Within a short period of time, we will reopen the talks to dampen the flame of hatred between the Palestinians and the State of Israel. As a first step, and in order to demonstrate our integrity and goodwill, I wish to invite the Palestinian-Jordanian delegation for an informal meeting here in Jerusalem, to hear them and to let them hear us, in order to create the proper atmosphere for a good partnership.
From this podium I want to send a message to you, the Palestinians in the territories: We have been destined to live together on the same piece of land in the same country. Our life proceeds alongside yours, with you, and against you. You have failed in the wars against us. A hundred years of bloody terror on your part only inflicted suffering, pain, and bereavement upon you. You have lost thousands of your sons and daughters, and you have constantly lost ground. For over 44 years you have been deluding yourselves, your leaders have been leading you by the nose with falsehoods and lies. They missed all the opportunities, they rejected all our proposed solutions, and they led you from one disaster to another. You, the Palestinians in the territories, living in miserable exile in Gaza and Khan Yunus and in the refugee camps in Nabulus and Hebron, you who have never in your lives known even one day of freedom and happiness: You had better listen to us, if only this time. We are offering you the most fair and realistic offer we can put forth today: autonomy, self-rule, with its advantages and limitations. You will not get all that you want. We, too, may not get everything we want. Once and for all, take your fate into your own hands. Do not once again miss the opportunity which may never recur. Take our proposal seriously, give it the seriousness it deserves to spare yourselves yet more suffering and bereavement. Enough of tears and blood!
Today the new government proposes to the Palestinians in the territories to give peace a chance and to stop all violent and terrorist activities during the autonomy negotiations. We know very well that the Palestinians are not of one mind and that some of them think differently, but the people have been suffering for years.
To the troublemakers in the territories we propose to drop the stones and the knives and await the outcome of the talks which may engender peace in the Middle East. If the Palestinians accept this proposal, we will pursue the talks. Nevertheless, we will deal with the territories as if there were no negotiations going on between us. Instead of stretching out a friendly hand, we will enforce all the measures to prevent terror and violence. The choice is in the hands of the Palestinians in the territories.
We have lost our best sons and daughters in the struggle over this land and in the wars against the Arab armies. My longtime comrades in the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] and I, as a former military man who fought in Israel’s wars, carry their memory in our hearts with great love. We share the grief of the families whose nights are sleepless and for whom all days of the year are one long memorial day, because only those who have lost their best friends can understand the feeling. Our heart also goes out to the disabled whose bodies are marked with the scars of war and terror. Even at this festive time, we do not forget the Israeli MIA’s and POW’s. We will continue to wage every possible effort to bring them back home. Our thoughts today, as always, are with their families.
Members of the Knesset, we will continue to fight for our right to live here in peace and tranquility. No knife, stone, firebomb, or mine will stop us. The government being presented here today sees itself responsible for the security of each and every Israeli citizen, Jew and Arab alike, in the State of Israel, in Judaea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip. We will strike hard and relentlessly at the terrorists and their henchmen. There will be no compromises in the war against terror. The IDF and the other security forces will prove to the bloodthirsty men that our lives are not expendable. We will take action to reduce hostile activities as much as possible and safeguard the personal safety of the inhabitants of Israel and the inhabitants of the territories while meticulously upholding the law and individual freedoms.
Members of the Knesset, on your behalf, too, allow me to seize this occasion to convey our gratitude to the soldiers and commanders of the IDF, to the secret warriors of the Shin Bet, to the men of the Border Police and the Israel Police for the nights spent in pursuit and lying in ambush, for the days spent on guard and on the alert. On behalf of all of us, I shake your hand.
Members of the Knesset, the plan for Palestinian self-rule in Judaea, Samaria, and Gaza—the autonomy—included in the Camp David accords involves a five-year interim arrangement. No later than three years after its establishment, discussions will begin on the permanent solution. By definition, the very fact that this issue is being discussed arouses concern among those of us who chose to settle in Judaea, Samaria, and the Gaza district. I hereby inform you that the government, by means of the IDF and the other security forces, will be responsible for the security and welfare of the residents in Judaea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip. At the same time, the government will avoid moves and acts that would disturb the proper conduct of the peace negotiations. We would like to emphasize that the government will continue to strengthen and build up Jewish settlement along the confrontation lines, due to their security importance, and in metropolitan Jerusalem.
This government, just like all its predecessors, believes there are no differences of opinion within this House concerning the eternalness of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Jerusalem, whole and united, has been and will remain the capital of the Israeli people under Israeli sovereignty, the place every Jew yearns and dreams of. The government is resolute in its position that Jerusalem is not a negotiable issue. The coming years, too, will witness the expansion of construction in metropolitan Jerusalem. Every Jew, both religious and secular, vows: If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither! This vow unites all of us and certainly applies to me, being a native of Jerusalem.
