S/PV.2338 Security Council

Members of the Council have before them documents S/14923 and S/14924, containing the text of two letters dated 24 March from the representative of Jordan to the President of the Council. 2. The situation in the occupied Arab territories: Letter dated 22 March 1982 from the Permanent Representative of Jordan to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/14917)

The situation in the occupied Arab territories, including Jerusalem, continues to deteriorate and oppression goes on. For the eighth day running, life in the tyrannized occupied territories has come to a dangerous standstill; streets are totally deserted; life is decimated and no longer normal, The only outward sign of life is the rumbling of Israeli tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery in a deliberate display of occupation terrorism and oppression, which is the last remaining option that the rvthless Israeli occupation can resort to, as it has categorically and totally failed to impose on the lawful inhabitants of the occupied territories an acquiescence in their own perdition and self-annihilation through massive colonization, despoliation and eventual expulsion and annexation. Israeli spokesmen have been attempting to portray the increasing turbulence as a consequence of goading by either Jordan or the PLO. The question arises here whether people who confront the impending prospect of destruction need any goading from anybody, even from their closest kin. This is an insult to the intelligence of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories, for whom Palestine has been the ancestral habitat for 7,000 years, in a continuity and a melting-pot with perhaps few parallels in history. It is no less the focal point for hundreds of millions of people in the Arab and Islamic worlds and for many, many more in all the great nations and peoples who believe in human dignity, human rights, justice and legality. Adoption of the agenda The situation in the occupied Arab territories: Letter dated 22 March 1982 from the Permanent Representative of Jordan to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/f4917) I. The PRESIDENT: In accordance with decisions taken at the 2334th meeting, I invite the representative of Israel to take a place at the Council table. I invite the representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to take a place at the Council table. I invite the representatives of Egypt, Pakistan, Senegal and the Syrian Arab Republic to take the places reserved for them at the side of the Council chamber.

I should like to inform the members of the Council that 1 have received letters from the representatives of Morocco and Turkey in 5. I totally concur with the statements made by the highest Israeli officials today that what is happening in the occupied territories is the most decisive and 6. Today, Mayor Bassam Shaka’a of Nablus, who had both of his legs amputated by Israeli bombs, and Mayor Karim Khalaf of Ramallah, who also was bombed and lost one of his feet, were arrested and removed from their legally elected offices. To add insult to injury, those who came to remove him told Mayor Shaka’a that he is only half a man, referring to the adversity which he had suffered as a result of the amputation of both his legs. 7. Speculation has it that the arrests of Bassam Shaka’a and Karim Khalaf precede their forcible deportation and exile from Palestine. Members of the Nablus municipality and a number of Bassam Shaka’a supporters were summoned to the office of General Menahem Milson-who at present has apparently put on civilian clothes, so as to appear not as a military governor but as a civilian governor-and were threatened with severe repercussions should they allow the situation in Nablus to deteriorate. Israeli Statelicensed terror and brutality continue to pervade the occupied Palestinian territory. Israeli tanks, helicopters and paratroopers are now being used against the Palestinian people in a desperate but futile attempt to subjugate and control them. Tank and troop reinforcements have been sent to the Palestinian towns’ of Nablus, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Hebron and other locations. 8. Two hundred and fifty students were arrested today in the town of Qalqilya. There are several casualties reported in the occupied Palestinian territory. The casualties know so far are: in Hebron, Muhammad Abed Rabbo, 15 years old; in Zahiriya, Bassam Abu Sharkh, I2 years old: in Gaza, Khalil Habboush, 70 years old, Muhammad Habboush, 30 years old, and Omar Habboush, 28 years old. 9. In Jabalia camp-meaning refugee camp-there were violent demonstrations near the Faloujha school. Four youths and a .50-year-old woman were arrested, Israeli troops viciously beat up five students in Barakeh Abu Rashed in the Gaza Strip. 10. The killing, wounding and maiming of Palestinians by Israeli troops and Fascist Zionist settlers continue unabated, as do the mass arrests of children and youths. I I. Yesterday, Zionist settlers from Kiryat Arba shot and killed Farhan Al-Mansar, an l8-year-old youth from Bani Naim. Two other Palestinian youths fell victim to Israeli bullets in the occupied Gaza Strip, 12. In Khan Yunis, also in the south-to the south of Gaza-three youths were seriously wounded. The names of two of them are: Mohammad Khalil. 20 years old: and Samir Anwar Ismail, 24 years old. Radio Israel yesterday reported an additional 13 people wounded in the occupied Gaza Strip. 13. It was also reported yesterday on Radio IsraeI that more than 29 shopkeepers were arrested in Jerusalem as Israeli troops attempted to break the general strike which is now in its eighth day, Today another three shopkeepers were arrested. And as representatives may have read in the papers today, a lady pharmacist was threatened that unless she opened her pharmacy it would be closed for two to three months. 14. The resistance of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory reflects the determination of the people as a whole. It reflects their rejection of the so-called civilian administration and their continued resistance to Fascist military occupation of their land. Our Palestinian people under occupation are resisting and will continue to resist any and all attempts at their physical extermination. 15. As conveyed in a message yesterday, Mr. Arafat wishes to reiterate that there is a limit to our patience, and given the racist and violent aims of the Zionist entity, the PLO will take all necessary measures to protect and safeguard the lives of the Palestinian people. 16. News dispatches late today have reported that the Palestinian people’s protests have extended to Nazareth, Acre and other towns and villages. I had promised to present a draft resolution this evening so that it could be discussed by the Council and, we hope, supported. Regretfully, I must state that the new draft has not been finalized. I do hope that I Will be able to present it at the next meeting, at the discretion of the President and with the concurrence of the Council.

