Esta é a versão integral, distribuida pela Missão de Observação Permanente da Palestina nas Nações Unidas, em inglês, da declaração histórica de Mahmoud Abbas, realizada hoje perante a 66.ª Assembleia Geral das Nações Unidas após ter entregue, ao seu Secretário Geral Ban Ki-moon, a candidatura da Palestina, com base nas fronteiras de 4 de Junho de 1967, e Al-Quds Al-Sharif (Jerusalém Ocidental) como sua capital, a membro permanente das Nações Unidas.
Dado a sua relevância histórica poderão encontar o documento, em versão pdf,
aqui..
Statement by H.E.
Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine, Chairman of the
Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, President of the
Palestinian National Authority before United Nations General Assembly Sixty-sixth
Session
New York
23 September
2011
Mr. President of
the General Assembly of the United Nations,
Mr.
Secretary-General of the United Nations,
Excellencies,
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
At the outset, I
extend my congratulations to H.E. Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz AI-Nasser on his assumption
of the Presidency of the Assembly for this session, and wish him all success.
I extend today
my sincere congratulations, on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization and
the Palestinian people, to the government and people of South Sudan for its deserved
admission as a full member of the United Nations, wishing them progress and prosperity.
I also
congratulate the Secretary-General, H.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon, on his election for a
new term at the helm of the United Nations. This renewal of confidence reflects
the world's appreciation for his efforts, which have strengthened the role of
the United Nations.
Excellencies,
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
The Question
Palestine is intricately linked with the United Nations via the resolutions adopted
by its various organs and agencies and via the essential and lauded role of the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
- UNRWA – which embodies the international responsibility towards the plight of
Palestine refugees, who are the victims of Al-Nakba (Catastrophe)
that occurred in 1948. We aspire for and seek a greater and more
effective role for the United Nations in working to achieve a just and comprehensive
peace in our region that ensures the inalienable, legitimate national rights of
the Palestinian people as defined by the resolutions of international
legitimacy of the United Nations.
Excellencies,
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
A year ago, at
this san1e time, distinguished leaders in this hall addressed the stalled peace
efforts in our region. Everyone had high hopes for a new round of final status
negotiations, which had begun in early September in Washington under the direct
auspices of President Barack Obama and with participation of the Quartet, and
with Egyptian and Jordanian participation, to reach a peace agreement within
one year. We entered those negotiations with open hearts and attentive ears and
sincere intentions, and we were ready with our documents, papers and proposals.
But the negotiations broke down just weeks after their launch.
After this, we
did not give up and did not cease our efforts for initiatives and contacts.
Over the past
year we did not leave a door to be knocked or channel to be tested or path to
be taken and we did not ignore any formal or informal party of influence and
stature to be addressed. We positively considered the various ideas and
proposals and initiatives presented from many countries and parties. But all of
these sincere efforts and endeavors undertaken by international parties were
repeatedly wrecked by the positions of the Israeli government, which quickly
dashed the hopes raised by the launch of negotiations last September.
The core issue
here is that the Israeli government refuses to commit to terms of reference for
the negotiations that are based on international law and United Nations
resolutions, and that it frantically continues to intensify building of
settlements on the territory of the State of Palestine.
Settlement
activities embody the core of the policy of colonial military occupation of the
land of the Palestinian people and all of the brutality of aggression and
racial discrimination against our people that this policy entails. This policy,
which constitutes a breach of international humanitarian law and United Nations
resolutions, is the primary cause for the failure of the peace process, the
collapse of dozens of opportunities, and the burial of the great hopes that
arose from the signing of the Declaration of Principles in 1993 between the
Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel to achieve a just peace that would
begin a new era for our region.
The reports of
United Nations missions as well as by several Israeli institutions and civil
societies convey
a horrific picture about the size of the settlement campaign, which the Israeli
government does not hesitate to boast about and which it continues to execute
through the systematic confiscation of the Palestinian lands and the
construction of thousands of new settlement units in various areas of the West
Bank, particularly in East Jerusalem, and accelerated construction of the
annexation Wall that is eating up large tracts of our land, dividing it into
separate and isolated islands and cantons, destroying family life and
communities and the livelihoods of tens of thousands of families. The occupying
Power also continues to refuse permits for our people to build in Occupied East
Jerusalem, at the same time that it intensifies its decades-long
campaign of demolition and confiscation of homes, displacing Palestinian owners
and residents under a multi-pronged policy of ethnic cleansing aimed at pushing
them away from their ancestral homeland. In addition, orders have been issued
to deport elected representatives from the city of Jerusalem. The occupying
Power also continues to undertake excavations that threaten our holy places,
and its military checkpoints prevent our citizens from getting access to their
mosques and churches, and it continues to besiege the Holy City with a ring of
settlements imposed to separate the Holy City from the rest of the Palestinian
cities.
