Tekoah: Arab Governments Represent Terrorist Interests in the UN

Ambassador Yosef Tekoah of Israel charged today that the Arab governments were representing the interests of Palestinian terrorists in the United Nations instead of attending to the concerns of the Palestinian refugees. He urged the General Assembly to stop adopting “resolutions which gave satisfaction to Arab belligerency, but in no way advanced the settlement of the refugee problem.”

Tekoah addressed the Assembly shortly before a vote was to be taken on a series of resolutions connected with the annual report of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Arab Refugees (UNRWA). He referred specifically to the first of eight draft resolutions which he said reflected “the usual expressions of Arab animosity toward Israel, ignoring facts, perverting truth, distorting legal precepts, injecting issues extraneous to the refugee problem, such as the positions adopted by the Palestinian terrorist organizations.”

Tekoah said the text of the resolutions were “inequitable and detrimental” and that “Israel will oppose them.” He singled out sections C, D and E of the first draft resolution which were sponsored by an Afro-Asian bloc and were approved by the Political Committee by substantial majorities.

Section C would have the General Assembly declare that changes in the physical and demographic structure in the Gaza Strip, including the destruction of refugee shelters and the forcible transfer of population, contravenes the Geneva Convention; and would have the Assembly “deplore” these acts and demand that Israel “cease forthwith.”

PALESTINIAN REFUGEES SHORTCHANGED

Section D expresses “grave concern” over the plight of the refugees and “calls once more upon Israel to take steps for the return of the displaced inhabitants” and to “cease forthwith” from all measures affecting changes in the administered territories. Section E of the draft affirms that the people of Palestine are entitled to equal rights and self determination in accordance with the UN Charter and calls “respect” for these rights “indispensable.”

Tekoah said in his speech: “The victims of the Arab states’ policy in the United Nations are first and foremost the Palestinian refugees themselves. Instead of assisting them in reconstructing their lives, the Arab Governments have been feeding them year after year with United Nations resolutions which reflect the views of notorious violators of international law and morality such as Syria, Libya and Algeria.”

The Israeli diplomat observed that if the UN wished to play a constructive role in the advancement of peace in the Middle East it must replace “sterile polemical debates with serious, constructive exchanges of views;” adopt “resolutions arrived at through consultation with and consent of the parties directly concerned;” and encourage the parties “to seek agreement between themselves through negotiations.”