It gives me pleasure to con¬gratulate Mr. Hollai
on his unanimous election as President of the
thirty-seventh session of the General Assembly
and to wish him success in his noble mis¬sion. I
am confident that his ability, experience and
wisdom will lead to the desired success of our
work at this session. My country's delegation
will do its utmost to co-operate with him towards
that end, especially since the development of
cordial relations between our two countries will
render our co-operation closer and more
comprehensive.
189. I wish to laud the achievements of the
out¬going President, Mr. Ismat Kittam, during
whose tenure the General Assembly held several
special and emergency special sessions, in
addition to the regular thirty-sixth session. Mr,
Kittani conducted the work of the various
sessions in an efficient manner that is worthy of
our full appreciation and praise.
190. I also laud the Secretary-General, during
whose term of office we hope that the
Organization will take longer strides towards the
attainment of its purposes and objectives.
191. The present session is being held at a
time when our international community is facing
extremely dif¬ficult circumstances. Danger is
threatening around every comer. Hotbeds of
tension and acts of violence and aggression are
intensifying and expanding, in the Middle East in
particular, but also in Asia, Africa and Latin
America. All these situations pose a major threat
to international peace and security.
192. There is no doubt that the imperialist
camp is directly responsible for the
intensification of tension and aggression in and
against those continents. It wants to use those
countries as a testing ground for its lethal arms
so that those countries will remain helpless, the
victims of ruin and destruction. By the same
token, their peoples will remain backward and
unable to catch up with the achievements of
civ¬ilization. The imperialists wish to keep a
vast domain at their disposal for exploitation,
both political and economic. Needless to say,
neo-colonialism has perfected its methods and
techniques in this field.
193. The imperialist camp is spending hundreds
of billions of dollars on arsenals of war and
destruction. This is at a time when 600 million
human beings on our planet are suffering from
malnutrition, when 1.5 billion people are without
shelter or are living in tragic circumstances,
and when more than one quarter of the world's
children are deprived of education and proper
nutrition. It would have been far better for
those many billions spent on menacing humanity
with a horrible world massacre to have been spent
on meeting the needs of the poor countries and
raising the living standards of their peoples.
194. Most of the statements delivered at the
second special session on disarmament last June
portrayed a tragic picture of today's world. They
urgently and sincerely drew attention to the
dangers facing humanity because of the
uncontrollable armaments problem. They also
pointed to the gloomy fate awaiting all mankind.
They expressed the desire of the non- nuclear
countries—which constitute the great majority of
the world community—to protect themselves against
the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. They
called for the banning of nuclear tests and for a
halt to the manufacture of chemical and
biological weapons and the destruction of the
present stockpiles. They advocated the
establishment of zones of peace, as well as
nuclear-free zones in the Middle East, Africa,
South-East Asia and other parts of the world.
195. None the less, despite all these sincere
and con¬tinuing calls and appeal, we are in fact
witnessing the transfer to the aggressor
countries of the most sophis¬ticated equipment of
aggression. We can see that internationally
banned weapons are being used. The world has
recently witnessed tens of thousands of
Palestinian and Lebanese citizens—mostly
children, women and elderly people—falling victim
to cluster bombs, vacuum bombs and nerve gases
made in the United States of America, during the
Israeli invasion of Lebanon and its capital,
Beirut.
196. Domination, exploitation, the plundering
of national resources, persecution, aggression
and the protection of the aggressor have become
the rules guiding the conduct of imperialist,
racist and Zionist threes in international
relations. Most States Members of the United
Nations and the world public have declared that
international peace and security cannot be
realized and stabilized until the principles of
the Charter and international law replace the law
of the jungle, and unless injustice, persecution
and oppres-sion are eliminated and all forms of
racism, including Zionism, are uprooted, unless
peoples regain their usurped rights, and unless
colonialism, neo¬colonialism, domination,
hegemony and the plundering of the peoples'
national resources are eradicated root and
branch. We thus consider that the interna¬tional
community must strive to realize the following
objectives if we want to attain a better world,
free from the tragedies and woes of war.
197. First, colonialism and neo-colonialism
and all forms of racism and racial discrimination
must be eliminated.
198. Secondly, in relations among countries,
sover¬eignty and the rule of international law
and the prin-ciples of right, justice and equity,
including respect for the principle of the
peoples' right to self- determination, must be
consolidated. This would eliminate hegemony,
oppression and aggression and remove the
immediate and secondary causes of inter¬national
crises and problems.
199. Thirdly, the United Nations must be
strength¬ened so as to prevent it from becoming
immobilized and so as to affirm the credibility
and effectiveness of its resolutions and enhance
its capabilities to address and solve various
issues, guided by the Charter and the principles
for which it was created.
