YouSaid · the spoken record

EBAN

lines on the record: 663
first: 1949-09-24
most recent: 1973-09-24
sittings or episodes: 14
sources: un-general-debate

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“The situation in the Middle East has not substantially changed this year. Behind the armistice frontiers established by agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbours in 1949, the national life of sovereign States has become crystallized in an increasingly stable mould. There is some evidence that thoughtful minds in the Middle East are becoming sceptical about threats to change the existing territorial and political structure by armed force. Such threats, and the policies concerted to support them, offend the spirit and letter of the United Nations Charter, They violate bilateral agreements freely negotiated and solemnly signed.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“Since 1958, 1,755 Israeli experts have placed themselves at the service of development projects in developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and some Mediterranean and Middle Eastern States, Simultaneously, 9,186 trainees from States in four continents have studied development processes in Israeli courses and institutions, mainly in agriculture, irrigation, rural planning, youth training, health, teaching, administration, engineering and higher education. International conferences have met on our soil to commit development problems to joint examination by leading experts and leaders of States. Now, all this is, of course, a modest contribution. 112. Unfortunately, many of our countries are called upon to face their international responsibilities in conditions of regional tension.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“Great responsibility falls on the developed countries. The specialized agencies could also play an enhanced role if their resources were increased. But developing countries and small States should not underestimate their own capacity. Nor should they rely exclusively on the Great Powers or international agencies. The world is not divided neatly between developed and developing States. Nor should the problem of development be regarded as a polarized confrontation between the clearly defined groups. Many small States have developed skills and experiences which they can already share and exchange with others. Our own national experience in the past eight years illustrates this fact.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“Yet it is precisely in the concern for supra-national interests that Governments have a chance of transcending their rivalries and developing trustful attitudes which could, in time, transform their approach to the provincial squabbles of this troubled world. It might perhaps be salutary if the Heads of Governments came together for a week in a summit conference to contemplate not the affairs of any one nation, but the interests of the whole human nation; to contemplate those issues which affect the universal destiny, the population explosion, the significance of nuclear power, the desalination of sea water, the development of resources, the spread of knowledge, and the structure of the evolving world community. These are issues that can only be solved in a mood of responsibility for the total human condition. 111.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“Many people exaggerate what the United Nations can do to solve intractable security and political problems — and underestimate its capacity to contribute to accelerated social and economic development. This subject does not receive its due share of attention by Governments or by public opinion. Conflict and tension are more exciting than the measures needed to prevent them. 110. It is true that the United Nations specialized agencies bring a universal vision to bear on the problem of social and economic development, but they have never yet discussed them at a level of authority capable of launching co-operative and decisive action. Summit meetings take place all over the world which take a microscopic view of a few problems, instead of a panoramic view of the total human scene.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“Those of us who have taken part in the work of the Advisory Committee on the application of Science and Technology to Development know that a break-through is objectively possible. 109. In the appropriate committee, the Israel delegation will propose that the comparative failure so far of the United Nations Development Decade be frankly acknowledged and analysed; that the work of the Advisory Committee on the application of Science and Technology to Development be strengthened; and that development problems be given a far higher priority in the work and preoccupation of the United Nations. We may suggest consideration of some concrete measure, such as the eventual formation of a United Nations "peace corps" of technicians and experts for service in developing countries.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“Let us imagine a city in which a few wealthy suburbs flourish while the mass of the population languishes in squalor and disease; in which disparities of income are enormous and continue to grow; in which the most boroughs and regions are plunged in illiteracy and technical backwardness; and in which there are no effective organs of security for keeping the peace. Would such a city have any chance of peace and stability? But this is a true picture of the City of Man. If there were a genuine municipal consciousness amongst the nations of this shrinking world, idealism and self-interest would come together to infuse the Development Decade with new life. 108. The issue is not one of techniques but of policy.