S/PV.2911 Security Council

Mr. Clovfs Haksaud, Rermanent Observer of the Leaque of Arab States to the United Nations, to whom the Council, at the 2910th meetinq, extended an invitation under rule 39 of its orovieional rules of procedure viahes to make a statement. 1 4nvtta him Cn +ko 1 nlrm r, fhe r..uwu4l trhlo gfiA + m&a f.h+t etatp6UMtt, -...-- __-... -- ----v -- -__- -__.____ ----- Mr. MAKSOUD: On behalf of the Leaque of Arab States, 1 should like to tell YOU, Sir, hw oroud ve are at seebna vou Dresidins over the Security Council tadav . Your oresidency is the crowninq mint of your commitment to the broad Arab cmmeo, and soecificallv to the cause of human liberation. Your countrv has (Mr. Makaaud) qrmtlv cmttibuted in tbie Orqanizatim to the cause of mace. Your diplosatfc talent5 and your intellectual wherance and inteqrfty have been pajor easeta for the Arab Grow and the League of Arab States. A qreat deal bee been eaid today about the purwses of the deliberations by the Securitv Council. These deliberations are beina held at a verv crucial time in the evolution of the wace oracess. (Hr. Maksaud) The issue as it arises during the oresent crisis amidst the authorities qoverninq Israel - a crisis which has led today to the vote of no confidence in the Shamir Government - carries with it the seeds of continued procrastination and DaralySis, and thus an attemot to disguise what is taking place in Israel in term of delay and prevarication under the oretense of f orminq a new Governments In a way, Israel seeks to hold its violation0 of the hlv&an and national tiqhts of the Palestinians, of the Geneva Convention, of international law, hoataqe tO its new internecine political situation. Therefore, while the debate in the Couucil is taking olace, we are at the same tirae in a situatiar which soam miaht think is promisiuq because of the so-called flenibilitv in stvle that mioht emeroe as a result of the reaPova of Mr. Shamir. Yet, what is essential is the constants and not the surface variables of the political conditions in the Israeli Inlitical equation. Heuce, it is important not to be derailed or diverted from the substantive focus of the issues involved, not 0n1v as a consequence of the massive Soviet Jeui& immiotation, but also of the whole problematic that fsrael~s continued intransigence am3 procrastination have introduced. Let PSB refer to the Israeli etatements and contrived paranoia, either about the Soviet Union or about Arab Ma Palestinian objectives in Palestine. That aontrived oaranoia is prediaatm3 an the basic phil~muhie constants of the rshOle 2 ian iet prearanm. That was demonstrated today in this debate bv the insistence that the whole raiser d’8tre of the Israeli State is that it is a haven for all the .T-YE. mm nraamr4hd ifi ti pn-r?~llaA Lgw 0Q Return. we in the Arab States heve -w-w, - ---------- ----.- deci&d not to try to vieit historv but to trv to me11 out the future. But if historv is to be briefly visited, then let us extamine thie Israeli insistence on the massive Soviet-Jewish immioration and let us uxreot the deliberate aietartione of our Palestinian and Arab resistance to that imioratian. (MC. Makeoud) The Law of R&urn which, accocdiuq to the Israeli cepcesenkatives. ie the caison d*&tce of khe State of Israel, is a law of cetucn that excludes the riqht of Cetucn of Palestinian cefuuees to their homes inside Israel. In the saxe way, it denies the cisht of the Palestinian People in the occupied Palestinian territory to self-detecmiuatfon and the independence of its State. That bu of Return is exclusive, and it iu exclusive because it suells out in no uncertain terms that the land of Palestine is the anchor of the ultimate Jewish destinv. What did we eav? What did the Arab Leaque Summit resolution state? What did the Palestine National Council state in 1988 when it declared the independent State of Palestine7 They have acquiesced to the partition. They have reooqnioed the two-State system in historic Palestine. Thev have reooqnised the leqalitv Of the international oonsensus a8 it was soellea out in Security Council resolukion 242 (1963 e whereby the occupied tecritortee of Palestine are the peramters of the national patrimony of the Palestinian Stake. All this