From: joedees@bellsouth.net
Date: Wed 08 Oct 2003 - 05:02:05 GMT
Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman™s speech to the United Nations
Security Council
The President: I give the floor to the representative of Israel.
Mr. Gillerman (Israel): First, let me congratulate you, Sir, on your
assumption of the presidency of the Security Council. Let me also
express to you my regret that your first meeting should be of this
nature and take place on this day.
I wish also to express to Sir Emyr Jones Parry my great
appreciation for his able and fair stewardship of the Security
Council last month.
This meeting of the Security Council is being convened within
hours of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which is the holiest
day of the Jewish calendar. I deeply regret that the Council could
not meet after this most important religious day so as to allow
Israel to participate fully in the debate. I will, unfortunately, have
to leave this meeting after I make my statement in order to
observe this holy day. Yesterday, a Palestinian suicide bomber
entered a crowded beachfront restaurant in the port city of Haifa,
murdering 19 innocent civilians and wounding at least 60 others.
The restaurant ” a symbol of Arab-Israeli coexistence, as is the
city of Haifa ” was frequented by Jewish and Arab citizens of
Israel alike, and among the victims were four Israeli Arabs, three
children and a little baby girl. Five victims were members of the
same family and three were members of another family. Whole
families were wiped out by that horrendous act, taking place on
the Jewish sabbath on a quiet, peaceful beachfront in the city of
Haifa.
Islamic Jihad, a terrorist organization that operates freely from
Palestinian Authority territory and has headquarters in Damascus,
Syria, proudly claimed responsibility for this massacre. Islamic
Jihad is an organization committed to the destruction of Israel
through holy war and which engages in the deliberate and
widespread murder of innocents to that end. It opposes moderate
Arab Governments and actively supports terrorist attacks against
Western targets. There could not be a more obvious example of a
terrorist organization.
The massacre in Haifa is the latest of over 40 terrorist atrocities
committed by Islamic Jihad in the past few years. Among the
attacks perpetrated by that organization were the massacre of 21
teenagers at a discotheque in Tel Aviv on 2 June 2001; the
bombing of 5 June 2002 at the Meggido Junction, which killed 18
Israelis; the bombing of a commuter bus on 21 October 2002,
which killed 14 Israelis; the attack on a shopping mall in the
Israeli town of Afula on 19 May 2003, in which three civilians
were killed and over 70 wounded; and the attack on 30 March
2003, in which a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at a
café in Netanya, wounding 58 civilians.
The encouragement, safe harbour, training facilities, funding and
logistical support offered by Syria to a variety of notorious
terrorist organizations is a matter of public knowledge. Among the
many terrorists group that operate and benefit from the auspices
of the Syrian dictatorship are Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Hizbollah,
and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. It is well
known that the Secretary General of Islamic Jihad, Ramadan
Abdallah Shallah, is one of several terrorist leaders who operate
freely in Damascus and receive immunity and support from the
Assad regime.
Allow me to briefly detail, for the benefit of Council, the extent of
support that Syria, as well as the regime in Iran, afford to terrorist
organizations such as Islamic Jihad, which are engaged in the
deliberate massacre of innocent civilians.
Safe harbour and training facilities are provided throughout Syria
for terrorist organizations such as Islamic Jihad, Hamas and
Hizbollah, both in separate facilities and in Syrian army bases.
The Ein Saheb base, which was targeted in Israel™s measured
defensive operation today, is just one of those facilities sponsored
by Syria and Iran. Recruits at camps such as Ein Saheb come from
Islamic Jihad, Hamas and other terrorist groups. They are taught
how to assemble bombs, conduct kidnapping, prepare suicide
belts, gather intelligence and establish terrorist cells. Some have
also received aviation instruction. Recruits training at those camps
are slated to return to Palestinian Authority territory and other
areas to set up cells and conduct terrorist operations.
