Author: ISM Media Group

Human Rights Observor attacked by settler, grilled by police

Susiya, south Hebron region

September 26th, 2007

A little before 10:00am an international human rights worker began to monitor an Israeli settler working on land located directly next to Susiya settlement on the road leading both to Hebron and Beer Sheva.

This settler, Musi Doyts, is the only person allowed to work this land, in order to maintain his grapes, as the land is currently under dispute in Israeli courts as to who is the rightful owner. The land is owned by Palestinians though has been claimed by settlers in an attempt to expand their area. For more information check previous reports concerning Susiya and this issue.

Doyts allegedly made a promise to the Israeli courts, in an effort to stall their decision, that only he would work on the land for one hour a day, and would not allow any other settler to enter, or work on the land. The international human rights worker (HRW) witnessed Doyts enter the land, from a distance, a little before 10am and monitored him work for about fifteen minutes before approaching the road. The HRW did not cross the road or approach Doyts, and did not speak with him. Instead he took some pictures of Doyts working and waited to see if he would stop working on the land after one hour.

At two points Israeli settlers stopped their cars and spoke with the HRW. One man told the HRW that he was “very stupid” and a “moron,” before driving away, while another sarcastically asked if the HRW “was having fun.” The HRW responded to both men rationally and did not aggravate the situation. Up until this time Doyts and the HRW did not speak to each other.

At about 10:45am Doyts appeared to be leaving the area, as he closed the gate to the property and put on his helmet to get back on his “four wheeler.” At this time a jeep of Israeli soldiers stopped and asked the HRW what he was doing, and the HRW told them that he “was resting.” They (the soldiers) began to leave the area when suddenly another settler vehicle stopped, a small white van, and a settler got out of the vehicle and approached the HRW.

This settler had been in confrontations with the HRW (with a few others) before and can be seen on previous videos, most notably as the “ABA!! settler.”

This settler quickly approached the HRW, and without even a word began attacking him, pushing him and punching him in the sides, attempting to steal the HRW’s camera. The HRW yelled, “what are doing,” and “what do you want?” but the settler continued his attack in an attempt to steal the camera. The Israeli soldiers, who the HRW had spoken with just moments before, stopped their jeep and approached the scene trying to keep the HRW and the settler apart.

At that point the settler made a violent attempt to steal the HRW’s camera and managed to get his hands on the strap, of which the HRW also had a hold. The soldiers, in an attempt to get the two apart, knocked the HRW down onto the ground, with the settler on top. The settler began yelling, in Hebrew, in the HRW’s ear, and continued to punch him in the sides and “kick” the HRW in the head with his knee. At that point some of the soldiers began to yell at the settler, while others appealed to him to get off of the HRW. The settler, after about two minutes of attack, allowed the soldiers to pull him off the HRW.

When the HRW stood up the first thing he noticed was that some soldiers were restraining the settler, who wanted to continue his attack, but were also restraining Musi Doyts, who had entered into the confrontation and was yelling at the soldiers. The HRW, at this point, managed to film. He had not been able to before, as he was alone and under attack.

The soldiers continued to restrain the violent settler, who was upset that the HRW was still filming, and yelled at the soldiers. The soldiers continually told the HRW to sit down who of course refused since he had just been attacked. The HRW kept saying “shouldn’t I press charges against this man,” but the soldiers told him that he “could not ask these questions.”

The soldiers then began asking the HRW for his id, but did not ask the settler for his id. The HRW refused to show his id, at first, to the soldiers, since he believed that the settler should be the one who questioned and checked since he had initiated and carried out the attack. After a little time however the HRW allowed three soldiers to view his id, while he held it in his hand, just so they would stop asking him, in hopes that the process could be taken a step further.

After about five more minutes the soldiers let the settler, who had just attacked the HRW, enter his vehicle and leave the area. The soldiers stood in front of the camera in an attempt to prevent the HRW from filming the settler leave, and continued to restrain Musi Doyts, who remained in the area, and continued to yell at the HRW.

The HRW was obviously very upset that the settler was allowed to leave, and yelled at the soldiers who let him leave. He then asked if he could leave and the soldiers of course told him he could not. At this point another settler appeared on the scene, while the soldiers continued to ask the HRW to see his passport. The HRW at that point completely refused to show his passport to anyone else but the police because the soldiers had let the settler go.

A IOF commander arrived and continually asked to see the HRW’s id, but the HRW refused. He told the HRW that he was going to take him to the police station, but the HRW refused because he knew it was illegal for soldiers to transport or arrest internationals: an act only Israeli police can carry out.

The soldiers asked where the HRW lived, and who he was staying with, and finally said that the area was a closed military zone. The HRW asked to see the papers, but the soldier refused. At that point the HRW said he would leave since it was a closed military zone and began to walk home. He was surprised that the soldiers let him go, but proves that the soldiers had no authority to detain him.