is sweut away by invdcinq distorted transhtions of editorials and iridfvidual writers. All this, as a manifestation of the oonstant coccaitments of the Arab States, the Aceb teaque and khe Palestine Liberation Oraaniaetfon (Pfo), is nok taken eeciouelv because Israel wants to aecertain its amstants, whether it ie a Likud oc a tatwuc Governumt. what are those constants? First that the “land for mace. formula ie to cemein in limbo. On the 4(18 hand, the Ltkua Party Btat&3 that EC8tZ ISr8el iS the land of Israel - ndmelV, the West Bank, the Gasa Strio, the Golan Heishte, and now southern Lebanon - but that their a~exation is ta ha &ma qra~ua!@: C?ran??aW*: 6UCC8MftfOU61V - creePins annexation, Others are sayin that ‘land fOc Deace’ ie an acceptable formula. But they do not spe~ifv whet land. Thev do not ackuowledqe that they sf8 in the occupied territories as an occuwins PoweC. They do not a&it that khe s@ktiementa ace illeoal. A5 a matkec of faot, we mu8k not forget that in (Mr. Haksoud) the ccmtant~ of Israeli policies, those settlements Were established by the Labour bwernrent and oroliferated in the Lfkud Government afterwards. Themfore, the Lao of Raturn is Dart of the plan of an Parael vhich is still indeterminable today, because, a8 we all know, Iarael is the onlv State that has no announced borders or frantiers. Therefore, throuah the Law of Return and the encouraaement of aaesive Gloviet-Jewish immiaratlon, Iarael ie aavina that it haa to be recoqniaed not aa a State but af$ a “State in the maklna”. Where does that cmxeaa take Place? That cannot be annamced or declared. for fear that thase who #uDOort Iarael siaht withold their mmoort, because, if vou do not nesotiate m the baeie of borders, then what are vou nwotiatinq? {Mr, Makocud) That is the mot of the virulent Israeli Bbjections and oppositicn to the PIA) as the neqotiatora ou behalf of the Palestinian people. It is in that context that we must rediscover what the constants reallV are. They are that East Jeru8alem is occupied territorv; that Jerusalem ia the capital of the Paletinian 8tate; that Jerusalem is part of the Arab Patriot that Jerusalem is as sacred to the Muslim and the Christian as it ie to the Jew. It is therefore inconceivable, so lone as Jerusalem is defined as includim sore than 30 per cent of the West Bank , to say that it constitutes the so-called eternal capital of Israel. When the President of the United States states the East Jerusalera is occupied tertitont, all hell breaks loose because he has touched a raw nerve in the basic thrust of Zionist ideoloqy, When President Buah state8 that there should be no new settlements in East Jerusalem, Israelis respond, with totally self-riqhteous BPrcqance, that there is no such thfnq a8 settlements in East Jerusalem: the expanded are88 of East Jerusalem are new %eiahbourhoode”. That i8 f3eWmtiC acrobatics at its best. In truth we are facina not only a diplomatic and aolitical oroblem; we are facihq a conceotual and ohilosouhiaal challenqe. fstaeli deleqatfons CepB(Lt that L-zrael is the haven for the Jews and project the notion that anti=SemitieW is inherent in human uature, that anti-Semitism is inevitable, and that therefore 8n evpandina Ierael is inevitable. Othsrwiee how cm we explain that masolve Jewish immiqratian to Israel is euch 8 cardinal mint? Tod8v tt is the Boviet &Net tomorrow it mioht be other Jewst earlier it was Ethiopian Jews. In the Soviet Union, before the current proue8s of deuvcratization, we had the .ref~~~niks~l the United States exercieed its influenca to secure the riqht of emtarativn for loviet Jews. Bcw that deIm?ratizatioc has taken Place, Boviet Jews remin potential (Mr. Maksoud) taraets of oersecution and discrimination. In both cases, Iarael is seekirw to oroject the notion that in everv svstem, whether SllpDreSSiVe or democratic, Jews are tarqeted for inevitable persecution and discrimination. What the Israelis are tfyinq to do throuqh this contrived oaranoia is establish the Drecedent that Israel is tbe ultimate locus for the entire Jewish diaepora. Then thev oroclaim that the Palestinians and the Arab States are addicted to i paranoia. Where is this mass of Soviet Jew qoinq to settle? That brines u9 to the new “aspirin”. The