Syria has itself facilitated and directed acts of terrorism by
coordination and briefings via phone and Internet and by calling
activists to Damascus for consultations and briefings. Three such
operatives ” Tarek Az Aldin, Ali Saffuri and Taabat Mardawi ”
have been identified under investigation as specifically designated
liaisons for relaying instructions between officials in Damascus
and terrorist cells in the West Bank and Gaza. Mr. Mardawi
himself has admitted involvement in many attacks, including a
bus bombing in Haifa in May 2001, a suicide attack at a restaurant
in Kiryat Motzkin in August of that year and an attack on a bus
near Nazareth in March 2002.
Another example comes from an intelligence report provided by
the Head of the Palestinian Preventative Security Apparatus on 31
October 2001, which asserts that Hamas, Islamic Jihad and
Hizbollah were meeting in Damascus śin order to increase their
joint acitivity ... with the aid of Iranian moneyť. Instructions are
also given to halt terrorist activity when it suits Syrian or Iranian
interests to avoid the spotlight, such as following the terrorist
attacks of 11 September in the United States. It is very strange
that Syria decided to be in the spotlight today and actually put
itself in the dock on this very day, after these actions.
Iran, through the use of the Syrian and Palestinian banking
systems, sustains a systematic money transfer system, and large
sums of money have been transferred to Islamic Jihad as well as
other terrorists organizations through Damascus for the planning
and perpetration of attacks. Mr. Shallah himself, the Secretary-
General of Islamic Jihad, is known to have transferred funds in the
hundreds of thousands of dollars from Damascus to the individual
accounts of Islamic Jihad operatives such as Bassani ak-Saadi,
who is responsible for Islamic Jihad financing in Jenin.
Syria uses its State-run media and official institutions to glorify
and encourage suicide bombings against civilians in restaurants,
schools, commuter buses and shopping malls. To mention but a
few examples, Radio Damascus ” far from being a free radio ”
in a broadcast on 9 May 2002 lauded śthe wonderful and special
suicide attacks which were executed by some of the sons of the
Palestinian nationť. In another State-run announcement on 1
January 2002, Damascus Radio declared śThe entire world knows
that Syria, its political leadership and its Arab people...have
turned Syrian Arab soil into a training camp, a safe haven and an
arms depot for the Palestinian revolutionaries.ť And on 13 May
2002, President Bashar Assad himself announced in reference to
so-called acts of resistance śIf I was not President of Syria I
wouldn™t hesitate to participate in them.ť This was not said by
Osama bin Laden or by Saddam Hussain, but by a President of a
State that is a member of this Council. Syria has also played host
to a number of conferences in which senior terrorist operatives
from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other organizations meet.
Syria has facilitated the transfer of arms to Palestinian terrorist
organizations such as Islamic Jihad by allowing the transfer of
sophisticated weapons from Iran to Hizbollah through Syrian
territory. Hizbollah, itself a vicious terrorist organization, has then
sought to smuggle those arms to Palestinian terrorist groups, as
was evidenced in the Karine A arms shipment and similar
incidents.
These are just a few examples of the extent and nature of the
involvement of the Syrian regime in the deliberate murder of
innocent civilians. Each and every one of these acts constitutes a
grave violation of international law and Security Council
resolutions, as well as a threat to international peace and security.
There are few better exhibits of State sponsorship of terrorism
than the one provided by the Syrian regime. Security Council
resolution 1373 (2001), adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter
” which in act of the highest hypocrisy Syria itself voted for ”
makes absolutely clear that States must prevent acts of terrorism
and refrain from any form of financing, support, safe harbour for
or toleration of terrorist groups. Syrian complicity in and
responsibility for suicide bombings are as blatant as they are
repugnant.
The membership of this arch-sponsor of terrorism in the Council
is an unbearable contradiction and an embarrassment to the
United Nations. For Syria to ask for a Council debate is
comparable only to the Taliban calling for such a debate. It would
be laughable, if it was not so sad.
