S/PV.2459 Security Council

I should like to inform members of the Council that I have received letters from the representatives of Bahrain, Bangladesh, Djibouti, Iraq, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mauritania, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan and Tunisia in which they-request to be invited to participate in the discussion of the item on the agenda. In conformity 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 accordance with the relevant provisions of the Charter and rule 37 of the provisional rules of procedure. At the invitation Of the President. Mr. Al-Sabbagh (Bahrain), Mr. Wasiuddin (Bangladesh), Mr. Houfane (Djibouti), Mr. Mohammad (Irae). Mr. Burwin (Libyan Arab Jamahirzya), Mr. Ould Hamody (Mauritania), Mr. Ali (Oman), Mr. Zowawi (Scudi Arabia), Mr. Ma& (Somalia). Mr, EIfki (Sudan) and Mr. L.essir (Tunisia) took the places reserved for them at the side of the Council chamber.

Members of the Council have before them document S/15895, which contains the text of a .draft resolution submitted by the following countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Democratic Yemen, Djibouti, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. 6. The first speaker is Mr. Cl&is Maksoud, permanent observer of the League of Arab States, whom the Council invited at its 2412th meeting in accordance with rule 39 of the provisional rules of procedure. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement.

I am honoured, Sir, to extend congratulations to you on your assumption of the presidency of the Council for this month, not only because of your well-known wisdom and your knowledge of details and the essence of things, but also because the country you represent is for all of us one of the friendly major Powers whose policies are characterized by independence and objectivity. We hope that relations between the Arab and French peoples will continue, as always, to be marked by great -and deep friendship. 9. The painful and tragic events that occurred in the Palestinian city of Al-Khalil and led to the martyrdom of a number of students at the Islamic University are not isolated events. They represent not only criminal acts by the occupying authorities but also the expression of a consistent pattern in Israel’s settlements policy in the occupied Palestinian and Arab territories. Hence, what happened in Al-Khalil does not constitute a transient phenomenon; it must be looked at as the crystallization and continuous expression of the fact that Israel intends to commit these barbaric acts in the occupied Arab territories-particularly in Palestine-because it seeks to displace, the population by inflicting all manner of oppression and torture in order to be able to undertake the process of Judaization as a prelude to the annexation and assimilation of land and the displacement of populations. IO. It follows that. the events that occurred in the city of Al-Khalil are part of a whole, the most recent expression of a consistent pattern, the reflection of a deliberate policy. The whole process of establishing settlementswhich has been declared null and void on many occasions-is a policy designed to preempt the establishment of any national entity for the Palestinians and to create the prelude to the realization of the Zionist dogma of annexing and assimilating lands into so-called Greater Israel. - 11. Hence, when the Arabs have recourse to the Security Council as the supreme international authority responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security, they do so out of respect for the United Nations and because of their commitment to the Charter of the United Nations, out of respect for international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and out of respect for all the organs and institutions of the United Nations, through which the Organization is endeavouring to r&tore a just peace in the region And ‘throughout the world. I2; Moreover, the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, at a meeting held with members of the United Nations Secretariat about a month ago, affirmed the firm resolve of the Arabs to encourage the United Nations to seek more credibility for its resolutions, more efficiency for its organs and more reliability for the Articles of the Charter. Hence, when the Arabs have recourse to the Security Council and the United Nations, it is ,proof of their commitment to principle; it is the expression of their conviction, in addition to the expression of a need. That is why the Arabs are most concerned about the credibility of the United Nations; they would like its resolutions, in particular those of the Council, to regain their prestige and their effectiveness, so that no one can sav 13. It is truly painful to see a major Power, the United States, on many occasioti condoning those who, like Israel, are attempting to undermine tlie credibility ‘of the United Nations and particularly the Security Council. .One therefore wonders about the commitment to the spirit and letter of the law that the United States attempts at -times to invoke, to the effect that the actions by the Israeli settler-colonialists in Al-Khalil are an internal issue and that the Israeli military and judicial authorities are undertaking an ,investigation-as though the arming of those whom Israel calls (‘fanatics’* were not part and parcel of the Israeli settler entity in the West Bank, as though the arming of those people had not been carried out by licence issued by Israel itself, as though the weapons they use against the innocent Palestinians were illegal in the Israeli concept, as though they were insurgents against the Israeli authorities and not in fact a complementary weapon serving Israel’s expansionist aims in occupied Palestine. 18. Let us assume that we believe that United States initiatives, since they are undertaken by a super-Power, deserve our attention. and that they form part of our policies. For the sake of argument, let us say that we depend on the seriousness and viability of these initiatives. We did that by informing the United States that President Reagan’s initiative’ was sufficiently worthy of attention for us to acknowledge the rightness of some of its features. We have repeatedly informed the ‘United States that we have reservations concerning other aspects of the Reagan initiative. We agreed, selectively, to study the aspects of this initiative; but Begin and Israel rejected it 24 hours after it was declared. What was the result? Israel’s rejection of the Reagan initiative has become part of the considerations borne in mind by the United States Administration in dealing with the Middle East problem. Yet, the Arabs, at the Twelfth Arab Summit Conference, held at Fez in November 1981 and September 1982, were prepared to make concessions and to hold a dialogue on this initiative. That willingness, however, was interpreted as Arab reluctance to deal seriously with .the United States. Such inverted logic quickly led io even greater reservations on the part of many Arabs because, although willing to depend on the Reagan initiative and the authority of the United States oyer Israel, they do’not want to be captives. 14. And SO we wonder, togethe; with the rest of the’ world,’ how those settlers can claim that they want to settle in the Arab city of Al-Khalil on the basis that there had once been J&s in Al-Khalil. If we applied this same logic-and we are ready to apply it-it would be imperative for the people of Palestine who were displaced from their cities-Haifa, Jaffa, Lod, Acre and hundreds of’ other cities, towns and villages in Palestine-to return,. although there is no comparison between the legitimate right of Palestinians to return to their cities, towns, and villages and the fabricated right of persons to claim Al- Khalil because they came from Brooklyn and other American cities-a “right” imposed through suppression and occupation. By contrast, the right of the P@estinians to. .return to their homeland, their cities, towns and villages in all of Palestine is continuous, inherited and internationally recognized. [The speaker spoke in English.] Our betting on American initiatives should not and will not ,,lead to our becoming hostage to American initiatives. . 15. Hence, these spurious claims invoked by Israel through the presence and proliferation of its settlements are designed to pre-empt Palestinian national unity, because Israel contests the right of the Palestinian people to selfdetermination on what is part of its own land and country. ’ [The speaker continued in Arabic.] 19. When we look at this situation from the general perspective; we find that th& United States;in the person df its President, asked Israel to freeze the establishment of settlements. It asked for a’freeze, although the former United States position, often stated by President Carter and Cyrus Vance, who was then Secretary of State, was’ that the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights and elsewhere were illegal. There haS been a change in the United States position for which many justifications have been invoked. 16. Documents abound-and further evidence. and proof emerge day after day-attesting tothe violation by the occupier Israel of the national, human and legal rights of the Palestinian people. 17. The world grows more convinced daily that Israel’s actions in the occupied territories are in contravention of international law, in violation of Council resolutions, 21. Therefore, we acknowledge the goodwill of the United States and declare that there is no difference between President Carter’s description of the settlements as illegal and President Reagan’s comment that those settlements constitute obstacles to peace. In both cases we are mindful of our commitment to international legitimacy; we consider that any impediment to peace is illegal and that whatever is illegal and illegitimate obstructs the peace process. 