State of Palestine, 2013

At the outset,

I would like to congratulate His Excellency Mr. Vuk

Jeremi. on his outstandingly successful presidency of

the General Assembly at its previous session. I would

also like to congratulate you, Sir, on your assumption

of the presidency at its current session and to wish you

every success.

I am pleased, indeed honoured, to address the

Assembly today for the first time in the name of

the State of Palestine, following the Assembly’s

historic decision on 29 November of last year to raise

Palestine’s status to that of a non-Member Observer

State. As representatives of their Governments and

peoples, Members have championed justice, right and

peace, while affirming their rejection of occupation

and standing for principles and ethics and on the side

of peoples yearning for freedom. For that, I once again

offer my deepest thanks and gratitude today on behalf

of Palestine and its people. The Palestinian people

celebrated resolution 67/19. They rightly felt that they

were not alone in the world and that the world stood

with them. They celebrated because they realized that

the overwhelming result of the Assembly’s vote meant

that justice was still possible and there was still room

for hope.

I assured the Assembly last year that our quest to raise

Palestine’s status was not aimed at delegitimizing an

existing State, the State of Israel, but at consecrating — I

repeat, consecrating — the legitimacy of a State that

should exist, which is Palestine. I have also affirmed

before the Assembly that our quest was not intended to

affect the peace process, nor is it a substitute for serious

negotiations. On the contrary, our quest is supportive of

the choice of peace and has revived a process that was,

in truth, moribund. As we have repeatedly affirmed and

proved in practice, the State of Palestine, which abides

by the Charter of the United Nations and resolutions

of international legitimacy, will exercise its role and

uphold its responsibilities within the international

system in a positive and constructive manner that

reinforces peace.

A new round of negotiations was launched a few

weeks ago, thanks to the tireless and appreciated efforts

of the President of the United States, Mr. Barack Obama,

and of the United States Secretary of State, Mr. John

Kerry. I affirm before the Assembly today that we

have begun those negotiations and shall continue them

in good faith and with open minds, strong will and

determination and a sharp focus on success. I assure

Members that we shall respect all of our commitments

and foster the atmosphere most conducive to continuing

the negotiations seriously and intensively, while

providing guarantees for its success and aiming at a

peace agreement within nine months.

As we engage in a new round of negotiations, we

must remind everyone that we are not starting from a

vacuum or from point zero, nor are we lost in a labyrinth

without a map or a compass, at risk of losing sight of

the destination. The goal of the peace that we seek is

defined and the objective of the negotiations is clear

to all, just as the terms of reference and the basis and

foundations of the peace process and of the agreement

we seek are longstanding and within reach.

As for the goal of peace, it is embodied in redressing

the historic, unprecedented injustice that befell the

Palestinian people in the Al-Nakba of 1948. It is the

realization of a just peace, the fruits of which can be

enjoyed by the Palestinian and Israeli peoples, as well

as by all the peoples of our region.

The objective of the negotiations is to secure a

lasting peace agreement that immediately leads to the

establishment of the independence of a fully sovereign

State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital,

on all of the Palestinian land occupied in 1967, so that

it may live in peace and security alongside the State of

Israel. The negotiations must also resolve the plight of

Palestine refugees in a just, agreed-upon solution, in

accordance with resolution 194 (III) and as called for

by the Arab Peace Initiative.

We reaffirm our refusal to be drawn into the

whirlpool of a new interim agreement aimed at the

perpetuation of an interim State with interim borders,

or to enter into transitional arrangements that will

become the fixed rule rather than an urgent exception.

Our goal is to achieve a permanent and comprehensive

agreement and a peace treaty between the States of

Palestine and Israel that resolves all outstanding issues,

answers all questions and allows us to officially declare

an end to the conflict and to all claims.

The terms of reference and parameters of the

negotiations, their goals and the basis of the agreement

we seek are all found in the Assembly’s historic decision

to upgrade Palestine’s status, as well as in the countless

resolutions of this body and of the Security Council

and those of the League of Arab States, the European

Union, the Non-Aligned Movement, the African Union

and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. In fact,

over the years, the parameters have become the basis

of an international consensus, indeed, near unanimity.

Exactly 20 years ago, precisely on 13 September

1993, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the

sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian

people signed, together with the Government of Israel,

the Declaration of Principles Agreement on the White

House lawn in Washington, D.C, in the presence of our

departed leader, Yasser Arafat, and Yitzhak Rabin,

the late Israeli Prime Minister, the King of Jordan and

former President Bill Clinton.

Some five years earlier, on 15 November 1988,

the Palestinian National Council had adopted our

programme for the achievement of peace, thereby

taking an extremely difficult decision and making a

historic, painful and harmful concession. However, as

representatives of the Palestinian people, and having

long been aware of our responsibilities to them, we

mustered the necessary courage to accept a two-State

solution, namely, Palestine and Israel on the borders

of 4 June 1967 and the establishment of a Palestinian

State on 22 per cent of the land of historic Palestine.