When the HRW began to walk around the corner he noticed that an army jeep was following him, and continued to follow slowly behind him. The HRW tried stopping but the soldiers kept telling the HRW to go home, and continued to follow him. The HRW then stopped walking and sat on the side of the road. The jeep stopped and waited in road, and a few times the soldiers told him to go home. They then said, when the HRW asked why they were following him, that they were “waiting for the police.”

After about twenty minutes the soldiers decided that they would leave with one soldier saying “we are leaving now to get some food.” At that moment however the police arrived and the soldiers stopped there vehicle and spoke with the police.

At that point began the long procedure of being questioned by the police. The HRW told them that he had just been attacked and that the soldiers had let the settler go, and the police said that the HRW could fill out a complaint. The HRW had recently lost his passport, and received a new one, though had not at that point gone to the Ministry of Interior to get a new stamp in his passport. The police asked him about this and the HRW told them of his case.

The police then decided to take the HRW to the police station to make sure he had a valid visa. The HRW spent the rest of the day in Kiryat Arba police station until he was released. The police kept his passport because they could not “be sure” that he had a valid visa, and could not check since it was the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, and the Ministry of Interior was closed.

The HRW must return to the police station until the matter is resolved. As of yet no progress has been made concerning the settler attack.

Ha’aretz: Settlers plan to set up 5 new West Bank outposts during Sukkot

By: Nadav Shragai

September 26th, 2007

Right-wing activists are planning to set up five new settlement nuclei throughout the West Bank this Sunday, during the interim days of Sukkot.

The operation, details of which were announced Tuesday, will include taking possession of the land at the following locations: Givat Ha’eitam near Efrat, Hill 1013 near Halhoul in the Hebron region, Nofei Hashmonaim near Hashmonaim, “Harhivi” outpost near Elon Moreh, and “Shvut Ami” outpost in Samaria.

The extra-parliamentary right-wing movements participating in the operation are also planning a major march to Homesh, a northern West Bank settlement vacated in 2005 as part of the disengagement from Gaza.

“This is the only way to get out of the alleyways and back to the main road, through the Land of Israel,” one movement leader, Arye Yitzhaki, told Haaretz. “We will keep building communities and redeeming territory in the land of the Patriarchs.”

Various rabbis have voiced their support for the operation. The rabbi of Efrat, Shlomo Riskin, who is known as a moderate, called on Efrat residents to take part at Givat Ha’eitam. Riskin’s call was seconded by other Gush Etzion rabbis.

In Hebron-Kiryat Arba, local rabbis, led by Moshe Levinger and Eliezer Waldman, issued calls for the public to accompany the operation at Hill 1013.

The army and police are readying to block the activists from carrying out their plan.

Guardian: Life behind the wire

By: Chris Doyle

September 24, 2007

Imagine if, after an IRA bombing, a British prime minister declared Catholic areas in Northern Ireland to be hostile territory, and threatened to reduce or cut off goods, water, fuel and electricity supplies.

It sounds implausible but the one and a half million residents of the Gaza Strip, an area the size of the Isle of Wight, may soon face this scenario. The Palestinians of Gaza, already imprisoned, their land, air and sea borders totally closed, are now considered by Israel eligible to have their water, electricity and power cut off. Israeli officials insist that humanitarian considerations will be taken into account, though the Israeli record is not one to reassure Palestinians. These were not a concern when Israel bombed Gaza’s only power plant last summer.

This Israeli decision comes after more Qassam rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel at local communities such as Sderot and a military barracks, where 69 Israeli soldiers were wounded. Israel has a duty to protect its citizens, but are its responses legitimate, commensurate to the threat or even effective?

This is an expansion of an existing sanctions regime. One of the Israeli Prime Minister’s advisers, Dov Weissglass, chillingly described the Israeli policy a year ago: “It’s like an appointment with a dietician. The Palestinians will get a lot thinner, but won’t die.”

It was no joke. Since Weissglass’s comments after the Hamas election victory in 2006, Gazans have indeed learned how to diet. The World Food Program lists it as a global hunger hotspot. Out of its 1.5 million residents, 1.1 million have to survive on food handouts. The Israeli journalist, Amira Hass, describes Gazans as being imprisoned in “an enclosed space like battery hens”.

The “moderate” Israeli vice-premier, Haim Ramon has pushed for this, describing it as cutting off the “infrastructural oxygen”. Imagine a Palestinian mother having to tell her children that there is no electricity because you are not allowed any infrastructural oxygen.

Oxygen is about the only thing that this Israeli government has not considered denying to Gazans. Israel has also stolen hundreds of millions of Palestinian tax dollars. The Israeli group, Physicians for Human Rights, reports that, since the decision was taken, 87 Palestinians in need of medical care have been denied exit from Gaza. Paper was, at one point, a commodity Israel had to ban. “Some 200,000 children will go into our classrooms on 1 September, and won’t have the books they need,” reported John Ging, the Director of Operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza in August. Perhaps the Israeli army sees paper planes as a threat?