22. What has happened? Instead of joining with the international community in condemning Israel for estab lishing these settlements, the United States refused to do so, declaring that a condemnation of Israel or the imposition of sanctions would lead to certain tendencies in Israel that would make it more intransigent ‘and more inclined to defy the international will. The United States concluded by saying that Israel could be convinced to acquiesce in the international will by granting it concessions rather than by punishing it. 23. Thus the exercise of the right of veto by the United States and its threat of use of the veto has prevented condemnation ,of Israel and the imposition of any deterrent sanctions against it. What is more, because of this attitude, the resolutions of the Council continue to be scorned and its credibility weakened. When the United States differed with Israel on many occasions, especially after the invasion of Lebanon, we believed that those differences could lead to an objective approach in United States policy regarding the Middle East. We also believed that Israel’s flagrant defiance of the declared policy of the United States-the full independence and sovereignty of Lebanon and the fact that settlements obstruct the peace process-we believed that these official differences would prompt the United States;in the interest of friendly relations with numerous Arab countries, to lessen its bias in favour of Israel and its at times flagrant bias in favour of Israel’s goals in the region. 24. Paradoxically, that difference of opinion was known to Israel, which reacted to it in an exaggerated fashion, claiming that that difference constituted a threat to American-Israeli relations, that Israel was going through the most critical phase of its relations with the United States, and that there was a danger that the United States had started to weaken its traditional and special relations with Israel. Some believed those claims, and many of us wanted to believe that this prospect was true to some extent. Yet, what happened? The United States Congress approved more assistance for Israel, assistance that exceeded the request of the United States Administration itself. We said that the Congress was influenced by factors to which the United States Administration may not be subjected. We hoped that that difference of attitude between the legislative and the executive branches would lead the United States to take into account its relations with the Arab world and its interests in the region. 26. We also said that, in its many endeavours in the context of the Middle East, the United States Government paid attention to its friends. But we found that the United States began to reconsider the difference of opinion out of its belief that its past differences with Israel would remain in our memory and that any return to special relations between the United States and Israel would be forgotten by us-that previous differences would be remembered, and the establishment of special relations in the past would be overlooked by the Arabs. How long shall we remain in this dilemma? 27. If we come to the United Nations and the Council, we are told: “You are devaluing the United Nations.” When we repeatedly come to the United Nations, we are told such recourse diminishes the prestige of the Council. But if we do not resort to the Council, then to whom or to what shall we resort? Shall we resort to the United States initiative, which was stalled as soon as it was declared? We were told that President Reagan was personally involved and that the United States Government .could not prevent the establishment of a single settlement. It did not even hint to Israel that if it continued to establish settlements, it might halt the flow of military assistance to it. If we do not resort to the Council, to international public opinion, if we can expect nothing from American initiatives, to whom or to what shall we resort? 28. We are told that the balance of military power still favours Israel. For how long? Do we want to be forced to resort to a military option while continuing to legitimize diplomatic and political options? The answer lies in the Council and in the collective will to deter Israel from persisting in violating the Council’s resolutions and the principles of the Charter.

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

On behalf of the delegation of Kuwait, I have the pleasure of congratulating you, Sir, on assuming the presidency for this month. We look forward to your wise guidance of the affairs of the Council, for your wisdom and ability are well known. You also represent a friendly country with weight and influence in intemational politics in general and in the Middle East question in particular. 31. I also wish to express our gratitude for the skilful and just manner in which your predecessor, the repre- 32. Once again we meet here not to confront a new Israeli policy or a new Israeli position but to face another in the series of abominable crimes that now collectively constitute the backbone of the racist Zionist entity implanted in the Arab territory of Palestine. The crime to which we refer is the act of aggression committed by armed Israelis, in full view of the Israeli Government, against the Islamic University in the town of Al-Khalil on 19 July, which led to the death of 3 students and injury to over 40. 39. The crimes committed by those settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been openly repeated, as evidenced by the criminal attacks on the mayors of Nablus, Ramallah and Al Bireh. Anyone who believes that Israel will one day reveal the identity of the perpetrators of those crimes must be a simpleton who cannot conceptualize the true nature of the sick, conspiratorial Israeli mentality. The report by the Israeli Ministry of Justice, known as the report of the Karp Commission, confirmed that the efforts of the police investigating crimes committed by Jewish settlers in the occupied territories are always hampered by two main considerations: first, the ambiguity surrounding the authority of the police with regard to the Jewish settlers in the occupied territories and, secondly, political interference by the Israeli Government itself. 33. The policy of oppression and terror practised by Israel in all the occupied Palestinian and Arab territories is, in our opinion, the immediate result of the continued occupation of those territories, as well as of Israel’s challenge to international values, convenants and will. The ultimate goal of all. those Israeli policies is the realization of so-called Greater Israel. 34. It is shameful to see Israel commit all its aggressive acts under the pretext of what it calls security. We wonder what security this is that knows no limits. What security is this that denies the peace and security of the legitimate owners of those territories and the peace and security.,of neighbouring countries? 40. Kuwait calls upon the Council to reaffirm its previous resolutions with regard to the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and to exert new efforts to compel Israel to respect the Council’s relevant resolutions. 35. Thanks especially to the Council, the whole world is convinced of the falseness of the claims of security which Israel invokes to protect itself and real& that Israel’s ultimate goal is the elimination of the Palestinian people through physical liquidation, the pursuit of that people wherever they may be, the despoiling of their lands and the establishment of Israeli settlements on their lands. 41. The Palestinians have suffered tremendous horrors under the pressure of the tyrannical Israeli occupation, which history will record as one of their darkest periods. The Palestinian people have struggled and are still strug-, gling to regain their usurped rights. 36. Kuwait believes that Israel’s policy, of establishing settlements represents the comer-stone of an ultimate goal that would make the annexation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip a fait accompli. 42. The Palestinian people, which placed their trust in this international Organization, call upon the Council to shoulder the responsibilities entrusted to it by the Charter of the United Nations and to save them from the barbaric practices to which they are subjected, whether those practices are in the form of attempts to obliterate the identity and character of the Palestinian people or attempts to usurp their land and property and to settle alien racist groups on their land. 37. The Council has unequivocally expressed itself on the illegitimacy of Israel’s settlements policy in resolutions 252 (1968) and 465 (1980). Those two resolutions confirm that all Israeli measures aimed at changing the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Al-Quds, have no legal validity and that Israel’s settlements policy constitutes a blatant violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949,2 and a serious obstacle to the achievement -of peace in the Middle East. 43. The Council must compel Israel to respect the international covenants which oblige it to protect the lives of civilians in the occupied territories and not to make any changes in the demographic nature and legal status of the occupied territories. 38. Israel was not merely content with the establishment of settlements and the importation of tens of thousands of I the world’s Jews to settle in them; it also implanted armed bands among the settlers in the West Bank and Gaza, and there is an understanding and co-ordination between those bands and the Israeli Government. All the Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza carry arms, with the 44. Above all, the Council is required to put an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Arab territories and to give the oppressed Palestinian people the opportunity to exercise their legitimate and inalienable rights, including the right to self-determination, the right to return to their homeland and the right to establish their own State on their own soil under the leadership of the 45. Kuwait believes that the countries which provide Israel with economic and military assistance and moral support, in spite of its colonialist settler policies which. have been unanimously and universally condemned, are in fact encouraging this country, an enemy of peace, to. persist in its hostility towards peace and in its disdain for all international laws, values and covenants. My delegation calls upon those countries, foremost among thein the United States, to ceasi supporting this cohntry that,trampies on human values and, inore important, to stop put-: ting obstacles in the Council’s way, so that it may ‘carry out its mandate by condemning this lawless. country and imposing dn.it the appropriate’ sanctions. ___ _‘_ .__ , -, 46. In calling on the Council .to look into ihe recent developments, the Arab countries have once again demonstrated their belief and trust in the United N&ions, particularly in the Council, and their reliance on it to resolve the question of Palestine and to settle the &nflict in the Middle E&t. Any .failure by the United Nations to act will have serious effects on its credibility and on the trust of the world’s people in ,it. _’

The ’ next speaker is the representative ‘of the $rian Arab Republic. I invite him to take.a place at the Council table and to make his statement. ,..