aspirin is that Soviet Jewish immiqrants prefer the cities and do not want to qo into settlements. They keep repeatinq ad infinitum that 1 Per cent of Soviet Jews have settled in the occupied territories. It is 1 per cent now, 2 oer cent tomorrow, 5 per cent later on: so lolps as the settlements are treated as focal points for territorial annexation, how can we expect the Israeli Government to say that Soviet Jews are not aoina to be encourmed to ao there, but that other Jews can ao? As a matter of fact, American Jews constitute 60 oer cent’ of the settlers in the occupied territories today - and those American Jews were not the object either of discrimination or of persecution. Therefore the flocx3qates have the wtential to oDen, especially when Isfaelr a6 indicated in its reemmee to the Baker Plan, wants deliberatelv to effclude the option of self-determination for the Palestinian people bv &Clarim that anYaV with direct or indirect connections with the PI1) oannot be entrusted with neootiated so-called municipal riqhte in the Weat Bank and Gaze. It i8 the aeeumution that anti-Semitism is inevitable - maybe not in one etaqe, but in phases - that has been a basic chellense for the Palestinian people* for the Arabs and for the international communitvr it has also constituted a fundamental challenqe to the Jewish uopulatfan wherever it miaht be. If there is any attempt at discrimination aqainst Jews anvwhere , what should be advocated is (Mr. Maksoud) confrontinq the discriminators, not runninq away; not coexistinq with the discriminator, but facinq him, fiqhtinq him, confrmtinq him. In the United States, in Britain, in our countries we have experienced all forms of discrimination. But to the Americans, to the Soviets, to the Arabs, discrimination is a oroblem. To Israel, as to aoartheid South Africa, it is a policv. The contrived paranoia that they are inevitably qoinq to be Persecuted Its thus an attemot to justify and prescribe future emansion in the next historioal uhase of the Zionist plan. This is suirltual violence conducted ohilosophicallv not only against ~8~ but aqainst the sense of belonqim and inteqratfar that Jews all over feel: the feellnq that thev are Dart of the countries and swieties W which they belanq. It is accer&d that there miqht be individual Soviet Jews, or individual Jews anywhere, who are discriminated aqainst and persecuted, and that their riqht of emiqcattou should be queranteed. The riqht of eraiqration anywhere should be acoeotable: it is a vart of human riqhts that muet be exercicred in total freedom. But massive immiqrstion because of a particular reliqioue or ethnic backsround lo e form of racism in reverse. And as the Chairman of the Arab Group, the reDresentative 04 3or&mr said todey, w discriminate aeainst the rioht of the Palestinian refuqees in Lebanon, in Syria and in Jordan to have access to their homes because they are not of the Jewish pereuaeion ie institutional Biearimination. (Mr. Maksoud) - So the problem we face today ia not a question of immisration under the rubric of huolan riqhte. It is the attempt to build a new empire in a State that is borderlean, that e%.cathedta has annexed the Golan Haiqhte and East Jerusalem in Vhl8tiOn Of all United Nations resolutions, and expanded through creepinq anne%atlon in the West Bank, that lays claim to the West Dank and Gaza under the pretent of “Judea and Samaria”. All that causes us much profound anxiety with regard to our national securitv. This is not Paranoia. Ye have had a oattern in which we have seen in the first wave of immiqration in the afterunth of the partition of Palestine that the Palestinians were made the tarqete and the victime of the consequences of the crisis of conscience of Western civilization as a result of the trauedv that had befallen many Jews. many Russians and many others throuqhout the world. At that tiuui Israel came to the We8t and said: *We will not ask you anv Rote qUeStion about what You have done to Jeya in the past, provided that you in the West do not ask Ierael what it is 8611’19 to the Palestinians in the oresent.