Arab Communique Discloses That the Liberation of Palestine Means the Elimination of Israel

The “Voice of Palestine” in a broadcast over Radio Damascus Dec. 22 following the meeting in Cairo of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Syrian President Hafez Assad declared that the restoration of the rights of the Palestinian Arab people means the elimination of Israel, an English translation of the Arab broadcast said today.

The translation was made available to the media-here by the Israel Embassy which said that “in case there are any lingering doubts in anyone’s mind as to what the Arab leaders mean, when they speak of ‘the restoration of Palestinian rights’ here is the latest authoritative definition, given in a commentary,” on the official Syrian broadcasting station.

In the joint communique (following the Sadat-Assad talks) the translation reads “we find some very clear expressions that are significant, particularly from a long-term point of view. For the language of this communique is directed not at the Israeli conquest of 1967 but beyond that, it being pointed out that the meeting between the two Presidents took place 10 years after 1967 and 30 years after the usurpation of the rights of the Palestinian people.

“The Arabs, in other words, are going to hand Israel an account that will include not only Jerusalem, Nablus, Gaza, Sinai and Golan–but first of all, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa and Nazareth. The Arabs will demand not just the West Bank and the Gaza Strip but their rights in all their lands occupied since 1948.

“The slogan of the restoration of the rights of the Palestinian Arab people and the slogan of the liberation of Palestine–that is, the elimination of Israel–have one and the same meaning, and not two contradictory meanings,” the Voice of Palestine declared on the Damascus Radio.