UN General Assembly
1977

Israel rejects the participation of the PLO even after this recognition. In so doing they are asking the Palestinian people, which has been driven out of its land and robbed of its possessions, to abandon everything that it still holds as an element of negotiation. In a word, the Palestinian people are being asked to bend to the will of Israel while recognizing its legitimacy without any counterpart. 22. If the PLO were to go beyond the recent extremely moderate and responsible statements of its leaders, it would run the risk of damaging its representativeness and render its presence in the negotiations and its possible commitments without significance. In fact, this is what Israel is aiming at in demanding of the Palestinian people, by proxy, something that would probably lead to the division of the PLO and its weakening, so as later to be able to attribute to it the failure of any attempt at peace in the Middle East.