Thus we realized our part in achieving a historic

settlement, upheld our obligations and fulfilled all of

the requirements from the Palestinian side as set by the

international community, in order to attain peace.

At the same time that the PLO affirmed its choice of

peace as a strategic option and a solution resulting from

negotiations, the PLO firmly repudiated violence and

affirmed an ethical, principled rejection of terrorism

in all its forms and manifestations — especially State

terrorism — while affirming respect of international

humanitarian law and United Nations resolutions.

As a genuine historic breakthrough, the signing

of the Oslo Accords led to an unprecedented political

movement that fostered great hopes and generated

high expectations. The PLO worked with dedication to

implement the Accords in order to end the occupation

and to realize a just peace. However, 20 years on, the

picture appears dispiriting and bleak: great dreams have

been shattered and goals have become more modest.

As much as we felt in those days that peace was

at hand, today we realize how far we are from it, for

the goal of the Accords has not been achieved, its

provisions have not been implemented and its deadlines

have not been respected. All the while, ongoing intense

settlement construction, which aims to change the facts

on the ground in the occupied Palestinian territory, has

violated the spirit of the agreement, struck at the core

of the peace process and caused a deep fracture in its

cornerstone, that is, the two-State solution.

The start of a new round of negotiations is good

news, but it cannot serve as grounds for complacency

or an exaggerated sense of tranquility on the part of

the international community. The negotiations we

are undertaking today with the Israeli Government

under the auspices of the United States require that

the international community exert every effort to

make them succeed, namely, through international and

regional organizations and individual States upholding

the international consensus on the goal of peace, the

objectives of the negotiations, the terms of reference

and the basis for a permanent peace agreement.

However, at the same time, the international

community is asked to remain vigilant. The international

community must condemn and put an end to any actions

on the ground that would undermine negotiations. In

that regard, I refer above all to the continuation of

settlement construction on Palestinian land, particularly

in Jerusalem. There is an international consensus

among the countries of the world, international and

regional organizations and the International Court

of Justice on the illegality and illegitimacy of those

settlements. The position of the European Union with

regard to settlement projects is a positive model of what

can be done to ensure an environment supportive of

and conducive to negotiations and the peace process.

It is also imperative that the near-daily attacks on the

religious sites in occupied Jerusalem, the foremost of

which is the Al-Aqsa Mosque, cease, as the continuation

of such attacks will have dire consequences.

History is the best teacher. It teaches us that waging

war, imposing occupation and building settlements

and walls may provide temporary quiet and temporary

domination, but they certainly do not ensure real

security or guarantee sustainable peace. Such policies

may create a specific reality on the ground, but they

certainly do not create a right or provide legitimacy.

Such policies may impose weak stability, but they

cannot prevent the inevitable explosion, because such

polices in fact fuel situations that are already inflamed

and cause them to explode. Above all, such policies are

incapable of extinguishing the aspirations of a people

for freedom, and cannot eradicate their living memory

or their narrative.

Therefore, what is required now is to heed the

lessons of history, to abandon the mentality of force

and occupation, to recognize the rights of others

and to work on an equal footing and in full parity to

achieve peace. What is required is to stop relying on

exaggerated security pretexts and obsessions in order to

consecrate occupation and to stop contriving demands

that push the conflict out of its defined political arena

and towards the abyss of religious conflict in a region

burdened with such sensitivities. That is something that

we categorically reject.

I am confident that the Israeli people want peace

and that a majority of them support a two-State solution.

We have always expressed our firm positions and have

always explained them at the negotiations table with the

Israeli Government and in the meetings and contacts

that we have intensified in recent years with a wide

spectrum of actors from Israeli society.

Our message is rooted in the idea that the two

peoples, the Palestinians and Israelis, are partners in

the task of peacemaking. That is why we keep reaching

out to the Israeli side, saying: let us work to make the

culture of peace reign, to tear down walls, to build

bridges instead of walls and to open wide roads for

connections and communication. Let us sow the seeds

of good-neighbourliness. Let us envision another future,

one that the children of Palestine and Israel enjoy in

peace and security, where they can dream and realize

their dreams, a future that allows Muslims, Christians

and Jews to freely reach their places of worship, and a

future in which Israel gains the recognition of 57 Arab

and Muslim States, the States of Palestine and coexists

in peace and each of their peoples can realize their

hopes for progress and prosperity.

While we discuss the realization of peace between

Palestine and Israel as an imperative to achieve a

comprehensive peace between the Arab countries and

Israel in accordance with United Nations resolutions,

we bear in mind the current volatile reality and

unprecedented dynamics besetting our region.

Palestine does not interfere in the internal affairs of

Arab countries, but we have clearly affirmed our stance

in support of the demands of the peoples of our region,

their choices and their peaceful popular movements to

achieve those demands, along with the programmes and

road maps they have adopted to reach their goals.

