Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan called today on Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and “the representatives of the Palestinian Arabs residing in Judaea, Samaria and Gaza” to join in the current peace negotiations between Israel and Egypt “in order to achieve the noble goal of a real and durable comprehensive peace in our area.”
In his speech, prepared for delivery at the 34th session of the United Nations General Assembly late this afternoon, Dayan noted that the Camp David accords provide for Palestinian Arabs residing on the West Bank and Gaza Strip to be included in the peace talks.
But he reiterated Israel’s unequivocal position of no negotiations with-the Palestine Liberation Organization. Dayan said that from June 1967 until the present, “over 600 people have been murdered and 3300 others have been wounded in Israel by the PLO. It has also terrorized and intimidated Arabs prepared to negotiate with Israel, killing more than 350 Arabs and injuring about 2000 others.”
Referring to the autonomy plan for the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Dayan noted that “the option of creating a third state between Israel and Jordan is not considered by the Camp David accords.” He said the objective of the current autonomy negotiations is the provision of full autonomy for the Palestinians in those regions.
“The Israeli military government and its civilian administration will be withdrawn as soon as a self-governing authority has been freely elected by the inhabitants,” Dayan said. “This framework also specifies measures that will be taken to assure the security of Israel and its neighbors.”
ISSUE OF JERUSALEM
With respect to the controversial issue of Jerusalem, described by Dayan as “the eternal capital of Israel and the Jewish people,” the Foreign Minister stressed that “Jerusalem cannot be divided again by barbed wire and there can be no return to the repeated shooting at our civilians and the barbaric desecration of the Jewish quarter of the city, the Holy Place and cemeteries as happened before 1967.”
Dayan recalled Jordan’s ban on Jews visiting the holy places in Jerusalem before 1967 and noted in contrast, Israel’s policy of free access to all holy places for all religions.
SELF-DEFENSE AGAINST THE PLO
Dayan referred in his speech to the situation in Lebanon, to the UN role in implementing the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty and to the fate of Soviet and Syrian Jewry. In south Lebanon, he said, Israel was compelled to act against the PLO “in a clear act of self-defense.” He charged that PLO terrorist groups “are still functioning all over Lebanon and in quite a large number of cases inside the (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) UNIFIL area.”
He said that in that area which was free from the terrorist presence at the time of Israel’s withdrawal, “there are now about 700 PLO terrorists who are acting murderously through UNIFIL lines against the population of Israel.” He blamed the UN force for reconciling itself in many cases to the presence and activities of PLO terrorists.
Dayan was critical of the UN role in implementing the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. “Although our assumption and hope that the UN would assist in the implementation of the peace treaty were disappointed, we will proceed on the path of peace,” he said. “The attitude of the UN will not damage the peace process — but it will, no doubt, lower the prestige and even the moral status of the UN,” Dayan said.
Dayan charged that there has been only “little improvement” in the situation of Soviet Jews seeking to emigrate and that a large number of Jews is still denied exit visas. He also expressed concern over the growing anti-Jewish propaganda campaign in the official Soviet media. Dayan appealed to the Syrian government to stop violating the human rights of its Jewish citizens and permit them to leave to reunite with their relatives. The Israeli Foreign Minister is expected to return to Israel late tonight.
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.
