Israeli Ambassador Chaim Herzog charged today that the recommendations of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People were “a calculated formula for the destruction of Israel” and reiterated Israel’s refusal to participate in the debate on the committee’s report which began in the Security Council this morning. Addressing a press conference here, the Israeli envoy declared that the problem of Palestinian identity “will most certainly” be dealt with at the Geneva peace conference and asserted that “Israel, for its part, will not agree to any settlement which does not give adequate expression to this identity.”
Herzog said that the Security Council’s meeting today while “the tragedy of the dismemberment of Lebanon reaches its climax, is the height of international hypocrisy and callousness.” He claimed that the committee’s report “is nothing but a re-phrasing of the PLO’s statement to the committee and, in keeping with the PLO’s declared aims. The committee’s recommendations are, in effect, a calculated formula for the destruction of the State of Israel. There can be no doubt about this end, even if it is designed to be achieved in stages,” Herzog said.
He declared that a Middle East solution could be reached only on the basis of Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 and at a forum established for that purpose, namely the Geneva peace conference. “The solution that will be reached in Geneva will most certainly deal with the problem of Arab Palestinian identity and Israel, for its part, will not agree to any solution which does not give adequate expression to this identity,” Herzog said.
SAYS RESOLUTION 242 MISREPRESENTED
Referring to the committee’s demand that Israel withdraw unconditionally to its pre-June 1967 lines within a prescribed time, Herzog said this again misrepresents Resolution 242 which calls for secure and recognized borders for all Middle Eastern states.
The Council opened its debate with the participation of the PLO. Ambassador Medoune Fall, of Senegal, chairman of the committee, declared that “the violation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people” is the cause and center of the Middle East conflict. He went on to review the history of UN resolutions and attitudes towards the Palestinians. The committee, which Israel has refused to recognize, consists of 20 nations, 16 of which have no diplomatic ties with Israel.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
