Israel Rejects ‘out of Hand’ Report of Palestine Committee

Israel today condemned the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and rejected “out of hand” its recommendations that “imply the stage-by-stage truncation of the Jewish State until it totally disappears.”

Addressing the General Assembly this morning, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Chaim Herzog, declared, “In the name of the government and people of Israel and of the Jewish people I reject out of hand the recommendations contained in the report of the Palestine Committee.” He said that “Israel condemns the committee of twenty for being one-sided, biased, intellectually dishonest and expedient for allowing itself to become a tool in the hands of the Palestine Liberation Organization and to adopt as its recommendations, the political objectives of that organization.”

The report of the 20-member committee recommends the establishment of a Palestinian state under PLO aegis and calls for Israel’s withdrawal from all Arab territories by June, 1977. It also recommends that Arab refugees be allowed to return to their homes in Pales tine. Addressing himself to that aspect of the report, Herzog said that other refugee problems, larger in scope, have been solved through resettlement and rehabilitation of refugees with the help of suitable financial arrangements.

REFUGEE PROBLEM TWO-SIDED

He contended that none of these refugee problems has been resolved by attempting to repatriate the refugees to the countries and homes from which they fled as the recommendations of the Palestine committee advocates. He charged that the Arab states are unwilling to solve the refugee problem but noted that Israel has resettled about 800,000 Jewish refugees who were driven out of Arab countries. “Let me make it quite clear.” Herzog said, “that we will not at any stage consider valid any discussion of the refugee problem in the Middle East if half of that problem, the Jewish refugee problem, is ignored.”

Referring to the committee’s recommendation of the establishment of an “independent Palestinian entity” to be followed by “further arrangements for the full implementation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people,” Herzog declared: “The committee’s recommendations for Israeli withdrawal do not stop at the 1967 line but imply the stage-by-stage truncation of the Jewish State until it totally disappears.” He noted that not one Arab country has ever declared that the 1967 line would be recognized by it as the final peace frontier with Israel.

“The committee of twenty on Palestine has produced a report designed to move our area away from peace, Ignoring as it does Israel’s rights, ignoring as it does the fact that no dictated solution will be accepted by Israel, ignoring as it does the centrality of the process of negotiations in solving any conflict,” Herzog said.

PREPARED TO EXPLORE PEACE OPTION

At the close of his address, Herzog referred to a statement yesterday by the delegate of Jordan that there is an option for real peace now. The Israeli envoy said, “I declare here and now that I’m prepared to meet with you in order to examine with you how we can reach the terms of a new order within the framework of genuine peace. I solemnly declare, before this august assembly, that I’m prepared to take this step now, even as I step down from this rostrum.”

Meanwhile, there has been no comment from Israeli sources here on yesterday’s statement by PLO representative Farouk Kaddoumi that the PLO was prepared to assume the powers of government on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip after Israeli occupation forces withdraw. Kaddoumi, who heads the PLO’s political department, said in a press interview at the UN that the Arab summit meeting at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia last month reaffirmed support for “an independent state in Palestine.” A major issue now facing the PLO is whether to declare a provisional government-in-exile, Kaddoumi said.