State of Palestine, 2002

I

congratulate you, Mr. President, on your election to the

presidency of the fifty-seventh session of the General

Assembly of the United Nations. We are confident that

you will conduct the proceedings of this session with

great competence, thanks to your outstanding skills and

qualities.

I should like to pay tribute also to your

predecessor, Mr. Han Seung-soo, who presided ably

over the fifty-sixth session of the General Assembly.

Let me also express my deep appreciation for the

efforts of the Secretary-General to harmonize

international relations and to ensure respect for the

principles of the Charter with a view to strengthening

international peace and security.

I wish also to welcome Switzerland and Timor-

Leste to the United Nations.

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We have agreed to the American political

initiative that was put forward in 1991. At the Madrid

Conference, several agreements were entered into by

the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO),

representing the Palestinian people, and Israel. The aim

of those agreements was the commencement of

negotiations between the two parties with a view to the

implementation of Security Council resolutions 242

(1967) and 338 (1973). They also called on Israel to

withdraw from the Arab territories occupied since

1967.

A deadline of five years was set for those

negotiations. The clock began to run after the signing

of the Oslo Accords in 1993 in Washington, under the

auspices of the previous United States President

President Clinton.

However, successive Israeli Governments have

refused to withdraw from the occupied Palestinian

territories and have continued to deploy Israeli forces

there. This intransigence on the part of Israel highlights

its goal: the continued occupation of Palestinian

territories.

During the course of those negotiations, new

settlements were built, 187 altogether, inhabited by

some 370,000 settlers, most of them armed. Recently,

Israel began building a wall along the line of the 1967

truce. Israel is continuing its cruel and barbaric acts

and carrying out its scorched-earth policy, with a view

to depriving the Palestinian people of their income and

means of subsistence. During the past two years of

conflict, agricultural production has dropped by 80 per

cent and industrial production by 60 per cent.

Unemployment has reached 65 per cent, and 63 per

cent of the population is living in poverty.

Israel has destroyed public institutions, police

stations, ports and airports. More than 1,350 houses

have been torn down, and more than 3,000 businesses

and industrial concerns in the occupied territories and

in Gaza have been demolished, an area of 5,800 square

kilometres.

The taxes that Israel collects, about $850 million,

which should have been paid to the Palestinian

Authority, have been kept by the Israelis. A total of

90,000 olive trees, out of 300,000, have been uprooted,

and the Palestinian infrastructure has been demolished.

The occupied territories were divided into 227 separate

cantons. Trade was halted, measures were taken to

curtail the freedom of movement of people and of

goods, and borders with Arab countries were closed. In

addition, the Israeli authorities have placed President

Arafat under house arrest.

These arbitrary measures have prompted the

Palestinian people to pursue their heroic resistance, in

the face of Israel's various lethal weapons, which are

used to enforce the separation between the cantons. In

Bethlehem, in Gaza and in other cities, residential areas

have been bombed. Moreover, many Palestinians have

been thrown into jail.

The fact-finding team set up by the Security

Council was prevented from going into the field to

witness firsthand the suffering of the Palestinian people

at the hands of the Nazi Israeli occupation.

The United States is a great Power and bears an

important responsibility vis-‡-vis the maintenance of

international peace and security and the prevention of

regional conflict. Moreover, the United States has

committed itself to working with the former Soviet

Union, through the United Nations, to resolve conflicts

by peaceful means and to eliminate their arsenals of

weapons of mass destruction.

This is a very important approach that enables the

United Nations to enhance fruitful international

cooperation among States. Should that approach be

abandoned, the United Nations will fail to develop

international cooperation and to maintain international

peace and security. The use of force in the context of

intra-State relations to resolve problems does not help

us in any way to uphold the purposes and principles of

the United Nations. On the contrary; it only gives rise

to fear and doubt among the States Members of the

United Nations, especially developing countries, which

have always turned to the Organization to protect them.

The peoples of the world are looking to the

United States in the hope that that major Power will

play a positive and neutral role in international

relations and in the hope that it will always be a source

of technological and economic assistance.

It goes without saying that the commitment of the

United States to the strict implementation of United

Nations resolutions in particular those of the

Security Council without the use of a double

standard strengthens our trust in the United Nations

and reinforces its credibility as a forum for the

resolution of international problems.

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Thus we are justified in asking ourselves whether

these humanitarian and political responsibilities are

incumbent on the United States in this era of

globalization. We might ask ourselves why the United

States is threatening to use force against Iraq, when

sanctions have been imposed on that country for more

than 10 years.

