Gaza 15th May 2001 Wafa- (Official Palestine News Agency)

President Yasser Arafat said today in a televised speech broadcasted by all Palestinian medias on the 53rd anniversary of Alnakba that the Israeli military force escalation and the cruel siege imposed on the Palestinian lands will not achieve peace and security and will eventually lead to a disaster in the region.

H.E added that the Israeli blind use of force will not stand in the face of justice and the attempts to change history by missiles, aircrafts, tanks and shells in addition to other escalations will not succeed.

H.E. wondered whether the world will keep acting the diff, ignoring the Palestinian bloodshed committed by the Israeli occupation and settlers and added that the time has come for the world to wake up from its deep sleep and say enough to the murderers and the occupiers.

The President added that the Palestinians kept trying time after time to achieve peace but Israel protected by the main force of the international community, armed with its double standards kept destroying the peace process time after time throwing aside all international agreements.

H.E. said that there will be no peace or stability as long as the Palestinian refugees are denied their sacred right of return to their homeland.

He explained that the Egyptian-Jordanian initiative and the Mitchell report and the UN resolutions 242, 338 and 194, and the signed agreements, are the only way for reaching comprehensive, just and long lasting peace.

The President concluded by calling upon the international community to help stop the Israeli military escalation against the Palestinian people, and provide them with international protection.

Hereby is the full text of the President’s speech:

“On this day, commemorating the day of the “Naqba” may 15, 1948, our people, the courageous people, its men, women and children, that declared to the world with its holy blood and the words of truth and justice and the word of history that our people, the Palestinian people has been exposed to misery unlike any other in history and that this great people, which has displaced by a greater conspiracy, whose homeland has been raped by weapons and aggression, has not and will not accept this dark future drawn for it by this greater conspiracy which threatens the people themselves, their holy sites, their lives and their future.

“53 years of continuous suffering and pain and living outside of their country, our people still stand firm against this conspiracy with a strong will that cannot be shaken, will not kneel down, will not surrender. 53 years of continued sacrifice, we gave all this, waiting for the world to wake from its long sleep and to find the Palestinian truth that lights the torch with the blood of martyrs for the homeland and freedom.

“Blind power will not be able to survive for so long in the face of what is right and just and historically true and the attempts to counterfeit history with rockets, shells, planes and tanks will not succeed, because we are the rightful owners and a just cause like ours cannot be killed by tanks, shells, poisonous gas, prohibited weapons and guided missiles, that have killed innocent babies and civilians living under siege for more than 8 months, facing escalations at every level by every means.

“The time has come for the world to wake up, the time has come for the international community to tell the aggressors to say stop to the military escalations, stop the killing and destruction of the Palestinian people. the Palestinian people will not be defeated, whatever the aggressors use. Held in the arms of their mothers, they are hit with rockets and their holy blood is shed while the world remains ignorant of the crimes committed against the Palestinian people. How much longer will the world remain deaf while Palestinian blood is spilt?

“Isn’t it the right of the Palestinian people to live like any free nation? We tried, in good faith, for to achieve the peace of the braves, for peaceful normalization and to become good neighbors. But the executioners continue with walk through puddles of our blood with their military escalations and siege on our towns, and villages and refugee camps. This comes at a time of double standard policy, of walking all over international resolutions that we had accepted to put an end to this and bring about a peace of the braves, to bring about a state for our people and to protect their holy sites, Muslim and Christian.

“A just and comprehensive peace needs to put an end to the occupation and settlements in our homeland, a fair peace can only come about when the Palestinian people receive their rights, otherwise there will never be peace in the region.

“Today, on Al Naqba day, I want to renew my declaration that the way to achieve peace is as clear as the sun in the sky: a full Israeli withdrawal of its army and its settlers, from all Palestinian land occupied since June 4, 1967, and for the implementation of resolution 194. Yes, this is the only road to peace, the peace of the braves, the kind of peace that offers security and stability, for our children and for their children. Blind military might will not bring about peace, it will not bring our people to its knees. We will continue in this way until the day we raise the Palestinian flag over Jerusalem, over Jerusalem’s mosques and Jerusalem’s churches.

“From here, from within the middle of the siege and the aggression, we appeal to the Arab nations, to the Muslim nations, to the Christians all over the world, to the International community, to protect our Christian and Muslim holy sites. I call upon our friends in the UN, the United States, the EU, Japan, China, Russia, to act immediately in order to stop this military aggression, to offer international protection for our women, men and children who all face aggression from the occupier by all kinds of weapons.

“Resolution 194 has to be implemented for there to be peace, for those Palestinians who live expelled from their homes. Their’s is a holy right, and its the responsibility of the international community to secure this right of the Palestinian refugees.

“And I say to the Palestinian people, who have endured the killing of innocents, barbaric shelling, destruction of their homes and farms, the bombing of their factories and the uprooting of trees, “faith, faith, courage, courage”, stand strong in the face of this increasing aggression for the sake of freedom, and the freedom of our land and our holy places, the land of the prophets and messengers, the land of our fathers.”

“We tell the Israelis that military escalation and building settlements on our land will not bring peace, but will bring a catastrophe for both peoples. Let the Jordanian-Egyptian initiative, along with the agreements signed, and the Mitchell report, the international resolutions, 242, 338, 194, be the basis to launch a comprehensive, just and lasting peace, and to revive the peace process, to put it back on track again for the future of the Palestinian and the Israeli peoples and all the world.

“And I say to you steadfast courageous people, that your sacrifices will not be for nothing, that victory will come from God”.

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