S/PV.1738 Security Council

Mr. President, before addressing myself to the subject-matter on our agenda, may I congratulate you on behalf of my delegation on your assumption of the presidency of the Security Council for the month of August and assure you of my delegation’s full and whole-hearted co-operation in carrying out your functions and those of the Council. Present: The representatives of the following States: Australia, Austria, China, France, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Panama, Peru, Sudan, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America and Yugoslavia. 4. My delegation has already had occasion, at the end of our recent debate on the question of the Middle East, to say how much we admired the way in which your predecessor in the Chair, Sir Colin Crowe, conducted that particularly delicate phase of the Council’s work in July. My remarks in this context would not be complete, however, if I did not pay a tribute to Mr. Jamieson also for the competent guidance he gave the Council during the first weeks of July. And, to conclude this United Kingdom chapter of my statement, may I offer a warm word of welcome to Sir Donald Maitland. Provisional agenda (S/Agenda/1738) 1. Adoption of the agenda. 2. The situation in the Middle East: Letter dated 11 August 1973 from the Permanent Representative of Lebanon to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/10983). The meeting was called to order at 4.20 pm. 5. The Austrian Government has repeatedly expressed its hope for a peaceful settlement of the problem of the Middle East. Consequently, my Government has deplored all acts of violence which run counter to efforts to attain a just and peaceful solution for that troubled region of our world. Adoption of the agenda The agenda was adopted. The situation in the Middle East Letter dated 11 August 1973 from the Permanent Reprs sentative of Lebanon to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/10983) 6. It was with those basic objectives in mind that, on 26 July 1973, before this Council [1735th meeting], my delegation again expressed the hope that the search for peace would continue and that no avenue would be left unexplored to bring the parties closer to an agreement and to attaining a peaceful settlement.

In accordance with the decision taken at the 1736th meeting, yesterday afternoon, I shall now, with the consent of the Council, invite the representatives of Lebanon and Israel to take places at the Council table in order to participate in the discussion without the right to vote. 7. My Government also holds the view that certain means, however legitimate the goals might be in the pursuit of which they are employed, must be considered inadmissible in all circumstances and at all times. The rejection of violence as an instrument of international politics not only results from the Charter of the United Nations but is the only policy which a country like mine can adopt as its guideline in international affairs. Ar the invitation of the President, Mr. E. Ghorra (Lebanon) and Mr. Y. Tekoah (Israel) took places at the Security Council table.

I shall next, in accordance with our previous decisions, and with the consent of the CounciI, invite the representatives of Iraq, Egypt and the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen to take the places reserved for them at the side of the Council chamber. 8. My Government views in that perspective the specific question of which, upon the request of the Governments of Lebanon and Iraq, the Security Council is at present seized. We therefore feel compelled to make our position quite clear. The interception of a Lebanese civilian airliner by Israeli fighter-planes over Lebanese territory constituted an act which violated the sovereignty of Lebanon. A particularly serious element is added by the fact that the action is contrary to the letter and the spirit of the conventions on At the invitation of the President, Mr. A. K. AEShaikhly (Iraq), Mr. A. E. Abdel Meguid (Egypt) and Mr. A. S. A&ta1 (Democratic Yemen) took the places reserved for t~lern at the side of the Council chamber. IO. Yet the complaint before us concerns the action of a State Member of the United Nations directed against the sovereign rights of another Member State, and my delegation is therefore prepared to support a draft resolution which will adequately pronounce itself on this most regrettable incident.