Apologists for Israel argue that, since the removal of Israeli forces from inside Gaza in 2005, it is no longer occupied. This is far from the case, as acknowledged by the UN. Gazans are denied any sovereign control over their territory as Israel controls all entry and exit to Gaza by air, land and sea. Israel’s ability to turn on and off vital supplies at will proves the extent of its vice-like control. The prison wardens have merely redeployed from inside the prison to the perimeter. Israeli forces can enter Gaza at will.

Gazans are not sentenced criminals. They are not all supporters of Hamas or Islamic jihad. Over 50% of the population are children under the age of 16, usually running barefoot among the narrow, unpaved streets of Gaza’s horrific refugee camps.

Israel has declared “hostile” a piece of territory, even though it is responsible for its population under international law. Israel wants control without responsibility. Gazans are meant to be protected under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Last year, the then UN special rapporteur on Palestinian human rights, John Dugard castigated the international community for this, saying: “In effect, the Palestinian people have been subjected to economic sanctions – the first time an occupied people has been so treated.”

Israel has sub-contracted out its humanitarian responsibilities to international donors. Israel renders Gaza aid-dependent, but expects others to pick up the tab, principally EU taxpayers.

This targets a people who have already endured 60 years of conflict. As a result of war in 1948, Gaza was swamped by 200,000 Palestinian refugees, two and half times the size of the existing population. Israel invaded in 1956 and in 1967, the start of 40-year Israeli occupation. Until 2005, Gaza was segregated to cater for the Israeli settlers who took up to 30% of Gaza’s scarce territory. The closure of Gaza started as long ago as 1991 and since then, has only been tightened. Gaza is enclosed by an electrified fence. The result is that Gaza was deliberately rendered completely dependent on Israel for everything including water, fuel and electricity. Sara Roy, the Harvard academic and a leading expert on Gaza, describes the Israeli policy towards Gaza as “de-development” that precludes “the possibility of any kind of developmental process, even a disarticulated one, by destroying the economy’s capacity to produce”.

Even before Hamas came to power, Gaza had been further brutalised. Since the start of the Intifada in 2000, the Israeli army has destroyed infrastructure including homes, schools, factories, greenhouses, and mosques. There is no Gazan economy left to smash. Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael, who recently visited the strip, likened Gaza to a “flattened moonscape”.

By treating Gaza as separate from the West Bank, the Israeli government is yet again in breach of its international commitments in Oslo and the “road map” to consider the two areas as one territorial unit, something the US is now actively encouraging. Such division makes peace a more distant prospect, mutilating the corpse of a Palestinian state.

Collective starvation is being used as a political tool of pressure. One Israeli official admitted: “It is meant to be used as leverage on the civilian population, to pressure the Hamas regime over the Qassam fire.” This is a war crime and for clear moral reasons, a cast-iron case of state terrorism, threatening an entire civilian population for political ends.

Palestinians fear that it is Gaza first, West Bank next. The latter’s 2.5m Palestinian inhabitants will be almost hermetically sealed by the Israeli barrier, due to be completed next year. Will it too be declared hostile territory and threatened with losing its remaining water, fuel and electricity?

In nearly every other context, such crimes would be slammed from every governmental and parliamentary pulpit. But the silence is as deafening as the Israeli sonic booms over Gaza. British government ministers condemn boycotts of Israel, but cannot even muster a word of condemnation of Israeli practices that actually endanger hundreds of thousands of lives. The hypocrisy is not lost on millions of Arabs and Muslims.

Gaza has become a human laboratory experiment. But will this starvation camp work? Will an entire society, brought to its knees, reject the program of one political group and kowtow to the demands of the occupier? It will fail as every Israeli attempt to subjugate the Palestinians has. Even if Gazans capitulate, if only to survive, it will be only a short-term gain. Rocket attacks will resume. Just as Israel’s bombing of Lebanon last summer failed to compel Lebanese to turn against Hizbullah, this crushing of Gaza will continue to bolster Hamas’s support as well as those who will make Hamas seem like the good guys.

There will be no security for Israel until it takes its boot off the Palestinian throat for good. A two-state solution requires a single viable sovereign Palestinian state next to Israel based on the pre-1967 lines, with Gaza and the West Bank linked, not split apart. No Israeli government, including those of Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak, has yet signed up to this. Increasingly, most Palestinians believe they never will.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/chris_doyle/2007/09/life_behind_the_wire.html

Ha’aretz: Listen as the silence breaks

by Dalia Karpel

September 21st, 2007.

A NEW ISRAELI STUDY CONFIRMS OUR WORST FEARS.

“We – Israeli Soldiers – were put there to punish the Palestinians”, says Ilan Vilenda, an Israeli soldier who served in Rafah during the first Intifada.

Ilan is the only soldier of 21 who agreed to have his name published, after he was interviewed by psychologist Nofer Ishai-Karen.

The soldiers spoke freely to Nofer, who served with them in the same ESHBAL platoon 20 years ago; They disclosing their innermost emotions about the horrendous crimes, in which they took part: Murder, breaking bones of Palestinian children, actions of humiliation, destruction of property, robbery and theft.

