State of Palestine, 2014

In this year

2014, proclaimed by the General Assembly as the

International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian

People, Israel has chosen to make it the year of a new

war of genocide perpetrated against the Palestinian

people. It is the year in which the Assembly, on behalf

of the countries and peoples of the world, conveyed

the world’s yearning and determination to make a just

peace that would achieve freedom and independence

for the Palestinian people in their State of Palestine

alongside Israel. The occupying Power has chosen to

defy the entire world by launching its war on Gaza, in

which its jets and tanks brutally destroyed lives and

devastated the homes, schools and dreams of thousands

of Palestinian children, women and men and, in reality,

destroying any remaining hopes for peace.

I addressed the Assembly on similar days in 2012

(see A/67/PV.12), when I cautioned that the colonial

occupying Power was preparing a new Nakba against

the Palestinian people. I appealed to the Assembly then

to prevent a new Nakba and to support the establishment

of a free and independent State of Palestine. I returned

to the Assembly Hall two months later (see A/67/PV.44)

as Palestine was healing its wounds and its people were

burying their beloved martyred children, women and

men after yet another war waged then against the Gaza

Strip. On that day, I stated that there was certainly

not a single person in the world who needed the loss

of the lives of thousands of Palestinian children in

order to confirm that Israel insisted on occupation. The

international community also did not need thousands

of deadly raids and tons of explosives to remind it that

there was an occupation that must end and a people who

must be freed.

Again today, we find ourselves full of grief and

bitterness, raising the same long-standing conclusions

and questions after a new war, the third in five years,

waged by that racist occupying State against Gaza,

a small, densely populated and precious part of our

country. The difference today is that the scale of

that genocidal crime is larger. The list of martyrs,

especially children, has grown, as hs the number of

the wounded, the disabled and the dozens of families

who have been completely decimated. The difference

today is that approximately half a million people have

been displaced from their homes. An unprecedented

number of homes, schools, hospitals, public buildings,

residential buildings, mosques, factories and cemeteries

have been destroyed — the Israelis pursued their

vengeance against our young even into the cemeteries.

The difference today is that the devastation caused by

that recent aggression is unmatched in modern times,

as confirmed by a witness, the Commissioner-General

of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for

Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

The latest war against Gaza constituted a series

of absolute war crimes, carried out before the eyes

and ears of the entire world, moment by moment. It

is inconceivable that anyone today could claim not to

grasp the magnitude and horror of the crimes. No one

can support Israel’s right to self-defence without regard

for the fate of the thousands of victims of our people.

No one can ignore the simple fact, upon which we

insist, that the life of a Palestinian is as precious as the

life of any other human being. Ignoring the facts on the

ground cannot erase such facts. We must also assume

that no one can continue to wonder why extremism is

rising and why the culture of peace is losing ground

and receding, while efforts to achieve it are collapsing.

And yet we continue to believe and hope that this time

no one will try to help out the occupation by supporting

its impunity and its attempts to evade accountability

for its crimes.

Here, today, in the name of Palestine, I affirm that

we will not forget or forgive, and we will not allow war

criminals to escape punishment. Before the Assembly,

I affirm that the Palestinian people will hold fast to

their legitimate right to defend themselves against the

Israeli war machine and to resist Israel’s colonial, racist

occupation. At the same time, I want to affirm that not

for one moment will our grief, trauma and anger make

us abandon our humanity, our values and our ethics. We

will always maintain our respect for and commitment

to international law, international humanitarian law

and the international consensus. We will maintain the

traditions of our national struggle established by the

Palestinian martyrs, to which we have been committed

since the start of the Palestinian revolution in early

1965.

In the midst of a torrent of massacres and the

turmoil of vast destruction, we saw the peoples of the

world gather in huge demonstrations on the streets of

many cities to announce their condemnation of Israel’s

aggression and occupation and their support of freedom

for Palestine. We also saw how an overwhelming

majority of countries around the world declared

themselves for the same noble position and rushed to

give our people all kinds of support and assistance.

