YouSaid · the spoken record

RIFA’I

lines on the record: 198
first: 1956-09-24
most recent: 1969-09-24
sittings or episodes: 6
sources: un-general-debate

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“Indeed, the lessons which may be useful to Israel, and not to anybody else, should be those given by similar people in similar conditions where might is dying every day on the soil of freedom. After all, one eternal fact remains: it is not force of arms which will determine the issue, as an Israeli leader once put it, but force of right. The lesson which Israel, and nobody else, must learn is that its grasp on the occupied Arab territories will one day fail. One day its reliance on its armed superiority will prove useless. One day it will wake up to see that the chance of peace it was given at a certain stage may not be given again.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“The Israeli air raids being daily launched successively against Arab positions, towns and inhabited areas are becoming a source of pride to Israel. My country and my people, partly occupied and partly a target for daily Israeli shelling and air attacks, are determined not to yield in the defence of their right. Moreover, a new-born nation is emerging. It is emerging from amidst the ruins of the past, from the darkness of the refuge and the exile and from the ashes in which a few sparks have been left and may cause a blasting fire. I speak of the children of Palestine. 63. In keeping up their air raids against our lands and our people, the Israelis declare that they want to give the Arabs a “lesson“.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“The popular explosions in the area and the increasing identification in the public eye of United States interests with Israeli aggression reflect that fact. 61. The outcome of the deliberations on the crisis of the Middle East during this General Assembly session may determine the future course of events in the Middle East. No one would claim that the Middle East nowadays enjoys a peaceful life; yet war has been averted so far only by the hope that the decisions of the United Nations will be effective and that the Powers primarily responsible for the maintenance of peace and security will see to it that a just and peaceful settlement is reached. Once those two factors collapse war becomes inevitable. It may possibly be one war or a series of wars—wars of devastation. The area needs peace and construction, not war and destruction. 62.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“Resistance within the occupied areas and around them is vigorously growing and will not end short of on rights of the people hit by aggression and occupation. The young men and women in the occupied areas who are offering their lives every day in resistance are young patriots who love their country and are willing to die for it. They have decided their ultimate destination; and, in their march to seek life through death, no authority can prevent them from reaching their destination. These gallant young men represent the spirit of the young in all the Arab countries. Occupation, injustice and outside encouragement to both do not breed surrender under the guise of realism but revolution.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“Instead of bringing peace closer, this policy has driven peace farther away than at any time in the past. I must refer, in this regard, to the recent delivery by the United States to Israel of the heaviest types of destructive weapons, the F-4 Phantom jets after the Skyhawk fighter-bombers, at a time when Israel occupies vast regions of the Arab countries, at a time when Israel enjoys superiority in the air and at a time when its air raids have become the order of the day. I must say that this measure on the part of the United States can in no way be justified. 60. Instead of bringing about acquiescence on the part of the Arabs—surrender of their rights under pressure—this policy has bred resistance, resentment and a revolutionary spirit engulfing the whole Arab world.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“We have ample evidence in Israel’s record in the area from the days when the Zionist nucleus in Palestine was the embryo of the would-be Israel up to this day. The present policies of Israel in the existing crisis have to be examined in the context of years of similar tactics of phased expansion and of diverting attention within the United Nations while establishing one fait accompli after another by the use of force and at the expense of justice and the rights of the people of the area. 59. Futile and unrealistic as this Israeli strategy may be, even in achieving Israel’s own goals, it is only to be expected. It is not understandable, however, that some big Powers, with primary responsibility for international peace and with vast interests in our area, should support this Israeli strategy or find themselves powerless before it.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“Israel has conducted daily heavy aerial and ground shelling against densely inhabited towns and villages in various parts of Jordan, killing civilians, including women and children, using napalm and other destructive weapons. It has destroyed vital economic installations, irrigation projects, canals, bridges and highways in a systematic and vicious way. The same tactics are applied against the other Arab countries directly adjacent to the occupied areas. The goal of these tactics is to put the greatest possible pressure on those Arab countries in order to force them to surrender their rights. 58. There can be no other analysis of Israel’s strategy and policy in the past two years or more. We have ample evidence of this in what we see now.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“That is why Israel has systematically avoided commitment on the substance of the Security Council resolution [242 (1967)] on complete withdrawal and on the recognition of the Arab people of Palestine. That is also why, in the meantime, it has annexed Jordanian Arab Jerusalem, planted its settlements throughout the occupied areas and gradually made public its claims to territorial expansion. With the situation as it is, the slogan of negotiations advanced by Israel is clearly meaningless. 57. Secondly, Israel’s strategy has been to keep up continuous daily military attacks against the Arab countries on the other side of the cease-fire line, making no distinction between military and civilian targets.