international peace and security. As a result of the Zionist enemy’s persistence in occupying Arab territories and denying the Palestinian peoples their legitimate rights, the Middle East region has become a region of uncertainty and tension that could lead to a new confrontation the consequences of which are unforeseeable not only for the region but for the world as a whole. 163. The international community is today more aware than ever before that the Zionist usurper who created this problem has added to the dimensions of that problem through his expansionist aggressions perpetrated against Arab countries in June 1967. There ts absolutely no doubt that Israel’s persistence in violating the United Nations Charter, its contempt for the 164. The cause of the Palestinian people is the cause of a people who, for more than 30 years now, has been subjected to one of the vilest forms of colonialism and racism. Numerous Member States in Asia, Africa and Latin America have experienced the evils of colonialism, but what is being suffered by the Palestinian Arab people today has absolutely no precedent, because it does not stop at the usurpation of lands, the exploitation of resources and the oppression of people. Zionist colonialism, in attempting to implant settlements, is trying to uproot the lawful inhabitants from their land and to destroy their material and moral existence by replacing them with Jewish immigrants who flood in from all corners of the earth. 165. It is for that reason that the Zionist clique has undertaken the horrible massacres of the unarmed sons of Palestine in Deir Yassin and elsewhere, and that Israeli forces have been continuing their military occu- 66. Israel, in order to implement the Zionist plan for he liquidation of the Palestinian question by the elimiation of the Arab people of Palestine, have not esitated to launch repeated and barbarous attacks, by ind and air, against Lebanon. Zionist terrorism is also ersecuting sons of Palestine and their leaders in areas utside the region, in world capitals. These are just a 2w examples to show the persecution being suffered by ‘alestinians. 67. The Palestinian people subjected to occupation ince 1948, and considered by the Zionist entity, offiially at least, as citizens, have not been spared the nost odious forms of racist practices. Just by way of xample, the Zionist authorities have decided that the nhabitants of the Negev do not have the right of reourse to the courts if the authorities decide to exiropriate their land. The Arab inhabitants of Galilee are Iso subjected to a merciless campaign of despoliation nd deprivation, in conformity with the slogan of the ‘Judaization of Galilee’’. As for the ‘‘right of return’, his is a racist law that enables every Jew to become an sraeli citizen simply by virtue of the fact that he is of he Jewish faith, whereas the sons of Palestine have een ejected and evicted by force and are not allowed ito the areas in question, even for a visit. Professor srael Shahak, who is professor of physics at the lebrew University of Jerusalem, says on page 58 of Jo. 24 of The Shahak Papers: ‘The policy of apartheid has its own aspect—that is to say, ambiguity. Although there are a great many aspects of discrimination against the blacks in South Africa which are very similar to the discrimination perpetrated against Arabs in Palestine, there nevertheless is a very clear distinction because the laws of apartheid are decreed in South Africa in a very overt and clearly stated fashion, whereas in Israel the same type of apartheid exists but it is disguised and camouflaged. To my mind, this veiled and deceitful discrimination is worse and more odious than the overt type.” mong the examples quoted by Professor Shahak is 1at of the law concerning assistance to children in irael, which does not openly state that the Jewish child : entitled to help while the Arab child is not, but does tipulate that only a child with one parent who has 2rved in the Israeli forces, or in a Jewish military rganization, is entitled to such assistance. Professor hahak asks therefore what the relationship is between re milk given to the child and military service, unless i¢ intention is to deprive the Arab child in Israel of the lk. 68. These are only a few of the many examples that veal the presence of racial discrimination in Zionist .ws. These laws violate General Assemblv resolution in General Assembly resolution 3379 (XXX), which stated that zionism was a form of racial discrimination. 169. The State of Qatar, abiding by the Arab unanimity evidenced in the resolutions adopted by high-level conferences, particularly the resolutions of the Arab Summit Conferences at Algiers, Rabat, Baghdad and the latest one in Tunis—which, once again, asserted that ‘the issue of Palestine lies at the heart of the long-term conflict in which the Arabs are engaged against zionism which is posing a military, political, economic and cultural threat to the destiny of the entire nation.”’ [See A/34/763, annex.) Pursuant to the positions adopted by the international community and expressed in resolutions of the United Nations.and those adopted by the Sixth Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, the State of Qatar once again reaffirms the following basic principles, without which no solution can ever be found to the Arab-Israeli conflict, nor can a lasting and just peace be established in the Middle East, which must necessarily affect world peace and security. 170. First, the complete and total withdrawal of Israel from all Arab occupied territories since 1967, including Arab Jerusalem, must be effected. Secondly, the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people must be recognized and that people must exercise these inalienable rights so that they may attain self-determination, national sovereignty and the recovery of their homeland, as stipulated in General Assembly resolution 3236 (XXIX). “W71. 172. Thirdly, we must recognize the right of the PLO, which is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, to participate on an equal footing in all conferences and deliberations dealing with the Palestinian cause and the conflict in the Middle East, since the Palestinian question is at the crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict. In other words, no party or authority whatsoever has the right to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people except the PLO. 173. Fourthly, the inadmissibility and illegality of any agreement or negotiation pertaining to the Palestinian question unless such negotiations are attended by the PLO which has full rights and should participate on an equal footing because that organization is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people as Stipulated in resolution 33/28 A. 174. Therefore, the Government of Qatar believes that the Camp David agreements are a violation of Arab unanimity and a breach of the United Nations Charter and resolutions. They are also a violation of the Charter of the Arab League, because they do not recognize the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and completely ignore the problem of the Holy City of Jerusalem. 175. By these agreements Israel has demonstrated a wish to liquidate the Palestinian people in Palestine, Gaza and southern Lebanon. In regard to what have been referred to as the talks on self-rule in the West Rank and the Gaza Strin Israel has nroved that thece 176. The State of Qatar believes that the adoption by the General Assembly of the recommendations of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People over the past three sessions is irrefutable proof of the fact that the international community has marked out the ideal path to a just and lasting solution to this problem. Therefore, it is regrettable and strange that the Security Council has not yet discharged the responsibilities conferred upon it by the Charter—because it has not adopted these recommendations. We believe that its failure to do so constitutes a serious threat to international peace and security. The State of Qatar therefore appeals to all Member States to make every effort to see that the Security Council discharges its responsibilities and makes every effort to find a solution to this problem. This should be done promptly, as the conflict in this region could degenerate and lead to a conflagration in the whole area.

In the opinion of my delegation, the fact that the root cause of the conflict in the Middle East has not yet been removed poses a constant danger to peace in that area and a serious threat to international peace and security. This explosive situation, which requires urgent solution in the interests of ail the peoples of the region and of peace at large, is a source of grave concern to my delegation. Bearing this in mind, I wish to express my satisfaction that the present debate of our plenary meeting is dealing with what is really at the heart of the problem. 178. It is common knowledge that the fundamental component of the conflict in the Middle East is the question of Palestine. One can try to conceal but cannot deny the fact that no solution can be reached in the Middle East without taking fully into account the legitimate aspirations of the Arab people of Palestine. Nobody can deny the fact that the genuine national liberation movement of the Arab people of Palestine has been recognized by the countries members of the League of Arab States, the non-aligned movement, the whole socialist world, and a number of Western countries as well. What is more, the General Assembly, at its twenty-ninth session, recognized the PLO as the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Is that not a demonstration of an international consensus that the Arab people of Palestine have the inalienable right to self-determination, to national identity, to a homeland? The answer is obvious. 179. In 1975, the General Assembly established the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. The recommendations made by that Committee three years ago have been endorsed by the General Assembly. Each session of this highest forum of the United Nations has called for Securitv Council action, but so far none has been forthcoming on this issue. The recommendations contain the principal elements of the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and the Security Council over the past 36 years on the question of Palestine, namely, first, the right to self-determination without external interference; secondly, the right to national independence and sovereignty; thirdly, the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their homes; fourthly, the right of the Palestinian people to regain their rights by all means, in accordance with the nurnoses and nrincinles of the 180. We deplore the fact that certain States prevent the implementation of the resolutions and try to divide the Arab nations over the question of the Arab people of Palestine and their representation. Such attempts obstruct the peace efforts and bypass the interests of the Arab people of Palestine. Such attempts, made in any framework and in any separate deal on behalf of certain parties in and outside the Middle East, add up to a plot to disrupt the unity of the Palestinian people and to eliminate the PLO. On the other hand, we welcome the . fact that the majority of the States Members of this Organization, including of course my own country, continue to give every support to the Palestinian people, led by the PLO, in their efforts to achieve a just settlement of the question of Palestine. That is why my delegation will vote in favour of a resolution that contains the just principles ofa solution and calls for action. 181. The basic cause of this situation lies in Israel’s denial to the Arab people of Palestine of the right to have a national state and to decide their own future and its refusal to comply with the norms of international law. The link between the violation of the right of a group of nations and the explosive situation in the region is apparent. Israel refuses to withdraw its troops within the boundaries that existed with the Arab countries prior to the war of 1967. Instead, it has taken effective measures to change the geographical character, the demographic structure and the legal status of the occupied territories. This policy of integration is a flat and flagrant violation of the fundamental principle of the inadmissibility of acquiring territory by means of war, and it does not help the search for a peaceful settlement of the conflict. On the contrary, it can lead only to a perpetuation of enmity and hatred. We believe, therefore, that a genuine peace in the Middle East can be brought about only if this ingredient of the con- ‘flict is settled and the Israeli troops are withdrawn from all the Arab territories occupied in 1967. 182. The peoples of the Middle East have already paid a high toll in untold sufferings during the past three decades. It is high time to turn this hotbed of unending wars into a home of lasting peace and justice for all peoples of the region, without exception. It has been and remains the position of my Government that an over-all and just political settlement of the conflict in the Middle East requires collective efforts to be made by all the sides involved—including the representatives of the PLO—on an equal footing. 183. Such collective action can make a tangible contribution to a just and lasting settlement of the conflict, in contrast to another kind of framework which allows for separate agreements and postpones an over-all agreement and settlement. The result of collective action could be the complete liquidation of the consequences of aggressions and the immediate and unconditional return of all the occupied Arab lands to the countries of whose territories they formed a legitimate part; full recognition for the Arab people of Palestine of their national right to self-determination; the assurance of an independent life for all the States and peoples of the resion. The resolutions of this bhodv and of the

