134. I wish to start by saluting you, Mr. President, and the great Latin American peoples whom you represent in this high office to which you have so fittingly been elected. With your country, Guatemala, and with all Latin American States, we in Jordan and all the Arab homeland share a common heritage together with common aspirations. Knowing your long experience and distinguished abilities, we are confident that this session of the General Assembly will be guided towards success.
135. In this connexion I feel that I must pay a tribute to your eminent predecessor, Mr. Manescu, whose ability and statesmanship are reflected in the constructive achievements of the last session.
136. May I also be allowed to acknowledge with special appreciation the distinguished and valuable services of the Secretary-General and his associates in the cause of the United Nations and its accomplishments.
137. The entry into the United Nations of the new Member State, Swaziland, brings this world Organization closer to universality. On behalf of my Government and the people of Jordan, I welcome the new State and wish its people continued prosperity and progress.
138. This General Assembly convenes to consider a large variety of problems facing our world today. But indeed, the most serious problem that faces the United Nations is the problem of its own future and its own survival.
139. Many of us seriously fear that the coming years may witness not the growth and maturation of the United Nations, but a weakening of its effectiveness as an expression of man’s hope to live in peace and prosperity and as a means for co-ordinating international efforts towards a better life.
140. The United Nations, which was created to save humanity from the scourge of war, witnesses now, with little action on its part, bloodshed and human tragedies on African and Asian soil.
141. In Viet-Nam, war continues and greater suffering and destruction are witnessed every day. World public opinion strongly demands that this destructive war immediately stop, and that no effort or measure be spared to ensure the success of the Paris peace talks.
142. In Africa, the agony of man and the suppression of human rights are still going on as a result of repressive colonial policies.
143. In the Middle East, in my own country, a unique and, in many ways, anomalous situation exists. A Member of the United Nations, dedicated to the principles of its Charter, and recognized by all who know enough about it as a dynamic, progressive and peace-loving country — Jordan — for almost a year and a half now has been in a most exceptional situation. For almost a year and a half, half of Jordan’s population has been living under foreign military occupation. Nearly one fourth of its population has been reduced to the status of refugees living outside their own homes. The economic unity and progress of the country have been violently disrupted. The holy shrines, which our people have taken historical pride in embracing and protection, have been torn away and shamelessly violated. The legitimate rights of our people, in Jordan and around it, have for the second time been stabbed in the heart, while still awaiting redress for the earlier unprecedented act of injustice and brutality. Misery, damage and destruction as a result of the continued Israeli aggression are seen in every part of Jordan. My people, despite their high morale, are reaching a point where they may lose faith in the practical effectiveness of the moral values and lofty principles that are preached and cherished in the world of today. Israel’s armed aggression has, in my country, a stage on which to operate freely, with no effective international authority to repel it or curb it, or even, in many cases, to condemn it.
144. Nearly a year and a half has passed now since the creation of this abnormal situation, with little hope discernible for a gallant intervention by the world community to remove the aggression manifested in the military occupation of my country’s soil and to right the wrong that has been done.
145. Since the failure of the General Assembly in June and July of last year to act in the right direction, one serious and potentially effective decision was taken by this great world Organization. On 22 November of that year the Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 242(1967) that was meant to be both decisive and reflective of the various tendencies within the Council. In the introduction to his annual report, the Secretary-General states:
"Resolution 242(1967) adopted unanimously by the Security Council on 22 November 1967 was in itself a considerable achievement and provided a basis for a constructive and peaceful approach by both the parties and the international community to the bitter problems of the Middle East. The resolution provided for a special representative ‘to establish and maintain contacts with the States concerned in order to promote agreement and assist efforts to achieve a peaceful and accepted settlement’. This was a heavy responsibility for one man to undertake, but in a practical sense it was the wisest of the obviously limited alternatives.” [A/7201/Add.1, para. 47.]
