YouSaid · the spoken record

Mahmoud ABBAS

lines on the record: 429
first: 2006-09-24
most recent: 2023-09-24
sittings or episodes: 18
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“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.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“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.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“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.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (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.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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?”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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?”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (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.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“Our people will continue to build the institutions of their State and strive to achieve national reconciliation to restore the unity of our nation, people and institutions via resorting to the ballot box, which will confirm our people’s pluralistic democratic choice. Our people are also determined to continue peaceful popular resistance, consistent with international humanitarian law, against the occupation, against the settlements and for the sake of freedom, independence and peace. Let us prevent the occurrence of a new Al-Nakba in the Holy Land. Let us support the realization of a free, independent State of Palestine now. Let peace be victorious before it is too late.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“I say to the Assembly that the brave Palestinian people will not allow themselves to be the victims of a new Al-Nakba. We will not allow that. We will stay on our land. My people will continue their epic steadfastness and eternal survival journey in their beloved land, every inch of which carries evidence and landmarks affirming their roots and unique connection to the land throughout ancient history. There is no homeland for us except Palestine and there is no land for us but Palestine. We shall not accept an alternative homeland, nor an alternative land. Palestine is our homeland and shall remain our homeland.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“They died while they clung to their legitimate human right to justice, freedom and redress for the historically unprecedented injustice inf licted upon them. Has the time not come to undo that injustice? At present, 77 per cent of the Palestinian people are under the age of 35. Although they did not experience the horrors of Al-Nakba, they know very well all its horrendous details from the accounts of their parents and grandparents who endured it. They continue to suffer from its ongoing effects today and every day as a result of the practices of the occupation and of the settlers on a land that is diminishing in size. The horizon before them is closed to their simple, ordinary dreams. They see their homeland and their present and future vulnerable to continued usurpation and they say firmly: we shall not allow a new Al-Nakba to happen.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“They died with memories, preserved in their minds and hearts, of their beautiful world that was devastated, their warm homes that were demolished and their peaceful villages that were erased from existence, and of the renaissance that was undermined, and their loved ones, dear men, women and children, who were killed in wars, massacres, attacks, raids and incursions, and of their beautiful country that was a beacon of coexistence, tolerance, progress and a crossroads of civilization. They died displaced and in refugee camps to which they were expelled following their uprooting from their homeland, as they awaited the moment in which they would resume their suspended lives, complete their interrupted journey and repair their shattered dreams.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“In our efforts we do not seek to delegitimize an existing State, that is, Israel; but rather to establish the State that must be realized, that is, Palestine. We are not trying to delegitimize them; they are trying to delegitimize us. More than 64 years have passed since Al-Nakba and a large number of those who were its immediate victims and witnessed its horrors have died.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“Palestine is committed to international conventions and is cooperating with all member States in order to advance the objectives of the organization and providing a model of what its positive, constructive contribution in international organizations would be. In order to enhance the chances for peace, we will continue our efforts to obtain full membership for Palestine at the United Nations. For the same reason, we have begun intensive consultations with various regional organizations and Member States aimed at the General Assembly’s adoption during this session of a draft resolution considering the State of Palestine as a non-member State of the United Nations. We are confident that the vast majority of the countries of the world support our efforts to bolster the chances for a just peace.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of the countries of the world supported, and continues to support, our application, our endeavour was aborted. I do not see even a single reason for opposing that request. Yet when the countries of the world had the opportunity to declare their stance without any restrictions or veto during the previous autumn, they voted, despite enormous pressure, in strong support of the acceptance of Palestine as a member State of UNESCO. A year has passed, and Palestine, the homeland of Mahmoud Darwish and Edward Said, is playing its role in UNESCO with a high level of responsibility and professionalism.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“Those achievements were again commended in the latest report just a few days ago, which confirmed the Palestinian Authority’s total readiness for the transition to an independent State while at the same time stressing that the Israeli occupation remained the only obstacle to the realization of the State of Palestine. During the previous session of the General Assembly, we submitted our application for consideration by the Security Council to allow the State of Palestine to assume its rightful place among the community of nations as a full Member of the United Nations. A major and hostile uproar was raised by some against that political, diplomatic, peaceful step par excellence aimed at saving the peace process by asserting its principles and foundation.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“It is a right, and the Palestinian people are entitled to that right. At the same time, the Palestinian Authority has affirmed, through the implementation of its State institution-building programmes, the ability to create an advanced model for an effective, modern State through the development of the performance of its institutions and public finance management and through the adoption of standards for transparency, strict accountability and rules of good governance. Those achievements have been deemed by the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee for the Coordination of the International Assistance to Palestinians, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to constitute an impressive undertaking and success story.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“The Security Council is called upon to urgently adopt a resolution comprising the pillars and foundations for a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that would serve as a binding term of reference and guide for all if the vision of two States, Israel and Palestine, is to survive and if peace is to prevail in the land of peace — the birthplace of Jesus, peace be upon him, the ascension of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and the final resting place of Abraham, peace be upon him — Palestine, the land of the three monotheistic religions. All things considered, the establishment of a free and independent State of Palestine is a sacred right of the Palestinian people and an entitlement that must be realized, for it has been overdue for too many decades. It is not a grant to be bestowed upon us by anyone.