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

Madam President, at the outset I should like to extend our thanks to you, as Well as to the members of the Council, for allowing me to speak during this debate on the situation in the Occupied Arab territories. 25. I should like to say that my country proclaims its total admiration for the self-sacrifice of the Palestinian people and for its resistance. On behalf of my Government, I assure it of our complete solidarity. At this time I could certainly do no better than to read out, in this prestigious Security Council chamber, the text of a message from His Majesty King Hassan II, current President of the Summit Conference of Arab States and Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee, which is a direct outgrowth of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. This message has just been addressed to the entire world, primarily through the Secretary-General of the United Nations. It is also addressed to the Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, to the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States and to Mr. Arap Moi, current President of the Organization of African Unity. The message reads as follows: 20. I should also like to pay a tribute to Sir Anthony Parsons, representative of the United Kingdom, for the talent with which he guided the work of the Council last month. 21. Israel’s current behaviour can no longer surprise anyone but those who blindfold themselves so as to see nothing, for it lies right on the course followed by all the policies through which Israel has for decades continued to defy the Palestinian people, neighbouring Asab States and the whole of the international community. Those policies have as their inexorable objective the annexation of the occupied Arab territories and above all, in the framework of their annexationist goals, the total elimination of the authentic populations which have lived in those territories since the dawn of time. “Following the protest demonstrations by the fraternal Palestinian people in the occupied territories against the attempt of the Zionist authorities to dissolve its elected and legitimate municipal councils and to impose by force Israeli civil administration and authority with the aim of supporting and consolidating the Zionist occupation-having previously declared the Holy City of Jerusalem capital of Israel for ever and annexed the Golan Heights-and in view of the savage methods employed by the Zionist armed forces against innocent and defenceless Palestinian citizens, involving the murder of Palestinian youths, the arrest of their demonstrators, the destruction of their homes, the confiscation of their lands and businesses and the closing of their schools and universities, I wish to inform you that in my capacity as President of the Summit Conference of Arab States, I condemn such unjustified repressive and inhuman acts, which are contrary to international law and international conventions, are distressing to all human consciences and tend to erode the heritage of our civilized world and its noble spiritual values. 22. There is no use reminding Israel of the principles of international law or the obligations incumbent upbn all the States of our community under the Charter of the United Nations, with the aim of leading the Zionist State to modify its massively illegal, misguided and blind attitude. 23. AS long as Israel remains unbridled, no bit in its mouth, and with all the support it has at its disposal, we, unfortunately, know the dismal fate that awaits the entire Middle East region, that awaits, furthermore, international peace and security. The Holy City of Jerusalem has already been made the spectacular victim-but the victim none the less-of Israeli expansionism; then recently the Syrian Golan Heights suffered an identical fate as a result of an arbitrary uniiateral decision. More recently still-today-the high-handed replacement of the mayors and municipal councils of Al-Birch, Nablus, Halhoul and Ramallah by Israeli soldiers and officials derives from that same philosophy and is designed eventually to achieve the same aim of changing profoundly the genuine historic Arab nature of the occupied territories, as a preliminary step towards their final annexation by force. “I request you to convey my disapproval to all Members of the Organization and to use all the power at your disposal to put an end to this organized and premeditated aggression by the Zionist forces against the Palestinian people.” [See S//4952.] 26. The first measure to be taken to put an end to this new act of aggression by Israel is for the Secu-

Although the month is drawing to an end, I have not yet had an opportunity to congratulate you, Madam, on your assumption of the post of President of the Council and to wish you all success in carrying out this difficult task. 28. I should like also to express appreciation to Sir Anthony Parsons, who so ably guided the Council’s work last month. 29. Today the Council, once again for the umpteenth time, is returning to a consideration of the situation in the occupied Arab territories. Over the last three years no other single item has been considered so frequently in the Council-and that is quite understandable and logical, 30. The fact is that the Israeli authorities are increasingly, openly and cynically imposing their kind of order in the occupied Arab territories, On IS March this year, they carried out another action of provocation against the indigenous population of the West Bank of the Jordan River in dissolving by force the Municipal Council of the town of Al-Bireh and removing by force from the municipal buildings the legally elected mayor, Mr. Ibrahim Al-Tawil. A few days later similar measures were taken against the mayors of Nablus and Ramallah. A wave of protests arose among the Palestinians living in the West Bank. A general strike was declared and it is still continuing. The Israeli authorities used troops to crush the mass demonstrations of Palestinians and on several occasions