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    Mahmoud Abbas Address At UN

    Video and Transcript

    "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?"

    "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."

    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29199.htm

    Posted September 23, 2011



    Mahmoud Abbas Address At UN

    Video and Transcript

    "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?"

    "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."

    Posted September 23, 2011


    A full transcript of President Mahmoud Abbas' address to the 66th
    session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Sept.
    23, provided by the Palestinian Authority's official news agency.

    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 wish to extend my congratulations to H.E. Mr. Nassir
    Abdulaziz Al-Nasser on his assumption of the Presidency of the
    Assembly for this session, and wish him all success.

    I reaffirm 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 same 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 determines
    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 affirmative 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 Al-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 in 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 and 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 peace-making. 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
    the Diaspora, to say, after 63 years of suffering of the 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
    submitted, in my capacity as the President of the State of Palestine
    and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation
    Organization, 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 Al-Quds Al-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 call upon the States that did not recognized the
    State of Palestine as yet 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.

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