While attempts to start negotiations for an agreement with Egypt were under way, the PLO continued to use Lebanese territory as a base for attacks against Israeli territory and citizens. Their aim was to provoke Israel to retaliatory acts that could wreck the possibility of an Israel-Egypt agreement. Following are the texts of letters from Ambassador Tekoah to the Secretary General of the UN.
Letter of 19 January:
Excellency:
On instructions of my government and further to previous letters addressed to you, I have the honour to draw your attention once again to the fact that the PLO terror organization continues to be permitted by the government of Lebanon to act with complete freedom within Lebanon's borders and to conduct its sanguinary attacks against Israeli territory and citizens.
The government of Lebanon appears to have practically surrendered its authority to the PLO in respect of wide areas of its territory and especially in the areas bordering on Israel.
The PLO continues to shell Israeli civilian localities and to attack Israeli patrols which are carrying out their duty to ensure security of the inhabitants from the murderous attacks directed against them from Lebanon, as exemplified in the outrages in Ma'alot, Kiriat Shmona, Shamir and Nahariya.
The government of Israel has stated more than once that it is duty bound to take all appropriate action for the defence of its citizens. The PLO has itself acknowledged in its statements issued in Beirut that the Israel Defence Forces have been taking action against it and its bases in Lebanon. In one of these statements, issued in Beirut on 16 January 1975 and reported by the news media, a spokesman of the PLO declared that the "forces had showered the enemy with a flood of fire from various kinds of arms." Also on 16 January 1975, the Beirut daily "El-Yom", reported on the visit to the Arkoub area of Zuheir Muhsein, member of the PLO Excutive Committee and head of the Syrian sponsored and supported terror grouping "As-Saiqa" in Lebanon, stated that "the Palestinian revolutionary forces were still deployed in the southern area and in the refugee camps in a state of alert."
Yassir Arafat, the leader of the PLO, as reported by the Beirut newspaper "Al Nahar" declared on 31 December 1974 that "Lebanon had placed all the resources at the disposal of 'the campaign' and thus numerous revolutionary forces had arisen and had done its duty for it." Arafat also said in the same interview that the relations between him and President Franjieh of Lebanon were close and strong.
The letter dated 16 January 1975 (A/10036: S/11599) from the Permanent Representative of Lebanon to the United Nations addressed to you reaches a new height of hypocrisy. That letter is a mixture of distortion and misrepresentation concerning the situation obtaining in the area.
It is only the government of Lebanon that is responsible for this situation and for all the consequences from it by having practically abdicated its authority to the PLO in certain parts of its country, thus making it possible for murder attacks and other criminal actions to be carried out against Israel from Lebanon.
Enlightened world public opinion knows full well the true situation which is reflected in the mass media and in reports from Lebanon itself concerning the freedom of action accorded to the PLO in Lebanon to pursue its campaign of atrocities against the people of Israel.
Letter of 22 January:
On instructions of my Government and further to my previous letters addressed to you, I have the honour to draw your attention once more to the fact that the murder régime of the PLO terror organization in Lebanon continues its attacks from Lebanese territory against Israel and its citizens.
On 16 and 17 January 1975, the border town of Metulla came under artillery fire from Lebanon.
In the night of 16/17 January 1975, PLO terrorists twice opened bazooka and automatic fire from Lebanese territory on Israeli security forces on patrol duty in Israel along the border area north of Shtoola and in the Zarit area.
On 18 January 1975, three PLO murder agents infiltrated from Lebanon into Israel near the village of Zarit. In a subsequent exchange of fire with a unit of the Israeli Defence Forces, the three terrorists were shot and killed. Two Israeli soldiers were slightly wounded.
In "comuniqués" issued in Beirut, PLO spokesman continuously glorify such attacks.
The village of Shouba constitutes one of the main bases for the activities of the PLO murder gangs against Israel. It is from Shouba that many of the perpetrators of these attacks set out on their terror missions, being personally instructed by Yassir Arafat, the head of the PLO, as reported in the Lebanese press. (Radio Cairo, quoting on 19 January 1975 the Beirut newspaper el-Anwar).
In these circumstances, the letter addressed to you on 21 January 1975 by the Permanent Representative of Lebanon (A/10041-S/11604) is but another hypocritical and transparent attempt, just like the preceding letters from the Mission, on the part of the Government of Lebanon, to mislead public opinion as to the facts regarding the situation in the area.
The true situation prevailing in that area of Lebanon is, however, well known, namely that the Government of Lebanon has practically abdicated its authority there to the PLO murder gangs, which are thus enabled to embark from there with complete freedom on their sanguinity attacks against Israeli territory and citizens. It is not without good reason that the whole of that area, where the village Shouba is also located, is known by the name of "Fatahland".
It is high time for the Government of Lebanon and its representatives at the United Nations to stop protecting and covering up to the PLO atrocities. Nobody will be deceived by the sanctimonious Lebanese protestations. Nobody will free Lebanon from its international obligations and its duty to eliminate from its soil the murder bases maintained there by the PLO.
Israel on its part has been taking all appropriate action, and will continue to do so, for the defence of its citizens from the murder attacks directed against them from Lebanon, and it is the Government of Lebanon which bears the sole responsibility for the consequences resulting from this situation.
I have the honour to request that this letter be circulated as an official document of the General Assembly under agenda item 109, and of the Security Council.