\n this statement, the Albanian delegation intends to reaffirm the well-known positions of our Government on the question of Palestine, to express the staunch support of the Albanian people and the Socialist People’s Republic of Albania for the just cause of the Palestinian people and to present our views on certain aspects of the problem now under discussion. 185. The history of the question of Palestine, the history of the suffering that the Palestinian people have endured, the immense sacrifices they have made during their long and admirable resistance for survival as a nation, during their struggle, as difficult as it was glorious, against the aggression of the Israeli Zionists and the plots of the imperialist Powers and super-Powers and various other reactionaries—all this is very weli known, and we do not need to make a detailed statement about it again. 186. The crimes, the massacres, the racist policy of genocide and the terrorist actions on a grand scale in which the Israeli Zionists have engaged for decades in the Palestinian and Arab lands they have occupied, are condemned by all peoples, by the whole of world public opinion. The tragedy of the martyred Palestinian people is felt deeply and with indignation everywhere, and the progressive world, the countries imbued with the ideals of peace, freedom and justice have always shown solidarity with the Palestinian people. There is no need to recall that Israel can count onlyon the support of its American imperialist masters, on the interest manifested by the imperialist super-Powers and on the sympathy of certain well-known reactionaries, such as the racists of southern Africa. 187. But if the General Assembly is again called upon to consider this important and burning issue of Palestine, it is due to the fact that the Palestinian people continues to be exposed to the Zionist-imperialist aggression and the intrigues and plots of the imperialist super-Powers and other enemies that have long tried to stifle its resistance. 188. At the present time, except for the Israeli Zionists and the American imperialists and their collaborators, nobody can deny the fact that the question of Palestine is the very core of the Middle East problem and that it is illusory to try to find a solution to the problems of that area without having resolved the question of Palestine. 189. The tragedy of the Palestinian people is the most disastrous consequence of the imperialist-Zionist aggression in the Middle East, and the situation in that part of the world cannot improve in the slightest unless that consequence is eliminated. 190. Israeli aggression and the Israeli occupation of Palestine, which are at the origin of all the misfortunes which have befallen the Palestinian people over a period of decades, could not have lasted so long without the constant interference of the imperialist Powers and super-Powers in the Middle East resion. alwavs favonr- 191. American imperialism is the principal source from which Israel derives the economic, military, political and diplomatic energies to pursue its policy of aggression and expansion, to continue to occupy Arab lands and deprive the people of Palestine of their homeiand. With the economic and financial means available to it and the weapons that come from the United States aid the soldiers and settlers that come from the Soviet Union, Israel arrogantly continues its aggression against the Arab peoples and proceeds to denationalize the occupied Arab and Palestinian lands. 192. Itis the constant support provided by the United States and the audacity of Israel—which is aware of the extent to which the game of the imperialist super- Powers in the Middle East is favourable to it—that explain the persistence of the Israeli Zionists in denying the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, in defiance of world public opinion. Israel cleverly uses the selfish concern that the super-Powers have in maintaining it as an instrument of aggression and destabilization in the Middle East, like an arrow pointed at the Arab countries. It is the expansionist and hegemonistic designs of the imperialist super-Powers, their rivalries and their intensive bargaining that have provoked and maintained the dangerous and tense situation in the Middle East and create numerous difficulties and obstacles to a just and final solution of the Palestinian problem. 193. The main aim of all these aggressive actions, these manoeuvres and plots of the enemies of the Arab peoples—the Israeli Zionists, the imperialists, the social-imperialists and other reactionaries—has alwcys been to do away with the Palestinian question. It is true that they have failed so far, but they have not given up the struggle. Each of the imperialist super-Powers tries to exploit the slightest occasion to make sure it has an advantage over the other, by speculating on the rights and interests of the Arab peoples and the Palestinian people. For some time now, the American imperialists ave been in the forefront of the diplomatic activities and plots in the Middle East, but the Soviet socialimperialists, from the more remote position to which they have been relegated by events, have not lost their sense of timing and are ready to rebound in a more violent manner if things go badly for their rivals. 194. The negotiations at Camp David, between the United States, Egypt and Israel, have made a just and lasting solution of the problems of the Midd!e East and Palestine even more difficult and complicated. The Arab peoples and progressive opinion take the view that the situation created in that region, after the signing of the separate Egyptian-Israeli treaty, strikes a blow at the cause of the Palestinian people and supports the Israeli Zionist ambitions. 195. The American imperialists and the Israeli Zionists want to go ahead very quickly and as far as possible in carrying out the plots they have already contrived to the detriment of the Palestinian people. They see that time is not on their side and that the manoeuvres and extensive and crafty intrigues that they have hatched to divide the Arab peoples, and to weaken the unity of the Arab countries and their concerted snnnort for the Dalaectinian nananla ceantd fail 196.- Haunted by the fear of not being able to reap the fruits they expected from ‘Camp David and from the separate treaty, and alarmed by the Iranian example, the American imperialists and the Israeli Zionists are burning with impatience to carry out their plots against the Palestinian people and to trap it in the numerous traps they have set. The American imperialists and Israel ave striving at all costs at this time to place the Palestinian question solely within the Camp David framework—in other words, to eliminate the matter so as to have a free hand to prevent anti-imperialist and antiZionist disruptions in the region of the Middle ast. 197. The Palestinian people has experienced a long and difficult struggle against imperialist-Zionist aggression. In that struggle it has grown strong; it has never allowed itself to be intimidated or hoodwinked. That valiant people, under the leadership of the PLO, its sole and authentic representative, has faced the most difficult situations and has foiled many plots; it has kept up its fighting spirit and thwarted its enemies, even when those enemies thought they were about to wear down Palestinian resistance. 198. The Palestinian people and the PLO have clearly shown that they will never give up in their struggle to attain their rights and that they will never succumb to Zionist-imperialist brute force and pressures. 199. Our people supports the armed struggle of the Palestinian people to regain all its inalienable national rights, to bring about the full attainment of its national aspirations and to become master of its own destiny in its own homeland, which has been seized by Israel. As the leader of the Albanian people, Comrade Enver Hoxha, has stated: _ ‘The State of Israel is a State fabricated by zionism and international imperialism on the backs of the Arab peoples, particularly the Palestinian people. ‘‘To try to gather together the diaspora of centuries and to eliminate a nation and nationality which are centuries old by creating a new diaspora and a new, ‘modern’ tyranny ; to practice genocide, suppressing the rights and freedoms of a nation in the name of a specious nationality—all this is condemned by nations and progressive peoples of the world, and sooner or later their anger will turn into a bloody national liberation struggle, as is occurring today in the case of the heroic Palestinian people.” 200. Weare convinced that the just cause of the Palestinian people will be crowned with victory and that, thanks to the struggle of that people, the question of Palestine will be settled. But no solution to the Palestine question and to the Middle East conflict can be achieved without the expressed will of the Palestinian eople, let alone by ignoring it or trampling it underoot. Genuine peace and stability in the Middle East can only be established when the Palestinian issue has been resolved.

The question of Palestine is entering a 202. The cause of these peoples is acquiring a new dimension within the framework of the militant struggle of the Palestinian people under the leadership of the PLO, its sole legitimate representative, to recover its legitimate right to survival and to national sovereignty in Palestine. The unanimous support which this cause enjoys throughout the world confirms an historical truth of every struggle, namely that peoples represent an indomitable force, whatever the ferocity of the occupation or the methods of oppression used by usurpers, and however intense the sufferings and heavy the sacrifices that the Palestinians will have to endure until final victory. 203. Anyone who hs followed the conspiracy of the Zionist movement—since the first Zionist Congress, held at Basle in 1897—aimed at the occupation of Arab Palestine and the expulsion of the Arab inhabitants in order to replace them with hordes from all parts of the world, will be aware of the aggressive nature of that movement and of the brutality of the terrorism which characterizes its pursuit of the realization of its expansionist aims and the implementation of its policy of colonization and implantation. Ail those who have followed this tragedy know also that the Zionists oppose all sincere and constructive efforts to establish a just and lasting peace in the Arab region. 204. It suffices to glance at the record on the Palestine question at the United Nations to see to what extent the Zionist leaders have opposed all international efforts to bring peace to ths land of peace, using every means, including the assassination of United Nations representatives such as Count Bernadotte, tlie blowing up of hotels in Jerusalem and the intensification of acts of violence and terrorism against the civilian populations. ' As a political philosophy based on violence and terrorism, zionism runs counter to nature and to the elements of peace. That is what has impelled the international community, represented by the United Nations, to condemn zionism as a manifestation of odious racism. This unanimity confirms the racist and aggressive nature of zionism, and unmasks the close relationship which exists between the Zionist movement in Palestine and the racist régimes in southern Africa, and the appearance in both of the phenomenon of colonization and implantation. Zionism found natural allies in the racist régimes. Thus, the growing co-cperation between them runs counter to all the objectives of international co-operation. Collaboration between the racist Zionist entity and the other racist régime in southern Africa has taken on an aggressive form based on the development of war industry and of means of mass destruction. The agreement reached between the racist régimes in South Africa and the Zionist entity on the development of nuclear :veapons is one of the links in the chain of the colonialist conspiracy to maintain domination and prolc..g occupation. 205. The political philosophy and ideology of zionism are altogether contrary to the philosophy and principles of the Charter and of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as to all the ideals and moral values 206. The father of world zionism, Theodor Herzl, confirmed the aggressiveness, violence and terrorism characteristic of zionism. in his memoirs,'* published 26 years after his death, he said that the Zionists should seize the lands they covet by the force of arms, and that recourse to violence and to physical elimination was inevitable, to satisfy Zionist ambitions and occupy Palestine. 