And we saw a qualitative and quantitative expansion in

the activities of the international grassroots boycotting

campaign against Israel’s policies of occupation,

apartheid and colonial settlement, especially among

academic, cultural, student and youth groups. In the

name of Palestine, we pay tribute to all who chose

to stand with human values and demanded freedom,

justice and peace. All of those manifestations of true

solidarity constituted an important message to those

who faced genocide in Gaza, helping them to feel that

they were not alone.

The recent war confirmed on the ground the

essence of what the Israeli Government had been saying

behind closed doors in negotiations. It came after long,

difficult negotiations held over more than eight months

under the auspices of the United States and through the

efforts of President Barack Obama and his tenacious

Secretary of State, John Kerry. We engaged in that

endeavour and with the American Administration’s

efforts with open minds and in good faith and a positive

spirit. We laid out firm positions based on resolutions

of international legitimacy. We genuinely respected

all our commitments and understandings. Even as we

watched the ongoing and escalating Israeli violations,

we exercised incredible self-restraint, silencing our

cries and tending to our own wounds in order to give the

American efforts the best possible chance for success.

However, as usual, the Israeli Government missed

no opportunity to undermine the chances for peace.

Throughout the months of negotiations, settlement

construction, land confiscation, home demolition,

killing and arrest campaigns and large-scale forced

displacement in the West Bank continued unabated. The

unjust blockade of the Gaza Strip was tightened. The

occupation’s campaign specifically targeted the city of

Jerusalem and its inhabitants, attempting to artificially

alter the spirit, identity and character of the Holy City

and focusing on Al-Aqsa Mosque while threatening

grave consequences. At the same time, armed gangs

of racist settlers persisted in their crimes against the

Palestinian people and their land, mosques, churches,

property and olive trees.

Again as usual, the Israeli Government failed

the test of peace. It breached an agreement with the

United States Administration regarding the release

from the occupation jails of a number of Palestinian

prisoners, who we continue to insist should all be

released. When confronted with simple questions

during the direct negotiations or through the United

States mediator, Israel had no hesitation in revealing

its true positions. It refuses to end the occupation of

the State of Palestine that began in 1967; rather it seeks

to continue and entrench it, rejecting the Palestinian

State and refusing to reach a just solution to the plight

of the Palestine refugees. That is the Government of

Israel’s official position. At best, the future it proposes

for the Palestinian people consists of isolated ghettos

for Palestinians on fragmented lands, without borders

or sovereignty over its air space, water and natural

resources, under the subjugation and control of the

racist settlers and the army of occupation; at worst, it

is a totally abhorrent form of apartheid. Some of the

Israelis say they are for two States. Where is the State

of Palestine? This is what they intend for the State of

Palestine.

Israel confirmed during the negotiations that it

rejects making peace with its victims, the Palestinian

people. All of this has been carried out along with

an attempt to brand the conflict as a religious one

against a background of increasingly rampant racism

in Israel’s political and media discourse, as well as its

entrenchment in the school curriculum and a series

of laws and practices in favour of the occupation and

its settlers. This culture of racism, incitement and

hatred was glaringly apparent some months ago in

an appallingly despicable crime committed by fascist

settlers, who abducted Mohammed Abu Khdeir, a

young boy from Jerusalem, burned him alive and killed

him.

This brings me to another fact of history. Over the

years, the occupying Power has pursued a policy aimed

at deliberately weakening the Palestinian National

Authority in order to undermine it and make its role

irrelevant. The occupation has targeted our relentless

efforts to establish the foundations for the kind of

State of Palestine that we want — a sovereign and

independent State living in peace and building bridges

of mutual cooperation with its neighbours, respecting

its commitments, obligations and agreements and

strengthening the values of citizenship, equality,

nondiscrimination, the rule of law, human rights and

pluralism.

We want a State that deepens Palestine’s enlightened

traditions of tolerance, coexistence and non-exclusion,

strengthens the culture of peace, promotes the role

of women, establishes an effective administration

committed to the standards of good governance, and

cares for the needs and interests of its people. The

occupation struck, and continues to strike, a blow at

this effort because our quest is the antithesis of Israel’s

settlement policies, and because Israel seeks to destroy

Palestine’s chance of creating an independent State

within the framework of the two-State solution.

