S/PV.1406 Security Council

The first speaker on my list is the representative of Israel, on whom I now call. Present: The representatives of the following States: Algeria, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Ethiopia, France, Hungary, India, Pakistan, Paraguay, Senegal, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and United States of America.

The day before yesterday, Mr. President, I requested you to convene an urgent meeting of the Security Council to examine the continuous campaign of acts of violence and aggression pursued from Jordanian territory against my country and my people. The Security Council is now fully acquainted with the situation. An illegal, aggressive war waged by the Arab States, Members of the United Nations, against another Member State, Israel; a large-scale, co-ordinated and organized campaign of terror, sabotage and slaughter, carried on incessantly and indiscriminately against men, woinen and children, towns and villages, at night and in daylight-this is the basic problem. Provisional agenda (S/Agenda/l406/Rev.l) 1. Adoption of the agenda. 2. The situation in the Middle East: (a) Letter dated 21 March 1968 from the Permanent Representative of Jordan addressed’ to thb President of the Security Council (S/8484); (bJ Letter dated 21 March 1968 from the Permanent Representative of Israel addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/8486), 4. The Security Council cannot, the Security Council must not, remain silent on it. The people of Israel, who have lived in the shadow of war for the last twenty years, turn to you again in the hope that the Council will not ignore the mortal perils created by the continuation of these Arab acts of aggression, that it will not belittle our suffering, that it will not refuse us relief from the offensive of destruction and death which we face, The Arab representatives have tried to win from the Council approval and licence to continue with their warfare of assassination and sabotage against my people. We await the Council’s response. Adoption of the agenda The agenda was adopted. The situation in the Middle East: /al Letter dated 21 March 1968 from the Permanent Representative of Jordan addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/8484); (bj Letter dated 21 March 1968 from the Permanent Representative of Israel addressed to the President of ). the Security Council (S/8486) 5. Will the result of our deliberations bring encouragement to those who pursue war and s’ow death? Will it be interpreted as disregard for Israel’s request that the present threatening situation not be permitted to continue, not be allowed to escalate to an even graver state?

In accordance with the Council’s earlier decision, I propose to invite the representatives of the two countries which have requested this meeting of the Security Council, Jordan and Israel, to take places at the Council table for the duration of the discussion on the question now before us. I also propose to invite the representatives of the United Arab Republic, Iraq, Morocco and Syria to take the places that have been reserved for them at the side cf the Council chamber, on the understanding that when it is their turn to speak they will be invited to take places at the Council table, 6. If in the mind of anyone there could have been doubt as to the circumstances in which Israel was compelled to take measures against the bases of aggression and terrorism, the summary which I submitted yesterday to the Council /1404th meeting/ on what we discpvered in the camps of the raiders on the east bank and’ the reports published in today’s press from eye-witnesses in Jordan should reveal fully the extent of the menace and the magnitude of the assault with which we are coping. 7. In this morning’s New York Times we find a striking description of the terrorist organization, their training and activities, and I should like to quote from the report: At the invitation of the President, Mr. M. H. El-Farra (Jordan) and Mr. Y, Tekoah (Ismel) took places at the Cortncil table, and Mr. M. A. El-Kony (United Arab Republic), Mr, A. Pachachi (Iraq), Mr. A. T. Benhima lMorocco) and Mr. G. J. Tomeh (Syria) took the places reserved for them, “Karameh camp was swarming today with men carrying Soviet-made machine-guns and grenades and voicing pride over the fight they put up ye$t,erday. . “A Jordanian policeman, one of about half a dozen in the camp, identified the men as members of the Resistance National Guard. “But other Jordanians said freely that they were members of El-F&ah, a Palestinian guerrilla group dedicated to underground warfare against Israel. “A Jordanian who was with the visiting reporters and another who had been to Karameh earlier in the day with King Hussein and Premier Bahjat al-Talhouni on an inspection tour of the subsea-level valley, gave the following account . . . $6 . . . “ . . . the commandos moved into the ghost camp and the Israelis apparently learned of their presence. “When the Israel armour smashed into Karameh yesterday, the commandos took to the hills, they said, because their ammunition was running low. “Meanwhile, Israel helicopters landed ‘400 to 500’ troops near the foothills about half a mile east of the camp. 1 here again the commandos fought them, resorting finally to knives when their ammunition was exhausted, they told the Jordanians.” 8. It is now evident that we are confronted by a fully geared war machine that has been set up for the purpose of launching against Israel a large-scale offensive in the hope that the special methods employed would give it immunity from any measures of self-defence that Israel might find it necessary to take and from censure by the Security Council. 9. It is with great expectation that the entire world awaits the Security Council’s decision on the respective Israel and Jordanian complaints: on one hand, a complaint against continuous war, terror, incursions, destruction and murder, a complaint against the sanctuary that Jordan openly grants on its territory to terrorists, marauders and saboteurs; on the other hand, a complaint on measures taken by Israel in defence against this sinister type of aggression. I am certain that all members of the Security Council realize how heavily their stand and their decision will weigh upon the prospects of peace and security in the Middle East.