207. Furthermore, an Israeli journalist, Amos Kenan, has revealed certain aspects of the terrorism practised by the Israeli occupation forces against the Arab population. He writes: **We were ordered to bleck the entrances of the village and prevent inhabitants returning to the village from their hide-outs after they had heard Israeli broadcasts urging them to go back to their homes. The order was to shoot over their heads and tell them not to enter the village. **At noon the first bulldozer arrived and pulled down the first house at the edge of the village. Within ten minutes the house was turned into rubble, including, Its entire contents; the olive trees, cypresses were all uprooted. After the destruction of three houses the first column arrived from the direction of Ramallah. There were old people who could hardly walk, murmuring old women, mothers carrying babies, small children. The children wept and asked for water. They all carried white flags.’’2° And then he goes on to say: ‘We told them to go to Beit Sura. They told us that they were driven out everywhere, forbidden to enter any village, that they were wandering like this for four days, without food, without water, some dying on the road. They asked to return to the village, and said we had better kil! them. ‘‘A man carrying 100 pounds of fiour in a sack—he had walked like that, mile after mile. More old people, more women, more babies. They dropped down exhausted where we told them to sit. **We asked the officers why those refugees were sent from one place to another and driven oui of every place. They told us that this was good for them, they should go. ‘Moreover’, said the officers, ‘why do we care about the Arabs anyway?’ “*More and more columns of refugees arrived, until there were hundreds of them. They failed to understand why they had been asked to return, yet not permitted tc enter. We could not stand their pleading. **We drove them out. They go on wandering in the 19 The Complezz Diaries of Theodor Herzl (New York, Herz] Press and Thomas Yosecoff, 1960). 208. Thus the opposition of Arab nations to the policy of zionism, its philosophy and practices, is nothing more than legitimate defence. We do not believe that any people or nation can accept the occupation of its land and the expu’sion of its children, to be replaced by foreigners gathered from all parts of the world, having no link of nationality or civilization with the Arab land, and no common language. The Israeli Zionists have not only occupied Palestine, but they have profaned the Holy City of Jerusalem which is considered to be a source of enlightenment to humanity and the millions of followers of three monotheistic religions. They have also occupied the lands of other Arab countries which border on Palestine, which leaves no room for doubt concerning the annexationist and expansionist policy of Israel, based on the use of force and terror. 209. Israel, which was based on usurpation and terrorism, continues its aggression against southern Lebanon and the Palestinian refugee camps, with the aim of annexing that region, satisfying its expansionist ambitions, occupying that land and imposing a de facto situation. That is why when Israel speaks of peace, it thinks only of the subjection of Arab peoples and of a compromise along the Sadat lines, together with that farce of the so-called autonomy. 210. We maintain that the presence of Israel in our region does not serve the cause of peace. This is the reality which has been confirmed by every proof and circumstance in the Arab region. The terroris’ practices against the Arab population of the occupied territories—such as collective sanctions, imprisonment, the destruction of homes and buildings, demographic and geographic changes as well as the deportation of the Mayor of Nablus—all these acts which aim a blow at human rights and go hand in hand with the establishment of settlements in the occupied Arab territories, cannot be an element that serves the cause of the just and lasting peace which the international community seeks in the Middle East. That is why it is necessary to change the very nature of the policy pursued by Tel AViv, a policy based on racism and the establishment of settlements. 211. Time has shown that, since the beginning of the occupation of Arab Palestine, the leaders of the Zionist entity have not wanted the establishment of a just and lasting peace—this has been proved by all United Nations documents and by the various resolutions it adopted on the subject. Accordingly, it is the duty of the international community to act in accordance with its responsibilities. It is confronted with the obstinacy and opposition of Israel to all peace efforts made by the United Nations to establish a just and lasting peace in the region.. We believe it is futile to adopt yet another resolution unless it contains provisions concerning sanctions to be imposed against Israel, in accordance with Chapter VII of the Charter. 212. The opposition of the Arab nations, the Islamic world and the non-aligned countries to the Camp David 213. Itis high time for the international community to assume its responsibilities in establishing a just and lasting peace guaranteeing the stability and the natural and legitimate rights of the peoples of the region, so that they may contribute to human civilization.

The Romanian delegation believes that the question which is again the subject of debate in the General Assembly is, by its content and exceptional scope, one which involves the political and moral responsibility of the entire international community, and the ability of the United Nations to fulfil its primary function of safeguarding world peace and security. Although it is complex, the question of Palestine, we believe, can be set forth in very clear terms. It is a matter of the exercise of the fundamental right of a people to self-determination, including the right to set up its own State, as one of the unanimously accepted cardinal principles of the Charter of the United Nations and of contemporary international law. As an essential element in the Middle East conflict, the question of Palestine is closely linked to the future of peace in a region that has known four devastating wars within the space of one generation, causing increasing danger to world peace and security. The Palestinian question also stands out by the fact that, in one form or another, it has been, from the very beginning of the United Nations and continually so, a matter of concern to the international community. This oy stresses the special responsibility which befalls the Organization in seeking a just solution of that problem. 215. As we all know, in fulfilling that responsibility, the General Assembly, on the initiative of a group of States including Romania, inscribed the question of Palestine on the agenda of its 1974 session,?? correctly accepting it as a national problem and an essential component of the Middle East conflict. By the important decisions adopted ai that session, such as the clear reaffirmation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, the granting to the PLO, as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, the status of observer at the United Nations and the invitation made to the PLO to participate in all international conferences organized under the auspices of the United Nations, the General Assembly in fact defined the general principles for a peaceful and equitable solution of the question of Palestine. 216. The five years which have elapsed since then have only reaffirmed the realism and correctness of those memorable decisions, as well as their special importance for the constant expansion of international support for the just cause of the Palestinian people. 217. Indeed, the political debates of this session of the ate in all talks dealing with future peace arrangements in the Middle East, is particularly important. As we have always stated, Romania considers that negotiations between the parties directly concerned are the only way to resolve any conflicts and disputes, however complicated they may be. The general debate at this session has, once more, proved that negotiations are generally considered as being the only realistic way to: resolve all problems having to do with the Middle East, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council, and that the participation in negotiations of the PLO, as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, is a prerequisite for reaching a viable solution to the situation in the region. 218. Since the outbreak of the Middle East conflict, Romania has consistently and in all circumstances, through its President, advocated a political solution to the conflict, to bring about comprehensive peace, leading to the withdrawal of israel from the Arab territories it occupied following the 1967 war, the exercise of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including the right to establish their own independent State, and the guarantee of independence and sovereignty of all States in the area. In the report that was submitted last week to the Twelfth Congress of the Romanian Communist Party, the President of the Socialist Republic of Romania and Secretary-General of the Party, Nicolae Ceausescu, once more forcefully expressed the unshakeable conviction of our country that ‘‘withoui the solution of the problem of the Palestintan people on the basis of the right to selfdetermination and the right to establish an independent State, we can scarcely achieve peace in the Middle ast’’. 219. Romania has consistently advocated and still advocates the participation of the PLO, as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, in efforts and negotiations to find a political solution to the Middle East conflict. Faithful to that position, Romania was one of the first States to recognize the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. We are happy to note that, nowadays, the overwhelming majority of States in the world recognize the indisputable truth that lasting peace in the Middle East is impossible without a just solution being found to the Palestinian problem, which requires the participation in the negotiations of the qualified representatives of the Palestinian people. The major support that the PLO has recently acquired from many States and its obvious intention to make a constructive contribution to the attempts to find a peaceful solution to the Middle East conflict are, we believe, a valuable contribution to the efforts which are aimed at establishing peace in the region. The important role of the PLO in bringing about a comprehensive solution to the Middle East problem has been stressed repeatedly by the General Assembly. In its resolution 33/28 A of last year, the General Assembly once more requested that the PLO be invited, as tha ranracantativa af ths Dalactinian nananla ta taba anet 220. As my delegation has underlined many times, the grave danger that the situation in the Middle East continues to pose to peace and security in the region and throughout the world makes it necessary, we feel, for the United Nations to play a more active role in resolving the conflict and in the peace process. Consequently, my country thinks it is particularly important to organize, under the aegis of the United Nations, an international conference with the participation of all the parties concerned, including the PLO, as well as the two co-Chairmen of the Peace Conference on the Middle East; held at Geneva: the Soviet Union and the Unitea States. 221. Romania has had an opportunity to reaffirm at the highest possible level, during the official visit paid last August by the President of the Executive Committee of the PLO, Yassir Arafat, our resolute support fora just solution to the Palestinian question, through the realization of the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to return, the right to self-determination and the right to establish an independent State of their own. 222. Accordingly, our position concerning the ways and means of resolving the Palestinian problem was reaffirmed in the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People which, in its recent report submitted to this session of the General Assembly, reaffirms the validity of its recommendations, approved by the General Assembly, concerning the path to be followed to give effect to the national rights of the Palestinian people. We consider— as indeed it has been underscored in the conclusions of that report—that positive action by the Security Council on the General Assembly recommendations concerning the Palestinian question could create the necessary conditions to establish a just and lasting pence in the Middle East [A/34/35 and Corr.1, para. 223. The dangerous situation in the Middle East, we feel, calls for intensified efforts to negotiate a comprehensive political solution in the region. We are profoundly convinced that a just and lasting settlement of the problem is in the real interests of economic and social progress of all States and peoples of the region, as well as in the interests of co-operation, détente and international peace and security. Such a settlement would doubtless enable the Palestinian people, after so many years of suffering, to organize their lives freely and independently. 224. The Israeli people are equally concerned in such a solution, because it is obvious that their genuine security can only be ensured by establishing relations of good understanding and peaceful co-operation with the neighbouring Arab peoples. Because of the imperative need to find a solution to the Middle East conflict, we have disapproved of, and indeed we reject, the illegal practices of Israel in the Palestinian territories it occupies, including the creation of settlements and the oppression of and discrimination against the Arab inhabitants and the measures aiming at their expulsion. We believe that the renunciation of such practices and measures would be a beginning of progress on the path 225. We express the hope that the present debate and the resolutions which will be adopted will enable us to expedite the process of reaffirming the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people and will contribute to the intensified efforts which have been undertaken, in particular within the United Nations, to finda comprehensive settlement of the Middle East situation, including a settlement of the question of Palestine. Romania will continue to support any action or initiative which would promote the advent of a just and lasting peace in that part of the world which has been so sorely tested.

