IRESOLUTION ON THE UNITED NATIONS AND THE PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION

Hopes for early resumption of face-to-face negotiations between Israel and the Arab states, aimed at bringing lasting peace to the Middle East, have been dealt a serious blow by recent actions of the United Nations.

On October l4, with only four members in opposition (the United States among them) and 20 abstaining, the General Assembly's "mechanical majority" voted to break established precedent by allowing a nongovernmental organization to address the Assembly¾in this case, the Palestine Liberation Organization--in the forthcoming general debate on the Palestine question, as the "sole legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people."

By this act of recognition, the world body has told the millions of Palestinian Arabs and Jews in Israel and Jordan that their spokespersons are to be a combine of extremists, selected not by themselves but by the same Arab governments that have kept hundreds of thousands of refugees sequestered in squalid camps throughout the Middle East for the past 26 years.

This is the most outstanding case of international blackmail since the founding of the United Nations in 1945. The Africans, Asians and Europeans who voted to seat the PLO were responding to the clear threat of an oil embargo. The pervasive fear of acts by terrorist bands affiliated to the same PLO also contributed to the cave-in at the U.N. After years of hijackings, airport butchery, executions of diplomats and athletes and the murder of innocent women and school children, the member-states took what they thought was the easy way out. They have yet to learn that the surrendering of principles and the appeasement of blackmailers only encourages further outrages.

The PLO now claims a commitment to peaceful means to attain their goals. Who can believe this after years of repeated assertions that only the violent destruction of Israel and its people will satisfy Yassir Arafat and his associates? Not even the terrorists' most ardent supporters seriously envision the wolf turning into a lamb.

The American Federation of Teachers strongly condemns this perfidy. We protest the appearance at the world's most august forum of a group of political murderers, whose actions contravene every principle for which the United Nations stands and whose sole aim is the destruction of one of its member states. In granting recognition to these outlaws, who have, in effect, shot their way into the General Assembly, the world body has become their hostage. It has demeaned itself and reduced its value as a responsible forum and as an instrument for peace.

We call upon our government to maintain its commitment to seek a settlement in the Middle East which guarantees peace and security to Israel, which cannot be achieved through terrorist blackmail or U.N. resolutions, but only by face-to-face negotiations between Israel and her neighbors.

We stand firm with the State of Israel and her heroic people, Jews, Arabs and Christians alike. Their courage in the face of adversity is an inspiration to us. Their determination to resist international blackmail and preserve the flame of democracy and social justice in the Middle East heartens us in this hour of dismay.

Copies of this resolution are to be sent to Kurt Waldheim, Secretary-General, United Nations, President Gerald Ford, Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, and The American Trade Union Council for Histadrut. (Executive Council)