The President on the International Day of Solidarity with Our People: We are more convinced than ever that international sponsorship is necessary to achieve peace

The President on the International Day of Solidarity with Our People: We are more convinced than ever that international sponsorship is necessary to achieve peace

• 2021-11-29 23:38:06
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The President of the State of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, said that 30 years after the Madrid Peace Conference, we are more convinced than ever that international sponsorship is a necessity to achieve peace.

His Excellency added, in his speech on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, delivered by the Permanent Representative of Palestine to the United Nations, Ambassador Riyad Mansour, at the special session held by the United Nations General Assembly on this occasion, “There are those who believe that the time is not ripe for launching ambitious international peace initiatives. Or to revive the peace process because of the refusal of one of the parties, which will lead to the absence of a solution.

The President warned countries that establish commercial or diplomatic offices in Jerusalem and against entering into agreements with educational institutions or companies in settlements or buying goods from them, because all these actions violate international law on the one hand, and encourage the Israeli occupation authorities to commit more crimes against the Palestinian people.

He said: We say to these countries, you are thus adding to the suffering of our people because you are deepening the occupation on our land, and you are not contributing to peace, security and stability in the region.

His Excellency urged countries that believe in the two-state solution and recognize Israel to also recognize the State of Palestine.

The President stressed that this is a defining moment, either in which the international will triumphs, and with it the two-state solution, or the two-state solution is left hostage to the will of the occupier, and this is considered an abandonment of this solution.

He said: It is unreasonable to wait for the Israeli occupier who supports settlement and settler violence, insists on aggression against our people in Jerusalem, in the Old City, Sheikh Al-Jarrah and Silwan, and who violates the sanctities, besieges our people in the Gaza Strip, kills and abuses our prisoners, holds the bodies of our children, destroys our homes and abandons our children. To wake up one day and choose peace in the absence of an intense and serious international effort that includes deterrent steps to put an end to these policies and crimes.

He continued: Today more than ever before, the choice is clear and uninterpretable, as expressed by President Jimmy Carter, either peace or apartheid. The world will not accept a new apartheid.

The President stressed that our people will not accept oppression and injustice, and will continue their legitimate struggle against the colonial occupation, and we will not abandon the deeply rooted culture of peace in us, and we will continue our approach in peaceful popular resistance, and we will not accept a future of walls, siege, racial discrimination, oppression, hatred and colonialism.

The following is the speech of the President of the State of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People:

Your Excellency Mr. Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations,

His Excellency Mr. Abdullah Shahid, President of the United Nations General Assembly,

Your Excellency Ambassador Juan Ramon de la Fuente, President of the Security Council,

Your Excellency Mr. Sheikh Niang, Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People,

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

At the outset, on my behalf and on behalf of the Palestinian people, I would like to extend my thanks and gratitude to everyone who believes in the justice and centrality of our historical cause around the world, and to all the peoples who expressed their solidarity with the Palestinian people and supported their legitimate struggle, and testified to their determination and steadfastness in the occupied Palestinian territory and in the heart of which is Jerusalem. The world witnessed the struggle and suffering of our people in the refugee camps at home and in the diaspora.

We also express our great thanks to the countries that have affirmed, by an overwhelming majority, their support for the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, and their commitment to international law and international legitimacy. The steadfastness of our Palestinian people on their land and everywhere in the world, and your standing by their side and your continuous solidarity with them is what keeps the Palestinian cause alive and present despite the passage of years and the succession of generations.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

Here, we warn countries that establish commercial or diplomatic offices in Jerusalem and against entering into agreements with educational institutions or companies in settlements or buying goods from them, because all of these actions violate international law on the one hand, and encourage the Israeli occupation authorities to commit more crimes against the Palestinian people. We say to these countries, you are thus increasing the suffering of our people because you are deepening the occupation on our land, and you are not contributing to peace, security and stability in the region.

The international community has always rejected Israel's policies of colonial annexation and settlement expansion on our land, violating the rights of our people, and violating our Christian and Islamic sanctities. But this supportive international position must be accompanied by practical measures to translate the international consensus into reality, and to enable our people to exercise their right to self-determination, to achieve their freedom and independence on their land, and to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in the region. In this regard, we urge the countries that believe in the two-state solution and recognize Israel to also recognize the State of Palestine.