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“It is not difficult to illustrate the results of this allure in concrete terms. Sixty-six per cent of the world's population share 16 per cent of the world's income. The death of small children in developing countries takes place at a rate ten times higher than in the West. At least 1,000 million people in the developing countries live below any acceptable standard of nutrition and housing. Life expectancy is not rising. The rate of illiteracy is not falling. The growth of the world's population goes forward without a corresponding increase of resources. The pressure of population upon resources is greatest in the undeveloped areas. And in those regions a massive flight of populations is taking place from the countryside to urban areas amidst social anarchy and economic distress. 107.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“But there was reason to expect that there would be, in this decade, a strong impetus of development and that this would sustain the patience of developing nations even if the goal renamed far ahead. 105. These expectations have been frustrated. The goals of the United Nations Development Decade have lot been attained or even approached. There has not teen an annual growth rate of five per cent in the national income of developing countries. Nor have he developed countries shown a willingness to transfer one per cent of their gross national product to the developing countries. Indeed, the growth rate in developing areas has actually slowed down, and the developed countries have increased their own wealth dale generally reducing the proportions of their id to developing lands. 106.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“Israel's solidarity with Africa on this question is determined by the memories that our people carry with them across generations of martyrdom and discrimination. 104. When the United Nations launched its Development Decade five years ago, it had a true understanding of the relationship between world peace and accelerated development. The nations which compose the international community are equal only in the juridical and institutional sense. But in social opportunity, in educational and technical achievement, in the prospect of a healthy and creative life, they are separated by a vide and expanding gap. Nobody believed that a single decade could correct imbalances and disparities that had developed over centuries.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“They offend the mood of Africa and the spirit of the age. The United Nations should persist in the attitude that it has pursued for more than a decade in favour of national liberation. It should intensify Its pressure upon the illegal regime in Southern Rhodesia in order to bring about a constitutional situation in accordance with democratic principles. In the case of South West Africa, the General Assembly should insist that a mandatory Power forfeit its mandate when it flagrantly and constantly violates the central aims for which the trust was conferred. The General Assembly must press for the independence of Angola and Mozambique; and its condemnation of apartheid must be governed by a stern consciousness of what ensues whenever men are classified in different levels of privilege, rights and disabilities.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“Voices are sometimes heard outside Africa expressing surprise at what is called the "instability" of some new States. But history does not tell us that the States of Europe, Asia or the Americans passed in a single decade from national independence to peace and stability. It would be extraordinary if all Africa were to achieve this transition overnight. If there is travail in parts of Africa, it is not because independence was granted too soon, but because it was accorded too late and after long periods of colonial neglect. The tensions of African life are not the fruit of independence; they are the heritage of colonialism. 103. If Africa is now to pursue its destiny in peace, it must be released from the torment created by the remaining expressions of colonialism. These have now become grossly anachronistic.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“The United Nations can take pride in its contribution to the liberation of African peoples. However strongly the colonial Powers chafed at the persistence of the United Nations, they have never been immune from its strong bias for national independence. And when the new State, often small and meagre in resources, comes into the light of freedom, it is its flag in the United Nations, above everything else, which symbolizes and excites its sense of identity and equality. The admission of Botswana and Lesotho will take Africa further along the road to complete continental liberation. 102. It is true that not all African States have found social systems and political institutions which fully express their traditions and aspirations.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“Governments and peoples come increasingly into contact with each other in laying the foundations of an international order. There is a tendency, to which the United Nations has greatly contributed, for nations to rise above self-preoccupation in order to recognize the needs and aspirations of others and thus to enlarge their own understanding and deepen their own compassion. 