Soldier “A” testimony:
“We decided to turn an old shower in our base to a make-shift detention cell. A Palestinian was brought there, handcuffed and mouth banded so he couldn’t talk, or move. We “forgot him there for three days”…

Soldier “B” testimony:
“I was on my first patrol. Others simply shot like mad. I started to shoot as they did. They ‘set my on’. I took my weapon and shot. Nobody was there to tell me otherwise”

— Psychologist Ishai-Karen was shocked to find that the soldiers enjoyed the ‘intoxication of power’, and had pleasure from using violence. She said: “Most of my interviewees enjoyed their own instigated violence during their Occupation service”.

Soldier “C” testimony:
“The truth is that I love this mess – I enjoy it. It is like being on drugs. If I didn’t enter Rafah, to put down some rebellion -at least once a week- I’d go berserk.

Soldier “D” testimony:
What is great is that you don’t have to follow any law or rule. You feel that YOU ARE THE LAW; you decide. Once you go into the Occupied Territories YOU ARE GOD”.

Emotional dumbness

Soldier “E” testimony:
We drove an APC through Rafah. A man of 25 walked nearby. He didn’t hurl a stone at us or anything. Then without any reason “X” shot him in the stomach. We left him lying on the sidewalk”.

Soldier “F” testimony:
Some “tough guys” developed it into ‘an ideology’, according to which we have to react brutally even for minor events. A woman threw a sandal at me. I kicked her with my foot at her crotch. I broke her. She can’t have children any longer. Next time she won’t throw sandals at me… and when another woman spat at me she got the butt of my gun in her face. She can’t spit now.

Soldier “G” described his first forced entry to a home to detain a Palestinian:
“He was real big, some 30 years old. He refused detention. We hit him but couldn’t force him down. Some people came hurling stones at us. We beat him and told him to lie down. Till he finally did. We drove to the base with him. By that time he had lost consciousness. He died some days later”.

Nofer Ishai-Karen: “Some NCOs encouraged the soldiers to behave brutally, and provided their own example.

Soldier “H” testimony:
After two months in Rafah a new NCO commander arrived. The first patrol, which he commanded, was at 06 hours. Rafah was under curfew. Not a soul was on the street. Then he saw a young boy, of about 4, playing in the sand in the courtyard of his home. The kid was building a castle in the sand.

Suddenly the NCO, a guy from the Engineers Corps, ran to chase the kid. We followed. He captured the kid and broke his elbow. Broke the kid’s elbow! Damn me if I’m not telling the truth! Then the NCO treaded on the kid’s stomach three times, before he moved on. We couldn’t believe our eyes… But the next day we went on patrol with that guy and the soldiers started to imitate him…

What happened then?
Some guys couldn’t stomach it. The case of severe abuse of three young adolescents, who were bounded hand and foot by a staff sergeant, got them to alert a senior officer. “When the medic arrived the boys were bleeding all over, their clothes were soaked with blood, and they were shivering from fear.

They were made to kneel like dogs and were afraid to move”. The NCO was punished by 3 months detention. But the platoon commander backed the NCO and reprimanded the conscientious soldiers for ‘defaming the platoon’.”

Nofer Ishai-Karen: The sacred value in the [Israeli] Army is “fighters’ solidarity”, i.e., loyalty towards your fellow combatants. The platoons protected its secrets, as a family defends its ‘black sheep’. The fellows regard as “traitors” the conscientious soldiers, says Nofer Ishai-Karen. The cover-up was complete when our ‘good guy’ was excommunicated and ostracized by the entire platoon. And the NCO? He left the country, and now lives in the U.S. of A. The majority of the soldiers of these platoons had left Israel. Only five or six remain in Israel.

Nofer studied two platoons ESHBAL and ESHKHAR, the last was more extreme in its violence, she says.

Finally back to Ilan Vilenda, the only soldier who allowed Nofer to use his full name and even be photographed. Vilenda was a staff sergeant in charge of ‘operations’.

Ilan Vilenda’s testimony:
“Our job was to beat them… I personally hit a boy and another. I used my hands or the truncheon. We beat more severely [Palestinian] adults. We acted like policemen but we acted outside the law. There was this Palestinian who had a TV at home. The World Cup in Soccer was on, and we used to invade his privacy to watch the games. After a while he had enough, and asked us take the TV set and move.

“I was born on a Kibbutz, to a family whose values were humane ‘Zionist left wing’. The Palestinians threw tons of stones at us. Whereas at the beginning my ideological commitment restrained my actions, my anger accumulated, and I released it violently. It was meant to be. We were there “to make them [Palestinians] pay. My political views changed too. I now support the extreme-right-religious National-Religious Party. After his release from the army, Vilenda and 5 other Israelis were arrested in Goa, India for possession of LSD. “I wanted to serve my country. This was my task… but the entire IDF is executing illegal-orders.

Who is responsible?