I now call on the representative of Jordan. i 1. Mr. EL-FARRA (Jordan): I shall not burden the Council with a lengthy statement at this late stage in our deliberations, but certain points raised by the Israel representative and repeated time and again and on every occasion call for an answer. I do not think that the Security 12. In July 1966, Syria submitted a complaint and presented details of another serious crime committed and admitted by Israel. Israel, following this same pattern, presented a counter-charge to divert world public opinion and the Security Council. At that time I objected to the inclusion of that charge as a combined item with the complaint of Syria. We had a lengthy debate in the Security Council and it was decided that no combined debate would take place, that the complaint of Syria would be considered first, as item(u), and that item(b) would be considered following the adoption of a resolution on item (a). 13. When there is a clear attempt to divert, to fabricate, I think that it should be the duty of the Council not to permit such distortion. It would not be in keeping with the dignity of the Council-I do not speak of the dignity of the one who presented the complaint in the circumstances. 14. The representative of Israel raised the question of who lives in Karameh. He said that the Israel forces when they committed their attack did not see the local inhabitants of the west bank in Karameh. He has the ability to differentiate between who comes from the west bank and who does not. The people of Karameh were there; they continue to be there. The claim of Mr. Tekoah is contradicted not only by the reports of the United Nations, the report of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, but by the many press visitors, journalists, dignitaries. I need not mention many of them here, but .when I was in Jordan Mr. Eugene Black was there. He came a day or two after the crime of Israel on 15 February 1968; he met the people, talked to the people, and the people were there. They mentioned their names, where they came from, which part of Palestine they came from. Now we hear Mr. Tekoah saying that the people there were not the people of the camp. 15. The claim that Karameh camp was a terrorist base is again a new claim. We in the area are used to it. This is an attempt to cover up, to give justification for killing every young man in Karameh on the contention or allegation or claim-that he is El-Fan& he is fedayeen, and he should be either killed or kidnapped or taken to the occupied area. 16. This is not the first time we face such a contention and such a claim. In October 19.56, when the Israelis invaded Sinai, when the Israel forces occupied the Gaza Strip, they came and entered Khan Yunis, a town in the Gaza Strip. They killed-and the record of the United Nations is there to testify to this-most of the young men 17. Mr. Tekoa!! said yesterday that the local inhabitants were armed. I wonder whether the Israel invaders were expecting the Karameh people to receive them with ari arch of triumph or greet them with bouquets of flowers. Or did they think that the Karameh camp was a sporting club or a picnic area for them to enter’? 18. As human beings they resisted; they did not surrender to the aggressor, and they will never do so. When Israelis come back to invade, kill and destroy the people of Karameh are determined to be there and again to meet them and ‘to defend themselves and their beloved soil. They will resist aggression, they will resist the aggressor, with all the means at their disposal. In this last Israel attack there was hand-to-hand fighting. This is not unique behaviour, It is the determination of a people who believe that no price is too great for liberty and no sacrifice too dear for freedom. This body, the Security Council, is the instrument which by its action can prevent crimes of this nature, Resistance to crimes of the Israelis is not unique. It is always the answer when there is invasion, and the Security Council offers a better and more effective deterrent. 19. Mr. Tekoah referred to certain demonstrations in Halwan and other parts of Cairo. He failed to say, however, that all demonstrations wanted the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of foreign troops from all Arab territories. 20. The Israel distortions went so far as to say yesterday that the people of the west bank are happy and that: it is the Arab Governments which do not want peace. On this I leave it to the members around this table, who are familiar with the reaction of people under foreign domination and their reaction to foreign invasion. All members around this table have experienced foreign invasion in one form or another. They all reacted in the only normal and natural way. The people of the west bank, of Gaza, of Sinai and of Syria are not exceptions to the rule. 21.’ I have with me a red book. It embodies thirty-seven documents about the resistance of the west bank of Jordan to the Israel occupation. This is a book which was issued by the Institute for Palestine Studies, which is founded by no less a person than His Excellency the President of Lebanon, Dr. Charles Hilou, with a membership of Members of Parliament, professors of the American University of Beirut, and other dignitaries. This book contains thirtyseven documents pertaining to Arab resistance and protest against the Israel occupation. It is available to any member around this table who wants to know more about Israel crimes and more about the resistance in the area. i2. I now turn to the statements of my colleague from the United States, Mr. Goldberg. He seems to imply that in raising the question of pressure groups in the United States 23. Those are the people of Palestine, They are liberty-seeking and freedom-loving; it is for that reason, and in accordance with the Charter, that they are struggling. No, I am not intervening in the domestic affairs of the United States, a great Power. Jordan is a small country. 24. I now turn to a very important question, raised time and again during our debates yesterday and the day before yesterday. It is the question of peace and stability and security. They are beautiful words, beautiful terms; but we should examine the deeds. Some members spoke about having observers on the so-called cease-fire line, In the first place, let me say that there is no such thing as a cease-fire. line. There are cease-fire resolutions and a cease-fire area, but I know of no cease-fire line. 25, The Israel representative, for obvious reasons, referred time and again to the so-called cease-fire line. We heard other representatives, either intentionally or because of an oversight, speak about a cease-fire line. Now we are asked to consider the possibility of having observers on that so-called cease-fire line, We welcome the stationing of observers on both sides of, the armistice demarcation line. That is the line recognized by the Security Council and by the United Nations; that is the only line I am aware of which is recognized by the United Nations as such. 26. We welcome the strengthening of the United Nations machinery created for observing, that is, the Mixed Armistice Commission machinery; it is the only United Nations machinery created for observing. We hope that Member States will not create a situation which would enable the Israelis to consolidate the fruits of their aggression and their programme for new expansion. We want to see the Armistice Agreement fully activated. That is what we want. That is what Israel is evading. 27. Much has been said about a cease-fire, cease-fire agreements, cease-fire machinery and cease-fire observers. While we support the armistice machinery in the area, we do not support anything new which would freeze the so-called cease-fire line until such time as the Israel programme of expansion is fulfilled. That is something detrimental to peace in the area. We want immediate withdrawal; then observers on the armistice demarcation line, together with a strengthening of the United Nations 29. I should say that the Members which are committed to protecting Israel cannot claim now that they cannot put pressure on it to withdraw and observe the 5 June line. They are morally responsible for its behaviour; they cannot abdicate their role as parents of an authority now openly defying every value enshrined in our Charter. 30. It was immoral and wrong to create a Zionist State in our land against our will, support it beyond any reasonable limit, arm it to the teeth, and then let it loose to attack, plunder, kill, murder and destroy. It is wrong for the Security Council to take action which shows that Israel is on its own. It is wrong to say that peace, which is needed, can be achieved only through new observers, not on the armistice demarcation line but in the present cease-fire area. 31. We want all members of the Security Council to be fair to the victim and stop accommodating the aggressor. Be fair to a small Member of this United Nations which is the victim of your inaction. Be fair to a friend who gets nothing but headaches, disappointment and frustration from its friends. Be fair to peace, to a peace-loving small country that is subjected to daily attacks. Be fair, above all, to the Charter, which provides that there shall be no fruits of aggression. 32. We want the Council not to let the arrogance of Israel power influence its judgemcnt and sense of justice. You are judged before world public opinion by your deeds vis-h-vis the aggression, If you exploit our case for internal considerations, we, to protect the dignity, safety, welfare and security of our people, may look elsewhere for remedy. 33. One final reminder to all members of the Security Council: no one should attempt to ride two horses at the same time. The safety of every member lies in riding one vehicle-namely, the Charter, its values and great cause. The Charter was intended to serve peace with justice.