The occupation
is racing against time to redraw the borders on our land according to what it
wants and to impose a fait accompli on
the ground that changes the realities and that is undermining the realistic
potential for the existence of the State of Palestine.
At the same
time, the occupying Power continues to impose its blockade on the Gaza
Strip and to
target Palestinian civilians by assassinations, air strikes and artillery
shelling, persisting with its war of aggression of three years ago on Gaza,
which resulted in massive destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, and
mosques, and the thousands of martyrs and wounded.
The occupying
Power also continues its incursions in areas of the Palestinian National
Authority
through raids, arrests and killings at the checkpoints. In recent years, the
criminal actions of armed settler militias, who enjoy the special protection of
the occupation army, has intensified with the perpetration of frequent attacks
against our people, targeting their homes, schools, universities, mosques,
fields, crops and trees. Despite our repeated warnings, the occupying Power has
not acted to curb these attacks and we hold them fully responsible for the crimes
of the settlers.
These are just a
few examples of the policy of the Israeli colonial settlement occupation, and
this policy is responsible for the continued failure of the successive
international attempts to salvage the peace process.
This policy will
destroy the chances of achieving a two-State solution upon which there is an
international consensus, and here I caution aloud: This settlement policy
threatens to also undermine the structure of the Palestinian National Authority
and even end its existence.
In addition, we
now face the imposition new conditions not previously raised, conditions that
will transform the raging conflict in our inflamed region into a religious
conflict and a threat to the future of a million and a half Christian and
Muslim Palestinians, citizens of Israel, a matter which we reject and which is
impossible for us to accept being dragged into.
All of these
actions taken by Israel in our country are unilateral actions and are not based
on any earlier agreements. Indeed, what we witness is a selective application
of the agreements aimed at perpetuating the occupation. Israel reoccupied the
cities of the West Bank by a unilateral action, and reestablished the civil and
military occupation by a unilateral action, and it is the one that detennines
whether or not a Palestinian citizen has the right to reside in any part of the
Palestinian Territory. And it is confiscating our land and our water and
obstructing our movement as well as the movement of goods. And it is the one
obstructing our whole destiny. All of this is unilateral.
Excellencies,
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
In 1974, our
deceased leader Yasser Arafat came to this hall and assured the Members of the
General Assembly of our affinnative pursuit for peace, urging the United
Nations to realize the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people,
stating: "Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand".
In 1988,
President Arafat again addressed the General Assembly, which convened in
Geneva to hear
him, where he submitted the Palestinian peace program adopted by the Palestine National
Council at its session held that year in Algeria.
When we adopted
this program, we were taking a painful and very difficult step for all of us,
especially those, including myself, who were forced to leave their homes and
their towns and villages, carrying only some of our belongings and our grief
and our memories and the keys of our homes to the camps of exile and the
Diaspora in the 1948 AI-Nakba,
one
of the worst operations of uprooting, destruction and removal of a vibrant and
cohesive society that had been contributing in a pioneering and leading way m
the cultural, educational and economic renaissance of the Arab Middle East.
Yet, because we
believe in peace and because of our conviction in international legitimacy, and
because we had the courage to make difficult decisions for our people, and in
the absence of absolute justice, we decided to adopt the path of relative
justice - justice that is possible and could correct part of the grave
historical injustice committed against our people. Thus, we agreed to establish
the State of Palestine on only 22% of the territory of historical Palestine -
on all the Palestinian Territory occupied by Israel in 1967.
We, by taking
that historic step, which was welcomed by the States of the world, made a major
concession in order to achieve a historic compromise that would allow peace to
be made in the land of peace.
In the years
that followed - from the Madrid Conference and the Washington negotiations leading
to the Oslo agreement, which was signed 18 years ago in the garden of the White
House and was linked with the letters of mutual recognition between the PLO and
Israel, we persevered and dealt positively and responsibly with all efforts
aimed at the achievement of a lasting peace agreement. Yet, as we said earlier,
every initiative and every conference and every new round of negotiations and
every movement was shattered on the rock of the Israeli settlement expansion project.