The government will uphold the freedom of worship of members of all other faiths in Jerusalem. It will meticulously maintain free access to the holy sites of all faiths and sects and will make a normal and comfortable life possible for all those visiting and living in it.
Members of the Knesset, the winds of peace that have been blowing recently from Moscow to Washington, from Berlin to Beijing; the voluntary elimination of weapons of mass destruction; and the abrogation of military pacts have decreased the risks of war in the Middle East as well. Nevertheless, this region—made up of Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon—is still rife with dangers, which is why we will not make even the slightest concession on issues of security. As far as we are concerned, security comes even before peace.
Several countries in our region have recently stepped up their efforts to develop and export nuclear weapons. According to reports, Iraq was very close to possessing nuclear arms. Fortunately, the Iraqi nuclear capability was exposed in time and, according to various testimonies, it was affected and damaged in and after the Gulf war. The possibility that nuclear weapons may make their appearance in the Middle East in the next few years is a negative and very serious development from Israel’s point of view. Already in its initial steps, the government—possibly with the cooperation of other countries—will give its attention to the foiling of every possibility that any of Israel’s enemies should get a hold on nuclear weapons. For a long time, Israel has been ready for the danger of the existence of nuclear weapons. Nevertheless, this reality requires us to give additional thought to the urgent need to terminate the Arab-Israeli conflict and to attain peace with our neighbors.
Members of the House, from this moment on, the term “peace process” is no longer relevant. Starting today we will not talk of a process, but of making peace. In making peace, we would like to employ the good services of Egypt, whose late leader Anwar al-Sadat mustered the courage and had the wisdom to award his people and us the first peace treaty. The government will seek other ways to improve neighborly relations and to enhance the ties with Egypt and its president, Husni Mubarak.
I call on the leaders of the Arab countries to follow in the footsteps of Egyp
t and its presidents, to make the move that will bring peace to us and them. I invite the king of Jordan and the Syrian and Lebanese presidents to come here to this podium, here in Israel’s Knesset in Jerusalem, and talk peace. I am willing to travel today, tomorrow, to Amman, Damascus, Beirut on behalf of peace, because there is no greater triumph than the triumph of peace. In wars, there are victors and vanquished. In peace, all are victors.
In making peace, we will also be joined by the United States, whose friendship and special closeness we sincerely appreciate and hold dear. We will spare no effort to tighten and improve the special relations we have with the only superpower in the world. Although we will receive its advice, the decisions will be ours only—of Israel as a sovereign and independent state.
PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat: Speech for Fatah’s Anniversary (December 31, 1992)
O revolutionaries in all the posts of the revolution, inside and outside the homeland; O masses of our fighting Palestinian people; O masses of our militant Arab nation, on such a day 28 years ago, the Palestinian people announced the start of the armed Palestinian revolution, which was ignited by the bullets of your pioneering movement—namely, the Fatah movement— on 1 January 1965. . . .
The road to victory and freedom, which our free men and revolutionaries are building day after day with their bare hands and pure blood, is the road to Palestine, which the faithful are longing for with their hearts.
Our people, O brothers and friends, are the active volcano in the Middle East which will only calm itself when one of the youths of the revolution and the intifada hoists the flag of your state over Jerusalem, and our homeland Palestine; an independent Palestine. . . .
Our battle to free the Palestinian will has been decided in favor of the Palestinian people, away from guardianship, dependence, and containment. The battle of the Palestinian will as expressed by the bullets of your leading movement, Fatah, early in 1965 was a hard and bitter one, but the few believers remained true to the oath and continued with resolve and strength.
The vanguard of your revolution, the Fatah movement, has proven that there is no going back on the jihad for Palestine, on the homeland, or on martyrdom. . . .
Masses of our glorious Arab nation. Ideological, political, and economic changes have swept our contemporary world. What was yesterday an established fact has today become something of the past. These changes have reached our region in the Middle East, bringing in the wake of their first wave the Gulf crisis and the Gulf war. This has dealt our Arab nation a great blow, hit Arab solidarity, and paralyzed the Arab position toward the Palestinian question, and as a result, lost us an historic opportunity to exploit those world changes for the national and the Palestinian interest. . . .
Then, my brothers, came the second wave, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the domination by the single uni-polar American power over the fate of international politics.
This new world order brings great, real, and manifest dangers that pose a challenge for the Arab nation—peoples as well as states. These risks keep our nation bogged down in the whirlwind of the conflicts of the new world order. We either live or we will have to die, especially as Israel, world Zionism, and their allies are lying in wait for any serious Arab trend aimed at building our national destiny in light of the new world situation. . . .
We must stand by our brothers in Iraq—its people and its children, lift their siege and their suffering, and thwart the conspiracy being perpetrated against Iraq’s territorial integrity and its unity. Likewise, the sanctions against Libya and its fraternal people must be lifted and their suffering must be brought to an end. And what about Somalia and our absence, as one Arab nation, when dealing with its problems, of which others have had to take charge? . . .