At the outset, Mr. President, I should like to extend to you our hearty congratulations on your assumption of the presidency for this month. I am certain that your wisdom and wide experience and the prominent place occupied by your country in the Arab homeland must help the .Council to carry out its functions in a’ manner consistent with the &al interests of the international community. Your presidency, Sir, has a special significance. You know oui region quite well, It is going ’ through an extremely difficult ,.period in its ,. history because of. policies of aggression, hegemony ‘and foreign, - occupation. The people of France, resisted nazism, and we take this opportunity to congratulate them on their resistance when the Nazis occupied their country. The issue before the Council needs your wisdom, your sense of justice and your far-sightedness. You arti eminently qualified ’ for your function. + : ‘1. (. . 49. I should like, Sir, to express our highest esteem for your predecessor, Mr. Ling Qing, and for his great coun- ’ ‘54. .Is not that United States position in flagrant violatry and people, which have consistently contributed to ,. tion of the commitments entered into by the United States world civilization and which take a firm stand of principle Govemtient under the Charter.of the United Nations and on the side of struggling peoples. the norms of international law, specially the commit- ‘merits of the U&d States under the Geneva Convention ,.’ ,, . ‘. -As others have said, thk crimes recently committid relative’to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of 50. War, of 12 August 1949?2 The United States violated that , against the population of Hebron are not isolated’events, convention in Viet Nam and is now violating it in several but are ‘part and parcel of a delibeiate Zionist scheme othei places. dating back to -1897. That scheme was protected by cola- : nialism, which even conse?rated it and included it in the Mandate over .Palestine, ,thus violating the right to self- *Quoted in Ehglish by the speaker. 51. The organic relationship and alliance between zionism, on the .one hand, and the colonialist States, on the other, before, during and after the First World War were but a means to control the destiny of the Arab nation, to ‘dismember it and to abort its aspirations. 52. Let US speak facts: the Council committed a historic mistake when it rushed into recomminding the admission of Israel to the United Nations.. Today, we and the majbrity of the members of the Council are paying the price for that mistrike, into which the Council was’ led by Western colonialism. Since 1948, the Middle East has been a hotbed of danger to international peace and security. There are attempts to destroy our countries, the cradle of world civilization, thrqugh the establishment of an expansionist racist entity that goes against the logic of history. We believe that the international rtgime which we estabKshed, and on whose ‘Charter we ,agreed with good will in order to end war, z@gression and colonialism and to .enable peoplei to exercise their right to self- .determination, is threatened with collapse if the Council rdoes nqt shtiulder its responsibilities and carry out its duties.‘Here I am addressing the members of the Council. We have entrusted you with the sole responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security;. but time has proved that the Council often falls short of what is expected of it by the peoples, especially the Arab people.- 53. The United States was the willing heir of colonialism and has sought to perpetuate, encourage and expand it, arid tie corisider that that country bkars primary responsibility for unqermining the effectiveness of ihe Counbil and preventing it from carrying out its basic duty. By way of example, I would note that thiS inajoi Power has declared once niore, through its President, that the establishment of Israeli settlements oh our occupied territories is not illegitimate. President Reagan answered’a’question posed by 41 Bloom, correspondent for the Pittsburgh Jewish chronicle,, as to whether he, thought that the settlements constitute.an’bbstacle to peace by saying, as reported in The’.waslfingfon Post on 20 June: “No, I don’t. I really don’t.“* : 56.. Early in this century, did not Herzl plan what is happening today when he wrote in his journal, in ,1904, that the settlers must uproot the indigenous populations and cast them across the desert, except for a minority to be employed in killing poisonous snakes? Herzl’s Zionist successors -are implementing his colonialist scheme one phase after another. Nowadays we hear fevered Zionist voices, like that of the Minister of the Interior of the Zionist entity, who brazenly stated, as reported in The New York Times on 11 July: “We have to understand the right for Jews to live in Hebron for me as a person is above discussion. No Jew can be forbidden to settle in any place in Israel.*‘* 57. The New York Times, which is described as “respectable”, published an article by the terrorist rabbi, Meir Kahane, thus allowing him to poison the ndive minds of the American public with fascist opinions embodying an outrageous racist dogma and to instigate a continuous war against the Arabs. The last paragraph of that article reads as follows: “For the sake of survival, let us carry out the second stage: the removal of the Arabs from the Land of Israel to their own Arab land.“* 58 That is no mere wishful thinking: the terrorist Kahane, who assumes the guise of a man of the cloth and who practices terrorism in Israel and in the United States itself, goes from one American university to another training American students in the use of arms and exhorting them to participate in the crime of settling in Palestine and in the Golan Heights. What Kahane, with his dual Israeli-American citizenship, represents is no isolated phenomenon. Those who murder the children of Al-Khalil and who usurp the land and desecrate the holy places there belong to the same school as Begin, Sharon, Shamir, Arens and Kahane. Those men have carried out brainwashing and have filled minds with hatred, spite and criminal ideas. Not even the minds of women-of mothers-have been saved from this epidemic of Arabhatred propagated by Zionism. The New York Times, that “respectable*’ paper, on 12 July quoted an Americanborn mother who was settled by force in Al-Khalil and who urged that the Arabs be kicked out of the holy city, saying: “To tell the truth, we want them to leave. And if they stay, they have to accept that this is a Jewish country, not an Arab one. They will have to accept being ruled by us:‘* . 59. As has been stated by Mr. Clovis Maksoud, of the League of Arab States, and by a number of speakers in * Quoted in English by the speaker. 