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Israel this weekend barred Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat
from leaving the West Bank to attend an Organization of the Islamic
Conference meeting in Doha, Qatar.
His speech was delivered by Dr. Saeb Eriqat, Minister of local
Government
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Full text of speech of Yasser Arafat
President of the Palestine National Authority
at the Emergency Meeting
of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the
Organization of Islamic Conference
In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful Glory to (God) Who did
take His Servant
For a Journey by night From the Sacred Mosque To the Farthest Mosque, Whose
precincts We did
Bless, - in order that We Might show him some Of Our Signs: for He Is the
One Who hearth
And Seeth (all things).
Sadaqa Allahu Al-Athim
H R H Brother Sheikh Hamad Ben Khalifa Al-Thani,
Excellencies,
In the name of our Palestinian people, who are gripping the smoldering
embers and who are steadfast and stand put in the holy land of
steadfastness, the blessed Land of Palestine, I would like to convey my
deepest thanks to my brother H R H Sheikh Hamad Ben Khalifa Al-Thani, the
Emir of the fraternal State of Qatar, for hosting this ministerial
emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC). I would
like as well to convey to you all our thanks for your immediate and quick
response to our request to hold this important meeting in Doha, the Capital
of the fraternal State of Qatar, hosted by and under the patronage of its
Emir H R H our brother Seikh Hamad Ben Khalifa
Al-Thani. [The aim is] to study and examine the dangerous escalation of the
Israeli aggression against our Palestinian people, to adopt the appropriate
decisions and resolutions in order to face this blatant
aggression which has exceeded all bounds, all things that are sacred or
taboo and the ratified agreements.
As you know, our Palestinian people and their National Authority are being
exposed, for more than fourteen months, to a brutal and vicious Israeli
aggression in which all means of killing, terror and
Destruction are being employed. This treacherous aggression has entered a
very dangerous stage which started with the bombardment by the US- F-15 and
F-16 fighter planes and Apache helicopter gun ships, tanks, missiles and
machine-guns, even the internationally prohibited weapons such as
depleted uranium and various types of gas bombs. This has inflicted upon
our people, women, children and men, a large number of martyrs and wounded
which reached till now more than 1900 martyrs and 39000 injured, and
inflicted upon many of them permanent handicaps. In addition many
basic facilities and infrastructures have been destroyed recently, as well
as the presidential helicopters, their pads and facilities attached to
them, all institutions and facilities of the Palestine National Authority,
including schools, buildings, homes, factories, Palestinian National
Security and Police stations and headquarters, even a number of prisons in
the cities of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, the runway of
the Gaza International Airport was occupied, destroyed and bulldozed. Its
equipment and belongings ware destroyed. In addition new lands of the
Palestine National Authority were occupied. The strangulating siege was
tightened in all its forms, against our towns, villages and refugee-camps.
This has led to the intensification of the plight, pains and sufferings of
our people in movement because of the Israeli military checkpoints which
have hindered the movement among the
Palestinian towns and villages and their surroundings. As a result of that
siege there is also a severe shortage in food supplies, necessary medical
supplies and fuel. This total siege caused the death of a large number of
our sick people at the Israeli military checkpoints because they were
forbidden to reach hospitals. It also caused the paralysis of the
commercial and economic life as well as that of some schools because our
teachers and pupils were forbidden from reaching them. We have incurred
losses that exceed US dollars seven billion according to international
statistics in the various sector and fields. This forewarns of the
unfolding of a catastrophe to our people which no one can forecast its
consequences. In addition they have blocked the revenues of our taxes and
financial claims which total more than US 800 million (eight hundred
million).
Your Highness,
Your Excellencies,
As you know, we in the Palestine National Authority are committed to our
obligation vis-�-vis the peace process. We have not hesitated even for a
moment to provide all facilities and to create the appropriate atmosphere
for this peace process to continue, and to reach the �peace of the brave�,
just and comprehensive peace, according to the International legitimacy and
the UN resolutions 242, 338, 425 and 194, and the land for peace principal
according to Madrid Conference, and we have responded positively to all
initiatives you know of, including the Egyptian - Jordanian initiative and
the Saudi efforts. We have accepted the Tenet Understandings, and the
Recommendations of the Mitchell
Commission Report on achieving an immediate and comprehensive cease-fire.