I call on the representative of Israel in the exercise of his right of reply, ” J 35 Mr. TEKOAH (Israel): It is not my intention to prolong this meeting unnecessarily. However, Mr. El-Farra tried to refute my statement that the Arab inhabitants of the west bank desire peace, that they aie weary of war and hostility and hatred instilled in them for twenty years by the Arab Governments. I fully understand the difficulty of convincing the representative of Jordan that this is so. After all, he for years now has been a tenaciops exponent of belligerency and conflict. However the west bank, like other areas under Israel control, is open to all. 36. If he is in fact interested to learn of the present attitude of the Arab people towards peace and war, let him come and see for himself. Let him speak to those he wants to speak to. Let him ask them: Do the Arab people want

The song of peace t something which we are used to coming from every Isrd who takes that seat over there. When they speak abou peace one wonders whether they really genuinely ani sincerely believe in peace. Did they believe in peace aher. in 1897, they decided at the first Zionist conference to takr Palestine as a Jewish home and displace the people d Palestine? Did they think in terms of peace in 1917 uvhel they persuaded a British gentleman, Lord Balfour, tc promise the land of Palestine to the Israelis, against the will of the people of Palestine, to convey to them somethingllt did not own? Did they think in terms of peace in 1941 when, through the pressure groups 1 mentioned earlier, the) were able to persuade the former President of the United States, Mr. Truman-and his memoirs are there to testifyk what I am saying-to apply other pressure and bring about the immoral decision partitioning a land against the will 01 its people, conveying a sovereignty which the United Nations, like Lord Balfour, never owned? The United Nations never had sovereignty to convey to a State coming from Europe called Israel. 39. Did they think in terms of peace when, in defiance01 the United Nations, they occupied many Arab towns whicL/ were supposed to be part of the Arab State of Palestine?/ Did they think in terms of peace when they occupied once third more than what was allotted to the State by the United Nations? Did they think in terms of peace wher they invaded Sinai in 19.56, and Mr, Ben-Gurion rushed there to find the first hill, call it the Mount of Moses ali then say “This is part of Eretz Israel-Moses received tk message here”? Did they think in terms of peace wllcn they launched this vicious attack-this war of June-thir sneak attack, this surprise attack? Did they think in term of peace when they occupied Gaza, Sinai, all of the west bank of Jordan and part of Syria? Do they think of peacr) now? 40. The road to peace is simple. Give up what you took bji force. Force does not convey right. Force does not givt; fruit. Aggression gives no fruit for the aggressor, Law doe! not give this. The jurisprudence of the European, the Latin American, the Soviet, the Arab, the Asian and the Africar all recognize this doctrine. Article 17 of the Charter of tk Latin American States’ is very clear. They bring it out toi show the signs of peace. I 41. As I said in this Council earlier, peace means SOIII~( thing else to the Israelis. We both. agree on the word “peace”, but we disagree on the spelling. The spelling 01. “peace” by Israel is “p-i-e-c-e”. Our spelling is “p-e-a.ce”:; They wanted a “piece” in 1.897, one in 1917, one in 1941, one in 1956, one in 1967, and they are on the go. Yet I1 hear members of the Council speaking about having people coming as observers to maintain stability. Peace requiresa; 1 Charter of the Organization of American States, signed al, Bogotci, on 30 April 1948. SO. But to try to convey the impression that you are for peace when you are for aggression is so obvious a distortion that it needs no comment. 43. So no matter how much Mr. Tekoah sings the song of peace, the world knows. Facts are there, they do not need too much examination. All you have to do is to look at the map, look at the practice, look at the behaviour, look at the crimes and look at the attacks against Jordan every day. It does not need much effort to find out who is for peace and who is for war and aggression.

I call on the representative of Israel. 52, Mr, TEKOAH (Israel): It is so much more constructive to be challenged on questions of peace than on questions of war, and therefore I should like immediately to respond to the question put to me by the representative of Jordan and to say that we do accept the goal of the Security Council resolution of 22 November 1967 to establish a just and lasting peace by agreement, together with Jordan. That is the basic provision, that is the basic aim of the resolution. We still await that kind of confirmation on the part of the Jordanian Government. 44. Also, we can look at the reports of the United Nations. Mr. Gussing has something to say. You have the report;’ it has not yet been examined by the Security Council, but it is there. Other documents are there. We expect our able and competent Secretary-General very soon to send his special representative to go and examine these crimes, the crimes committed in Sinai, in Rafah, in El-Arish, in Khan Yunis, in Gaza, in Kuneitra and, above all, in the west bank.

I call on the representative of Jordan.