And yet, members of the Council and the United Nations can
hardly be surprised at this shameless act of hypocrisy by the
Syrian regime. This is the same regime that speaks so often of
occupation while it brutally occupies the neighbouring territory of
Lebanon. It is the same regime that speaks of international law
and human rights while it subjugates its people under a repressive
and primitive dictatorship, violating countless international
obligations. It is the same regime that supported the Saddam
Hussain regime in Iraq in violation of Security Council resolutions
and that to this day facilitates the infiltration of terrorists to attack
civilian and military targets in Iraqi territory. And it is this same
despotic regime that speaks so freely of double standards at the
United Nations. Syria would do well to take a hard look at the
mirror and count itself fortunate that it has not yet, for unfortunate
reasons, been the subject of concerted international action as part
of the global campaign against terrorism ” not yet.
The Syrian delegate speaks a great deal about socalled resistance.
Perhaps he can tell us precisely, without his familiar diplomatic
word games and misrepresentations, how exactly the murder of
children and babies in a restaurant is an act of legitimate
resistance. Or perhaps he could tell us how the Syrians themselves
have dealt with resistance, such as in the case of Hama, in which
some 10,000 Syrian civilians were murdered by the Syrian armed
forces.
Israel™s measured defensive response to the horrific suicide
bombings against a terrorist training facility in Syria is a clear act
of self-defence in accordance with Article 51 of the Charter.
Those actions come after Israel has exercised tremendous restraint
despite countless acts of terrorism that have claimed hundreds of
innocent lives, for which Syria bears direct and criminal
responsibility. It comes after Israel and the international
community as a whole have repeatedly called on Syria to end its
support of terrorism and finally comply with international law.
And it is designed to prevent further armed attacks against Israeli
civilians in which Syria is complicit, with a view to encouraging
Syria to resolve its dispute through bilateral negotiations in
accordance with Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338
(1973), as it is legally required to do. This is not a hypothetical
question. Many States members of the Organization and of the
Council have been faced with terrorism of far less intensity and
have responded with far less restraint and far less concern for
human life.
And yet the Security Council has not seen fit to scrutinize their
conduct. Indeed, on certain occasions the Council has specifically
endorsed such defensive measures.
If there is a double standard in this Organization, it is that while
some States are afforded the right to protect their citizens, Israel
too often is sent the message that its citizens are not worthy of
protection. If there is a double standard, it is that some States are
able to support terrorism with impunity, while those defending
against it are called to account. If there is a double standard, it is
Syria sitting at the Council table and raising one hand to vote
against terror and the other to perpetrate and initiate terror around
the world. For the sake of peace and the reputation of the Council,
let there be no such double standard today.
In the face of the rejectionism, aggression and terrorist
sponsorship of the Syrian regime, together with Iran and the
Palestinian Authority, what would the international community
have us do? Like any State faced with such a critical and
prolonged threat, Israel must exercise its inherent right and
obligation to defend its citizens. What can we tell the Arab and
Israeli mothers of children murdered in this weekend™s attack in
Haifa? Should we say, śWe could have prevented the death of
your son or daughter. We could have stopped a terrorist from
walking into your town, your school, your home, your bedroom ”
but our hands were tiedť? Israel remains committed to a peaceful
solution to the Middle East conflict and is ready to make painful
compromises to that end. But no peace can come while terrorism
prospers. No negotiations can bring progress, while our citizens
die on the streets.
Today, on the very eve of the Day of Atonement and the thirtieth
anniversary of the Egyptian-Syrian aggression that initiated the
Yom Kippur War, we call on members of the Council to come to
the aid of the victims of terrorism, not of its sponsors. Syria
deserves no support for its complicity in murder, and the Council
would commit an unforgivable act of moral blindness were it to
act otherwise. The time has come for the Council, which adopted
resolution 1373 (2002), and which has been at the forefront of the
global counter-terrorism campaign, to hold to account a brutal
dictatorship that is world-renowned for adopting terrorism as its
primary tool. The world is watching. And today, more than on any
other day, God is watching too.
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