100. It is, therefore, much too early to pass a negative judgement on the international life of our times. It might be more accurate to regard the Viet-Nam conflict as an exception to the rule rather than as the rule itself. It is not a symptom of the general human condition, but a sharp, and, I hope, temporary disturbance of deeper and more hopeful international trends. 101. In Africa, too, there is a general rule of progress marred by some dangerous exceptions.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“There are many agreements and demarcations which were once considered to be unstable and provisional, but whose maintenance is surely preferable to their violent alteration. A salutary caution inspires the attitudes of most Governments towards the use of force for the alteration of independent political and territorial structures. The ideological conflict too has lost something of its acuteness. Nations no longer believe that their own social systems must either conquer the world or perish. Men are united in tribute to the healing powers of science. There are new opportunities to fertilize soil, to harness water, to desalt the sea and irrigate the deserts, to diffuse the fruits of knowledge, and to draw all men together in growing accessibility.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“In Africa, Asia and the Caribbean area, national freedom has accelerated great triumphs, most of them without the violence that traditionally accompanied the emancipation of subject peoples. For the first time in history, 98 per cent of the human race live in conditions of national sovereignty. The medium and small nations are carrying out their international tasks with responsibility and restraint. In the Middle East, slogans implying the elimination of a sovereign State are becoming increasingly discredited as obsolete, irresponsible and, above all, totally unrealistic. 99. In many areas, even where problems still defy solution, the world is growing accustomed to living with them unsolved. This itself is no small achievement.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“It is not difficult to make a catalogue of conflicts unsolved, 'of tensions unabated, of agreements blocked try suspicion, and to reach the conclusion that the international situation is graver than at any time in the post-war era. I think that there is room, however, for a less sombre evaluation. The continent of Europe, from which sprang the two wars which have afflicted our generation, is moving towards greater harmony. Western Europe has shown resilience in its recovery from the havoc of occupation and war. Between Eastern and Western Europe there is now a broader flow of people, commerce and ideas than would have seemed conceivable in the 1950s. The unhappy metaphor of the "Iron Curtain" is losing its force.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“One of the central realities about the Far East is the existence of the People's Republic of China on the mainland; another reality is the existence in Taiwan of an independent political unit effectively organizing the life and destiny of 12 million people. Indeed, Taiwan has a greater population than many of our Member States. Now, since this situation could only be changed by war, which our Charter forbids, it is surely our duty to recognize it as an existing reality on the international scene. It is surprising that the United Nations has not been offered the opportunity of considering a formula which would acknowledge both the reality on the Chinese mainland and the reality in Taiwan. 98. The tension arising from the Viet-Nam problem communicates itself across the whole range of international relations.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“It may well be as the Foreign Minister of France has said: "It is neither today nor tomorrow that the United Nations is going to be in a position to settle the problem of China" [1420th meeting, para. 85], Some Asian delegations have pointed out that the policies of Peking are partly responsible for the lack of progress in solving the problem of Chinese representation. After all, Member States are required by the Charter to be peace-loving and willing to carry out the obligations of the Charter. 97. My Government's approach to this issue is governed not so much by doctrine about China as by doctrine concerning the United Nations. This Organization should strive to present a vision of mankind in its organic unity. Its aim should be to reflect the realities of the world as it is.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“The plea has so far been in vain. Debate, not negotiation, has all but monopolized United Nations practice. The Viet-Nam conflict is approaching the stage at which all that can be publicly said will have been uttered. The time has come to seek concrete solutions in private negotiation. 95. The Secretary-General, by virtue of his unique office and the confidence which he universally inspires, might be of assistance in bringing the parties involved into contact in order to submit existing and future proposals to detailed discussion. 96. The United Nations might have been able to play a more assertive role in this case if its own structure had been complete. This Organization represents a wide diversity of sovereignties, traditions and cultures. For this very reason, the deadlock on Chinese representation stands out as a sharp anomaly.