Now, I want you, Mr. President, and the other members who voted for the resolution adopted unanimously to clarify this. Did you adopt a goal, or is the goal in the Charter? Did you not adopt a resolution with specific paragraphs calling for specific deeds? The goal is in the Charter. If the statement we have just heard proves anything, it proves defiance, arrogance, complete ignorance, To come here and say that they accept the goal is to ignore completely the will of the Security Council. What is the goal? To score a point? The goal is the Charter, and the Charter does not need resolutions.

I call on the representative of Israel.

The only reason why I have asked again for the right to make a brief observation is that it is a rare moment when I find myself in agreement with the representative of Jordan, 1 do agree with him that the road to peace is simple. It is a very simple road and Israel is ready to take it, to take it together with Jordan. We are still waiting for a sign that, in accordance with the Charter obligations of a Member State of the United Nations, Jordan is ready to walk on this path towards peace together with us-to meet, to discuss, to ‘reach agreement on a peaceful settlement. 55. I repeat my question. Do the Israelis really and sincerely accept the Security Council resolution? What is more, do the Israelis, who defied the will of ninety-nine Members of the United Nations on the question of Jerusalem, accept that resolution of the General Assembly L22.54 (ES-V)] supported by ninety-nine Members, with the regrettable abstention of the United States and the understandable abstention of Israel? I again challenge the representative of Israel to tell this Council whether they would agree to implement a resolution on the question of Jerusalem adopted by ninety-nine votes in favour? What has been their answer to this question? What has been their answer with respect to the resolution? Their answer has been: Jerusalem is not negotiable. These are facts, and facts are stubborn things; neither Mr. Tekoah nor any leader in the Israel Cabinet is in a position to cover up or hide them. They are glaring, they are all known and they cannot easily be distorted.

I call on the representative of Jordan.

I challenge Mr. Tekoah of Israel to come out before the Security Council, right here and now, and say that Israel agrees to implement the resolution adopted unanimously by the Security Council on 22 November 1967 /242 (1967)]. I challenge him to come out right here and now and say that Israel accepts the resolution and its implementation. At the invitation of the President, Mr. J. h4. Baroody (Saudi Arabia) took a place at the Council table.

