and restricted’. However, Saleem shows us the most which work is going ‘on incessantly, a ;brtiUtrUSt recent issue of AZ-H&f with its front page carrying a which conceives and plans bloody operations.” headline in Japanese ‘and Arabic ‘forward together Other terror organizations, such as the El Fatah until the final victory’; and the Democratic Popular Front, have also continued in recent days to issue communiqu6.s and to disseminate “ , * .Now enters into the room a tall nervous information without any hindrance whatever. man . . . Ghassan Kanafani, head of the propaganda In the neantime, it has been announced that a services of the Front and one of its brains, not at conference of the terror organizations will convene in all in the underground as the Lebanese so persis- Beirut in mid-June. tently try to claim. Kanafani says ‘this is total war It is high time the Government of Lebanon realized and we will prove it. One cannot separate violence that the fact that Lebanon remains a base for mur- from policy, . .‘; derous terror operations and that it is its duty to put “The Front proclaims that it will continue to an immediate and effective end to this situation cannot operate in Lebanon and from Lebanese territory. be beclouded by nonchalant misrepresentations and Saleem told us clearly that the campaign has been by falsehoods, even when garbed in the prestigious conceived and planned ‘here’. ‘We will continue to form of letters to the P,resident of the Security Council. strike with utmost violence at every Zionist target I have the honour to request that this letter be wherever we find it’, promises Ghassan Kanafani. circulated as an official document of the Security When one considers Saleem’s statements, the ques- Council. tion arises whether this centre of international terror (Signed) Yos ef TEKOAH (or one of its main centres) does not have right Permanent Representative of Israel here, in a hiding place which is not at all hidden, in to the United Nfltions

DOCUMENT S/10697*

Letter dated 12 June 1972 from the representative of the Libyan Arab Republic to the Secretary-General [Original: English] [13 June 19721 I have the honour to refer to the letter addressed disdain with which the Israeli Zionists view the sub- to YOU on 8 June 1972 by the Permanent Representa- jugation of an entire people. tive of Israel [S/10687] lpurportedly in response to the memorandum submitted by the ‘Permanent Rep- Since he was unable to answer so much as one resentative of the Libyan Arab Republic on 6 June 1972 of our charges, the representative of Israel chose in- [S/10684]. stead to tabke a totally irrelevant di,rection: by devot- ing 7 ,of his letter’s 10 paragraphs to rabid attacks on Since the representative of Israel has so studiously the Arab States in general, and of the Libyan Arab avoided the substance of the aforementioned memoran- Republic in particular, dum, I shall take the liberty of repeating its basic content : The policy by which the Libyan Arab Republic supports the just strfuggle of the Palestinian people (a) The Lydda Airport incident, which is part of for its national rights is well known. The Libyan Arab a continuing conflict in the Middle East, is the result Republic has supported and will continue to support of Israel’s denial of the national Palestine to regain their tinian people, its colonization of the land of Palestine usurped national rights and liberate their homeland. and its military occupation over the remaining inhab- This is a part of our general stand against the forces itants of Palestine as well as other Arab lands; of colonialism and imperialism, of which Israel is an (b) The use of terror in the Middle East originated embodiment in our region, with the Zionist movement and Israel, which through This principled stand of the Libyan Arab Republic its official policy of terror, forced hundreds of thousands with regard to the Palestine question is not at issue. of Palestinians from their homes and villages; The issue is the history of Israel’s use of terror in the (c) The responsibility for the continuing violence subjugation, colonization and dispersion of the Pales- in the Middle East lies with Israel, which has con- tinian people, and thte repeated attempts by the rep- sistently subjected the people of Palestine to coloniza- resentative of Israel to make a travesty of international tion, dispersion and denial of its national rights. justice and a mockery of the United Nations and its Member States. The arrogance of the representative of #Israel in dismissing the Palestine Liberation 08rganiz,ation with I have the honour to request that this letter be a few pejoratives is, of course, to be expected, Indeed, circulated as an official document of the General As- it has become characteristic of all Zionist Israeli spokes- sembly and the Security Council, men. But the cavalier fashion in which he passes over the substance of our memorandum bears witness to the (Signed) Mansur R. KTKHIA Permanent Representative 0-f the * Also circulated as a General Assembly document under the Libyan Arab Republic symbol A/8694. to the United Nations 112 Khani, Deputy Foreign Minister, declared. “We cannot let Christiansand Moslems,including Palestinians,live peacefully our citizens go to sweI1 the ranks of the Israeli Army.” with the Jews.Jewish merchants watch strangersto the quarter Israeli attack expected with curiosity but without signsof fear. Mr. Khani declaredin an interview that he believed that The Jewishcommunity runs two schoolsin the quarter,with the current internationalcampaign against Syria was aimed at a total of 900 pupils. One is financedby the Alliance Israblite “preparing the atmospherefor an Israeli attack againstSyria”. UniverselIe of Paris, and the nearby Ben Maimoun school Several other high officials expressedthe sameopinion that is supportedby Jews in the United States,who send$1,400 the focus on the Jewishissue was intended to stir up world a month for the school and $2,200 more to the community hostility againstSyria. for such thingsas the clinic, court, scholarshipsand dowries. “There are more than 100,000 Syrian refugeesfrom the The schoolsteach the regular Government curriculum as Golan heights, and 250,000 Palestinian refugeeshere, but well as Hebrew for prayers, Mr. Totah said. “We speak the Western presscares only for the fate of 4,000 Jews”, Arabic at home becausewe are Arabic citizens by the grace an Information Ministry official said bitterly. of God” he said. Mr. Totah, however,explained the publicity given to Syrian There’are 34 Jewish studentsin DamascusUniversity-13 Jewsotherwise. “It’s quite natural-now that there are no Jews studying medicine,9 pharmacy, 4 dentistry, 2 trade, 2 agri- left in Jordan, few in Iraq and Lebanon-only in Syria is culture, 3 literature and 1 engineering-and they have no there a sizeableJewish community”, he said. “We have weight, trouble findingjobs, Mr. Totah said. they think we’reimportant.” There are 14 synagoguesin Damascus,all open but with Despitetravel bans,the Syrian Jewishcommunity is shrink- “very few practisingJews”, he said. The Grand Rabbi is 95 ing steadily. There are now 3,000 Jewsin Damascus,1,000 in years old and ailing. There are 2 other rabbisand 12 currently Aleppo and 300 in El Qamishliye, according to Mr. Totah. undergoingtraining. Over 20,000 left the country between 1948 and 1967. A number of Jewishbusinessmen have left the old city and set up jewellery, perfumeand dry-goodsstores and pharmacies Two schools in quarter in the new quarter. Several merchantshave taken advantage To the outsider,the Jewsof Damascusappear to be making of the recent economicliberalizations to open shopsfor im- the best of their delicate situation. There is no specialstate ported goods,which were virtualIy non-existentbefore General of alert or police guard in the Jewishquarter, where many Assadcame to power.

