S/PV.2207 Security Council

I wish to inform the members of the Council that I have received letters from the representatives of Bahrain, Cuba, Madagascar, Morocco and Viet Nam in which they request to be invited to participate in the discussion of the item on the agenda. In accordance with the usual practice, I propose, with the consent of the Council, to invite those representatives to participate in the discussion without the right to vote, in conformity with the relevant provisions of the Charter and rule 37 of the provisional rules of procedure. The meeting was called to order at 11.35 a.m. At the invitation of the President, Mr. Al-Saffar (Bahrain), Mr. Roa-Kouri (Cuba), Mr. Rabetafika (Madagascar), Mr. Ayachi(Morocco) and Mr. Ha Van Lau (Viet Nam) took the places reserved for them at the side of the Council chamber. Adoption of the agenda The agenda was adopted.

Mr. President, before we turn to the substance of the item being considered by the Council, I should like to extend to you cordial congratulations and best wishes for success in the performance of your important functions as President of the Council for April. An earnest of this success is your outstanding diplomatic talent, which is so well known in the United Nations. I should like to take this opportunity to express the hope that the friendly relations that exist between the Soviet Union and Mexico, relations of equal co-operation on the basis of the principles of peaceful COeXiStenCe, Will know further constructive development. Ihe question of the exercise by the Palestinian people Of its inalienable rights: I&+r dated 6 March 1980 from the Acting Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/13832); I&r dated 24 March 1980 from the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/13855)

ln accordance with the decisions taken at previous meetings [220&h and 22&W meetings], I invite the npresentatives of Algeria, Egypt, India, Iraq, ISrael, ‘ordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic and Yugoslavia to participate in the discussion without he right to vote, and I invite the Chairman of the zcmmittee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of he Palestinian People and the representative of the 4. I should like also to pay a tribute to your predecessor as President of the Council, Ambassador Mills of Jamaica, who so skilfully and efficiently conducted the Council’s proceedings last month with his characteristic tact and diplomatic experience. 6. The Palestinian problem is not a new one. It arose as a result of Israel’s having forcibly expelled the Palestinian Arabs from their ancestral lands and deprived the Palestinian people of its inalienable rights, in particular its right to a homeland, What then ensued is we!! known. The Middle East became a region of perpetual tension and one of the chief hot-points in the world. Over a comparatively short span of time there were repeated outbreaks of bloody war, which in spite of their regional nature posed serious threats to international peace and security throughout the world. 7. The serious tension and the genuine threat of a fresh outbreak of hostilities exist even today in this region. Furthermore, there is no doubt at all that a situation of conflict will not only persist here in the future but will be exacerbated if the underlying causes are not eliminated and the inalienable rights of the Palestinian Arabs restored, Failure to reckon with this axiomatic truth and any attempt to overlook it would serve only to complicate further the situation in the Middle East and deliberately to prepare the ground for further conflict and upheaval in that region, 8. The Soviet Union is firmly convinced that the path to a truly just and lasting peace in the Middle East can only lie through a radical and comprehensive settlement, whose necessary elements would be the total withdrawal of Israeli troops from al! the Arab territories they occupied in 1967 and the implementation of the lawful rights of the Arab people of Palestine, including their right to self-determination and to create their own independent State, as we!! as the guarantee of the independent existence and security of all States of that region. This is the unswerving position of principle held by the Soviet Union, It is based upon its international solidarity with peoples fighting for their national liberation. 9. The current situation, in which the Palestinian people has become an exiled people deprived of its national homeland, is absolutely intolerable. Like any other people of the Middle East, that people has the inalienable right to self-determination and the creation 10. The General Assembly in particular, at its most recent sessions, has adopted a number of important resolutions which stress the need for an early, just solution of the Palestinian problem on the basis of the exercise of the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people. Those resulutions also provide for equal participrttiotr hy the I%O, HS the legitimate representative of the l%lestininn people, in all efforts, deliberatiotls and conferences concerning the Middle East, 1 1. The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Kighrs of the Palestinian Pctqllc, which was established at the thirtieth session c>f the General Assembly, prepared and presented its recommendations as early as 1976. Those rccommcndaticms confirmed the right of the Palestinians tu self-determination, national independence and sovereignty in Palestine, including their right to create their own independent State, and the right to recover their property and the homes from which they were expelled. ‘I’hc t’cctmm~cndations also provided for Israeli troops tu withdraw from al! Arab territOrics occupied since Jlmc l%7 and for Israel to renounce the establishment of new Isrstcli settlements in those territories, The rrcctmmendations were approved at the thirty-first session of the General Assembly in 1976 and havr hccn confirmed annually since then. 12. The Security C’ouncil also has rcpcatedly taken decisions aimed at protecting the inalienable rights of the Arab people of Palestine. For cxrtmple, about a month ago, the I.“uutrcil ;&p&d a resolution L46-5 fl@N)] to the effect that all the mc;\sures taken bY Israel in order in practice to hrin~ about the annexation of the Arab, inr!ttding Pales&&n, territories it has occupied have no legal validity and must be rescinded, and the settlements already established must be dismantled. That is only a partial, limited step by the Council, hut it is a step in the right direction. 