Mr. President, knowing very we11 your personal qualities of patience and wisdom, my &legation is very hopeful that under your leadership and guidance our deliberations will be most fruitful. Let me, therefore, in the name of the Sudanese delegation congratulate you on Your assumption of the presidency of the Security Council for the present month and, through You, express our deep appreciation for the admirable manner in which the United Kingdom delegation discharged its honourable responsibilities last month. 12. We take this opportunity to welcome Sir Donald Maitland, assuring him that the co-operation my delegation abundantly extended to his experienced and respected predecessor, Sir Colin Crowe, will be made available to him at all times. 13. This is not the first time that a Member State has requested the Security Council to meet to consider the violation of its sovereignty and territorial sanctity by Israel; nor, most regrettably, will it be the last time. IsraeI has in public statements declared that it will go on doing what it is doing now and that it knows of no national boundaries or laws of any State which are immune from its repeated atticks or encroachments. That is the declared policy of Israel, the official policy of Israel, the confirmed policy of Israel. And this is-to say it in other words-that a State Member of this Organization is actively involved in iuternational terrorism and lawlessness and civil aircraft and innocent passengers are increasingly becoming potential targets for that arrogant and self-righteous blind policy. 14. Yesterday, it was the Libyan aircraft in which more than 100 passengers were massacred with callous precision, Today, it is another civil aeroplane forced by military aircraft to land on a military airstrip. Tomorrow, other 15. We have the belief and conviction that at this veIy moment other, more hideous and sinister actions are being hatched in the Israeli incubators of war and mischief, and that once again this Council will be faced with similar complaints. 16. The facts underlying the complaints brought te the Council by Iraq [S/10984] and Lebanon [S/10983] are by all counts grave. Those facts are not in dispute. A civilian Lebanese aircraft chartered to an Iraqi airline and carrying civilian passengers mainly of Iraqi and Lebanese nationality was intercepted over Lebanese airspace by the Israel1 sir force and was forced to land on a military airfield in Israel. No more blatant and flagrant violation of the rules of international law could be imagined, and my delegation unreservedly condemns that act of international air piracy committed by Israel. 17. In defending the indefensible, the representative ef Israel yesteday had the nerve to insult the collective intelligence of this Council by stating that the Council was convened to discuss a mere two-hour detention of sr, aeroplane for the purpose of weeding out what he calted international murderers-just as though the airfield en which the aircraft was forced to land was but a routin’s military check-point. The representative of Israel could not have forgotten the carnage that resulted from lasl Feb. ruary’s downing of a Libyan aeroplane by the Israeli air force. Certainly, the Israeli Government cannot have the effrontery to claim credit for the sanity of the pilot of the plane it diverted on 10 August. 18. Israel’s last act of air piracy confronts this Council with a very grave responsibility, a responsibility it must live up to. The Israeli act involves questions of grave import. First is the violation of the airspace of Lebanon, which in the view of my delegation is an act of aggression and therefore constitutes a violation of the Lebanese-Israeli Armistice Agreement of 1949. HOW long can the Council expect Lebanon to tolerate the repeated infringement of its territorial integrity by Israel? For in the view of rn~ delegation the patience of Lebanon has been severely taxed, and should an explosion result in that part of’ be world it would not be because no voice was raised in warning. Let us only remember Czechoslovakia and Poland desperately alerting the conscience of humanity during those hard days of Hitler and Himmler and their blood. thirsty arrogant clique. 19. A second aspect of Israeli action that must concern the Council is the threat to the safe#y of internationslcibil aviation. My delegation, for one, cannot accept the srgb n-rent implicit in the statement of the representative af Israel that to cure an alcoholic one must serve him and oneself alcohol, The International Guild of Air Pib$ rejected it; even the Israeli Air Pilot Association rejected It. The Council also must reject it, and must give ceacr*ts expression to its disapproval of those Israeli acts and intentions. 