firearms were used against them. This is a policy of State terrorism in action. To date there have been 22 victims of these barbarous actions from among the local population and 6 of them have already died from their wounds. Over the last few days and even hours, as the Council considers this item on the situation in the West Bank, these tragic figures are continuing to grow. 3 I. Such actions by Israel must be considered against the background of all the preceding measures taken by the Israeli Government designed to strengthen Israel’s position in the occupied Arab territories and, in the final analysis, to bring about annexation. Suffice it to recall here just the most recent and the most outrageous of these measures. In August 1980, Jerusalem was declared the “eternal, sole and indivisible” capital of Israel. In December 1981, a decision was 33. The purpose of all those actions is perfectly clear: the Israeli authorities are using their policy of creeping annexation in order once and for all to perpetuate their occupation of the ancestral Arab lands and to create the pseudo-legal preconditions for open annexation and implementation of their idea of the “Greater Israel” with which they are so obsessed. And all that is being done under cover of talks on the so-called administrative autonomy as an integral part of the Camp David deal. 34. The statement made by Israel’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Shamir, is typical. It was quoted in T/IL’ Nc\\* York Tirncs of 2.5 January this year. He stated outright. “We want peace, but only in conditions that will enable us to continue our existence, and this means the Golan Heights, Judea and Samaria within the boundaries of the land of Israel.” 35. Here it would be appropriate to recall that just over three years ago at the conclusion of the Camp David accords, the Soviet Union warned of the serious consequences that would result from such secret manoeuvres and separate agreements. At that time some people tended to assume that such fears were a little extreme or that there were simply no grounds for them. But today we are all witnesses of the truly tragic events and consequences that have become a natural and inevitable outcome of the Camp David deal. 36. Thus, today the Council is faced with the fact that, despite the many resolutions and appeals from the Council and the General Assembly to Israel to halt its policy of annexing the territories of others and to rescind decisions taken in that connexion, the GOVernment of Begin is stubbornly continuing its policy of seizing the ancestral Arab lands. Surely it is clear that Tel Aviv would hardly have decided on such actions were it not for the comprehensive support of its protector and senior partner. This is something that 37. It is not surprising that, relying on such comprehensive support and virtual complicity on the part af Washington, the Israeli Government, without the slightest embarrassment, should continue its aggression and expansion against the Arab countries and peoples. It is not surprising that this policy should increasingly frequently elicit outbursts of anger and outrage on the part of the population of the occupied territories and also in neighbouring Arab States. 43. The recent events in the West Bank and Gaza are not isolated incidents of repression, but constitute another link in the long chain of Israel’s policy of expansion, illegal settlements and annexation. Following Israeli actions purporting to change the status of Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights, Israel now appears to have turned its attention to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. As will be recalled, Israel’s illegal actions concerning Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights have been condemned by the international community and the Security Council and Israel’s decisions have been declared null and void. We are confident that Israel’s decision to disband the Al-Bireh elected Municipal Council and to replace it by direct Israeli rule, and the further decision to dismiss the Palestinian mayors of Nablus and Ramallah, as well as Israel’s ruthless oppression of the Palestinian people, will also be condemned by the Council. Unless the present trend is arrested and reversed, the world may be faced with a general conflagration in the area. 38. The delegation of the Soviet Union considers that, in the present extremely diflicult and dangerous situation, the Council must demand that Israel, as the occupying Power, rescind its illegal decision to dissolve the municipal councils, that it must condemn that Government for these continuing acts of terrorism, which have been elevated to the level of State policy, and demand an immediate halt to such actions. The United Nations-and primarily the Security Council, as the organ bearing primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security and endowed as it is with the necessary powers for thismust take such measures as would place a strong harrier against any further creeping annexation on the part of the Israeli authorities, ensure a speedy withdrawal of Israeli troops from all occupied Palestinian find other Arab territories, and staunchly protect the inalienable rights of the Arab people of Palestine. 44. Israel’s policy of annexation, accompanied by its brutality against innocent unarmed people under its occupation, is dangerous enough. But there is yet another equally serious dimension to the recent events in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel, it appears, aims not only at the annexation of territory which belongs to the Arab Palestinian people: Israel also seems determined to liquidate the legitimate national aspirations of the Arab Palestinian people. Need we remind Israel that this is not only a futile path but one which altogether eliminates the prospects of a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East, which can be achieved only when Israel withdraws from all the Arab and Palestinian territories it occupied in 1967, including Jerusalem?