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“They can also be found in the statements of the European Union and the international Quartet. However, what is the use of all those terms of reference if Israel continues to refuse, and is encouraged by others to continue to oppose the terms of reference? The international community, embodied in the United Nations, is required now more than ever to uphold its responsibilities.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“Those components are by no means a mysterious puzzle or intractable riddle; they are the clearest and best-known secrets in the world. They include, in brief, the establishment of an independent State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, over the entire territory occupied by Israel since 1967, and the realization of a just, agreed solution to the Palestine refugee issue, in accordance with resolution 194 (III), as prescribed in the Arab Peace Initiative. The fundamental components of the solution to the conflict exist in the documents and resolutions of the United Nations. Member States already have them. The components of the solution are also endorsed in resolutions of regional organizations, beginning with the League of Arab States, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Non-Aligned Movement and the African Union.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“The approach required for salvaging the chance for peace must, first and foremost, be predicated on the understanding that the racist settler occupation must be condemned, punished and boycotted so that it is completely halted and eliminated. That approach also requires a reaffirmation of, and adherence to, the terms of reference and the foundations of the solution to the conflict, which have been endorsed by all here. We do not need to belabour the core components of a just solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Rather, what is needed is the will to implement those components. Marathon negotiations are not required to define them, rather it is the genuine and sincere intention to reach peace that is needed.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“Whoever rushes to advise us to repeat an experience that has proven to be futile, such as negotiations with the Israeli Government without clear terms of reference, must understand that this will result in the reproduction of failure and again provide cover for consecrating the occupation and will deal the final blow to an already dying peace process. Whoever advises us to wait must realize that the hotbeds of tension and the festering situation in our country and our region have their own timing and cannot withstand further procrastination and delay, nor are they amenable to being relegated to the bottom of the global agenda.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“Despite our disappointment, we continue to sincerely extend a hand to the Israeli people to make peace. We realize that ultimately the two peoples must live and coexist, each in their respective State, in the Holy Land. Furthermore, we realize that progress towards making peace can be achieved through negotiations between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel. Despite all the complexities of the prevailing reality and all the frustrations that abound, we say before the international community that there is still a chance — maybe the last — to save the two-State solution and to salvage peace. However, this urgent task must be pursued via a new approach.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“That represents a licence for the occupation to continue its policy of dispossession and ethnic cleansing and encourages it to entrench its system of apartheid against the Palestinian people. Despite our genuine feelings of anger, we — in the name of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people — will not allow our country to be divided in two. We are the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. I reaffirm without hesitation that we are as committed — equally and by the same measures — to peace and international legitimacy and its covenants and resolutions as we are to upholding our inalienable national rights and aspirations. And we reaffirm that we are committed to non-violence and reject terrorism in all its forms, particularly State terrorism.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“Israel refuses to end the occupation and refuses to allow the Palestinian people to attain their freedom and independence. It rejects the establishment of the State of Palestine. Israel is promising the Palestinian people a new catastrophe — a new Naqba — a new setback. I speak on behalf of an angry people who feel that while they demand their right to freedom, adopt a culture of peace and adhere to the principles and rules of international law and resolutions of international legitimacy, rewards continue to be illogically bestowed upon Israel, whose Government pursues a policy of war, occupation and settler occupation. Israel continues to be permitted to enjoy impunity, and some continue to obstruct the adoption of a decisive position regarding its violations of international law and covenants.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“It wants to continue its occupation of Palestinian aquafers and its control over the most fertile agricultural areas in our land, as well as over our air, skies,water, borders and our life in its entirety. The final map and borders that can be drawn in accordance with Israel’s official positions reveal to us small Palestinian enclaves surrounded by large Israeli settlement blocs and walls and checkpoints, and vast security zones and roads reserved for settlers. The enclaves would therefore remain subject to the full dominance of military and settler occupation, only packaged under new names, such as the unilateral plan for a so-called State with provisional borders. I repeat — a State with provisional borders. That is a project that we categorically reject from A to Z because it will not bring about peace.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“Recent years have actually witnessed a systematic acceleration and intensification of Israeli measures aimed at gutting the Oslo Accords of their meaning, while simultaneously building facts on the ground in the occupied Palestinian territory that are making the implementation of the Accords extremely difficult, if not completely impossible. The Israeli Government aims to continue its occupation of East Jerusalem, to de facto annex large areas of the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory and to continue occupying a large portion of the territory under different designations. It refuses to engage in any serious discussion of the issue of the Palestinian refugees.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“The two-State solution — namely, the State of Palestine coexisting alongside the State of Israel — represents the spirit and essence of the historic compromise embodied in the Declaration of Principles, which was agreed to in Oslo and was signed, 19 years ago, by the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Government of Israel under the auspices of the United States of America and on the White House lawn. It is a compromise by which, for the sake of making peace, the Palestinian people accepted to establish their State on only 22 per cent of the territory of historic Palestine.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)
“We have also encouraged the expressed desires of several countries to contribute to efforts to break the cycle of deadlock and have ourselves undertaken initiatives to create favourable conditions for the resumption of negotiations. Unfortunately, however, the result of all those initiatives has been very negative. There can be only one reading of the Israeli Government’s actions and practices in our homeland and of the positions it has presented to us regarding the substance of a final status agreement to end the conflict and achieve peace: that the Israeli Government rejects the two-State solution.”
2012-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 67 (2012)