UN General Assembly
1948

Palestine was a case in point. The so-called State of Israel was the culmination of a course of the most insidious aggression carried on and persisted in during the course of a third of a century, contrary to all the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, including the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples. It was now proposed to stamp that culmination with the approval of the United Nations. The Pakistan representative wished to offer a solemn warning that the setting up of the State of Israel in Palestine would mean the introduction of a canker into the body politic of the Middle East, which would eventually either have to be ejected through a surgical operation or else would poison the culture, economic security and policy not only of the Middle East but of vast areas beyond that region. Militant Zionism was the spearhead of a new aggression of the West against the East and it was idle to pretend or to hope that it would not sooner or later exact from both the West and the East the inevitable penalties that always followed upon aggression. He called upon the Assembly to pause and reflect while there was yet time.