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

Madam President, I should like to begin by expressing our warm felicitations to You on your assumption of the presidency of the Council for the current month, Turkey and the United States of America enjoy very close and very happy relations. We are confident that the deliberations of the Council this month will benefit from your proven wisdom and leadership, 41. 1 should also like to express our deep appreciation to your predecessor, Sir Anthony Parsons, a wellknown and distinguished diplomat in my country, who SO effectively served as the President of the Council last month and who has made an indelible contribution over the years to the work of the United Nations. I am sure we shall all miss him. 45. Furthermore, without the full restitution of the inalienable rights and legitimate aspirations of the Arab Palestinians, including their right to establish their own sovereign State in Palestine, there can be no just and lasting peace in the Middle East. If Israel believes that the Arab Palestinian people can be erased from the equation of a Middle East settlement, then the international community is obligated to show Israel 42. For years now the Council has been more or less continuously seized of the question of the Middle 46. The PLO is the sole legitimate representative of the Arab Palestinian people. It is no wonder, then, that there is a natural and instinctual affinity between the PLO and the Arab Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. The valiant Arab Palestinian people will not abandon their struggle just to suit Israel’s designs. 47. In conclusion, it is clear that Israel has once again -in complete disregard of international law, and in particular of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and of the relevant United Nations resolutions-created a very dangerous and explosive situation in the territories under its occupation. The Council must ask Israel to put an end to this hazardous situation and to its armed repression and coercion of the unarmed civilian population of the occupied territories, rescind its illegal decisions and reinstate the duly elected officials of the Arab Palestinian people. A resolute .: stand by the Council would, we hope, impel Israel to come to terms with the inevitable reality of the Arab Palestinian people and their inalienable rights. 48. Turks during the Ottoman Empire contributed to a large extent to saving Mediterranean Jews from the intolerance and exactions of the Inquisition. Turks have also deeply deplored and condemned the Nazi persecution of the Jewish people. It is therefore for us an extremely sad spectacle now to observe the same people who suffered so much from injustice and intolerance trying to suppress the freedom and basic rights of another people in its homeland. 49. The Arab and Muslim character of the Palestinian homeland was preserved and safeguarded entirely intact to the limits of its strength, and despite many inducements to the contrary, by the same Ottoman Empire even in its period of decline. That the Muslim and Arab character of Palestine was so zealously pro- ‘tected under Turkish rufe is a glorious chapter in the annals of the history of the Turkish nation. 50. For those reasons, the Turkish nation faithfully believes that unless the right to independence is recognized for Arab Palestinians there will be no .lasting solution of the Middle East problem. My Government considers it the highest historical, moral and brotherly duty to support the legitimate struggle of the Arab Palestinian people, and it urges Israel to renounce such policies of violence, which will certainly be detrimental to its own vital interests, 5 I. The PRESIDENT: The next speaker is the representative of Israel. I call upon him.

It is remarkable to note that today the representative of the Hashemite King 53. May I just refresh the memory of the representative of Jordan by recalling some of the remarks that have been made by his King regarding the murderous PLO. 54. In an interview granted to AI-Nrrhor of Beirut, on 4 September 1972, King Hussein said the following: “As for this small group that does not want to be a party to any solution and that wants to preserve the problem as ,it is for another 200 years, I have to tell the members of that group that it is very easy to talk like that while living well by exploiting the problem in order to achieve personal gains.” In another interview, granted to The I~rntrtionrrl Herd/d Tribfrne on 17 April 1972, King Hussein said: “They are dangerous, but dangerous to the cause of the Palestinians as much as anything else. They give an image of hijackers of planes and embezzlers of money.” Yet another quotation from King Hussein, this time speaking in an interview with LIS Ne1rt.s t/n& World Report of 8 January 1973: “It would be a mistake not to make a distinction between the mass of Palestinians and that very small minority belonging to some of the armed organizations who may be Palestinians in name but have always identified themselves with all the contradictions that exist in the Arab world, much more so than with the Palestinian cause itself. Their prime target was to destroy the unity of our people and at the same time to destroy this country.” 55. As we have already had occasion to state-at the first of this series of Council meetings ]23-?44rl? meptirlg]-the events that are now occuring in Judea and Samaria were launched by the terrorist PLO and were, more surprisingly, supported by the Jordanian Government. The PLO and the Jordanians have the well-understood fear of losing their capability to exert through fear the submission of the Palestinian Arab inhabitants of these areas to the diktats of incitement and subversion. 56. There exists today among the Palestinian Arabs a strong inclination to move towards a reconciliation and greater understanding with Israel. As we all know and fully appreciate, although perhaps for entirely different reasons, the promise of peaceful coexistence between Jews of Israel and Palestinian Arabs of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza District spells a new departure and holds in store a better future, perhaps, for all concerned. That is precisely the reason for the strenuous 60. That opinion is shared by most reputable jurists and is repeated in appropriate form in most textbooks which deal with the topic and in such authoritative publications as the manuals of military law of the different countries. 