200. Fourthly, the specter of the cold war and
of international tension must be banished and the
mad race in both conventional and nuclear weapons
halted, and we must persist in our efforts to ban
the produc¬tion, stockpiling and use of nuclear
weapons.
201. Fifthly, an economic world order based on
the relevant General Assembly resolution must be
estab¬lished, in order to bridge the great gap
and remove the major discrepancies between the
advanced and developing countries and to create a
greater balance in relations between the
developed countries and third world countries.
202. A review of the current international
situation shows very clearly the great distance
separating the present status of international
affairs from the status we desire and hope for.
We notice, rather, that problems are increasing
and being further complicated and that sources of
tension in the world are being dangerously
aggravated and becoming a serious threat to
international peace and security.
203. The racist regime in Pretoria, like the
racist Zionist regime in Palestine, has not only
detonated explosive situations of conflict and
tension, but its practices have always been an
affront to humanity and a blot on its history.
The peoples of South Africa and Namibia are still
being made to labour under the yoke of injustice
and colonialism by the racist minority regime.
The Organization must take a firm stand in
confronting the conspiracies and manipu¬lations
of the imperialist forces, in order to save those
peoples from their enslavers and oppressors by
sup¬porting and backing their national liberation
move-ments and by extending to them effective
material aid in their struggle for their rights
to self-deter-mination, independence and national
sovereignty and in order to deter that racist
regime from persisting in its acts of aggression
against neighbouring coun¬tries, particularly
Angola. We appeal to the Security Council to take
the measures provided for in the Charter in order
to put an end to this regime and to its practices
and acts of aggression.
204. The Assembly is still considering an item
on the situation in Afghanistan and its
consequences for international peace and
security. It is our opinion that the Afghan
Government has the right to defend the
independence of Afghanistan against all types of
outside intervention in its internal affairs. We
have close historical and cultural relations with
Afghanistan; moreover it is a member of the
non-aligned movement, and we are keen that it
should always remain so. The Afghan people are
fully entitled to choose their own system of
government. We therefore attach great importance
to the conducting of negotiations between the
Government of the Democratic Republic of
Afghanistan and its neighbors in order to achieve
peaceful solutions that would guarantee the
security and stability of that region and
preserve the unity, independence and
non-alignment of Afghanistan.
205. The question of Cyprus is at a standstill
to this very day despite the number of years that
have passed since it first arose. We sincerely
hope that negotiations between the two Cypriot
communities will resume under the auspices of the
Secretary-General, in accordance with United
Nations resolutions, on the basis of respect for
the sovereignty, independence, territorial
integrity, unity and non-alignment of Cyprus.
206. The problem of the unification of Korea
is still unsolved, despite the new initiative and
proposals submitted by the Government of the
People's Demo¬cratic Republic of Korea. We
support the unification of Korea on the just and
practical bases suggested by the Pyong Yang
Government.
207. A sad and regrettable war took place in
the South Atlantic. The question of the Falkland
Islands (Malvinas) awaits discussion during this
session of the General Assembly. We call for the
resumption of negotiations between the two
parties concerned, namely, Argentina and the
United Kingdom, under the auspices of the United
Nations, in order to find a peaceful settlement
based on the relevant United Nations resolutions
and the principles of the Charter. The efforts of
the Secretary-General in this respect are both
necessary and desirable in order to facilitate
the realization of the desired peaceful
settlement.
208. The dangerous and tragic situation in the
Middle East clearly reflects the disruption which
the interna¬tional community has undergone as a
result of the constant Israeli aggression. The
tragedy of the Pal¬estinian people and the whole
Middle East region dates back to the
establishment of Israel on the soil of Palestine.
Much suffering and bleeding continue as a result
of the plots of world Zionism to establish a
racist empire starting in Palestine and extending
to other parts of the Arab world, defined by the
Zionist doctrine as being from the Nile to the
Eu¬phrates—an empire that would dominate the
Middle East and control the international
situation through such hegemony, because of the
strategic and economic importance of the Middle
East, which is the meeting point for three
continents in the heart of the Arab World,
adjacent to the strategic interests of the great
Powers, in addition to the known huge energy
reserves and revenues of this region.
209. The Zionist peril, with its racialist
nature and expansionist aims, is not confined to
the Arab world. It has, rather, become a growing,
immediate danger jeopardizing the security and
interests of all the peoples of the world.
