Ambassador Yehuda Blum of Israel declared today that Israel stands for the “full restoration of Lebanese sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.” But, he stressed, it is essential “that all non-Lebanese elements without exception remove themselves from Lebanese soil and that the Lebanese people be enabled to take their destiny into their own hands.”
Speaking at the emergency special session of the General Assembly on the Palestine question, which opened here yesterday the third of its kind this year, the Israeli envoy reiterated Israel’s claim that it has no territorial ambitions in Lebanon. “We do not covet even one single square inch of Lebanese territory. We do not want to stay in Lebanon or in any part thereof.”
But, Blum continued, “we are entitled to demand that proper arrangements be made so that Lebanon should not serve again as a staging ground for terrorist attacks against Israel’s civilian population.”
Blum said that Israel wishes to have peace “in and with Lebanon. Israel has no quarrel with Lebanon, only with those who subjugated it.” As for the Palestinian question itself, Blum said that it should be solved in the framework of the Camp David accords, which, he said, invite the Palestinians “to play an active role in shaping their future.”
The emergency session was convened at the request of the non-aligned group here after it was urged to do so by the PLO.
The Assembly is expected to endorse overwhelmingly, as it has done on previous occasions, a resolution or resolutions reaffirming the right of the Palestinians to a homeland, denouncing Israel’s occupation and demanding Israel’s withdrawal from all territories, including the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon. The Assembly is also certain to call for sanctions against Israel. But General Assembly resolutions, however, are not binding and only the Security Council can impose sanctions on a member-state.
THE UN AND ANTI-SEMITISM
In another development here today, Blum sent a letter to Secretary General Javier Perez de-Cuellar in which he charged that the United Nations shored responsibility for the recent anti-Semitic incidents around the world.
“Responsibility for the ominous and sinister developments of recent years — culminating in numerous acts of anti-Jewish violence — rests heavily with the United Nations which, in a barrage of ‘anti-Zionist’ and ‘anti-Israel’ resolutions in recent years (most notably the infamous General Assembly resolution of November 10, 1975, which contained the obscene proposition that Zionism was a form of racism), accompanied by ‘anti-Zionist’ rhetoric and activities of various kinds, has been converted into one of the foremost forums of contemporary international anti-Semites,” Blum wrote.
Meanwhile, Farouk Kaddoumi, the PLO’s spokesman on foreign affairs, urged the UN to impose sanctions on Israel or suspend its membership in the world body for the “dirty war” Israel is waging in Lebanon. In a sharply worded speech at the opening session of the Assembly last night, Kaddoumi also delivered a blistering attack on American policy in the Middle East.
“The United States is trying to play the role of mediator in a process of flagrant hypocrisy and blackmail,” the PLO official declared, referring to the mediation efforts in Beirut undertaken by American special envoy Philip Habib. “What peace is America going to establish in the Mideast? Is it an Israeli peace, based on aggression and expansionism?” Kaddoumi added.
Labeling Israel as “Nazi” and” barbaric,” the PLO official said that the PLO was not defeated in Lebanon. He said the PLO was ready to leave Beirut in order to protect the city from destruction.
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.
