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President of State of Palestine Addresses General Assembly
Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine, addresses the
general debate of the sixty-eighth session of the General Assembly. 26 September 2013 United Nations, New York Photo # 563595
UN Photo/Evan Schneider
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Below
is the full text of the speech of H.E Mahmoud Abbas, President of the
State of Palestine, before the General Debate of the 68th Session of the
UNGA General Assembly in New York, delivered on September 26, 2013.
Link to speech in HTML
English PDF file
Arabic PDF file
Statement by H.E Mr. Mahmoud Abbas,
President of the State of Palestine and Chairman of the Executive
Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, before United
Nations General Assembly Sixty-eighth Session, General Debate of the
General Assembly
Mr. President of the General Assembly of the United Nations,
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
At the outset, I extend my congratulations to H.E. Mr. Vuk Jeremid on
his outstandingly successful presidency of the previous session of the
General Assembly, and I congratulate Mr. John Ashe upon his assumption
of this session's Presidency and wish him all success.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am honored to address you today, and for the first time in the name of
the State of Palestine, before the United Nations General Assembly,
after your historic decision last 29 November to raise Palestine's
status to that of an observer State. As representatives of your
Governments and of your peoples, you have championed justice, right, and
peace, and thereby affirmed your refusal of occupation, and stood for
principles and ethics and on the side of peoples yearning for freedom.
For this, I present you again today with my deepest thanks and
gratitude, in the name of Palestine and of its people. The Palestinian
people celebrated this resolution, because they rightly felt that they
did not stand alone in the world, but that the world
stands with them, and because they realized that the result of your
overwhelming vote meant that justice is still possible and that there
still is room for hope.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I assured you last year that our quest to raise Palestine's status does
not aim to delegitimize an existing State - Israel, but to consecrate
the legitimacy of a State that must exist, which is Palestine. I have
also affirmed in front of you that our quest does not aim to affect the
peace process, nor is it a substitute for serious negotiations. To the
contrary, our quest is supportive of the path of peace and has revived a
comatose process. As we have repeatedly affirmed, and as we have proven
in practice, the State of Palestine, which abides by the United Nations
Charter, by international humanitarian law and by the resolutions of
international legitimacy, will exercise its role and uphold its
responsibilities in the intenational
system in a positive and constructive manner, and in a way that
reinforces peace.
A new round of negotiations began a few weeks ago thanks to the
appreciated, tireless efforts of the President of the United States, Mr.
Barack Obama, and of the US Secretary of State, Mr. John Kerry. I
affirm before you that we have begun these negotiations and that we
shall continue them in good faith and with open minds, strong
determination and an insistence on success. I assure you that we shall
respect all of our commitments and foster the most conducive atmosphere
for the continuation of these negotiations in a serious, intensive
manner and provide the guarantees for its success, aimed at reaching a
peace accord within nine months.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
As we engage in this new round of negotiations, we must recall and
remind that we do not start in a vacuum or from point zero, nor are we
lost in a labyrinth without a map, nor do we lack a compass so as to
lose sight of the finish line and of the destination. The goal of peace
that we seek is defined and the objective of these negotiations is clear
to all, and the terms of reference, basis and foundations of the peace
process and of the agreement we seek are longstanding and are within
reach. As for the goal of peace, it is embodied in redressing the
historic, unprecedented injustice that has befallen the Palestinian
people in Al-Nakba of 1948, and 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 accord
that leads immediately to the establishment of the independence of a
fully sovereign State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital,
on all of the Palestinian lands occupied in 1967, so that it may live in
peace and security alongside the State of Israel, and the resolution of
the plight of Palestine refugees in a just agreed upon solution,
according to United Nations resolution 194, as called for by the Arab
Peace Initiative. Here, we reaffirm that we refuse to enter into a
vortex of a new interim agreement that becomes eternalized, or to enter
into transitional arrangements that will become a fixed rule rather than
an urgent exception. Our objective is to
achieve a permanent and comprehensive agreement and a peace treaty
between the States of Palestine and Israel that resolves all outstanding
issues and answers all questions, which allows us to officially declare
an end of conflict and claims.