210. World Zionism is plotting to become,
through its control of the region and its natural
resources—energy ranking foremost—a force
controlling this basic com¬modity and forcing the
world to deal with the region through it. This
explains the aggressive attitude of world Zionism
and its base, Israel, built on a permanent
callous contempt of the nations, organizations
and international institutions of the world.
211. From the beginning of this year, Israel
has refused to implement the following Security
Council resolutions: 497 (1981), and resolutions
508 (1982), 509 (1982), 511 (1982) to 513 (1982)
and 515 (1982) to 521 (1982). It has also refused
to abide by the reso¬lutions of the General
Assembly passed at its special emergency sessions
this year. AH this should be added to the long
list of United Nations and other interna¬tional
resolutions.
212. The Arab Palestinian people have paid a very dear price for the scandalous
collusion between British imperialism in
Palestine and world Zionism, which led to opening
the gates of Palestine for Jewish immigration and
facilitating the establishment of Israel at the
expense of the Arab Palestinian people and their
homeland. The Palestinians are still being forced
to continue to pay the price in the form of
expulsion and mass murder. They still suffer from
homelessness, deprived of their lands and their
homes. They still aspire, with great yearning and
determi¬nation, to the restoration of the
homeland which has been usurped and the rights
which have been violated. The Arabs have paid
very dearly for the collusion between world
Zionism and the Western countries, which have
renounced all their commitments towards the Arabs
and supported the establishment of the Hebrew
State, extending to it all means of aggression.
213. In 1948 the Israelis introduced the
slogan of "negotiating peace with the Arabs" and
under this false pretext occupied the
demilitarized zone, which was under Arab control
and supervision. In 1967, under the motto of
"security", the Israelis launched the June
aggression and then began to build settlements in
the newly occupied Arab territories. Now they
demand security for these settlements, built on
the occupied Arab lands, contrary to
international instru¬ments, the principles of
international law and United Nations resolutions.
214. Israel has refused to implement all
international resolutions calling for its
withdrawal from the Arab lands that it occupied
in 1967, and it has rejected all peace
initiatives, including the American initiatives.
It rejected and foiled both the Jarring and
Rogers initiatives. AH international efforts to
determine the borders of the State of Israel have
failed. A num¬ber of Israeli leaders have
introduced an insolent, dangerous and arrogant
definition of borders, unpre¬cedented in history,
by declaring that Israel's borders stretch to
wherever the Israeli soldier can reach. Such a
definition simply means continued aggression and
constant expansion until the dreams of world
Zionism are achieved by the establishment of the
Zionist empire in the Arab world. In a notorious
statement, reminiscent of the Nazi concepts which
were de¬nounced by all mankind, the Israeli
Minister of Defense states that he believes that
Israel's lebensranum will stretch to include
Pakistan in the east and North African countries
in the west.
215. On 14 December 1981 Israel's Knesset
enacted a "law" annexing the Syrian Golan
Heights. This annexation was rejected by the
Security Council in its resolution 497 (1981) and
by the General Assembly in resolution ES-9/1 of 5
February 1982 at its ninth emergency special
session. During this year Israel's threats
against the Arab countries and Palestinian people
have escalated. Israel has continued to pursue
its aggressive policy by bombarding Lebanon's
towns and villages, and the whole world knows
about the savagery of Israel's shelling of
Beirut, which killed hundreds of innocent
victims. On 4 June Israel's army launched an
all-out attack on Lebanon, preceded by air and
sea raids on various Lebanese areas.
216. Despite Security Council resolutions 508
(1982) and 509 (1982), the Israeli invaders
continued their advance till they besieged Beirut
and unleashed on it an inferno of bombs from the
air, land and sea in a way unprecedented in the
history of war. In one day the Lebanese capital
was hit by over 250,000 Israeli bombs and
rockets, as reported by the world news agencies
at the time.
217. In this war, the Israelis killed tens of
thousands of people, mostly civilians—women,
children and elderly people. They also displaced
hundreds of thousands and destroyed villages,
towns and civilian installations. Even hospitals
and places of worship were not spared. They used
internationally banned weapons. And all this came
under the title of "Peace for Gallilee".
218. A survey of Israeli decisions, together
with the statements of Israeli leaders, shows us
that the aggres¬sion on Lebanon had the following
objectives: first, to liquidate the PLO and
displace the Palestinians anew; secondly, to
control Lebanon through what they call the
establishment of "a strong Government", as if any
Government installed by foreign occupation can
ever be "strong"; thirdly, to impose a "peace
treaty" on the State of Lebanon; fourthly, to
usurp parts of Lebanon—witness Israel's current
measures in the occupied Lebanese territory,
where attempts are under way to plunder the
waters of the Litani river and to create a new
settlement; and, fifthly, to deal a military blow
to Syria, and weaken it in order to weaken Arab
resistance to Israeli aggression, since Syria is
the base and pivot of this resistance.