23. Yesterday the members of this Council listened to the Israeli representative saying that the sanctity of human lives comes before the sanctity of national air space-meaning only Israeli lives, for what about the Libyan aircraft? Yesteiday, listening to the Israeli representative we could not but recall Ben Curion’s words in the first days of Israel, that Israel would be the supreme court of the world. Well, we have witnessed for 25 years the sort of justice that “supreme court” chooses to administer. Yesterday this Council was informed by Mr, Tekoah of the generous gesture of his Government in releasing the plane and its passengers after two hours of intimidation, interrogation, and humiliation. What was the Council supposed to do: thank the Government of Israel or congratulate it? AS to what would have happened if the pilot of the hijacked plane had refused to comply with the orders of the military interceptors, as did the pilot of the Libyan plane, we leave it to Mr. Tekoah to enlighten us. He knows better. As to what would have happened had there been Palestinians aboard the plane, we leave it to the records of the Commission on Human Rights to give us ample documentation on that-according to Mr. Tekoah, of course, onesided, biased United Nations documentation. The Israeli representative, yesterday, went so far as to commit his Government to the cause of peace with its neighbours. But pledge or no pledge, verbal commitment or no verbal commitment, the bellicosity of Israel is already known to friend and foe alike. History tells us that every time the Israeli representative speaks about peace he means war. This was the case immediately after the armistice of 1948, and once again in 1956, to say nothing about their public statements before the 1967 aggression. One Yiddish saying goes “The tavern cannot corrupt a good man, the synagogue cannot reform a bad one”; another: “If you are bitter at heart, sugar in the mouth will not help you”. (a) 29-31 December 1~68: Lebanese complaint against Israeli air attack against the civil international airport of Beirut on 28 December 1968. Decision: resolution 262 (1968) of 31 December 1968, condemning Israel for its premeditated military action and issuing a solemn warning to Israel that if such acts were to be repeated the Council would have to consider further steps to give effect to its decisions; (bl 27 March-l April 1969: Jordanian compl$nt concerning Israeli air attacks against the area of Sult on 26 March 1969. Decision: resolution 26.5 (1969) of 1 April 1969, deploring the loss of civilian life, condemning the recent premeditated air attacks launched by Israel on Jordanian villages and populated areas and once again warning that if such attacks were to be repeated the Council would have to meet to consider further and more effective steps as envisaged in the Charter to ensure against their repetition; {cl 13-26 August 1969: Lebanese complaint concerning Israeli air attack against villages in southern Lebanon. Decision: resolution 270 (1969) of 26 August 1969, condemning the premeditated air attack by Israel on villages in southern Lebanon and deploring all violent incidents in violation of the cease-fire; (d) 23-26 June 1972: Lebanese and Syrian complaints concerning Israeli ground and air attacks against Lebanon on 21, 22 and 23 June 1972. Decision: resolution 316 (1972) of 26 June 1972, calling upon Israel strictly to abide by its resolutions and to refrain from all military acts against Lebanon, and condemning the repeated attacks of Israeli forces on Lebanese territory and popuIation. 24. Finally as we have amply shown, the register of this Council is full of condemnations-but to no practical purpose. This Council has had enough of condemnations that serve no practical purpose. Action now, prompt, firm and effective. Justice now, or there will be no peace, tranquillity, or safety in the Middle East or in the world at large. Nothing short of applying sanctions against Israel will make Israel pause and think twice before it embarks on any similar adventure, or make it learn that this Council has political will, real authority and self-respect. 21. it appears that Israel’s defiance of Council resolutions intensifies in direct proportion to the increase in the number of resolutions, It is because this Council does not match words with deeds that Israel can afford to disregard its warnings, disdain its condemnations, deride its decisions, calling them one-sided, and run amock at its pleasure, instructing its representative, Mr. Tekoah, once again to appear before this Council to add insult to injury, confident that the guardian angel of Israel is always on the alert and always within reach. But let us not forget that Israel, when it so behoves its selfish interests and its plans, can unleash its ingratitude till, like a Delilah, it incapacitates a giant Samson.