We are still exerting all efforts to preserve and maintain it. All that
culminated in our meeting on 26 September 2001 with Mr.
Peres, the Israeli Foreign Minister at the Gaza International Airport, in
order to achieve calm and to find a way out of the current crisis, an
agreement, which the Israeli side declared it will not abide by.
Indeed, the Israeli side escalated its military aggression instead of
implementing that agreement. They called this escalation the "Oranim"
Military Plan, or Hell Plan, against our people and against the whole
peace process. The Israeli side is still working according to this plan. It
has also formed special units for assassinations as well as other units.
Furthermore, instead of cooperating with us and with all these efforts and
initiatives in a positive, flexible and committed manner, the Government of
Israel continued to escalate its aggression and
strangulating siege against our Palestinian people. The Government of
Israel continued its policy of killing and assassinations and the
destruction of public and private property with the aim of aborting
these efforts and initiatives as well as undermining the results of these
International and Arab efforts, including the quadripartite US, Russian,
European and United Nations efforts, and those of the
Non-Aligned and fraternal Arabs. This proves to all, and to all concerned
with peace that this Government is not serious about achieving and making
real peace with us, the just and comprehensive peace which is supported and
blessed by the whole international community. This also proves its
intentions to continue its policy aiming at undermining and destroying the
PNA, its civil and security institutions and facilities, as well as
killiits leaders and figures. The Government of Israel has
declared this repeatedly by its senior officials. The aim of this
aggressive policy is to bring its pressure to bear upon, and to continue
its war against the PNA and the Palestinian leadership in order to
succumb to the Israeli conditions of settlement so as to find a way out of
the current crisis. In addition, all this underlines, the statement made,
some days ago, by the Israeli Minister of Finance, Silvan Shalom, on
barring the transfer of all our financial claims, which are being
illegitimately blocked by Israel and by declaring that these claims will be
used to finance the security expenditure of the Government of Israel.
This is so in order to continue the Israeli aggression against us. This
Israeli policy also includes the dangerous aggressions against our
Christian and Islamic holy places in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and other places.
Furthermore, the Government of Israel seeks, from continuing this
aggression against our people and their National Authority, the undermining
and failure of the efforts of mediation undertaken by the US delegation
headed by General Antoni Zinni, and the Egyptian delegation,
headed by the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Ahmad Maher as well
as those carried out by the other international, European, Russian and
global parties for maintaining the cease-fire and for the immediate
implementation of the Tenet Understandings and the Recommendations of the
Mitchell Commission Report and for the resumption of negotiations to
achieve a permanent solution, in accordance with the signed agreements and
the United Nations resolutions.
It has become clear to all, and to all observers of events and their
repercussions that the aim of the Government of Sharon and its war-general
staff by destroying the various institutions and facilities,
including the International Airport, the other civil and security
facilities of the PNA, including schools, residential buildings, as well as
the ongoing Israeli official propaganda campaign, followed by some
organs in some US and European states, which insists that the PNA is the
entity that supports terrorism and harbors terrorists, is indeed to cause
the failure of the sincere efforts undertaken by the PNA in response to all
Arab, Islamic and International efforts, to maintain, safeguard and push
forward the peace process. It seems they have forgotten, or want to forget,
that the Israeli occupation, aggression and daily crimes against our people
and holy places are in themselves the embodiment of terror according
especially to international law. It seems they have further forgotten that
our people are currently the only people the world over who are still under
occupation. Needless to say, they want to take us singly, to besiege and
combat the Palestinian Authority and the leadership while the world is
engaged with combating international terrorism especially following the
regrettable and terrorist events on 11/9 in New York and Washington which
we have condemned and rejected from the very beginning. We insist strongly
on this position.
