State of Palestine, 2008

At the

outset, I congratulate you, Sir, on your election as

President of the General Assembly for this session. We

wish you every success and express our confidence that

you will continue to pursue the great mission

undertaken by the United Nations, which constitutes a

monumental achievement in the history of humankind

towards the promotion of dialogue and understanding

and the resolution of issues and conflicts. That mission

continues to be carried out in accordance with the rules

and principles of international law, including

humanitarian law, and on the basis of covenants that

are consistent with the spirit of the times and the needs

of the Organization in resolving problems and conflicts

and confronting the enormous challenges before us,

including poverty, hunger, the environment and climate

change.

On this occasion, I also wish to commend the role

and positive contributions of your predecessor,

Mr. Srgjan Kerim, during the sixty-second session of

the General Assembly. I would also like to express our

deep appreciation for the efforts, positions and

initiatives of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. They

reflect his foresight and pragmatism regarding the

various issues before us and in all regions that are

suffering crises and that pose threats to world peace,

including in particular in the Middle East region.

37 08-52272

I highly value the Secretary-General’s

understanding of the need to address the political and

humanitarian issues concerning the Palestinian people

and our region, along with the important role that

continues to be played by various United Nations

agencies, including the United Nations Relief and

Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East

(UNRWA), which continues to shoulder great burdens,

especially in the Gaza Strip and in the refugee camps

in the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. In the

absence of such a continuous, outstanding role, we

would have suffered even more severe and perilous

crises than we have experienced to date.

This year, I should have liked to bear news of the

achievement of a comprehensive agreement between us

and our Israeli neighbours, bringing an end to the

Israeli occupation of our land since 1967 and to the

suffering of the millions of our people living as

refugees and displaced persons in exile from their

homeland. I believe that the entire world, with its

differing alliances and trends, shares that desire with

me, especially following the Annapolis conference late

last year and the relaunching of the political process.

That set the necessary guidelines for the advancement of

negotiations towards the conclusion of a comprehensive

and complete agreement on all final status issues. Such

an agreement would lead to the realization of peace

within our region and allow it to enter a qualitatively new

era of relations characterized by good-neighbourliness,

mutual recognition, security and open borders, and not

by walls and barriers.

I am certain that never in the history of the

conflict in our region have so many countries gathered

as those that attended the Annapolis conference or

participated in the consensus that arose there. Those

who met not only demanded vigorous action to

accelerate and advance negotiations towards the

achievement of a final peace agreement, but also

explicitly emphasized the need to remove all of the

obstacles that have continuously impeded the

negotiating process and cast doubt on its credibility,

usefulness and ability to actually resolve all aspects of

the conflict. The main obstacle I refer to is that of the

Israeli settlement campaign and its continuation

throughout the occupied Palestinian territory,

particularly in East Jerusalem.

All of the participants in Annapolis took a united,

firm and unprecedented stand calling for the immediate

cessation of illegal settlement activities. It was

recognized that this was a prerequisite for allowing the

negotiations to resolve the conflict to lead to an end to

the occupation and the grave, historical injustices

inflicted on our people over the long decades.

The participation of most brotherly Arab

countries in the Annapolis conference was not merely a

symbolic gesture. On the contrary, their participation,

in terms of both the level of attendance and the

substance of positions, was a reflection of their

genuine desire to embrace and support the political

process and to address it in real earnest on the basis of

the Arab peace initiative adopted at the Arab summit in

Beirut in 2002.

Allow me, from this rostrum to recall once again

the special importance of the Arab peace initiative. I do

this personally in order to draw attention to the

significance of each of its platforms, because it

represents a major joint Arab undertaking and offers a

historic opportunity for us to achieve peace, security

and mutual recognition for all.

Indeed, it is strange to hear comments, which we

do not understand or accept, that are used to justify the

continuing settlements in East Jerusalem and the rest of

the occupied Palestinian territory and refer to the land

as if it were not occupied territory or as if peace were

possible without an end to the occupation of all of the

Arab territories occupied since 1967, including the

occupied Syrian Golan and the Lebanese Sheba’a

Farms, and without an end to the occupation of East

Jerusalem, the capital of our future Palestinian State

and a city holy to hundreds of millions of the faithful

of the monotheistic religions.

For the purpose of the noble and peaceful

objectives of building of a new Middle East free of

destructive mindsets and irrational tendencies that run

counter to the highest human values preached by all

religions and creeds — a new Middle East free of

weapons of mass destruction — we have been and

remain committed to international legitimacy. We

extend our hands for dialogue and negotiation to

resolve the conflict in a way that provides all that is

required for coexistence and openness to the future so

we can build our societies and nations in accordance

with the aspirations of our peoples to progress and in

the spirit of the times.

In that context, we express our full support for

the continuation of the indirect talks currently taking

place between Syria and Israel with the help of sisterly

08-52272 38

Turkey. We hope that the process will culminate in the

achievement of justice, the implementation of

international resolutions and the affirmation of

international legitimacy.

For our part, we will continue to strive to achieve

the maximum possible progress in the current

negotiations between us and Israel through this year,

benefiting from past experience and relying on the

desire of all our peoples to realize a genuine and

comprehensive peace that will end decades of

occupation and hostilities and result in the attainment

of the two-State solution — the State of Palestine

living alongside the State of Israel on the basis of the

1967 borders — and a just and agreed solution to the

plight of the Palestinian refugees in accordance with

resolution 194 (III). In referring to the benefits of past

experience, I wish to convey clearly that partial or

interim solutions or the dropping or deferral of those

core issues are unacceptable and unviable and will

maintain the roots of the conflict, thus undermining

any achievement on the road to peace. The solution

must be comprehensive, complete, detailed and

wholehearted.

