S/PV.1766 Security Council

I wish to inform the Council that I have received a letter from the representative of Lebanon requesting that Lebanon be invited to participate in the Council’s discussion, without the right to vote. Accordingly, if I hear no objections I propose, in accordance with rule 37 of the provisional rules of procedure and with the usual practice of the Council, to invite the representative of Lebanon, under the relevant Article of the Charter to participate, without the right to vote, in the discussion of the item on the agenda. At the invitation of the President, Mr. F. Naffah (Lebanon) took a place at the Council table.

I have also received a letter from the representative of Israel requesting to be allowed to participate in the Council’s discussion, without the right to vote. If I hear no objections, I propose, in accordance with rule 37 of the provisional rules of procedure and with the usual practice of the Council, to invite the representative of Israel, under the relevant Article of the Charter, to participate, without the right to vote, in the discussion of the item on the agenda. At the invitation of the President, Mr. Y. Tekoah (Israel) took a place at the Council table.

Furthermore, I should like to inform the Council that I have received letters from the representatives of the Syrian Arab Republic and the Arab Republic of Egypt, asking to be invited under the relevant Article of the Charter, to participate in our discussion, without the right to vote. If I hear no objection, I propose, in accordance with rule 37 of the provisional rules of procedure and with the established practice of the Security Council, to invite the representatives mentioned to participate, without the right to vote, in the discussion. 5. In view of the limited number of places available at the Council table, I would request the representative of the Syrian Arab Republic and the Arab Republic of Egypt to take the places reserved for them at the side of the Council Chamber, on the understanding that they will be invited to take a place at the Council table when it is their turn to speak. At the invitation of the President, Mr. H. Kekmi (Syrian Arab Republic) and Mr. I. Fahmy (Egypt) took the piaces reserved for them at the side of the Council Chamber. 7. The first speaker inscribed on my list to speak at this meeting is the representative of Lebanon, on whom I now call. 8. .Mr. NAFFAH (Lebanon) (interpretation from French): May I be allowed, Mr. President, to express my warm appreciation to you for having called this emergency meeting of the Security Council at the request of Lebanon, and also to thank the members of the Council for having acceded to the request,, We trust that under your wise presidency and with the participation of the member States, the debates of the Council will lead to positive and effective results and thereby contribute to the strengthening of peace and security in the region of the Middle East and ensure greater respect for the Charter of the United Nations. 9. Once again Lebanon is appealing to the Security Council” As usual, we do so in self-defence. 10. In the present circumstances, at a time when the General Assembly is holding a special session to carry out a historic debate in order to introduce more justice and equity in international relations, at a time when the forces of peace are redoubling their efforts to defuse the dramatic crisis in the Middle East, our dearest hope would have been to have heard in these precincts only appeals to concord, to understanding and to cooperation among peace-loving and justice-loving nations, Unfortunately, we have been obliged to come here to complain, to denounce to the Council a new aggression of which our country and our people, once again, have been the innocent victims. 11. I do not need to list the facts in detail. They have already been put before the Council to a large extent in the letter of 13 April 1974. I ‘shah limit myself only to raising certain questions that I believe warrant the Council’s attention. 12. On 11 April, the very day of the attack on Kiryat Shmona, the lsraeh Minister of Police stated that, he was not in a position to say whether the assailants had come from inside the territories controlled by Israel, or from outside. That statement recalled another that had been made by the same Minister of Police of Israel three days earlier, in which he said that he assessed at 250 the number of Palestinian fedayeen living and operating within territories controlled by Israel. Despite those declarations and those revelations, the representative of Israel, acting on instructions from his Government, did not hesitate to affirm categorically, in a letter addressed to the Secretary- General on that same 11 April, that the assailants had come from Lebanon” The representative of Israel also informed the Council that a communique had been published in Beirut by a Palestinian organization that claimed responsibility for the attack. And he concluded by again echoing the declarations and the threats of the Prime Minister of Israel that the Government and the people of Lebanon must bear full responsibility for that situation,, 14. On 13 April, the Israeli Minister of Defence specified that that raid should be understood as only a warning. Israel, he added, “will not limit itself to attacking the terrorists wherever they may be. Israel intended to disorganize civilian life in Lebanon completely.” He went on to add that that raid was more of a political nature than of a truly military nature. He added, in order to clarify his views, that Israel could turn the south of Lebanon as a whole into a desert. 15. I should like to draw the attention of the Council to the following facts. 16. First, with regard to the attack on Khyat Shmona, I am in no way embarrassed to state that Lebanon deplores and considers reprehensible any acts of violence wherever they may occur. Immediately after the Lad attack the President of the Lebanese Republic stated: “Lebanon reproves and condemns acts of violence, and, as in the past, we condemn the barbaric acts committed by Zionism in the King David Hotel, for one, in Deir Yassin and Bahr El Bakar, as well as in Lebanon itself-and to list all the attacks would be too lengthy. So it is only natural that today Lebanon, consistent with its own stand, also condemns the attack against the airfield of Lod which caused a large number of innocent civilians to be wounded or killed.” I reiterate and reaffirm that declaration today. 17. Secondly, I should like to point out to the Council that when the Kiryat Shmona drama was taking place, and despite the careful and prudent statements of the Minister of Police, the Prime Minister of Israel and its representative in the United Nations, without any investigation being carried out or feigned, already considered that the case was clear and already pointed to the guilty party: the Government and people of Lebanon. The very next day-still without having carried out any investigation or inquiriesthe Israeli Army attacked innocent civilians. 18. I must recall that the Israeli Government has behaved in an identical fashion in the past, immediately after the events that took place in Athens, in Munich, at Lod and elsewhere-cases that Lebanon had nothing whatever to do with. The Council did not refrain from condemning Israel formally on each and every one of those aggressions. 19. Thirdly, it is false to assert that a communique was published in Beirut on the day when the Kiryat Shmona attack occurred. Two communiquCs had been published on that date, one in a capital of Western Europe and one in a capital of the Middle East, but no communiqud was published in Lebanon. Even if that so-called communiquC had been circulated from there, what would it mean and 20. Fourthly, it has not in any way been established that those responsible for the Kiryat Shrnona attack left from Lebanon. The Lebanese authorities, and also the United Nations observers, found no traces of infiltration across the border. The Lebanese Government does everything in its power, with the agreement and the assistance of the Palestine Liberation Organization, to stop such infiltration, so that the expansionist aims of Israel will not be given any pretext for interference. 21. If, however, it occurred that isolated elements escaped our surveillance and, despite all the technical equipment and electronic apparatus set up by Israel along the border, did manage to infiltrate-well, Israel can blame no one but itself. It’is not up to Lebanon to guard the Israeli border. 25. At the end of this debate the Council will be called upon to defme its stand. I should like to refer to many of the past experiences, to recall that the decisions that have carried condemnations of Israel have had no effect whatever on its behaviour. Therefore, without too much fear of making a mistake, we can foresee that a new condemnation will be taken with the same indifference, with the same contempt, by the Israeli authorities. 22. If the infiltrations took place, how can they involve Lebanon? Acts of violence cannot be linked or tied in the same measure to the responsibility of States. Israel itself organizes terror and it orders its regular forces to commit acts of violence. Its responsibility is complete. Lebanon, on the other hand, prohibits acts of violence, It uses all means at its disposal to prevent them. How can Lebanon, then, be held responsible for acts committed beyond its borders by elements that are completely outside Lebanon’s control? 