DOCUMENT S/10700* Letter dated 15 June 1972 from the representative of Israel to the Secretary-General [Original: English] [IS June 19721 I have the honour to refer to the letter addressed to The timing and obvious purpose of those arguments YOU on 12 June 1972 bv the Permanent Representative are as noteworthy as the timing and purpose of the bf Egypt [S/10694] in iesponse to my lettef of 30 May spurious charges on Gaza and Sinai had been. Interna- [S/1 06671. tional concern and condemnation are now focused on In my letter of 30 May I drew attention to the fact Arab terror acts such as the Lod massacre and other that Egypt had raised unfounded allegations regarding assaults on civil aviation and defenceless civilians in conditions in the Gaza and Sinai areas [see S/10663] generaI. While world opinion still waits to see whether in order to divert attention from Egypt’s policy of fa- Egypt will change its course and put an end to the acts natic‘?l hostility and destructiveness responsible for the of terror, murder ‘and air piracy, the Egyptian letter outbreak and continuation of the Middle East conflict, tries to draw attention away from this grave question from the warlike statements repeatedly voiced in recent and from the responsibility which the Government of months by President Anwar Sadat and other Egyptian Egypt and other Arab Governments bear for the exist- leaders, from Egypt’s identification with and active sup- ence and activities of the Arab terror organizations. port for Arab terror organizations and from its public With regard to the substance of the Egyptian letter’s encouragement of these organizations to intensify their arguments on the Middle East situation in general and criminal activities. on responsibility for the protracted conflict, the follow- This nefarious policy led to the Lod massacre perpe- ing facts deserve to be recalled. trated on the very day on which my letter was sub- In defiance of the United Nations and in flagrant mitted and to the praise of the massacre by Egypt’s repudiation of their Charter obligations, Egypt and Prime Minister Aziz Sidky and by the Egyptian media other Arab States declared war on the Jewish people’s of information. right to independence and invaded Israel on 15 May Egypt’s baseless charges concerning the situation in 1948. The Secretary-General of the Arab League in- Gaza and Sinai were refuted in my letter of 30 May. formed the United Nations on behalf of the Arab States Indeed, it is commonly known that, contrary to the that this would be a massacre of Jews reminiscent of Egyptian claims, life in these areas is marked by tran- the Mongolian massacres. Israel stood firm against this quillity and constructive development. No longer able invasion and forced the aggressor States to recoiI in to question this fact the Egyptian representative simply 1948, 1956 and 1967. A truce, an armistice and then dismisses its significance and raises anew the old argu- a cease-fire have been successively established but the ments, repeatedly rebutted in the past, regarding Israel’s Arab war unleashed in 1948 has not been terminated position on the Middle East situation in general. and continues till today. Throughout these years there has been no change in the avowed objective of Egypt * Also circulatedas a GeneralAssembly document under the and of the other Arab States to destroy Israel and its symbol A/8695. people. 119