Why does the United States not speak of the

elimination of the weapons of mass destruction

possessed by Israel, which threaten the Arab States, as

was noted previously? Israel could destroy the

Egyptian high dam, even though a peace agreement

was signed between Israel and Egypt more than 24

years ago. Mr. Hans Blix has stated that he had no

evidence that Iraq had any weapons of mass

destruction.

When the political negotiations began, the Arab

countries took a neutral position. Israeli Prime

Ministers Rabin and Peres visited certain Arab States

and an attempt was made to normalize Israeli-Arab

relations. When Yitzhak Rabin was killed in 1995 and

authority was handed over to Mr. Netanyahu, progress

towards peace was impeded. The Arab countries halted

the process of normalizing relations with Israel.

Nevertheless, at the 1996 Arab Summit they said that

peace was an Arab strategy that would not be

abandoned. Despite five years of negotiations between

Israelis and Palestinians, however, expectations were

not fulfilled.

Great sacrifices were made on our part. During

the Camp David summit, an aide to President Clinton

denied that Barak wanted to give the Palestinians a

large part of Palestinian territory. Israel was to keep 10

per cent of the territory along the Jordanian border,

with three early-warning systems in the West Bank and

the establishment of a mutilated Palestinian State with

no sovereignty.

The events of 11 September 2001 led to a

humanitarian catastrophe that shook the conscience of

the world. All countries of the world, including Arab

and Muslim countries, stood in solidarity with the

American people and expressed their intention to

combat terrorism in all its forms. We were surprised,

however, that the United States Administration refused

to acknowledge that the Sharon Government was

perpetrating acts of State terrorism. The Arabs put

forward a political initiative at the Arab Summit in

March, in the hope that they would be able to make an

effective contribution to ending the Arab-Israeli

conflict with a view to ratifying a peace agreement

with Israel. This Arab initiative, which provided for a

withdrawal by Israel from lands occupied since 1967

and the establishment of a Palestinian State with Al-

Quds as its capital, was endorsed and welcomed by the

United States and the European States. It is not enough,

however, to merely welcome the initiative. We believe

that implementing it would make a political settlement

possible. Expressions of compassion and sympathy are

welcome but they must be supported by concrete

actions if a settlement is to be achieved. The Arab

initiative includes all the essential principles necessary

for a settlement, in accordance with the provisions of

the Madrid Agreement and the principle of land for

peace.

Security Council resolution 1397 (2002) went

even further in supporting the establishment of a

Palestinian State that would be recognized by Israel.

This was accompanied by an American proposal. If

Israel rejects this comprehensive and fair proposal,

how much longer can it expect to continue in this

climate of animosity towards Arabs and constant

threats to their security? How long can Israel continue

to occupy Arab territory and prevent Palestinian

refugees from returning home? The question of

Palestine cannot be separated from the situation of the

Arab States, given all that the issue represents for them

and for their future.

Israel must end the acts of aggression that it

continues to perpetrate against Palestinians and their

towns. The Israeli army is continuing to assassinate

civilians and police and security officers. Sharon has

been described as a man of peace, and it has been said

that Israel has a right to self-defence, even as it

continues to occupy Arab territories and commit

massacres. The situation on the ground defies the

imagination; it is very difficult to find a way to justify

the American policy. If the threat of terrorism is

allowed to rule our lives, the world will become a

battlefield.

In conclusion, we and the other Arab countries

welcomed the American statement on the establishment

of a Palestinian State. We reaffirm, however, that the

borders of that State should be based on the

demarcation line of 4 June 1967, in accordance with

Council resolutions. Its sovereignty must be assured,

and Israeli forces must be withdrawn from all the

territory. We cannot agree to any temporary borders.

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We want a lasting settlement in keeping with the Arab

initiative put forward by Prince Abdullah of Saudi

Arabia an initiative that is in keeping with relevant

Security Council resolutions and with the principles of

the peace process.

We appreciate the role that the Quartet is playing

in the peace process. No party should call upon the

Palestinians alone to meet their demands. The Israeli

forces must be called upon to revise their strategy and

the Israeli side must end its assassinations and attacks

against citizens and refrain from using collective

economic sanctions, occupation and terrorism as a tool.

Israel must halt its ongoing assault, lift the siege

that has been imposed upon the Palestinian people and

withdraw completely from the occupied territories so

that the Palestinian Authority can implement the

promised reforms and hold elections in the West Bank

and Gaza, as well as in Al-Quds, under international

auspices. There should be an international presence to

guarantee the protection of the Palestinian people. This

is a matter of urgency; the siege that is impeding the

daily life of our citizens must be lifted.