60. Actually, each settler in Israel is keen on implementing the official settlements policy on which Israel has been based since its beginning as a racist, colonialist, expansionist entity. Each settler, male or female, considers guarding the usurped properties a bounden duty and views the uprooting or.murder of an Arab as a constructive step on the road to so-called liberation. Should the representative of Israel so desire, he can speak here and respond; but not laugh. His American colleague once laughed in this chamber and we responded to him and we are ready to respond to him again, because for this to happen under your presidency, Sir, is an affront to all of us. That i’s what is happening today in the Arab city of Al-Khalil, but neither the Americans nor other eyewitnesses are deceived by this Zionist strategy. As Daniel Gavron wrote from Al-Khalil in The Wail Street Journal of 27 July: “And the settlers know they have the support of the Begin government, which is committed to rebuilding the ancient Jewish neighbourhood in the heart of Hebron.*‘* Faced with all this evidence, Washington might perhaps issue the following judgement: “Israel is innocent by reason of insanity.‘** 61. Israel’s designs extend from the Nile to the Euphrates. This is well known and declared; and Israel seeks achievement of its objective especially by fanning ‘anti- Semitism in the United States in the hope of prompting Jews to emigrate to our region and to, obtain through blackmail greater financial resources and political advantages so as to expand and support the Zionist settler movement, All of this is accompanied by a psychological campaign. to silence any voice raised, ,against the blackmail, be it moral or material. John Oakes, former editor of The New York Tities, in a rebuke to the Zionist mayor of New York, Mr. Ed Koch, wrote in that newspaper on 21 June: a.. . “The Mayor, along with a good many other selfanointed spokesmen for the .American Jewish community, is pursuing a dangerously divisive. course-in effect differentiating the obligations of citizenship of American Jews from those of other Americans-by ‘this kind of McCarthyesque rhetoric.“* ’ 62. Zionist settler colonialism in the Syrian Arab Golan Heights increases day by day, but in spite of Israeli oppression and terrorism the inhabitants of the Golan Heights reject Israeli identity and, as I have previously mentioned in the Council, are deprived of their civil rights if they do not acquiesce to Israeli demands. Reports from the region, where foreign journalists are restricted by that “island of democracy”. in our midst-a restriction that extends to Israeli journalists-affirm that arrests and 63. In spite of all the acts of oppression by the occupation authorities, including the curfew, which lasts for days on end, our citizens are committed to the national charter that was endorsed in Majdal Shams, in the Golan Heights, on 25 March 1981. The mayor of Majdal Shams stated on 6 January 1983 that: “We have been pressured _‘, by the occupation authorities to carry Israeli identity ,-_ ,_, cards, but we carry only hatred for them in our hearts.” T’, ,‘_ ;_ ‘- 64. _‘_ The Israeli authorities have ‘foreclosed every work- ,‘_ ,‘, ing opportunity for all those who reject Israeli identity, _‘, but the people of the Golan Heights who were forcibly evacuated during the 1967 war are prohibited from returning to their homeland despite the Council’s unanimously adopted resolution 237 (1967), which has year after year been reaffirmed in the General Assembly and other international bodies. ’ 65. The Israeli authorities act in the Golan Heights in accordance with the concept of innexation, which the Council has declared null and void in resolution 497 (198 I), a resolution which Israel rejected at the same meeting in which it was urianimously adopted. During past sessions of the General Assembly, resolutions were adopted calling upon Israel to revoke its annexation. But Israel, supported by its ally the United States, failed to implement any resolution and instead accelerated the establishment of settlements and intensified its terrorist practices to the point of preventing students from attending Syrian universities or enrolling in universities in the occupied Arab territories if they refused Israeli identity. 66. It is truly regrettable that the Council has failed to take the specific mandatoj action provided for in Chap ter VII of the Charter of thi United Nations to force Israei to revoke its annexation of the Golan Heights. This has served to encourage the terrorist leaders of Israel to continue Judaizing the Palestinian and Syrian ‘occupied territories, including Jerusalem, the city of cities. Israel’s ‘defiance of the Arab people and the United Nations, especially the Security Council, was expressed by the terrorist Begin on 17 April, on the occasion of the celebration of so-called‘indeljendence, when he said “our settlements are not an impediment to peace but, rather, as I said,.they are a prerequisite for peace”. 67. I leave it to the Council to draw its own conclusions concerning ,the significance of that policy and its aims; it will end by bringing the world to the brink of disaster. 68. Israel’s arrogance in-realizing its expansionist designs is linked to important factors which we have already mentioned iti the Council and which we will repeat today. Foremost among them is Washington’s unlimited support for 69. Another reason behind Israel’s growing arrogance is the sophisticated weapons granted by Washington to its base, Israel. The United States Secretary of Defence, Mr. Weinberger, has described Israel as a land-based carrier that cannot be sunk. He went even further when he explained Israel’s role in the service of United States interests in the following words: “The United States is bound to Israel-by strategic interests. The United States is bound to Israel by a common heritage of freedom and a pioneering spirit.‘** 70. Yes, it is called “a pioneering spirit”. Where is the indigenous population of the United States? What has become of it? It has been slaughtered, murdered and displaced; it is now imprisoned on so-called reservations. Those are the values of “freedom and a pioneering spirit”; and that is what is also happening in Israel, where the PaIestinian ,race is being annihilated by this heritage of “freedom” and this “pioneering spirit’*. 71. The Secretary of Defence of this super-Power, not confining himself to praising Israel and reassuring American zionisti, went so far as to acquiesce to that minority which controls the future and destiny of the American people, when on 13 May he said befoie the American Jewish Committee: “No one should question anyone’s strong support of Israel as being ‘dual loyalty*. Freedom is not easily divisible, and suppoit for Israel’s security is support for our own security.“* *Quoted in English by the speaker. 72. Canuot a direct relationship be found between this official United States position and Begin’s statement of 3 May? Begin said-and the Council will notice the closeness of the dates on which these two statements were made: 77. We hope that the United States will finally understand, that the rights of our people cannot be bartered away, that we will never be protectors of United States interests and that attempts at hegemony and domination in certain regions will fail because of .the consciousness of our nation and its commitment to its history, heritage, land and values. Themanoeuvres of the rapid deployment forces to be conducted soon in our Arab region-manoeuvres in which Israel will, of course, be participating-will not weaken the will of our people. We consider such .a flexing of muscles an actual threat directed against us; but it will not intimidate us or discourage us from striving to achieve our national goals, foremost among which is the regaining of our usurped rights. We are confident that the Arab masses and the masses of liberated peoples ail over the world stand in one trench against the threat of aggression. -* 78. Mr. LING ,Qing (China) @z?