General Matan Vilna’i [now serving under Ehud Barak as vice Minister of Defense] was at the time [during the First Intifada] Chief of the IDF Southern Command. He often visited our platoon and discussed with soldiers, says Nofer But… there you go… the ‘Instruments of DENIAL and CONCEALMENT’ went to work…”

Besides: The Israeli Army didn’t provide the unit with regular training, nor were the soldiers given regular leaves, or provided with free time to recuperate and recover. The interviewed soldiers maintained that the longer they operated [against the Palestinians in Rafah] without leave, the more violent they became in imposing their kind of ‘Law and Order’. They claimed “Army [commanders] were aware of the erosion towards violence, and encouraged it in order to save manpower”.

NOTES:
General Matan Vilna’i must have known what happened. High-ranking officers who served on the Occupied West Bank had voiced similar warnings against Israeli Army behavior. “The orders left a wide gap, a margin… of intentionally un-specified ‘grey zone’, which encouraged violent behavior of soldiers”, said Reserve Colonel Elisha Shapira, who served in the Nablus Area at the same time. Soldiers were told “don’t hit Palestinians – but bring them to interrogation ‘swell-headed’ – blown-up”.

The events, which Nofer Ishai-Karen researched, happened some 17 years ago. The situation has further deteriorated since that time. Now Israeli Army and Air Force General openly take pride in acts of revenge against Palestinian civilians. Maj-Gen Eliezer Shkeidi took pride in announcing that his pilots break the sound barrier over Gaza, producing sonic booms.

These cause severe PTSD symptoms among young children; they have also caused miscarriages among pregnant women. The indiscriminate shelling of Palestinian homes had caused many deaths lately, including many children. Perhaps last but not least: The Israeli cabinet, backed by Washington, said it would disrupt power and fuel supply to Gaza.

[1] This is an abbreviated translation of an article by Dalia Karpel titled HAMEDOVEVET [=the one who makes people talk]. The article appeared on the Hebrew Weekend Supplement, on 21 September 2007. It is based on academic research, which Nofer Ishai-Karen and Psychology Prof. Joel Elizur, of the Hebrew University published in ALPAYIM Magazine Vol. 31.

[2] The article was not translated to English and thus did NOT appear in Haaretz English Language edition.

[3] Psychology Prof. Joel Elizur, of the Hebrew University, who guided Nofer Ishai-Karen in her Master’s thesis, served in the reserves in the Mental Health Department of the Israeli Army. But the IDF wouldn’t allow him to research into Israeli Soldiers’ violence. The researchers hold the interview raw audio material.

[4] To my best knowledge the Israeli Army hasn’t either charged a single case of abuse or murder by soldiers of Palestinians in proper court.

http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/905287

In Memory of Haidar Abdel Shafi

Speech by Haidar Abdel Shafi Madrid 31 October 1991

In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate. O esteemed audience.
Allow me first to extend greetings of thanks and appreciation to the State of Spain, king, government, and people, for hosting this historic conference. I would also like to extend greetings of pride and appreciation for the sons of the Palestinian people who are still
struggling for freedom and independence. I will now speak on their behalf to you and the various democratic powers in the world in English.

Mr. Baker, Mr. Pankin, ladies and gentlemen: On behalf of the Palestinian delegation, we meet in Madrid, a city with a rich texture of history, to weave together the fabric which joins our past with future, to reaffirm a wholeness of vision which once brought about a reverse of civilization and a world order based on barmony in diversity. Once again, Christian,
Muslim, and Jew face the challenge of heralding a new era enshrined in global values of democracy, human rights, freedom, justice, and security. From Madrid, we launch this quest for peace, a quest to place the sanctity of human life at the center of our world, and to redirect our energies and resources from the pursuit of mutual destruction to the pursuit of joint
prosperity, progress, and happiness.

We, the people of Palestine, stand before you in the fullness of our pain, our pride, and our anticipation, for we long harbored a yearning for peace and a dream of justice and freedom. For too long, the Palestinian people have gone unheeded, silenced and denied. Our identity negated by political expediency; our right for struggle against injustice maligned; and our present existence subdued by the past tragedy of another people. For the greater part of this century we have been victimized by the myth of a land without a people and described with impunity as the invisible Palestinians. Before such willful blindness, we refused to disappear or to
accept a distorted identity. Our intifada is a testimony to our perseverance and resilience waged in a just struggle to regain our rights. It is time for us to narrate our own story, to stand witness as advocates of truth which bas long lain buried in the consciousness and conscience of
the world. We do not stand before you as supplicants, but rather as the torch-bearers who know that, in our world of today, ignorance can never be an excuse. We seek neither an admission of guilt after the fact, nor vengeance for past inequities, but rather an act of will that would make a just peace a reality.

We speak out ladies and gentlemen, from the full conviction of the rightness of our cause, the verity of our history, and the depth of our commitment. There in lies the strength of the Palestinian people today, for we have scaled walls of fear and reticence, and we wish to speak out with the courage and integrity that our narrative and history deserve. The cosponsors have invited us here today to present our case and to reach out to the other with whom we have had to face a mutually exclusive reality on the land of Palestine. But even in the invitation to this peace conference, our narrative was distorted and our truth only partially aknowledged.