219. To realize those aims, Israel began its
invasion of Lebanon, in which tens of thousands
of Palestinians and Lebanese were massacred and
towns and villages were destroyed. To realize
those aims, Israel's forces entered Beirut, in
spite of an agreement arranged by President
Reagan's envoy, Mr. Philip Habib, in spite of the
United States guarantees that the Israeli forces,
after the implementation of the agreement, would
never enter Beirut, and although we were
repeatedly in¬formed that the Israeli forces
would start withdrawing from around Beirut as a
first step towards complete withdrawal.
220. Then came the horrible massacre
perpetrated by the Israeli forces of occupation
in the refugee camps of Sabra, Shatila and other
localities. Israeli forces beat burned and
massacred more than 1,400 innocent Palestinian
citizens, mostly women and children, in a
bloodbath reminiscent of the massacre of Deir
Yassin, perpetrated by Begin on 9 April 1947.
This horrible carnage, which exceeds all the
crimes of nazism, confirms that a genocidal war
of extermination is being waged by Israel against
the Palestinian and Lebanese people before the
very eyes of the whole world.
221. The storming of Beirut and the horrible
massacre committed there despite the
aforementioned agree¬ment, and despite American
pledges, calls into ques¬tion the value and
credibility of the guarantees given by a
super-Power like the United States of America. It
also casts grave doubts on the validity of such
guarantees whenever Israel is involved m a
problem.
222. The practices of the leaders of Israel
show that they are indeed a terrorist gang that
has not learned the lessons of history. They have
not learned from past records, nor do they wish
to understand the present or future. Crime has
blotted out their vision, and racism has
completely blurred their perception of the
present and the future.
223. Those leaders must realize that the Arab
masses, which throughout history ha ve gone into
battle for their cause and their dignity, will
not be cowed by Israeli terrorism or by the
crimes of the Israeli leaders. They must realize
that sooner or later they will pay a high price
for the hideous crimes they have committed and
commit still, and that a just punishment will be
inflicted sooner or later. Never in history has a
tyrant escaped punishment. The crimes the
Israelis are committing against the Arab nations
will only strengthen cur determination to resist
aggression and strengthen our commitment to our
cause and to final victory. We are aware that we
have chosen the hard path, the path which is
paved with suffering, blood and sacrifice. But we
shall pursue our march regardless of the
immensity of the sacrifices and the difficulties.
We have no choice but to struggle to liberate our
land and preserve the future of our nation. Our
road is long and agonizing, the road of freedom
is always difficult and bloody, but it is the
road to victory.
224. The international community has rejected
the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and that
invasion has been condemned by all nations and
peoples of the world, individually and
collectively. But is that enough, in the face of
this perilous situation?
225. The countries which voted in favor of
admitting Israel to membership of the
Organization based their approval on the Israeli
pledge that Israel would be a peace-loving State,
committed to the Charter and the principles of
the United Nations. Are not Israel's racist
crimes, its barbarous acts of aggression, its
invasion of Lebanon and the war of extermination
it is waging against the Palestinian and Lebanese
peoples enough to make those countries reconsider
their attitude to that State, which was
originally founded on aggression and which has
grown and expanded through ag¬gression?
226. Another question is directed specifically
to the United States of America, since it
supplies the ag-gressors with all the means of
aggression, killing and destruction in the form
of the most modem products of the American
arsenal. Are the Israelis committing these
criminal acts to serve their racist Zionist
interests or on behalf of the United States and
its interests?
227. If Israel's crimes against the Arabs are
not com¬mitted on behalf of the United States or
its interests, why does it provide this support
and backing to Israel? Why does it give Israel
the most modem American aircraft and missiles,
and reconnaissance, detection and jamming
equipment? Why does it give Israel cluster bombs
and chemical weapons, which are interna¬tionally
prohibited? Is this consistent with the
responsi¬bilities of the United States, a
permanent member of the Security Council, under
the Charter?
228. Is peace in the region and throughout the
world achieved through wars, by killing tens of
thousands, by rendering millions homeless and by
destroying towns and villages?
229. The United States of America bears a
special responsibility for all Israel's crimes
and acts of aggres¬sion against the Arabs.
Therefore, the United States should immediately
withdraw its political and military protection
from Israel and should pave the way for the
international community to impose sanctions
against that racist aggressor State, to end all
types of assist¬ance, including military and
economic aid, and to suspend the participation of
Israel in the Organization.
