Mr. Shawqi al-Aissa, Minister of Social Affairs and Agriculture of Palestine,

Mr. Hassan Mneimneh, Chairman of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee,

Mr. Derek Plumbly, United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon,

Our distinguished guest, Ms. Mireille Fanon-Mendes-France,

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

I stand before you on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.  Although I have never doubted the importance of this solidarity, I sympathize with those who wonder what this day means to a people that has suffered decades of alienation and oppression, but have unfalteringly persevered in their demands for their rights, land and a dignified life.

 

Sixty six years ago, the superpowers decided to divide Palestine into two States, promising that partition would not diminish the rights of its inhabitants, including their right to their own State. However, the decision was not implemented and the promise was not fulfilled.  Since then, Palestinians have either been forcefully displaced within their country or have had to seek refuge in other countries; thousands of their villages have been erased from the map.  Their country was redesignated, their identity and names were altered; most of them became refugees.  An uncertain future stretched before them.  They have been uprooted; they fled to camps to escape death, but death and misery have pursued them.  Today, the names of their villages and camps are synonyms of the tragic massacres that have taken place there, from Deir Yassin near Jerusalem 66 years ago to al-Shati refugee camp and the Shujaiya neighbourhood in Gaza, only one month ago.

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

Since the creation of Israel, the Palestinian people have been faced solely with pernicious choices: death in their villages or death in refugee camps, repression through forceful detention or repression through forceful displacement.  As refugees forced to flee their land, their homes are temporary as are, sometimes, their graves.  As victims of the blockade, they are under siege in their towns, villages and neighbourhoods, or imprisoned in dark cells.  Israel re-enacts the events of 1948 every year.  The actions that Israel committed on the Palestinian coast 66 years ago are being perpetuated in the mountains to the east of the country and in Gaza, through wars and ceasefires, with the sole aim of breaking the spirit of the Palestinian people and engraining defeat in their hearts.

 

The winds of change are blowing, however.  Alienation and oppression are only strengthening the Palestinian people’s determination to demand their rights and regain their land.  Like any coloniser drunk with power, Israel considers physical resistance to its tyranny as an act of terror and verbal resistance as incitement to commit acts of terror. Like any coloniser that pays no heed to history, it employs excessive force, and fear and intimidation tactics in a misguided effort to subjugate the Palestinian people, who are merely demanding their rights.

 

Israel continues to implement its settlement policy in the occupied territories in flagrant violation of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention. Palestinian homes continue to be destroyed and their possessions seized.  Settlers are given the freedom to do as they please with the land and lives of the original inhabitants.  Settlements now cover almost 40 per cent of the West Bank.  In Jerusalem, homes and humans are hostages of Israel.

 

This year, 2014, is the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, but Israel continues to perpetuate its increasingly insidious policies and practices, aimed at evicting the Palestinians to establish a demographic reality in its favour; seizing land to extend its absolute power; and repressing any attempts to resist its actions. The Palestinian Cause is an open wound on the Arab region’s heart, continually suffering from the endless violence, death and human rights violations.  Yet, parts of the world remain insensitive.

 

Israel implements numerous procedures and military orders that breach international law to fulfill its purposes. During the recent seven-week war, Israel razed the residences of civilians to the ground, burying women, children and the elderly under the rubble of their own homes.  Events in East Jerusalem are a blatant example of apartheid policies. Israel employs various measures, including economic restrictions, fear and intimidation, occupation of homes and eviction of residents, to alter the demographic balance and create a Jewish majority in occupied Jerusalem.  The current backlash in the city was therefore inevitable.

 

Israel is openly demanding that it be recognized as a nation State solely for Jews, as stated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It unashamedly broadcast racist statements by its leaders and officials during the recent war on Gaza, demanding the eradication of its inhabitants and the murder of Palestinian mothers to punish their sons.

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

Many States, organizations and individuals have shown solidarity with the Palestinian people and faith in the Cause.  Their good intentions stand in stark contrast to the repeated acts of destruction.  Today, we hope that what has been devastated in the occupied Palestinian territory will be quickly rebuilt and that the land and sea blockade of the Gaza Strip will be lifted.  This is a matter of humanitarian and political urgency.

 

The ultimate aim is to put an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories, in strict compliance with international law, to ensure a just and lasting peace and guarantee all the rights of the Palestinian people, including their right of return.  It is unacceptable that Israel should be permitted to apply international law as it sees fit.

 

The United Nations Charter and international treaties, implemented to avoid the reoccurrence of past tragedies, condemn political systems that are based on segregation along racial and religious lines. Nevertheless, the Israeli Law of Return and the Jewish State bill discriminate on the basis of religion.  

If the millions of Palestinian refugees, whether Christian, Muslim, Baha’i or otherwise, were to miraculously adopt a certain religion, Israel would allow them to return to their land, in accordance with the Law of Return. If the millions of Palestinians living in the occupied territory since 1967 were to convert to that religion, they would have the right to vote on the laws that have governed their lives for over 47 years.  They would also have the right to access the many highways that the occupying forces have banned them from using. Their homes and land would be protected from confiscation for the purpose of settlement building. The occupying forces would build them houses, rather than destroy their homes.

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

Israel is a colonizing power that practises racial segregation, a policy that has been widely denounced; it is a remnant of a long and painful period of colonialism, overflowing with harsh lessons, most importantly that colonialism never prevails because it contradicts the laws of nature and the continuation of life.  Justice and righteousness are the only foundations for peace; justice would entail a complete cessation of the events taking place in Palestine.

 

As the philosopher and anti-colonialist Frantz Fanon stated: “When we revolt it’s not for a particular culture.  We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe”.

 

Today, as we express our ongoing solidarity with the Palestinian people, we also apologize for their prolonged suffering.  Their patience, resilience and unwavering hope are an example to us all; this hope is our inspiration.  If those who have lost their homes and loved ones have not been overcome by despair, then it is unacceptable that we should succumb to despair.  Peace will once again prevail.