UN General Assembly
1948

While the war in Indonesia — a war of foreign occupants against a people struggling for its own interests — had been going on for three years; while experts in the incitement of religious wars and communal slaughter were encouraging conflicts among Asiatic peoples, peace, security and quiet reigned in the countries of Eastern Europe. In Eastern Europe there were not and could not be events such as, for instance, those in Palestine where, side by side with the struggle between Jews and Arabs, there was also a struggle behind the scenes between two great Powers for military and strategic positions and for the oil wells of the Middle East. Hundreds of thousands of refugees, victims of that war, presented a new and difficult problem, which its authors were now submitting for settlement to the United Nations, many of whose members bore no responsibility for the conflict in the Middle East.