26. Therefore it might be useful to remind the Council that certain condemnations it has already adopted against Israel contained a clear threat. I should like to quote, as an example, resolution 280 (1970) adopted on 19 May 1970, paragraph 3 of which reads: 23. Fifthly, from all the foregoing it is obvious that in attacking six Lebanese villages on 12 and 13 April Israel has committed a premeditated and obvious act of aggression” Being party to the conflict in the Middle East, Israel claims the right to set itself up as judge and jury. International law exists, however, and must be respected in all circumstances. There is also the highest authority, the United Nations, and it is to the United Nations that disputes of this nature must be submitted: that is, to the Security Council. If Israel suspected that Lebanon was Involved in the affair of Kiryat Shmona, why did Israel not seize the Council of the question? That question was asked by newspapermen of the representative of Israel. If we are to believe the dispatches of the newspapers, the representative of Israel answered that the Security Council was not a body that inspired confidence in him. Then it is the law of the jungle that prevails,, Israel, which owes its existence to violence and terror, can live only through violence and terror. Israel has in fact repeated these acts; it has taken no note of the Council’s warning; its aggression continues. Not only has it organized a raid on six frontier villages, but its artillery is bombing the south of Lebanon and its military planes constantly, day and night, violate Lebanese air space. 27. Lebanon expects that you-all peace-loving and justice-loving nations, dedicated to the ideals of the United Nations and its prestige will take “appropriate and effective measures” to ensure implementation of the Council’s resolutions These measures are dictated in the “relevant Articles of the Charter”. 24. Sixthly, Lebanon rejects all threats and efforts to intimidate us made against us by the Israeli leaders. These leaders ask us to do no more than liquidate the Palestinian resistance-in other words, to become the cat’s-paw of Israel’s policies of aggression against the Palestinian people-to support what they should like to be able to do themselves and which they will never succeed in doing. It’is a law of history that the national liberation movements cannot be put down by force. If the Israeli authorities truly wish to put an end to acts of violence, there is only one 28. My country and Government expect that the Security Council will adopt the necessary measures to ensure their application, The President of the Republic of Lebanon stated: ;it is not Lebanon that can be held responsible for the presence on its territory of more than 300,000 Palestinian refugees, for they are in our land only because Israel evicted them from their own homes and prohibits them from returning to them. “It is not Lebanon but the international community that can and must find for these refugees the sole valid solution, namely, peace based on justice. “Apart from that peace based on justice, any reprisals committed by Israel against the Palestinian resistance and the countries that are open to Palestinian refugees for asylum can only aggravate the problem and make even more inhuman the drama through which we are living”. “Declares that such armed attacks can no longer be tolerated and repeats its solemn’ warning to Israel that if they were to be repeated the Security Council would, in accordance with resolution 262 (1968) and the present resolution, consider taking adequate and effective steps or measures in accordance with the relevant Articles of the Charter to implement its resolutions”. 31. Its criminality is compounded by its objectives. Arab terrorism, the premeditated killing of innocent civilians, openly aims at undermining the life, independence and self-determination of an entire people-the Jewish people. Its appetite unsatiated by the existence of 20 sovereign Arab States, Arab terrorism strives to destroy Israel and to replace it by one more Arab State. The Arab nation should be sovereign in its ancestral homeland and in all the territories it has conquered, through the centuries, in the Middle East and in North Africa, but the region’s oldest nation, the Jewish people, should be deprived of its right to freedom and equality in its historic motherland. Arab terrorism thus seeks the annihilation of a people by means of the physical destruction of its individual members. 32. The story of Lebanon’s role in Arab terrorism is equally welJ known. Unlike other Arab States, Lebanon for a long time stayed out of this despicable form of bloodshed. Then in recent years it became a principal centre for Arab terrorist operations. Beirut was turned into the seat of the headquarters, information bureaux and recruitment offices of the terrorist groupings. Training camps and attack bases were established on Lebanese territory. The terrorist organizations pursue their activities in Lebanon in the open, publish their communiques in Beirut and allow reporters to interview their leaders and to visit their bases. 33. During the Yom Kippur War-up to 24 October 1973-the terrorists carried out 104 acts of aggression from and through Lebanese territory, including 41 cases of artillery bombardment of civilian villages. These attacks resulted in the death of three Israeli soldiers and one civilian and in the wounding of 16 civilians and three soldiers. 34. Terror attacks have continued since the beginning of this year. For instance, on 1 January 1974 bazooka and small-arms fire was directed by terrorists from Lebanese territory at an Israeli patrol. On the same day, bazooka fire was opened from Lebanon against the area between Manara and Margaliyot. 35. On 6 February, an Israeli soldier was killed north of kibbutz Dan when a routine border-police patrol clashed with a terrorist squad which had penetrated into Israel from Lebanese territory near the village of Adassiyah. 36. On 9 February, a young Israeli woman was killed and a soldier wounded by bazooka shells fired by a terrorist 38. On 2 April, bazooka and small-arms fire was opened from Lebanese territory at an Israel border-police patrol in the area of Zarit in Upper Galilee. 39. This, then, is the Lebanon whose Minister for Foreign Affairs described today as “peace-loving”. 40. Peaceful Lebanon where savage massacres of guiltless civilians are planned and organized. Innocent Lebanon from which murderers freely set out to all parts of the globe to bomb and to blow up, to kill and to maim. Law-abiding Lebanon which has signed formal agreements with the terror organizations granting them freedom to carry on their criminal activities. Virtuous Lebanon which does not address itself to the Security Council when its sovereignty is violated by the introduction of terrorist groups into Lebanon from abroad and by turning Lebanese territory into a base for armed attacks against Israel. Helpless Lebanon which does not draw the Security Council’s attention to the fact that Beirut is being used as a nest for international gangsterism and assassination. Chaste Lebanon which has never complained to the Security Council when terrorist organizations, inspired from abroad, attacked and clashed in battle with Lebanese forces. Pure Lebanon which turns to the Security Council only in one situation: when Israel, no longer ready to bear the bloody assaults on its citizens launched from Lebanese soil, reacts in self-defence. 41.. It is only then that Lebanon’s alleged sense of loyalty to the United Nations and to its Charter is awakened, but even then only enough to make it rush to the Council with the usual hackneyed pretexts for pursuing its irresponsible policy of collaboration with the terrorist organizations. It is then that the presence of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, which during more than 20 years had not caused any tension along the border with Israel, is used as an excuse to cover up for the operation of terrorists, most of whom had infdtrated into Lebanon from abroad. It is then that terrorism which has been directed against Israel for decades is claimed to be the result of recent developments. 42. Early in the morning of 11 April a group of terrorists crossed the Israel-Lebanese frontier. An Israeli patrol discovered that the barbed wire fence along the border had been cut at a certain point between Metulla and Misgav Am. Contrary to the allegations that we heard in the statement of the preceding speaker, the barbed wire fence is not electrified. The border patrol found the tracks of three men who had crossed into Israel. The patrol followed the tracks to the townlet of Kiryat Shmona. When it arrived there the terrorists were already on their sanguinary rampage. At first they made their way into the town’s school-building. The school is named after Janusz Korczak, the world famous Jewish educator in Warsaw who, when the Nazis carried off the pupils studying in his institute to their death, rejected a Nazi offer to save himself and went to his death together with the children” Finding the school 43. As usual, representatives of Lebanon tried to confuse these incontrovertible facts. I regret that the Foreign Minister of Lebanon found it necessary to resort to distortion in a vain attempt to deny that the Kiryat Shmona killers came from his country. Thus he distorted both the content of Israeli Police Minister Hillel’s statement and its date. On 11 April while on his way to a Cabinet meeting held immediately-15 minutes-after the massacre, the Minister replied to reporters’ questions by saying simply that he had no information about the attack. On 12 April the Minister stated during the funeral in Kiryat Shmona: “We now know with certainty that the murderers came from Lebanon and we demand of Lebanon to do all to ensure that the terrorist bases and command headquarters cease to exist on its soil.” 44. Those killed in Kiryat Shmona were: Fanny Shitreet aged 30 and three of her children-Yocheved, 11, Aaron, 8, and Motti, 4; Shimon Bitton, 33 years old; Avi, five, and his two-and-ahalf-year-old sister Miriam; Yacov Guetta and Miriam Guetta, each 30 years old; Hadassah Stern, 27, and her daughter Rachel, 8; Esther Cohen, 49, her son David, 16, and her daughter Shulamit, 14. Also killed were Esther Yazada, 60 years old, and Shmuel Ben Abu, 58; and two soldiers, Mordechai Geridi and Abahad el Sauhil. 