The terms of reference and parameters of these negotiations, its goals,
and the basis of the agreement we seek are found in your historic
decision to raise Palestine's status, as well as in the countless
resolutions of this august body and the resolutions of the Security
Council, and in those of the Arab League, of the European Union, of the
Non-Aligned Movement, the African Union, and the Organization of Islamic
Cooperation. In fact, over the years, these parameters have come to
form an international consensus.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Twenty years ago, precisely on 13 September 1993, the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO), the sole and legitimate representative of
the Palestinian people, signed with the Government of Israel a
Declaration of Principles Agreement (Oslo Accords), in the presence of
our departed leader, Yasser Ararat, and Yitzhak Rabin, the late Israeli
Prime Minister, and of former President Bill Clinton on the White House
lawn in Washington.
On 15 November 1988, the Palestinian National Council adopted our
program for the achievement of peace, thereby taking an extremely
difficult decision and making a historical and painful concession.
However, as representatives of the Palestinian people, we have long been
aware of our responsibilities towards our people and had the necessary
courage to accept a two-State solution: Palestine and Israel on the
borders of 4 June 1967, establishing a Palestinian State on 22% of the
land of historic Palestine. Thus, we did our part to realize a historic
settlement, uphold our obligations, and fulfill all that the
international community set as requirements from the Palestinian side in
order to attain peace. At the same time that the PLO affirmed
its choice of peace as a strategic option and of a solution resulting
from negotiations, it firmly repudiated violence and affirmed an
ethical, principled rejection of terrorism in all its forms, especially
State terrorism, and affirmed our respect of international humanitarian
law and United Nations resolutions. As a genuine historical
breakthrough, the signature of the Oslo Accords caused an unprecedented
political dynamism, fostered great hopes and generated high
expectations. The PLO worked with dedication to implement it in order to
end the occupation and to realize a just peace.
But after the passage of twenty years, the picture appears dispiriting
and bleak, the great dreams shattered, and the goals more modest. As
much as we felt in those days that peace was at hand, we realize today
how far we are away from it. For the goal of the Accords was not
achieved, its provisions not implemented, and its deadlines not
respected. And, all the while, the continuation of 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 of the two-State solution.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The start of a new round of negotiations is good news, but it cannot be
sufficient grounds for relaxing vigilance or give the international
community an exaggerated sense of tranquility. The negotiations we are
undertaking with the Israeli Government under the auspices of the United
States require that the international community exert every effort to
make them succeed, namely by international and regional organizations,
as well as by 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. At the same
time, the international community is asked to remain alert to condemn
and stop any actions on the ground that would
undermine negotiations - and I refer here, above all, to the
continuation of settlement construction on our 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 these settlements. The position of the European Union with regard to
settlement products is a positive model of what is possible to be done
in order to ensure an environment supportive of the negotiations and the
peace process. At the same time, it is imperative that the near-daily
attacks on the religious sites in Occupied Jerusalem, at the forefront
of which is A1-Aqsa Mosque, where the continuation
of such attacks will have dire consequences.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
History teaches us - and it is the best teacher - that waging war,
occupation, settlements and walls may provide temporary quiet and a
momentary domination, but they certainly do not ensure real security nor
guarantee a sustainable peace. Such policies may create a specific
reality on the ground, but they certainly do not create a right, nor do
they provide legitimacy. Such policies may impose a weak stability, but
they cannot prevent an inevitable explosion, because such polices in
fact fuel inflamed situations to explosion. But above all, such policies
are incapable of extinguishing the aspiration of a people for freedom
and cannot eradicate their living memory or eradicate their narrative.
Therefore, what is required is to heed the
lesson of history, to abandon the mentality of force and occupation, to
recognize the rights of others, and to deal on an equal footing and
parity to make 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 from its defined
political terrain towards the abyss of religious conflict in a region
burdened with such sensitivities - a matter that we categorically
refuse.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am confident that the Israeli people want peace, and that its majority
supports 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 we have
intensified in the recent years with a wide spectrum of actors in
Israeli society. Our message stems from the idea that the two peoples,
the Palestinian and the Israeli, are partners in the task of
peacemaking. This 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, to open wide roads for
connection and communication. Let us sow the seeds of good
neighborliness. Let
us envision another future that the children of Palestine and of Israel
enjoy with peace and security, and where they can dream and realize
their dreams, a future that allows Muslims, Christians and Jews to
freely reach places of worship; and a future in which Israel will gain
the recognition of 57 Arab and Muslim countries and where the States of
Palestine and Israel will coexist in peace, in order to realize each
people's hopes for progress and prosperity.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
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, according to the resolutions of the United
Nations; we bear in mind the current volatile reality and unprecedented
dynamics gripping our region. Palestine does not interfere in the
internal affairs of Arab countries, but we have clearly affirmed our
stance beside the demands of the peoples, their choices, and their
peaceful popular movements to achieve these demands, along with the
programs and roadmaps they have adopted to reach their goals. Further,
while we condemned the crime of the use of chemical weapons in Syria, we
have affirmed our rejection of a military solution and the
need to find a peaceful political solution to fulfill the aspirations of
the Syrian people.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The overwhelming majority of the Palestinian people were born in
Palestine and in exile after the 1948 Al-Nakba. But after the passage of
65 years, they are still 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 5000 fighters for freedom and
peace are held captive in occupation prisons. So, does anyone deserve
more than the Palestinian people ending this occupation and realizing a
just and immediate peace?