~rpretutiun fro& Chinese): At the outset, please allow ,me, on behalf of the Chinese delegation, warmly to congratulate you, Sir, on your assumption of the presidency for the month of August. We are convinced that your wisdom and dipiomatic skill are a strong -assurance that the Council will successfully discharge its duties this month. . “The Jewish government will act to strengthen settlements, to expand and consolidate them. . . “In future negotiations for the signing of a peace treaty between Israel and its neighbours, any proposal for the removal or evacuation of Jewish settlements will be rejected.“* 73. And yet, in spite of all that, Begin is suffering from melancholy and nervous depression. Melancholy has become the illness which has afflicted that Israeli official because he does not want to return the occupied Arab territories. The failure to return those territories should lead to melancholy, not vice versa. 74. Do we still wonder about the source of this arrogance by Israel? The rewarding of the aggressor with tools of death and destruction such as F-16 aircraft that are once again pouring into Israel, enabling it through the revived strategic alliance to control the fate of our nation, our wealth and our strategic location: that is the source of its arrogance. As for United States political support of Israel, suffice it to recall that you have seen in the Council how the United States prevented the implementation of unanimously adopted resolutions condemning the establishment of settlements the annexation of Jerusalem and its proclamation as Israel’s capital. The Council, also unanimously, in resolution 497 (1981), called on Israel to rescind its annexation of the Golan Heights. The United States has also prevented the implementation of resoiutions 508 (1982) and 509 (1982), which demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Israel ‘from Lebanese territory to the internationally recogxiized boundaries of Lebanon. 79. The fact that the Council has held numerous meetings to consider the situation in the occupied Arab territories amply demonstrates the concern of the international community over the situation in that region. However, in spite of this fact, there have been recurrent incidents of Israeli violation of the inalienable rights of the Arab and Palestinian people in the occupied Arab territories. 80. Recently, the Israeli authorities decided, in spite of the strong opposition of the Arab people, to establish a settlement in downtown Al-Khalil. This illegal decision has further aggravated the tension in that region. 75. The Syrian Arab Republic would like once again to urge the Council to shoulder its responsibility for impiementing its resolutions. International peace and security are truly jeopardized. Owing to United States policy, the Council has become a rostrum for rhetoric. My colleague from Jordan shares that view. Tlie Council has become a rostrum for rhetoric and not a place for effective intemationai action; however, at one time peoples and States placed full confidence in the Council’s ability to prevent wars and eliminate aggression. 81. On 7 July, a large-scale attack on Arab civilians occurred in Al-KhaiiI. Roughly 90 per cent of the stalls operated by Arabs in that city’s market were burnt down by arsonists, and acting Mayor Mustapha Al-Natshe was dismissed by the Israeli authorities without cause. I 76. We call upon the United States to enable the Council to take effective steps, in accordance with Chapter VII of the Charter, to ensure the unconditional withdrawal of the aggressors from ail of the occupied Arab territories 82. On 26 July, a band of armed Israeli settlers organized a raid on the Islamic. University in Al-Khaiil and indiscriminately machine-gunned students, faculty and staff members, inflicting heavy casualties. To this day, the Israeli authorities are still sending military and police reinforcements to step up their suppression of the unarmed * Quoted in English by the speaker. . .9 83. The representatives of Arab countries and the representative of the PLO have revealed numerous facts which eloquently show that the terrorist tactics. used by the Israeli authorities in this instance to persccute‘the indigenous inhabitants are entirely premeditated with the express aim of changing the demographic composition so as to legitimize the Israeli settlement scheme. 84. One recalls that the Israeli authorities have unapolOgetically and openly declared their intention to settle 400,000 Israelis in the West Bank in the next five years and 1.4 million in the next 30 years. The Israeli intention to annex the occupied Arab territories in the West Bank is clear as day, and Israel cannot shirk responsibility for this latest tragedy. ’ 85. Israel’s wanton crimes of oppression and persecution against the .Palestinian Arab people are not only in flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August I949,2 but are aiso an open defiance of resolutions of the Council. . 86. The Council has on numerous occasions adopted resolutions explicitly calling on Israel immediately to cease any action that may change the legal status, physical character and demographic composition of the Arab and Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, and to guarantee the welfareand human rights of the inhabitants of the. occupied territories. However, in disregard of those resolutions, the Israeli authorities have created more” incidents in annexing occupied Arab territories. 87. _ Israel’s policy of aggression and expansion has further jeopardized peace and security in the region and in the world at large. In the past 30 years, the Palestinian people have endured untold sufferings Millions of Paiestinians have been forced from their homeland and thousands have lost their lives. However, the heroic Palestinian people, under the leadership of the PLO, their sole legitimate representative, have carried out anunremittingstruggle to realize their sacred aspirations to recover their homeland and establish their own independent State. They have .won the sympathy and support of the international community.~ 88. The Chinese Government has always opposed the crimes and illegal activities carried out by the Israeli authontres in the occupied Arab and Palestinian ter&oties, has strongly condemned the aggressive and expansionist policy of the Israeli authorities in Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights and has resolutely supported the just struggle of the Arab countries ‘and the Palestinian people to recover lost territories and ‘to regain national rights. .’ j 89. The Chinese delegation is of the view that the grave . . and worsening situation in the occupied Arab territories 90.‘. The‘ PRESIDENT (inferpretation from F&&z): The next speaker is the representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement.

