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The United Nations and Its Historical Endorsement of Terrorism
Dr. Harris O. Schoenberg wrote a book 16 years ago that is still surprisingly relevant regarding the problem of terrorism. It's A mandate for Terror: The United Nations and the PLO (New York: Shapolsky Publishers, 1989, 570 pages). Schoenberg is in favor of the United Nations and wants to see it be reformed, but his meticulously documented exploration of United Nations actions promoting terrorism provides dramatic evidence, in my opinion, of the need to get the US out of this hopelessly corrupt and anti-American organization. It is the United Nations that has made terror groups like the PLO and others into respected and well-funded establishments.
Here is one excerpt from the book (p. 209), occurring after a discussion of the UN's tendency to only selectively apply "self-determination" rhetoric to violent groups opposing Western powers or even opposing the will of the majority in a region:
As explained by Carl Gershman, speaking for the United States:
Independence was to be achieved immediately and by whatever means necessary, even those that did not adequately take into account 'the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned.' Increasingly this led to the acceptance of alternatives to elections and plebiscites, in particular to the recognition of 'national liberation movements' as the true bearers of the right of self-determination and the sole legitimate--through not democratically selected--representative of the peoples concerned. Little serious consideration was given to the possibility that the use of terror as a method might actually frustrate the authentic and free expression of the people's will by fostering an environment of coercion. ("Statement by Carl Gershman, United States Representative to the 37th General Assembly of the United Nations on Item 79, Self-Determination, Oct. 15, 1982," Press Release USUN 116-(85) of Oct. 15, 1982, pp. 1-2.)
Peace and security were clearly inscribed as the principal objectives of the UN Charter. These objectives required the elimination of armed conflict and the peaceful settlement of disputes. But within five years of the adoption of Resolution 1514, the UN was licensing violence. On December 20, 1965 in Resolution 2105 (XX) the General Assembly recognized the legitimacy of national liberation movements in colonial territories, and in Resolution 2708 (XXV) of 15 December 1970 and repeatedly thereafter, it sanctioned their use of "all necessary .means at their disposal" to achieve their ends. Resolution 3103 (XXVIII) of 13 December 1973 delegitimized resistance to UN-approved NLMs and , endorsed assistance to them. Likewise, the Assembly definition of aggression, found in Resolution 3314 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974 exculpates terrorism when its perpetrators claim to be struggling for self-determination.
Clearly, by endorsing the use of "all means," these UN resolutions not only countermanded the Charter injunction against the use of force, but moved even beyond a call to arms, as in guerrilla warfare, to the legitimization of terrorism. As UN non-governmental organization (NGO) representative Moses Moskowitz observed, the resolutions "were momentous in their implications" for "they added up to an official encouragement to extremists to take the path of violence and bloodshed to vindicate their claims." (Moses Moskowitz, The Roots and Reaches of United Nations Actions and Decisions [Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands: Sijthoff and Noordhoff, 1980], p. 36.) Not only were NLMs accepted in place of' democratic procedures and granted immunity from the Charter I injunction against the threat or use of force, but every member-state was enjoined to assist them.
It is incredible that an organization said to be the world's best hope for peace has long stood for the proposition that terror of any kind is justified in pursuing Marxist goals (but wo unto those groups in Marxist states seeking "self-determination"!). In the eyes of the UN, the murder of innocent school children is justified if the killers claim to be seeking "liberation" of some kind. It's time to free ourselves of this atrocious organization.