Mr. President, I should like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your assumption of the presidency of the Council for the current month and to pledge to you my delegation’s co-operation in the discharge of your important and difficult task. I should also like to express my delegation’s congratulations ancl thanks to your predecessor in the Chair, Sir Colin Crowe of the United Kingdom, from whose wisdom and diplomatic skill the Security Council greatly benefited when it discussed the Middle East problem last month. This meeting also affords my delegation the 22. Yet Israel behaves in persistent, systematic and reckless defiance of the Security Council, as if a veto in this Council is perpetually in its pawn. That is why Israel’s representative to the United Nations could afford yesterday to speak at the top of his voice, in spite of the deed, threatening Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and all the Arafats and Habashes with fire and brimstone, with Jupiter’s lightning 27. The position of Indonesia with regard to the Israeli violations of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon was already made clear in my statement of 17 April 1973 [I 708th meeting], when the Council considered the Israeli raid into Beirut. On the same occasion my delegation expressed its considered view that acts of violence and terrorism resulting from the Middle East problem cannot be considered apart from their root causes, namely, the injustice inflicted for so long upon the Palestinians and the continued occupation by force of arms of Arab territories by Israel. The views of Indonesia with regard to the problems of the Middle East need no further elaboration, as they were already made known in my statement during the debates on this problem last month. I have no wish to restate those views in the present debate. 28. The facts of the matter now before us are clear. Israeli air force planes intruded into Lebanese airspace and forced a Lebanese civtiian airliner under charter to Iraqi Airways to land on an Israeli military airfield. This act was clearly a case of premeditated State terrorism committed by the Government of Israel in contravention of existing international conventions. It was lucky for everybody on board that the pilot decided to bow to Israeli military force even though the plane was in Lebanese airspace. Imagine if he had decided otherwise: a repetition of what happened to a Libyan airliner about six months ago might well have occurred. 29. The Government of Israel did not deny the facts. It even went so far as to declare that it is going to continue such acts of State terrorism as a policy. Acts of violence committed by desperate individuals or groups of individuals who have been chased from their homeland and denied their rights are one thing. Of course, we cannot condone those acts which lead to the loss of life of innocent victims. But acts of terrorism committed by a Government as its avowed policy are quite a different matter which certainly merits condemnation by this Council. The Council should not only condemn; it should find ways and means to prevent such acts from happening in the future. 30. The CounciI has aIready too often missed opportunities to contribute in a concrete manner to a solution of the Middle East problem. The piling up of missed opportunities cannot but harm the authority of the Council. The 31. If the Council is again prevented from taking action h dealing with the matter with which we are now seized, this clear violation of international law and existing conventions, it will mean that the Council in effect acquiesces in Israel’s actions and policy of terrorism. The inevitable result of such an acquiescence will be the encouragement of Israel’s lawlessness, with results that no one can foresee. Israel’s terrorist actions in the air may provoke the same action from others. The Council, of course, must realize that the game can be played not only by Israel; others can play it as well. Once the process of action and counteraction, of terrorism and counter-terrorism in the air, is set in motion, then the safety of international civil aviation will be completely jeopardized. The Israeli precedent can be used by other countries to perform the same act of terrorism against an airline of any other country when it is considered helpful to their interests. 32. My delegation hopes that the Council, now that it has the clear facts before it, will live up to its responsibilities under the Charter. My delegation expects that the Council may now find itself willing to express in unequivocal terms its unanimous condemnation of Israeli violations of Lebanon sovereignty and territorial integrity as we11 as its acts of terrorism and to take appropriate measures to prevent their future repetition.