61. Mr. Bassam Shaka’a. the former Mayor of Nablus, is an extreme and uncompromising agitator. The representative of Jordan is in an excellent position to attest to this, since Mr. Shaka’a, as one of the leaders of the Baath Party in Samaria, actively opposed the Jordanian rCgime, which imprisoned him, after which he escaped to Syria. 57. Israel’s approach has always been guided by concern for the cause of peace and for the welfare of the population. 58. The members of the Council will recall that in the years 1972 and 1976 municipal elections, freely and democratically conducted, were held for the first lime ever in Judea and Samaria. One cannot cease to wonder at the Jordanian representative, who now bemoans the fact that some of the area’s mayors -who were elected, unlike the oppressive Jordanian habit of appointing mayors-have now been dismissed for disturbing the peace, which is, by the way, entirely in keeping with Jordanian law and procedure in force in Judea and Samaria. May I recommend that the representative of Jordan consult the annals of the Jordanian administrcltion to find the relevant precedents. 62. In 1958, the Jordanian Government sentenced Mr. Shaka’a to a four-year prison term. Eventually. he was pardoned under a Jordanian act of clemency in 1965. 63. Mr. Shaka’a, since the free and democratic election which put him into the mayoralty of Nablus in 1976, has endorsed the stage-by-stage PLO theory according to which a PLO State in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza District would precede the ultimate liquidation of the State of Israel. Mr Shaka’a has repudiated both the Israel-Egyptian peace treaty and the concept of autonomy outlined in the Camp David framework for peace in the Middle East and has dedicated himself to the establishment of a united front to ensure their failure. Moreover, Mr. Shaka’a has threatened anyone willing to accept autonomy or to co-operate with Israel with a death sentence. 59. Concerning the former mayors, I should like to describe to the Council some of the highlights of the bnckground that led to their dismissal, which was carried out, as I have said, in accordance with the provisions of Jordanian law in force in Judea and Samaria, as required by international law. Without at this stage again going into the whole issue of the applicability of the so-called fourth Geneva Convention of 1949’ in Judea and Samaria, concerning which our position is well known, I would draw the attention of the members of the Council to the last sentence of article 54, on judges and public officials. That provision reads: 64. The other individual concerned, Mr. Karim Khalaf, the former Mayor of Ramallah, has gained notoriety by identifying himself with extremist factions of the terrorist PLO. Mr. Khalaf has boasted of his activities as a member of the so-called National Guidance Committee, which during a two-year period brought about, in his own words, “the public stoning of the Israeli army”. “It” -that is to say the general provision of that article--” does not affect the right of the Occupying Power to remove public officials from their posts.” 65. Mr. Khalaf has personally incited students to engage in unauthorized strikes, demonstrations and street riots, the timing of which was co-ordinated between the PLO, the municipality and the National Guidance Committee. The basic aim of such demonstrations is to gain maximum media exposure, of course. In that connection I would refer to the authoritative commentary of the International Committee of the Red Cross, edited by M. Pictet, which on Page 308 of volume IV states: “The power to remove officials of any kind from their posts at any moment is a safeguard accorded to the occupying Power. That safeguard helps to ensure the hontr fi& application of the Present article as a whole, since, on the one hand, it allows the occupying authorities to behave fairly generously 66. Mr. Khalaf has been strongly advocating the use of terror against Arab residents who refuse to toe the terrorist PLO line. He has denounced and boycotted moderate Palestinian personalities. He has rejected the concept of Palestinian Arab coexistence with “the return of Jerusalem, Ramallah, Nablus, Bethlehem and Hebron necessitates the return of Jaffa, Haifa and Urn el Fahm. We call upon our brethren to work together with us for the liberation of Palestine, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea”. 67. One could ask why, with this kind of reputation, Messrs. Shaka’a and Khalaf were not dismissed sooner by Israel from their public office. The answer is very simple. Israel has been doing its utmost to afford every opportunity imaginable to officials elected to public office to discharge their duties in a normal manner with a view to promoting the interests of the Palestinian Arab inhabitants who elected. them to their public positions. 68. Messrs. Shaka’a and Khalaf were advised on numerous occasions to refrain from agitation and to desist from contributing to the deplorable hatred and enmity, all of which had been, until 1967, a part of the official public policy of the Jordanian rigime against Israel. Not only did this advice go unheeded but the former mayors Khalaf and Shaka’a wilfully supported the present campaign of violence and agitation both in Judea and in Samaria. Consequently, Israel decided to dismiss them in order to root out the agitation at one of its sources. 69. We are today in the midst of a campaign designed to disrupt daily life, tranquillity and order in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza District. This campaign is orchestrated, financed and maintained by the terrorist PLO and supported by Jordan. 70. We expect that the members of the Council will not lend a hand to this subversion and disruption by in any way condoning this ongoing campaign. Nothing can be gained through violence. Everything can be gained through creating an atmosphere of understanding and conciliation.

The representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization has asked to make a statement in reply. I call on him.

Sometimes one wonders whether it is an admission of guilt when people go immediately on the defensive. This attempt at character assassination of the elected representatives of the Palestinian people only leads us to believe that those who are committing those crimes against our people are admitting that they are indeed guilty of what is going on in the occupied Palestinian territories. 74. I have never heard of people who tried to liberate the Palestinians from the fear of coming under the grip of the PLO by sending their tanks, tear-gas grenades and bullets against those people. It was alleged that the PLO feared losing control of the Palestinian people and that such criminal tactics were being used by the PLO. 75. The tanks, the aircraft, the uniforms furnished by the Americans, and the American citizens in Israeli uniforms shooting at our people in our towns-the need for all this is a sign that we have no fear whatsoever of losing the support and the solidarity of our own people in our own country under occupation. 1 need not name all those American citizens dressed in Israeli uniforms and shooting at our people. 76. Something was said about peaceful coexistence. What peaceful coexistence? Is it the peace of the graveyard? No. Peaceful coexistence should be a viable peace, peace among human beings, peace which we enjoyed in Palestine before the Zionist invasion and occupation of our country. 77. “The mayors were disturbing peace”--1 wonder what people would say now if we referred to the leaders of the resistance against the Nazi occupation forces in Europe, the Maquis for example? I wonder if the French would dare say now that these people were agitators and criminals. And those who rose in rebellion in the Warsaw ghetto: can we say that they were terrorists? They were people who defended theil freedom and we honour their memory every day, because that is the way we should oppose nazism and fascism, 78. Yes, the Palestinian people under occupation are being provoked. The fact that an elected municipal council refuses to deal with a military governor-that is its right. I wonder how the members of the Council would feel if any municipality in their respective countries refused to meet with the Minister of the Interior. The municipality has some sort of an autonomy in its dealings. And in this case the municipality is not getting any federal aid; on the contrary, it is suffering because of the occupation forces, the forces that are stealing its own water-depriving the inhabitants of the village or town of the main source of their livelihood, which is water. 80. But I think this is best explained by a statement attributed to Begin, who said that this crack-down would continue until the PLO is eliminated. I wish the Council to know that the PLO can only be eliminated when the last Palestinian is eliminated, because the Palestinians are the PLO and the PLO is the Palestinians. 85. Maybe you have not been to my beautiful Jerusalem; maybe you do not know what this means to us. Every single drop of water means a lot to us: it is life to US. We do not have the East River, we do not have all these rivers and floods that you have in this country. Yet our economic development is maliciously hindered by the forces of occupation. 81. Madam President, I was listening to some statements in the other meeting this afternoon. I was so happy to hear you, the representative of a permanent member of the Council, currently the President of the Council, expressing your admiration for the upholding of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations; expressing your solidarity with people who fight and want to maintain their independence; affirming you respect for self-determination and national independence. 86. I appeal-as Chairman Arafat has done in his letter to the Secretary-General-for an immediate intervention by the Council to put an end to those crimes committed against our people. Maybe the solution would be to terminate the state of occupation. The Council has repeatedly said that the occupation should be terminated and that Israeli troops should withdraw. There are many resolutions on that. Now, how many Israelis have withdrawn? Instead of doing that, they are consolidating their presence in the occupied territories-thanks, naturally, to the billions of dollars they are getting from the United States. Something should be done at the level of the Council and every one of its members should see to it that its support does not encourage and entrench the criminal actions against our people. 82. I wonder whether you maintain the same ideas when we deal with the question of the Palestinian people? Is it not really odd and inconsistent for yout Government to send billions of dollars’ worth of arms and armaments to kill my people? Why? Because they want to live in peace in their own towns and villages: they want to be happy; they want to exercise what everybody talks about, self-determination. I think that good old Woodrow Wilson must be turning in his grave now when he sees how his descendants are behaving.

