“Near the Syrian border, 10th June, 1982.

'§ Perhaps this is not impressive to you. But if we
i Vere to apply those same percentage figures to the
}pulation of the United States, we would reach the
# “sures of 13 million United States citizens continu-
ust under arms and 60 million more as reservists. I
¥ "NK that would alarm most of the world.
UR The Zionist State—that little State that they talk
i, Must be committed to the use of force, since it has
"least 3:500 tanks, 8,000 armoured vehicles, 622 com-
€ aircraft, 1,900 pieces of artillery, three sub-
er arines, two corvettes and over 25 rocket-firing pat-
fl boats. In the year 1982, it expects to raise military
#*Penditure by at least 40% and possibly more to ac-
I, crate its campaign of extermination against the
~*estinian people. Let us be reminded now that there

és

, Nethouse after itwas destroyed during the lsraeli bombing of

is not one country in the world today which spends a
greater percentage of its gross national product on
the military than Israel, which spends something like
40 or 45%. Its per capita expenditure is the second
highest in the world. Its external debt—a country with
almost four million people—due to military expendi-
ture alone exceeds $16 billion.

Israel has very little to offer a peace-loving world.
These past few years have seen numerous wars, both
international and civil, and the consolidation of milit-
ary states. During this time the Zionist entity has
found it important to increase taxation on its popula-
tion and to exploit the Palestinians under occupation.
To man its garrison Israel has had to maintain
economic policies which result not only in extraordi-
nary high unemployment rates but also inflation rates _
of up to 200% per year. Despite massive emigration
from Israel the unemployment rate rose from 1,500
per day in 1979 to almost 11,500 in 1981.

Understandably, however, an estimated 300,000
Israeli citizens work in war-related industries—
300,000 in a country of almost four million. To contend
with this Israel has to face two options, and both have
to be pursued simultaneously. The first is to increase
the repression and exploitation of the people and
lands occupied by force in 1967— and those people are
my brothers, the Palestinians under occupation. The
other option is to escalate arms sales abroad. Israel
began this policy in a small way in 1973 and by 1977 it
was exporting $200 million worth of arms per year,
and by 1981 over $1.25 billion worth, and Israel esti-
mates that next year’s figure will be $2 billion. Israel
has become the seventh largest arms exporter in the
world. : :

Mr. Avraham Asheri, who is the director-general
of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, said on _
April 13 that a new industrial plan for consolidating
control over the West Bank and Gaza is under way.
There is already.a garrison full of armed civilians
who indiscriminately murder large numbers of
Palestinians, take the lands belonging to the Palesti-
nians and continue to. confiscate. such lands in ever
increasing areas in order to provide space for fac-
tories which will be used for the production of
sophisitcated electronics for export. The surveillance
device used to capture the Black freedom fighter in
South Africa is being produced in the Holy Land of
Palestine under occupation.

We ask how this can promote a peaceful world. We
ask how it is that in the Negev, in occupied Palestinian
territory, nuclear experiments are carried out, and
once those little missiles and those little bombs are
produced, the experimentation station is in the
Kalahari Desert, in occupied Namibia. Cannot one
see how these are connected, how these are linked?

With regard to the second option—of suppression,
repression and confiscation—let me remind you that
more acts of genocide in recent years are attributable
to conventional, even primitive arms than to nuclear
arms, and so it is with this aspect that disarmament
activity must first be concerned.

The Palestinian people know what it means to be
repressed, to be murdered, to be exiled, to be tortured
_.. The Zionist State aims not only to violate human

- rights, but actually to eliminate in its entirety one of

the world’s peoples, the Palestinian people.

Who can fail to see the hypocrisy in Israeli Defense
Minister Ariel Sharon’s radio announcement on IDF
Radio on 7 March 1982, when he declared that Israel

“had ‘‘reached a state of affairs where...(it would) stop

and check the arms race. We have no intention to add,
in the 80s, even a single tank, even a single gun, or
even a single aircraft.”

This statement came two months before the
Reagan Administration awarded its Zionist protege
75 additional advanced F-16 fighter bombers. Now we
can understand why Sharon said he would not produce
them: he is getting them free, with American tax-
payer's money... ete.

