State of Palestine, 2011

At the

outset, I extend my congratulations to you, Sir, on your

assumption of the presidency of the General Assembly

for this session. I wish you every success.

Today, on behalf of the Palestine Liberation

Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian people, I

extend my sincere congratulations to the Government

and the people of South Sudan on their deserved

admission as a full Member of the United Nations. We

wish them progress and prosperity.

I also congratulate the Secretary-General,

Mr. Ban Ki-moon, on his election for a new term at the

helm of the United Nations. This renewal of trust

reflects the world’s appreciation for his efforts, which

have strengthened the role of the Organization.

The question of Palestine is intricately linked

with the United Nations through the resolutions

adopted by its various organs and agencies and through

the essential and lauded role of the United Nations

Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the

Near East (UNRWA). UNRWA embodies the

international responsibility with regard to the plight of

Palestine’s refugees, who are the victims of Al-Nakba,

the catastrophe that occurred in 1948.

We aspire to and seek a greater and more

effective role for the United Nations in working to

achieve a just and comprehensive peace in our region,

one that ensures the inalienable, legitimate national

rights of the Palestinian people as defined by the

resolutions of international legitimacy and as embodied

by the United Nations.

A year ago, on this same occasion and in this

same Hall, many leaders and heads of delegations

addressed the stalled peace efforts in our region.

Everyone had high hopes for a new round of final

status negotiations, which had begun in early

September in Washington under the direct auspices of

President Obama and with participation of the Quartet,

Egypt and Jordan, to reach a peace agreement within

one year. We entered those negotiations with open

hearts and attentive ears and sincere intentions. We

were ready with our documents, files, papers and

proposals. But the negotiations broke down just weeks

after they were launched.

After that, we did not give up and did not cease

our efforts to craft initiatives and make contacts. Over

the past year, we did not leave a door to be knocked on

or a channel to be tested or a path to be taken. We did

not ignore any formal or informal party of influence

and stature that could be addressed. We considered

positively the various ideas and proposals and

initiatives presented by many countries and parties. But

all of those sincere efforts and endeavours by

international parties were repeatedly smashed against

the rocks of the positions of the Israeli Government,

which quickly dashed the hopes raised by the launch of

negotiations last September.

The core issue here is that the Israeli Government

refuses to commit to terms of reference for the

negotiations that are based on international law and

United Nations resolutions, and that it frantically

continues to intensify the building of settlements on the

territory of the future State of Palestine.

Settlement activities embody the core of the

policy of colonial military occupation of the land of the

Palestinian people and all of the brutality, aggression

and racial discrimination against our people that that

policy entails. The policy constitutes a breach of

international humanitarian law and United Nations

11-51185 26

resolutions. It is the primary cause of the failure of the

peace process, the collapse of dozens of opportunities

and the burial of the great hopes that arose from the

signing of the Declaration of Principles in 1993

between the Palestine Liberation Organization and

Israel to achieve a just peace that would begin a new

era for our region.

Reports by United Nations missions and by

several Israeli civil institutions and societies convey a

horrific picture of the size of the settlement campaign,

which the Israeli Government does not hesitate to boast

about and which it continues to execute through the

systematic confiscation of Palestinian lands. It invites

tenders for the construction of thousands of new

settlement units in various areas of the West Bank,

particularly in the Arab parts of Jerusalem. It

accelerates construction of the apartheid separation

Wall that is eating up large tracts of our land, dividing

it into separate and isolated islands, destroying family

life and communities and harming the livelihoods of

tens of thousands of Palestinian families.

The occupying Power also continues to refuse to

issue permits for our people to build in occupied East

Jerusalem. At the same time, it intensifies its decades-

long campaign of demolition and confiscation of

homes, displacing Palestinian owners and residents

under a multipronged policy of ethnic cleansing aimed

at pushing Palestinians away from their ancestral

homeland. Moreover, matters have reached the point

where orders have been issued to deport elected

representatives from their city of Jerusalem.

The occupying Power also continues to undertake

excavations that threaten our Holy Places, and its

military checkpoints prevent our citizens from gaining

access to their mosques and churches. It continues to

besiege the Holy City with a ring of settlements and a

separation Wall imposed to separate the Holy City from

the rest of the cities of Palestine. The occupation is

racing against time to redraw the borders on our land

according to what it wants and to impose a fait

accompli on the ground that changes its realities and

features and that is undermining the realistic potential

for the establishment of the State of Palestine.

At the same time, the occupying Power continues

to impose its strict blockade on the Gaza Strip and to

target Palestinian civilians by assassinations, air strikes

and artillery shelling. It persists with its war of

aggression of three years ago on Gaza, which resulted

then in the massive destruction of homes, schools,

hospitals and mosques and thousands of martyrs and

wounded. The occupying Power also continues its

incursions into areas of the Palestinian National

Authority through raids, arrests and killings at the

checkpoints.

