Arafat Calls for U.N. Force in Territories

PLO leader Yasser Arafat today accused Israel of waging a “war of extermination” and called on the United Nations to set up an international force to protect the Arab population in Israeli-occupied lands.

In a 50-minute speech that opened the special session of the 15-member U.N. Security Council, the Palestine Liberation Organization chief also urged the creation of a separate U.N. observer team charged with helping end the 23-year-old Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israel, which has rejected the presence of U.N. observers in the territories, accused Arafat of using “lies and distortions” in his speech.

Arafat, addressing the council for the first time, also urged a ban on all Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and the appointment of a permanent U.N. representative to deal with the Arab-Israeli strife.

Clad in his customary uniform and head scarf and speaking in Arabic, Arafat did not give any details about either of the two U.N. teams he was requesting for deployment in the occupied territories.

It was the first time the Security Council has met in Geneva. The gathering was moved from New York to avoid a showdown with the United States, which in the past has refused to give Arafat an entry visa.

The PLO demand for safeguards for the 1.7 million Palestinians in the occupied territories follows a renewed outbreak of violence triggered by the slaying on Sunday of seven Palestinian laborers by an apparently deranged former Israeli soldier. Subsequent rioting has left at least 15 Arabs dead, most by gunfire from Israeli troops, and more than 800 injured or wounded.

Arafat denied that the killing of the Palestinian laborers was an isolated attack by a disturbed man. He said it was instead an outgrowth of Israel’s “illusions of defunct racial superiority” and the “stupid arrogance of military superiority.”