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“What is Israel’s present strategy designed to achieve? One can define two main features of Israel’s present military and political strategy. The first is to oppose any United Nations or big-Power intervention in the problem while trying to keep the attention of the United Nations and world public opinion on a game of deceptive slogans, procedural tactics and pretensions of readiness to work for peace without any genuine commitment to the requirements of peace. In the meantime, while Israel continues to engage the United Nations in those prolonged delaying tactics, it moves on as rapidly as it can in changing the situation on the ground, absorbing the areas under occupation and preparing to face the world with a new fait accompli, a new expansion. 56.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“For many centuries our people have protected and preserved, with tolerance and the utmost veneration, the Holy City and its Holy Places. Christians, Moslems and Jews enjoyed free access to and free worship in the city of peace. Conflict and prejudice are new to Jerusalem. Israel has come with an invading and racist ideology which has disrupted the peace and tolerance of all the Holy Land in recent decades, in the name of religion, although completely alien to the noble spirit of all universal religions. When Israeli withdrawal has been affected, Jerusalem should regain its peace and tolerance. And we in Jordan will continue to make every effort to ensure freedom of access and freedom of worship to all religions and to all believers in God. 55. It may be asked: what are the motives for Israel’s present policy?”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“The world today is witnessing a threat to the Holy Places in Jerusalem; a threat to an historical and cultural heritage; a threat to monuments of tolerance and faith and to international peace and security. 53. It was against that background that twenty-five Moslem countries, Members of the United Nations, asked for an urgent meeting of the Security Council which last week adopted another strongly worded resolution [271 (1969)] against Israel. The twenty-five countries are meeting today in Morocco at the highest level to consider the situation. 54. Jordan, with the international community on its side, considers all Israeli measures in Jerusalem invalid and illegal. Jerusalem is an integral part of my country. It is part of the occupied territory from which Israel has been called upon to withdraw.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“It took further legislative measures to complete its unilateral and illegal annexation of Jerusalem. 51. The Security Council, in resolution 267 (1969) of 3 July 1969, again censured all those measures in the strongest terms. But Israel’s attitude did not change. It continued to disregard the will of the international community and to defy the authority of the United Nations. 52. On 21 August 1969 the Arabs and Moslems, and the world at large, were shocked by the news of the burning of Al Aqsa mosque. The Moslem world reacted with outrage, pain and indignation. Voices within Israel called for the rebuilding of the Temple in place of Al Aqsa.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“As early as 4 July 1967 [resolution 2253 (ES-V)] the General Assembly declared invalid all measures taken by Israel to annex the Holy City and called upon Israel to rescind them and to desist forthwith from taking any action which would alter the status of Jerusalem. This was emphasized time and again by the General Assembly and the Security Council. Both organs reaffirmed the principle of the inadmissibility of territorial acquisition by military force. 50. However, Israel chose to disregard all those resolutions. It razed to the ground whole quarters in the Holy City. It expelled secular as well as religious leaders. It forcibly evicted hundreds of Arabs to make room for Israeli immigrants. It established Israeli settlements on Arab lands.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“And in view of our past experience with Israel, and its renunciation of the Protocol of Lausanne of 12 May 1949 and the four Armistice Agreements it signed the same year with the Arab States directly concerned, we maintain that the Security Council should be the guarantor of any instruments defining the obligations of the parties under the Security Council resolution. In view of our past experience with Israel, only such commitments as are guaranteed by the Security Council can be binding and irrevocable. 48. So far, all our peaceful efforts have been wasted. That is because Israel does not seem to be after peace, but after territory. Every day it becomes clearer that Israel is after Arab Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the Syrian Heights and substantial parts of the West Bank and Sinai. 49. Jerusalem is the best illustration of this fact.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“Jarring we added that if a plan on the basis of that paragraph were presented to the parties concerned, its acceptance by the parties and the declaration of their intention to implement it in good faith, with adequate guarantees for its full implementation, would make possible the implementation of the other provisions of resolution of 22 November 1967. 46. Israel’s position was, in effect, that the successive and repeated United Nations resolutions on the Palestinian refugees should be disregarded and the problem reduced to one of international charity. 47. We accepted each and every provision of the Security Council resolution of 22 November. We agreed to end the state of belligerency in return for complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from all territories occupied since 5 June 1967.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“On the question of the “refugees“, the people who own nearly every bit of the soil on which Israel itself has been established, and who were driven out by force of arms, Jordan took a very natural and reasonable position. We made it clear that a just settlement of the refugee problem was embodied in paragraph 11 of General Assembly resolution 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, which, since its adoption, has been reaffirmed repeatedly at each and every session of the Assembly. Every year the General Assembly has emphasized the right of the Palestinian Arabs to repatriation and compensation. In our reply to Mr.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“Eban said: “The effective guarantee for the territorial inviolability and political independence of States lies in the strict observance by the Governments of their treaty obligations. In the context of peace providing for full respect for the sovereignty of States and the establishment of agreed boundaries, other security measures may be discussed by the contracting Governments.” 44. Here again, on this point, the position of the United States lacked objectivity. It offered a proposal to establish exclusively on the Arab side the demilitarized zones envisaged by the resolution. It suggested that demilitarized zones should be established consisting of the territory from which Israel withdrew. If this means anything, it means that military occupation is to be rewarded. 