“noble dream” for a united Palestine, where Jews and Palestinians could live together
in peace.
Arafat’s speech at the United Nations is remembered more for the PLO leader’s
presentation than for the actual words he spoke. Wearing his trademark checkered head-
dress, or kaffiyah,and military fatigues, Arafat also had a gun holster on his belt; some
reports said Arafat carried a gun in the holster, but others said either that he had been
forced to check his gun at the door or had never brought one into the U.N. building.
In any event, Arafat did carry a gun rhetorically. “Today I have come bearing an olive
branch and a freedom-fighter’s gun,” he told the General Assembly at the end of his
speech. “Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand. I repeat: do not let the olive
branch fall from my hand. War flares up in Palestine, and yet it is in Palestine that peace
will be born.” Arafat’s appearance at the United Nations won praise from many Arab
leaders and representatives from the “nonaligned bloc” but was denounced by the United
States and Israel. In a statement the next day to ambassadors to Israel, Foreign Minis-
ter Yigal Allon said, “The voice of Arafat was and remains the voice of indiscriminate
terror, the crack of the gun, without any suggestion of the olive branch of peace.”
Following is the text of a resolution adopted by Arab heads of state at a summit
meeting of the Arab League in Rabat, Morocco, on October 28, 1974, and excerpts
from the speech delivered to the UN General Assembly on November 13, 1974, by
Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasir Arafat.DOCUMENT
Arab League Recognition of
the PLO
OCTOBER28, 1974The Seventh Arab Summit Conference after exhaustive and detailed discussions con-
ducted by their majesties, Excellencies, and Highnesses, the Kings, Presidents and
Amirs on the Arab situation in general and the Palestine problem in particular, within
their national and international frameworks; and after hearing the statements submit-
ted by His Majesty King Hussein, King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and
His Excellency Brother Yasir Arafat, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organiza-
tion, and after the statements of their Majesties and Excellencies the Kings and Pres-
idents, in an atmosphere of candour and sincerity and full responsibility; and in view
of the Arab leaders’ appreciation of the joint national responsibility required of them
at present for confronting aggression and performing duties of liberation, enjoined by
the unity of the Arab cause and the unity of its struggle; and in view of the fact that
all are aware of Zionist schemes still being made to eliminate the Palestinian existence
and to obliterate the Palestinian national entity; and in view of the Arab leaders’ belief
in the necessity to frustrate these attempts and schemes and to counteract them by
supporting and strengthening this Palestinian national entity, by providing all require-
ments to develop and increase its ability to ensure that the Palestinian people recover
186 ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS