Today, we meet once again under the ceiling of this Council on this blessed land in order to present to you your fourth Palestinian government since the legislative and presidential elections which took in 1996 and in order to conduct this great Palestinian dialogue which is the heritage of our democratic traditions in order to be aware of the point that we have reached and how to continue from it so that we will not lose the compass.
Our people and the entire world are looking forward to us in light of this critical international conditions particularly in our areas. Also, our Arab national and neighbors are looking forward to us because we are writing history with letters of light and fire.
Despite everything, we are able to carry this national, civilized and religious mission in the Holy Land, the land of steadfastness, in order to achieve our historical dream so that one of our youths or girls will be able to hang the Palestinian flag over walls and minarets of Jerusalem, the capital of our Palestinian independent state. Also, to protect stability of legitimacy and the Palestinian political system on our beloved land.
They want us a dispersed people of dispossessed and refugees in the world, deprived from our holy land. Today, we are a united people acting for our cause, which tops the international agenda and sentiments of all free people in the entire world.
Our cause gets higher because of the legendary steadfastness of our people, which astonished the world. In the mind of the world, our cause has become the symbol of international justice. Establishing the Palestinian independent state with Jerusalem as its capital has become a subject that receives international consensus.
We would like to confirm and remind ourselves from which point we have started and to which point we reach so that no body will lose sight at the very critical moment. It seems that we are following the path of that historic hero who carries a big rocket on his shoulders to a hilltop. Our revival from among the disasters and from under the rubbles like the Phoenix.
With its steadfastness, struggle and heroism, our people give the example to all people about their insistence on obtaining freedom.
Greetings to you the Palestinians, the brave people wherever you are in Jeningrad, Nablus, Qalqilya, Tulkarem, Toubas, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Hebron, Jerusalem, Jericho, Gaza, Khan Younis and Rafahgrad in addition of places of dispossession and diaspora. God willing the day of our independence is not that far. They failed to defeat your dream, will, insistence and the dedication to harm that great enthusiasm in your minds which was symbolized by Fares Odeh.
To look for our path on our own and teach ourselves by ourselves by being accurate or blunder. We would experience all bitterness but we would get and stand up again to recuperate the array of the people by unifying it over its cause after the catastrophe (nakbah). From a people of great refugees to a people of struggle for freedom, from pioneers to a revolutionary movement that was one of the most difficult and prolonged revolutions in modern history; from a revolutionary movement to an Authority and from an Authority to the State of Palestine, God willing, with Jerusalem as its capital.
During this curve of destiny, there are various attempts by various sides to stop the Palestinian historical flood and attempting to destroy the Palestinian Authority after the State was at the gates. At the doorstep of the state and Jerusalem, they are attempting with all their efforts and capabilities to make a fatal strike against the Palestinian process on the hope to return us backward; their actions are useless.
Our Palestinian people, with the support of its Arab brothers and the free and noble people of the world as well as the friendly international forces, is surviving this aggressive war which they schemed to drag both peoples into it after we were about to achieve the honorable and courageous peace for, us and for them. After we reached this point of achieving a historical resolution and the peace of the brave. They killed the departed partner Yitzhaq Rabin. Their forces and settlers work on military escalation, suffocating siege and demolition in an attempt to humiliate our people to control us and the Middle East region with the support of some international forces.
At the plot of this war is the re-occupation of our cities, villages and refugee camps retracting from the agreements signed with them. They spoke of nullifying these agreements in public and prevented our children from going to school; where does this happen in the world? […]
You Israelis, what do you want out of this fighting? What are you looking for? Do you want security and stability? Then we want to live alongside you as good neighbors… There is no sea, mountain or river separating us. Because there is a wall greater than the Berlin wall is surrounding Jerusalem will not be an alternative to good will and intentions, and because the separating line is called the Green Line not the deterrent line. […]
We have realized your state on 1988 on an 78% of the land of Palestine and we accepted to establish our state on 22% of this land. Why do you want to follow us on this small piece of land and your continuous attempt to strike the peace process, banning the creation of our independent state and liberation of our land and holy sites.
Israelis, we are extending to you the hand of reconciliation and we extend for peace the branch of olives to resume the path which we started in Madrid, Oslo, Washington, Cairo, Paris and others in order to remove occupation, establishing our independent state and the withdrawal from all of occupied Arab lands and achieving honorable peace for us and you to our and your children. The option of peace is a strategic option for us and we will not divert from it. You should know that our steadfastness for the sake of national liberation is a legitimate right--we are not going to cede our right in independence and freedom--like other peoples of the world. We appreciate the rational voices among you. Those voices believe that overcoming this conflict comes through returning to the path of peaceful solutions.
I have stated in several occasions that we are against all kinds of acts that harm the civilians whether they are Palestinians or Israelis. Every human has the right to live. All the free people have this right. We condemn the terrorist acts, which target the civilians in any place of the world. This is a moral position that is dictated by our values and religion. It is also a political and human position that does not see in such acts a way to solve the political problems.
It is regretfully that your leaders have initiated the escalation of violence. At every time we try to calm the situation, your government and army used to direct the strikes against us and our security apparatuses to weaken us so that we will not be able to meet our commitments. Even we succeed, by convincing means to stop the operations that target civilians, they used to go to shell an overcrowded residential area in order to assassinate a person and provoke the return of violence. […]
Allow me to present the guidelines and platform this new government would be working on:
First: Continuing the national steadfastness for the sake of independence, freedom and an end of occupation as the aim unifying the Palestinians and creates the framework for its political system in order to reach the point of establishing the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital with the return of refugees through our strategy of a comprehensive, permanent and just peace.
Second: To work on reinforcing our national steadfastness and alleviating the suffering of our Palestinian people including social and economic problems sprouting out of this occupation. Moreover, to exert all efforts to protect Jerusalem and its holy places, confront settlement, and protect our detainees.
Third: Preserving national unity according to our democratic traditions under the framework of one authority with the respect of law and building democracy through legislative and presidential as well as local elections under international supervision. In addition, to continue the reform process in all fields with the primary issues of security, judiciary, education, health, economy, employment to our workers and farmers as well as management of public finance and rebuilding what the Israeli occupation destroyed in order to rise up with national institutions.
Forth: Reinforcing our Arab relations as well as Muslim, Christian and international relations by working on developing our alliance front to assist in achieving our goals. […]
The Intifadah of the Palestinian people and its rejection of occupation and settlement does not mean at all rejecting a comprehensive and just peace, for peace is our strategic option. […]
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