In the name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful, I take refuge in God from Satan the Accursed. “Whom God doth guide,-he is on the right path: whom He rejects from Hisguidance,-such are the persons who perish. ^. “Many are the Jinns and men We. have made for Hell: they have hearts wherewith they understand not, eyes wherewith they see not, and ears wherewith they hear not. They are like cattle,-nay more misguided: for they are heedless (of warning). “The most beautiful names -belong to God: so call on him by them; but shun such men as use profanity in His names: for what they do, they will soon be requited. .; “Of those We have created are people who direct (others) with truth. And dispense justice therewith. “Those who reject Our Signs, We shall gradually visit with punishment, in ways they perceive .not.“3* 92. As my entire message is based on and developed according to the Holy Koran, it. is most appropriate if I address myself from this platform primarily to all Mushms of the world who are represented, or probably misrepresented, in this international body and then to the Security Council, not with respect to what it is but in honour of what it should be. ,, ,‘.) 93. I, shall proceed in the hght of Koranic wisdom in order to expose the roots of today’s problem, the problem of Palestine, a problem that, thanks to zionism and imperialism, is the greatest tragedy of our time. I pray to Allah that these Koranic verses may revive the divine light in the hearts of my once-committed Muslim brothers who have regrettably degraded themselves to pasture in the poisonous’ green land of secularism. As for the non-Muslim audience, I hope the verses can be taken as a passage through some of the moral and spiritual codes of Islam and their implications in terms of international issues. Let us’hope that the passage may-also ignite in their hearts a healthy interest in divine faiths in general and in Islam in particular. *Quoted in Arabic by the speaker. “Whom God doth guide,-he is on the right path: whom He rejects from His guidance,-such are the persons who perish.” 95. Ever since the Muslim people emptied their hearts of the divine light and departed from divine guidance, they have been losing substantially. They forgot their Islamic identity and thus they became tolerant of colonialism and imperialism. They forgot the Koranic guidance-that reads, in sura III, verse 103: “And hold fast, all together, by the Rope which God (stretches out for you), and be not divided among yourselves; and remember with gratitude God’s favour on you; for ye were enemies and He joined your hearts in love, so that by His Grace, ye became brethren; and ye were on the brink of the Pit of Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus doth God make His Signs clear to you: that ye may be guided.” They forgot this guidance and ignorantly accepted the satanic Zionist principle of nationalism all over the Muslim world. They were split up and dispersed into many small units-kingdoms, sheikhdoms and tigure-headdams, each fighting the other over where to draw the line that the mandatory Powers, the satanic Powers, had given them as national boundaries. 96. Some went so far in their secular and nationalistic perversion as blatantly to fight to eradicate all elements of faith in God in favour of proud servility to some grand or petty satanic Powers. They lost Palestine because they neglected their duties that stem from sura II, verse 114: “And who is more unjust than he who forbids that in places for the worship of God, God’s name should be celebrated?-whose zeal is (in fact) to ruin them? It was not ,fitting that such should themselves enter them except in fear. For them there is nothing but disgrace in this world, and in the world to come, an exceeding torment.” And the ignominy and the awful doom are that, having forgotten our duties stemming from that verse, the more playfully and irresponsibly we Muslims reacted to the occupation, the more we lost. The Muslim world has been so impregnated by the filth of blasphemy and secularism that we not only lost Palestine and all our natural, -economic, human and cultural resources, but even the very sense of feeling the pain of all that great loss, It is in this context that the following verse becomes very relevant and revealing: !‘Many are the Jinns and men We have made for Hell: they have hearts wherewith they understand not, eyes wherewith they see not; and ears wherewith they Some remain so blind, deaf and dumb that they are sinking into an ocean of garbage; yet they gluttonously swallow more of it. 97. There was a time when those who have signed a peace treaty with the Zionist enemy prayed only to God, feared no one but God and sought help only from God, as they repeated every day in their prayers: “It is YOU we worship and it is You we ask for help.” In those days, they were supreme. As the blessings of those prayers were forgotten, they began to obey anyone but God, particularly the Great Satan. They surrendered either to American or to Russian materialism. Consequently, they proudly enjoyed the humiliation of the Camp David acbords. They lost sensitivity to the painful and expanding dirty boil of Zionism that has been implanted in the bottom of their beloved Palestine by the imperialist Powers. 98. King Hussein of Jordan, who is now longing for a peace treaty with the Zionist entity, was once proud of his Hashemite ancestry. The Saudi .monarchy, which is now proud of mimicking the criminal Shah of Iran, humbly obedient to the United States and Zionist agents and heretically preventing Muslims from making their pilgrimage, was once proud of pretending to be the gateman of the House of God and serving the pilgrims. And those who are zealously awaiting a tamed, defenceless Palestinian quarter in the West Bank, to be called President Reagan’s Palestinian State, were once the noble citizens of the blessed land Barak ria Houlahu. They, as well as many Muslim rulers all over the world, have totally forgotten sura XVII, verse 1: “Glory to (God) who did take His Servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless,-in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for ‘He is the One Who heareth and seeth (all things).” They all have become so alienated-as a matter of fact, we all have become so alienated-and metamorphosed that when a group tired of communism, capitalism and the dirty Shah of westemism intends to retire back to its homeland of Islam, they all attack like cannibal wolves to smother anyone who raises the cry of “Allah-o-Akbar.” Why7 It is simply because, as sura III, verse 14, says: “Fair in the eyes of men is the love of things they covet: women and sons; heaped-up hoards of gold and silver; horses branded (for blood and excellence); and (wealth of) cattle and well-tilled land. Such are the possessions of this world’s life; but in nearness to God is the best of the goals (to return to).” 99. Some gunmen at the University in Hebron killed 3 people and injured 33 others. Zionist soldiers opened fire on the demonstrators and killed a woman. The Zionist usurpers are still building more settlements in the West 104. Palestine can be liberated only if the problem of Palestine is understood and tackled in the light of, and on the basis of, divine, just principles. The occupation of Palestine is not the cause of the tragedy; it is the effect of a more fundamental occupation, the occupation of the entire hearts and minds of the Muslims by secular, materialist and mundane values. Unless we purify ourselves of this mundane, modem jahiliya, we are not liberated, and hence we cannot liberate anything. Those who want to help the people of Hebron or who wish to liberate Palestine should well remember the solution. 100. It is under such circumstances that the Council is meeting today. Please tell us: we meet to do what? Who are some of the members of the Council? The meeting of the Council after the massacres of Sabra and Shatila [2396th meeting] was very crowded. There was even an emergency special session of the General Assembly. What happened then? Of course, there are others besides my delegation who have the guts to tell the truth, and I am so pleased to see that others are criticizing the Council or looking at it more realistically. It is nice to hear many more voices expressing the impotence of the Council in the implementation of the Charter of the United Nations. But, since its inception, the Council has never promised to be any different or better than it is now. Sad is the fact that a pacifying resolution by the same Council might be taken so seriously by the clients, as weare, as if it were the liberation of the occupied land. 101. It is interesting that sometimes we present detailed accounts of the Zionist crimes emotionally and accurately 106. Those who play at diplomacy to help the people of to the Council, as if permanent members of the Council Al-Khalil, those who show concern for the cause of Palescannot read the newspapers, or none of them have an tine and those who pretend to feel the pain of domination embassy in the Zionist base to inform their foreign ofIices in the claws of zionism and imperialism must remember of the crimes perpetrated in Hebron .or in Lebanon. this, from sura II, verse 194: 102. I should like again to address myself to my Muslim brothers and to remind them that adversity is not that gunmen in Hebron killed 3 people and injured 33. More painful is the fact that, like polite plaintiffs, we present our humble complaints to the same gunmen, who have formed this international body for their own purposes and who have subsequentiy maintained their full control over it. Indeed, we who have more faith in the temple of the United Nations than in almighty God deserve this humiliation and much more. Brothers! Is it not that we have totally forgotten sura III, verse 139: “So lose not heart, nor fall into despair: for ye must gain mastery if ye are true in Faith.” You have forgotten sura V, verse 57: “0 ye who believe! Take not for friends and protectors those who take your religion for a mockery or sport-whether among those who received the Scrip ture before you, or among those who reject Faith; But fear ye God, if ye have Faith (indeed).*’ 103. It is too sad that Muslim rulers have forgotten the endless power of their own people and the resources that almighty God has given them and have consequently become so humble and low in front of the super-Powers That solution is as follows, in sura IV, verse 75: “And why should ye not fight in the cause of God and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated (and oppressed)?