* This mutual absolution of each other’e quilt was at the expense of the Palestinians. The Palestinian people have become reconciled to this realitvr despite the fact that their collective merry will not forset their 6ense Of belong inp . But thev have become reconciled. However, there ie now the new soviet Jewish iIDPPiqrati.on as a new massive W8Ve of immiqration. The slobs1 hietorical chanqee takim place in Eastern Eurooe and the Soviet Union and the raPPro@hement between the two euper-Bowers are welcome developments, and we hope that dem3ctstization can become infectioue. But, 898in, we see a vattern, a aloarmovinq, vieible, oerceptible pattern that preeaqe8 a ccisie of a qlobal nature - Pressure aqainst the loviet Union to allow (Mr. Maknwd) Savlct Jews to emiqrate and to be focused only towards Israel ultimately, restrictions on Access of Soviet Jews to cxxw to the United States - all these are harblnqers of what Is to cOB3. That Is why we do not want the Palestinian people and the Arab8 to become the resolutim of the crisis of conscience on a qlobal level in Its second ohase, a8 we witness today. That is why our Soviet friends had to put a halt to this Issue by focuslffl attention on it , not as the result of a campalqn that we the Arab8 are conductina, but because It Is a matter of national securitv for the future of the Independent Palestinian State and for the future of the Arab nation as a whole. That Is why we consider this to be a matter of serlous and qrave threat to the stability and securltv of the realon, and It is a oreecrlptlon to undermine all the efforts of international iurisdlction that has been aaeertlnq the riqhte of the Palestinian people to self-determination. We believe in neqotlatlonsz we have often repeated this stand. But in the annals of diplomatic hlstorv never has 8n adversary petty tried to determine who should represent the other adversary. Yet, I must say in reflection that the whole thrust of the Israeli oppositfar to the PL0 deoiqnatima its neaotlators OK dlaloquers or discussers is predicated on the fact that Israelis do not recognise the Paleetlnlans as their adversarv, because recoqnlzirrs the Palestinians as their adversarv 1s symmetry of ecJu8lltv. To the Ieraelis, the Pale8tinians are the human obstaales to the unravelllrq of their msnifest destiny. Thnt lo whv thev will not concede th8t the PI0 Is the embodiment of the netlonel Identity of the Dslestlnian oeople and the& will to self-determination and lndeoendencer that is why thev will not recoqnize the P-8 they will not even allow any dtrect vleible or lnvlslble relatlonahlo between the so-called neqotiatore. That la why the qreatest concession they will make la to reolace the Internationally reooqnlsed nation81 (Mr. Wakscud) rishts of the Palestinians uith municioal riahts for Palestiniarr inhabitants in Judna and Samaria. as they say. Hence, perham this whole issue brouoht about as a consequence of Soviet Jewish emiatatian must brim to the forefront and re-oven the whole Palestinian question, for at stake is not onlv the destiny of the Palestinian States and not onlv the future of oeace and securitv in the Middle East. What is equally important is alA0 the insult to the human race which seeks to DUt forward that anti-Semitism is inevitable. And that is the Israeli predicate an whieh Israelis seek to defy the international wnnnunitv and the conscience of mankind. We reject the aseumntiar that anti-Semitism is Dermanent. We think that we should all confront anti-Semitism and end discrimination of any sort. Therefore, those who claim to be fishtina anti-Semitism and yet discriminate aaainst the Palestinian Arabs are as bad as anti-Semites. We want to assume that not all of Israeli society and not 811 of the Jewish constituency believes in this contrived paranoiar but that the Jewish constituencv does have faith in the human conscience and in the total defeat of naziar;l by the avareness and resilience of the human conscience, a8 well as in the defeat of all forms of racism against Jews and Palestinians alike everywhere. The PRESID@JT (interpretation f tom Arabic) : I thank Mr. Makeoud for hia kind vords addressed to me. There are no further sneakera for this meetino. The twixt meeting of the Recuritv Council to contfnue aonsideratim of the item a~ the eoenda will be fined in coneul tation of the members OP the Cooneil. The metins rose at 6 0.m.