I should like to recall that the Council decided, at the preceding meeting, to extend an invitation under rule 39 of the provisional rules of procedure to Ambassador El-Shibib to address the Council. In accordance with that decision, I now invite Ambassador El-Shebib to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement. 34. Mr. EL-SHIBIB: Mr. President, allow me to express to you and to the other members of the Security Council my appreciation for allowing me to address on behalf of the League of Arab States this meeting of the Security Council. 35. Yesterday my friend and colleague, Ambassador Ghorra of Lebanon, observed that he took little pleasure in having to come before the Council and that only the repeated acts of aggression against his country necessitated his doing so. Let me say that I very much share that sentiment, but the seriousness of the issue before the Council demands that I take some of the Council’s very valuable time. Indeed, I come here with the deepest feeling of concern, not only because of the fact that this is the most naked case of Israeli aggression, but also because of the unique and unparalleled implications of this Israeli act of terrorism for the whole world. 36. As the Council is well aware, air piracy and hijacking of civilian aircraft have not been confined to the area of the Middle East, nor is the recent hijacking of the Lebanese airliner the first, nor will it be the last, of such incidents. What is so dangerous and unique about Israeli piracy is that it is an act of national policy by a State Member of United 43. I should like to deal with the aspect of the targets against whom Israeli State terrorism is directed. The label of “murderous terrorist”, often attached by the Israelis to their victims or intended victims, needs to be carefully examined by those who have been taught by events not to take Israeli words at their face value. Is it people like Ghassan Kanafani, the Palestinian writer and intellectual, who was blown to pieces with his IS-year-old niece when he tried to start his car recently in Beirut? Or people like Mr. Anis Sayegh, another writer and intellectual, who was maimed by a letter-bomb addressed to him at his office? Or are they the three resistance leaders who were murdered with members of their families in their homes in Beirut on 10 October 1972 by Israeli commandos? Do the Palestinians and Arab intellectuals murdered in Paris, Rome and Norway fit into the Israeli catalogue of murderers and hijackers? 37, Yesterday the Israeli representative spoke before this Council not in apology or repentance for a reprehensible act of his Government that jeopardized the lives of over 80 passengers and threatened to disrupt the fabric of civil aviation the world over. On the contrary, he spoke with arrogance and defiance. He did not regret an act that has been condemned ail over the world. He did not promise the Council that it would not be repeated. Indeed, he was as arrogant as was his Defence Minister in promising that Israeli piracy and other forms of State terrorism would be continued in the future. 38. L should like to discuss some of the obvious aspects of the hijacking of the Lebanese airliner. The first implication is that Israel has shown total and complete disregard for the lives of innocent heople by hijacking and forcing a civilian aircraft to land, not long after it had shot down a Libyan civil aircraft, causing the death of 115 passengers when that plane strayed over occupied Sinai. One need not be over-imaginative to picture the fate of the 82 innocent passengers if the pilot had disregarded or misunderstood Ihe signals of the Israeli military planes, since he was flying over Lebanese territory in a Lebanese aircraft. We should ask ourselves whether the approximately 80 passengers would have met the fate of the 115 unfortunate passengers of the Libyan plane. 44. My contention is that the Israeli Government is waging a war of annihiIation against the Palestinian people by murdering their national leaders and intellectuals and all those who inspire them to struggle for their nationhood, so that the Palestinian people will be rendered into what the Zionists wish them to be: a mass of refugees devoid of national consciousness; a herd of sheep with no sense of purpose or direction. 45. During the last debate on the Middle East the Israeli representative spoke on the draft resolution which was submitted to this Council by the non-aligned countries (S/10974/ and which stated the following in its preamble: “Conscious that the rights of the Palestinians have to be safeguarded”. As the members of the Council are well aware, 13 members of the Council voted in favour of that draft resolution, and China, which did not participate in the vote, is well known for its determined support of and solidarity with the people of Palestine. Even the United States, which vetoed that draft resolution, had previously declared in the joint communiqud issued by President Nixon and General-Secretary Brezhnev the necessity of safeguarding the interest of the Palestinian people. 