UN General Assembly
1973

175. The latest news is that civilian targets in densely populated areas in the heart of Damascus are being subjected to intensive and ruthless bombing by the Israeli Air Force, the excuse being that they are close to military headquarters. There are even reports, still to be confirmed, that fatal casualties have occurred among the families of foreign diplomats. Against this background of savagery, the Israeli Foreign Minister's impassioned and propagandistic reference at the 2139th meeting to atonement sounds utterly hollow and hypocritical. 176. The inadmissibility of acquisition of territory by force is a principle that must be accepted and honoured without qualification or equivocation. It is a principle that is not open to modification or attenuation. Any attempt at manipulating it through prevarication to suit a particular nation's policies and designs will deceive nobody. It is, as it were, the coping stone of the archway of peace through which all posterity must be free to pass in safety, in honour and in dignity. Tamper with it, and the whole structure will collapse in ruins.