- men, women, and children, whose cry is: ‘Our Lord! Rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from Thee one who will protect; and raise for us from Thee one who will help.“’ 105. Fi sabi Illah: that means “for the sake of God”: in the way of God, and not for nationalism or any other “ism”. “If then any one transgresses the prohibition against you, transgress ye likewise against him. But fear God, and know that God is with those who restrain themselves.” 107. To prepare for the Zionist aggressor, we cannot play at diplomacy, brothers, or negotiate for a word or a phrase. We have to mobilize all our resources. The Koranic dictum is this, in sura VIII, verse 60: “Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies, of God and your enemies, and others besides, whom ye may not know, but whom God doth know. Whatever ye shall spend in the Cause of God, shall be repaid unto you, and ye shall not, be treated unjustly.*’ 108. Full mobilization means all the assets that are deposited in the Zionist banks; this, of course, includes the large sums the Saudi Arabians,’ upon the command of the Americans, pay in desperation to your Government, Mr. President, for the deadly weapons that your Govemment so generously makes available to the Zionist Saddam in order to kill us. However, France is not the only permanent member of the Council that is involved in this .practice. As a matter of fact, all of the old guardians of 109. Full mobilization means the entire market of the Muslim world, the entire economy of the Muslim world. It means all the raw materials-so many good things: it means all the oil and its power, and, above all, it means the endless ocean of the Muslim population, plus the oppressed people all over the world-in Africa and in Latin America-who are longing for emancipation. 110. But this full mobilization becomes possible if, and only if, our good Muslim brothers resort to Islam and if they remember that: “The most beautiful names belong to God: so call on him by them; but shun such men as use profanity in His Names: for what they do, they will soon be requited.” And if they neglect the remembrance of divine names, then the following will be the consequence for them: “Of those We have created are people who direct (others) with truth. And dispense justice therewith. “Those who reject Our Signs, We shall gradually visit with punishment, in ways they perceive not.” That is exactly where some Muslims are going now: “in ways they perceive not”. 111. Instead of preparing for Muslims actually to move to Palestine, rulers of the Islamic countries come to the President of the Council and to the Council itself: to that agent which actually forged a birth certificate for the illegitimate child left behind by the international conspiratorial engagement of global Zionism and imperialism 35 years ago. It is too sad that our Muslim brothers are deliberately confusing a part of the problem for a part of the solution. 112. Shortcomings and malfunctionings of the Council in this context are irrelevant, I mean that even if the Council were functioning efficiently, it would still not be even the least appropriate clinic for treating the malady of Palestine. 113. The Muslim people of Iran shall not spare any effort or sacrifice to liberate the holy land of Palestine. The herds of criminal Zionists who have gathered together around some conscientious members of the Council shall be respectfully escorted back to their stables in the United States and Europe where they came from. 114. Palestine shall be completely cleansed of the Zionists and their American and Western supporters,, who have wishfully but wrongly speculated on them, hoping to plunder the rest of the Muslim world. That is impossible. -

First of all, Sir, I wish to congrati ulate you on your assumption of the presidency of the Council for this month. We wish you success in carrying out this important responsibility. 117. We wish also to convey our congratulations to the representative of the People’s Republic of China on the manner in which he guided the Council during the month of July. 118. When reviewing the records of the Security Council, the General Assembly and other bodies of the United Nations system, one frequently encounters the complaints and criticisms by the representatives of Israel and its United States ally regarding what they consider a useless exercise and a waste of resources owing to the excessive attention given by this forum to the problems of the Middle East and, in particular, to the question of Palestine. It is only logical that both countries should be concerned over the fact that the international community is considering this question. It is only logical that they are bothered by the fact that international public opinion should hear the crimes being committed by the Israeli governing clique against the Palestinian people and other Arab peoples. It is logical also that Tel Aviv and Washington should become angry over the fact that their complicity and joint responsibility for the deteriorating situation in the Middle East have been exposed in this forum. Both the Israeli leaders and their strategic allies would very much prefer that the international community played along with their sophisticated campaign of disinformation aimed at presenting the victims as the victimizers and vice versa, thereby facilitating the implementation of their expansionist and neo-colonialist plans against the Palestinian people and, in general, against all Arab peoples. 119. But times have changed. Each day it becomes increasingly difficult to hide the truth from world public opinion, and, gradually, the cause of the Palestiniin people, the cause of the Arab peoples, has become the cause of mankind. 120. With every passing day there is increasing worldwide condemnation of the insane policy of the nazi-fascist clique in Tel Aviv and increasing demand for a just and lasting settlement of the conflict in the Middle East. 121. The Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, which now encompasses 101 countries, has played an important role in this. At the Seventh Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, held at New Delhi from 7 to 12 March, the Heads of State or Govemment reiterated their conviction that there could not be any just and lasting peace in the Middle East without Israel’s total and unconditional withdrawal from all Palestinian and Arab territories occupied since 1967, including 122. These principles, as well as innumerable resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly, have daily been violated by the Israeli leaders in their efforts to obstruct any peace initiative not in keeping with their expansionist and aggressive policies and their plans aimed at destroying the resistance of the Palestinian people, and the people themselves, and at subjecting the other Arab peoples. 123. This explains the well-known .policy of faits accomplis that has been pursued by the Zionists since well before the creation of the State of Israel and all its criminal actions over the past few years, such as the intensification of the settlements policy in the occupied Palestinian and Arab territories, the annexation of the city of Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights, the genocidal acts against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples, the constant threats against Syria and other Arab countries and the resurgence of repression of all kinds against the Palestinian people in the occupied territories, such as the terrorist actions which only recently have added to the long list of innocent Palestinian victims of the Israeli forces, which have tried in vain to drown in blood the Palestinian people’s legitimate struggle against their oppressor. On this policy of the Israeli Government, the President of Cuba, Fidel Castro, in his statement on the occasion ‘of the Seventh Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, stated: “We were all shocked and horrified by the satanic spectacle of the guerrilla invasion of southern Lebanon and the treacherous aggression against Syria, the genocidal attack-on Beirut and the cruel killings in Sabra and Shatila. The heroic conduct and indomitable courage of the Palestinian combatants and .the Lebanese patriots won the admiration of the entire world. Never has the Palestinian cause seemed more just than now, when it stands in stark contrast to the wanton brutality of its adversaries. The world.will not forget the heroism of those against whom aggression is committed or the barbarity of the aggressors. “It is tragic that the Jewish people, who aroused compassion and universal sympathy when Hitler threatened their extermination, have been induced by zionism to take part in this insane genocide. Yet even in Israel there has arisen a clamour for peace and a 125. How can one explain that Israel is able with impunity to continue this policy of disregard for the various resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly, in open defiance of the will of the entire international community? All this can be’explained, as has already been stated by so many previous speakers in the debate, by what we daily read in the press and by the declarations of the spokesmen for the Tel Aviv regime and for the United States Administration regarding the grdwing political, diplomatic, economic and military support that Israel has been receiving from its strategic ally, the United States. This strategic alliance also explains the arrogance of the Israeli imperialists in other parts of the world, such as Central America, where we find the long Zionist tentacles supplying military assistance to the former guards of Somoza, who, with the open support of the Reagan Administration, are vainly. trying to stem the course of history and drown in blood the victorious revolution of the heroic sons of Sandino. 126. Today the Council is meeting to consider the latest criminal actions of the Israeli occupying forces, particularly in the city of Hebron. If the insane policies of the Tel Aviv rtgime are not stopped, how many more crimes will we have to consider in the Security Council and the General Assembly? That is why the time has come for the Council fully to exercise the responsibilities conferred on it by the Charter of the United Nations and take appropriate action to put a timely end to the misdeeds of the Israeli occupying forces and promote a just and lasting settlement of the Middle East conflict, especially its root cause, the problem of Palestine.

