Fifty-eighth General Assembly

Plenary

25^th & 26^th Meetings (AM & PM)

UNPRECEDENTED POLITICAL WILL REQUIRED TO REORIENT UNITED NATIONS AND ACHIEVE

DEVELOPMENT TARGETS, SPEAKERS TELL GENERAL ASSEMBLY

CORRECTION

In Press Release GA/10168, issued on 7 October, the statement by Syria on page 19 should read:

The representative of Syria asked how many more thousands of people –- how many more Arabs -– would have to die for the representative of Israel to have a fair and just situation.  He referred to an article published in the Hebrew newspaper Ma’arev, which mentioned that, among a group of Israeli children playing in an amusement park, 20 children had suddenly started shouting “Death to Arabs”, while their folks enjoyed the scene.

He also recalled that several prominent Israeli rabbis had described the Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, as an ugly impersonation of Zionism, and quoted Rabbi Goldstein as having said, “We would like to say to Arabs, and particularly the Palestinians, that there is no war between them and the Jews.  The real Jews have not enjoyed peace and tranquillity except with their Muslim and Christian brothers before the establishment of the Zionist State.”

All of that should give an idea of the “truly terrorist mentality of Israel”, continued the representative of Syria, which had preoccupied the General Assembly and the Security Council for the longest time.  Israeli terror had no limits against the countries of the region.  The hundreds of resolutions and decisions that had been adopted would not have been repeated in the General Assembly if that “settler-occupier” had abided by international legitimacy.

Moreover, in response to Israeli claims that Syria harboured terrorism, he recalled that, in the 1980s, Syria had been one of the foremost victims of terrorism.  Furthermore, Security Council document S/56/256 stated that the Government of Israel knew that Hezbollah was a Lebanese entity, supported by the Lebanese people, which received no instructions from Syria.

The list of excuses, lies and false claims proffered by Israel was endless, he concluded.  Syria had information and humanitarian offices that provided services to the half a million needy Palestinian people in its territory.  Those were all humanitarian services for people who had resorted to the Syrian territories because they could not live on their land.  The Syrian message now was very simple:  “Let them go back to their land.”

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