Blum Says Israel’s Position in the UN Was Further Eroded During General Assembly’s Current Session

Yehuda Blum Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations. said today that Israel’s position at the world organization was further eroded during the three-month session of the 34th General Assembly which was scheduled to be concluded here this evening.

Speaking at a press conference at the Israel UN Mission, Blum claimed that “the erosion” was reflected not only in the anti-Israeli votes but also in the various speeches and debates held during the Assembly’s session “The erosion (in Israel’s standing at the UN) was especially noticeable with Latin American countries,” Blum said.

He noted that Latin American countries that traditionally voted with Israel, or at least abstained on anti-Israeli resolutions, supported anti-Israeli measures. This pattern was clearly reflected when only three Latin American countries voted against the inclusion of Zionism–which is identified by the UN as “racism”–in last Friday’s resolution on “hegemonism” the Israeli envoy said.

Blum also said that “it is hard to Ignore the worsening of our position among the Western (European) countries” in the UN Blum pointed out that at the beginning of the general debate in the Assembly Belgium for instance, spoke “proudly” about the Palestine Liberation Organization office in Brussels and France was “unfriendly” toward Israel throughout the session.

Blum recalled that France was the only member of the nine-member European Economic Community (EEC) to abstain on the General Assembly resolution declaring the Camp David accords invalid The other eight EEC countries voted against the resolution which was adopted by a vote of 75-33 with 33 abstentions.

A GENERAL FEELING OF DESPAIR

The Israeli envoy claimed that there is a general feeling of “despair” among the West European countries regarding the turn of events in the UN and that the attitude of the Western countries is influenced by the belief that they cannot succeed against the 77 member nonaligned bloc.

Observing that the 34th Assembly was dominated by the Cambodian and Iranian crises Blum said the Arabs and the PLO “were forced to lower their profile” especially after the eruption of the Iranian crisis in early November Palestine Week, and Palestine Day on Nov. 29, were therefore Ignored by the media and were not given the attention they would have otherwise been given Blum said.

The Arabs and the PLO succeeded however in passing a series of resolutions enhancing the standing of the PLO in the UN Blum said underscoring the fact that the Assembly changed the Palestine Unit in the Secretariat to the Palestine Division and allocated a budget of $2 million to the division an increase of about $1.5 million In addition the Secretariat was ordered to plan a series of commemorative stamps depicting the “plight of the Palestinian people.”

The “hypocrisy” of the UN, Blum charged, was evidenced by the fact that the Assembly approved resolutions condemning directly and indirectly the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel. “Instead of uniting for peace, the UN is uniting against peace” he said.