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September 14, 1992

The Chancellor's [Helmut Kohl's] Meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Rabin on Monday, 14 September 1992

Kohl and Rabin discuss the situation in the Near and Middle East and the changed in Syria's position toward Israel after the demise of the Soviet Union. Rabin expresses concern about the continued arms race in the region and Syria's purchases of Scud missiles from Russia and Slovakia. He also reiterates Iraq's continued capability to go nuclear within 5 to 6 years despite international arms control inspections. Last but not least, Kohl and Rabin discuss the situation in Iran and Kohl's contacts with President Rafsandjani.

November 13, 1974

United Nations General Assembly Official Records, 29th Session : 2282nd Plenary Meeting, Agenda Item 108, 'Question of Palestine (continued)'

As other documents in this collection on Moroccan nationalists in 1947 and 1950 have exemplified, the United Nations was an important arena in decolonization struggles for Arabs, as it was for Asians and Africans as e.g. Alanna O’Malley’s The Diplomacy of Decolonisation: America, Britain, and the United Nations during the Congo crisis, 1960-1964 (2018) has shown. In this regard, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which was founded in 1964 and taken over by the Fatah movement in 1969, was no exception.

To be sure, Palestinian organizations including Fatah and the PLO decried key UN actions. One was the UN Palestine partition plan of 1947; another was UN Security Council resolution 242 of November 1967. Calling upon Israel to withdraw “from territories occupied” during the Six-Day War in June and calling for the “acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace,” it did not mention Palestine or the Palestinians. Even so, the PLO sought to get access to the UN and UN recognition. A crucial landmark on this road was the address to the UN in New York in November 1974 by Yassir Arafat (1929-2004), a Fatah co-founder in 1959 and from 1969 PLO chairman.

Arafat did not speak at the Security Council, which was and is dominated by its five veto-carrying permanent members Britain, China, France, the United States, and the USSR/Russia. Rather, he addressed the UN General Assembly (UNGA), where from the 1960s Third World states were in the majority; his speech was the first time that the UNGA allowed a non-state representative to attend its plenary session. The UNGA invited the PLO after having decided, in September, to begin separate hearings on Palestine (rather than making Palestine part of general Middle Eastern hearings), and after the PLO was internationally recognized as the sole representative of the Palestinian people, a landmark accomplishment for the organization. The UNGA president who introduced Arafat, Abdelaziz Bouteflika (1937-2021), was the Foreign Minister of Algeria, which since its independence in 1962 had supported the Palestinian cause organizationally, militarily, and politically. Arafat spoke in Arabic; the below text is the official UN English translation. Arafat did not write the text all by himself; several PLO officials and Palestinians close to the PLO, including Edward Said, assisted, as Timothy Brennan has noted in Places of Mind: A Life of Edward Said (2021). Later in November 1974, the UNGA inter alia decided to give the PLO observer status and affirmed Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

July 26, 1985

[Draft] Letter, Shintaro Abe, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, to George P. Shultz, Secretary of State

In a letter to Secretary of State Schultz, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan Abe describes his visits with various countries in the Middle East after the ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference with Dialogue Partners. He discusses the Iran-Iraq conflict, the American hostages held in Lebanon, and the general issue of peace in the Middle East.

November 7, 1981

Lt. Ioan Plugaru, No. PI/00124, 'Report regarding the Intelligence obtained by Contacting ‘ALBU’, Foreigner'

Report on Palestinian feeling about the death of Sadat and Romania sending a representative to the funeral. The report also describes tensions and the need for Yasser Arafat to deal with them.

May 25, 1981

No. 0620/D/003105/25.05.1981, 'Memo [about a Meeting between Yasser Arafat and Palestinian Students]'

Memo about Yasser Arafat's meeting with Palestinian students.

February 14, 1974

Minutes of Conversation between Nicolae Ceaușescu, the General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party, and the Delegation of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, led by Yasser Arafat

Yasir Arafat and Nicolae Ceaușescu discuss policy for Palestine and the diplomatic relationship between the two entities.

November 19, 1974

Telegram from the Romanian Embassy in Vienna, to the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 076945, November 19, 1974

Telegram saying that Henry Kissinger and Yasir Arafat are preparing to meet.

November 11, 1974

Telegram from the Romanian Embassy in Tunis, to the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 074.388, November 11, 1974, Secret

Romanian embassy in Tunis reporting that Henry Kissinger and Yasir Arafat did not meet due to a disagreement between the PLO and the United States about how official or secret the meeting would be.

November 9, 1974

Telegram from the Romanian Embassy in Cairo, to the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 028.028, November 9, 1974, Secret

Romanian Consulate in Cairo reporting that Kissinger and Arafat did not meet in Cairo, despite the news reports.

December 5, 1973

Memorandum on the Reactions of the Americans to the Suggestions relayed on behalf of Yasser Arafat (Conveyed by the Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at the Reception given in the Evening of December 5, 1973)

A memorandum reporting on the American feelings toward Palestine and the territorial lines for Israel and Jordan.

Pagination