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Saturday, September 27, 2014
Complete text: Mahmoud Abbas at UN General Assembly (legitimate right to engage in terror)

September 9, 1993: Yasser Arafat's letter to PM Yitzhak Rabin "the PLO
renounces the use of terrorism and other acts of violence and will assume
responsibility over all PLO elements and personnel in order to assure their
compliance, prevent violations and discipline violators."

CONTRAST WITH

September 27, 2014: Mahmoud Abbas at the UN General Assembly: "I affirm in
front of you that the Palestinian people hold steadfast ....to their
legitimate right to resist this colonial, racist Israeli occupation...and we
will maintain the traditions of our national struggle established by the
Palestinian fedayeen and to which we committed ourselves since the onset of
the Palestinian revolution in early 1965."

"This culture of racism, incitement and hatred was glaringly manifested in
the despicable, appalling crime committed months ago by fascist settlers,
who abducted the young Jerusalemite boy Mohammed Abu Khdeir, burnt him alive
and killed him."
[IMRA: The Jews responsible for this terrible crime were detained by Israel
and are now on trial and "settler Rabbis" called for the DEATH PENALTY to
apply for the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir. In sharp contrast Mahmoud
Abbas insists that any Palestinian who murders an Israeli should be
RELEASED.]

"foundations of the State of Palestine that we want: a sovereign and
independent State living in peace and building bridges of mutual cooperation
with its neighbors; that respects commitments, obligations and agreements"
[IMRA: Yet not a word about the unified PA removing the missiles in the
Gaza Strip that are in GROSS VIOLATION of "commitments, obligations and
agreements".]

Abbas at UN General Assembly: 3-Year Deadline to End Occupation Must be Set
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=26646

NEW YORK, September 27, 2014 – (WAFA - Official PLO news agency) – President
Mahmoud Abbas delivered Friday a statement before the United Nations General
Assembly in New York., calling the UN Security Council to pass a resolution
setting three-year deadline to end the Israeli occupation.

Here is the full text of the president’s speech.

Mr. President,

At the outset, I wish to extend our sincere congratulations upon your
election as President of the United Nations General Assembly this session
and to express our gratitude and appreciation to H.E. Mr. John Ashe for his
able leadership of the past session.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

In this year, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly as the
International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Israel has
chosen to make it a year of a new war of genocide perpetrated against the
Palestinian people.

In this year, in which this Assembly, on behalf of the countries and peoples
of the world, conveyed the world’s yearning and determination to realize a
just peace that achieves freedom and independence for the Palestinian people
in their State of Palestine alongside Israel in order to rectify the
historic injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people in Al-Nakba of 1948,
the occupying Power has chosen to defy the entire world by launching its war
on Gaza, by which its jets and tanks brutally assassinated lives and
devastated the homes, schools and dreams of thousands of Palestinian
children, women and men and in reality destroying the remaining hopes for
peace.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have addressed you in this hall during similar days in 2012 and cautioned
that the colonial occupying Power was preparing for a new Nakba against the
Palestinian people, and I appealed to you: Prevent a new Nakba. Support the
establishment of a free and independent State of Palestine now.

I returned to this same hall two months later as Palestine was healing her
wounds and her people were burying beloved martyred children, women and men
after yet another war waged then against the Gaza Strip, and that day I
stated: certainly there was not a single person in the world needing the
loss of the lives of tens of Palestinian children in order to confirm that
Israel insists on occupation; and there was also no need for thousands of
deadly raids and tons of explosives to remind the world that there is an
occupation that must end and that there is a people that must be freed.

I also said at that time: there was no need for a new devastating war in
order to realize the absence of peace.

And, here we are again today.

Here we find ourselves, full of grief, regret and bitterness, raising the
same long-standing conclusions and questions after a new war, the third war
waged by the racist occupying State in five years against Gaza, this small,
densely-populated and precious part of our country.

The difference today is that the scale of this genocidal crime is larger,
and that the list of martyrs, especially children, is longer, as well as
lists of the wounded and disabled, and that dozens of families have been
completely decimated.

The difference today is that approximately half a million people were
displaced from their homes, and that the number of homes, schools,
hospitals, public buildings, residential buildings, mosques, factories and
even cemeteries destroyed is unprecedented. And, the difference today is
that the devastation caused by this recent aggression is unmatched in modern
times, as confirmed by a witness, the honorable Commissioner-General of
UNRWA.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

This last war against Gaza was a series of absolute war crimes carried out
before the eyes and ears of the entire world, moment by moment, in a manner
that makes it inconceivable that anyone today can claim that they did not
realize the magnitude and horror of the crime. And, it is inconceivable that
some are unable to characterize this situation in real terms and that they
suffice with simply declaring their support for Israel’s right to
self-defense without regard for the fate of the thousands of victims of our
people, ignoring a simple fact that we remind them of today: that the life
of a Palestinian is as precious as the life of any other human being.