In resuming today the consideration of the question of Palestine, the General Assembly, as in past years, will certainly have an opportunity once again to pay a tribute to the determination of the heroic Palestinian people which, throughout the decades that have passed, have pursued, undeterred, their just and valiant struggle to realize their profound aspirations and recover their legitimate and inalienable right to return to their homeland and establish there an independent Palestinian State. All their rights—namely, the right to return to their homes and the rights to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty—have been expressly and solemnly recognized and upheld by the entire international community and by our Assembly, whose concern in this case is that both the national rights of a people and the principles of the Charter should prevail, and international peace and security should be safeguarded. Because, quite obviously, no one is any longer entitled to ignore the fact that witout a just and lasting settlement of the question of Palestine, which is at the heart of the conflict in the region, there can be no genuine peace and security in the Middle East or in the world. 227. It was to enable the Palestinian people to exercise those inalienable rights, as recognized and defined by the General Assembly, that the latter decided, in its resolution 3376 (XXX), to establish the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rignis of the Palestinian People. Thereafter, by approving the recommendations of the Committee, the General Assembly wished to give proof of the confidence it had placed in the competence and wisdom evinced by the Committee in the fulfilment of its mandate; in addition, the General Assembly wished at the same time to signify its firm condemnation of the Israeli authorities who, in flagrant violation of the principles of the Charter and of international law and in defiance of world opinion, obstinately and arrogantly pursue their policy of aggression, annexaticn and expansion in Palestine and the Middle East. 228. Itis appropriate to emphasize that, in the course of this year, the Tel Aviv authorities, as part of their policy of expansion and aggression, attacked southern Lebanon with the aim of occupying the territory of an independent, sovereign State, a Member of the United Nations and of the movement of non-aligned countries. At the same time, the Israeli authorities have systematically pursued their policy of establishing settlements in the occupied territories, in addition to practising repression and oppression against the Palestinian people. In this respect, the Tel Aviv authorities have **...that the pattern of that settlement policy...is causing profound and irreversible changes of a geographical and demographic nature in those territories, including Jerusalem. **...that those changes are of such a profound nature that they constitute a violation of the fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12. August 1949 and of the relevant decisions adopted by the United Nations...’’.?3 In its report, the Commission reaffirmed the determination made by the Security Council in its resolution 446 (1979),?4 namely: **...the policy and practices of Israel in establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle ast’”, 229. The people and Government of Democratic Kampuchea, whose solidarity with the just struggle of the Palestinian people has been and remains unswerving, reaffirm their confidence in the final victory of this noble cause which is also that of all peoples in the world that love peace, justice and independence. We constantly note with the greatest sympathy and admiration the sacrifices of the Palestinian people for their survival and those of the other Arab peoples, as well as the successes that they have recorded in every sector of their struggle. We, who are struggling to survive as a people, a nation and a race, feel in our heart of hearts the tragedy of the Palestinian people. 230. We avail ourselves of this opportunity to reaffirm our constant position, namely, that the question of Palestine is the key to the problem of the Middle East. Any solution to this problem must take into account the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people of which the PLO is the authentic representative. The Palestinian people have the right to return to their homeland and to create an independent Palestinian State. We condemn Israel’s policy of aggression, annexation and repression, in particular its policy of establishing settlements in the occupied Arab territories. The international community must refuse recognition of Israel’s fait accompli and compel Israel to evacuate, tetally and without delay, all the Arab territories occupied since 1967. 231. In conclusion, my delegation would like to congratulate most warmly the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and its Chairman, Mr. Médoune Fall, for their tireless activities which represent a substantial contribution to the defence of the Palestinian cause and the cause of inter- 13450, paras. 225-226. 232. Finally, my delegation fully endorses the Committee’s recommendations contained in its annual report to our Assembly.

The problem that we are considering today is not new to us. The problem of Palestine was first brought to the attention of the Assembly as early as 1947. Thirty-two years have already gone by and no just solution to this problem has yet been found. One begins to wonder about the effeciiveness of this Organization in dealing with problems of this nature. 234. We ail agree that the Palestinian problem is the core of the Middle East conflict, a conflict which since 1948 has four times threatened world peace and left that region the most dangerous hotbed of tension, ready to explode any time if no immediate solution is found to satisfy the Palestinian people. 235. We believe and are convinced that a just solution of this problem can be found if only the Zionist Israeli régime can be forced to respect and comply with the United Nations resolutions relevant to this problem and if it will recognize the following facts: first, that the question of Palestine is at the heart of the Middle East problem and that no solution to that problem can be envisaged without taking into account the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people; and, secondly, that only the implementation of those inalienable rights— the right of the Palestinian people to return to their land and property and the right to self-determination, independence and national sovereigiity—and the recognition by Israel and its allies of the fact that the PLO is not a terrorist organization but a legitimate representative and sole spokesman of the Palestinian people, can finally lead to a way out of the present impasse in the Middle East problem. 236. This Organization, and especially this Assembly, has a heavy resnonsibility towards the people of Palestine and the time has come for it to take up its responsibility and put right the wrongs done to the Palestinian people in particular, and to the Arabs in general. The least we can do is to force Israel, using all possible means in our power, to comply with resolution 181 (II) of 29 November 1947, which this Assembly adopted against the will and the wishes of the Arab owners of Paiestine. 237. Resolution 181 (II) divided the land of Palestine into two territories. A slice of this land was given to immigrant Jews, most of whom came from Europe as the survivors of Hitler’s holocaust, and the rest of the land was to form what should have been the Palestinian Arab State, a State which has yet to see the light of day, because of the systematic opposition of the Zionist régime to its creation. 238. Is it not paradoxical that the people for whom this international body, taking into consideration its sufferings during the Second World War, did everything to find a homeland in Palestine, is the very people which has now forgotten that suffering and which is now inflicting suffering upon the original owners of the 239. If this Organization was so concerned about the fate of the Jews after the Second World War, what prevents it now from having and showing the same concern for the Palestinians who are killed and tortured every. day by the occupying Zionist forces in Palestine and other Arab territories? 240. Fortunately, as my delegation is happy to note, judging from various statements made here during this session, the trend of international opinion is towards an ever-increasing sympathy for the plight of the Palestinian people. There is great displeasure at the negative att; ude of Begin’s régime and Israel’s persistent defiance of decisions and resolutions taken by this Organization in favour of a just solution to the Palestinian problem. We hope that Israel will learn from this, and comply with General Assembly resolution 181 (ID), which sanctions the establishment of a Palestinian Arab State in the territories which Israel now occupies by force. Israel’s non-compliance with that resolution clearly demonstrates the lack of regard that the Israeli authorities have for this Organization. 241. Allow me, at this juncture, to remind the representative of Israel that, if his Government had any moral principles, it could not but comply with resolution 181 (IID. Why do I say this? The answer is simple and may be found in resolution 273 (II]) of 11 May 1949, adopted by this Assembly when it admitted Israel as a Member of the United Nations. The preamble of that resolution explicitly mentions the engagement by Israel to conform to resolutions 181 (II) and 194 (I) concerning the creation of a Palestinian Arab State. 242. A look into United Nations records tells us that the admission of Israel as a Member of this Organization was subject to Israel’s acceptance of two important conditions which, to our regret, Israel has up to now stubbornly and wilfully ignored. Those conditions were the undertaking by Israel to respect the United Nations Charter and its obligations, and the agreement by Zionist Israel to conform to resolution 181 (ID. 243. Israel has unscrupulously broken these commitments and it has systematically and continuously shown disrespect for this Organization by violating the principles of the Charter and stubbornly opposing its resolutions. 244. Two days from now, resolution 181 (11), sanctioning the establishment of a Palestinian Arab State in the West Bank, Gaza and other Israeli-occupied Arab territories, will celebrate 32 years of existence, and yet that Palestinian Arab State has yet to be born. The Zionist expansionist Israeli régime has done, and is doing, everything to prevent its creation. My delegation would have thought that, after the Camp David agreements, Israel would change its uncompromising attitude and recognize the inalienable rights of the Palestinians, but the Israeli Government’s persistent pol- **This Framework provides for negotiations on the transitional period of five years, and also for the subsequent negotiations on a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan, in which the location of boundaries dividing the two countries will be agreed. The option of creating a third State between Israel and Jordan is, therefore, not considered in the Camp David agreements.’’ [12th meeting, para. 187.] This statement is a clear indication that Israel will sabotage any peaceful efforts which would lead to the creation of a Palestinian Arab State. But Israel should know that we, the people of the world, are all behind the courageous struggle of the Palestinian people, led by the PLO, its sole representative, for the exercise of its inalienable rights. 245. My delegation sincerely believes that the Paiestinian people cannot but come out as victor in this struggle and that the representatives of the Palestinian Arab State will one day be among us.

The problem of peace and stability in the Middle East is one of the most serious problems confronting the world today, and we recognize that the question of Palestine is at the heart of this problem. Japan believes that in order to achieve a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East, it is essential that Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) be implemented quickly and completely. But implementation of those resolutions will not alone be sufficient to solve the problem, because Security Council resolution 242 (1967) presents the question of the Palestinians only as it pertains to refugees. We believe that the legitimate rights of the Palestinians, including that of self-determination, must be recognized and respected, in accordance with the United Nations Charter. 247. This right of self-determination must include the possible establishment of an independent State, if that is what the Palestinian people desire. In this regard, Japan maintains the position that lasting peace and stability in the Middle East can be attained only if the aspirations of all peoples, including Palestinians, ard at the same time the legitimate security requirements of all countries in the region, are taken fully into account. 248. We should like to reaffirm Japan’s recognition of the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people. We believe that the future development of the negotiations now under way between Egypt and Israel on the question of the autonomy of the West Bank and Gaza will seriously influence whether or not a comprehensive peace is achieved. With this in mind, we strongly hope . that the participation in the current peace process of the PLO—as one of the major parties to the Middle East conflict—will be achieved, with Israel and the PLO recognizing each other’s position. 249. I should like to point out further that, pending Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied territories, it is

One of the most important items on the agenda of the thirty-fourth session of the Genera! Assembly is the question of Palestine. As time goes by, we become ever more aware of the meaning of the fundamental truth that the Palestinian question is at thé very heart of the Middle East problem. 251. From the creation of the State of Israel until the present day, many solutions have been advocated to establish a climate of peace in the region, but they have all lacked consistency because they have deliberately ignored the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. 252. Full exercise of those rights, which would enable the Palestinian people to return to their homes, to regain possession of their property and to achieve selfdetermination, independence and national sovereignty, is a decisive requirement within the framework of a comprehensive final settlement of the Middle East crisis, 253. For my delegation, the PLO is the sole authentic representative of the Palestinian people, and, as advocated in General Assembly resolutions 3236 (XXIX) and 3375 (XXX), the participation of the PLO in all peace efforts, deliberations and conferences convened under United Nations auspices, on an equal footing with the other parties concerned, is an indispensable condition for a just settlement of the conflict. 254. The deterioration of the status of Jerusalem because of the policy pursued by the Israeli authorities isa subject of great concern to my country. It is appropriate to say, furthermore, that the acquisition of territory by force is inadmissible and that Israel should withdraw from the occupied Arab territories and put an immediate end to the practice of establishing settlements. That policy has had serious consequences. It has caused, inter alia, geographic and demographic changes in the territories, in flagrant violation of the fourth Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949. According to General Assembly resolution 446 (1979), **...the policy and practices of Israei in establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967 have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle ast’’. 255. My country expressed its point of view on the Palestinian question, when it took part in the Tenth Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers, held at Fez from 8 to 12 May 1979, in the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity [OAU}, held at Monrovia from 17 to 20 July 1979, and in the Sixth Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, held at Havana from 3 to 9 September this year. On those occasions we reaffirmed our unflinching support for the PLO, proclaiming the natural and inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their homeland, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 194 (IED and Security Council resolution 237 (1967). 257. My delegation would like to pay a well-deserved tribute to the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and in particular to its Chairman, our very dear brother Mr. Médoune Fall of Senegal, who, thanks to his devotion and courage, wisdom and perfect knowledge of the Palestinian question, has made it possible for the Committee to do excellent work in fulfilling so well the mandate entrusted to it by our Assembly.