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“I speak for a small State which is not involved in the power struggle in South-East Asia. There are many other such States in the world community. It is surely their wish to see the parties directly concerned embark on unconditional negotiation on the terms for a peaceful settlement. The Government of North Viet-Nam, without necessarily accepting the proposals which have been made to it, would earn respect by submitting them to the challenge of negotiation. Nobody concerned by the fearful loss of life should be slow in examining any opening for the cessation of the war. 94. The United Nations should not confine its efforts to the public forum. The Secretary-General's predecessor once made a plea that greater emphasis be given to the United Nations as an instrument for negotiation of settlements as distinct from the mere debate of issues.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“They emerge from the proposals of the Secretary-General in his annual report on the work of the Organization and they are present or implicit in the suggestions put forward by Mr, Goldberg on behalf of the United States of America in 21 September 1966 [1412th meeting]. 92. The General Assembly is not called upon to endorse any of the specific suggestions that have been made. But surely their merits or inadequacies as a formula for settlement can only be revealed if they are submitted to a searching process of negotiation. What we need now is not the public discussion of general principles, but the private exploration of concrete steps. In particular, the full import and consequence of the United States proposals can only be tested if they are probed, explored and clarified in the most careful and detailed manner. 93.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“Proposals have been put forward in this debate from many directions in an effort to bring these objectives within view. The central ideas that have been outlined here in the past two weeks include the cessation of air bombardments of North Viet-Namese territory; accompanying assurances, public or private, of readiness to de-escalate the war; the over-all cessation of hostilities; negotiations in any acceptable forum with the participation of all the parties involved; arrangements for the withdrawal of all outside forces and the prohibition of their return; and the fulfilment of the Geneva Agreements under international guarantee. 91. It is true that these ideas have been presented here in different combinations and sequences.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“To answer this question we must clearly define what the international community is trying to do, Our aim should be to bring about the end of hostilities and to rebuild the structure envisaged in the Geneva Agreements of 1954. The effect of those Agreements, as the Foreign Minister of France has pointed out, was to provide for the existence in the former Indo-China of four States: independent, sovereign, safe from external interference, and able to fashion their government and society according to their own will and choice. These four States have a right to be free from domination, whether by outside Powers or by each other. According to the Geneva Agreements, the two parts of divided Viet-Nam may be united only by voluntary choice, not by force. 90.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“It is true that there are many inhibitions against the escalation of local conflicts into general war. But who can be certain that these would hold firm against expanding hostilities in a region where the policies and interests of great Powers are intimately involved? 88. In these circumstances, the United Nations, as the central embodiment of man's quest for peace, cannot evade its moral responsibility. An international organization which had nothing to say about the world's most perilous conflict would neither obtain nor deserve the respect of mankind. We are summoned to do all that lies in our influence to transfer the Viet-Namese tragedy from the battlefield to the negotiating table. 89. Can it be said that conditions are ripe for negotiation?”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“Second, there is a direct relationship, a relationship of cause and effect, between the decision to negotiate a conflict and the tangible prospect of its settlement. 87. Now these considerations are sharply relevant to the cruel war in Viet-Nam. What are the alternatives here? The choice lies between a negotiated solution now, and negotiated solutions at a later date. In the latter case, the price of postponement will be exacted in heavy loss of life; in expanding destruction and havoc; in the prolonged agony of the Viet-Namese people, which has had no consecutive peace for a quarter of a century; in the constant growth of international tension; and in the frustration of what would otherwise be an authentic prospect for the improvement of international relations. Indeed, the penalty of delay may be even heavier than this.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“85. During 1966, two explosive tensions in Asia have been resolved or, at least, diminished. The fighting between India and Pakistan has come to an end through direct negotiations, with the good offices of a third party, and the confrontation between Indonesia and Malaysia has now ceased. The Foreign Minister of Malaysia has correctly ascribed this latter result to "direct contacts between the two countries in a sincere endeavour to bring about a peaceful settlement" [1416th meeting, para. 124], He added: "We hope that this will set a pattern for the settlement of disputes between nations" [ibid.]. 86. Two clear lessons can be drawn from this and from previous experience. First, there are no military solutions between States. The international order is defective; but it is not anarchic. It contains many obstacles to settlement by force.”