This year and in the last few years, Palestine refugees continue to pay -
despite their neutrality – the price of conflict and instability in our
region. Tens of thousands are forced to abandon their camps and to flee
in another exodus searching for new places of exile. So, is there
anyone more deserving than the Palestinian people to obtain justice,
like the rest of the peoples of the world? 4 Since the beginning of the
year, construction continues on thousands of settlement units and
construction tenders have been issued for thousands of others on our
occupied land, while yet more, large areas of land are expropriated or
declared off limits, and 850 homes and structures have been demolished.
Palestinians are forbidden from planting their own land and from using
the majority of the area of our country. They are prevented from using
the water of their own country to irrigate their crops. The wall and
checkpoints continue to tear apart the lives of the Palestinian people
and to destroy the economy. The siege grows tighter, along with attacks
and oppressive discriminating measures against Occupied Jerusalem, its
holy places and its citizens. In Gaza, an unjust blockade continues to
be imposed on our people. So, is there anyone more deserving than the
Palestinian people to gain freedom and independence now?
Since the beginning of the year, 708 terrorist attacks have been
perpetrated by settlers against our mosques and churches, and against
olive trees, farming fields and homes and property of Palestinians. Is
there any doubt in anyone's mind that the Palestinian people are the
most in need of security? Is there a nobler mission on the international
community's agenda than realizing just peace in the land of the
monotheistic faiths, the nativity of Jesus Christ - peace be upon him,
the ascent of the Prophet Muhammad - peace be upon him, and the resting
place of Abraham, the father of the prophets, peace be upon him?
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Palestinian people, as they continue to be steadfast on their land,
also continue to build their institutions, to strengthen internal unity,
to achieve reconciliation by returning to the ballot box, to wage
peaceful, popular resistance to counter the oppression of occupation and
settlements and settler terrorism, and continue to adhere to their
rights. The Palestinian people do not want to remain "out of place" in
the words of Edward Said. Our people wait for a day when its 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 we
"shall one day be what we want": a free sovereign people on the land of
the State of Palestine.
Mr. President,
I am personally one of the victims of Al-Nakba, among the hundreds of
thousands of my people uprooted in 1948 from our beautiful world and
thrown into exile. Like hundreds of thousands of Palestine refugees, I
have known as a youth the pain of exile and the tragedy of the loss of
loved ones in massacres and wars, and the difficulties of building a new
life from zero. And we tasted in refugee camps in exile the bitter
taste of poverty, hunger, illness and humiliation, as well as rising to
the challenge of affirming one's identity. Our people have walked the
path of armed revolution and rose from the ashes of Al-Nakba and
collected the shards of its soul and its identity to present its cause
to the world and consecrate the
recognition of its rights. We have walked a long, difficult path and
sacrificed dearly, and yet we affirmed at all times our active quest for
peacemaking.
I have signed, in the name of the PLO twenty years ago, the Declaration
of Principles Agreement, and we have worked faithfully and diligently to
implement it, affirming our respect for our commitments and the
credibility of our positions. The successive setbacks did not shake our
strong faith in the objective of a just peace, and we shall continue
tirelessly and unwaveringly to see it realized. My own hope is to see
the day where 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.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Time is running out, and the window of peace is narrowing and the
opportunities are diminishing. The current round of negotiations appears
to be a last chance to realize a just peace. Merely thinking of the
catastrophic and frightening consequences of failure must compel the
international community to intensify efforts to seize upon this chance.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The hour of freedom for the Palestinian people has rung. The hour of the
independence of Palestine has rung. The hour of peace has rung.
I thank you, Mr. President.
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