146. The essence of that resolution was the demand for the withdrawal of the occupying forces of Israel from Jordan and the two sister Arab countries attacked by Israel, as well as the restoration of peace conditions in the area. Those big Powers which frustrated General Assembly action in June and July, this time pledged to throw their weight behind the implementation of the new Security Council resolution. So they declared publicly in the Council; and so they said privately outside the Council. They called the resolution “balanced” and “realistic" and stated that it would enable them to use their influence and political weight to ensure compliance with its provisions.
147. For our part, we, for a year now, have been co-operating with the able and dedicated representative of the Secretary-General, Mr. Gunnar Jarring, in accordance with the terms of the Security Council resolution.
148. Israel, however, has not left one opening for the sincere efforts of the United Nations and its representative, not one hope that it will change its intransigent mood of aggression, its fascination with military force and its resistance to any United Nations intervention on behalf of justice and peace in the region.
149. Israel seems to believe that United Nations involvement in the solution of this problem would contradict Israel’s own designs. Therefore, Israel’s position in regard to the efforts of the Special Representative has been to kill by procedural, tactical and semantic games any constructive attempts to tackle the substance of the problem. It tried to replace the, Security Council resolution by a so-called agenda of peace, prepared and proposed by Israel. It avoided discussing substantial issues with the Special Representative. It even regarded as unacceptable commitments in the Security Council on termination of belligerency. It made it clear in every way that the resolution was short of its demands and ambitions. The slogan of direct negotiations of bilateral agreements, repeatedly uttered by Israel, is but another tactical manoeuvre designed to break away from the obligations stipulated and emphasized in the November Security Council resolution.
150. The friends of Israel who had promised support for the Security Council resolution should have foreseen this prospect. Their attitude now and in the past has helped to create the present mentality and mood in Israel’s leadership. By having assisted in or been indifferent to Israel’s policies of complete disregard of previous United Nations resolutions and to systematic use of force by Israel to ensure territorial expansion in the last twenty years, they have developed in Israel the arrogance of power and its continued reliance upon their support in this great Organization, and in other fields. They witness now the manifestation of Israel’s utter indifference to the United Nations and even to the interests of its big-Power friends in the whole area of the Middle East. Never has the acute conflict between the interests in the Middle East of the United Nations in particular and Israel’s policies of extremism come into sharper focus.
151. There should be a genuine realization by the big Powers — a realization so far lacking in some — as well as by the whole United Nations, that breaking the deadlock in the Middle East necessitates pressing heavily on the aggressive party, tempering its military arrogance, awakening it to the fact that reliance on the force of arms does not construct the road to peace.
152. The Arab Governments directly involved in the crisis have gone very far in their moderation. The Arab position with regard to the implementation of the Security Council resolution has been flexible and objective. We had no difficulty in going along with the terms of the resolution since it was basically assumed that United Nations decisions and resolutions were not merely historical documents issued to be kept in the archives or to be framed as portraits on the walls of the United Nations.
153. We entered into detailed talks with the Special Representative, and in those talks we maintained a positive and constructive stand. Mr. Jarring is well aware of our helpful attitude and our support for his devoted efforts. We reviewed with him practical possibilities for the implementation of all provisions of the resolution and indicated that a time-table could be drawn up for the general and simultaneous implementation of all its items. Such a time-table could be presented by the Special Representative, or arranged by the Security Council or worked out by the big Powers, the permanent members of the Security Council.
154. This is a very natural arrangement to adopt since the problem essentially originated in the United Nations, since the responsibility has continued to be with the United Nations, and since the big Powers, the permanent members of the Security Council, are charged with special obligations towards international peace.
155. Israel, however, fascinated with its military success, refused to commit itself to the acceptance of withdrawal, which is the key point in the issue of peace in the present crisis. Had Israel been prepared to accept withdrawal it would not have hesitated to make its position clear. But Israel can neither define its position nor declare it. This is because of the fact that the concept of territorial expansion is the guiding force among all Israeli leaders no matter how great or how small the difference in their points of view may be.