The Palestinian people are one, fused by centuries of history in Palestine, bound together by a collective memory of shared sorrows and joys, and sharing a unity of Purpose and vision. Our songs and ballads, full of tales and children’s stories, the dialect of our jokes, the image
of our Poems that hint of melancholy which colors even our happiest moments are as important to us as the blood ties which link our families and clans. Yet, an invitation to discuss peace, the peace we ail desire and need, comes to only a portion of our people. It ignores our national,
historical, and organic unity. We come here wrenched from our sisters and brothers in exile to stand before you as the Palestinians under occupation, although we maintain that each of us represents the rights and interests of the whole.

We have been denied the right to publicly acknowledge our loyalty to our leadership and system of government. But allegiance and loyaIty cannot be censored or severed. Our acknowledged leadership is more than the justly democratically chosen leadership of all the Palestinian people. It is the symbol of our national unity and identity, the guardian of our past, the protector of our present and the hope of our future. Our people have chosen to entrust it with their history and the preservation of our precious legacy. This leadership has been clearly and unequivocally recognized by the Community of nations, with only a few exceptions who had chosen for so many years shadow over substance. Regardless of the nature and conditions of our oppression, whether the disposition and dispersion of exile or the brutality and repression of the occupation, the Palestinian people cannot be torn asunder. They remain a united nation wherever they are, or are forced to be.

And Jerusalem, ladies and gentlemen, that city which is not only the soul Palestine, but the cradle of three world religions, is tangible even in its claimed absence from our midst at this stage. It is apparent, through artificial exclusion from this conference, that this is a denial of its
right to seek peace and redemption. For it, too, has suffered from war and occupation. Jerusalem, the city of peace, has been barred from a peace conference and deprived of its calling. Palestinian Jerusalem, the capital of our homeland and future state, defines Palestinian existence, past, present, and future, but itself has been denied a voice and an identity.
Jerusalem defies exclusive possessiveness or bondage. Israel’s annexation of Arab Jerusalem remains both clearly illegal in the eyes of the world community, and an affront to the peace that this city deserves.

We come to you from a tortured land and a proud, though captive people, having been asked to negotiate with our occupiers, but leaving behind the children of the intifada, and a people under occupation and under curfew who enjoined us not to surrender or forget. As we speak, thousands of our brothers and sisters are languishing in Israeli prisons and detention
camps, most detained without evidence, charge, or trial, many cruelly mistreated and tortured in interrogation, guilty only of seeking freedom or daring to defy the occupation. We speak in their name and we say: Set them free. As we speak, the tens of thousands who have been wounded or permanently disabled are in pain. Let peace heal their wounds. As we speak, the eyes of thousands of Palestinian refugees, deportees, and displaced persons since 1967 are haunting us, for exile is a cruel fate. Bring them home. They have the right to return. As we speak, the silence of demolished homes echoes through the halls and in our minds. We must
rebuild our homes in our free state.

And what do we tell the loved ones of those killed by army bullets? How do we answer the questions and the fear in our children’s eyes? For one out of three Palestinian children under occupation has been killed, injured, or detained in the past four years. How can we explain to Our children that they are denied education, for schools are so often closed by the army? Or why their life is in danger for raising a flag in a land where even children are killed or jailed? What requiem can be sung for trees uprooted by army bulldozers? And most of all, who can explain to those whose lands are confiscated and clear waters stolen, a message of peace?
Remove the barbed wire. Restore the land and its life-giving water. The settlements must stop now. Peace cannot be waged while Palestinian land confiscated in myriad ways and the status of the occupied territories is being decided each day by Israeli bulldozers and barbed wire. This is not simply a position. It is an irrefutable reality. Territory for peace is a travesty when territory for illegal settlement is official Israeli policy and practice. The settlements must stop now.

In the name of the Palestinian people, we wish to directly address the Israeli people with whom we have had a prolonged exchange of pain: Let us share hope, instead. We are willing to live side by side on the land and the promise of the future. Sharing, however, requires two partners, willing to share as equals. Mutuality and reciprocity must replace domination and hostility for genuine reconciliation and coexistence under international legality. Your security and ours are mutually dependent, as entwined as the fears and nightmares of our children. We have seen some of you at your best and at your worst. For the occupier can bide no secrets
from the occupied, and we are witness to the toll that occupation bas exacted from you and yours.

We have seen you agonize over the transformation of your sons and daughters into instruments of a blind and violent occupation. And we are sure that at no time did you envisage such a role for the children whom you thought would forge your future. We have seen you look back in deepest sorrow at the tragedy of your past, and look on in horror at the disfigurement of the victim-turned-oppressor. Not for this have you nurtured your hopes dreams, and your off-spring. This is why we have responded with solemn appreciation to those of you who came to offer consolation to our bereaved, to give support to those whose homes were being demolished and to extend encouragement and counsel to those detained behind barbed wire and iron bars. And we have marched together, often choking, together in the nondiscriminatory tear gas or crying out in pain as the clubs descended on both Palestinian and Israeli alike, for ain knows no national boundaries, and no one can claim a monopoly on suffering. We once formed a human chain around Jerusalem, joining hands and calling for Peace. Let us today form a moral chain around Madrid and continue that noble effort for peace and a promise of freedom for our sons and daughters. Break through the barriers of mistrust and manipulated fears. Let us look forward in magnanimity and in hope.