But Israel’s blatant rejection of the two-state solution, and its insistence on deepening its occupation instead of ending it, and waiting for the parties to be ready for dialogue and achieving peace, means, in practice, leaving Israel, the occupying power, to complete the annexation by imposing illegal facts and changing the facts on the ground, which further complicates the status quo, And it makes the two-state solution more difficult and perhaps impossible. That is why we presented alternatives and suggestions in our speech before the United Nations General Assembly, that the occupation authorities undermine the two-state solution and deepen the reality of racial discrimination, and their military forces control our Palestinian people, and this is what we do not accept, so they have to choose between the two-state solution according to international legitimacy or the one-state solution For everyone, because we will not accept the continuation of the occupation forever.

This is a defining moment, either in which the international will triumphs and with it the two-state solution, or the two-state solution is left hostage to the will of the occupier, and this is considered an abandonment of this solution. It is unreasonable to wait for the Israeli occupier, who supports settlement and settler violence, insists on aggression against our people in Jerusalem, in the Old City and Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, and who violates the sanctities, besieges our people in the Gaza Strip, kills and abuses our prisoners, holds the bodies of our children, destroys our homes and abandons our children, to wake up. One day he will choose peace in the absence of an intense and serious international effort that includes deterrent steps that put an end to these policies and crimes.

Excellencies, dear friends,

30 years after the Madrid Peace Conference, we are more convinced than ever that international sponsorship is necessary to achieve peace. There are those who believe that the time has not yet come to launch ambitious international peace initiatives or to revive the peace process because of the rejection of one of the parties, which prevents the prospect of reaching a solution. My question here is, where was the prospect of a solution and peace before the Madrid conference? And what was the extent of the differences between the parties at that time? How long was the international will to wait for the parties to prepare for dialogue? We are ready to work with the international community, including the International Quartet and the Security Council, to salvage the two-state solution on the 1967 borders before it is too late. Here, we reiterate that we are extending our hands to a just and comprehensive peace.

We reaffirm the importance of convening an international conference under the auspices of the International Quartet, as a mechanism established by the Security Council for this purpose, with the participation of all concerned parties, with the aim of engaging in a real peace process that is governed by international legitimacy, and aims to end the occupation and resolve all issues of the final solution, and to define a package of guarantees to implement what is consistent It must be within a specified period of time, to achieve a just and comprehensive peace, leading to the end of the occupation and the attainment of the freedom and independence of the Palestinian people in their state on the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

From our side, we will spare no effort to fulfill our obligations under international law, and we will continue to work to unify our land and people and go to presidential and legislative elections when we are able to hold them in Jerusalem, as well as form a national unity government, all of whose parties believe in international legitimacy, and make more efforts to arrange our Palestinian home. Achieving reconciliation and ending division, consolidating the rule of law, human rights, democratic values, freedom of expression, empowering women and youth, and advancing the national economy, all in partnership with civil society institutions and the private sector, as we will continue to fulfill our obligations under international law.

Excellencies, dear friends,

What Israel wants is to swallow the maximum Palestinian geography with the minimum Palestinian demography, while living on the land of historic Palestine between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River are about 13.5 million, about half or more of them are Palestinians and the other half are Israeli Jews.

Today more than ever, the choice is clear and uninterpretable, as President Jimmy Carter put it, either peace or apartheid. The world will not accept a new apartheid.

The Palestinian people will not accept oppression and injustice, and will continue their legitimate struggle against the colonial occupation of our land and people. We will not abandon the deeply rooted culture of peace in us, we will continue our approach of peaceful popular resistance, and we will not accept a future of walls, siege, racial discrimination, oppression, hatred and colonialism. The question of Palestine will remain the witness to the credibility of this international community and the effectiveness of its system, which it established to respect international law, to maintain international peace and security, to prevent the seizure of land by force and to support the right of peoples to self-determination, in accordance with the promises and covenants made in its international resolutions and treaties. Our people does not demand more than what is guaranteed by international legitimacy to the rest of the peoples of the earth, but it will also not accept anything less. The fate of our people and their destiny to live free and dignified in their land Palestine will not be deterred by any force on earth from achieving this goal.