I wish to take this opportunity to expressto you, Sir,‘on behalf of my delegation and my Government and on my own behalf, sincerest congratulations on your assumption of the presidency for the month of August. I became personally acquainted with you during my, stay in your great country, France, and I am aware of your outstanding ability. That ability, together with your skill and wisdom, as well as your country’s policies of principle in 128. I wish also to express my thanks and that.of my Government to Mr Ling Qing, the representative of China-and to his country-for the tact, flexibility and competence with which he guided the Council’s proceedings last month. We were able to appreciate. his wellknown skills and diplomacy when the Council was seized of the situation in the occupied Arab territories in informal consultations and formal meetings. 136. The international press and news media coverage, particularly the reports published recently in The New York Times and The Christian Science Monitor, have also given a graphic ‘description of the shootings and killings which took place in Al-Khalil. It is also evident from that press coverage that the Israeli policy of annexation has been challenged by the determined opposition of the Palestinian people and that the continuing brutal oppression and indiscriminate killing in the occupied territories have only intensified their determination to resist such acts of oppression and State terrorism. .,, 129. Most unfortunately, I must point out the factthat the representative of Iran used this forum in a way that was contrary to its. purposes. I ,do not object to the reiigious lesson he presented to the Council-although I am not convinced that this is the right place for it-nor do I wish to discuss his attacks on Arab nationalism, but I believe that this is also not the place to give vent to any misgivings about that. : 130. Similarly, I do not object to what he said about Jordan and its foreign policy, although I consider that to be fishing in troubled waters and some sort of opportunism. 137. The United Nations, through the Security Council and the General Assembly, has tried repeatedly to bring justice to the suffering Palestinian people. But one of its Members, Israel, has deliberately and arrogantly rejecteci one United Nations resolution after another and openly flouted the voice of this world body. After making its moves to change the status of Holy Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights, which were condemned unequivocally by the international community, Israel, in pursuit .of its drive to liquidate the Palestinian people and its sole legitimate representative, the PLO, invaded Lebanon last summer. In open violation of all international law and the decision of the United Nations, Israel has continued to occupy a major part of that country. In .the face of determined opposition by the heroic Palestinian people, Israel has once again unleashed a reign of terror in the occupied territories. 131. However, I vehemently reject what he said about the Hashemite family, for which ail Muslims and Arabs have the greatest respect and love because of its religious position in our region and the services that it continues to render, with prudence and wisdom, to the Arab cause. .132. The PRESIDENT (inrerprerarion from French): The next speaker is the representative of Bangladesh. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement.

Sir, the Bangladesh delegation is pleased to see France presiding over the Council. The very friendly and cordial relations existing between our two countries are a source of great satisfaction to us. The deep and sincere feelings with which France advocates the cause of international peace and the just struggles of oppressed peoples is well known. We have no doubt that, with your outstanding diplomatic skill, the deliberations of the Council will lead to positive results. 138. Despite the brutal repression, the heroic Palestinian youth have demonstrated that they cannot and will not be subjugated by violence. It is also evident that the inalienable rights .of the Palestinian people cannot -be denied them and that their sole legitimate representative, the PLO, cannot be silenced. - 139. Bangladesh’s stand on the question of Palestine and the Middle East is firm and unequivocai; it is not based on political expedience. Our consistent position stems from our firm belief in the’ purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. It is founded on our enduring commitment to the cause of oppressed peoples all over the world struggling to free themselves from the bondage of colonialism, aggression and exploitationpeoples engaged in establishing their inalienable right to self-determination, national freedom and political independence. It is rooted in the ideals of tolerance and the conviction that men and women of all religions and all races can live together in an environment of peace, justice and equality. It is geared to uphold the right of every 134. I should also like to take this opportunity to convey our deep appreciation to your distinguished predecessor, Mr. Ling Qing, the representative of the People’s Republic of China, for his outstanding leadership in guiding the work of the Council during the month of July. We have all noted the skill, ability and energy with which he conducted the Council’s work. 135. The Council is again seized of a crisis arising out of Israeli aggression and barbarity in the occupied Arab and Palestinian territories. The recent criminal and shameful attacks carried out by a band of armed Israeli settlers, under the guidance of Israeli occupation authorities, _. 141, The very recent barbarous attack on Palestinians is not -just another instance of such outrageous actions for which Israel is notorious; it further confirms the real intention of the Israeli authorities of which the Council has been warned time and again. There can be no shadow of doubt that the. primary intention is to terrorize the people of Palestine so that they vacate their homeland, which Israel appears determined to annex. 142. This is indeed a matter of the utmost gravity and concern khich, if permitted to go unchallenged, will have serious international repercussions and set a most dangerous precedent for other expansionist Powers to follow. As such, it is imperative for the Council to proceed urgently, .( 143. Recent developments in .the occupied territories have demonstrated beyond any shadow of doubt that the lack of firm and expeditious action on the part of the Council only contributes to an aggravation of the situation. A particularly heavy responsibility therefore falls on the permanent members of the Council to enable it to carry out its primary responsibility to bring peace to the afflicted region. 144, In conclusion, I wish to reiterate my delegation’s readiness fully to uphold the adoption of any concrete and effective measures by the Council, in accordance with thk Charter, for bringing an end to Israeli aggression and occupation and for the promotion of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. The meeting rose at 7.05 p.m. NOTES ’ See Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (Washington, D.C., U.S. Govr?ment Printing Office, 1982). vol. 18, No. 35, p. 1081. .’ * United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, No. 973. ’ The Holy Koran, VlI:178-182 ‘_ ‘. . , 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 Genr\a. 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