Your Highness,
Your Excellencies,
This, in sum, are the facts and the sequence of events and developments in
the Palestinian Territory. What we are experiencing as Palestinian people
in terms of severe suffering and tremendous injustice resulting from the
ongoing occupation and its ferociousness, the Israeli settlements and the
crimes of settlers perpetrated with the help and protection of the Israeli
army against our land and Christian and
Islamic holy places, is the pinnacle of violence, terror, violation of
sanctuaries and holy places as well as of human rights of a whole people.
Our people have no choice but to be steadfast in the face of
aggression and occupation and to defend our land, the first of the two
Qiblas and the third among the three holy mosques, the place of the
nocturnal Journey of Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) and the place of
nativity of our lord Jesus Christ (peace be upon him) as well as to
defend our holy places. This is our legitimate right. It is the legitimate
right of the Arab and Islamic nation as well as Christians generally and
all peoples struggling to regain their freedom and
independence. Despite all the crimes and terror of the Israeli occupation,
our commitment to just and comprehensive peace, the peace of the brave,
will continue to remain firm and strong for it being our
strategic choice, in order to put an end to the occupation of all the Arab
and Palestinian occupied territories, and to enable our Palestinian people
to embody their sacred and legitimate right to
self-determination and to establish their independent state, with Holy
Jerusalem as its
capital. This right has become a firm international reality on the US
level, especially through the speech of US President George W. Bush at the
UN, as well as on the European, Russian, Chinese, Japanese,
Non-Aligned, Latin American states and the United Nations level. This right
also enjoys the support and unanimity of the whole international community.
This would not have happened without your good effort, and the
steadfastness and sacrifices of our people and their Intifada in the face
of this dangerous and escalating aggression carried out by this war machine
and the support from some quarters. Thus we comprehend and realize the aim
behind Israel's continuation of its war and aggression against our people,
namely it is to undermine this international unanimity. By so doing they
want to deprive our people from embodying this sacred right on their
national land, Palestine. Its aim, also, is to make sure that the peace
process in the region fails and to undermine its security and stability.
In these difficult and fateful circumstances through which we and the peace
process are passing, and on the basis of the confidence we have in our
Islamic Nation, the wisdom, will and courageousness of its leadership, we
call upon you to adopt a firm and decisive Islamic position, to support and
assist our people in their steadfastness and legitimate resistance in the
Holy Land, the land of Ribat. We call upon you to make quick moves, and to
exert every effective and influential effort at the United Nations and the
UN Security Council, and with all international parties concerned with
peace and its achievement in our region, in order to find the international
mechanism which can provide the necessary protection for our people who
have for long suffered, and who are still suffering from occupation; an
international mechanism that can oblige Israel to stop its aggression and
war against our people, their National Authority and leadership, an
aggression and a war that aim at undermining the PNA and creating confusion
and attempt to reoccupy the liberated areas and tear up the signed
agreements. This necessitates monitoring the implementation of the
agreements that have been done, especially Tenet and Mitchell, dispatching
of international observers and resuming negotiations on the basis of
implementing the principle of land for peace, the resolutions of
international legitimacy
242, 338 and 425 as well as 194 on the refugees. This is so in order to
establish and to build the just and yearned for peace for the sake of our
and their children. This is the only peace that will provide
security and stability for all the peoples and states in the region, to
live in good neighborliness and mutual respect. It is the peace which will
guarantee for our Palestinian people the termination of the
occupation and settlement of their land and holy places, as well as the
living in security, freedom, sovereignty and independence in their State of
Palestine, with holy Jerusalem as its capital.
Finally, I reiterate my thanks for this emergency meeting. I hope it will
adopt important decisions that will give a strong support to the
steadfastness and struggle of our Palestinian people and will serve the
interests and rights of our nation in its land and holy places as well as
serve the realization and establishment of just and permanent peace in the
Middle East region.
In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
And to eyour Temple
As they had entered it before,
And to visit with destruction
All that fell into their power.
Sadaqa Allahu Al Athim
Peace and God's blessings be with you.
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