by Times of Israel Staff
Israel has made this 'a year of a new war of genocide perpetrated against the Palestinian people,' PA president tells UN GA
Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 69th Session of the UN General
Assembly in
New York, on September 26, 2014. (photo credit: AFP/Timothy A. Clary)
The full text of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas’s address to the UN General Assembly in New York, as presented for
delivery, September 26, 2014:
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
In this year, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly as
the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Israel
has chosen to make it a year of a new war of genocide perpetrated
against the Palestinian people.
In this year, in which this Assembly, on behalf of the countries and
peoples of the world, conveyed the world’s yearning and determination to
realize a just peace that achieves freedom and independence for the
Palestinian people in their State of Palestine alongside Israel in order
to rectify the historic injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people
in Al-Nakba of 1948, the occupying Power has chosen to defy the entire
world by launching its war on Gaza, by which its jets and tanks brutally
assassinated lives and devastated the homes, schools and dreams of
thousands of Palestinian children, women and men and in reality
destroying the remaining hopes for peace.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have addressed you in this hall during similar days in 2012 and
cautioned that the colonial occupying Power was preparing for a new
Nakba against the Palestinian people, and I appealed to you: Prevent a
new Nakba. Support the establishment of a free and independent State of
Palestine now.
I returned to this same hall two months later as Palestine was
healing her wounds and her people were burying beloved martyred
children, women and men after yet another war waged then against the
Gaza Strip, and that day I stated: certainly there was not a single
person in the world needing the loss of the lives of tens of Palestinian
children in order to confirm that Israel insists on occupation; and
there was also no need for thousands of deadly raids and tons of
explosives to remind the world that there is an occupation that must end
and that there is a people that must be freed.
I also said at that time: there was no need for a new devastating war in order to realize the absence of peace.
And, here we are again today.
Here we find ourselves, full of grief, regret and bitterness, raising
the same long-standing conclusions and questions after a new war, the
third war waged by the racist occupying State in five years against
Gaza, this small, densely-populated and precious part of our country.
The difference today is that the scale of this genocidal crime is
larger, and that the list of martyrs, especially children, is longer, as
well as lists of the wounded and disabled, and that dozens of families
have been completely decimated.
The difference today is that approximately half a million people were
displaced from their homes, and that the number of homes, schools,
hospitals, public buildings, residential buildings, mosques, factories
and even cemeteries destroyed is unprecedented. And, the difference
today is that the devastation caused by this recent aggression is
unmatched in modern times, as confirmed by a witness, the honorable
Commissioner-General of UNRWA.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
This last war against Gaza was a series of absolute war crimes
carried out before the eyes and ears of the entire world, moment by
moment, in a manner that makes it inconceivable that anyone today can
claim that they did not realize the magnitude and horror of the crime.
And, it is inconceivable that some are unable to characterize this
situation in real terms and that they suffice with simply declaring
their support for Israel’s right to self-defense without regard for the
fate of the thousands of victims of our people, ignoring a simple fact
that we remind them of today: that the life of a Palestinian is as
precious as the life of any other human being.
We must also assume that no one will wonder anymore why extremism is
rising and why the culture of peace is losing ground and why the efforts
to achieve it are collapsing.
Yet, we believe – and hope – that no one is trying to aid the
occupation this time in its impunity or its attempts to evade
accountability for its crimes.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
In the name of Palestine and its people, I affirm here today: we will
not forget and we will not forgive, and we will not allow war criminals
to escape punishment.
I affirm in front of you that the Palestinian people hold steadfast
to their legitimate right to defend themselves against the Israeli war
machine and to their legitimate right to resist this colonial, racist
Israeli occupation.
At the same time, I affirm that our grief, trauma and anger will not
for one moment make us abandon our humanity, our values and our
ethics; we will always maintain our respect and commitment to
international law, international humanitarian law and the international
consensus, and we will maintain the traditions of our national struggle
established by the Palestinian fedayeen and to which we committed
ourselves since the onset of the Palestinian revolution in early 1965.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Amidst a torrent of massacres and storms of massive destruction, we
witnessed the peoples of the world gathering in huge demonstrations on
the streets of many cities declaring their condemnation of the
aggression and occupation and their support of freedom for Palestine.
And we witnessed the overwhelming majority of countries on the various
continents declaring the same noble position and rushing to provide all
kinds of support and assistance to our people. And we witnessed the
qualitative and quantitative broadening of activities of the
international grassroots boycott campaign against Israel’s policies of
occupation, apartheid and colonial settlement, especially among
academia, cultural, student and youth groups.
Thus, in the name of Palestine, we pay tribute to everyone who chose
to stand with human values and demanded freedom, justice and peace.
All of these manifestations of true solidarity constituted an important
message to those who were facing genocide in Gaza, helping them to feel
they felt that they were not alone.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The recent Israeli war confirmed on the ground the crux of what the
Israeli government had been declaring in the closed rooms of
negotiation. This war came after long, difficult negotiations for more
than eight months under the auspices of the United States and the
efforts of President Barack Obama and tenacious efforts of his Secretary
of State John Kerry. We engaged in this endeavor with open minds, in
good faith and with a positive spirit and engaged with the efforts of
the American administration in the most constructive manner, and we put
forth our firm positions based on the resolutions of international
legitimacy, which receive the overwhelming support of the nations of the
world. And, we genuinely respected all of our commitments and
understandings. Even as we watched the ongoing and escalating Israeli
violations, we exercised unimaginable 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, and as usual, the Israeli government did not miss the opportunity to undermine the chance for peace.