To our Arab brothers and sisters, most of whom are represented here in this historic occasion, we express our loyalty gratitude for their life-long support and solidarity. We are here together seeking a just and lasting Peace, whose cornerstone is freedom for Palestine, justice for the
Palestinians, and an end to the occupation of all Palestinian and Arab lands. Only then can we really enjoy together the fruits of peace, prosperity, security, and human dignity and freedom,

In particular, we address our Jordanian colleagues in our joint delegation: our two peoples have a very special historic and geographic relationship. Together we shall strive to achieve peace. We will continue to strive for our sovereignty, while proceeding freely and willingly to
prepare the grounds for a confederation between the two states of Palestine and Jordan, which can be a cornerstone for our security and prosperity.

To the community of nations on our fragile planet, to the nations of Africa and Asia, to the Muslim world, and particularly to Europe, on whose southern and neighborly shores we meet today, from the heart of our collective struggle for peace, we greet you and acknowledge your support and recognition. You have recognized our rights and our government, and have given us real support and protection. You have penetrated the distorting mist of racism, stereotyping, and ignorance, and committed the act of seeing the invisible and listening to the voice of the silenced. Palestinians under occupation and in exile have become a reality in your
eyes, and with courage and determination, you have affirmed the truth of our narrative. You have taken up our cause and our case, and we have brought you into our hearts. We thank you for caring and daring to know the truth, the truth which must set us all free.

To the cosponsors and participants in this occasion of awe and challenge, we pledge our commitment to the principle of justice, peace, and reconciliation based on international legitimacy and uniform standards. We shall persist in our quest for peace to place before you the substance and determination of our people, often victimized but never defeated. We shall
pursue our people’s right to self-determination to the exhilaration of freedom and to the warmth of the sun as a nation among equals.

This is the moment of truth. You must have the courage to recognize it and the will to implement it, for our truth can no longer be hidden away in the dark recesses of inadvertency or neglect. Peo ple of Palestine look atyou with a straightforward, direct gaze, seeking to touch your heart, for you have dared to stir up hopes that cannot be abandoned. You cannot
afford to let us down, for we have lived up to the values you espouse, and we have remained true to our cause.

We, the Palestinian people, made the imaginative leap in the Palestine
National Council of November 1988, during which the Palestine Liberation
Organization launched its peace initiative based on Security Council
Resolution 242 and 338, and declared Palestinian independence based on
Resolution 181 of the United Nations, which eave birth to two states in
1948, Israel and Palestine. December 1988, a historic speech before the
United Nations in Geneva led directly to the launching of the
Palestinian-American dialogue. Ever since then, Our people have responded
positively to every serious peace initiative and have done the utmost to
ensure the success of this process. Israel, on the other hand, has placed
many obstacles and barriers in the path of peace to negate the very
validity of the process. Its illegal and frenzied settlement activity is
the most glaring evidence of its rejectionism, the latest settlement being
erected just two days ago. These historic decisions of the Palestine
National Council wrench the course of history from inevitable
confrontation and conflict towards peace and mutual recognition- With our
own hands and in an act of sheer will, we have molded the shape of the
future of our people. Our parliament has articulated the message of the
people, with the courage to say “yes” to the challenge of history, just as
it provided the reference in its resolutions last month in AIgiers and in
the Central Council meeting this month in Tunis to go forward to this
historic conference. We cannot be made to bear the brunt of other people’s
“no’s.” We must have reciprocity. We must have peace.

Ladies and gentlemen: In the Middle East, there is no superfluous People
outside time and place, but rather a state sorely missed by time and
place. The state of Palestine must be born on the land of Palestine to
redeem the injustice of the destruction of its historical reality and to
free the people of Palestine from the shackles of their victimization.

Our homeland has never ceased to exist in our minds and hearts, but it has
to exist as a state on all the territories occupied by Israel in the war
of 1967 with Arab Jerusalem as its capital ‘s in the context of that
city’s special status and its nonexclusive character

This state, in a condition of emergence, has already been a subject of
anticipation for too long, should take place today rather than tomorrow.
However, we are willing to accept the proposal for a transitional stage
provided interim arrangements are not transformed into permanent status.
The time frame must be condensed to respond to the dispossessed
Palestinians’ urgent need for. sanctuary and to the occupied Palestinians’
right to gain relief from oppression and to win recognition of their
authentic will.

During this phase, international protection for our people is most
urgently, needed; And the de jure application of the Fourth Geneva
Convention is a necessary condition. The phases must not prejudice the
outcome. Rather, they require an internal momentum and motivation to lead
sequentially to sovereignty. Bilateral negotiations on the withdrawal Of
Israeli forces, the dissolution of Israeli administration, and the
transfer of authority to the Palestinian people cannot proceed under
coercion or threat in the current asymmetry of power.