13. Qpica!!y, even th;lt sma~! step was too much for the United States. Waving attempted to make that step forwttrd, the United States immediutely took two steps backwards and not only dissociated itself from the Council requirement that the Israeli settlemwts 0” Arab soil he eliminated hut also immediately refused to consider Jerusalem as occupied Arab territory, although just six months hefore it had voted in favour of a resolution adopted by the General Assembly at its thirty-fourth session which contained such a Provision, It is clear that thch,c zigzags in American POlicY 14. Quite a number of important decisions designed to promote an early and just settlement of the problem ofpalestine have been adopted in various international forums, both inside and outside the United Nations, For example, the Sixth Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries in Havana confirmed that no solution to the Middle East conflict would be possible without the exercise by the people of Palestine of its inalienable national rights, including the right of return to their homes, the attainment of self-determination and the creation of an independent Palestinian State in Palestine. The Conference took a decision on the need to convene an emergency special session of the General Assembly if the Council were to prove unable to come to a decision because of a lack of unanimity among its permanent members. 15. It is with the utmost regret and alarm that we have to note that, in spite of the will of the international community, the Palestinian question-and, indeed, the whole problem of a Middle East settlement-is still very far from being solved in practice. Israel, which has affixed its signature to the Charter of our Organization, continues to disregard those important United Nations decisions that are designed to permit the exercise by the Palestinian people of its inalienable rights and refuses to heed the voice of the international community. And it is worth while recalling here that the decisions of the United Nations on the question of Palestine have no less legal force than those decisions which underlay the creation of the State of Israel. 16. We can look at this matter from another standpoint. For many years we have seen Israel acting in defiance of the letter and the spirit of the Charter, systematically and deliberately sabotaging the implementation of Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, and flagrantly flouting universally acknowledged norms of international law. In this regard, the entirely legitimate question arises of how long the Council is going to tolerate a situation where one Member State openly refuses to comply with decisions of the Council and thus disregards the obligations which flow from its membership in the United Nations. 17. Along with Israel, those who have been encouraging Israel’s expansionist policy and placing weapons in its hands for further acts of aggression against the Arabs, and primarily against the Palestinians, also bear a heavy responsibility for undermining the just solution of the question of Palestine, as do those who have deferred to the aggressor and concluded a separate deal with Israel behind the back of other Arab peoples, in particular the Palestinian people, and to the detriment of their legitimate interests. 19. It will soon be a year since the parties to the separate deal have been holding talks about so-called administrative autonomy for the Palestinians-talks which in actual fact are really about how to consolidate Israeli domination over the occupied Palestinian lands, how to prevent the self-determination of the Arab people of Palestine and how to exclude the PLO, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, from participation in a solution of the Palestinian problem. 20. Under the so-called administrative autonomy plan, which the Palestinians themselves have quite rightly equated with the regime of the South African bantustans, it has been proposed that the West Bank of the Jordan and the Gaza Strip should remain under the sovereignty of Israel and the full control of Israeli troops. Israel would reserve control over the water sources and fertile lands, and a considerable portion of the whole territory of the West Bank would be earmarked for new Israeli settlements. 21. At the very first meeting of the parties to the talks on “administrative autonomy”, the head of the Israeli delegation, the Minister of the Interior, Mr. Burg, stated “What must be understood from the outset is that autonomy does not and cannot imply sovereignty”. The Prime Minister of Israel, Mr. Begin, was even more frank in his statements. Speaking at the Herut Party congress on 6 June 1979, he said unequivocally that, if an Arab administrative council to be set up on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip proclaimed a Palestinian State, its members would be promptly arrested. 22. Thus in these talks Israel is aiming at a clearly defined goal-that of creating and consolidating in the Gaza Strip and on the West Bank of the Jordan a situation where the Arab people of Palestine could never exercise any genuine self-determination and where it could never set up its own independent State. Typically, even The New York Times, on 22 March, was obliged to acknowledge that Israel views such “autonomy” as “a severely limited local administration, without judicial or legislative powers, responsible for nothing more than street cleaning, schools and other sundry municipal affairs, all within an envelope of perpetual Israeli sovereignty over the captured areas”. 23. The facts convincingly demonstrate that, after the conclusion of the separate Egyptian-Israeli treaty 24. In spite of the fact that on 1 March this year the Security Council called upon the Israeli Government to dismantle existing settlements and to refrain from establishing new settlements on Arab territory occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, over the last month the Israeli authorities have adopted new measures aimed at the colonization and annexation of Arab lands, in flagrant violation of the Charter and open defiance of the Council. Among these measures was the confiscation of Arab land near Bethlehem and the decision to build two Israeli schools on the occupied Palestinian territory of Al-Khalil. 