There can be no doubt that the question of Palestine is at the heart of the problem of the Middle East. In order to be convinced of that, it suffices to consider history. It teaches us that the problem of the Middle East arose with all its implications from the moment, in 1967, when Israel forcibly seized the Egyptian Sinai up to the Suez Canal, the Syrian Golan Heights and the entire Palestinian West Bank of the Jordan. History also teaches us that 19 years earlier—in 1948, to be precise—Israel, aided and abetted by international imperialism, proceeded to assassinate hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in the cities and villages of Palestine and compelled an entire people to abandon its homeland. 259. The Palestinian people was driven out of its land and the vast majority of Palestinians were compelled to live in exile and in refugee camps. That is the origin of the problem of Palestine and, therefore, of the insecurity and tension in the Middle East region. The Israeli aggression of 1967 against the other Arab peoples was, in fact, but a new escalation of the Israeli expansionist policy. 260. It is on the basis of these undeniable historical facts that the delegation of Burundi maintains, on the one hand, that the problem of the Middle East is inseparable from the question of Palestine and, on the other, that no solution can be viable, still less acceptable, unless it responds to the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people. 261. The delegation of Burundi further feels that it would be misreading history and conspiring against the identity of the Palestinian people if they were to be reduced to the status of refugees or branded with the label of terrorists, with the unavowed aim of keeping them away from any settlement of the Middle East problem. It is in fact those people that made Palestine the cradle of the most ancient cultures and civilizations. It is a dynamic people, determined to preserve its personality and to perpetuate its culture. It is a people which accepts extreme sacrifices in order to recover the land of its birth. It is a people which contributes to universal civilization through its writers, its poets, its scientists. It is a people open to the world and desirous of establishing links of friendship and co-operation with all peoples of the world. whether from the east or the 262. It was this awareness of human solidarity that made the leader of the Palestinian people state that he was not opposed to coexistence with the Jews in a democratic State of Palestine. It was this outpouring of friendship with all peoples which enabled Mr. Yassir Arafat, the Chairman of the PLO, to extend his hand to the American people. Indeed, the Commander-in-Chief of the Palestinian revolution declared before the General Assembly on 13 November 1974: “IT cannot now forgo this opportunity to appeal from this rostrum directly to the American people, asking it to give its support to our heroic and fighting people. I ask it whole-heartedly to endorse right and Justice, to recall George Washington back to mind, heroic Washington whose purpose was his nation’s freedom and independence, Abraham Lincoln, champion of the destitute and the wretched, and also Woodrow Wilson whose doctrine of Fourteen Points remains subscribed to and venerated by our people,’’?5 It would seem, moreover, that that appeal is beginning to arouse sympathy within the great American nation. 263. Some try to give credence to the opinion according to which the Palestinian people, which under the leadership of the PLO is struggling for its existence and _ . its homeland, could be assimilated to terrorists. That idea cannot be accepted because historical facts are stubborn. What people in the world can resign itself toa condition worse than that of slavery? What people in the world can endure, without any reaction, the bombing of its dwellings, its schools, its fields and its hospitals? Who can deny the right of that people to fight, like other liberation movements, for its fundamental right to survive, to have a homeland and to create an independent State? All our peoples, at a given time in their history, have resisted oppression, racism and colonialism. 264. It would, moreover, be mistaken to believe that the struggle of the Palestinian people only takes the form of violence. The survival of that people has indeed led them to embark on an economic and social programme which compels the admiration of almost the entire world. The fact that they have produced so many thousands of doctors, experts, lawyers, professors and scholars who devote themselves not only to the cause of the Palestinian people but also to co-operation throughout the world, should put the international community on its guard against the simplistic views current in certain circles. 265. That achievement would never have been possible, in our opinion, had the Palestinian people not been weil organized, given the trying circumstances to which they have been subjected. The mobilization of the Palestinian people was made possible only because of its vanguard inovement, the PLO, whose legitimacy has been recognized by the Palestinian masses and the intellectuals, by the entire Arab nation, the League of Arab States, the Islamic Conference, the OAU, the non-aligned movement and, as a crowning success, by the United Nations. 267. We believe that, in the first place, the problem must be posed in all its aspects and in its historical context. We have already looked to history in order to place the problem of Palestine in its temporal context. But we have deliberately refrained from speaking of the role of the United Nations in this tragedy of the Palestinian people. Our Organization played an important part in the tragedy of the Palestinian people when it recommended the partition of Palestine. From that moment, the survival of our Organization has depended in art on its just solution of the problem of Palestine and, ence, the survival of that people, just as the survival of our Organization also depends on the elimination of apartheid from southern Africa. 268. After many delays due to manoeuvres designed to bury the question of Palestine, the General Assembly finally recognized the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people: namely, the right of Palestinians to return to their homes, in conformity with General Assembly resolution 194 (III), and their right to self-determination, independence and sovereignty. 269. The General Assembly has, on many occasions, condemned the numerous acts of aggression committed by Israel against the Arab States, the Israeli violations of human rights and the annexation of the City of Jerusalem. Unfortunately, all those General Assembly resolutions, and those of the Security Council, have so far remained without effect because Israel does not wish to conform to the will of the international community. 270. Indefiance of resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council, Israel continues to occupy the Palestinian Arab territories and hardens its policy of colonization and settlement in the Palestinian territories and other Arab territories occupied in 1967, thus bringing about profound and irreversible changes in the geographic and demographic structure of those territories. 271. Some had thought that the Camp David agreements and the Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty would lessen tension in the region and put an end to the policy of settlements practised by Israel, and that a sort of autonomy for the population of the occupied territories could be envisaged. 272. Butnot much time went by before the true face of Israel appeared. The decision of those authorities to expel the Mayor of Nablus from occupied Palestine territory once again confirmed the determination of Israel to ignore the will of the population under its 273. Given the gravity of the situation, the General Assembly during this session has expressed its grave disquiet and profound concern. This Assembly went further and called on the Israeli authorities to rescind the deportation order [resolution 34/29}. In our opinion, this amounted to abrogating that order. This resolution received an almost unanimous positive vote. Once again, Israel voted against it. In so doing, Israel has shown that its decision was irrevocable. In other words, the General Assembly resolution will suffer the same fate as that which South Africa and Israel reserve for resolutions of the General Assembly and of the Security Council. It amounts to contempt for those organs. This situation cannot last without causing enormous harm, not only to the people affected by the resolutions, but also to the credit and the effectiveness of the United Nations. 274. The time for finding a way out of the contradictions into which our Organization has for some time been falling is long overdue. It is not in the interest of our Organization to maintain an atmosphere of conflict between its principal organs. Indeed, for some years we have seen the Security Council freeze important resolutions on the question of apartheid and Palestine. The special committees, set up by the General Assembly to follow up these problems and to report back, have often submitted recommendations to the General Assembly. At each session, these recommendations are adopted by an overwhelming majority. Nevertheless, these decisions have had no effect because, on the one hand, Israel and South Africa reject them outright and, on the other hand, the Security Council fails to resort to the provisions in the Charter making such decisions binding and, if need be, compelling the States in question to abide by them. 275. On the question of Palestine, General Assembly resolution 31/20 endorsed the recommendations in the report of the Special Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. As was recalled yesterday by the Chairman of the Committee, the General Assembly, at its thirty-first session, had urged the Security Council te consider those recommendations in order to take the necessary measures to implement them, so as to achieve early progress towards a solution of the problem of Palestine and the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East [77th meeting, para. 7\. At present we know that the Security Council has not yet taken any decision on the subject. 276. Inthese circumstances, the delegation of Burundi is in favour of the following measures: first, that the Security Council should fully assume its responsibilities by resorting to the provisions in the United Nations Charter for applying its resolutions and those of the General Assembly on the question of Palestine and the Middle East problem; secondly, that the General Assembly should continue to seek a just and equitable solution to the question of Palestine, in conformity with its resolution 3236 (XXIX) which defined the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and recognized the tee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People should have its mandate extended and be encouraged in its difficult but important task. 277. My delegation wishes to express its appreciation to the members of that Committee and to pay a particular tribute to its Chairman, Mr. Médoune Fall of Senegal, who, because of his mastery of international problems and his devotion, has rendered great services not only to the Palestinian people but also to the African peoples and to the entire international community. 278. In conclusion, the delegation of Burundi appeals to all parties concerned in the problem of the Middle East and the question of Palestine to give proof of their maturity and not to immolate an entire people on the altar of material and strategic interests at a time when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights acquires fuil significance not only for secure and strong peoples, but also for people who are disinherited and defenceless. 279, We wish to say to Israel that we are against anti-Semitism and racism and that we therefore can only disapprove of its policy of persecution of the Palestinian people and its alliance with South Africa, which is the present incarnation of nazism. 280. To the Arab peoples, we invite them to close ranks and never to abandon the Palestinian people because so long as that problem finds no just solution there can be no lasting peace in the Middle East. Because of that, the Arab nation will never be strong. Imperialism will pit some Arab States against others until wars break out among them, thus threatening the entire Arab nation itself. 281. To all justice-loving and peace-loving States, we ask them to work in that part of the world to create a democratic State in which Christians, Jews and Moslems can live together in equality, fraternity and progress.