4.5. The first statement claiming responsibility for this horrendous atrocity was issued on 11 April in Beirut by the Popular Front-General Command. It was also there in Beirut that the photograph of the three murderers was released. The communique and the photograph were cabled from Beirut by all international press agencies. At the same time, on 11 April the Popular Front-General Command also published in Beirut the following identifications and details on the three terrorists. One of them, Monir Moghrabi, 20, code-named Abu Khaled, was a Palestinian born in Damascus. He joined the Popular Front shortly after graduating from a Syrian secondary school in 1971. The second, Ahmed el-She&h Mahmoud, code-named Abu Shaker, was a Syrian who joined the Front in 1972. And the third terrorist, Yassin Mousa el-Mouzani, 27, code-named Abu- Hadi, was an Iraqi construction worker who served in the Iraqi army before joining the Front in 1972. 46. The headquarters of the Popular Front-General Command are located in Beirut. The organization is headed by Abmed Jibril. Among the outrages for which it has claimed responsibility are: The ambush on 22 May 1970 of a school bus travelling near the Lebanese border in the Avivim area resulting in the killing of seven children, two teachers and the bus driver and the wounding of 23 children. Then, as this time, the terrorists came from Lebanon. The blowing 47. This is the nature and these are the doings of the murder organization which the Lebanese Government harbours on its territory and shelters in Beirut, along with other terrorist groups. 48. In its inhumanity the Kiryat Shmona blood-bath is reminiscent of the Lod Airport massacre of 30 May 1972 in which 26 people were killed by agents of an Arab terrorist organization trained on Lebanese soil, the murder of 11 Israeli athletes during the Munich Olympic Games on 5 September 1972 and the frequent sanguinary attacks against civil aircraft and their passengers. The barbaric cruelty with which women and little children were deliberately shot down or hurled to death from windows in Kiryat Shmona evoked memories of the murder of Jewish children, women and men by the Nazis. 49. The civilized world was shocked. The Secretary- General, Pope Paul and Governments everywhere condemned this savage attack. At the same time, in Beirut and some other Arab capitals the atrocious murder of innocent women and children was hailed as an act of heroism. The Arab press and other media of information applauded it. 50. In an interview published in the Beirut Englishlanguage Lebanese newspaper Daily Star of 12 April, Zuheir Mohsen, whose headquarters are in Beirut and who is a leader of the Saiqa terrorist group and a member of the Executive Committee of the so-called Palestine Liberation Organization, an umbrella association of all the terrorist groupings, called the Kiryat Shmona massacre “heroic”. He added: “We promise to undertake more such operations as they express the real sacrifice and represent the start of a new stage in the development of commando operations, both in size and level .” 51. This is a statement not on behalf of the Popular Front which carried out the Kiryat Shmona murders but on behalf of the over-all terrorist organization, the so-called Palestine Liberation Organization which has signed a formal agreement with the Government of Lebanon and of which the Lebanese representative, in his letter to the Secretary- General a few days ago, spoke in such laudatory terms. 52. Lebanon’s involvement in and responsibility for the continuation of terrorist operations from its territory is again highlighted in an interview in Beirut with another terrorist leader. The interview was published in Ihe New York Times of I3 April. On the morrow of the Kiryat Shmona pssacre, Abu Abbas, a spokesman of the Popular Front, met in the Lebanese capital with representatives of the press. Virtually confirming that the three terrorists had 53. In the night of 12-13 April units of the Israel defence forces entered several Lebanese border villages and dynamited 20 houses after having evacuated their inhabitants. Four houses were demolished in the village of Dahira; two in Muhebab; one in Yaroun; two in Aitaroun; one in Blida; and 10 in Ett Taibe, a village nearest to Kiryat Shmona. International news agencies dispatches from Beirut confirm the nature of this action. For instance, quoting villagers, Reuters reported on 13 April: “The pattern was set to be the same at each place. The Israeli troops turned the inhabitants out of their homes and then demolished the houses with explosives, villagers said .” 54. It is to be noted that the Israeli action was directed not against terrorist bases on Lebanese soil but against the houses of known terrorist collaborators, including homes of villagers in which the murderers had stopped over on their way to Kiryat Shmona. The Israeli forces have detained for questioning some 10 such collaborators and one policeman. 55. In a press conference held on 13 April, Israel’s Minister of Defence described the Israeli action as follows: “It was not revenge. There can be no revenge for what took place in Kiryat Shmona. We did not try to match that disaster, not by the scale nor by the methods . . . “Our objective this time was political, not military . . . We were trying to explain that we are not the police of Lebanon . . . Each Government is responsible for what is taking place inside its territory. We have no doubt that the Government of Lebanon knows that the three murderers who killed the Israelis in Kiryat Shmona came from the headquarters of the Jibril group in Beirut . . . The Government of Lebanon knows where to find him and his group of murderers and it is their job to do it. “We made all the villagers aware that . . . it is their business to go to their Government and tell them that they have to take care that no terrorists cross the border into Israel. That was the message.” 56. It is up to Lebanon to prevent the use of its territory for attacks against Israel. If the Lebanese Government permits Lebanon to become a lawless gangland, it is obvious that its neighbours wiIl treat it accordingly. If Lebanon tramples all law into dust, it cannot invoke the protection of law. If Lebanon discards its obligations of proper international conduct, it cannot expect considerate conduct towards it by others. 57. The Israel delegation has asked to participate in this debate not in the expectation that the Security Council would adopt an equitable attitude based on the merits of 58. We have come to the Security Council to pay a tribute to the innocent victims of Arab terrorism. Their blood is our blood. Their blood is the blood of every Israeli, of every Jew, of every decent human being. We shall not forget them. We shall see to it that the world does not forget them. Their memory will be a tragic reminder that Israel’s struggle remains the struggle for the right of Jewish men, women and children to life and for the right of the people of Israel to exist in freedom and equality with all nations. 59. We have come before the Security Council to point again an accusing finger at the Government of Lebanon and all others which harbour, assist and co-operate with Arab terrorist organizations and to emphasize that they will not be absolved of their obligation to prevent armed attacks against Israel, whether by regular forces or by irregular terrorist bands. 60. We have come here also with an admonition not to misjudge Israel’s present attitude and mood. After 25 years of persistent Arab aggression, the people of Israel are in no doubt that the dangers surrounding it remain grave. The introspection which characterizes Israel’s political life today springs from a search for the most effective way to cope with these dangers and with the challenges of the times. Behind this introspection there is a fundamental unity of purpose and a profound national resolve. The people of Israel are one in their desire and hope for peace. Israel has sought peace with its neighbours since independence. It is happy that now negotiations with the Arab States and the conclusion of agreements with them are no longer distant aspirations It looks forward to a joint constructive process of peace making with the Arab States. But the Government and people of Israel remain united as ever in their determination to thwart the use of force and violence against them, to defend Israel’s rights and protect its citizens. 61. Those who really know and understand the people of Israel will not make any mistake about it. We may be on the eve of a new era but not of the kind the terrorist leaders are longing for and speaking of in Beirut. This will be an era in which the prospects of replacing hostility in the Middle East by understanding, mistrust by mutual confidence, war by peace will be greater than in the past. However, whether this occurs in the near future or at a later stage, the forthcoming era will find the people of Israel hardened even further by recent developments, edified by the lessons of the new tests through which we have passed, and reinforced by the vigour and vitality that come ‘when youth of body and spirit and thought combine with the discernment and maturity of experience. This will be an era in which the people of Israel will be steadfast in the defence of its achievements and will continue to improve on them, to