25. As has been pointed out by the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and also by representatives of Arab countries in the course of this discussion, particular alarm has been caused by the situation in East Jerusalem. In that city the Israeli authorities, particularly frankly and cynically, have been pursuing a policy of the planned seizure of Arab lands, squeezing out the indigenous Arab population and changing its Arab and Moslem character. 26. There can be no doubt that Israel would never have dared so defiantly to flout the opinion of the international community and so openly to disregard the demands of the Council, had not increasingly broad military, economic, political and other forms of assistance been offered to it by its foreign patrons. It is well known that Israel receives each year from the United States about $2 billion in military and economic assistance. Furthermore, in connection with the signing of the separate treaty, the United States assumed the obligation to provide Israel over a period of three years with additional assistance in the amount of $3 billion. Over the past four years alone the amount of economic and military assistance from the United States to Israel has exceeded $10 billion. 27. By blocking the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Arab people of Palestine, the United States has been impeding a just Middle East settlement and the establishment of lasting peace in the region. Clearly, there are people in the United States who believe that, if a political settlement of the Middle East problem is delayed and the situation of tension is preserved, it will be easier to achieve the long-term goals of American foreign policy in that area. Those goals are well known: they are to create a network of American military bases in countries of the Middle East and the Near East, Africa and the Indian Ocean, to establish 28. For 13 years now the United States has been taking an anti-Arab and anti-Moslem position in helping Israel to entrench itself in the lands it has seized from the Arabs, including Jerusalem. It is surprising that after all that there should be anyone left in Washington still trying to demonstrate that the present administration of the United States is a close and intimate friend of the Arabs and the whole Moslem world. 29. The delegation of the Soviet Union shares the view expressed in the course of this discussion by the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, the representative of the PLO and a number of delegations that the present discussion of the question of the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people is particularly timely. This is primarily because it is precisely now that persistent attempts are being made to galvanize that part of the Camp David agreements whose goal is to replace the solution of the Palestinian problem by a so-called administrative autonomy and, in essence, the annexation by Israel of lands which belong to the Arab people of Palestine. 30. In this connection I should like to point out that the only people who claim that this discussion is untimely are those who would like the problem to be solved by means of an agreement behind the back of the Palestinian people and to the detriment of its vital interests and who are in practice conniving at the colonization and annexation by Israel of Arab lands. 31. The struggle of the Palestinian people for its inalienable rights occupies a most important place in the national liberation struggle of the peoples of the world. Today we can see how, as a result of a Ion& drawn-out, stubborn and difficult struggle, the people of Zimbabwe has finally won its right to self-determination and independence. Along with the decisive contribution to that liberation struggle made by the people of Zimbabwe itself under the leadership of the Patriotic Front, the broad international support which was given through different channels, including the United Nations, also played an important part in that victory. This shows once again the importance of broad international support for the just struggle of the Arab people of Palestine to exercise its inalienable national rights. Numerous statements in defence of those rights by socialist, non-aligned and other States demonstrate the growth of international solidarity with the just cause of the Palestinian people. 32. But now words are no longer enough. We cannot simply sit and wait while, behind the backs of the Palestinian people, talks are going on which are designed 33. In these circumstances, the Council must finally do its duty and support the inalienable rights of the Arab people of Palestine, Any delay in solving this problem in the Council will only play into the hands of those who oppose the exercise of these rights by the Palestinians, who have an interest in maintaining tension and an explosive situation in the Middle East and who are aiming at preventing a genuinely just and comprehensive settlement of the Middle East conflict. 39. Five years ago, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People was established with the task of recommending a basic framework for a viable solution of the problem. We are meeting here today to consider the report of that Committee. * 40. My delegation takes this opportunity to pay a well-deserved tribute to the Chairman and the other members of the Committee for their valuable contribution to this process. In harmony with the position it has taken in the past, Bangladesh has endorsed the recommendations and cardinal principles enunciated by the Committee in the belief that they represent a viable prescription for peace. It has now become obvious that any equitable solution cannot remain confined to the hidebound parameters of Council resolution 242 (1967). There has been a substantial forward movement in the intervening period of 13 years or so. There have been qualitative changes universally recognized by our global society. Four million Palestinians cannot simply be wished away as though they did not exist. Nor can resolution 242 (1967) be stretched to justify illegality and expansionism or to cloud the cardinal principles of the Charter, principles that have underscored the fact that no country can be permitted to embark on a policy of conquest and aggrandizement, that no country can be allowed to enjoy the fruits of its aggression and that no people can be denied its inalienable right to its own homeland.

