Back to PLO Bulletin 1 November 1978

ZIONISM IN PRACTISE

ARMED MEN ATTACK PALESTINIAN' LIBRARY IN PARIS

Three armed men, on 17 October 1978, attacked and burned the Palestine Library in Paris. The armed men, an Israeli and two Lebanese rightists, declared their terrorist act to be a protest against French Foreign Minister Louis de Guiringaud's declarations, in which he attacked Chamoun and declared him and Israel responsible for the massacres in Lebanon.

The armed men also beat up a Tunisian employee of the library. The French police later arrived on the scene and started their investigations. It is to be noted that the library was attacked several times in the past by Zionist agents who operate freely in France.

ISRAELI POLICE KILL IRANIAN TOURIST

According to "AP", a 28-year-old Iranian tourist was killed on 20 October 1978. The victim, who had visited occupied Palestine together with a group of other Iranian tourists, who had apparently been taken for Palestinian Arabs by the Israeli police, was identified as Muhammed Riza Bushragma.

According to the Israeli police, the Iranian tourist group became involved "in a quarrel" with Israelis early Sunday at a cafe. Following a police "warning shot", the police report says, Bushragma "tried to attack a policeman with a bottle" and was then shot dead. The Israeli police announced that they had arrested two other Iranian tourists.

ISRAELI AUTHORITIES CONFISCATE MORE PALESTINIAN LANDS

More Zionist Settlements

Israeli authorities continue to evict Palestinians from their homes and lands in order to erect new Israeli settlements. In Salwad the Israeli authorities confiscated two thousand dunums of land belonging to Palestinians to enforce and enlarge the present Zionist settlement of Aoufar. The Zionists authorities also fenced in large areas of Palestinian lands in Jerusalem and Ramallah for the same reason.

In Barqa and Deir Sharaf in the Nablus area, authorities burned olive groves and fired in the air to force the Palestinian owners of these farms to leave their lands. The Palestinian citizens refused to leave and responded to these provocations by stoning the Israeli forces.

On 22 October 1978, the Israeli authorities razed to the ground a house in Hebron belonging to Muhammed Mansour al-Ja'bari. The occupation authorities gave no explanation for their action.

NEW SETTLEMENTS IN GOLAN

The Israeli government will be establishing a new "Nahal" (military) settlement on the Golan Heights as well as expanding those already in existence on the West Bank - in spite of the three month moratorium agreed at Camp David. Apparently Begin told Carter of the Golan "Nahal" in advance "to avoid any misunderstanding", according to the Israeli "Maariv".

SOUTH LEBANON KIBBUTZ?

Nureddin Nureddin, president of the Lebanese National Grouping, on 30 October 1978, has sent a cable to the upcoming Arab League summit in Baghdad , in which he charged that Israel is preparing to establish kibbutzim in south Lebanon, in regions at present terrorized by right-wing militias, armed and controlled by Israel.

Nureddin said he hoped that the Baghdad summit would concentrate some attention on the problem of the Lebanese South, which he said Israel is attempting to cut off from Lebanon altogether.

The National Grouping head charged, "Jewish occupation through settlements has begun in Marjeyoun, Bint Jbail, and elsewhere in the small villages. There is a plan, the implementation of which has begun, to Judaize the town of Khiyam, which has been abandoned because of its total destruction, by turning it into a kibbutz settlement."

Nureddin said that Israel planned to encroach on Lebanese land along its northern border with this country.

RAKAH CONDEMNS ISRAELI INTERVENTION IN LEBANON

The Political Bureau of Rakah, the Israeli Communist Party, on 10 October 1978, issued a communique condemning Israel's intervention in Lebanon and the Zionist authorities' support for the isolationist forces. The communique further condemned the shelling of Palestinian refugee camps by Israeli naval vessels, the aim of which was to strike at the Syrian army.

The communique added that the war in Lebanon is aimed at partitioning the country into two states so as to bring them into a military pact under the leadership of the U.S. The war is also meant to bring pressure on the national movement and the Palestinian Resistance to agree in principle to the Camp David accords.

GENERAL SECRETARY WALDHEIM PROTESTS ISRAELI-RIGHTIST ATTACKS ON UNIFIL AND LEBANESE ARMY

The headquarters of the United Nations Interim Forces Lebanon (UNIFIL) at Naqura, South Lebanon, recently came under an Israeli-supervised attack by rightist gangs that resulted in the looting of UN food stores, the abduction of four Lebanese Army liaison officers and the destruction of an Alouette-3 helicopter of the Lebanese Army.

On Monday, 16 October 1978, the Israeli-armed gangs, led by the mutineer and Israeli agent Sa'ad Haddad, attacked the UNIFIL center. UN staff members at Naqura recognized "three Israeli officers" in civilian clothes among the attackers who were also "accompanied by Israeli camera men" ("A.P." 15 October 1978).

The attackers also demanded the withdrawal of UNIFIL from South Lebanon, which according to Haddad, who is wanted for trial by the Lebanese authorities, "have failed in their mission" and were "more needed in Beirut" to fight against the Arab Peace Keeping Forces there.

A UN spokesman said that " the Secretary-General takes a very serious view of the incident. He is making a strong protest to the government of Israel about the presence of military personnel during this violent interference in the working of a UN peace keeping force operation and over the abduction of Lebanese Army personnel serving in a liaison capacity with UNIFIL headquarters" ("A.P.", 18 October 1978).

ISRAELI PROVOCATION

It is not difficult to fathom Israel's aims disguised behind the provocations of its Haddad gangs. First, by maintaining a war of attrition against the UN peace keeping troops in South Lebanon, it wants to prevent them from achieving their mandate of re-establishing Lebanese government authority there, and to continue its policy of creeping annexation of South Lebanon.

Moreover, the timing of the incident coincided with the timing of the meeting of Arab Foreign Ministers in Beiteddin (Lebanon) to discuss the necessary means to put an end to the bloodshed in Lebanon, which, to a large extent, has been instigated by Israel's agents in the Lebanese capital, Chamoun and Gemayel. The shelling of western Beirut on, 5 October 1978 by Israeli gun boats for instance was a clear intervention by the Zionist state on the side of the isolationist forces, so as to push them to go on creating troubles in Lebanon in the hope of partitioning the country. Israel's declaration through its agent Haddad, that the UNIFIL troops "have failed in the South" and that they are " needed more in Beirut" stressed the fact that after failing to partition the country by force through its agents in Beirut, Israel wants to press the UN to send troops to Beirut, so as to achieve a de-facto partition of Lebanon and to block the way for implementing any resolutions that the Arab Foreign Ministers might take to restore peace and unity to the country.

MORE INCIDENTS

UNIFIL General Erskine

The UN, however, supports all moves for a political resolution restoring peace in Lebanon. A UN spokesman declared that the UN Secretary General "attaches great importance to the Beiteddin meeting in the overall context of the role of the Arab Deterrent Forces" and "hopes that this meeting will assist the Lebanese government and people to find ways towards peace and national reconciliation."

The latest Israeli-sponsored attack at Naqura is but one in a whole series of increasing provocations against the UN and Lebanon. As a result, UN officials multiply their complaints and protests. The UNIFIL commander General Erskine was reported (Beirut "IKE", 22 October 1978) that he intended to cancel all logistic links with Israel and ordered his troops not to go to Israel.