I should like to inform the Council that I have received a letter from the representative of Kuwait in which he requests to be invited, under the relevant Article of the Charter, to participate in our discussion without the right to vote. In accordance with rule 37 of the provisional rules of procedure and the established practice of the Security Council, I propose, with the Council’s consent, to invite the representative of Kuwait to participate, without the right to vote, in the discussion. In view of the limited number of seats available at the Council table, I would request the representative of Kuwait to take the seat reserved for him at the side of the Council chamber, on the understanding that he will be invited to take a place at the Council table at the appropriate moment. At the invitation of the President, Mr. S. Al-Sabah (Kuwait) took the place reserved for him at the side of the Council chamber.

The next name on my list of speakers is that of the representative of the Syrian Arab Republic, whom I now invite to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement.

May I thank the members of the Council, for having agreed to the participation of my delegation in the discussion of the item before you. May I also express to you, Mr. President my most sincere congratulations upon your assumption of the presidency of this Council, and repeat the tributes paid to your country, a fraternal country, and to you yourself. 65. The Foreign Minister of Lebanon has described the escalation of terrorist activities undertaken by the Zionist authorities and of the declarations of their intention to intensify their campaign against Lebanon. Their purpose is declared, and no torrents of propaganda can disguise it: it is genocide, pure and simple, against the Palestinian people, the stitling of its voice and the elimination of its personality. 66. All of you, a short while ago, heard the Israeli representative describe Palestinians in terms more worthy of him: as murderers and barbarians. His purpose was to make us forget that the Palestinian Arabs are a people with its own identity and inalienable rights, a people driven from its country by a foreign racist and colonialist conquest. Since then, the most abominable conditions have been inflicted on that martyred people. 67. The Israeli representative expatiates on the deeds of a few young Palest&m gnawed by frustration and despair, but passes over in silence the conduct of his own authorities towards the Palestinian people, which is pursued even in its very camps of exile. There is not a word in his speech about the attitude of his colonialist authorities towards United 68. The tragedy which has afflicted the Palestinian people and which has spread to neighbouring Arab countries because of the racist neocolonialist forces who worship force and proclaim aloud their policy of terror and fait accompli-all this is passed over in silence. 69. It would take too long here to go through the interminable list of resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and the Security Council following the Israeli aggression of June 1967. They bear essentially on Israel’s refusal to recognize the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people-rights proclaimed in the Charter and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 70. More recently, the General Assembly, in resolution 3089 B (XXVIII), of 7 December 1973 “‘Notes with deep regret that repatriation or compensation of the refugees as provided for in paragraph 11 of General Assembly resolution 194 (III) has not been effected”. In part D of the same resolution, the General Assembly: “1. Reaffirms that the people of Palestine is entitled to equal rights and self-determination, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations; “2. Expresses once more its grave concern that the people of Palestine has been prevented by Israel from enjoying its inalienable rights and from exercising its right to self-determination; “3. Declares that full respect for and realization of the inalienable rights of the people of Palestine, particularly its right to self-determination, are indispensable for the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, and that the enjoyment by the Palestine Arab refugees of their right to return to their homes and property, recognized by the General Assembly in resolution 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, which has been repeatedly reaffirmed by the Assembly since that date, is indispensable for the achievement of a just settlement of the refugee problem and for the exercise by the people of Palestine of its right to self-determination.” 71. The true question now before the Security Council is the State terrorism practised by Israel as a doctrine, faith and religious profession. The details of its latest crime are nothing but the consequences of the application of that doctrine, and the leaders of Israel, intoxicated by blood, say so aloud, proclaiming that so long as the Lebanese Government does not control the Arab terrorists, as they are called by General Dayan, Israel will continue its punitive raids until the south of Lebanon is completely abandoned and that they will do everything in their power to see to it that daily life there becomes impossible, that they will completely destroy houses so that that part of the country becomes completely deserted. That is State terrorism, which is fundamentally distinct from acts of individual violence, which are expressions of despair. That 72. In that regard, in its resolution 332 (1973) of 21 April 1973 the Council condemned the repeated military attacks conducted by Israel against Lebanon and Israel’s violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon in contravention of the Charter, of the Israel-Lebanon Arm& stice Agreement, and of Council cease-fire resolutions and called upon Israel to desist forthwith from all military attacks on Lebanon. 73. Israel has once again violated that resolution of the Security Council. In its new act of aggression, Israel considered Lebanon responsible. Now the Foreign Minister of Lebanon has adduced all the clear arguments necessary to refute that allegation. 74. On 12 April, Israeli armed forces violated the territorial integrity of Lebanon. They attacked six villages in the south of Lebanon. They killed two innocent civilians, kidnapped 13 persons and demolished several houses. Those are the criminal acts just committed by Israel against Lebanon in flagrant violation of the principles of the Charter, the resolutions of the Security Council, the Geneva Conventions and the fundamental principles of intemational law and human rights. 75. The most dangerous aspect of all these acts is that Israel recognizes its crime and persists in it. In the light of that fact, the Security Council should condemn those acts and take the measures necessary to prevent a repetition of them.

The next name on my list of speakers is that of the representative of Egypt, whom I now invite to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement.