Mr. President, it is with particular pleasure that my delegation welcomes your assumption of the presidency for this month, not least because of the close and friendly ties that exist between our two countries. Your recognized diplomatic abilities and your commitment and dedication to peace fully assure us of capable and effective leadership. We assure you of our fullest co-operation. 35. I also wish to express our appreciation to Ambassador Mills of Jamaica for his able presidency last month and we fully join in the high tributes paid to him for steering our work so efficiently during the month of March. 36. This debate constitutes a resumption of efforts intensified over the past year to resolve the critical issue of Palestine and the rights of the Palestinian people. This is a charge that the Council can no longer ignore with equanimity without imperilling peace and compounding injustice. 41. In spite of this, Israel persists in pursuing its own internationally denounced prescription for peace through a policy that is the very antithesis of peace. It has sought to justify, under the blanket cover of so-called security requirements, measures that violate every norm and principle of the Charter. Thus, Israel continues not only illegally to occupy Arab lands, but to encroach upon and annex those lands permanently through its officially sanctioned policy of settlements. The Chairman of the Committee has referred specifically to the latest development in this regard in the letters that figure on the agenda of this debate, a development which cannot but invite open condemnation. 37. For more than three decades the United Nations has been seized of the question of Palestine as the key element in any viable approach to a comprehensive solution of the Middle East problem. The heart of the matter is the people of Palestine themselves-the innocent victims of aggression, dispossession, dispersion and deprivation, and of the denial of their fundamental rights, Their miserable plight and the fulfilment of their legitimate aspirations has formed the subject of exhaustive debate, discussion and innumerable resolutions, but with little practical result. 38. Initially the genera1 problem was obscured because it was treated purely on a humanitarian plane; the net result of that was that the rights of the PaC estinian people were ignored, their existence as a people with its own historic tradition was denied and their status as a nation was obliterated. Since 1974, however, the question of Palestine has finally been dealt with in its true perspective as an essentially political problem, the struggle of a people for its right to self-determination and the acknowledgement of its inalienable national rights. The General Assembly 42. Israel’s continued and flagrant violation of all aspects of the human rights of the Palestinian people has been repeatedly spelled out and amply documented in this Council. Its wanton and repeated acts of aggression against Lebanon are also a matter of record. Perhaps the most insensitive aspect of Israel’s policy is its attempt to alter the status of the Holy City of Jerusalem and to annex that city as an integral part of Israel. 44. The rapidly spreading trend of aggression by a militarily stronger nation against a militarily weaker one has now assumed such an alarming magnitude that global peace and security are clearly in great jeopardy. But the seeds of that trend were sown in the violation of the rule of law by Israel through its act of naked aggression and its defiance, with impunity, of decisions of the United Nations. The deepening crisis in the Middle East presents a sad and tragic contrast to the peaceful resolution of the conflict in Zimbabwe through the effective application of the rule of law and the principles of justice, fair play and democratic government. 45. The position of Bangladesh on what constitutes a comprehensive, just and durable solution of the Middle East problem has been repeatedly enunciated in the Council. We remain convinced that a fair and lasting solution demands the complete and immediate withdrawal of Israel from all occupied territories, including the Holy City of Jerusalem, the restoration of the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people, including its right to its own independent State, and the acceptance of the PLO as the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

Permit me to congratulate you, Mr. President, on your assumption of the important post of President of the Council. You represent a country whose actions for the attainment of the goals of the United Nations have won widespread recognition. My delegation is convinced that your well-known diplomatic skill, your energy and your experience will help the Council successfully to complete its task. 47. I also feel the need to express my deep respect, and that of my delegation, to Ambassador Mills of Jamaica, President of the Security Council for the month of March, for his exemplary performance of those important functions. 48. The German Democratic Republic is a member of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. It assumed the obligations of membership of that Committee in order to defend peace and security in the Middle East and the just cause of the oppressed Arab people of Palestine. The report of the Committee has the support of the delegation of the German Democratic Republic. 50. On 29 November 1947 [resolution 181 (U)], the General Assembly decided to terminate the Mandate of the United Kingdom and to partition Palestine into two independent States: an Arab State and a Jewish State. The State of Israel was founded, but the Arab State provided for by the Assembly still does not exist. It fell victim to the imperialistic policy of “divide and conquer”, and particularly to the ambitions of imperialistic circles in the United States to create in the Middle East their own imperialist bastion in the form of Israel, on the basis of their common interests of domination and their designs on oil, in particular. That policy led to conflict, war and bloodshed, and a continuation of that policy cannot bring peace to the region. 51. Still today we hear the ruling circles of Israel and their imperialist protectors and patrons refusing the Arab people of Palestine the right to create its own State, a right they consider natural for their own people. It is alleged that the security of the people of Israel will be threatened if the Palestinian people comes to exercise its right to self-determination, That is to say, in Tel Aviv it is believed that the security of Israel can be guaranteed only if another people is doomed to eke out an existence in conditions of military occupation. But history shows us that the reverse is true. The people of Israel will also be deprived of lasting peace if there is no solution to the fundamental problem of the Middle East conflict: the Palestinian question. 52. We could not expect a people like the Palestinian people to resign itself without a word to the fate of refugees without any rights, They have been fighting and will continue to fight, like the people of Zimbabwe and all other peoples which have freed themselves from the colonial yoke. 53. One can read in the newspapers that in a certain country no politician can be elected President if he recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to selfdetermination. In other words, the election of a President has come to depend on the policy of colonial enslavement of another people. There are cynics who say that, since three fifths of the world has already been declared the sphere of interest of a certain great Power, the small country which is at issue here has no significance. Such an approach to the rights of another people might be possible for politologists who think and act like world policemen, but it is not possible for an organization of States such as the United Nations. 