39. Many hypocritical statements may have been uttered in this chamber in the past, but none can surpass that of the Israeli representative when he lectured us yesterday that his Government valued the sanctity of human lives over that of air space. 40. The second aspect that I wish to bring to the attention of the Council is the declared Israeli motives for its air piracy and its world-wide implications. The Israeli representative and other Israeli officials have stated that their purpose was to apprehend some Palestinian leaders or “terrorists”, as they wish to call them, who were presumed to be aboard the Lebanese aircraft. 46. But let us examine what the Israeli representative thinks of Palestinian rights. During that debate and commenting on the paragraph dealing with Palestinian rights in the aforementioned draft resolution, Mr. Tekoah stated the following before the Council on 25 July 1973: “the draft resolution would have the effect of giving succour and encouragement to hijackers and to murderers” 11734th meeting, pura. 551. So, in Mr. Tekoah’s view, all Palestinians are hijackers and murderers-and 14 of you are sitting here to give them succour, support and satisfaction. Recognizing their legitimate rights is, according to 41. There are, as is well known, over 2.5 milion Palestinians living all over the Middle East and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Palestinians-intellectuals, popular leaders, resistance leaders and freedom fighterswho travel all over the world and not necessarily in Lebanese or Arab airlines, they use all available means of air transport. Are we to understand that any aircraft which carries a Palestinian figure and which comes within range of Israeli fighter planes is to be the subject of future hijacking? 47. In this terrorist war waged by the Israeli Government it is perhaps worth while to remember who is the sinner and who is the sinned against. On 23 September 1972 the magazine Spectator of London-by no means a pro- Arab-had this to say: “But it is worth recalling that, in the dispute between the Palestinians and the Israelis, it is the Palestinians who have been sinned against and not the Israelis: it is the Palestinians who have lost their lands and their houses and their hope of a national home: it is the Palestinians who are the refugees, the victims.” Commenting in the same article on the Israeli reprisal against Lebanon and Syria after the Munich incident, Spectator said : “If Governments are to bring the present outbreak of guerilla or terrorist activity to an end, then the Governments themselves cannot behave like the guerrillas or the terrorists. This is recognized generally; but not, apparently, by the State of Israel. No other civilized State would respond to a Munich incident in the way that Israel did; and this is just as well, for if it became the rule for States to behave like cowboys the fragile international order which now subsists would be destroyed in the Middle East as elsewhere.” 48. I shall refer now very briefly to the repeated charge made by the Israeli representative that Arab Governments harbour Palestinian terrorists. Firstly, let me ask the Israeli representative if his Government is willing, as it has repeatedly been called upon by the United Nations to do, to allow the peopIe of Palestine to return to their towns, villages and homes from which they were forcibly expelled so that they can cease being refugees in the various Arab countries. 49. Secondly, let me ask him: Who made a practice of honouring murderers and saboteurs? For instance, let me ask: Where is the murderer of Count Bernadotte? And what about Marcelle Minioux, the heroine of the infamous Lavone affair, in which theatres in Alexandria and Cairo were bombed and the American Information Center was bombed, straining relations at the time between Egypt and the United States. Who was at her recent wedding and gave her away but the Prime Minister of Israel, Where is the hero of the Deir Yassin massacre? I would like very briefly to describe what that massacre meant. The following is taken from a book which contains an account of this horrible outrage given by Jacques Grenicr, chief delegate of the International Red Cross, who, at the risk of his life, was able to reach the village and to witness the aftermath of the tragedy. I quote from that book: “Three hundred persons were massacred, without any military reason or provocation of any kind. Old men, women, children, newly born were savagely murdered “ . men and women armed with pistols, submachine. guns: grenades and large knives, most of which were still blood-stained.” 50. Was not Mr. Begin sitting until recently as a Minister of State without portfolio in the Israeli Cabinet? And is lie not at present a very respected leader of the Israeli Knesset? Who harbours and honours murderers and saboteurs? 51. With reference to those described as “criminals and murderers” by Israel and who are hunted and assassinated by Israeli agents all over the world, I happen to know two of them. One, Wael Zwaiter, was recently murdered by Israeli agents in Rome. Levia Rokah, Rome correspondent of the Israeli daily Duuar, wrote the following about that murder in the Israeli monthly New Outlook in December 1972: “It was very easy to kill Wael; he was not armed. He most probably would not have known how to use a weapon had he been armed-and he was not guarded. He was a man with a great pain in his heart which he carried everywhere: the pain of his people suffering.” 