Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar and General Assembly President Imre Hollai called today for the restoration of Palestinian rights, including the right of self-determination and the establishment of an independent state.
De Cuellar and Hollai made their calls in separate statements at a special meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People to commemorate the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. The annual observance is held here every year since 1977, on November 29, the date the UN decided in 1947 on the partition of Palestine.
De Cuellar said in his statement that “the tragic culmination of the events in Lebanon this past summer underlined once more, and with telling poignancy, the urgent need to seek a peaceful solution” to the Palestinian problem. According to the Secretary General a settlement in the Mideast must include the following conditions:
“The withdrawal of Israeli forces from occupied territories; respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every state in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force; and, finally, a just settlement of the Palestinian problem based on the recognition of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, including self-determination. In this connection the question of Jerusalem remain of primary importance.”
URGES JUST AND IMMEDIATE SOLUTION
Hollai, who is from Hungary, said in his statement that “the massacre (in Beirut) of mid-September this year should stir our conscience to the point that we should insist on a just and immediate solution for the plight of the Palestinian people. We owe it to those unfortunate victims to redouble our efforts to find a just solution. Failure to do so can only perpetuate the cycle of violence,” he warned.
Continuing, he stated: “The International community has agreed on certain basic principles relating to this issue. The principle of inadmissibility of the acquisition of foreign territory by force, the inalienable right of the people of Palestine to self-determination and to the establishment of their own independent state, and the right of all states in the region to peace and security within recognized borders.” Hollai said that the international community is “overwhelmingly in favor” of these principles.
Meanwhile, at noon today, a group of some 50 Jewish students, members of the North American Jewish Students Network, demonstrated against the Palestine Liberation Organization across from the UN building. They carried anti-PLO slogans and chanted “Hell No PLO.” The General Assembly is scheduled to open tomorrow its debate on the Palestinian Question. The Assembly is expected to adopt at the end of the debate a series of resolutions against Israel and in favor of a Palestinian state.
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.