I call on the representative of Jordan, who wishes to speak in exercise of his right of reply. 83. The Palestinian people, with the PLO leading their struggle, have opted to come to the Security Council immediately after the commission by the Israeli forces of occupation of these violations and atrocities against our people. We came here because we want to believe-and I stress the word “want”- that the Council is a resort and can resolve the problem, not exacerbate it by lengthy discussions and big fights over whether or not this or that world should be included in a resolution. We want to believe that the members of the international community accept and carry out the resolutions adopted by the Council. Unfortunately, we are being disillusioned. HOW many resolutions have been adopted concerning these same mayors who now are ousted from their posts? The Council did adopt a resolution [r.c.soll~tion 471 (lY80)l condemning the attempt at assassination and requesting the forces of occupation and the Government of Israel, as the occupying Power, to apprehend the culprits and bring them to justice. Well, to the best of my knowledge those criminals have not been arrested. 88. Mr, NUSEIBEH (Jordan): Before rebutting what the spokesman for Israel has said, I should like to start with a note which reflects my upbringing in a united Palestine where the Palestinian Arabs and the Jews lived in peace and mutual respect. As a matter of fact, just after the partitioning of Palestine, my neighbour was an engineer of the Jewish faith; his name was Mr. Segvi and he had leased the ground floor of the house in which I lived. Even in my office the typist was a girl of the Jewish faith. Contrary to the Israeli spokesman’s claims, we never felt any enmity until we recognized that what the Israeli Zionists were out to achieve was to obliterate our very existence. That has so far been largely achieved. I believe it is a human instinct-in fact it is an animal instinct-that one should fight for one’s survival. 89. Now the spokesman for Israel has talked about terrorism, about Jordan and about the PLO. I must say in all candidness that I am always baffled when I hear an Israeli spokesman talk about terrorism. Do 90. I saw remnants: little children-seven or eight years old, boys and girls-who were not massacred at Deir Yassin because they were spared so as to be paraded in Zion Square and other Jewish quarters to show the valour of what the troops had done. I was the first to see them. My brother was Chairman of the National Committee in Jerusalem. I saw those shaky children, and I escorted them. I said, “Where do you come from?“, and they described what had happened to 250 people-their fathers and mothers and uncles and everybody else in the village. Those corpses were thrown into the wells of the village, even thought that village had decided, and declared, that it would have no part in any fighting between the Palestinians and the Jews-who were then called Jews, not Israelis. 91. And that terrorist activity was directed not only against the Palestinian people, but also against the British troops-British troops who were doing their normal duty. ,We were still in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War; they had not yet been repatriated. Of course, they had to be demobilized and repatriated in an orderly fashion. 92. Now, the Israeli representative should be discomfited-andjustifiably so-if I inform him that the relationship between Jordan and the PLO is at its best. Indeed, they have lived side by side and theil objective has always been to work together towards the restoration of the full rights of the Palestinian people. As a matter of fact, in 1968 they shed their blood heroically at the battle of Kureime, when the Israelis attacked the East Bank of the Jordan in an attempt to liquidate the freedom fighters of the PLO, and the Jordanian army played a cardinal role in defeating that aggression. 93. Indeed, up to 1969-even early 197&the Jordanian Government and the PLO were working todeeply regret, happened because there were misunderstandings as a result of basically outside forces who tried to disseminate false information about the ilttitude of the two parties in regard to one another. But this is something, as I said, which happens within every family, and it has long since been forgotten. It was a mistake-a tragic mistake-in which all parties participated, and they admit having done SO publicly, But I can assure the Council that the CallSe of Palestine is the cause of every Jordanian-indeed. of every single Arab throughout the Arab world. 94. The Israeli spokesman said that for the first time jn history there had been free elections for the municipal council in the West Bank, and he asked for my testimony. Now, 1 happen to have been in government throughout that period. between 1948 and this moment. And I know that elections for the municipal councils throughout the West Bank, the East Bank and Jerusalem were always free. It was only the mayor himself who-after the elected councillors had recommended the name of the most capable among themwas appointed by the Minister of Municipal Affairs. This was a continuing practice from the days of the British Mandate, when there were also municipal elections. 95. My late father was a member of the Jerusalem Municipal Council. The British Government, in consultation with members of the Council, chose as mayor the most capable person. But as for the elections in the municipalities, they were always free: they were the people’s elections. I know that, and I think the Israeli spokesman knows it. I do not remember a single case in which a municipal council was dissolved, even though under Jordanian law a recommendation could be made to the Minister for Municipal Affairs that new elections be held in cases of corruption, abuse of power or public disenchantment with a municipal council. That is the case in every country in the world, 96. TO claim that it was the Israelis that instituted the first free elections for municipal councils is an absolute distortion of the facts. Let me remind the spokesman of’ Israel that the Palestinian people have alWaYS been masters of their fate, even when they have been a part of a larger conglomerate. This is because they are universalist in outlook; they are a part of the Arab nation. 