Throughout the months of negotiations, settlement construction, land
confiscations, home demolitions, killing and arrest campaigns, and
forced displacement in the West Bank continued unabated and the unjust
blockade on 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, focusing on Al-Aqsa Mosque, threatening grave
consequences. At the same time, racist and armed gangs of settlers
persisted with their crimes against the Palestinian people, the land,
mosques, churches, properties and olive trees.
As usual, the Israeli government once again failed the test of peace.
It breached an agreement with the American administration regarding
the release of a group of Palestinian prisoners in the occupation’s
jails — and we continue to insist on releasing all of them. And, when
confronted with simple questions in the direct negotiations or through
the American mediator, it did not hesitate to reveal its true positions:
Israel refuses to end its occupation of the State of Palestine since
1967, but rather seeks its continuation and entrenchment, and rejects
the Palestinian state and refuses to find a just solution to the plight
of the Palestine refugees.
The future proposed by the Israeli government for the Palestinian
people is at best isolated ghettos for Palestinians on fragmented lands,
without borders and without sovereignty over its airspace, water and
natural resources, which will be under the subjugation of the racist
settlers and army of occupation, and at worst will be a most abhorrent
form of Apartheid.
Israel has confirmed during the negotiations that it rejects making peace with its victims, the Palestinian people.
This has all been done concurrent with an attempt to give a religious
nature to the conflict and with the rising and rampant racism in the
Israeli political and media discourse and its entrenchment in the school
curriculum and in a series of laws and practices of the occupation and
its settlers. This culture of racism, incitement and hatred was
glaringly manifested in the despicable, appalling crime committed months
ago by fascist settlers, who abducted the young Jerusalemite boy
Mohammed Abu Khdeir, burnt him alive and killed him.
Over the past years, the occupying Power has also pursued a policy
aimed at deliberately weakening the Palestinian National Authority to
undermine it and, in essence, to fully negate its role. The occupation
targeted the work we have been relentlessly undertaking to establish the
foundations of the State of Palestine that we want: a sovereign and
independent State living in peace and building bridges of mutual
cooperation with its neighbors; that respects commitments, obligations
and agreements; that strengthens the values of citizenship, equality,
non-discrimination, the rule of law, human rights and pluralism; that
deepens the Palestinian enlightened traditions of tolerance, coexistence
and non-exclusion; that strengthens the culture of peace; that promotes
the role of women; that establishes effective administration committed
to the standards of good governance; and that cares for the needs and
interests of its people. The occupation has, and continues to, to strike
at this effort because it is the antithesis of its settlement policies
and because it wants to destroy the chance for the realization of the
Palestinian existence in 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 and formed the national consensus
government and began the process to lead to the holding of presidential
and legislative elections, all countries of the world welcomed this
achievement, with the exception of Israel, which has constantly sought
to fragment our land and our national unity.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
And now, where do we go from here?
The idea that it is possible to simply return to the past patterns of
work, which repeatedly failed, is naive at best and, in any case, is
wrong, as it ignores the fact that it is no longer acceptable, nor
possible, to repeat methods that have proven futile or to continue with
approaches that have repeatedly failed and require comprehensive review
and radical correction.
It is impossible, and I repeat – it is impossible – to return to the
cycle of negotiations that failed to deal with the substance of the
matter and the fundamental question. There is neither credibility nor
seriousness in negotiations in which Israel predetermines the results
via its settlement activities and the occupation’s brutality. There is
no meaning or value in negotiations for 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. And, there is no value
in negotiations which are not linked to a firm timetable for the
implementation of this goal.
The time has come to end this settlement occupation.
Palestine refuses to have the right to freedom of her people, who are
subjected to the terrorism by the racist occupying Power and its
settlers, remain hostage to Israel’s security conditions.
The people of Palestine are actually the ones who need immediate
international protection, which we are seeking through international
organizations, and who are in need of the security and peace that they
are missing more than any other people, and the children of Palestine
are worthy of the world’s efforts to ensure that their childhood, dreams
and lives will not be devastated once again.
It is time for the chapters of this prolonged, ongoing tragedy to be closed.
Those who were uprooted from their warm homes, good land and
beautiful country in Al-Nakba 66 years ago, pushed into the misery of
exile and life as refugees and now being forced into new waves of
expulsion or onto the ships of death in the world’s seas, are in need of
assurances 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 explosion of a new war.
It is time for this long tragedy to end.
We will not accept to forever be the ones being demanded to prove
their good intentions by making concessions at the expense of their
rights and to remain silent as they are killed and their land is stolen,
and to understand the conditions of the other party and the importance
of preserving its coalition government, while it entrenches its
occupation. We are exhausted of the additional tests we must undergo to
prove our efficiency, competence and eligibility to earn our natural,
simple right to live a normal life and our inherent right to expect a
stable and ordinary tomorrow, to dream about more beautiful days, and
for our youth to be able to plan their coming days and years safely in
peace and freedom over our land, like other peoples of the world.