45.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“Regarding his question whether Jordan would accept the establishment of demilitarized zones as a guarantee of the territorial inviolability and political independence of the States in the area, I gave the following reply on behalf of my Government: “We do not believe that the establishment of demilitarized zones is a necessity. However, Jordan will not oppose the establishment of such zones if they are astride the boundaries.” And I added: “In case demilitarized zones are established, Jordan accepts that such zones be supervised and maintained by the United Nations.” 43. Against this clear written reply, the answer of 2 April by the Israeli Foreign Minister, which was then made known, was vague and evasive. Mr.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“Likewise, a clear commitment on complete withdrawal is an essential and indispensable prerequisite for any constructive future steps on the road to peace. It is unfortunate that the Israeli position has found acceptance by some others. The attitude of the United States, as far as we know, on this most important point has not made it possible for the talks of the four Powers to bear fruitful results. 42. I feel I should explain our position, compared with that of Israel, on one or two other subjects in order to show how positive our position has been, and how negative and obstructive has been the Israeli stand. On 24 March 1969 I sent to Ambassador Gunnar Jarring my written answers to his questions of 8 March on certain specific matters.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“Since Israel is an occupying force, this means that it can stay in occupation in the event any proposed boundaries do not satisfy its territorial designs. This Israeli position, which is a basic impediment to the achievement of any progress in the efforts towards peace, has repeatedly been emphasized and affirmed by Israeli official spokesmen. 41. In this connexion, let me stress that any interpretation of the November 1967 resolution which confines Israeli withdrawal to boundaries to be established by an agreement of the parties introduces language and a meaning alien to the resolution. It serves to undermine the basic principle of non-acquisition of territory by armed force. As long as this position is taken, there is no hope of success in achieving a peaceful settlement.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“Israel has taken the position of conditioning withdrawal upon the establishment of so-called agreed boundaries, thus completely violating the terms and the spirit of the resolution, and suggesting clearly that it is attempting to gain Arab territory beyond the lines of 4 June 1967. What the Foreign Minister of Israel said in this regard in this hall on 8 October 1968 [1686th meeting], and repeated several times thereafter, represented a policy destructive to the hopes of reaching a peaceful settlement. His theory about withdrawal—a word he never utters—shows clearly that an establishment of the lines to which withdrawal may take place is subject to the agreement of Israel, or indeed to its veto.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“Yet, on our part, we have not been unaware of the sad facts in today’s international life. We have also been fully conscious of our own responsibility towards peace in our own region. We have, therefore, respected the decision of the international community and accepted Security Council resolution [242 (1967)] of 22 November 1967 on the problem, and sincerely co-operated in the efforts for its implementation. We have understood it as it was intended to be: a resolution providing for ending the occupation, ensuring withdrawal of the occupying forces, and establishing a just and lasting peace. Israel, on its part, has made every effort to distort the intent of the resolution and obstruct its implementation. Allow me to give you some instances of such attempts. 40.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“In the meantime, a part of the international community has, unfortunately, fallen into the serious error of concentrating on trying to work out a method for a political settlement between the Arab States and Israel, but forgetting the fundamental issue, which violates the Charter and all rules and norms of present international life. The issue—the real issue—in the present Middle East crisis is Israel’s military occupation of the national soil of three Member States and the Israeli armed aggression which continues to exist in defiance of world demands and pronouncements. To insist that the problem lies in the difficulty of finding a way towards an agreement between Israel and the Arab States is indeed a grave error which amounts to an endorsement of the state of aggression which continues to exist. 39.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“The attempt of the permanent members of the Security Council to study the problem and prevent further deterioration into all-out war, was bitterly opposed. The rapid escalation of Israeli demands went along with the escalating expressions of their determination to retain the occupied areas and to finalize their annexation. Continuing measures with the aim of absorbing or “de-Arabizing” the areas occupied proved beyond any doubt that Israel wanted the Jarring mission and the procedural dialectic it continued to propose to be a mere umbrella behind which expansion and annexation could be conveniently achieved. Professing peace verbally for propaganda purposes, Israel continued to sabotage peace on the ground. 38.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“Masses of people have been dispossessed, expelled from their homes, arrested, insulted, tortured or terrorized. The social, cultural and economic life of the civilian population under occupation has been disrupted and shattered. Israeli military arrogance has expressed itself in daily shelling and bombardment against the civilian population beyond the cease-fire areas. The Israeli authorities have deliberately defied all efforts of the United Nations to intervene effectively or usefully on behalf of justice and peace. The mission of the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, empowered and authorized by Security Council resolution 242 (1967), was obstructed by Israeli intransigence. This Security Council resolution attempting to outline a balanced solution to the problem was ignored and flouted.