Israel must demonstrate its willingness to negotiate in good faith by
immediately halting all settlement activity and land confiscation while
implementing meaningful confidence-building measures.

Without genuine progress, tangible constructive changes and just
agreements during the bilateral talks, multilateral negotiations will be
meaningless. Regional stability, security, and development are the logical
outcorne of an equitable and just solution to the Palestinian question,
which remains the key to the resolution of wider conflicts and concerns.

In its confrontation of wills between the legitimacy of the people and the
illegality of the occupation, the intifada’s message bas been consistent
to embody the Palestinian state and to build its institutions and
infrastructure. We seek recognition for this creative impulse which
nurtures within it the potential nascent state.

We have paid a heavy price for daring to substantiate our authenticity and
to practice popular democracy in spite of the cruelty of occupation. It
was a sheer act of will that brought us here; the same will which asserted
itself in the essence of the intifada as the cry for freedom, an act of
civil resistance and people’s participation and empowerment.

The intifada is our drive towards nation-building and social
transformation. We are here today with the support of our people, who have
given itself the right to hope and to make a stand for peace. We must
recognize as well that some of our people harbor serious doubts and
skepticism about this process. Within our democratic, social, and
political structures, we have evolved a respect for pluralism and
diversity and we shall guard the opposition’s right to differ within the
parameters of mutual respect and national unity.

The process launched here must lead us to the light at the end of the
tunnel. And this light is the promise of a new Palestine-free, democratic,
and respectful of human rights and the integrity of nature.

Self-determination, ladies and gentlemen, can neither be granted nor
withheld at the will of the political self-interest of others. For it is
enshrined in all international charters and humanitarian law. We claim
this right; we firmly assert it here before you and in the eyes of the
rest of the world. For it is a sacred and inviolable right which we shall
relentlessly pursue and exercise with dedication and self-confidence and
pride.

Let’s end the Palestinian-Israeli fatal proximity In this unnatural
condition of occupation, which has already claimed too many lives. No
dream of expansion or glory can justify the taking of a single life. Set
us free to reengage as neighbors and as equals on our holy land-

To our people in exile and under occupation, who have sent us to this
appointment, laden with their trust, love, and aspirations, we say that
the load is heavy and the task is great, but we shall be true. In the
words Of our great Poet Mahmud Darwish: My homeland is not a suitcase and
I am no traveler.

To the exiled and the occupied we say you shall return and you shall
remain and we will prevail, for our cause is just We will put on our
embroidered robes and kafiyehs in the sight of the world and celebrate
together on the day of liberation.

Refugee camps are not fit for people who were raised to the land of
Palestine in the warmth of the sun and freedom. The hail of Israeli bombs
almost daily pouring down on our defenseless civilian population in the
refugee camps of Lebanon is no substitute for the healing rain of the
homeland. Yet, the international will had ensured their return in United
Nations Resolution 194-a fact willfully ignored and unenacted. Similarly,
all other resolutions pertinent to the Palestinian question beginning with
resolution 181, through resolutions 242 and 338, and ending with Security
Council Resolution 681, have until now been relegated to the domain of
public debate rather than real implementation. They formed a larger body
of legality, including all relevant provisions of international law within
which any peaceful settlement must proceed. If international legitimacy
and the rule of law are to prevail and govern relations among nations,
they must be respected and impartially and uniformly implemented. We as
Palestinians require nothing less than justice.

Palestinians everywhere: Today we bear in our hands the precious gift of
your love and your pain, and we shall set it down gently here before the
eyes of the world and say there is a right here which must be
acknowledged-the right to self-determination and statehood. There is
strength and there is the scent of sacred incense in the air. Jerusalem,
the heart of our homeland and the cradle of the soul, is shimmering
through the barriers, of occupation and deceit.

The deliberate violation of its sanctities is also an act of violence
against collective human, cultural, and spiritual memory and an aggression
against its enduring symbols of tolerance, magnanimity, and respect for
cultural religious authenticity.

The cobbled streets of the old city must not echo with the discordant beat
Israeli military boots. We must restore to them the chant of the muezzin,
chimes of the church, the call of the ram and the prayers of all the
faithful calling for peace in the city of peace

From Madrid let’s light the candle of peace and let the olive branch
blossom. Let’s celebrate the rituals of justice and rejoice in the hymns
of truth, for the awe of the moment is a promise to the future, which we
all must redeem.

Palestinians will be free and will stand tall among the community of
nations in the fullness of the pride and dignity which, by right, belongs
to all people. Today, our people under occupation are holding high the
olive branch of peace.

In the words of Chairman Arafat in 1974 before the UN General Assembly:
Let not the olive branch of peace fall from my hands. Let not the olive
branch of peace fall from the hands of the Palestinian people. May God’s
mercy, peace, and blessings be upon you.