The solution we aspire to must include a

mechanism to ensure its full and faithful

implementation pursuant to the timetable agreed upon.

All that inevitably requires international supervision of

the implementation of the solution, as well as a more

effective role for the international Quartet in

safeguarding the solution we will reach and an

effective guarantor role for the Security Council and

various other United Nations bodies.

At this juncture, I would like to express our

appreciation for the role played by the United States

Administration, President George Bush and Secretary

of State Condoleezza Rice in advancing the

negotiations and the peace process, as well as their

efforts to remove the obstacles that stand in its way. I

also wish to commend the positions taken by the Arab,

Islamic and non-aligned countries, which have always

taken firm stances in support of a just peace. I would

like to express our appreciation for the role played by

the European Union, which has supported our efforts in

every possible way, and the role and positions of the

Russian Federation, the People’s Republic of China

and Japan, as well as of our friends and colleagues in

Latin America and Africa who have always supported

the advancement and continuity of the political

process.

As humankind celebrates the sixtieth anniversary

of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human

Rights, the conditions being endured by our people are

increasingly severe and complex. Our nation, which

possesses only a small area of land, continues to suffer

the fragmentation and discontiguity of its cities and

villages as a result of more than 600 checkpoints and

roadblocks on all main and secondary roads. There is

no precedent for that in modern history. The harshest

and most painful of those barriers are those that have

surrounded occupied East Jerusalem, severing the link

between it and its Palestinian surroundings, not to

mention changing the Islamic and Christian character

of our city.

Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian civilians

have become daily occurrences. At the same time,

ongoing tragedies strike every Palestinian family with

the continuing detention and imprisonment of over

11,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails. I know of no

situation in today’s world comparable to ours, where a

people is subject to the detention of such large numbers

of its civilians and where prisons continue to be filled

with more and more accused who are guilty only of

wanting to be free and of envisioning a future that is

different from the reality of occupation, siege and the

loss of hope.

Despite those harsh circumstances, our National

Authority and governing institutions have exerted

every possible effort to improve our conditions in all

fields, including the security, economic, education,

health and cultural sectors.

I wish to express our gratitude to our brothers in

the Arab countries, to the General Secretariat of the

League of Arab States, and to the whole international

community for all the important assistance extended to

our people and our Authority in all aspects of the

endeavour to restore the Palestinian economy, provide

real opportunities for its advancement, and rebuild the

Palestinian security apparatus and the various

institutions and agencies of the Palestinian Authority.

In that regard, I wish to convey special thanks

and appreciation to all the envoys from other countries

who have provided assistance in several fields,

particularly Mr. Tony Blair, the Quartet Special Envoy.

It is with pride that I can say that, even under those

most difficult conditions we have been able to achieve

security, the rule of law and public order for most of

39 08-52272

our towns and districts, despite all the remaining

obstacles we have to confront.

However, we will continue to follow that same

path with firm determination and resolve. In that

connection, the Paris Donor’s Conference, followed by

the Bethlehem economic conference, were two special

occasions in support of our national economy, our

financial and economic institutions and treasury, and

assistance to the Palestinian private sector, which has

unwaveringly borne heavy burdens over the past years

and has not failed to develop and progress.

There is no doubt that the ongoing siege of the

Gaza Strip, where unemployment is endemic, is

compounding the tragic humanitarian crisis there. It is

unprecedented in scope and scale, and the

opportunities for education and medical care are

scarce, punishing and causing the malnutrition of an

entire generation with all the consequent risks for the

future of the entire people.

All of that is in addition to the transformation of

the Gaza Strip into a huge virtual prison holding nearly

1.5 million Palestinians. We have exerted all efforts to

get the siege on Gaza lifted, this dear part of our

homeland. In that regard, we express our deep

appreciation for the role played by the brotherly Arab

countries, especially Egypt, to alleviate the suffering

and to help us save our people from the extremely

difficult situation they find themselves in, including in

particular their efforts to end the division resulting

from the bloody coup led by Hamas against Palestinian

legitimacy more than a year ago.

As I have on more than one occasion, I would

like to reaffirm once again from this rostrum that we

will spare no effort to achieve Palestinian national

reconciliation. We have already announced a

preliminary plan that opens the door for this

reconciliation to be realized and the formation of an

independent, impartial Government that is acceptable

to all, but that will not place us back under siege again.

This Government will prepare for the holding of

legislative and presidential elections. We will continue

building a security apparatus based on professional

tenets, with the support of Arab security. After the

completion of those steps, it will be possible for us to

proceed further towards strengthening our

reconciliation and deepening the participation of all. If

that is not actualized, whoever rejects those principles

and does not conform with them must bear the

responsibility before our entire people and before the

Arab and international positions that reject this

disintegration and division.

In concluding my statement, I recall the words of

our great Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, whom

we recently lost and whose loss was that of a great

cultural and humanitarian symbol and icon. Mahmoud

Darwish glorified life and cherished his homeland,

calling on our new generations to love life on their land

and to preserve its continuity and to keep the torch

always lit. Mahmoud Darwish said,

“On this land there is something that deserves

life, on this land there was first the beginning and

the end — a land called Palestine — a name that

was and is and will endure”.