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“There, certainly as a result of twenty-one years of indifference, the United Nations finds itself today more impotent, more entangled, and more than ever tragically remote from ensuring justice and peace. For over two years now, the United Nations has been witnessing an unveiled and ruthless foreign occupation of the national soil of three Member States of the United Nations, the result of premeditated armed aggression. For over two years, substantial parts of Jordan, the United Arab Republic and Syria have been under occupation. The occupied areas, including the holiest spot where the world’s most cherished shrines are located, have undergone physical destruction and change. Villages in the occupied areas have been bulldozed and obliterated by the occupying forces.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“On the soil of the African continent the great nation of Nigeria is still struggling to defend its unity and territorial integrity. We hope that the people of Nigeria will overcome their present difficulties and resume their march towards progress. 36. The problems and conflicts in which man is involved are ideological, economic, political and moral. There is, however, a basic conflict in our present-day world which is continuous and unending. It is that between man and the forces of injustice and oppression. Every day men all over the world sacrifice their lives combating those forces in the cause of justice. It is tragic that in most conflicts of this nature the highest body of human organization has found itself indifferent or impotent to stand on the side of right. 37. The Middle East is one such case.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“It is time they were given that right. 32. For over twenty years the problem of Korea has been before the United Nations General Assembly. We believe that more serious consideration should be given to this important problem. Both parties should be given an equal hearing, which may contribute to the reunification of that divided land. 33. The present régime in Rhodesia continues to defy all General Assembly and Security Council injunctions. We believe that more effective measures under Chapter VII of the Charter have to be invoked. 34. One other disturbing question is racial discrimination in the Republic of South Africa. It goes against human dignity to look on at the people of South Africa continuing to suffer as victims of the most inhuman practices. 35.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“Injustices on earth, whether in the political, economic or social realm, are still widespread. The gap between the poor and the rich and between comfort and misery continues to widen. Basic human rights continue to be violated. People yearning for freedom have not been enabled to practice their right of self-determination. Colonial policies, military conquest and occupation are still practiced. On the part of the international community a climate of indifference seems to prevail. But the oppressed cannot be indifferent to wrong. Liberation movements, particularly in Asia and Africa, have polarized the masses in their struggle for freedom, independence and progress. The gallant people of Viet-Nam have paid every price and made every sacrifice to attain their freedom and to achieve a unity which would be universally recognized.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“This year witnessed a culmination of the technological revolution. Man’s eternal quest for the new and unknown has led him to the highest mountains and the deepest ocean trenches. This year it has led him across the vacuum of space to another world. The universe has become more than ever one unit, and for a moment all mankind were kin. We must pay the highest tribute to all those brave and creative people who made this remarkable achievement possible, and congratulate the countries which invested enormous human and material resources in this greatest of accomplishments. 31. Notwithstanding man’s remarkable achievements on his own planet in the fields of technology, education, communication, science and industry, man has done much to despoil his own world.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“27. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on behalf of which I have the honour of addressing this distinguished gathering today, sincerely welcomes the election of the President of this General Assembly. Her election demonstrates the Assembly’s confidence in her high qualities as well as its regard for her country, Liberia. 28. I would also take this occasion to pay a special tribute to the late President, His Excellency, Mr. Emilio Arenales, for the ability and consummate skill with which he presided over the deliberations of the General Assembly at its twenty-third session. 29. I should also like to acknowledge the valuable service of our excellent and highly distinguished Secretary-General and his associates in the cause of the United Nations and its accomplishments. His record has been one of able leadership and dedication. 30.”
1969-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 24 (1969)
“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.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“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.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“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.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“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.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“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.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“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.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“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.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“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.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“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.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“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.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“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.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“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.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“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.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“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.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“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.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“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’.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“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.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“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.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“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.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)