The time has come for a real, just peace to prevail in the land of peace.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
We, and all the Arab countries, have constantly cautioned about the
disastrous consequences of the continuation of the Israeli occupation
and the denial of freedom and independence for the people of Palestine.
We have repeatedly draw attention to the fact that allowing Israel to
act as a state above the law with impunity and absolving it of any
accountability or punishment for its policies, aggression and defiance
of the international will and legitimacy has absolutely provided fertile
ground and an environment conducive for the growth of extremism, hatred
and terrorism in our region.
Confronting the terrorism that plagues our region by groups – such as
“ISIL” and others that have no basis whatsoever in the tolerant Islamic
religion or with humanity and are committing brutal and heinous
atrocities – requires much more than military confrontation. It is an
urgent matter that requires much more than condemnations and
declarations of positions, which are of course necessary. What is
primarily needed is a comprehensive, credible strategy to dry out 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 reasonable consensus that makes the
fight against all forms of terrorism in any place everywhere a
collective task that is undertaken by the alliance of nations, peoples
and civilizations. It requires, in this context and as a priority,
bringing an end to the Israeli occupation of our country, which
constitutes in its practices and perpetuation, an abhorrent form of
state terrorism and a breeding ground for incitement, tension and
hatred.
Mr. President,
At this moment in which we are still suffering from the horrors of
war, we face a formidable challenge to reconstruct what has been
destroyed by the occupation.
At the invitation of the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Kingdom of
Norway, which we deeply appreciate, the city of Cairo will host next
month an international conference for the relief and reconstruction of
the Gaza Strip. Our government will present comprehensive reports to the
conference on the losses inflicted by the aggression on the different
sectors of life, and it will provide details of the plans and programs
that will be rapidly implemented and supervised in the Gaza Strip to
meet immediate relief needs and the requirements of reconstruction, in
full coordination with United Nations agencies and bodies.
While we reiterate our appreciation and gratitude to all countries
and organizations that rushed to provide assistance to the Palestinian
people during and after the war, we are confident that brotherly and
friendly countries will not waver in supporting support the plans and
programs we will present and that the conference will achieve practical
results that fulfill the expectations and needs of the victims of this
aggression.
We reaffirm here that the primary prerequisite for the success of all
these plans and efforts is an end to the ongoing Israeli blockade that
has for years suffocated the Gaza Strip and turned it into the largest
prison in the world for nearly two million Palestinian citizens. At the
same time, we affirm our commitment and the necessity to consolidate the
cease-fire through negotiations under the auspices of Egypt. However,
in order to avert repeating the cycle of war and cycle reconstruction
every two or three years, it is imperative to focus on the fundamental
issue and starting point, which is that the suffering of Gaza will not
be completely alleviated except by ending the occupation and achieving
the independence of the State of Palestine.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
During the past two weeks, Palestine and the Arab Group undertook
intensive contacts with the various regional groups in the United
Nations to prepare for the introduction of a draft resolution to be
adopted by the United Nations Security Council on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to push forward the efforts to achieve
peace.
This endeavor reaffirms our commitment to achieve a just peace
through a negotiated solution and our adoption of a diplomatic and
political effort through United Nations bodies. This endeavor is
inspired by and based fully on the spirit and provisions of the many
resolutions you have approved in the General Assembly and those adopted
by the Security Council, which have set the foundations for a lasting
solution and a just peace.
This endeavor aspires to correct the deficiency of the previous
efforts to achieve peace by affirming the goal of ending the Israeli
occupation and achieving the two-State solution, of the State of
Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, over the entire territory
occupied in 1967, alongside the State of Israel and reaching a just and
agreed upon solution to the plight of the Palestine refugees on the
basis of resolution 194, with a specific time frame for the
implementation of these objectives as stipulated in the Arab Peace
Initiative. This will be linked to the immediate resumption of
negotiations between Palestine and Israel to demarcate the borders,
reach a detailed and comprehensive agreement and draft a peace treaty
between them.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are confident that this endeavor will receive broad and full
support by those who are committed to ensuring that our country will not
witness new wars and atrocities, by those who wish to support a
campaign to combat terrorism, by those who believe that it is necessary
to act expediently to rectify the historical injustice inflicted by
Al-Nakba on the Palestinian people, and by those who wish to see peace
prevail in the land of the monotheistic religions.
The adoption of this resolution will affirm what you strived to
realize in this year is the International Year of Solidarity with the
Palestinian People, who will continue their struggle and steadfastness
and will rise brave and strong from the rubble and destruction.
We, as our poet Mahmoud Darwish said: “are infected with an incurable
disease, that is hope, and we love life if we are given the chance for
it”.
Mr. President Ladies and Gentlemen,
There is an occupation that must end now.
There is a people that must be freed immediately.
The hour of independence of the State of Palestine has arrived.
Times of Israel Staff
Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-of-abbas-speech-to-un/
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