I should like to thank the Council for granting our request to be invited to take part in the present debate. 78. The Israeli assault on peaceful and unprotected Lebanese villages forcefully reminds us all that Israel has once again resorted to such vicious and barbaric methods, clearly indicating that its policy of expansionism and its dreams and aggressive designs still form an integral part of the basic policy of Israel towards the Arab countries and their peoples. It is to be regretted that the political leadership of Israel has still not understood the meaning and lessons of October 1973, nor has it grasped the depth of Arab determination to see their legitimate rights upheld and safeguarded. 79. The Security Council, shouldering its responsibilities, has on many occasions condemned specific acts of aggression perpetrated by Israel against Lebanon. Yet it seems the Israeli establishment is still clinging to the method of use of force and threats against Lebanon, thus seriously endangering the present chances of peace in the Middle East. 8 1. The representative of Israel, as usual, had the audacity to speak about what he called Arab terrorists. The Council may recall that the memory of the Palestinian nation is still haunted by horrendous atrocities to which they as well as their homeland have been so systematically subjected ever since 1948. Was it not upon the debris of their homes, upon the maimed and mutilated bodies of their men, women and children that Israel was erected? The incidents which take place should not be viewed in isolation from the Palestinian diaspora or from the early massacres which marked the birth of Israel. 82. General Glubb reported that in December 1947-I just mention this and other examples to remind the representative of Israel that he should once and for all not speak about terrorists-after the United Nations decided on the partition of Palestine, a British officer wondered what troubles such a division might cause. “That will be fxed”, a Jewish officer answered him, “a few calculated massacres will get rid of the Arabs”. This alone is sufficient to prove to the world how and since when terrorism and massacres were introduced in our area, in our lives, and even outside our area. The Israelis kept their word, and in January 1948 Zionists dynamited and killed 22 Palestinians and wounded many more in the public square at Jaffa. The next day Zionists blew up the Semiramis Hotel at Jerusalem and 22 more Arabs died. There were many other such attacks. The worst was at Deir Yassin. The whole village-I repeat, the whole village-was blown up while its inhabitants slept. All 257 men, women and children were killed. And here the representative of Israel speaks about humanity and sufferings. This blood-bath at Deir Yassin was, to quote the distinguished historian Arnold Toynbee, a despicable deed of the Irgun terrorists, whose then leader, by the way, is the present leader of the Likud Party in the Israeli Parliament. This is only a background to show and to prove to the Council how humane decisions are taken by a responsible Government in Israel. 83. By citing the tragic saga of 1948, I am only putting the sad events of Kiryat Shmona into their proper perspective. Against that background of misery, uprootedness and nostalgia, forced upon them by the Israelis, and by 84. Let us not forget that more than 25 years have elapsed without the restoration of the legitimate rights to the Palestinians. And only yesterday, Defense Minister Dayan, in a statement reminiscent of pre-6 October, had this to tell the inhabitants of southern Lebanon: “The people will find it impossible to live there. Their homes will be destroyed and the whole area will be a desert.” 91. In previous similar cases, the Council clearly upheld the sanctity and territorial integrity of Lebanon. The Council further repeatedly warned Israel against infringing upon Lebanese territory. I need not recite the long list of resolutions starting with resolution 262 (1968) and r~olution 280 (1970), and ending with resolution 332 (1973). 92. What we witness today in the Lebanese-Israeli sector is but an abhorring repetition of the Israeli practices. 85. It would amount to naiivert! if one should anticipate the ushering of peace into the area while arrogant voices are roaring and while armexationist designs are not abandoned. This is the true fact of the situation. 93. The community of nations has not yet forgotten the implications of the Israeli acts of terrorism committed in violation of international law and in a challenge of the principles of the Charter. In the long history of the customary Israeli violations of the principles and purposes of the Charter, some recent acts of State terrorism are alive in one’s memory, such as the following-and I will cite just a few because apparently the representative of Israel would lie us here in this hall and outside this hall to forget about who really introduced terrorism and who is practising terrorism as a governmental policy. 86. Throughout the last few weeks, there was an endless flow of statements made by Israeli officials to the effect that the Syrian Golan Heights is a part of Israel-I am not talking now about Lebanon, about terrorists-that the Syrian Golan Heights, a hundred per cent Syrian territory, is a part of Israel, and that the Israeli occupiers are there to stay. Is this serious? Are these responsible statements from a responsible Government? Such statements only reflect the pathetic alienation in which the Israeli establishment still finds itself. They mean that Israel did not give up its political or sociological misconceptions that lie at the roots of the upheavals in the region. If Israel has failed, as it ostensibly did throughout a quarter of a century, to secure peaceful conditions around it, it is because Israel insisted on denying recognition and acknowledgement of the inalienable rights of the Palestinians. It is equally so because it systematically endeavoured to apply a policy of brute force against its neighbours to bring about their capitulation-and this will not happen. 94. To begin with, the infamous Deir Yassin massacre on 9 April 1948-which I mentioned to the Council before. That was not from Lebanon, it was in Palestine. 95. The mass execution of civilians in Kafr Kassem and Qibya. That was not from Lebanon. 96. The heinous premeditated bombardment of Abu Zaabal factory near Cairo. Also the notorious bombardment of Bahr El Bakar school, where only children were the victims. That again was not in Lebanon or in any other part of the world, except in my own country-only civilians. The only reaction which the Council heard from Israel simply came from Dayan when he said that he was sorry, it was a mistake. And now the representative of Israel speaks here about terrorism, about bloodshed, about the sufferings of women and children. 87. Let Israel indicate a genuine will to recognize the Palestinians, to restore their legitimate rights. Let it announce here its intention to abandon the occupied Arab territories, be they in Sinai, in Gaza, the Golan Heights or the West Bank. Let it favour a policy of justice and equity. Then, and only then, would there be no Kiryat Shmona and no bloodshed. 97. The abduction on 10 August 1973 of the Middle East Airways airliner over Lebanese air space, hence jeopardiiing the lives of over 80 passengers and disrupting the continuity and safety of international civil aviation. That act has been condemned by the Council in resolution 337 (1973) and by both the Council and Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in August 1973. Here again, the representative of Israel speaks about airplanes and incidents. 88. It is unfortunate that the Israeli officials seek to conceal their blunders from their people by committing further blunders. It is to be regretted that because of their obstinacy and shortsightedness, any lesson goes unheeded in Israel. 89. After the historic uprising of the Arabs on 6 October 1973, has not the time come for Israel to pause and ponder for a while on how to achieve genuine and lasting peace? The persistence of the classic and indeed outmoded policies of Israel can only lead to more grievances and more sorrow. Military adventurism does not and cannot produce peace. By threatening Lebanon, Israei shall not reap any advantage and the prospects for peace in the Middle East would be further dimmed. 98. On 10 April 1973, Israel, with the assistance of its agents who entered Lebanon-not agents who came from Lebanon, but agents who entered Lebanon-by means of falsified Belgian, British and German passports, launched a raid on Beirut. This raid was not on Kiryat Shmona, but on Beirut itself, and Israel thus committed State terrorism, violating Lebanon’s sovereignty and assassinating Italians, Lebanese and Palestinians, including three Palestinian leaders who were sleeping in their homes during the night. 90. One is entitled to ask: But where does the solution to this problem lie? The answer is not difficult. It lies in 100. The attack by the military air forces of Israel on 28 becember 1.968 against the Beirut International Airport which resulted in the destruction of 13 civilian and commercial aircraft: That Israeli act of aggression was also -condemned by the Council. And then he complains about the Council. 101. The infamous Lavon affair-as far back as 1954 -where terrorist activities were executed in Egypt by Israeli agents. They did not come from Beirut. They did not come from any Arab country. They were not Palestinians. They were Israeli agents. 102. The letter bombs and parcels which the Israelis used to send to the German experts in my own country-they did not come from Beirut or from the Palestinians, they came from Israel-to kill, not Palestinians, but German citizens. They have the same right to live as the Israelis do. 103. Whatever the representative of Israel is trying to say here, the war of annihilation waged by Israel is a national policy of State terrorism against the Palestinian people by murdering their national leaders and Intellectuals and all those who inspire them to struggle for their nationhood by the exercise of self-determination and hence resist the aggressive policy of Israel. The Israeli acts of terrorism committed against individuals living in foreign countries include the assassination of Ghassan Kanafani in Beirut, Mahrnoud Hamshari, and other Palestinians, Moroccans and others from the Arab countries in Paris, Rome, Oslo and elsewhere. That is State terrorism. 104. It is for Israel to decide-wisely, I hope-its future course. One thii, however, is certain. Should Israel continue to persist in applying its worn-out policies of the days before 6 October, then this will have adverse consequences on the chances of peace in the Middle East. The responsibility for escalating military operations remains with Israel, and so does that for the prospects for a peaceful settlement of the Middle East problem. 105. Let me say the following to the Government of Israel. The persistence of the Israeli aggression against Lebanon would have direct adverse consequences on the chances of peace in the Middle East. Furthermore, Egypt ‘.halds Israel responsiblefor the escalation of its military operations on the Syrian front. I should like to add, before this body, that this escalation will have far-reaching consequences on the chances of peace in the area and on the prospects of a peaceful settlement. Israel before anyone else must choose between war and peace. If Israel chooses the latter, then it must stop forthwith all irresponsible actions, which; I repeat, will no doubt stifle all efforts to achieve a durable and just peace in the area. Let me be more specific. The chances of a new era, to which the representative of Israel referred repeatedly, of a peaceful solution within the framework of Geneva, would be nil.