1966-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 21 (1966)
“We can formulate and codify the policy of the United Nations against discrimination and intolerance. 142. We can submit the organization and procedures of the United Nations to a close scrutiny, with a view to improving its effectiveness as the primary agent of international unity. 143. Modern statesmanship stands at a point where great danger and high opportunity intersect. Let us ensure that the opportunity shall conquer the danger.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“With all its imperfections, this family of sovereign States presents a new vision of man in his organic unity. There are seven things which can be done at this session to animate and inspire the hopes of those who look to us for a new affirmation of peace and freedom. 136. We can strengthen the doctrine of the independence, integrity and sovereign equality of States. 137. We can clarify and allocate the responsibilities of United Nations organs for peace-keeping by consent. 138. We can and must give a new impulse and direction to the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament. 139. We can summon Member Governments and the specialized agencies to an intensified effort to accelerate the progress of the developing States. 140. We can advance towards the completion of decolonization. 141.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“It is this: we can have nothing to say or to discuss in any context in which our statehood, our sovereignty and our territorial integrity are not accepted as unassailable facts which lie beyond the range of negotiation. It is because this principle is not everywhere accepted that the present is dark with conflict. The final aim is of a future to be shared in peace. 134. The great network of friendships which joins Israel to its colleagues in the international community in every continent testifies to a world-wide belief that the restoration of the Jewish people to it homeland is one of the moments of climax in the political and spiritual achievement of our times. 135. A vigorous and progressive United Nations is an essential element of the emerging international order.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“Last week, a group of young Israelis in the region of the Dead Sea came upon parchment scrolls nineteen hundred years old. They are inscribed in the same language as that in which modern Israelis converse today. There is no truth in any discussion of the Middle East which does not grasp the depth, the passion, the profound rootedness, the total authenticity of this bond between a people and the land from which it once made a communication of grandeur to all mankind. 133. Israel sees its region as the home of all its sovereign States and all its various cultures. If the sovereign equality of all Middle Eastern States is accepted as an unchallengeable starting-point, all Middle Eastern problems are soluble. If that is not accepted, then nothing whatever can be solved. We share one principle with every other State represented here.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“Of the Middle Eastern States, Israel and seven States of Arab tongue are Mediterranean nations. The Hellenic and Latin worlds, Turkey and Greece, Cyprus and Malta, are washed by the same waters. The Mediterranean basin is a central, compact world congenial to the free interaction of ideas and utterly alien to exclusiveness. In no other part of the globe does a similar variety of conditions exist in such close proximity or in such intensity of mutual influence. It is here that man first considered himself in the light of eternity. It is here that science broke loose from empiricism in search of broad unifying principles. And it is precisely here, amidst all the conditions for a renewed emergence of human vitality, that we find statesmanship still frustrated by unyielding conflict. 132.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“Israel is not the only nation in the Middle East which has secured its national freedom in the past few decades. The domain of Arab independence stretches through thirteen States across 4 million square miles with a population of 100 million. This lavish patrimony surely mocks any constant grudge of Israel's corner of sovereignty in 3,000 square miles — fifty times smaller than the domain of Arab independence in population; 500 times smaller in area. What would be the moral status of a world in which so small a people could not pursue its destiny in peace after the agony of centuries past! 131. The Middle East is not the exclusive possession of any single nation. Our region's destiny lies in variety and pluralism, not in centralized domination or uniformity.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“What happens in Israel, who comes in and who does not, will be decided by Israel's sovereign will. He has suggested quite frankly, for example, that the return of refugees is in fact equivalent to Israel's non-existence. He is quite right. That is one of the reasons why we oppose solutions to any problem which are incompatible with the Charter, with the structure of the United Nations, with the sovereign integrity of States, with international peace. Those States of the Middle East which caused this problem by an act of aggression, certified as such by the United Nations, must surely take their full share in a solution by a regional project of reintegration which they and they alone have the duty and the capacity to carry out. 130.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“The misuse of this tribunal for purposes of hostility was begun this morning by the Foreign Minister of Libya. He spoke of a Member State as "a group of adventurers". The first adventure of Israel as a Member State, on the day after its admission to the United Nations, was to cast the decisive vote, on 12 May 1949, in support of Libya's independence and against the prolongation of colonial tutelage. It was our assumption that all new States would respect the rights of existing States. There is a deep cynicism in the actions oi those who claim for themselves what they deny to others, especially if what they claim is the elementary right of every distinctive people to its sovereignty and nationhood. 