52. The other victim was Kamal Nasser, one of three Palestinians assassinated in their homes on 10 April during the infamous Israeli raid on Beirut. Kamal was a poet, a writer, but, above all, a kind and gentle human being. 1 cannot speak about him without emotion for we were friends over many years. Sarah Gay Damman wrote an article in The New York Times on 27 April this year, under the title “Remembering a victim in Palestine”, about a meeting she had with him in 1970 in Amman. She had brought him some pictures and letters from his family who were in the occupied West Bank of Jordan and whom he could not see because the Israeli authorities had previously expelled him from the West Bank. She wrote: “That night Kamal found us. ‘You have pictures? How are they? You saw them? Wonderful. Are they well? Was Jerusalem beautiful? ’ ” She went on: “He sat in the lobby of the hotel and studied the pictures, asked questions, read the notes. Then he said: ‘Some day, some day. I know our nation. We will forget our enmity and live like brothers.‘” After the Israeli raid Kamal was found sprawled on his back in his Beirut apartment; 80 bullets riddIed his body, 5 of them having been fired into his mouth. It was perhaps because he tried to be a spokesman for his people or perhaps because in that hotel lobby in Amman he had spoken those words of peace to Sarah Gay Damman. His body, sprawled on the bare floor of his apartment, made s figure of the Cross. But, then, there are so many crossesin the sad history of Palestine. 53. In conclusion, may I say that it has become all too obvious that a State in the Middle East, a Member of the United Nations, has allowed itself to break all recognized tenets of international law, trampled on the Charter of the

The statement of the Guinean delegation will be very brief because the nature and the character of the event which has led to our meeting again are not new, It is a question of the repeated violations of the principles of the Charter-the ill-considered attitude of Israel towards the national sovereignty of the Arab countries in general and Lebanon in particular. After the tragedy of the Libyan Boeing aircraft which cost the lives of innocent passengers-a tragedy still fresh in our minds-Israel has just committed another . kidnapping by diverting a civilian airliner. 62. The representative of Israel has explained that the purpose of his Government’s action in diverting the airliner was to apprehend individuals responsible for terrorist acts. My Government has been second to none in its condemnation of international terrorism, in the search for new Instruments of international law to counter terrorism, and in urging other Governments to take a strong stand and adopt effective measures against those who endanger and take innocent lives in the name of serving a political cause. National and international efforts to control terrorism must go forward. They must, however, go forward within and not outside the law. The commitment to the rule of law in international affairs, including the field of international civil aviation, imposes certain restraints on the methods Governments can use to protect themselves against those who operate outside the law. 55, The argument which Israel brandishes in an attempt to defend itself moves us as much as the act itself, because that act was in fact an operation designed to liquidate the leaders of a revolutionary popular liberation movement. However, history has taught us that liquidating the leaders of a popular liberation movement does not liquidate a struggling people. The cause that this people is defending is not jeopardized, for a people that is fully aware and organized is invincible. 63. My Government believes actions such as Israel’s diversion of a civil airliner on 10 August are unjustified and likely only to bring about counter-action on an increasing scale. Resort to any type of aerial kidnapping seriously jeopardizes the lives and safety of innocent bystanders. The United States Government has made strenuous efforts in and outside the United Nations to reach international agreement on measures that would protect such “third parties” who have no connexion with the political dispute giving rise to the use of armed force. We have also made strenuous efforts to improve the security of international civil aviation through multilateral agreements and will continue our efforts at the meetings of the International Civil Aviation Organization which convene in Rome later this month. 56. In the face of the repeated aggressions of Israel against the Palestinian and Arab peoples, the Security Council, entrusted with the maintenance of international peace and security, must take a lofty view and adopt the necessary measures to avoid a repetition of such acts by Israel, acts which my delegation unreservedly condemns. 57. Before I conclude, Mr. President, may I offer you my heartiest congratulations on your assumption of the presidency of our Council and assure you of the co-operation of my delegation.