r Mr. President, it gives me great pleasure to speak in this important international forum on behalf of the Arab Group, which my country has the honour of presiding over during this month. I should like, at the outset, to thank you for the care which you give to important international questions while presiding over the proceedings of this body for this month. I feel confident that your ability and long experience will contribute immensely to the work of the Council during the present month. 108. This is not the first time this Council has been convened to consider an Israeli aggression against the territories of the neighbouring Arab States or the violation by Israeli troops of international frontiers or the killing and abduction by Israel of innocent civilians and the destruction of their houses. The annals of the Security Council profusely reflect these barbaric Israeli acts of aggression which the Council has repeatedly considered and for which it has repeatedly condemned Israel. There is no need for me to remind the Council of the successive and repeated Israeli acts of aggression throughout the past 25 years or its condemnation of Israel 15 times during that period. 109. The recent Israeli aggression against six Lebanese villages constitutes a violation of the national soil of a sovereign State Member of the United Nations and consequently constitutes a violation of the principle of territorial integrity which is one of the pillars of the Charter. It also constitutes a violation of the principle of protecting civilians and safeguarding their lives and property, which is one of the principles of civilized conduct imposed by membership in the world Organization. The new Israeli aggression also constitutes a flagrant violation of the general armistice agreement and a disregard for successive resolutions of the Security Council and its repeated warnings to Israel. In view of Israel’s flouting of these principles and resolutions, the Council is called upon now to implement its previous warnings to Israel by taking the appropriate steps and measures provided for in the Charter should Israel persist in violating the frontiers of neighbouring countries and violating their territories, killing their citizens and destroying their property. 110. The pretext that the violation by Israeli troops of the Lebanese frontiers, destroying the houses and villages of Lebanese, killing women and children in their homes and abducting men from their lands; the pretext that these aggressive, barbaric acts were reprisals for acts which took place in Israel is merely an effort to invoke a principle which has already been rejected by the Council. 111. The Lebanese Renublic is not obliged to urevent the occurrence of disorder; or disturbancesin territories occupied by Israel or under its control. Likewise, the Lebanese Republic is not obliged to protect Israel from the inevitable consequences resulting from its policy and its 1 The representative of Kuwait spoke in Arabic. The English text of the statement was furnished by the delegation. 112. The refusal of the Palestinian people to accept this lot which Israel seeks to impose on them and their resistance to Israeli policy and conduct is a fundamental right. The General Assembly has clearly recognized this right in more than one resolution and at every one of its previous sessions. 113. Consequently, it is not possible to hold Lebanon or any other Arab country responsible for the consequences of depriving the Palestinian people of their right to resist, especially as the General Assembly has also recognized this right. The responsibility falls on the shoulders of Israel alone because it incited and still incites the Palestinian people to struggle to regain their fundamental rights usurped by Israel. 114. Finally, I must say that the recent events must impel the Council, in addition to condemning Israel and rejecting the Israeli pretext for justifying international crimes, to implement the warnings already issued by the Council. The Council is called upon to reaffirm its determination to establish peace based on justice in the Middle East, according to which the Arab countries will regain their occupied territories and the Palestinian people will regain their fundamental rights, which Israel has prevented them from exercising and enjoying for the past quarter of a century.

I call on the representative of Israel.

There is an old Talmudic saying: “The world rests on three things: truth, law and peace.” I am afraid that in the statements of the last three speakers there was neither truth, nor law, nor peace. I shall refer only to a number of points raised by the representatives who have just spoken. 117. First of all, it is not surprising that Syria should have chosen to join this afternoon’s debate. No matter how one would have tried to avoid involving Syria in the atrocity at Kiryat Shmona, the facts are too striking not to become clearly visible. Indeed, the terrorist organization responsible for the Kiryat Shmona massacre is in a sense a para-military adjunct of the Syrian Baathist regime and the Syrian Army. The Syrian Government has provided it with money and arms since the end of 1971. In addition to its bases and headquarters in Lebanon, it maintains centres, headquarters and training camps in Syria, one of them at Ain Soukhna north of Damascus, against which the Israeli air force took action on 30 October 1972. 118. The Syrian reaction to the Kiryat Shmona massacre was given on the morrow of the savage atrocity when the Syrian government radio, commenting on what had happened in the Israeli townlet, stated: “The brave and daring fedayeen operation in Kiryat Shmona is praiseworthy” and 120. If any additional proof were required that Lebanon’s complaint today is unfounded, the fact that Syria, has hastened to Lebanon’s support-Syria, which in the past few weeks has been carrying on a campaign of daily aggression in defiance of the Security Council cease-fuesupplies that proof. Indeed, there could be no greater stigma for the Lebanese case than to have the representative of a Government such as the Syrian Government join it at this table. 121. As for the statement made by the Foreign Minister of Egypt, I can only express shock that he has come here all the way from Cairo in order to explain away and to defend those who committed the barbaric massacre at Kiryat Shmona. This is reminiscent of the praise heaped by the then Prime Minister of Egypt on the terrorists who murdered the innocent passengers at Lod terminal; this is reminiscent of the refusal by the Egyptian Government to co-operate with the West German Government in a lastminute attempt to save the lives of the Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games at Munich. It is regrettable that the Foreign Minister of Egypt, a country with whom Israel has only recently signed the first agreement since the October war, should have chosen this moment to make this kind -of pronouncement. 122. Distortion has never helped to buttress one’s case, not even in the Security Council. The Foreign Minister of Egypt referred to the history of terrorism in Palestine. Indeed terrorism goes way back: terrorism against Jews and Arabs alike was first used in Palestine in the 1920s by the notorious Nazi collaborator and war criminal Haj Amin El-Husseini as a weapon for the perpetuation of his power. After Israel’s emergence to independence, terror squads were organized by certain Arab Governments, Egypt foremost among them. The Arab Governments, having failed to stifle the Jewish State at birth by military invasion, decided to pursue warfare against it by terrorist incursions that would sow bloodshed and destruction in the midst of Israel’s civilian population. 123. It was then, more than two decades ago, that the first fedayeen units were established, trained by regular army officers, equipped by the Egyptian and other Arab Govemments and dispatched on their macabre missions against school-children in classrooms, travellers on highways and peaceful villagers asleep in their homes. This had nothing to do with the problem of Palestinian refugees; it had a great deal to do with the refusal to recognize that the Jewish people, like the Palestinian Arabs, also has a right to life in independence and sovereignty. 124. As I pointed out in my first statement today, Arab terrorism is rooted in an unsatiated appetite which is not satisfied with the fact that there are already 20 Arab sovereign States expressing the desire for self-determination, for sovereignty and for independence of the Arab 126. Israel chose peace in 1948 while Egypt continued to wage war. And it is certainly not by the kind of attitudes that were reflected in the statement made now by the Foreign Minister of Egypt that peace is built. He asked: “Where does the solution lie? ” It is clear that it does not lie in intemperate language of the kind to which he treated this Security Council. It does not lie in distortion, which he found it appropriate to include in his statement. It does not lie in hackneyed acrimony and polemics. It does lie in a joint constructive Israeli-Arab effort to build peace together in a process of peace-making through quiet diplomacy, and not through acrimony, vilification and vituperation.