The current session of the General Assembly is the sixth at which the question of Palestine is examined as a separate item on the agenda. The history of the examination of the various aspects of the Middle East problem by the United Nations, both in sessions of the General Assembly and in the Security Council, convincingly proves the fact that the path to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East lies in a comprehensive settlement, including the solution of the Palestinian question, on the basis of full and unequivocal respect for the legitimate rights 283. In evaluating the prospects for solving the Middle East problem, the Secretary-General of our Organization, Mr. Waldheim, stated very clearly, in his report on the work of the Organization, that ‘SA just and lasting peace in the Middle East can ultimately only be achieved through a comprehensive settlement covering all aspects of the question, including in particular the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. Evidently, all parties concerned must be involved.’’[See A/34/1, sect. HI.] 284. Asis well known, the fundamental principles for resolving the Palestinian problems have been set forth in a number of resolutions of the General Assembly, beginning at the twenty-ninth session. Resolution 33/28 A, adopted by the Assembly a year ago, reaffirmed ‘*| . . that a just and lasting peace in the Middle East cannot be established without the achievement, inter alia, of a just solution of the problem of Palestine on the basis of the attainment of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right of return and the right to national independence and sovereignty in Palestine, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations’’. 285. In this regard, I should like to note the useful work carried out by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, which has been submitting recommendations for adoption to the General Assembly every year. Those recommendations aim at enabling the Palestinian people to exercise their inalienable rights, which have been recognized and set forth in General Assembly decisions and resolutions. 286. Only a few months ago, the Security Council, at the request of the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, discussed the recommendations of that Committee. During that discussion, the Soviet delegation expressed its approval of the Committee’s recommendations, which provide, inter alia, for the Security Council to take specific steps to ensure the withdrawal of Israeli troops from all Arab territories occupied in 1967, for a cessation of the settlements policy in those territories and for the securing of Israel’s compliance with the Geneva Convention of 1949. They also provide for all-round assistance and support for the Palestinian people, so that they can fully enjoy their inalienable rights, on the basis of the appropriate resolutions of the United Nations. 287. The Soviet delegation considers that the Security Council, as the United Nations body which bears primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security, should take practical steps to implement the specific provisions contained in the. Committee’s recommendations. course, such a settlement can be attained only if all the parties concerned participate on an equal footing, including the PLO, which is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. 289. However, we have to state that, in spite of the will of the international community, the question of Palestine has not yet been resolved in a just manner. Israel signed the United Nations Charter, but it obstinately continues to flout important United Nations decisions which provide for the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, and it refuses to heed the voice of the international community. 290. Thus, recently, the Israeli leadership stepped up its political actions to perpetuate the results of Israel’s aggression against Arab countries and to deprive the Palestinian people of its legitimate rights. The Camp David agreements and the separate Egyptian-Israeli Treaty, which was concluded with the active participation of the United States, served precisely that end. Under the guise of these agreements and that Treaty, Israel continues to pursue a policy of expansion and aggression against the Palestinian people and the neigh- ‘bouring Arab countries. 291. Fresh proof of the expansionist policy of Israel was provided by the deliberate removal of Palestinians from the office of mayor of towns in the occupied Arab territories; by the decision of the Israeli Government enabling Israeli citizens to acquire land in the West Bank and in the Gaza District; and also by the decision of the Israeli Government in October this year to expand seven Israeli settlements in the illegally occupied Arab territories. 292. The talks going on now regarding the so-called administrative autonomy for Palestinians are a blatant attempt to prevent the exercise of their inalienable national rights by the Arab people of Palestine and consolidate Israel’s occupation of the Arab lands, including Palestinian lands, as well as the annexation of East Jerusalem. It is characteristic that, with each new round of this haggling behind the backs of the Palestinian people, the position of Israel hardens. 293. Itis high time the Israeli leaders understood that no behind-the-scenes actions, no talks about ‘‘autonomy’’ for Palestinians, can bring them even an iota closer to the establishment of lasting peace in the Middle East region. 294. The hard facts of life testify irrefutably to the fact that the PLO is the sole legitimate representative of the Arab people of Palestine and enjoys their trust and support. That has been widely recognized internation- . ally, including in the United Nations. The Sixth Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries—which constitute a significant proportion of the Member States of the United Nations—once again stated ‘‘its full support of the struggle of the Palestinian people, under the leadership of its sole legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, to 295. ‘Unfortunately, the ruling circles in Israel do not want to heed the opinion of the world community. They are trying to deny the existence of the Palestinian people and pursue a policy of terror and repression against it. As recently as in May this year, the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr. Begin, stated that Tel Aviv had the “‘right’’ to strike at Palestinian positions at any time, at any place and by any means. Israel carries out these inhuman decisions and constantly undertakes aggressive action against Lebanon, causing thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese victims, mostly among the civilian populations. 296. The attempts to impose a capitulation ‘‘settlement’’ on the Middle East are being ever more energetically rebuffed by the Arab peoples. This was the thrust of the decisions taken at the Baghdad Conference,”¢ which are making themselves felt more and more. 297. The valiant, just struggle of the Palestinian people to regain their legitimate rights is supported by the countries of the socialist community and by all peace-loving democratic forces throughout the world. 298. The Soviet Union highly commends the principled and constructive position of the PLO on the question of a Middle East settlement and its contribution towards strengthening the unity of action of the Arab countries opposed to the policy of separate deals. 299. As everyone knows, the Soviet Union consistently pursues a policy of principle directed towards the attainment of a comprehensive Middle East settlement, part and parcel of which is the securing of the legitimate national rights of the Arab people of Palestine, including their right to self-determination, the right to create their own independent State and the right to return to their homeland, in accordance with United Nations decisions. 300. In the telegram sent to the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the PLO, Mr. Arafat, dated 4 August 1979, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, President of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Comrade Leonid I. Brezhnev, again stressed that **...in the Soviet Union the Palestinian and other Arab peoples will find a trustworthy friend and ally in their struggle to secure their legitimate national rights and to achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East, on the basis of a comprehensive settlement, with the participation of all parties concerned’’.

The position of the Government of the Republic of Cyprus on the question of Palestine is well known and has been stated time and again before various international forums, as recently as at the Sixth Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, held at Havana, and also again by the President of the Republic 302. We have constantly and consistently supported the Palestinian people and their sole legitimate representative, the PLO, not only because of geographical proximity, not only because of ab antiguc brotherly relations between the Palestinian people and ourselves, not only because of the striking similarities between their cause and ours, but also because of the morality and justice of that cause. Cyprus, itself a member of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, cannot but express its regret over the fact that no concrete steps have been taken to implement the Committee’s recommendations, which were overwhelmingly endorsed thrice by the General Assembly. 303. Cyprus is situated very near the Middle East, and naturally we feel the reverberations emanating therefrom, and, more often than not, Cyprus is affected by the very consequences of what takes place in that sensitive area. 304. Our position on the question before this body is based on five principles. 305. First, we fervently believe that the question of Palestine is at the heart of the Middle East issue, thus constituting the very core of this grave international problem. 306. Secondly, we are of the opinion that any just and viable comprehensive settlement of the problem must unequivocally recognize the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, independence, national sovereignty and the return of the refugees to their homes and properties. 307. Thirdly, we recognize the PLO as the sole representative of the beleaguered Palestinian people, and very much concur with General Assembly resolutions 3236 (XXIX) and 3375 (XXX). In this regard, we should like to state that we quite naturally accept the validity of what is stated in paragraph 53 of the Committee’s reort. The PLO’s active role, on a basis of equality, is indispensable in all efforts, deliberations and conferences on the Middle East. 308. Fourthly, we believe that belligerency must come to an end, and that the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and its right to live in peace within recognized boundaries must be respected and acknowledged. The premise is sometimes put forward that there is an inherent incompatibility between the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to a State of their own and the right of Israel to exist as an independent and sovereign State. It is our firm belief that no such incompatibility exists and that both the Israelis and the Palestinians can and must coexist peacefully. 309. The fifth and final principle that has guided my delegation’s position on the topic before us is totai respect for the principle of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force. 311. Those are the fundamental conditions for peace in the area, and their recognition and implementation will ensure a viable and lasting solution to the problem. The task of the international community, once again, should be directed towards the implementation cf the relevant United Nations resolutions, as well as respect for the cardinal principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. 312. The Palestinian question is one of the most serious international problems in the world today, and the United Nations has a grave responsibility to strive for a just solution. Nevertheless, it is mainly through determined action by the Security Council that the plethora of United Nations resolutions on the subject can acquire substence and meaning. That is why we are of the opinion that there is no justification for any further reluctance on the part of the Security Council to act as provided for by the relevant provisions of the Charter. Failing that, the General Assembly should explore other avenues which might be available to it under the Charter, such as the convening of an emergency special session of the General Assembly, at an appropriate time. 313. In conclusion, and whilst endorsing the ‘‘prescription for peace’’ contained in the Committee’s recommendations, we join our voice to the collective voices that protest illegal and unacceptable measures in any occupied territory by any occupying Power, measures that run counter to the pronouncements of the General Assembly and the Security Council. Our position on the draft resolutions that will be before us will reflect these views.