Thank you, Mr. President, and my thanks go to the members of the Council for raising no objection to my request to take the floor. 58. I have listened very patiently to the debate since this question was placed before the Council. I did not intend to take the floor, but circumstances have made it necessary for me to set the record straight. Certain statements were judiciously made to divert the attention of the Council from the question placed before it. I am not going to repeat the substance of statements I made before the Council in several interventions during 1966 and 1967. To do so would indeed be to burden and encumber the Council’s record with certain historical facts that speak for themselves. 59. However, I have noticed that the question as presented by the representative of Israel makes it appear as if there is a problem to be resolved between Jordan and Israel. It is true that Jordan has paid a stiff price so far. A good part of its territory has been dismembered and occupied. But no one seems to have mentioned the Palestine people as a nation. I was fourteen years old in 1920 when Palestinewhose population happened to be 94 per cent Arab-was occupied by the British as the Mandatory Power. There was a Palestinian people, a separate national entity, just as there was a Lebanese people, just as there was an Iraqi people, just as there was an Egyptian people, or a Syrian people. In a dastardly manner they were all placed under mandate. I am not going into the history of the mandates now, nor into the Conference of Versailles. 60. I must say that there is a Palestinian people; part of them lived in Jordan. They had no choice but to adopt Jordanian nationality. But they were Palestinians and they are still Palestinians. There are Palestinians in Saudi Arabia, there are Palestinians in Syria, there are Palestinians in Lebanon, there are Palestinians in Egypt and there are Palestinians scattered all over the world. Why? Because they were sold down two rivers: the Thames and the Potomac. 61, I do not know if it was a mistake at that time for the Soviet Union to vote for partition. I must say this with anguish. I was present at the 1947 meetings on partition. Did anybody, did the representative of Israel take into account that there is a Palestinian nation and that selfdetermination and the sovereignty of a people reside in the people, and that you cannot take it away from them? Does the representative of Israel consider that, because many of them lived in camps-forcibly on seven cents a day--you can just erase their loyalty to their land? Ninety-four per cent were Palestinians. Forget that they were Arabs. They were a people like the people of Lebanon, like the people of Syria, like the people of Iraq, who were placed unjustly 62. It was Israel, it was the Zionists who sowed the seeds of hatred in the hearts of the Palestinians, not the Arab Governments. No Arab Government dated, and let this be made clear. Time and again I mentioned it during my last statement. No Government would dare to say to the Palestinian people “Forget your land; come on, be good, we will take some of you here and some of you there.” 63. What right have the Arab Governments to tell the ,Palestinian people, who consider themselves Palestinians, that they should go and live somewhere else? Why did not Europeans tell one another during the Second World War: it does not matter. Well, all right, part of the Czech people in the Sudeten area of Czechoslovakia were absorbed. So what? They had a Second World War that started in Nazi Germany. 64. We have heard of terrorists. They are Palestinian freedom fighters trying to regain their homeland. You cannot ask anyone to refrain from regaining his homeland. It does not depend on Saudi Arabia or Jordan or Egypt or Iraq or Lebanon or Syria. It depends on those people who are themselves in their majority the owners of the land. 65. We all know that Zionism is a European movement; it is not an oriental movement. Time and again I have said that the Semitic Jews are our brothers and we have never negated that. I am not going to go into the annals of history to prove how the Jews fared because they were our own people. We are Semites; the Arabs are Semites and the Jews are Semites. But this movement started in Europe. It is an incursion into the midst of the Arab homeland. It expropriated Palestine. The Bible says that the Jews will go back there one day. Well, if we want to treat sacred books on an equal basis, there is no such thing in the Koran, and the Koran is the Holy Book of 600 million people. Do you mean to say that the leaders of Israel are such funda. mentalists in religion that they mean that Zion is a geographical entity--or rather that it is something of the spirit which is noble rather than a geographic occupation at the expense of others? As I have said time and again in the Past, who knows but that some of those Palestinian indigenous people may have been Jews and may have been proselytized or converted, or may have opted either for Christianity or for Islam. They are the indigenous people of the land. That is what we should bear in mind, 66. Around this Council table nobody mentions the Palestinian People. Why? They were under a mandate, they were scattered. Should they be neglected, should they be imored? Therefore, my last words are no exhortation on 68. I remember 1947. I do not recall now what the exact vote was, but 2 or 3 votes were needed. And, as my colleague from Jordan mentioned, what pressure was not brought to bear to get those votes for the partition of Palestine. It played havoc with the people that lived there. 