This is a clear declaration in the name of the entire nation: This land will remain Arab, will remain Arab, and will remain Arab. History will not register that the present generation of Palestinians squandered an atom of the soil of its homeland or of Jerusalem—or of Jerusalem.
Sons of our heroic Palestinian people, heroes in the positions of revolution, brothers, I want it to be clear to us all that the distance between us and the enemy at the negotiations table is too wide. . . .
Likewise, the distance is wide between us and the enemy in the field of conflict and the battle. But it is our political battle that covers our land and sanctities, and that will determine our fate and future. After more than a year since the start of the Madrid negotiations, which we attended despite the unjust conditions, our negotiators find themselves still at the same point at which they began. This is because the Israeli enemy is bent on maneuvering and not on negotiating. He tries to gain more time so that the conditions that forced him to sit face to face before the delegation of Palestine—the delegation of the owners of the land the enemy usurped and the land of the people he is persecuting and denies existence—may change. . . .
We have entered the negotiations in highly complicated Arab and international conditions and under unjust circumstances that are aimed at obstructing Palestinian participation. But thanks to our trust in ourselves and in our people, and our bold participation, we overcame the unjust conditions the Israeli enemy imposed.
International support for the Palestine right grew, and then came the Israeli elections, which brought the government of Yitzhaq Rabin, whom the U.S. Administration has given loan guarantees of $10 billion and guarantees for Israeli military supremacy. And so the Israeli Government continued with its policy of the iron fist, beatings, deportation, collective punishments, and crimes against our Islamic and Christian sanctities. The Israeli Government thus persisted in the confiscation of lands and the building of settlements for the new settlers in our land.
The policy of double dealing and measures that govern American attitudes toward the Arab-Israeli conflict have so far frustrated all opportunities for forcing the Israeli enemy to abide by the resolutions of international legitimacy and the withdrawal of its aggressor enemies from the Palestinian and Arab territories in implementation of these international resolutions, on whose basis the invitations to the Madrid peace conference were given, and for the implementation of which, talks were held in Washington and elsewhere.
The chronic fault in the pro-Israel U.S. stance alone explains the failure of the peace process in the Middle East. It is clear that successive American administrations make Israel a state above the law and above the resolutions of international legitimacy, and provide it with international protection and unlimited support.
Militant brothers, O sons of our brave intifada, our Palestinian delegation, the delegation of the Palestinian people, the PLO delegation, from the premise of our national constants approved by our national and central councils tightly tied Palestinian flexibility with the Palestinian national constants. [sentence as heard] With what brothers? With the national constants. Thus it rejected the enemy’s sayings and submissions. Our delegation held fast to our national constants and the resolutions of international legitimacy, especially UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, because they are the terms of reference of the peace process, from the moment it started until its conclusion with Israeli withdrawal from all the Arab and Palestinian territories, including holy Jerusalem, and the implementation of the principle of land for peace and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, including our right to return, to self-determination, and to establish an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital, on the way to Palestinian-Jordanian confederation in accordance with the voluntary and free choice of the two fraternal peoples: The Palestinian and the Jordanian.
Israel remaining an aggressive state, above the law and international legitimacy, only opens the door before lasting wars and total chaos. Yes, this only opens the door before lasting wars and total chaos in the region, which harms all. . . .
More steadfastness, more all-out confrontations in the sixth year of our blessed intifada in the towns, villages, camps, streets, fields, and mountains. The battle for natio
nal deliverance has begun with these solid Palestinian human blocs, who fill our lands and defy the bullets of the Israeli occupation and ferocity with their strong and profound faith and deep-rooted will and great sacrifices, and with national unity our staunch shield in the melting pot of the PLO, the sole legitimate representative of our people and revolution. . . .
The Palestinian people remain the secure fence for the unity of the revolution and the unity of the PLO, and for preserving its national program and its future decisions with patience, wisdom, and persistence, and on the basis of democratic principles and democratic dialogue, common denominators, political and organizational programs approved by our national councils, in order to consolidate this national unity. Those democratic principles have foiled crude intervention in our internal affairs of our Palestinian house. Hence, from here and in this blessed year, the sixth year of our intifada and the 29th of our revolution, we renew the call to all the brothers active in the national field, from all political orientations, to consolidate this national unity. . . .
I say to those I love in the Israeli prisons and detention camps that the day of freedom is nigh. Your brothers have been pounding at the doors of the great prison and you are pounding at the walls of your prisons and detention camps. Your voices roar to the world. Be patient. Victory is from God. Victory needs no more than an hour’s patience. . . .
Be patient. You are the spark that has inflamed anew the wrath of the masses of the Palestinian people in the face of the Israeli occupation. You are the free sons of this struggling people who have exposed the falsehood of Rabin and his Labor government with regard to the peace process. There will be no peace while you remain away from your homeland and kinsmen and your intifada. . . .
The Israel-Arab Reader Page 59