58. Action to consolidate peace and to bring about a Peaceful solution to the Middle East conflict is extremely urgent in view of the military preparations being made by imperialist circles in the Near and Middle East. Fleet concentrations and the creation of new military bases by the United States constitute a serious threat to the Arab world. Here in the Council we have already drawn attention to the intention to deploy new American medium-range missiles in southern Europe that could be aimed at the North African region, among others. Those measures help to fan the flames of the arms race and encourage adventuristic circles in Israel to undertake such provocative steps as the forcible creation of so-called Israeli educational centres right in the middle of the Arab city of Al-Khalil, in the occupied West Bank of the Jordan, 55. Since the imperialistic machinations are encountering difficulties, various circles are attempting to manceuvre instead of giving up their untenable positions. Camp David was one such attempt, an attempt that has failed. 59. So we are facing a very dangerous development, and the Council must make its weight felt. The delegation of the German Democratic Republic is ready to play its part here in any efforts based on the interests of peace and security and aimed at bringing about a peaceful solution to the Middle East conflict. 56. A new major threat to the Arab world and hence to international peace and security has arisen. There is an intention to hold talks on so-called autonomy for the Palestinians in the Arab territories occupied by Israel. But the mere fact of the exclusion of the PLO from talks that affect the Arab people of Palestine is illuminating with regard to the approach to this problem. Of course, the problem is not simply the violation of rules of conduct by parties to the talks, but rather the fact that the goals pursued run counter to the interests of the Palestinian people and are aimed at enabling Israel to broaden its expansion. Nor is it genuine autonomy that is involved here, such as is provided for certain territories in international law; it is rather a matter of extending Israeli domination of the occupied Arab territories for an indefinite period, so that at any time it would be possible to use them for further acts of aggression against neighbouring States. The representative of an Arab State has called this kind of autonomy a form of bantustanization.

The next speaker is the representative of Bahrain. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. President, allow me first of all to thank you as well as the other members of the Council for giving me the opportunity to take part in the debate on the item under consideration. 62. On this occasion I should like to extend to YOU my sincere congratulations on your assumption of the presidency of the Council for this month. Your experience and skill as a politician and a prominent diplomat qualify you to preside over this august body. Your accession to that high office is a tribute to your country, Mexico, which is playing an important role on the international scene. I wish you every success as you accomplish your important task. 57. We cannot bring about a comprehensive, just and lasting peaceful settlement in the Middle East by means of separate agreements under imperialist sponsorship and without the equal participation of the PLO, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian Arab People. The only possible peace programme can be very briefly formulated as follows. A democratic Peace between the Arab countries and Israel requires the withdrawal of Israeli troops from all the Arab territories occupied since 1967; recognition of the inaiienable right of the Arab people of Palestine to selfdetermination, including its right to the creation of an 63. The Council is meeting once again to discuss the question of the Middle East. This shows not only that the issue has a direct effect on international peace and security but that the decisions of the United Nations are not being implemented or respected 64. On more than one occasion the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian the General Assembly, they have never been implemented because of the intransigent attitude of Israel and its sustained attempts to block the implementation of United Nations resolutions with the objective of perpetuating its occupation of Arab territories. 65. The Council has been dealing with the situation in the Middle East for the last three decades but, owing to the negative position of one of its permanent members, has been unable to adopt measures to end the occupation of Arab territories. 66. While the Council remains immobilized in connection with this problem, Israel continues its aggressive and expansionist policy in the occupied Arab territories. It has become quite clear that Israel’s continued measures in those territories are aimed at making that occupation afait accompli and at annexing the territories once and for all. In Jerusalem; the Israeli authorities have embarked on the eviction of Arabs from their houses, the confiscation of Moslem waqfland and the demolition of historic Arab buildings, It is evident that these measures are undertaken in order to force the evacuation of the Arab Palestinians from that city. 67. Since the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, the Israeli Government has been authorizing the establishment of settlements in that region, near Arab towns and villages; and in many cases those settlements are built on confiscated privately-owned Arab land. 68. The Palestinians in the occunied territories are subjected to a policy of terror and humiliation. In Hebron the Arab residents are regularly intimidated by the intruders, who are protected by Israeli soldiers. As is noted in Time magazine of 31 March, , “Scarcely a week passes without some incident of vandalism or vigilantism. Grapevines of Arab villagers are cut. The tires of Arab-owned vehicles are slashed and windows smashed. Gun-wielding Israelis invade the houses of Hebron residents, threatening and terrorizing them. At the Haram Al-Khalil Mosque, . . . Jews disrupt the prayers of devout Moslems.” And, according to The New York Times Magazine, the gunmen had recently immigrated to Israel from the Soviet Union and the United States. In other villages and towns, residents are subjected to the same molestation and other kinds of harassment. 69. According to The New York Times Magazine of 6 April 1980 “ . . . World Zionist Organization . . . will spend at least $187 million this year to expand old settlements and create new ones. . . . The Zionist organization suggested 70 new West Bank settlements that would increase the Jewish population there to 100,000 by 1983.” 70. Israel’s policy of settlements in the occupied Arab territories has been condemned by the world community, including Israel’s supporters from among Western countries. Not only does that policy violate article 49 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949,2 which prohibits the Occupying Power from “deport[ing] or transfer[ringJ parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”, but it also constitutes an obstacle to peace in the region. 