In recent years, the criminal actions of armed

settler militias, who enjoy the special protection of the

occupation army, have intensified. They have

perpetrated frequent attacks against our people,

targeting their homes, schools, universities, mosques,

fields, crops and trees. Today they killed one

Palestinian who was protesting peacefully. Despite our

repeated warnings, the Israeli authorities have not

acted to curb those attacks, and we hold them fully

responsible for the crimes of the settlers.

Those are just a few examples of the policy of the

Israeli settlement occupation. That policy is

responsible for the repeated failure of the successive

international attempts to salvage the peace process.

The policy will destroy the chances of achieving a two-

State solution, upon which there is an international

consensus. Here I caution, and I caution aloud, that the

settlement policy threatens also to undermine the

structure of the Palestinian National Authority and

even to end its existence.

In addition, we now face new conditions not

previously imposed, conditions that will transform the

raging conflict in our inflamed region into a religious

conflict, one that will be a threat to the future of a

million and a half Palestinians who are citizens of

Israel. We reject that eventuality; it is impossible for us

to accept being dragged into it.

All of those unilateral Israeli actions in our

country are aimed at perpetuating the occupation.

Israel has re-established the civil and military authority

in the West Bank by a unilateral action, and its military

authorities determine whether or not a Palestinian

citizen has the right to reside in any part of the

Palestinian territory. Israel is the entity that decides to

confiscate our land and our water and to obstruct our

movement and the movement of goods, and indeed our

whole destiny. All of that is unilateral. Yet Israel

complains of unilateralism — despite our agreements

with it, which forbid unilateral individual actions.

In 1974, our leader the late Yasser Arafat came to

this Hall and assured the members of the General

Assembly of our affirmative pursuit for peace, urging

27 11-51185

the United Nations to realize the inalienable national

rights of the Palestinian people, stating: “Do not let the

olive branch fall from my hand.” (A/PV.2282, para. 82)

In 1988, President Arafat again addressed the

General Assembly, which convened in Geneva to hear

him. There he submitted the Palestinian peace

programme adopted by the Palestine National Council

at its session held that year in Algeria. When we

adopted that programme, we were taking a painful and

very difficult step for all of us, especially those of us,

including myself, who during the 1948 Al-Nakba were

forced to leave their homes and their towns and

villages, carrying only some of our belongings —

along with our grief and our memories and the keys to

our homes — to camps of exile and diaspora. That

catastrophic exodus was one of the worst operations of

uprooting, destruction and removal of a vibrant and

cohesive society that had been contributing in a

pioneering and leading way to the cultural, educational

and economic renaissance of the Arab Middle East.

Still, because we believe in peace, because of our

commitment to international legitimacy and because

we had the courage to make difficult decisions for our

people, and in the absence of absolute justice, we

decided to adopt the path of relative justice, justice that

is possible and could correct part of the grave historical

injustice committed against our people. Thus, we

agreed to establish the State of Palestine on only 22 per

cent of the territory of historical Palestine — on all the

Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in 1967. By

taking that historic step, which was welcomed by the

States of the world, we made a major concession in

order to achieve a historic compromise that would

allow peace to be made in the land of peace.

In the years that followed, from the Madrid

Conference and the Washington negotiations leading to

the Oslo agreement, which we signed 18 years ago in

the White House garden and which was linked with the

letters of mutual recognition — mutual recognition —

between the PLO and Israel, we persevered and dealt

positively and responsibly with all efforts aimed at the

achievement of a lasting peace agreement. Yet, as we

said earlier, every initiative, every conference, every

new round of negotiations and every movement was

shattered on the rock of the Israeli settlement

expansion project.

On behalf of the Palestine Liberation

Organization — the sole legitimate representative of

the Palestinian people, which will remain so until the

end of the conflict in all its aspects and until the

resolution of all final status issues — I affirm the

following points.

The goal of the Palestinian people is the

realization of their inalienable national rights and of

their independent State of Palestine, with East

Jerusalem as its capital, on all the land of the West

Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip,

which Israel occupied in the June 1967 war. This goal

must be realized in conformity with the resolutions of

international legitimacy and with the achievement of a

just and agreed-upon solution to the Palestine refugee

issue in accordance with General Assembly resolution

194 (III), as stipulated in the Arab Peace Initiative.

That Initiative presented the consensus Arab and

Islamic vision to resolve the core of the Arab-Israeli

conflict and to achieve the just and comprehensive

peace to which we are committed and are working

towards.

We are committed to this. Achieving this much-

desired peace also requires the release of political

prisoners, prisoners of freedom and Palestinian

detainees in Israeli prisons without delay.

Secondly, the PLO and the Palestinian people are

committed to renouncing violence and reject and

condemn terrorism in all its forms, especially State

terrorism, including terrorism by settlers. We also

adhere to all agreements signed between the PLO and

Israel.