As there are no other names on the list of speakers at the present time, I shall take the opportunity to lay aside my gavel as President of the Council and speak as the representative of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 64. Such practices as diverting civil aircraft constitute highly dangerous precedents for the safe and reliable conduct of international relations, commerce and travel. 59. The issue before us today is clear. In recent years the wodd’has seen threats to the safety of civil aviation increase at an alarming rate. We must find ways to reduce and ultimately eliminate such threats to the free and peaceful use of the world’s airways. Travel by air, as was travel by sea in an earlier age, must be insulated and protected from unlawful interference. It must no longer be a pawn in international conflicts. 65. Last April, in this Council, I observed: “The cycle of violence in this part of the world not only is continuing but has also taken on newer and uglier dimensions. To the shame of all mankind, acts of violence and terror, ofTen striking down innocent people, are on the verge of becoming a routine foot-note to the tragic and unresolved Arab-Israeli conflict.” f 1708th meeting, para. 64.1 60. In this latest incident, information from Lebanese and Israeli Government authorities has established that a civil airliner en route from Beirut to Baghdad with 76 passengers aboard was intercepted by Israeli fighter aircraft over Lebanese territory on 10 August and forced to land in Israel. There can be no doubt that such actions by their very nature place the lives of the innocent persons aboard an aircraft in danger. 66. Unhappily, events in the past few weeks provide no evidence to contradict that melancholy conclusion. We hardly need reminding that only a few weeks ago two gunmen opened fire senselessly in the midst of a crowded international air terminal in Athens, murdering three innocent travellers and wounding dozens of innocent 67. We are all aware that this cycle is a reflection of the tensions and hatreds growing out of the unresolved Arab- Israeli conflict. We are all aware that the ultimate solution lies in a just and lasting settlement of that dispute on the basis of resolution 242 (1967). Pending this much-desired solution, however, we all have an obligation to seek to prevent that dispute from moving up another, uglier notch, to seek to prevent its taking an even higher toll of innocent lives. 68. The United States has consistently joined other members of this Council to express its grave concern over the threat to innocent human lives resulting from hijacking and other unlawful or unwarranted interference with civil aviation. We would join again in urging all States, all individuals and all political groups in the area to refrain from actions which would imperil the lives of innocent 70. Our task now is to unite on a resolution to express tl~e common attitude of this world body towards the regrettable and deplorable incident under discussion. Let us do so with the intention that the decision we make will mark a turning-point where men and women dedicated to peace, with their eyes fixed on the future as well as on the present, determine that the fabric of international society requires that they reject unlawful interference with civil aviation from whatever quarter and for whatever motive. The meeting rose at 5.30 p.m. HOW TO OBTAIN UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATIONS United Nations publications may be obtained from bookstores and distributors throughout the world. Consult your bookstore or write to: United Nations, Sales Section, New York or Geneva. COMMENT SE PROCURER LES PUBLICATIONS DES NATIONS UNIES Les publications des Nations Units sont en vente dans les librairies et Ies agences depositaires du monde entier. Informez-vous aupres de votre libraira ou adresscz-voua B : Nations Unies. Section des ventes, New York ou Genove. ICAIC ~OJINUMTb MSAAHMR OP~AHWSA~MN Ofi%EflHHEHHhIX HAWiH COMO CONSEGUIR PUBLICACIONES DE LAS NACIONES UNIDAS Las publicaciones de las Naciones Unidas estAn en venta en librerias y casas distribuidoras en todas partes de1 mundo. Consulte a su librero o dirijase a: Naciones Unidas, Section de Ventas, Nueva York o Ginebra. Litho in United Nations, New York Price: $U.S. 1.00 (or equivalent in other currencies) 73-82001-November 1979-%~ffo