I should like to inform the Council that I have just received a letter from the representative of Saudi Arabia requesting to be invited, under the pertinent Article of the Charter, to participate in the discussion, without the right to vote. If I hear no objection I propose, in accordance with rule 37 of the provisional rules of procedure and the established practice of the Security Council, to invite the representative of Saudi Arabia to participate, without the right to vote, in the Council’s discussion. At the invitation of the Resident, Mr. J. Baroody (Saudi Arabia) took a place at the Council table.

I had decided to be content with having the Chairman of the Arab Group, none other than the Emir of Kuwait, speak on behalf of all of us. When I say “on behalf of all of us” I mean the members of the Arab League. But I could not help but be impelled to speak by the so-called right of reply by none other than Mr. Tekoah. After all, any one of you members might say that Mr. Tekoah did not allude to Saudi Arabia. Therefore, why do I exercise my right of reply? It has been Mr. Tekoah’s wont to call anyone who has been defending a certain cause in the area an Arab terrorist. I happen to represent an Arab State. Time and again he has tried to indoctrinate, so to speak, the people of the host country, where the mass media are to a large extent controlled by Zionist interests, that it is the Arabs who are perpetrating terrorism in the Middle East. This is an accusation that cannot go unanswered. 129. Mr. Tekoah, I am told, came from Russia by way of Shanghai. I happen to be an Arab of the area who was born there 68 years ago. Not only before the First World War but even during the First World War the Arabs of the Fertile Crescent, as well as the Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula, were known to be a very peaceful people. I remember how aroused we were-whether in Lebanon, Syria or any other country-when one person was killed by a criminal. ‘Ibe 130. I hardly need repeat what the Arab renresentatives stated here this afternoon as to who began terrorism in Palestine. I visited Palestine ln 1925 and none other than Haj Amin El-Husseini, whom Mr. Tekoah referred to as being the fomenter of terrorism, told me: “We have no problem with our Jews”-meaning the Oriental Jews-“but with those Jews who are coming from beyond the seas, who are not of our area and who want to dispossess us. We would rather live in peace with them, if they do not come with a flag.” 131. When I was on speaking terms with the Zionists ln London in the 1930s~and even in 1944 in Town Hall on 43rd Street here in New York City-I remonstrated with them and said: “If you would like to go to Palestine and live in peace, motivated by religious sentiments, the Palestinians will receive you with open arms.” But they wanted a State in Palestine and a flag in Palestine, and they got a flag in Palestine through the partition of that unhappy land in 1947. Members of the Council know the reasons for that. I am glad you are here, Mr. Ivor Richard-I knew your Mr. Bevan. He was a Weishman like you are. He knew that there would be no peace in Palestine if a new people were injected into the area. 132. I want to remind the Zionists that many of the indigenous people of Palestine originally had been Jews who subsequently embraced Christianity and later some of them embraced Islam. When they talk about the Jewish people-there is no such thing as a Christian people, a Jewish people, a Moslem people, a Buddhist people, a Hindu people. There are cultures, languages, traditions. And you wonder why the Arab world is in turmoil? It is not dissimilar to the turbulence of the era of the Crusades, because there is a new element-not because of religion-in the body politic and body social of the Arab world that has caused an abscess and a high fever. 133. I need not recapitulate what Theodor Herzl wrote in his manifesto about the ingathering of all the Jews of the world-whether they like it or not they should come to Palestine and Judaism is a nationality. They want to swing back the pendulum of history. I knew French Jews who were as French as any other Frenchmen, whether from Normandy or Marseilles. I know American Jews who are committed to Americanism. But the Zionists will not leave them alone. They want to ingather them in Palestine and we the Arab States should be meek and accept that new traditions, new customs and new ways of developing our area should be introduced in our midst. We should be docile and consider Israel as a God-sent conglomeration of financiers, industrialists and bankers who would benignly develop our lands and make them prosperous. 134. Zionism has used a noble religion-Judaism-as a motivation for a political and economic end. And do not 135. It was a mistake to flock into Palestine from the four corners of the earth. Your leadership is of Khazar origin and not of Sephardic origin. The Jews of our area were Arabs. They distinguished themselves in Arab culture. And you come here and call those ethnologically Semitic people of Palestine Arab terrorists. They occupied the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum. As I was passing through Paris last September I found them occupying our Embassy. I wanted to go and talk to the Palestinians, but I was detained by friends saying that I might endanger my life. I did not care. You do not know the tenor and the temper of the Palestinian people. 136. What do you want the Arab States to do, including Lebanon which has 300,000 Palestinians and can hardly boast of a population of 3 million? Do you want the Lebanese to suppress them and fight them? They would dissolve the Lebanese State. More than half the Lebanese would rise up in arms against any Government that would crush the Palestinians. 137. We in Saudi Arabia have them in responsible positions all over the land. But do you think they are sitting quietly there? They want their country to be liberated. They would rather not be officials or merchants in Saudi Arabia, or Kuwait, or Morocco, or Libya, or Egypt or wherever they may be; they would rather have their rights restored to them. Do you Zionists want to create anarchy in the Arab world? Have you not learned anything from history? Since Alexander the Great-I shall not go back to Nebuchadnezzar; these were Babylonians, Semites like us the Greeks, the Seleucids-the Romans, the Saracens, the Byzantines, the Seljuks, the Mongols, the Ottomans and, in my lifetime, the British and the French all came. And now it is your turn, it seems, from Central and Eastern Europe-using Judaism as a motivation for your movement-to come to occupy that land. And where are those conquerers? They came, and some of them left traces, but they are gone. 138. Why do you not as human beings forget that ism of Zionism and live in humanism instead of setting yourselves apart in every country? The Jews would like to identify themselves with their country of birth or adoption, but you do not leave them alone. You are creating a world problem, and I feel sorry for every human being-whether he be Jew or Gentile-that is hurt, leave aside killed. When will you wake up? Has it become a psychosis with you? If you have developed a psychosis, why should the Palestinians not have 140. And now what will happen? Lebanon, for the tenth or twentieth time-1 have lost count, perhaps for the twelfth time-has been suffering. Lebanon, which has never aggressed against its neighbours since the days of the ancient Phoenicians, as they were called by the Greeks. Whenever the land could not sustain them they took to the sea; they did not go and fight their neighbours. 141. And you come, you Khazars, originally from the northern tier of Asia, outskirting the Caspian, settling in what today is southern Russia in the first century-pagan tribes, hardy tribes that were converted to Judaism in the eighth century A.D. You come and claim “God gave us Palestine”. That is fiction. 142. You want to live; you have suffered as human beings. We commiserate with you. You want to live amongst us? Come and live amongst us-but not with that exclusivity that smacks of racialism, that sets you apart as if you were the chosen people of God. Suppose some people do not believe in God. I believe in God, but I do not believe God discriminates between one people and another. All right, I am a Semite. I would not want to say I am one of the chosen people of God. It is unthinkable. But now you come here to the Council and, instead of saying that you really want peace you begin with a catalogue of incidents and events. My colleagues who spoke before me also bring their catalogue of murderous incidents and events. With what result? As I have said in previous speeches, this is only one link in a long chain of events. And what will happen? There will be another round, and another round. And, of course, our friends the Americans and the Russians do not want to have a confrontation. If they have a confrontation, the whole world will blow up. Each one has 15.times over-kill capacity in its arsenals. What do you want them to do: champion you? And some of us Arabs-do you want the Russians to champion us? Do you want to pit those super-Powers against each other so that the whole world will blow up for the sake of the Zionist flag? Why do you not come and live as human beings in our midst? 143. Now one serious word to the major Powers-because I have been addressing myself here to this Council since 1947 or 1948, and it is the same old story: condemnation-not only of Israel; I do not want to mention other States that were condemned in this Council. It seems there is no will on the part of world powers to see that resolutions of the Council are implemented. They are not 144. Do you’ think anybody is happy because .those innocent Jews died across the border from Lebanon? Do you think we are happy, either, that those three young men who perpetrated the tragedy perished? They had mothers; they had fathers; they were young. Where is the human worth and dignity about which we talk? 145. I was amongst those who elaborated the Universal 1 Declaration of Human Rights when we were at the PaIais de Chaillot in Paris. Human dignity, human worth, life, security, liberty: these are becoming mere empty words. And what are you major Powers going to do in the Council: have another resolution by which you “deplore*’ or “condemn”, or whatever other epithet you want, to resolve the issue only to find that, perhaps a month from now, two weeks from now, or six months from now another incident will happen-as I said, another link in the long chain? 146. Why do you not stop making the Middle East the chequerboard of your power politics? Of course, the Middle East is not very far from the frontiers of the Soviet Union; and the Soviet Union, because the detente seems to be always in flwr, thinks-and the United States on its part, also-that it has a special interest in the area. Why should we be the victims? Both sides partitioned Palestine. I was sitting at Lake Success when Palestine was partitioned, and both the Americans and the Russians vied with each other in order to partition Palestine, I will not go into it; I spoke my head off about the pressure that was brought to bear by international Zionism for the partioning of Palestine. That is your baby, and it has grown into something with claws-I will not say “a monster” because -they are human beings, and because they could call me a monster too. I am not in the habit of calling people names, except when they call me names. Then I can call them bad names. 147. Can you not tell Israel: ‘Content yourself with the partition lines”-although most of the Arabs think that partition was unjust-“and we will guarantee your frontiers”? 148. And, a propos of guaranteeing the frontiers, there were massacres in 1860 in Lebanon perpetrated not by the United States but by the Western Powers. In 1860 thousands perished in Lebanon; they set brother against brother. And then Lebanon gained special status guaranteed by seven European Powers. I am not talking of larger Lebanon, the Lebanon that emerged after the Second World War or under the French Mandate. It is within the power of the United States and Russia, which seem to think that this is a vital area for them-and perhaps rightly so to resolve this question. I am not taking issue now and digressing into international arrangements among States, whether in the past or in our present time. But lest all you say here become an exercise in futility, we appeal to you, the United States and the Soviet Union, to stop Israel from 150. I do not know where Moshe Dayan was born. But what did Micah say? Do you remember? Where is Mr. Tekoah? He left because he knows. Micah asked, “Shall I come before the Lord with burnt offerings? ” “No”, he said-1 am paraphrasing-“Come before thy Lord not so much with burnt offerings.” And he means the ritual-the ritual of any religion, not only of Judaism. “I will tell you how you can gain favour with your Lord. Love mercy, love justice and, walk humbly with thy Lord.” 151. Do you love mercy? Somebody mentioned Deir Yassin. No oriental Jew would have perpetrated the Deir Yassin tragedy, because he would have had mercy in his heart. Do you love justice? Some of those people who were massacred by you were originally Jews, as I have said. Do you walk humbly with your Lord when you do the things that have come under consideration? 152. I shall have occasion to speak again. I shall refrain from speaking until after Mr. Tekoah has spoken; he has not benefited from what I have said because he has absented himself, but I am sure his colleagues will tell him. We need peace, and there can be no peace unless there is humanity and love. And remember what was said by one of your co-religionists whose books I read when I was young. He was born in Vienna, and was a friend of Theodor Herzl: Stefen Zweig, the famous biographer. The late Herzl, who was a journalist, asked him whether he would join the Zionist movement, whether he would become a Zionist. The humanitarian answered, “There are too many isms in the world, and Zionism is one of them. What we need is humanism.” That is the religion all of us should espouse. 153. I thank the Council for having been patient with me in my exercise of my right of reply on what has been termed “Arab terrorism”.