71. On several occasions, the United States, which is an ally and a staunch supporter of Israel, has denounced the policy of settlements, characterizing it as illegal and as obstructing peace. But, while the United States denounces that policy in public, it continues its financial, military and moral support of Israel. As a matter of fact, had it not been for the financial and military aid it gets from the United States, Israel would not have pursued that policy of contempt for United Nations resolutions, 72. There is sufficient evidence that the policy of building settlements in the occupied Arab territories has been intensified since the signing of the Camp David agreements, thus complicating more and more the situation in that region and making it difficult for the United Nations to implement its resolutions concerning the exercise by the Palestinian people of its inalienable rights. This is one of the grave consequences of these agreements which, their initiators try to make us believe, constitute the basis of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. For the aforesaid reason the Camp David agreements have been condemned and denounced by the Arab world. 6 73. Since the United Nations has been dealing with this problem for the last three decades we believe that 74. We are convinced that any settlement of the Palestinian problems must take into consideration the following principles: first, the question of Palestine is at the heart of the Middle East conflict and there can he no solution of that problem without the realization of the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people; secondly, full implementation of the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people-to return to their homes and properties and to achieve selfdetermination, national independence and sovereignty-will contribute to the final settlement of the Middle East’conflict; thirdly, full participation, on an equal footing with other parties, of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the only representative of the Palestinian people, is indispensable. These are the real and solid foundations on which to establish a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

The next speaker is the representative of Morocco. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. President, first of all I should like to extend my thanks to you and to the other members of the Council for having allowed my delegation to participate in this important debate. It is a source of great pleasure and satisfaction for me to extend congratulations to you upon your assumption of the presidency of the Council for this month, I am confident that your great qualities, which you gave evidence of during your performance of your functions as the representative of a great country, will ensure the success of our work. 75. We believe that the report presented to the Council by the Chairman of the Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People spells out all the appropriate means for putting these principles into effect. The programme proposed in the report to enable the Palestinian people to exercise their inalienable rights is a realistic one because it takes into consideration the existing situation in Palestine and in the Middle East region. 81. Barely one month ago, the Council considered the situation in the occupied Arab territories, including Jerusalem, following the serious and deliberate action by which Israel flouted the most elementary rights of the Arab population, stepping up the plundering of occupied Arab land and desecrating the Holy Places of Islam located on that land. In its wisdom, the Council unanimously condemned Israel’s actions in its resolution 465 (1980). However, notwithstanding that firm position taken by the entire membership of the Council, Israel not only defied that resolution but redoubled its arrogance and continued its policy of settling and Judaizing the Palestinian Arab lands. 76. The whole climate of the world today is one that rejects occupation and racism, wherever they may exist or be practised, It is unthinkable that in the last quarter of the twentieth century, when all the colonial Powers recognize the right to self-determination and independence of the people under their domination, Israel should emerge as a racist and colonial Power. It denies the Palestinian people their right to self-determination and continues to OCCUPY and colonize their homeland. 82. It is against this sombre background that the Council today is resuming consideration of the question of the exercise by the Palestinian people of its inalienable rights. The international community long ago agreed that this question is at the centre of the problem of the Middle East. Hence the importance of the present debate and the urgent need to conclude it in a positive manner. 77. Rhodesia, which is a settler-colonialist State, denied for a long time the right of the people of Zimbabwe to self-determination, but in the end it was forced to accept the reality of that right. It seems that only the Palestinians, according to Israel and the United States, are not fit for self-determination. 83. Ever since 1976 the Council has had before it the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. It should be pointed out that at its thirty-first session the General Assembly endorsed the recommendations contained in the report and called upon the Council to take the necessary action to implement them. These recom- 78. The Palestinian people will continue their struggle to achieve self-determination and to establish a Sovereign State on their territory, like any other people in the rest of the world, because they are struggling for a just cause and because of their love for and attachment to their soil. These feelings are shared by “Here we have a past, a present and a future. “Our roots are entrenched deep in the earth. “Like twenty impossibles, we shall remain”. [The speaker continued in French.] 84. The sufferings of the Palestinian people and the injustices of which they are still the victims have taken on disturbing proportions in the light of the intransigent, irresponsible and altogether reprehensible policy of Israel vis-h-vis the Palestinian people. 85. Israel’s scorn for the decisions of the General Assembly and the Security Council and, indeed, for world public opinion, is clearly proved-if there was any need for that-by the provocative decisions recently taken by the Israeli authorities, leading to the expropriation of large areas of Arab land in the northern part of Jerusalem near Bethlehem and the creation of new settlements there. 86. While it carries out those almost daily practices, Israel has constantly stated that it wants peace in the Middle East. Is that not the very aim of the recommendations of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, which lay the groundwork for a just and lasting peace in the area? But Israel must have the courage to set aside its expansionist, annexationist designs. How can one reconcile Israel’s alleged desire for peace with its practices, which violate the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, entail the annexation and Judaization of Palestinian lands, and are made more serious by the desecration of the Holy Places of Islam in Palestine, and in particular in Jerusalem. 