PLO Urges UN to Take ‘effective and Operational Measures’ to Eliminate Zionism and Israel

Farouk Kaddoumi, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization delegation, called on the General Assembly this morning to take “effective and operational measures” to eliminate Zionism and the State of Israel.

Opening the Assembly’s debate on the Palestine issue with a bitter attack on “the Zionist enemy and its imperialist ally, the United States,” the PLO spokesman reiterated its demand for the establishment of a secular, democratic state in all of Palestine, denounced the step-by-step approach to a Middle East settlement as doomed to failure and indicated that the PLO would not be a party to the Geneva peace conference as long as it was based on resolutions that ignored the rights of Palestinians.

Kaddoumi castigated the U.S. which, he claimed “actually serves the Zionist policy of aggression by sustaining the Israeli entity through infusions of billions of dollars and sophisticated military equipment.” But he hailed the Soviet Union as “our friend who opposes Israeli aggression” and praised France for recognizing the PLO. He urged other European countries to do the same.

The PLO representative blamed the current civil strife in Lebanon on Zionists and other enemies of the Palestinians. He conceded that the situation in Lebanon tests “the credibility of… our vision of the establishment of a democratic, non-sectarian state.” But, he said the Zionists and imperialists drew the Palestinians into a fight which “would preclude us from confronting the step-by-step policy.”

Kaddoumi said that policy, pursued by U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, “cannot but end in failure, for it is designed not to promote world peace and enhance global security but rather to mask the intensification of tensions and the creation of conditions for the outbreak of war.”