129. Let the representative of Libya be under no misapprehension.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“126. There is no need to seek special principles for conciliation our immediate region. It is surely useless to upnold an international order as a matter of general principle—and to abandon it in any specific case. The tensions in our region can be truthfully defined and, effectively resolved only when they are envisaged in the general light of United Nations principles and United Nations structure. 127. It is in this light that we reject constant aspersions of neighbouring Governments on Israel's sovereignty, Israel's identity, Israel's honour and lsrael's inalienable rights. It is especially incongruous to hear such tirades re-echo year by year in the United Nations itself. 128. The United Nations is an instrument for ending conflicts — not an arena for waging them.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“It might seem at first sight that I have said nothing about the problem of Israel in its relations with the Middle East. In a deeper sense I have said everything about that problem. If the United Nations upholds the sovereign equality, political independence and territorial integrity of all its Members; if it repudiates the use or threat of force against the integrity and independence of any State; if it respects the existing territorial structure, subject only to change by negotiation and agreement; if it maintains fidelity to international law; if it seeks a world in which every people shall be free to express its personality under its own sovereign flag; if it rejects policies of belligerency and blockade; if it believes in the duty of its Members "to practise tolerance and live together in peace as good neighbours"; in short: if you accept the Charter, then you inexorably ratify Israel's essential rights; and by the same token you reject the claims of those who seek to place Israel outside the scope of their Charter obligations.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“In committee discussion, my delegation will call attention to certain cases in which greater action or vigilance is required to insure the prevention of discrimination on ethnic, racial or religious grounds. There is a great Jewish community which claims our special concern in this context. 124. Similarly, we shall approach the problem of apartheid. Our unqualified condemnation of apartheid proceeds from a special legacy of memory and principle. In that spirit, Israel has sponsored the resolution presented to the Assembly of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, providing for a world conference on education for tolerance, which will work towards the eradication of all discrimination on grounds of race, religion or origin. 125.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“I refer to the Ecumenical Council declaration of 20 November 1964, repudiating "the teaching of anything that could give rise to hatred or contempt of Jews in the hearts of Christians", in view of "the bond that ties the people of the New Covenant to Abraham's stock". 122. Memory is the father of conscience. The recollection of past intolerance is a vital element in the education of humanity towards a spirit of fraternity. Israel therefore endorses what the Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia has said in criticism of any refusal to prolong statutes of limitation for Nazi crimes. Our own Government and Parliament has recently expressed its grave concern on this matter. It is intolerable that authors of Nazi crimes should be enabled to enter into the normal life of society. 123.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“No other people has such a recent recollection of millions of its men, women and children being thrown into the furnace. 120. With this special burden of memory on its shoulders, Israel will take an active part in the discussion of the draft international convention on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination. It is especially important that nazism, racism and antisemitism should be specifically repudiated in that convention. The vigorous statement by the Foreign Minister of Argentina [1292nd meeting] on the issue of racism will find a warm echo in our hearts. 121. A bold and vital step has recently been taken in Rome towards creating a doctrinal atmosphere favourable to broader tolerance.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“This latter concern proceeds from the haunting memories amidst which the United Nations came to birth: memories of a violent tyranny never surpassed in the history of crime. Nazism was born of a theory of discrimination which denied the intrinsic equality of human rights and human personality. Races were arranged in a hierarchy of nobility and servitude, to be exalted or degraded in accordance with a perverted system of values. It mattered not who was placed at the top or the bottom of the ladder. The United Nations has only one course open to it: total condemnation of all forms of racism and discrimination. 119. Israel carries into its future history the most poignant experience of suffering and martyrdom which has ever afflicted the human memory.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“Israel has concluded projects of economic and technical co-operation with fifty-one other developing countries in Africa, Asia and America. In all the eighty-three votes taken on the recommendations and principles of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Israel aligned itself with other developing countries. Thousands of young men and women from developing States have in recent years attended courses of study and training on our soil. 117. Israel’s principal vocation in international life is to be found in this expanding field of co-operation. It is therefore with a profound sense of rectitude and justice that Israel claims its place in all international bodies dedicated to the advancement of developing States. 118. Our Charter combines a deep respect for sovereignty with an urgent concern for individual rights.