69. Do you think that if Jordan-or for that matter, Syria or, as has been alleged, the United Arab Republic-wanted to come to an agreement, the Palestinians in those countries, scattered as they are in the camps all over the Arab world, would remain docile and keep silent? 70. This is why time and again I have said that there will be no peace in Palestine. This saddens me, because in the United Nations we are all for peace. But when somebody in this Council, in this very Council, speaks of trying to exercise influence on this or that group of States, that means we are sabotaging the United Nations. The United Nations is predicated on transcending spheres of influence, power politics, special arrangements and bilateral or multilateral treaties that are not based on the Charter and its principles. 71, What are we in the Middle East? A piece of cloth to be pulled by two great Powers, each one exercising its influence? At least those who talk about influence give that impression, that it is a piece of cloth that is being pulled on the one side by one Power and on the other side by another, and those Powers have their clients, If there is a tear in the cloth, then each one darns that tear with his own thread. Those tears are the conflicts. There will be many tears, until no cloth is left. 72. Speaking humbly and from my own experience, I would not be surprised if that quarter of Asia, that Arab East-not Viet-Nam but that Arab East-is the theatre of the third world war. Because the stakes are high. This is not a religious movement. It is motivated by religion, just as the Crusades were motivated by religion. But as we know now, the Crusades were really for economic reasons. We know that now; Schlumberger, the French historian of the Crusades, tells us that, and other historians too. The motivation was religious, but it was really to postpone nationalism in Europe. At that time the Church was both a religious and temporal power. And what happened? Do 73. And now, who comes in? The Zionists. If they were the Jews of our area there would be no problem. We lived side by side with them for, I think, more than 2,000 years, since they came down from Ur of the Chaldees. And when did Abraham come? Who can tell? Abraham preceded Moses from Iraq. But our problem is not with them; our problem is with that incursion from Eastern Europe. And who are those Jews? Most of them were converted to judaism. In saying this I am citing the Jewish Encyclopaedia.: I wish I could order it brought here, and I know where the page is, but the Library is too far from here. In the first century, some tribes came from Europe and occupied that area which we now call southern Russia. They were pagans. After the Diaspora-the representative of Israel knows about the Diaspora, when the Romans destroyed the Temple-many Jews found their way to what we call today the Balkans. Then, about the seventh or eighth century, during the age of religious intolerance, there were Christians and there were Moslems in that area, after the Moslem religion spread into the North. Those tribes were converted to Judaism-because neither the Moslems nor the Christians wanted them to embrace either religion-so as to maintain the balance of power. I am not going to go into details, but this is how they became Jews. 74. So then, this is an incursion from Europe, just as in the case of the Crusaders or the case of the Mandatory Powers, and the Palestinian people-and again 1 say, forget that they are Arabs-are the victims. And yet they are called terrorists, You are equat.ing them with terrorists in all kinds of draft resolutions here. Is it not a shame even to think that anyone who tries to regain his land is a terrorist? Why are people not called terrorists in Europe when they try to regain their land? Is it because they are Arabs that you call them terrorists? 75. No, this double standard cannot go on in the United Nations, lest the United Nations founder like the League of Nations before it. I observed the League of Nations in Western Europe during its existence, and that is why it foundered-a double standard. 76. No, you cannot do this to the Palestinian people by any arrangement made in the United Nations or elsewhere. You cannot confront Jordan with any such arrangement, a State that has valiantly fought for its survival. You cannot try to make the Syrians bow their heads. The Syrians are also mentioned in the Bible. You cannot do that to any 78. Two million Palestinians: can you erase them from the face of the earth and sit here smugly wondering how we can arrange these words, and whether both engaged in violence? Of course anyone who fights the other fellow engages in violence, But it has implications. Whom are we fooling here? Are we fooling ourselves? I am reminded of these words of Omar Khayyam: Myself when young did eargerly frequent Doctor and Saint, and heard great Argument About it and about: but evermore &me out by the same door wherein I went. The copyright is no longer there. Edward Fitzgerald, the English Persian scholar at that time, translated that. 79. I have been here for twenty years, and we have been discussing all that time. We began at Lake Success and ended here on the site of a slaughter-house. We come in through the door, talk about the Palestine question, and go out by the same door as in we went, with nothing. 81. I would not ‘have taken the floor had it not been that all of you would be beating round the bush; and I would be beating round the bush with you, were you to neglect and ignore the Palestinian people from whom, I am afraid, you will hear again and again, not only in words, but, I am sorry to say, in deeds. I hope that I shall not see wider conflicts develop, because after all, I, like you and everybody round this table, am for peace.

