Members of the Knesset,
Our right to this land is indisputable. That is not what the argument is about.
The Knesset is asked today not to divert its mind from its duty.
The government calls upon the house to give its full support to this policy, which
provides a guarantee for the maintenance of the rule of law and the authority of the
administration and the Knesset.
SOURCE:Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Foreign%20Relations/Israels%20
Foreign%20Relations%20since%201947/1974-1977/17%20Cabinet%20communique%20on%20settlements
%20in%20the%20West%20B.Arab Recognition of the PLO
DOCUMENT IN CONTEXT
In 1970 Jordan expelled the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) after the group
sparked a brief civil war there. A few years later, on October 28, 1974, leaders of the
Arab League adopted a resolution at a summit in Rabat, Morocco, recognizing the
PLO as the “sole legitimate representative” of the Palestinian people. Some three weeks
after that, PLO chairman Yasir Arafat addressed a regular session of the UN General
Assembly, which then accorded the PLO “observer” status, allowing it to participate
in the work of the organization. These measures did not bring the Palestinians any
closer to their goal of an independent state, but together they accorded diplomatic
legitimacy to a “national liberation” group whose most notable accomplishments had
been attacks against Israel and in countries bordering Israel.
The Arab League statement was one of many declarations by Arab leaders aligning
themselves with the Palestinian Arabs. Most Palestinians were refugees living in Arab
countries surrounding Israel or in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, or East Jerusalem—
territories captured by Israel in the June 1967 War. (Several hundred thousand Pales-
tinian Arabs lived in Israel as citizens.) For domestic political reasons, Arab leaders wished
to be seen as championing the cause of the Palestinians, viewed by most Arabs as the
foremost victims of Israel. Even so, several leaders—notably Jordan’s King Hussein, who
until 1988 claimed sovereignty over the West Bank—had a relationship with the Pales-
tinian leadership that was cool, at best (Jordan Relinquishes the West Bank, p. 200).
Israeli leaders responded angrily to the Rabat summit declaration. In a speech to
the Knesset on November 5, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said that “the government
of Israel, will not negotiate with terrorist organizations whose avowed policy is to strive
for Israel’s destruction and whose method is terrorist violence.”
Arafat, in his speech to the General Assembly, defended the Palestinian “struggle”
against Israeli Zionists, who he accused of committing acts of terrorism against the
Palestinians. Arafat mixed his harsh denunciations of Israel with a description of his
ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS 185