When our efforts to end the internal division

through national dialogue succeeded a few months ago

and we prepared to restore the unity of our land, nation

and institutions, we formed a national-consensus

Government and began a process that was to lead to

presidential and legislative elections. All countries

around the world welcomed this achievement, with

the exception of Israel, which has constantly sought to

fragment our land and our national unity.

Where do we go from here? The idea that one can

simply return to the past patterns of actions that failed

repeatedly is naive at best and, in any case, wrong.

For it ignores the fact that it is no longer acceptable or

possible to repeat methods that have proved futile, or

to continue with approaches that have repeatedly failed

and that require comprehensive review and radical

correction.

It is impossible — I repeat, impossible — to return

to the cycle of negotiations that failed to deal with

the core of the Palestinian question. There is neither

credibility nor seriousness in negotiations in which

Israel predetermines the results via its settlement

activities and the occupation’s brutality. Nor is there

meaning or value in negotiations in which the agreed

objective is not ending the Israeli occupation and

achieving the independence of the State of Palestine,

with East Jerusalem as its capital, on the entire

Palestinian territory occupied in the 1967 war. Moreover,

negotiations that are not linked to a firm timetable for

the implementation of this goal have no value. The time

has come to end this colonial occupation.

Palestine refuses to have the right to freedom of its

people, who suffer terrorism at the hands of the racist

occupying Power and its settlers and remain hostage

to Israel’s security conditions. The Palestinian people

are actually the ones who need immediate international

protection — a protection they are seeking through

international organizations. They are in need of the

security and peace that they more than any other people

are denied. And the children of Palestine are worthy

of the world’s efforts to ensure that their childhood,

dreams and lives will not once again be destroyed. It is

time for the chapters of this renewed, ongoing tragedy

to be closed.

Those who were uprooted from their warm homes,

good land and beautiful country in Al-Nakba 66 years

ago, who were pushed into the misery of exile to live

as refugees, and are now being forced into new waves

of expulsion or onto ships of death on the world’s seas,

need assurances. They need to be assured that they

will not be displaced from their homes again, that their

homes will not be destroyed again, and that they will

not spend their lives waiting for the outbreak of a new

war. Is it not time for this long tragedy to end?

We will not forever accept demands to prove our

good intentions by making concessions at the expense

of our rights, to remain silent as we are killed and our

land is stolen, and to understand the conditions of

the other party and the importance of preserving its

coalition Government, while its occupation becomes

more entrenched. We are exhausted by the additional

tests that we must undergo to prove our efficiency,

competence and eligibility to earn our natural, simple

right to live a normal life; our inherent right to expect a

stable and ordinary tomorrow and to dream about more

beautiful days; and the right of our youth to plan their

future safely with peace and freedom prevailing over

our land, like other peoples of the world. The time has

come for a genuine and ust peace to prevail in the land

of peace. As I have said more than once, we are the only

people in the world that remain under occupation.

All the Arab countries and ourselves have

constantly warned about the disastrous consequences

of the continuing Israeli colonial occupation and the

denial of freedom and independence to the Palestinian

people. We have repeatedly pointed out that allowing

Israel to act as a State above the law without being held

accountable or punished for its policies, aggression

and defiance of the international community’s will

and legality has provided fertile ground for, and an

environment conducive to, the growth of extremism,

hatred and terrorism in our region.

Confronting the terrorism that plagues our region

by groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

and others, which have no basis whatsoever in the

tolerant Islamic religion or humanity, and whose

members are committing vile and heinous atrocities,

requires much more than military confrontation. The

matter is of the utmost urgency and requires much

more than condemnations and declarations of positions,

which are of course necessary. What is needed, first and

foremost, is a comprehensive, credible strategy to dry

up the sources of terrorism and eradicate its roots in all

political, intellectual, economic and social spheres in

our region. It requires the creation of solid foundations

for a practical consensus rendering the fight against

all forms of terrorism everywhere a collective task to

be undertaken by an alliance of peoples, nations and

civilizations. It requires, as a priority, ending the Israeli

occupation, that in its practices and perpetuation,

constitutes an abhorrent form of State terrorism and a

breeding ground for incitement, tension and hatred.