87. Israel’s friends must induce it to accept the inescapable fact that the peace and security that it wants can become a reality only if there is a radical change in its attitude and only if it recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, national independence and sovereigny, including the creation of an independent State. 88. The Moroccan delegation is convinced that the Council has a special responsibility for restoring peace and security in the Middle East. In the name of mor- 89, As Acting President of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Morocco would like to take this opportunity to recall the determination of the Islamic community, frequently expressed in the course of that Conference, to work by every possible means for the unconditional and complete withdrawal of Israel from all occupied Arab and Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, and for the attainment of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. 90. Representatives will surely agree with me that it is high time that the aspirations of the Palestinian people were respected and realized, thereby putting an end to an injustice that has made Palestinians strangers in their own land, in those cases where they have not been forced to live in exile. 91. Before I conclude, my delegation would like to take this opportunity once again to express our unconditional support to the fraternal people of Palestine and its sole authentic representative, the PLO.

The next speaker is the representative of Viet Nam. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement.

I should like my first words to be words of thanks to you, Mr. President, and to the other members of the Council for giving me the opportunity to speak at this important meeting. 94. I am pleased to see the representative of Mexico, a country with which the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam has close and friendly relations, presiding over the Council this month. Guided by the traditions of justice and freedom of the valiant people of Mexico, Ambassador Muiioz Ledo will, I am sure, make a positive contribution to a decision by the Council on the problem before it, a problem that is as important as it is urgent. 95. I should like also to extend my sincere congratulations to Ambassador Mills of Jamaica, a country which has long been a friend of Viet Nam, for his enlightened conduct of the Council’s deliberations during the month of March. I should like to take this opportunity to express, on behalf of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, our deep appreciation to Ambassador Mills, President of the Council last month, and to the other representatives for their messages of condolence and sympathy to the Government and People of Viet Nam in the painful loss they have just 97, The debate on this question in the United Nations, which began several decades ago, is particularly keen today, now that almost all the international community is giving increasingly broad support to the cause of the liberation of the Palestinian people. 98. The successes scored by that martyred people these past few months throughout the world are particularly significant. Firm and unequivocal support for the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole authentic representative of the Palestinian people, comes today not only from the non-aligned and socialist countries but also from the countries of Western Europe and specifically from their most authoritative spokesmen. The recent decision of the Government of India to grant full diplomatic recognition to the representative of the PLO is further eloquent proof. 103. For their part, the people and the Government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam wish to reaffirm their position of firm support for the just cause of the Palestinian and Arab peoples. We vigorously condemn the dark designs of American imperialism, Zionism and the reactionary forces, which are trying to divide the Arab people, usurp the national rights of the Palestinian people, wipe out Palestinian resistance and perpetuate the occupation of Arab territories. We join the international community in demanding that the Israeli aggressors withdraw from the occupied Arab territories, that the fundamental national rights of the Palestinian people be recognized, including its right to establish an independent State on its homeland in accordance with the Charter and that the PLO, the sole authentic representative of the Palestinian people, be allowed to participate on an equal footing with the other parties in all efforts, deliberations and conferences on the Middle East held under the aegis of the United Nations. 99. That development, which is by no means fortuitous and which was won by the heroic and uncompromising struggle of the Palestinian and Arab peoples, is striking proof that any effort to ignore or usurp the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people is doomed to failure. A broad consensus has now been reached within the international community to the effect that a just and lasting peace in the Middle East must include recognition of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people: the right to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty, the right to have a homeland and the right to return to that homeland. 104. At a time when the overwhelming majority of Member States is impatiently awaiting concrete action, a solution, or at least a decision from the Council on the major problem of the Middle East-that is, the question of Palestine-I wish to express the hope that, as recommended by the General Assembly in its resolution 34/65 A, the Council will examine and implement as soon as possible the recommendations of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, -recommendations which the General Assembly has endorsed, and that a decision to that effect will be taken by the Council. 100. That fact is quite obvious, having been reaffirmed time and time again in the numerous resolutions and decisions adopted at meetings of various United Nations bodies. It is furthermore a basic fact that reflects the very purposes and principles of the Charter. 101. However, it is deplorable that, despite the general outcry at the United Nations against the violation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian People, innocent Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian and Jordanian Arabs continue to be murdered during military operations and criminal air raids conducted hy the Israeli forces; Arab territories continue to be seized and turned into settlements; and shameless manceuvres aimed at disregarding the PLO and wiping nut Palestinian resistance by the signing of separate agreements are being pursued systematically by Israel and its protector, the United States. 105. Convinced as we are that situations of injustice in the world cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely, we earnestly hope that any obstacles which the Council might have to face and which might once again induce it to postpone a decision will this time be surmounted. 106. Nowadays, any nation determined to fight for its own survival, which is confident that its CXUS~ in just and is assured of the support of the ?rogressivr 107. We earnestly hope that the Council will act in keeping with its lofty responsibilities in order to redress the injustices suffered by a people that has for so long been martyrized, thereby preserving international peace and security in the Middle East and throughout the world.

The representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization has asked to speak. I now call on him.

At the Council’s meeting on Thursday, I referred to the agonizing situation of a 20-year-old Palestinian, Ziyad Abu Eain, in a penitentiary in Chicago. I learned subsequently that on Thursday night Ziyad Abu Eain was attacked in his cell in the infirmary by guards, who removed his clothes and took away his blankets. The reason given was that they were afraid that Ziyad Abu Eain might commit suicide. In the infirmary he was kept shivering all through the night, and Chicago is not Florida. That is a flagrant form of inhuman physical torture. It is not enough that the man is being held until deportation in response to a request by the Israeli authorities for his extradition for alleged acts against the enemy; the Government of the United States has also involved itself in physical torture. It has acted unjustly against a young Palestinian while Nazi criminals are still living comfortably in this country. 110. I am sure that yesterday we all watched the President of the United States making his “historic” statement. There was something really surprising in that statement, namely, that at long last the President of the United States was trying to act “in accordance with the sanctions approved by 10 members of the United Nations Security Council on 13 January”, in a draft resolution that was vetoed. I am glad that at least he takes cognizance of the deliberations of the Council. But I am sure that the President of the United States is aware of a resolution unanimously adopted by the Council, including the United States, on 1 March, which called upon Israel to cease immediately its acts and violations in the Palestinian territories occupied since June 1967. Apparently the President of the United States has forgotten about that resolution, because the United States has rewarded Israel for defying that resolution by granting it an extra 200 million dollars. 111. While I do not understand the mentality of the President of the United States, I am sure that he is really concerned, as he said, about the 50 American persons in the United States Embassy in Tehran, who have been held since November. I have done some 112. To pursue this mathematical calculation: does he not understand that the world, and not only the Palestinian people and the other Arabs, really feel frustrated and act when the fate of 4 million Palestinians has been in suspense for 12,000 days, which equals 48 billion man-days, which is a proportion of 1 to 6 million? Therefore, the United States should at least understand why the Palestinian people and the world have had enough of its support of the racists, violators and occupiers of my country. But, on the contrary, the United States seems to maintain its financial, material and military supply to the racists. For example, we know that on Easter Sunday the Israelis shelled the regions of Al-Shawakir, Tyre and the Al-Rashydieyeh refugee camps for two and a half hours. They used equipment given them by the United States-175 calibre guns, F-18 and F-16 aircraft and cluster bombs. It appears that murdering Palestinians with the most sophisticated weapons is a pardonable crime or not a crime at all, but an act that calls for a reward. Those daily crimes apparently have not attracted the attention of the international community. However, I have something even more serious to speak about. 113. On 31 March, I referred to a statement made by the National Security Adviser to President Carter, Mr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, in which he said: “There is a question with Gaza, specifically, whether it is Palestinian or Arab or what. The issue is being negotiated.” [2204th meeting, para. 143.1 Now President Sadat has volunteered an explanation. The newspaper Yediot Aharortoth reported on 4 April that President Sadat would impose autonomy on the Palestinians living in the occupied Gaza Strip even if they refused to participate in the self-rule plan. The newspaper reported that Mr. Sadat said that autonomy, even if unwanted by the Palestinians, was necessary “to put an end to the suffering under the Israeli occupation”. 114. That is really touching. Mr, Sadat is concerned about putting an end to the suffering of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip under the Israeli occupation. But he does not seem to be concerned about 116. President Sadat has said: “We pledged ourselves to work tirelessly to put the Palestinian problem on the road to a just settlement”. I wish to state that selfrule cannot be imposed on the Palestinians. That is not the road to a just settlement. 115. We believe it is high time for the Council to intervene in order to prevent an exacerbation of the situation. It is high time for it to pronounce itself in order to prevent an aggravation of the situation. It sion, Supplement No. 35. * United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, p. 287. The meeting rose at 1.20 p.m. NOTES 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 les agences depositaires du monde entier. Informez-vous aupres de votre libraire ou adresscz-vous A : Nations Unies, Section des ventes, New York ou Geneve. KAIC IIOJISWiTh WBflAHHH OPI-AHHBAI(HW Oli’IiEAZ1HEHHI~lX HAII(HH M3nawfn Opraiuf3aqwf OPbemfkfemfb~x HaqwB HOXHO ~yntm B KtmKKbtK Maramffax H arewcmax BO ncex patioHalt bf”pa. 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