We must also assume that no one will wonder anymore why extremism is rising
and why the culture of peace is losing ground and why the efforts to achieve
it are collapsing.

Yet, we believe - and hope - that no one is trying to aid the occupation
this time in its impunity or its attempts to evade accountability for its
crimes.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the name of Palestine and its people, I affirm here today: we will not
forget and we will not forgive, and we will not allow war criminals to
escape punishment.

I affirm in front of you that the Palestinian people hold steadfast to their
legitimate right to defend themselves against the Israeli war machine and to
their legitimate right to resist this colonial, racist Israeli occupation.

At the same time, I affirm that our grief, trauma and anger will not for one
moment make us abandon our humanity, our values ??and our ethics; we will
always maintain our respect and commitment to international law,
international humanitarian law and the international consensus, and we will
maintain the traditions of our national struggle established by the
Palestinian fedayeen and to which we committed ourselves since the onset of
the Palestinian revolution in early 1965.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Amidst a torrent of massacres and storms of massive destruction, we
witnessed the peoples of the world gathering in huge demonstrations on the
streets of many cities declaring their condemnation of the aggression and
occupation and their support of freedom for Palestine. And we witnessed the
overwhelming majority of countries on the various continents declaring the
same noble position and rushing to provide all kinds of support and
assistance to our people. And we witnessed the qualitative and quantitative
broadening of activities of the international grassroots boycott campaign
against Israel’s policies of occupation, apartheid and colonial settlement,
especially among academia, cultural, student and youth groups.

Thus, in the name of Palestine, we pay tribute to everyone who chose to
stand with human values ??and demanded freedom, justice and peace. All of
these manifestations of true solidarity constituted an important message to
those who were facing genocide in Gaza, helping them to feel they felt that
they were not alone.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The recent Israeli war confirmed on the ground the crux of what the Israeli
government had been declaring in the closed rooms of negotiation. This war
came after long, difficult negotiations for more than eight months under the
auspices of the United States and the efforts of President Barack Obama and
tenacious efforts of his Secretary of State John Kerry. We engaged in this
endeavor with open minds, in good faith and with a positive spirit and
engaged with the efforts of the American administration in the most
constructive manner, and we put forth our firm positions based on the
resolutions of international legitimacy, which receive the overwhelming
support of the nations of the world. And, we genuinely respected all of our
commitments and understandings. Even as we watched the ongoing and
escalating Israeli violations, we exercised unimaginable self-restraint,
silencing our cries and tending to our own wounds in order to give the
American efforts the best possible chance for success.

However, and as usual, the Israeli government did not miss the opportunity
to undermine the chance for peace.

Throughout the months of negotiations, settlement construction, land
confiscations, home demolitions, killing and arrest campaigns, and forced
displacement in the West Bank continued unabated and the unjust blockade on
the Gaza Strip was tightened. The occupation’s campaign specifically
targeted the City of Jerusalem and its inhabitants, attempting to
artificially alter the spirit, identity and character of the Holy City,
focusing on Al-Aqsa Mosque, threatening grave consequences. At the same
time, racist and armed gangs of settlers persisted with their crimes against
the Palestinian people, the land, mosques, churches, properties and olive
trees.

As usual, the Israeli government once again failed the test of peace.

It breached an agreement with the American administration regarding the
release of a group of Palestinian prisoners in the occupation’s jails – and
we continue to insist on releasing all of them. And, when confronted with
simple questions in the direct negotiations or through the American
mediator, it did not hesitate to reveal its true positions:

Israel refuses to end its occupation of the State of Palestine since 1967,
but rather seeks its continuation and entrenchment, and rejects the
Palestinian state and refuses to find a just solution to the plight of the
Palestine refugees.

The future proposed by the Israeli government for the Palestinian people is
at best isolated ghettos for Palestinians on fragmented lands, without
borders and without sovereignty over its airspace, water and natural
resources, which will be under the subjugation of the racist settlers and
army of occupation, and at worst will be a most abhorrent form of Apartheid.

Israel has confirmed during the negotiations that it rejects making peace
with its victims, the Palestinian people.