At a time when we are still suffering from the horrors

of war, we face a formidable challenge to reconstruct

what has been destroyed by occupation. This is the third

time we are attempting to rebuild after the destruction

inflicted on us by the occupation. We greatly appreciate

the fact that next month, at the invitation of the Arab

Republic of Egypt and the Kingdom of Norway, the city

of Cairo will host an international conference on relief

and reconstruction for the Gaza Strip. Our Government

will present comprehensive reports to the conference

on the losses the acts of aggression have inflicted on

various sectors of society, and it will provide details

of plans and programmes to be rapidly implemented

in the Gaza Strip, aimed at meeting immediate relief

needs and the requirements for reconstruction, in full

coordination with and under the supervision of the

relevant United Nations agencies and bodies.

Just a couple of days ago, the Palestinian faction

emphasized its support for Gaza in order to facilitate

reconstruction. While we reiterate our appreciation and

gratitude to all the countries and organizations that

hastened to help the Palestinian people both during

and after the war, we are confident that brotherly and

friendly countries will not waver in their support for

the plans and programmes we will present, and that

the conference will have practical results that can meet

the expectations and needs of the victims of this act of

aggression.

We reaffirm here that the chief prerequisite for

the success of all these plans and efforts is an end

to the despicable ongoing Israeli blockade that has

suffocated the Gaza Strip for years and turned it into

the largest prison in the world for nearly 2 million

Palestinian citizens. At the same time, we affirm our

commitment to and the importance of consolidating

the ceasefire through the negotiations being conducted

under the auspices of Egypt. However, in order to avoid

a repetition of the cycle of war and reconstruction every

two or three years, it is imperative that we focus on

the fundamental issue and starting point, which is that

Gaza’s suffering will never be completely over until

the occupation is ended and the State of Palestine’s

independence achieved.

During the past two weeks, Palestine and the Group

of Arab States have been working intensively with the

various regional groups in the United Nations to prepare

for the introduction of a draft resolution on the Israeli-

Palestinian conflict for adoption by the Security Council

and to advance efforts to achieve peace, which we still

believe can be accomplished through international

legitimacy. This endeavour reaffirms our commitment

to achieving a just peace through a negotiated solution

and a diplomatic and political effort through United

Nations bodies. It is inspired by and based fully on the

spirit and provisions of the many resolutions that have

been adopted in the General Assembly and the Security

Council, laying the foundations for a lasting solution

and a just peace. There is nothing new here. All of these

are previously adopted resolutions.

This endeavour hopes to correct the failure of

previous efforts to achieve peace by affirming the

goal of ending the Israeli occupation and achieving

a two-State solution for the State of Palestine, with

East Jerusalem as its capital, over the entire territory

occupied in 1967, alongside the State of Israel, and with a

just and agreed-on solution to the plight of the Palestine

refugees on the basis of resolution 194 (III), with a

specific time frame for implementing those objectives,

as stipulated in the Arab Peace Initiative. There must

be a time frame. That will be linked to the immediate

resumption of negotiations between Palestine and Israel

in order to demarcate the borders, reach a detailed and

comprehensive agreement on all final status issues and

then draft a comprehensive peace treaty between us and

them.

We are confident that this endeavour will enjoy the

full support of those who are committed to ensuring that

our country will not witness new wars and atrocities,

who wish to support a campaign to combat terrorism,

who believe we must act expeditiously to rectify the

historical injustice inflicted by the Nakba on the people

of Palestine, and who wish to see peace prevail in the

land of monotheistic religions. The adoption of that

draft resolution will affirm that this year the Assembly

is striving to realize the International Year of Solidarity

with the Palestinian People, who will continue to be

steadfast in their struggle and will rise brave and strong

from the rubble of destruction. As our poet Mahmoud

Darwish has said, we are infected with the incurable

disease of hope, and we love life if we are given a

chance at it.

There is an occupation that must end now. There is

a people who must be freed immediately. The hour of

independence of the State of Palestine has arrived, and

I believe you are listening for it.