UN General Assembly
1982

gloomy picture. The ongoing economic crises, combined with the arms race, resulted in grave and explosive situations in various regions. The tragedy that we have witnessed over a quarter of a century in the Middle East has recently evolved into a sequence of events which have horrified the human conscience. Even when guided by the utmost prudence in approaching this complex problem one cannot but lay the blame for this disturbing state of affairs on the State of Israel. While Israel occasionally professes the wish to live in peace with its neighbours, it has over the months systematically applied an aggressive policy and has acted against vested principles and rules of international law and, more specifically, against the territorial integrity of its neighbours. In this connection I wish to recall the annexation of the Syrian territory of the Golan Heights, the provocative and oppressive acts of the Israeli army against Palestinian civilians living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and, lately, the transgression of Lebanese borders, leading to the massacre of thousands of defenceless Palestinian men, women and