97. What have the Palestinians been? As my COIleague the representative of Turkey said, every single city and town in Palestine had to elect two representatives to the seat of power in Istanbul. Indeed, these People held cabinet posts-the Prime Ministry, the 102. We tried in 1949 to bring about a peaceful solution under the Palestine Conciliation Commission. The Arab delegations as well as the Israeli delegation signed the Lausanne Protocol,’ which would have resolved the Arab-Israeli conflict which was ubiquitous in United Nations forums even as far back as 30 years ago. 28. The spokesman of Israel regards the statement ibout the Palestinians’ right of return to Jaffa, Urn El-Fahm and Acre as an incitement to rebellion: he s unaware that every year the United Nations reit- :rates a United States-sponsored resolution-General 9ssembly resolution 194 (III&-that mandates the ‘eturn of every single Palestinian refugee to his homeand or, should he decide not to return, compensation br the property he left behind. That property conitituted 94 per cent of the total land area of Palestine. ‘t is not a crime to ask for the house that one built with one’s own toil, by long years of saving. It .is unacceptable under any system, under any “ism”, that anyone should take over the property, the house, the ‘urniture and other belongings of another without lue process of law. 103. In fact the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East was established to bring relief to the refugees under the impression that its mission would end by 1950, when every refugee would be able to return to his home. But, unfortunately, and even after initialling that document which would have solved the entire Arab- Israeli conflict for good, the Israelis reneged on the Lausanne Protocol. 104. Finally, I shall quote from a 1952 statement by Mr. Ben-Gurion-even though, by the standards of the modern leadership, I think he was a more farsighted man and later on might have pursued other policies. What he said in 1952 must have been in the euphoria of having taken over four fifths of Palestine from the Palestinians in 1948. As reported in The NLJII~ York Times of 15 December 1952, he said that there could be no cession of territory, no refugee repatriation, and that Jerusalem could not be an issue of negotiation. 99. The spokesman of Israel knows full well that jetween two thirds and 70 per cent of West Jeru- ;alem is Palestinian-owned-not to mention East erusalem. It has been given free of charge to Israeli mmigrants, who come from all parts of the world. n the newspapers we read of immigrants from all over he world who are asked, “Why have you taken the and of this poor farmer near Ramallah?” and who eply, “Oh, the weather is gorgeous. It is wonderful: here is no pollution.” As though the United States vere not a continent which has every kind of weather, which has 100 million acres of State domain reserved ‘or posterity and not utilized. Yet these people covet he tiny territory earmarked by the international :ommunity as a homeland for the Palestinian people. Phis is quite apart from the inalienable-indeed elenental-right of anyone to return to his home. 105. There is one point that I feel compelled to touch on because it has been repeated so often by so many persons-remember that we have been discussing this problem for more than three decades, The Israelis have been telling the world that when Jordan and the Palestinians of eastern Palestine decided on unity-without prejudice to and pending a final solution of the Palestine problem-under the General Armistice Agreement,-’ there was a special provision inserted because of a request which the Palestine Conciliation Commission had made of the Arab States-Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria; that is, a pledge to make all the Holy Places accessible, without distinction as to nationality, race, creed or any other criterion. I have the declaration-I shall not read it now-of the Arab States on this matter. They said that they were willing to make that pledge, whether the territories were under their control or when they came to a settlement of the problem. The same question was addressed to the Israeli representative, Mr. Eytan, and he said that the Israeli Government felt that the question should be given further consideration by the General Assembly and that he was in no position to make a similar pledge. 00. If a woman gives birth to a child on an American )hip, that child is automatically entitled to become an American citizen. If anyone, from any country, spends ive or six years in the United States with a “green :ard”, he is entitled to become an American citizen. r’et those Palestinians have been living in Palestine br 7,000 years-1 am not exaggerating: proof is found n the inscriptions on clay being dug out by archae- Ilogists in Alba in northern Syria-and are the cousins )f the Canaanites and of the Jebusites, who founded erusalem. Does not 7,000 years entitle a people to emain in its homeland? 01. We are not asking the impossible. We are not aying that we should not exist in peace and dignity vith our Israeli neighbours. On the contrary, we are .dvocating a peaceful settlement. But that peaceful ettlement should be based on justice, on right and on 106. The reason was, of course, that, in the deal, the water to East Jerusalem would be restored, the elec- . HOW TO OBTAIN UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATIONS United Nations publications may be obtained liom 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 dcs Nations Unies sont en vcnte dans les librairies et lcs agences depositaims du mande entier. Informez-vous aupres de votre libraire ou adressez-vous a : Nations Unies, Section des ventes. New York ou Geneve. COMO CONSEGUIR PUBLICACIONES DE LAS NACIONES UNIDAS L;ls publicaciones de las Naciones Unidas estrin en venta en librerias y casas distribuidoras en todas partes del mundo. Consulte a su librero o dirljase a: Nacioncs Unidas. Section de Ventas, Nueva York o Ginebra. Litho in United Nations, New York 643300 XX-609X9-April IYXY-2.050