Thirdly, we are committed to the option of

negotiating a lasting solution to the conflict in

accordance with the resolutions of international

legitimacy. I affirm here that the Palestine Liberation

Organization is ready to return immediately to the

negotiating table on the basis of the adopted terms of

reference and consistent with international legitimacy

and a complete cessation of settlement activities.

Fourthly, our people will continue their popular

peaceful resistance to the Israeli occupation, its

settlement and apartheid policies, and its construction

of the racist separation Wall, and they receive support

for their resistance that is consistent with international

humanitarian law and international conventions. They

have the support of peace activists from Israel and

around the world, reflecting an impressive, inspiring

and courageous example of the strength of this

defenceless people, armed only with their dreams,

11-51185 28

courage, hope and slogans in the face of bullets, tanks,

tear gas and bulldozers.

Fifthly, when we bring our plight and our case to

this international forum, it is a confirmation of our

reliance on the political and diplomatic option and is a

confirmation of the fact that we do not undertake

unilateral steps. Our efforts and moves are not aimed at

isolating Israel or at delegitimizing it; rather, we want

to gain legitimacy for the cause of the people of

Palestine. We aim to delegitimize only the settlement

activities, the occupation and apartheid and the logic of

ruthless force, and we believe that all the countries of

the world stand with us in this regard.

I am here to say on behalf of the Palestinian

people and the Palestine Liberation Organization that

we extend our hand to the Israeli Government and the

Israeli people for peacemaking. I say to them: let us

urgently build together a future for our children where

they can enjoy freedom, security and prosperity. Let us

build bridges of dialogue instead of checkpoints and

walls of separation. Let us build cooperative relations

based on parity, equity and friendship between two

neighbouring States — Palestine and Israel — instead

of policies based on occupation, settlement, war and

elimination of the other.

Despite the unquestionable right of our people to

self-determination and to the establishment of an

independent State, as stipulated in international

resolutions, we have accepted over the past few years

to engage in what appeared to be a test of our

worthiness, entitlement and eligibility. During the past

two years, our national Authority has implemented a

programme to build our State institutions. Despite the

extraordinary situation and the obstacles imposed on us

by Israel, a serious and extensive project was launched

that has included the implementation of plans to

enhance and advance the judiciary and the apparatus

for the maintenance of order and security; the

development of administrative, financial and oversight

systems; the upgrading of the performance of

institutions; and enhancing self-reliance to reduce the

need for foreign aid.

With the support of brotherly Arab countries and

donors from friendly countries, for which we are

thankful, a number of large infrastructure projects have

been implemented, focused on various aspects of

services, with special attention to rural and

marginalized areas. In the midst of this massive

national project, we have been strengthening what we

wish to be the features of our future State: the

preservation of security for citizens and public order;

the promotion of judicial authority and the rule of law;

strengthening the role of women via legislation, laws

and participation; ensuring the protection of public

freedoms and strengthening the role of civil society

institutions; and institutionalizing rules and regulations

for ensuring accountability and transparency in the

work of our ministries and departments; to entrenching

the pillars of democracy as the basis of Palestinian

political life.

When division struck the unity of our homeland,

our people and our institutions, we were determined to

adopt dialogue as a path to the restoration of our unity.

We succeeded months ago in achieving national

reconciliation, and we hope that its implementation

will be accelerated in the coming weeks. The core

pillar of this reconciliation involved turning to the

people through legislative and presidential elections, to

be conducted within a year, because the State we want

is one characterized by the rule of law, the exercise of

democracy, the protection of the freedoms and equality

of all citizens without any discrimination, and the

transfer of power through the ballot box.

We believe that the reports issued recently by the

United Nations, the World Bank, the Ad Hoc Liaison

Committee for the Coordination of International

Assistance to Palestinians (AHLC) and the

International Monetary Fund have confirmed and

lauded what has been accomplished, and have

considered it an exceptional and unprecedented model.

The consensus conclusion of the AHLC a few days ago

here, in this very city, described what has been

accomplished as a remarkable international success

story and confirmed the full readiness of the

Palestinian people and their institutions for the

immediate independence of the State of Palestine. That

was a testimonial from the international community.

I do not believe that anyone with even a shred of

conscience could reject our application for full

membership in the United Nations and our admission

as an independent State.

It is no longer possible to redress the issue of the

blocked horizon of the peace talks with the same

means and methods that have been repeatedly tried and

have proved unsuccessful in past years.

29 11-51185

The crisis is far too deep to be neglected; it is far

more dangerous and critical to simply be circumvented

or to postpone its inevitable explosion. It is neither

possible, nor practical nor acceptable to return to

conducting business as usual, as if everything were

fine. It is futile to go into negotiations without clear

parameters, terms of reference, credibility or a specific

timetable. Negotiations will be meaningless as long as

the occupation army on the ground continues to

entrench its occupation instead of rolling it back, and

to change the demography of our country in order to

create a new basis on which to alter the borders. That is

totally unacceptable.