Excellencies,
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
I confirm, on
behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative
of the Palestinian people, which will remain so until the end of the conflict
in all its aspects and until the resolution of all final status issues, the
following:
1. The goal of
the Palestinian people is the realization of their inalienable national rights
in their independent State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, on
all the land of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip,
which Israel occupied in the June 1967 war, in conformity with the resolutions
of international legitimacy and with the achievement of a just and agreed upon
solution to the Palestine refugee issue in accordance with resolution 194, as stipulated
in the Arab Peace Initiative which presented the consensus Arab vision to
resolve the core the Arab-Israeli conflict and to achieve a just and
comprehensive peace. To this we adhere and this is what we are working to
achieve. Achieving this desired peace also requires the release of political
prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons without delay.
2. The PLO and
the Palestinian people adhere to the renouncement of violence and rejection and
condemning of terrorism in all its forms, especially State terrorism, and
adhere to all agreements signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization
and Israel.
3. We adhere to
the option of negotiating a lasting solution to the conflict in accordance with
resolutions of international legitimacy. Here, I declare that the Palestine
Liberation Organization is ready to return immediately to the negotiating table
on the basis of the adopted terms of reference based on international
legitimacy and a complete cessation of settlement activities.
4. Our people
will continue their popular peaceful resistance to the Israeli occupation and
its settlement and apartheid policies and its construction of the racist
annexation Wall, and they receive support for their resistance, which is
consistent with international humanitarian law and international conventions
and has the support of peace activists from Israel and around the world, reflecting
an impressive, inspiring and courageous example of the strength of this
defenseless people, armed only with their dreams, courage, hope and slogans in
the face of bullets, tanks, tear gas and bulldozers.
5. When we bring
our plight and our case to this international podium, it is a confirmation of
our reliance on the political and diplomatic option and is a confirmation that
we do not undertake unilateral steps. Our efforts are not aimed at isolating
Israel or de-legitimizing it; rather we want to gain legitimacy for the cause
of the people of Palestine. We only aim to de-legitimize the settlement
activities, the occupation and apartheid and the logic of ruthless force, and
we believe that all the countries of the world stand with us in this regard.
I am here to say
on behalf of the Palestinian people and the Palestine Liberation
Organization: We
extend our hands to the Israeli government and the Israeli people for
peacemaking. I say to them: Let us urgently build together a future for our
children where they can enjoy freedom, security and prosperity. Let us build
the bridges of dialogue instead of checkpoints and walls of separation, and
build cooperative relations based on parity and equity between two neighboring
States - Palestine and Israel - instead of policies of occupation, settlement,
war and eliminating the other.
Excellencies,
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
Despite the
unquestionable right of our people to self-determination and to the independence
of our State as stipulated in international resolutions, we have accepted in
the past few years to engage in what appeared to be a test of our worthiness,
entitlement and eligibility. During the last two years our national authority
has implemented a program to build our State institutions. Despite the
extraordinary situation and the Israeli obstacles imposed, a serious extensive
project was launched that has included the implementation of plans to enhance
and advance the judiciary and the apparatus for maintenance of order and
security, to develop the administrative, financial, and oversight systems, to
upgrade the performance of institutions, and to enhance self-reliance to reduce
the need for foreign aid. With the thankful support of Arab countries and
donors from friendly countries, a number of large infrastructure projects have
been implemented, focused on various aspects of service, with special attention
to rural and marginalized areas.
In the midst of
this massive national project, we have been strengthening what we
seeking to be
the features of our State: from the preservation of security for the citizen
and public order; to the promotion of judicial authority and rule of law; to
strengthening the role of women via legislation, laws and participation; to
ensuring the protection of public freedoms and strengthening the role of civil
society institutions; to institutionalizing rules and regulations for ensuring
accountability and transparency in the work of our Ministries and departments;
to entrenching the pillars of democracy as the basis for the Palestinian
political life.
When division
struck the unity of our homeland, people and institutions, we were determined
to adopt dialogue for restoration of our unity. We succeeded months ago in achieving
national reconciliation and we hope that its implementation will be accelerated
in the coming weeks. The core pillar of this reconciliation was to turn to the
people through legislative and presidential elections within a year, because
the State we want will be a State characterized by the rule of law, democratic
exercise and protection of the freedoms and equality of all citizens without
any discrimination and the transfer of power through the ballot box.
The reports
issued recently by the United Nations, the World Bank, the Ad Hoc Liaison
Committee (AHLC)
and the International Monetary Fund confirm and laud what has been accomplished,
considering it a remarkable and unprecedented model. The consensus conclusion by
the AHLC a few days ago here described what has been accomplished as a
"remarkable international success story" and confirmed the readiness
of the Palestinian people and their institutions for the immediate independence
of the State of Palestine.