We have before us this year, as a basic working document for the General Assembly agenda item entitled ‘“The question of Palestine’’, the key report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People [A/34/35 and Corr. 1]. 315. It ts not only its substantial structure, the result of many studies and much investigation on the subject, which leads my delegation to emphasize the importance of that report. We are dealing with something even more meaningful, intrinsically implicit in this general debate. What we are dealing with is a monstrous crime whose shades of tragedy and martyrdom are progressively deepening and which today has been going on for no less than 31 years. Over three decades during which the United Nations has been practically handcuffed in its just demand to stop and punish those responsible for that crime! 316. A few weeks ago, when addressing this Assembly as Chairman of the movement of non-aligned countries [31st meeting}, the President of the Council of ** ..there’s nothing in recent history that parallels it more closely than the dispossession, persecution and genocide that imperialism and Zionism are currently practising against the Palestinian people. Pushed off their land, expelled from their own country, scattered throughout the world, persecuted and murdered, the heroic Palestinians are a vivid example of sacrifice and patriotism, living symbols of the most terrible crime of our era.’’ [See A/34/542, annex, page 237.) 317. The efforts by our Organization to halt aggression and restore to the heroic sons of Palestine their usurped rights have not been few. For decades, since the crime of genocide began, and more especially in recent years, when the happy initiative of setting up the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People bore fruit, we tiave heard a long succession of distinguished speakers, including ministers for foreign affairs, heads of Government and of State, expressing hopes and demanding measures; expressing solidarity and support and vigorously condemning the actions of the aggressor. The United Nations has heard and has itself echoed this expression of the universal conscience, although the harvest so far obtained by the concert of nations has been meagre. 318. Onthe one hand, the racist arrogance with which the Israeli occupiers have rejected the outcry of this world forum, not to mention other forums of international activity which have also consistently dealt with the matter, has constituted a factor which is repeated like a litany in the reports of our Organization: Israel increases its illegal measures, its practices of violation and its repression in the occupied territories; Israel continues its process of colonization and establishes new settlements; Israel brings about irreversible demographic and geographic changes; Israel illegally occupies the City of Jerusalem; Israel rejects committees designated by the main United Nations bodies and systematically violates the relevant agreements, resolutions and decisions of this Organization. 319. Itis certainly no revelation to state here that the criminal is in contempt of court and a repeated offender per se. This statement is not prompted by political prejudice. However presumptuous and self-sufficient the Zionist entity may be, there can be no doubt that Israel is a sort of Romulus come back to life, who sucks dollars, technology and military equipment from a sadly notorious wolf. Who can deny that the policy of the United States plays a fundamental role in preventing the establishment of a just and complete peace in the region by aligning itself with Israel, backing it and working with it to obtain partial solutions favourable to the Zionist aims, and guaranteeing the fruits of the Israeli aggression at the expense of the Arab people of Palestine and, why not say it, the whole Arab nation? 320. Inexchange for that, the Zionist régime does as it pleases and fulfils its role as a regional policeman. The adventurist and terrorist policy of its leadership moves it to mass repression, the arrest and expulsion of distin- 321. However, perhaps the most Machiavellian of the Israeli-American creations is not illustrated by the previous examples of the brutal use of force, but by the far more cunning and elaborate attempt to thrust the dagger of a fifth column into the back of the Arab people of Palestine and of the entire Arab nation. 322. I ama referring to a fact that all representatives here are aware of: the policy of American imperialism and of zionism of promoting partial solutions, arrogating to themselves the right to settle the destiny of that immensely heroic people in the absence of its sole and legitimate representative, the PLO. 323. In this connexion, the position of Cuba, which is that of the movement of non-aligned countries, endorsed by the Sixth Conference of the movement, leaves no room for doubt: we firmly reject any agreement which claims to solve the problem of Palestine outside the framework of the United Nations and in the absence of the PLO; we consider such agreements as null and void. 324. Paper or papyrus, it is of no consequence; these agreements are condemned by the severe judgement of the Palestinian people and of the peoples of the region and of the whole world, whether they be signed at Camp David, in the Knesset or elsewhere. 325. The cardinal principles which must be strictly observed in order to obtain a just and lasting solution to the questicn of Palestine—the Gordian knot of the Middle East—have been mentioned here today by many delegations. I do not wish to burden you by listing those corner-stones for the solution of the problem, which, furthermore, are eloquently contained in the recommendations prepared by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, which were endorsed by the General Assembly at its thirty-first, thirty-second and thirty-third regular sessions. Suffice it to say that for my delegation these principles must be observed in order to achieve any real progress in the area. 326. I would not wish to end without expressing our unlimited support for the request reiterated in the draft resolutions which will be submitted by a group of nonaligned countries, among them those contained in documents A/34/L.41 and A/34/L.42, which have already been circulated, to the effect that the Security Council should act as soon as possible on the recommendations adopted by the General Assembly in its resolutions 31/20, 32/40 A and 33/28 A, which have not yet been implemented by the Council, and in particular on paragraph 4 of resolution 32/40 A. 327. In expressing our support for the draft resolutions submitted to the General Assembly for its consideration by a group of non-aligned countries, of which Cuba has the honour to be a member, my delegation feels that it is fulfilling its elementary duty as a nonaligned counitrv. and it does so in the firm conviction

’’ I have asked to be allowed to address this Assembly to express our ‘sympathy at the tragic plight of the Palestinian peopie and to voice my delegation’s support for their just struggle. For 30 yea;s they have suffered—expelled from their homeland, deprived of their property and belongings, and denied the basic human rights piovided for in the Charter of the United Nations. 329. The efforts of the United Nations thus far to find a solution to the Palestinian problem have been in vain, largely because of the intransigent attitude of Israel, which has continued to ignore the calls and opinions of the international community. On the contrary, as clearly indicated in the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, the Israeli authorities continue to refuse to withdraw from all the Arab territories occupied by force of war. Israel has also resorted to the illegal acquisition of Arab land and the establishment of Jewish settlements. Such actions not only violate the principles of international law, but also have increased tension and the danger of armed conflict. We cannot remain unconcerned by these developments. My delegation would like, therefore, to urge this Assembly to adopt appropriate resolutions which correctly reflect the indignation of Member States at the Israeli actions. 330. Malaysia, together with other Member States of the United Nations, regards the Palestinians’ struggle to restore their inalienable rights, which have been denied them by the Israeli authorities, as a just one, deserving our whole-hearted support. So long as the Palestinian people are denied their inalienable rights, namely, the right to return to their homes, land and property and the mght to self-determination, independence and sovereignty, peace will continue to elude the Middle East. The question of Palestine is at the heart of - the Middle East problem. 331. During its twenty-ninth session, the General Assembly took the decision to grant observer status to the PLO [resolution 3237 (XXIX)], enabling that organization to participate in the proceedings of the United Nations. That decision was indeed an appropriate one, for the PLO truly represents the Palestinian people. Because of this, any peace negotiation in the Middle East, under the auspices of the United Nations, must ‘necessarily include the participation of the PLO, on an equal footing with all other parties. 332. During the thirtieth session, the General Assembly established the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. My country is proud to be associated with the work of the Committee in its efforts to find ways and means of enabling the Palestinian people to exercise its inalienable rights. My delegation fully supports the recommendations made by the Committee in its report. I should like to take this opportunity to urge all the parties concerned to give their full co-operation to the implementation of the Committee’s recommendations for the sake of peace and stability in the Middle East.

\n our opinion, this debate is far more than a simple opportunity to express our solidarity with the Palestinian people and the PLO which inspires, prompts and leads their struggle. 335. Neithe: should this debate confine itself to emphasizing the urgency of finding a just solution to the question of Palestine, an urgency which the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People has stressed by drawing attention to its recommendations which have act been implemented since their adoption by the Assembly in 1976. Manifestly, it is high time to act, since experience has shown that this question is not one to be settled by time. 336. There is a clash of opposing wills: the will to liberation of the Palestinian people, and the wili to dominate of Israel and its allies, and this has unfortunately become a fact of life to which we have become accustomed over 30 years. There must be an end to this tragedy. 337. For this, will it suffice for us to speak of our devotion to peace and our desire: to reach a peaceful settiement? To what extent do recent acts and events square with those objectives? What are the bases for a just and lasting solution to the Palestinian problem? What is the role incumbent upon the United Nations in the attainment of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people? The conclusions of our .deliberations should, we believe, bring us replies to these questions. 338. We all fervently hope for the return of peace to Palestine and io the Middle East. No one will appreciate the cost of that peace better than the Palestinians who for 30 years have known only violence, oppression, deportation, exile and humiliation. The sacrifices of the freedom fighters, their ardour for battle and their daily acts of courage and bravery—all that could not have been possible had not every Palestinian been sustained by the vision of a society that will guarantee for him prosperity, progress and dignity, in other words, the vision of an independent and peaceful Palestinian nation. 339. Whatever the propaganda of the Tel Aviv leaders, ‘fe Palestinian combatant is prompted by an ideal, a rotound and legitimate aspiration which the international community accepts and recognizes, but which {srael alone refuses to accept, thus rendering meaningless the latter’s pacifist protestations. 340. israel, which so loudiy provaims its peace initiatives, seems perplexed because its overtures have been rejected by the Palestinian peopie. Could it expect any other results without first making a psychological leap consisting in the recognition of the national identity of the Palestinian people and the legitimacy of their strugzie? Uniess Israel admits that the Palestinian people 341. How can the Israeli leaders and their allies propose, with the utmost seriousness in the world, that the Palestinian people be placed under Israeli trusteeship, whether temporary or permanent? By what aberration of the mind can Israel and its allies imagine that the Palestinian people would agree to give up their sovereionty over a territory that belongs to them and over the natural resources of that territory? Can a people, which at the end of the First World War was promised that it would become independent in its national territory, resign itself to accepting a vague noticn of .;onomy in only a small part of that territory? 342. The international community associates itself with the Palestinian people in saying yes to peace and assisting them in the search for a peaceful settlement, but also in rejecting any attempt at mystification and any initiative that would lead to the negation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. 343. It happens that the manoeuvres presented by Israel and its allies as a joint initiative do not appear ina _ political vacuum. They go hand in hand with other acts which, with our simplistic outlook, we cannot reconcile with a sincere will to seek the restoration of peace in Palestine and the Middle East: we are speaking, on the one hand, of the massive armaments introduced into Israel and Egypt after the peace agreement and, on the other hand, of Israeli practices in the occupied territories, 344. With reference to the first point, logic would have required, after the signing of the peace agreement, demobilization and the partial or total disarmament of the former belligerents. But it seems that the opposite has occurred, and there seems to us to be no precedent for that in history. We are therefore naturally led to wonder whether the path taken leads in the direction of peace or of military escalation in the Middle East. 345. For our part, being well aware of the special notion that Israel has of its security needs and knowing also its propensity for utilizing offensively the weapons given to it—allegedly to defend itself—we fear that we have not yet seen the end of the military and expansionist adventures of Israel. The events in Lebanon bear witness to this. Right of hot pursuit, preventive reprisals, these are notions of more than doubtful validity which israel invokes to pursue the Palestinians wherever they may be, even when they happen to be simple refugees. 