This is the moment of truth. Our people are

waiting to hear the world’s answer. Will it allow Israel

to continue the last occupation in the world? We are the

last people to remain under occupation. Will the world

allow Israel to occupy us forever and to remain a State

above the law and accountability? Will it allow Israel

to continue rejecting the resolutions of the Security

Council and the General Assembly and the

International Court of Justice and the positions of the

overwhelming majority of countries in the world? Is

this acceptable?

The heart of the crisis in our region is very simple

and clear. There are those who believe that we are an

unnecessary people in the Middle East and those who

believe that there is in fact a missing State that needs to

be established immediately. I come before the General

Assembly today from the Holy Land, the land of

Palestine, the land of divine messages, ascension of the

Prophet Muhammad and the birthplace of Jesus Christ,

to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people, in the

homeland and in the diaspora, and to say, after 63 years

of suffering the ongoing Al-Nakba: enough, enough,

enough.

It is time for the Palestinian people to gain their

freedom and independence. The time has come to end

the suffering and the plight of millions of Palestinian

refugees in the homeland and the diaspora, some of

whom have been forced to seek refuge more than once

in different places of the world, to end their

displacement, and to realize their rights.

At a time when the Arab peoples affirm their

quest for democracy — in what is now called the Arab

Spring — the time has also come for the Palestinian

Spring, the time for independence. The time has come

for our men, women and children to live normal lives;

for them to be able to sleep without waiting for the

worst that the next day might bring; for mothers to be

assured that their children will return home without

fear of being killed, arrested or humiliated; for students

to be able to go to their schools and universities

without checkpoints obstructing them.

The time has come for sick people to be able to

reach hospitals normally, and for our farmers to be able

to tend their rich soil without fear that the occupier will

seize their land and water, which the separation wall

prevents access to, and without fear of the settlers with

their guard dogs who attack Palestinians. They build

their settlements on our lands and uproot and burn

olive trees that have existed in Palestine for hundreds

of years. The time has come for the thousands of

prisoners of conscience and freedom to be released

from prisons and return to their families and their

children and become a part of building their homeland,

for the freedom of which they have sacrificed so much.

My people want to exercise their right to enjoy a

normal life like the rest of humankind. They believe in

what our great poet Mahmoud Darwish said: “Standing

here, staying here, permanent here, eternal here, and

we have one goal, one goal, one goal - to be. And we

shall be.”

We profoundly appreciate and value the positions

of all the States that have supported our struggle and

our rights and recognized the State of Palestine

following the Declaration of Independence in 1988, as

well as those that have recently recognized the State of

Palestine and upgraded the level of Palestine’s

representation in their capitals. I also salute Secretary-

General Ban Ki-moon, who spoke the truth a few days

ago when he said that the Palestinian State should have

been established years ago.

The General Assembly may rest assured that such

support for our people is more valuable to them than

anyone can imagine, for it makes them feel that

someone is listening to their narrative and that their

tragedy, the horrors of Al-Nakba and the occupation,

under which they have suffered terribly, are not being

ignored. It reinforces their hope and belief that justice

is possible in this world. The loss of hope is the most

ferocious enemy of peace, and despair is the strongest

ally of extremism.

The time has come for my courageous and proud

people, after decades of displacement, colonial

occupation and ceaseless suffering, to live like other

11-51185 30

peoples of the Earth, free in a sovereign and

independent homeland.

Mr. President, I would like to inform you that,

before delivering this statement, I, in my capacity as

President of the State of Palestine and Chairman of the

Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation

Organization, submitted to Secretary-General Ban

Ki-moon an application for the admission of Palestine

as a full Member of the United Nations on the basis of

the 4 June 1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its

capital.

I hold in my hands a copy of the application. I

call upon the Secretary-General to expedite transmittal

of our request to the Security Council, and I call upon

the members of the Council to vote in favour of our

full membership. I also appeal to the States that have

not yet done so to recognize the State of Palestine.

The support of the countries of the world for our

endeavour is a victory for rights, freedom, justice, law

and international legitimacy. It will provide

tremendous support for the peace option and enhance

the negotiations’ chances of success. The Assembly’s

assistance and support for the establishment of the

State of Palestine and for its admission to the United

Nations as a full Member State are the greatest

contribution to peacemaking in the land of peace, and

throughout the world.

I have come here today carrying a message from

a courageous and proud people. Palestine is

experiencing its rebirth. That is my message. May all

the people of the world stand with the people of

Palestine now as they march steadfastly to meet their

appointment with history, freedom and independence.

And I hope that we will not have long to wait.