The representative of the Syrian Arab Republic wishes to speak in exercise of his right of reply. I now invite him to take a seat at the Council table and to make a statement.

The representative of Israel used his right of reply to reiterate, as usual, his allegations and his false- 156. He accused my country of carrying out daib aggressions against Isiael. Since the Council-adopted its resolutions 338 (1973) and 339 (1973) concerning the cease-fue and calling for an immediate cessation of all military activities and for the forces of both sides to be returned to the positions they occupied when the cease-fire came into effect, not a single day has elapsed without Israel constantly and flagrantly violating that cease-fire. 157. The Israeli leaders obstinately violate the principles of the Charter and the decisions of the Council and thus continue jeopardizing peace and security in the region and internationally. The pretexts adduced are the so-called concept of secure geographical boundaries, which is just another subterfuge to force acceptance and justification for Israeli expansionism and its annexation of the occupied Syrian territory of the Golan Heights. But that theory tlies in the face of the basic principles of the Charter, of justice and of international law. The latest proof of that expansionist policy lies in a statement made by the Premier of Israel, Mrs. Golda Meir, who merely twenty-odd days ago reaffied that Israel would not yield a single square inch of territory on the occupied Golan Heights taken in 1967. Need I go further? I think the hour is late. Further proof of Syria’s responsibility for the present situation of tension along the Israeli-Syrian cease-fire line is to be found in the reports by United Nations military observers.

I call upon the representative of Lebanon, who wishes to speak in exercise .of his right of reply.

In deference to you, Mr. President, and to members of the Security Council, and because of the late hour, I shall not use my right of reply at this stage. I wish only to say that the statements made this afternoon by the representative of Israel are full of calumnies and slanders against my country, Lebanon, and full of distortions of fact. 158. It is a fact that Israel has followed this policy of intimidation and aggression with the use of force in order to compel the Syrian Government to accede to its point of view concerning the disengagement of the armed forceson the Golan Heights in order to set the stage for the first step in sanctioning the final annexation of the Golan Heights by Israel. 163. I reserve my right to speak in exercise of my right of reply at a later stage. “Syria is waging a war of attrition against Israel in order to force her to continue and maintain her reserves and paralyse her economy.” The meeting roSe tit 6.50 p.mL -- -~_ - -. - ---- -. ., ._ _. _ _^.. -..- -..- -- HOW TO OBTAIN UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATIONS Unite1 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 Unies sont en vente dans les librairies et les agences depositaires du monde entier. Informez-vous aupres de votre libraire ou adressez-vous a : Nations Unies, Section des ventes, New York ou Geneve. ICAIC HOAYWiTb HSAAHHR OPI-AHZi 3A9HH Olj’6EASiHEHHhIX HAI~HH Hsnanm Ooranmaqtw CHYbenwnemblx Hasun 16oxno ~ynn-rb B I(HA~KKHLIX Idaraamiax H arenrcraax 80 acex paRonax rdapa. Haeonnre cnpaanu 06 ns~amiax a aamen minmno~ uarasnne mm nnmnre no anpecy: Opraxaaauria O6%eAHHeHIibIx Ham& Cercuas no nponaxe HaaarinR. Hbro-Hopx HJ-IH Xezieaa. COMO CONSEGUIR PUBLICACIONES DE LAS NACIONES UNIDAS Las publicaciones de las Naciones Unidas estin en venta en librerfas y casas distribuidoras en todas partes de1 mundo. Consulte a su librero o dirfjase a: Naciones Unidas, Secci6n de Ventas, Nueva York o Ginebra. Litho in United Nations, New York Price: SU.S. 2.00