346. itis not enough to speak of peace initiatives; one must believe in them and, above all, ensure that the proposals presented and the daily actions are in accordance with the proclaimed intentions. 347. That leads me to speak of the second point, which concerns Israeli practices in the occupied territories. Those practices are well known, since they have been the subject of reports and continuing debates 348. Scorning the fundamental principle of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force, Israel does not conceal its determination to annex certain parts of the occupied territories nor its wish that we should accept without protest the fact that it acts as master of the other parts. 349. Unfortunately, that is not the only Israeli practice that the international community has had to repeatedly denounce and condemn. There are also the following policies and practices, which I hardly need to illustrate with specific examples: establishment of new settlements and extension of existing settlements on public and private Arab lands; evacuation, deportation, expulsion, displacement and transfer of Arab inhabitants from the occupied territories, and denial of their right to return; confiscation and expropriation of Arab properties; real estate transactions of doubtful legality, financed by institutions of the occupying Power or by Zionist organizations; mass arrests, preventive detention, ill-treatment and torture inflicted on those detained; looting of the archaeological and cultural heritage; hampering of religious freedoms and practices, and infringement of traditional rights and customs; illegal exploitation of the natural wealth and resources of the population of the occupied territories. 350. When we speak ofall this, the representatives of Israel accuse us of deliberately trying to distort reality and blackening the image of their country at all costs. They even go so far as to suggest that the population of the occupied territories lives in an economic and social paradise created by Israel. Like the former colonial Powers and the racist leaders of southern Africa, those representatives do not wish to give credit to the local populations for the accomplishments due to their own efforts and to their aspiration to cultural and social development. They appear to believe that the Palestinian people is prepared to exchange, to sell off, its right to sovereignty and national independence for material well-being, which, in any case, is the result of its own labours. If this were not so, there would not have been the boycotts, the student demonstrations and the strikes which the Israeli representatives systematically seek to minimize. _ adopted at Havana, to recommend the convening of an emergency session of the General Assembly to discuss the question of Palestine [see A/34/542, annex, sect. VI A, resolution No. 1, para. 11] in the event of the Secu- 351. Ifthe international community has not yet found a just and lasting solution to the question of Palestine, which is at the core of the Middle East probiem, it is not for lack of applicable principles. These principles exist, and the General Assembly has regularly reaffirmed them since its thirty-second session. They are based cn the conviction that no solution can be envisaged that does not take full account of the legitimate aspirations of the Patestinian people. In conformity with the recommendations of the Committee on Palestine, it is the duty and responsibility of all those concerned toe enable the Palestinian people to exercise their legitimate and inalienable right to return to their homes and resume possession of their property, to proceed to selfdetermination, national sovereignty and independence. 352. The participation of the PLO, the representative of the Palestinian people, on an equal footing with the 353. We believe that the role of the United Nations must be expanded and strengthened in the search for and implementation of a valid solution to the question of Palestine. The Security Council, in particular, should take appropriate measures to facilitate the exercise by the Palestinians of their inalienable rights. 354. We are not unaware that there is a crisis within our Organization, since the political will of the majority is countered, at the Security Council level, by the intemperate use of a right which is none the less anachronistic for being recognized by the Charter and, ix: this case, is detrimental to the quest for peace. 355. Unfortunately, when the fate of an entire people is at stake, when international peace and security could at any moment be affected by the acute crisis unfolding in Palestine and the Middle East, we cannot—-we do not have the right to—afford the luxury of a parliamentary shuttle game, of dilatory manoeuvres and of successive ostponements ofa decision at the Security Council evel. 356. For three years running, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People has decided to submit the same recommendations to the General Assembly. Each time, the Assembly accepts them and transmits them to the Security Council for action. There has been no such action, because of the opposition of a single delegation. 357. My delegation supports the decision of the heads of State and Government of the non-aligned countries, rity Council’s not taking a decision before a given date on the recommendations of which it is still seized. We do so with regret, for we should have preferred to see the principal organs of the United Nations functioning in accordance with their mandates. In the final analysis, what are our principles and our institutions worth if the international consensus on the recognition of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people cannot gain the endorsement of the main organ entrusted with the maintenance of international peace and security? 358. In conclusion I should like, in my turn, to associate the delegation of Madagascar with the tributes paid to Mr. Fall, who has been called to other tasks, but who has presided, since its creation, over the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. By his devotion, his diplomatic skill and his talent as an orator, he has contributed, as he himself put it, to ‘bestowing a patent of nobility on the Palestinian cause’’. We are most grateful to him, and we wish him good luck and every success in his new responsibilities. étente. 360. The basis of the Middle East conflict is the expansionist policy pursued by Israel, as a result of which an entire people, the Arab people of Palestine, has been doomed to exile, bereft of the most sacred thing a man can have: a homeland. The territories of the neighbouring Arab countries remain under foreign occupation, as they have been for more than 12 years. Attacks are being perpetrated against Lebanon, and the major part of the responsibility for this lies with the imperialist circles, which give direct support to the expansionist policy of Israel and exploit the Middle East conflict to combat the national liberation movement in that region. 361. In deed, as in word, the ruling circles of Israel have shown that, from the very outset, they have striven to drive the Palestinian Arabs from their land, to deprive them of their native land and at the same time to appropriate as much Arab territory as possible. 362. Since the adoption by the General Assembly of its resolution 181 (1D), which provided for the creation in Palestine of an independent Arab State as well as a Jewish State, millions of Palestinians have been expelled by the Zionists from their homeland and have ecome refugees. 363. But even this has not been enough for the Israeli rulers. Their aggressive appetites have known no bounds and they have wanted to evict all Arabs in general. 364. The former Israeli General Davidi, when asked how he proposed to resolve the Palestinian problem, replied, and I quote from the Journal of Palestinian Studies (Vol. IV, No. 3, Spriag 1967, p. 7): ‘‘In the ruost simple and humane manner: by transferring all Palestinians from their present places of residence to Arab countries’. Asked whether this was what the Palestinians wanted, the General answered: ‘‘They will accept it if they have no other alternative’. 365. So that is the fate devised for the Palestinian people by certain circles in Israel—the fate of an entire people, doomed to be expeiled from their lands and deprived of a homeland. But things turned out to be more complicated. They had to reckon with the resistance of the Arab peoples to that horrendous policy, as well as with world public opinion. So then they tried another tack: they confiscated land from the Arabs and created on it militarized Jewish settlements, and they used terror to suppress the recalcitrant Arabs. This is what is happening at the present time and what is known as “‘creeying annexation’ ’. ft is the new Israeli way of consclidating occupatioi.. 366. Those Israeli policies have aiready many times been condemned by the United Nations, in particular in July of this year, when the Security Council adopted resolution 452 (1979) which, once again, called upon Israel to halt the establishment of settlements in the Arab territories occupieu since 1967. 368. The well-known General Assembly resolutions 3236 (XXIX) and 3237 (XXIX), which were adopted in this hall five years ago, were historic milestones on this path. Since then, the General Assembly has each year reaffirmed, by an overwhelming majority of votes, the inalienable legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, and it is playing an important role in mobilizing world public opinion in the struggle to secure those rights. 369. We shculd here pay a tribute to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, whose report and recommendations are before the Assembly for consideration. The Committee has quite rightly condemned the conclusion of separate eals. 370. The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, President of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Leonid I. Brezhnev, in a speech made on 14 February ' 1975, speaking of the partial settlement measures, warned that: ‘*Certain persons, it seems, want to offer to the Arab peoples some sort of sleeping pill in the hope that they will calm down and forget about their demands for the restoration of justice and the full elimination of the consequences of aggression. But a sleeping pill stupefies one only for a short time after which one awakens and is again faced by real life and its problems.’’ [Vo imia mira na zemle (In the name of peace on earth), vol. 2, 1977, p. 17, Moscow, Politizdat.] Those who should have heeded that warning did not, and they were wrong. Subsequent events have shown how correct those words were. 371. The Camp David deals between Egypt and Israel concluded in September 1978 under United States auspices, and the separate ‘‘peace treaty’’ be. ween Egypt and Israel signed in March of this year, as many repr3sentatives have pointed out, not only did not relieve the tension in the Middle East region but, on the contrary, made the situation even more complicated. However the authors and their instigators may try to embellish those deals, it is quite obvious that they jeopardize the interests of all Arab countries, without exception. They cannot lead to a just—and therefore a lasting— peace in the Middle East, because their real purpose is to try to perpetuate the results of Israeli aggression against the Arab countries and against the Arab people of Palestine. That is the real situation. If they were to face the truth and not hide behind generalizations about good intentions—a recourse of people who want to hide’ the truth—they would see that the Camp David agreements and the Egypt-Israel treaty are full of hostility towards the legitimate rights of the Arab people of Palestine and their aspiration to create their own State, and towards the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, the PI_O. 373. The ongoing so-called talks about the ‘‘autonomy of the Palestinians’”’ are in essence talks about how to entrench Israeli domination over the occupied Arab lands, how te prevent the Arab people of Palestine from enjoying self-determination and how to exclude from - the settlement process the sole legitimate representative of that people, the PLO. What enjoyment of their inalienable rights can the Palestinian people have, if the leaders of Israel, invoking the Camp David agrzements, state that Israel will never agree to the creation of a Palestinian State and will never release East Jerusalem, that the Israeli army will remain on the West Bank and in Gaza, and that Israei has a right to arrest and expel mayors and other officials elected by the Palestinians? In those talks, the position of the PLO is completely ignored. The PLO quite clearly stated that the Palestinian people will allow no one to resolve the problem of Palestine for it, especially if such a solution runs counter to its legitimate interests, and that separate agreements of that kind de not have and will not have any Nalidity for the Arab people of Palestine and are illegal. 374. We should note with satisfaction the growing solidarity among the Arab countries in the face of the machinations of imperialism and its accomplices. Virtually ali Arab countries have not only recogaized the danger of the policy of separate deals but have decisively opposed such a policy, as can be seen from this discussion. ‘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. . . ”’ [A/34/542, annex, sect. I, para. 108}. 376. The separate deals were also condemned in the decisions taken at the thirty-third ordinary session of the Council of Ministers of OAU, held at Monrovia in July of this year, as can be seen from document A/34/ 377. To judge by official statements, an ever growing number of Western countries are concluding that there is a need for a comprehensive settlement in the Middie East, one that will take into account the legitimate rights of the Arab people of Palestine, and oue in which the FLO will participate. 378. The delegaiion of the Byelorussian SSR considers that a just and lasting settlement in tite Middle East, including that of the Palestinian question, is possible only if all parties concerned—including the PLO— articipate in it, if‘all the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 are liberated, if the Arab people of Palesti:.. are given a real opportunity to exercise their riz.at to selfdetermination and to create their own State, and if all States of the region are guaranteed the right to independent and safe existence anc development. The meeting rose at 9 p.in.