This has all been done concurrent with an attempt to give a religious nature
to the conflict and with the rising and rampant racism in the Israeli
political and media discourse and its entrenchment in the school curriculum
and in a series of laws and practices of the occupation and its settlers.
This culture of racism, incitement and hatred was glaringly manifested in
the despicable, appalling crime committed months ago by fascist settlers,
who abducted the young Jerusalemite boy Mohammed Abu Khdeir, burnt him alive
and killed him.

Over the past years, the occupying Power has also pursued a policy aimed at
deliberately weakening the Palestinian National Authority to undermine it
and, in essence, to fully negate its role. The occupation targeted the work
we have been relentlessly undertaking to establish the foundations of the
State of Palestine that we want: a sovereign and independent State living in
peace and building bridges of mutual cooperation with its neighbors; that
respects commitments, obligations and agreements; that strengthens the
values of citizenship, equality, non-discrimination, the rule of law, human
rights and pluralism; that deepens the Palestinian enlightened traditions of
tolerance, coexistence and non-exclusion; that strengthens the culture of
peace; that promotes the role of women; that establishes effective
administration committed to the standards of good governance; and that cares
for the needs and interests of its people. The occupation has, and continues
to, to strike at this effort because it is the antithesis of its settlement
policies and because it wants to destroy the chance for the realization of
the Palestinian existence in an independent State within the framework of
the two-State solution.

When our efforts to end the internal division through national dialogue
succeeded a few months ago and we prepared to restore the unity of our land,
nation and institutions and formed the national consensus government and
began the process to lead to the holding of presidential and legislative
elections, all countries of the world welcomed this achievement, with the
exception of Israel, which has constantly sought to fragment our land and
our national unity.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

And now, where do we go from here?
The idea that it is possible to simply return to the past patterns of work,
which repeatedly failed, is naive at best and, in any case, is wrong, as it
ignores the fact that it is no longer acceptable, nor possible, to repeat
methods that have proven futile or to continue with approaches that have
repeatedly failed and require comprehensive review and radical correction.

It is impossible, and I repeat - it is impossible - to return to the cycle
of negotiations that failed to deal with the substance of the matter and the
fundamental question. There is neither credibility nor seriousness in
negotiations in which Israel predetermines the results via its settlement
activities and the occupation’s brutality. There is no meaning or value in
negotiations for which the agreed objective is not ending the Israeli
occupation and achieving the independence of the State of Palestine with
East Jerusalem as its capital on the entire Palestinian Territory occupied
in the 1967 war. And, there is no value in negotiations which are not linked
to a firm timetable for the implementation of this goal.

The time has come to end this settlement occupation.

Palestine refuses to have the right to freedom of her people, who are
subjected to the terrorism by the racist occupying Power and its settlers,
remain hostage to Israel’s security conditions.

The people of Palestine are actually the ones who need immediate
international protection, which we are seeking through international
organizations, and who are in need of the security and peace that they are
missing more than any other people, and the children of Palestine are worthy
of the world’s efforts to ensure that their childhood, dreams and lives will
not be devastated once again.

It is time for the chapters of this prolonged, ongoing tragedy to be closed.

Those who were uprooted from their warm homes, good land and beautiful
country in Al-Nakba 66 years ago, pushed into the misery of exile and life
as refugees and now being forced into new waves of expulsion or onto the
ships of death in the world’s seas, are in need of assurances that they will
not be displaced from their homes again, that their homes will not be
destroyed again, and that they will not spend their lives waiting for the
explosion of a new war.

It is time for this long tragedy to end.

We will not accept to forever be the ones being demanded to prove their good
intentions by making concessions at the expense of their rights and to
remain silent as they are killed and their land is stolen, and to understand
the conditions of the other party and the importance of preserving its
coalition government, while it entrenches its occupation. We are exhausted
of the additional tests we must undergo to prove our efficiency, competence
and eligibility to earn our natural, simple right to live a normal life and
our inherent right to expect a stable and ordinary tomorrow, to dream about
more beautiful days, and for our youth to be able to plan their coming days
and years safely in peace and freedom over our land, like other peoples of
the world.

The time has come for a real, just peace to prevail in the land of peace.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

We, and all the Arab countries, have constantly cautioned about the
disastrous consequences of the continuation of the Israeli occupation and
the denial of freedom and independence for the people of Palestine. We have
repeatedly draw attention to the fact that allowing Israel to act as a state
above the law with impunity and absolving it of any accountability or
punishment for its policies, aggression and defiance of the international
will and legitimacy has absolutely provided fertile ground and an
environment conducive for the growth of extremism, hatred and terrorism in
our region.