I have no further speakers on my list. Having consulted the members of the Council, I find that the majority would like the meeting to be adjourned. We shall meet again tomorrow at 4 p.m. The meeting rose at 7.40 p.m. HOW TO OBTAIN UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATIONS United Notions publications.may be obtoined from bookstores and distributors throughout the world. Consult your bookstore or write to: United Notions, Sales Section, New York or Geneva. COMMENT SE PROCURER LES PUBLICATIONS DES NATIONS UNIES Les publicalionr des Nations Unies sont en vente dons les librairies et les agences d&positaires du monde entier. Informez-vous aupr&s de votre librairie ou odressez-vous b: Notions Unies, Section des venter, New York ov Gen&ve. KAK llOJlY~MTb M3,JAHHk-l OPI-AHMSAIMH ObIEAHHEHHblX HAUWfi ~I:I~UIIIII 0pra1111:1nr~nn 0Sacpr11el1111~1x IIaqnir MOXIIO liyllIITb n I~IIXIIMY 31arammx II I1PCIIT('TIIRS II0 WCS ]JaiiOllaX WIpFl. &%lO&IlTC CIIpUIIill 06 ll3~JUllIJIX ll IlJIllJOlI IiIlIlil~llO~ HB~XLIllIC ILlI IlSIlIIIITO 110 Ji4pCCp : O~~l'OlIIl3~l~llJI @k?~1111C11111~1X IrIll[Ilh, COIi~IIJl UO Ilpo~aiIiC II3~PIIRl"I, IIhlO-TIOllIi IIM XblICBil. COMO CONSEGUIR PUBLICACIONES DE LAS NACIONES UNIDAS Los publicaciones de las Naciones Unidos est6n en venta en librerias y cows distribuidoros en todas porter del mundo. Consulte (I IU librero o dirijase o: Naciones Unidas, SecciBn de Ventos, Nuevo York o Ginebra. Litho in U.N. Price: $U.S. 0.50 (or equivalent in other currencies) 35356-May 1971--2,100