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“In those new dimensions of international cooperation, the great Powers and the advanced countries have no monopoly of responsibility. Our own national experience teaches us something about the extraordinary mobility and versatility of technical skills. International gatherings convened in Israel have explored the role of science and technology in the advancement of new countries. They have examined the central importance of rural development as a primary factor in economic and cultural progress. This summer, we hope to explore with the economic and finance ministers of emerging States some of the fiscal problems arising from the establishment of new economies. An International Conference on the Role of Women in the Advancement of Peace and Development has just ended in Jerusalem. 116.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“The current pace of economic growth in developing countries will not avail to close the gap. The advanced and the developing countries may well come to confront each other across a gulf of tension in a new polarization of the human family. 113. The recommendations of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development may seem to the developing countries too moderate in comparison with our need for more concrete and speedier solutions. Modest as these proposals are, they must be acted upon. Other difficulties notwithstanding, the General Assembly should find a way to launch the Geneva machinery and to endorse the Final Act — as well as the budgetary allocation that goes with it. 114. In many nations we see progress towards a welfare State. It is urgent that we march towards a welfare world. 115.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“Israel brought its utmost effort of heart and mind to bear on the problems raised in those memorable encounters. In the Advisory Committee on Science and Development, established after the 1963 Geneva conference, we helped to formulate a plan for an immediate world-wide attack on a limited number of especially urgent problems affecting nutrition, health, education and water development. In the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, held this year, the Israel delegation submitted proposals for increasing the flow of capital to new States and for liberalizing trade relationships in favour of the developing countries. 112. We are dominated by a sense of urgency. The present momentum of development is much slower than the world’s population increase.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“In 1963, the United Nations conference on science and technology made a daring attempt to bring the creative imagination of the scientific community to bear on the problems of development in emerging societies. The exclusion of any nation, however small, from the world of scientific and technical knowledge is compatible neither with its national dignity nor with its hope of economic progress. Science is concerned with the penetration of nature. But it is also a social pursuit. It has a human origin and a human destination. 110. The 1963 conference dealt primarily with the flow of knowledge and skills. In 1964, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development discussed the more controversial issues involved in the flow of capital and goods. 111.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“It is reflected in the sharp disparities between the abundance of the few and the distress of the many; between an average expectation of life of seventy years in advanced Western countries and thirty to thirty-five in the developing countries; between spectacular technical progress in the northern world and a lack of educational momentum in the southern world. And the gap is growing ever wider. 108. There will not be a stable and just international order until those disparities are narrowed. The drama of accelerated development must command our most intensive concern. 109. The United Nations has made two serious attempts to define and solve this dilemma.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“Men are no longer prepared to reconcile themselves to traditional situations of inequality, either as groups within a national society or as people in the international community. 106. But institutional freedom does not exhaust the quest for human dignity and welfare. In the awakening continents, political freedom has not been attended by a parallel liberation of nations from their social and economic ills. Behind the new emblems of sovereignty, millions still languish in squalor, illiteracy and disease. Men awaken to learn that they can be free in every constitutional sense and yet lose the essence of their freedom in the throes of famine and want. 107. As the political inequality between nations passes away, a new inequality comes to the fore.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“If in some areas of the world independence has been succeeded by turbulence, this is not because independence was granted too early, but because it was granted too late, too grudgingly or with inadequate preparation and foresight. 104. The remnants of colonial rule are more than ever incongruous. It is urgent that the liberation of all African territories be completed, and that the few remaining areas of the world under external rule be drawn into the circle of national independence. A sense of urgency will guide the Israel delegation in its unqualified support of national independence in Africa and elsewhere. 105. Equality is the guiding principle of twentieth century life.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“The crowning achievement of the United Nations has been its role in the expansion of national independence. It is here that the opinion of mankind has become a motive force for the accelerated liberation of peoples. It is here that the sovereignty of new States finds moving expression when they first come to this platform as active agents of international law and policy. The air of the United Nations is alive with freedom. It is in this hall that Africa, in particular, has experienced an awakened international dignity. It is in the establishment and growth of new communities that men and nations achieve their highest sentiment of creativity. 103. The international community should take pride and confidence from this achievement.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)