Confronting the terrorism that plagues our region by groups - such as “ISIL”
and others that have no basis whatsoever in the tolerant Islamic religion or
with humanity and are committing brutal and heinous atrocities - requires
much more than military confrontation. It is an urgent matter that requires
much more than condemnations and declarations of positions, which are of
course necessary. What is primarily needed is a comprehensive, credible
strategy to dry out the sources of terrorism and eradicate its roots in all
political, intellectual, economic and social spheres in our region. It
requires the creation of solid foundations for a reasonable consensus that
makes the fight against all forms of terrorism in any place everywhere a
collective task that is undertaken by the alliance of nations, peoples and
civilizations. It requires, in this context and as a priority, bringing an
end to the Israeli occupation of our country, which constitutes in its
practices and perpetuation, an abhorrent form of state terrorism and a
breeding ground for incitement, tension and hatred.

Mr. President,

At this moment in which we are still suffering from the
horrors of war, we face a formidable challenge to reconstruct what has been
destroyed by the occupation.

At the invitation of the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Kingdom of Norway,
which we deeply appreciate, the city of Cairo will host next month an
international conference for the relief and reconstruction of the Gaza
Strip. Our government will present comprehensive reports to the conference
on the losses inflicted by the aggression on the different sectors of life,
and it will provide details of the plans and programs that will be rapidly
implemented and supervised in the Gaza Strip to meet immediate relief needs
and the requirements of reconstruction, in full coordination with United
Nations agencies and bodies.

While we reiterate our appreciation and gratitude to all countries and
organizations that rushed to provide assistance to the Palestinian people
during and after the war, we are confident that brotherly and friendly
countries will not waver in supporting support the plans and programs we
will present and that the conference will achieve practical results that
fulfill the expectations and needs of the victims of this aggression.

We reaffirm here that the primary prerequisite for the success of all these
plans and efforts is an end to the ongoing Israeli blockade that has for
years suffocated the Gaza Strip and turned it into the largest prison in the
world for nearly two million Palestinian citizens. At the same time, we
affirm our commitment and the necessity to consolidate the cease-fire
through negotiations under the auspices of Egypt. However, in order to
avert repeating the cycle of war and cycle reconstruction every two or three
years, it is imperative to focus on the fundamental issue and starting
point, which is that the suffering of Gaza will not be completely alleviated
except by ending the occupation and achieving the independence of the State
of Palestine.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

During the past two weeks, Palestine and the Arab Group undertook intensive
contacts with the various regional groups in the United Nations to prepare
for the introduction of a draft resolution to be adopted by the United
Nations Security Council on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to push
forward the efforts to achieve peace.

This endeavor reaffirms our commitment to achieve a just peace through a
negotiated solution and our adoption of a diplomatic and political effort
through United Nations bodies. This endeavor is inspired by and based fully
on the spirit and provisions of the many resolutions you have approved in
the General Assembly and those adopted by the Security Council, which have
set the foundations for a lasting solution and a just peace.

This endeavor aspires to correct the deficiency of the previous efforts to
achieve peace by affirming the goal of ending the Israeli occupation and
achieving the two-State solution, of the State of Palestine, with East
Jerusalem as its capital, over the entire territory occupied in 1967,
alongside the State of Israel and reaching a just and agreed upon solution
to the plight of the Palestine refugees on the basis of resolution 194, with
a specific timeframe for the implementation of these objectives as
stipulated in the Arab Peace Initiative. This will be linked to the
immediate resumption of negotiations between Palestine and Israel to
demarcate the borders, reach a detailed and comprehensive agreement and
draft a peace treaty between them.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are confident that this endeavor will receive broad and full support by
those who are committed to ensuring that our country will not witness new
wars and atrocities, by those who wish to support a campaign to combat
terrorism, by those who believe that it is necessary to act expediently to
rectify the historical injustice inflicted by Al-Nakba on the Palestinian
people, and by those who wish to see peace prevail in the land of the
monotheistic religions.

The adoption of this resolution will affirm what you strived to realize in
this year is the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian
People, who will continue their struggle and steadfastness and will rise
brave and strong from the rubble and destruction.

We, as our poet Mahmoud Darwish said: “are infected with an incurable
disease, that is hope, and we love life if we are given the chance for it”.

Mr. President Ladies and Gentlemen,

There is an occupation that must end now.

There is a people that must be freed immediately.

The hour of independence of the State of Palestine has arrived.

K.F./ T.R.

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