Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Speech On 4th June 2008 In Ramallah

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Speech On 4th June 2008 In Ramallah
Marking The Anniversary Of 5th June 1967 War Anniversary

In The Name Of God, The Almighty And The Compassionate

Sisters and Brothers,
The day we mark the anniversary of the June 1967 aggression, I found it my duty to speak to you, frankly, about the overall issues and matters that are listed on top of priorities' set of our people, who stand fast in our land, in refugee camps as well in the prisons and detention centers of the occupiers.

First, I would like to stress to all our Palestinian people and to our Arab and Islamic nation that the passage of time and decades since the occupation of our land started would never force us to give up not even a single inch of our beloved land. Consecutive Arab summits, along with the international community and our Palestinian National Council, have all ruled that our land is where we establish our independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem its capital.

Should Israel want peace and security, it has no other choice but to fully withdraw from all the Palestinian and Arab territories back to the lines of 4th June 1967.

We are for just and comprehensive peace. Peace and security, however, cannot be attained through swords of occupation or bulldozers of settlements. The Israeli decisions to annex Jerusalem and build settlements in the city and in the West Bank, along with the Separation
Apartheid wall, are void and null. These decision can never form the basis for achieving peace.

The policy of imposing settlement facts on the ground through gun barrels will lead to nowhere. Nor will it force our people to give up the sacred city of Jerusalem, the third holiest shrine in Islam. Our people reiterate their commitment to our inalienable national rights and to a just
and agreed upon solution to the question of refugees as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.

All of you should be assured that meetings and negotiations that take place from time to time are an opportunity for us to stress our commitment to our firm stand to reach a just and comprehensive peace and to shove away the illusion of the Israeli negotiators with regard to
Jerusalem and to settlement presence over our land. They also form an opportunity for us to bring the international community face to face with its responsibilities.

Sisters and Brothers,
This is the time for me to reiterate our demand from the international community to intervene and put an end to this unjust siege clamped on our people in the Gaza Strip. I call upon the Arab nation to act at the international level in order to lift this siege, which, in fact, is a war crime
committed against our Palestinian People.

I salute the steadfastness of our people in our homeland, in the West Bank, in the Gaza Strip, in Jerusalem and in exile. I undertake before all of them that we will exert every effort we can in order to reach a truce and to lift the siege on the Gaza Strip.

Allow me on this day to announce to all of you our sincere national decision that illustrates how caring we are to maintain the unity of our people and of our homeland and to lift the injustice and siege that have been imposed on our people.

This decision has culminated a series of meetings and discussions within the PLO Executive Committee and with representatives of various Palestinian factions. It is a decision empowered by a national consensus.

We are all hopeful that our decision forms the common denominator for all of us to work together and to open a new chapter in our Palestinian national life.

Sisters and Brothers,
Our decision was taken out of our commitment to our unity and to our joint national future. It was taken in line with various calls that came from Palestinian, Arab and friendly parties calling on us to put an end to the state of division in our country and to restore the situation in the Gaza Strip back to pre 13 June 2007. I hereby call for holding a comprehensive national dialogue in order to implement the Yemenite initiative with all its articles, as decided by the recent Arab summit meeting in Damascus.

We are doing this in order to end the national division that has caused the worst damage ever to our cause and has increased the level of suffering of our people in Gaza. Besides, it has formed a real threat to our national scheme of independence and freedom.

For this national dialogue to succeed, I will act on the Arab and international levels to secure the support we need to augment this move in a way that would restore to our people their national unity and would form our strongest guarantee for the restoration of our inalienable rights to self determination, return and independent statehood.

As an outcome to this effort, I shall be calling for holding new presidential and legislative elections.

The PLO Executive Committee will act with me to prepare all conditions, conducive to allow success to this dialogue, which we hope will restore unity, lift the unjust siege on our people, and protect and sustain our political system that is based on democratic pluralism and our national
scheme.

May Peace Be Upon All Of You.