Furthermore, while we have condemned the crime

of the use of chemical weapons in Syria, we have

affirmed our rejection of a military solution there and

stressed the need to find a peaceful political solution to

fulfil the aspirations of the Syrian people.

The overwhelming majority of the Palestinian

people were born in Palestine and were sent into exile

after the 1948 Al-Nakba. However, 65 years afterwards,

they continue to be its direct victims. Since the start of

this year, 27 Palestinian citizens have been killed and

951 have been wounded by the bullets of the occupation,

and 5,000 fighters for freedom and peace are currently

being held captive in occupation prisons. Does anyone

deserve an end to this occupation and the realization of

a just and immediate peace more than the Palestinian

people?

This year and in the past few years, Palestinian

refugees, despite their neutrality, have continued to pay

the price of conflict and instability in our region. Tens

of thousands have been forced to abandon their camps

and to flee in another exodus, searching for new places

of exile. Do the Palestinian people deserve justice less

than the rest of the peoples of the world?

Since the beginning of the year, construction has

been under way on thousands of settlement units by the

occupation authorities, and construction tenders have

been issued for thousands of others on our occupied

land, even as additional vast areas of land are either

expropriated or declared off limits; 850 homes and

structures have been demolished.

Palestinians are forbidden to plant on their own land

and to use the majority of the area of our country, which

is only 22 per cent. They are prevented from using their

own country’s water to irrigate their crops. The wall

and checkpoints continue to tear apart the lives of the

Palestinian people and to destroy their economy. The

siege is growing tighter, along with the attacks and

oppressive discriminatory measures against occupied

Jerusalem, its holy places and its citizens. In Gaza,

for years an unjust blockade has been imposed on our

people.

So is there any people more deserving of freedom

and independence than the Palestinians? Since the

beginning of the year, 708 terrorist attacks have

been perpetrated by settlers against our mosques and

churches, our olive trees, our agricultural fields and our

homes and property. Is there the shadow of a doubt in

anyone’s mind that the Palestinian people have the most

need of security?

Also, is there a nobler mission on the international

community’s agenda than realizing a just peace in the

land of the monotheistic faiths, the birthplace of Jesus

Christ, the site of the ascent of the Prophet Muhammad

and the resting place of Abraham, the father of the

prophets?

As they remain steadfast on their land, the

Palestinian people also continue to build their

institutions, to strengthen internal unity, to achieve

reconciliation by returning to the ballot box, to

wage a peaceful and popular resistance to counter

the oppression of occupation and of settlements and

settler terrorism, and to hold fast to their rights. The

Palestinian people do not want to remain “out of place”,

in the words of Edward Said. Our people are waiting for

the day when their cause ceases to be a fixed item on

the agenda of the United Nations. Our people want to

have freedom, God’s gift to humanity, and to enjoy the

grace of living an ordinary life. For we, as Mahmoud

Darwish wrote, cultivate hope and shall one day be

what we want to be: a free, sovereign people on the land

of the State of Palestine.

I personally am one of the victims of Al-Nakba,

one of the hundreds of thousands of my people who

were uprooted in 1948 from our beautiful world and

thrown into exile. Like hundreds of thousands of other

Palestine refugees, I knew as a youth the pain of exile

and the tragedy of the loss of loved ones in massacres

and wars, as well as the difficulties of building a new

life from zero. In refugee camps and the diaspora,

in exile, we knew the bitter taste of poverty, hunger,

illness and humiliation, and the challenge of affirming

one’s identity.

Our people have walked the path of armed revolution

and have risen from the ashes of Al-Nakba. They have

collected their shattered souls and identity to put their

cause to the world and ensure that the recognition

of their rights is enshrined. We have walked a long,

difficult path and sacrificed dearly, and yet we have

affirmed at all times our active quest for peace.

Twenty years ago, on behalf of the Palestine

Liberation Organization, I signed the Declaration

of Principles Agreement, and we have since worked

faithfully and diligently to implement it, affirming to

all our respect for our commitments and the credibility

of our positions. The successive setbacks encountered

have not shaken our strong faith in the objective of a

just peace, and we shall continue to work tirelessly

and unwaveringly to see it realized. My own personal

hope is to see the day when a just peace reigns so that

the generation of Al-Nakba can pass on to its children

and grandchildren the flag of an independent State of

Palestine.

Time is running out; the window of hope is

narrowing and opportunities are diminishing. The

current round of negotiations appears to be a last

chance to realize a just peace. The mere thought of the

catastrophic and frightening consequences of failure

must compel the international community to intensify

efforts to seize this opportunity.

The hour of freedom for the Palestinian people has

rung. The hour of the independence of Palestine has

rung. The hour of peace for the two peoples — Israeli

and Palestinian — has rung.