1974 - Tanzania at the UN

But my Government believes and is convinced that no peace can come to the area unless it is based on certain fundamental principles. These include acceptance by Israel of the principle of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of Arab lands by force and the need to find a just, fair and lasting solution to the Palestinian problem. To ignore these two elements will be to run away from reality, and any arrangements made without proper cognizance of these principles will produce just another shaky peace.

In this connection, a number of countries, including my own, Tanzania, have requested the inclusion in the agenda of the twenty-ninth session of an item entitled the "Question of Palestine". The gravest error that this Organization has made is to ignore the Palestinian people, as if they did not exist. Since 1948 we have discussed the question of the Middle East in a manner which ignored the original cause. It is our belief that' it will be almost impossible, if not futile, to solve the Middle East problem without first settling the Palestinian problem. Unless the existence of the Palestinian people is recognized and their fundamental rights assured by this Organization, all the debates in the halls of the United Nations will be an exercise in futility. It is the hope of the Tanzanian delegation that the inclusion of this item will afford the General Assembly a greater opportunity to address itself to this question with a view to redressing the injustice done to the Palestinian people and, indeed, with a view to ending the Middle East crisis.