230. Those who have not helped in the past to
isolate Israel and impose sanctions against it
are today required to translate their
condemnation of the aggres¬sion into punishment
of the aggressor.
231. The history of the First and Second World
Wars proves that condoning aggression has always
encouraged the commission of further aggression.
The lenient attitude towards the Nazis during the
invasion of Austria and Czechoslovakia encouraged
them to invade Poland, an act which led to the
eruption of the Second World War. Taking a
lenient attitude towards the aggressor on the
pretext of leaving the possibility open of
persuading it to desist from its aggressive
policies can lead only to more acts of
aggression, more crimes and more disregard of the
will of the international community.
232. No country in the world—either in the
ancient or in the modem world—has a record as
dark as Israel's. It is a record abounding in
racist crimes, acts of aggression, wars and
crimes against humanity. Israel has thus exceeded
all the crimes perpetrated by the Nazis and the
Fascist forces during the first half of this
century. Recent history has not seen another
aggressor like Israel, which has shelled houses
with bombs of a type never before used in war,
thereby killing countless innocent women,
children and elderly people. A look at the
destroyed, burnt and bereaved city of Beirut is
proof enough of the nature of Israel and of its
aims.
233. In spite of all this the Israelis still
claim that they want peace. Is that any different
from what the Nazis used to say when they were
destroying towns and villages and killing the
innocent population, including women and
children? Israelis claim they want peace; what
they want is the peace of the grave.
234. Peace cannot be bused on aggression,
oppres¬sion, killing and destruction; nor can it
be based on racist and aggressive doctrines. The
Arabs believe in the importance of establishing a
just and lasting peace in the region. They also
understand the repercussions of events in the
region on the interests and the future of the
peoples of the world. But they should not have to
pay a price for their belief in peace, justice
and right.
235. Despite all the tragedies suffered by the
Arabs as a result of the aggressive presence of
the Israelis in the region, and in spite of the
wars waged by Israeli troops in Lebanon against
the Arab nation, at the recent Twelfth Arab
Summit Conference, held at Fez, a peace plan was
announced based on the following principles:
first, complete Israeli withdrawal from all the
occupied Arab territories; secondly, recognition
of the inalienable national rights of the
Palestinian Arab people, including their right to
return, to self-determination and to establish
their own inde¬pendent State under the leadership
of the PLO, their sole legitimate representative;
and, thirdly, the formulation by the Security
Council of the guarantees of peace. The Security
Council would guarantee the implementation of
these principles, which are based on two things:
the relevant United Nations resolutions and the
Charter, and the Arabs' conviction that peace is
important and necessary for the international
com¬munity.
236. In announcing these principles, which are
recog¬nized by the United Nations and by most
countries of the world, the Arabs are well aware
that Israel is seeking not peace based on right
and justice, but rather to impose capitulation by
force, aggression and oppression.
237. Today more than ever before we are
confident that the Arabs will defeat the
aggressor. They will struggle by all means
possible to recover their rights and resist
aggression, for in doing this they will be
defending not only their rights, interests and
dignity, but those of all other nations as well.
238. The night of the aggressor shall not
weaken our struggle against aggression; it will
only strengthen and consolidate this struggle. We
are confident that our Arab nation, despite its
present state of affairs, will concert its
efforts and potential to repel aggression and
injustice and to fight humiliation and
subjugation.
239. The States Members of the United Nations
are required today to take a clear and specific
stand to protect international peace and security
and to safeguard the Charter. Such a stand
requires a reso¬lution that provides for, first,
ceasing all kinds of dealings between the Members
of the Organization and Israel; secondly, asking
the United States of America to stop all forms of
military, economic and political assistance to
Israel; thirdly, adopting a resolution abrogating
General Assembly resolu¬tion 273 (III) of 1949
under which Israel was admitted to United Nations
membership; fourthly, extending all forms of
assistance and backing to the Arab coun¬tries to
resist and confront the aggression.
240. A resolution to that effect would not
only repel the aggression but would consolidate
the role of the Organization and prevent the
threat to peace and security not only in the
Middle East region but also throughout the world.
It is high time that the Organiza¬tion adopted a
practical position to face the series of Israeli
acts of aggression; otherwise one would be
skeptical about the usefulness of the
Organization.
241. While asking all countries of the world
to back up and support Arab rights, which are the
victim of Israeli aggression, we renew our
determination to continue the struggle by all
means to defend our threatened existence and to
restore our usurped rights, no matter how
difficult, arduous and long our path may be.
Difficulties and hardships will never hinder or
restrict the struggle of the people for their
liberty and dignity.