The junta in Tel Aviv tells us clearly that the aim is
to eradicate the PLO. And here let me make it clear
that in order to eradicate the PLO, Israel will have to
eliminate or exterminate the Palestinian people, and
what the international community has to deal with is
the future of the Palestinian people. The core of the
conflict, as the Assembly has repeatedly asserted, is
the question of Palestine and the future of the Palesti-
nian people. The presence of us Palestinians in Leba-
non is not by our choice: it is the result of the

brutalities and atrocities that forced us to seek refuge
in the brotherly state of Lebanon.

Our presence and our activities in Lebanon are
regulated by treaties ratified by the Lebanese Parli-
ament. We are committed to honor those treaties, and
only the legitimate constitutional authorities in Leba-
non can address this issue with the Palestine Libera-
tion Organization—and no one else.

In addition to the bilateral treaties, the Palestine
Liberation Organization honors its commitments to
the decisions of the Arab summit meetings—and par-
ticularly those decisions relevant to our temporary
presence in Lebanon: temporary, I say, because we
are there temporarily until we return to our homes
and property in Palestine.

To eradicate the PLO is the declared aim of the
Zionist junta in Tel Aviv, but I declare here that the
Palestinian people will not consent to an accomoda-
tion. We shall resist any and all attempts to eradicate
our people. We shall fight by all means to guarantee
our survival. The rights of self-defense and survival!
are inalienable and sacred and apply to all peoples—
not only states, but peoples—without selectivity or
discrimination.

A preliminary assessment of damages resulting
from the Israeli holocaust in the year 1982—more than
40 years after the nazi holocaust—were reported to
the Secretary-General, Mr. Perez de Cuellar, in a
letter dated June 16 from Chairman Arafat. With your
permission, Mr. President, I shall read out parts of
that letter:

Thirty thousand Lebanese have been killed;
10,000 have been lost; 800,000 have become re-
fugees; 14 refugee camps have been completely
destroyed; three major Lebanese cities have
been levelled: Tyre, Sidon and Nabatiyeh.
Apart from the destruction of thousands of
Lebanese villages and towns, we would cite the
disruption of the lives, and interference with the
vital needs, of the citizens: the destruction of
hospitals, schools, water outlets and electricity
supply.

We appeal to the United Nations to call a halt
to this fascist criminal invasion, and for a com-
plete, immediate and unconditional withdrawal
of Israeli forces in accordance with Security
Council Resolution 509 (1982).

I call on the United Nations to send, as a
matter of urgency, a high-level international
mission to investigate the crimes committed by
the fascist forces of the Israeli invaders, who are
continuing to commit these crimes...This
enemy, despite the declaration of a cease-fire,
continues to carry out military operations, and
its forces continue to make incursions into
Lebanese territory. Beirut and even the Presi-
dential Palace have been besieged by them.

Despite all the-news we hear about a cease-fire,
fighting, shelling, including shelling by warships, and
bombing are still continuing in Beirut and areas of
South Lebanon. The siege of Beirut is becoming more
and more severe and the battle more and more fierce.
This is an omen that this might lead to a massacre. I
appeal to the Assembly for immediate action to be
taken to stop this onslaught. However, on our side we
are determined to survive and to defend our rights
and our children. We shall never allow the aggressors
to reap the fruits of their aggression.

__ The Palestine Liberation Organization. which has
been invited here as the representative of the Palesti-
nian people, has accepted and agreed to implement
the resolutions of the United Nations relating to the

question of Palestine. To our mind, this is the only

road to peace.

On March 20, 1977, our national council affirmed
“The right of the Palestine Liberation Organization —
to participate in all international conferences, forums
and efforts concerned with the Palestine question and
with the Arab-Zionist conflict, on an independent and
equal footing, with the aim of achieving our inaliena-
ble national rights as recognized by the United Na-
tions General Assembly in 1974, particularly in resoi-
ution 3236 (XXIX).”’

This is an appeal to the international community
and, at the same time, a challenge to those who
obstruct sincere endeavors for peace.

If it is peace the Assembly is after, then this is the
time to take a stand.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— AUGUST 6, 1982—Pagc