156. In the light of this reality, the issue of peace in Israel becomes a problem to the Israeli leaders themselves, who seem to be incapable of solving it. Swinging between its hope to live in security and its aim of gaining more land, Israel is unable to determine the area it plans to expand to, and the line it may be willing to withdraw to. Thus, the slogan of secure boundaries which Israel keeps raising as an excuse for its failure to accept withdrawal is, in the Israeli mind, a vague and undefined concept. This explains the failure of the Israeli Government to provide the Special Representative with a commitment on withdrawal and with a clear and definitive idea on its concept of secure boundaries. It is to be borne in mind in this respect that it is Arab territorial integrity and Arab security which have been grossly violated by Israel three times in the last twenty years.
157. The resort to procedural tactics by Israel is a mere pretext to avoid the substance of the issue. The Secretary-General in the introduction to his annual report says: “It would seem to me that as a general rule the emphasis should be on the results rather than on the procedure” [A/7201/Add.1, para. 52]. What ought to be made clear and public by Israel is whether it is prepared to evacuate the territories it occupies, as provided by the Security Council resolution.
158. We have every reason now to believe that Israel is obsessed with territorial expansion and is therefore deliberately obstructing all efforts for peace. It is enough to keep in mind that while Israel was conducting its procedural and rhetorical games, it wasted no time in consolidating its occupation. It planted Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territories. It expelled hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of the occupied areas from their homes, deliberately and systematically. It bulldozed into non-existence villages and large quarters of Arab cities. Israel took drastic and violent measures to swallow the Holy City of Jerusalem into its political structure by wholesale confiscation of land and property and by other radical measures. The Israeli authorities arrested, imprisoned, deported, tortured, shot or subjected to various forms of persecution thousands of Arabs in the occupied area. Israel also stepped up its wild attacks against my country, Jordan, in particular, in a systematic programme of heavy shelling and air bombardment of Jordanian villages and towns, perhaps in the hope that that would break the spirit of resistance in my people and pave the way for more expansion into Jordanian territory. It is incredible that twenty-three years after the founding of the United Nations the right of a people to live free from aggression becomes a question for debate.
159. Now the time has come for world public opinion to realize what a myth was the claim that the Arabs were planning to throw the Israelis into the sea; and what a myth was the accusation that the Arabs were the belligerent party. Now it is time for the panic in the Western world over Israel’s survival to cool down and give way to more rational understanding of Israel’s reality and its designs in the area.
160. It is becoming more obvious every day that, as Israel consolidates its position, extends its territory and stockpiles its advanced mortal weapons, the aim it has in sight is to become a principal Power in the Middle East, decisively influencing the future and destiny of the area, at the expense of the rights, security and future of the peoples of the region. Yet, Israel continues to seek more arms aid and continues to receive it. One, at least, would hope that in the absence of positive action to bring Israel to the mood of peace, no action will be taken which may further encourage Israel in the direction of war.
161. The United Nations membership must therefore act speedily to save the efforts towards peace and to dispel the chances of despair. The people of the area, who have suffered so long from Israel’s violence and from the inability of the United Nations to support their rights and protect their destiny, have reached the maximum limit of their restraint and faith in the fairness of the world Organization. When they reach this point, invitations for moderation and restraint become irrelevant, and the call of struggle for liberation will echo all around, wide and deep.
162. It is true that the Arabs faced a military defeat by a surprise attack in June of last year, but it is also true that there is full determination on their part not to be defeated in their principles and in their rights. It was easy for Israel to occupy vast Arab territories, but it shall not be that easy for Israel to stay and to hold. Our aged citizens may live for some time with their misfortune in destitution and in refugee camps, but their sons refuse to meet death except through struggle. These young men who are meeting their death in the occupied lands are not terrorists, as cynically described by Israel. They are young patriots, from schools and universities, rushing back to a homeland torn by aggression, to resist occupation.
163. I am afraid that the absence of positive achievements may drive the feelings and thinking in the area towards a rough course which could be very costly in life and resources. It may mean a final commitment to a course that some may call too destructive, but which our people will find inevitable, having no other alternative left.
164. However, we, as responsible Governments, shall continue to believe in the cause of peace, and shall continue our endeavours to achieve peace. But a lasting peace cannot be established except on the solid foundations of right and justice. If we fail in our endeavours, then we can say that we tried.