Excellencies,
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
It is no
longer possible to redress the issue of the blockage of the horizon of the
peace talks with the same means and methods that have been repeatedly tried and
proven unsuccessful over the past years. The crisis is far too deep to be
neglected, and what is more dangerous are attempts to simply circumvent it or
postpone its explosion.
It is
neither possible, nor practical, nor acceptable to return to conducting
business as usual, as if everything is fine. It is futile to go into
negotiations without clear parameters and in the absence of credibility and a
specific timetable. Negotiations will be meaningless as long as the occupation
army on the ground continues to entrench its occupation, instead of rolling it back,
and continues to change the demography of our country in order to create a new
basis on which to alter the borders.
Excellencies,
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
It is a
moment of truth and my people are waiting to hear the answer of the world. Will
it allow Israel to continue its occupation, the only occupation in the world?
Will it
allow
Israel to remain a State above the law and accountability? Will it allow Israel
to continue rejecting the resolutions of the Security Council and the General
Assembly of the United Nations and the International Court of Justice and the
positions of the overwhelming majority of countries in the world?
Excellencies,
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
I come before
you today from the Holy Land, the land of Palestine, the land of divine messages,
ascension of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the birthplace of
Jesus Christ (peace be upon him), to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people
in the homeland and in the Diaspora, to say, after 63 years of suffering of an
ongoing Nakba: Enough. It
is
time for the Palestinian people to gain their freedom and independence.
The time has
come to end the suffering and the plight of millions of Palestine refugees in the
homeland and the Diaspora, to end their displacement and to realize their
rights, some of them forced to take refuge more than once in different places
of the world.
At a time when
the Arab peoples affirm their quest for democracy - the Arab Spring – the time
is now for the Palestinian Spring, the time for independence.
The time has
come for our men, women and children to live normal lives, for them to be
able to sleep
without waiting for the worst that the next day will bring; for mothers to be
assured that their children will return home without fear of suffering killing,
arrest or humiliation; for students to be able to go to their schools and
universities without checkpoints obstructing them. The time has come for sick
people to be able to reach hospitals normally, and for our farmers to be able
to take care of their good land without fear of the occupation seizing the land
and its water, which the wall prevents access to, or fear of the settlers, for
whom settlements are being built on our land and who are uprooting and burning
the olive trees that have existed for hundreds of years. The time has come for
the thousands of prisoners to be released from the prisons to return to their
families and their children to become a part of building their homeland, for
the freedom of which they have sacrificed.
My people desire
to exercise their right to enjoy a normal life like the rest of humanity.
They believe
what the great poet Mahmoud Darwish said: Standing here, staying here, permanent
here, eternal here, and we have one goal, one, one: to be.
Excellencies,
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
We profoundly
appreciate and value the positions of all States that have supported our
struggle and our
rights and recognized the State of Palestine following the Declaration of Independence
in 1988, as well as the countries that have recently recognized the State of Palestine
and those that have upgraded the level of Palestine's representation in their
capitals. I also salute the Secretary-General, who said a few days ago that the
Palestinian State should have been established years ago.
Be assured that
this support for our people is more valuable to them than you can imagine, for
it makes them feel that someone is listening to their narrative and that their
tragedy and the horrors of Al-Nakba and the occupation, from which they
have so suffered, are not being ignored. And, it reinforces their hope that
stems from the belief that justice is possible in this in this world. The loss
of hope is the most ferocious enemy of peace and despair is the strongest ally
of extremism.
I say: The time
has come for my courageous and proud people, after decades of displacement and
colonial occupation and ceaseless suffering, to live like other peoples of the earth,
free in a sovereign and independent homeland.
Excellencies,
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
I would like to
inform you that, before delivering this statement, I, in my
capacity as President of the State of Palestine and Chairman of the Executive
Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, submitted to H.E. Mr. Ban
Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, an application for the
admission of Palestine on the basis of the 4 June 1967 borders, with AI-Quds
AI-Sharif as its capital, as a full member of the United Nations.
I call upon Mr.
Secretary-General to expedite transmittal of our request to the Security
Council, and I
call upon the distinguished members of the Security Council to vote in favor of
our full membership. I also appeal to the States that have not yet recognized
the State of Palestine to do so.
Excellencies,
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
The support of
the countries of the world for our endeavor is a victory for truth, freedom, justice,
law and international legitimacy, and it provides tremendous support for the peace
option and enhances the chances of success of the negotiations.
Excellencies,
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
Your support for
the establishment of the State of Palestine and for its admission to the
United Nations
as a full member is the greatest contribution to peacemaking in the Holy Land.
I thank you.
