🇵🇸Mahmoud AbbasPalestine (State of) · UNGA 81 speech

Mr. President, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I have the honor to present a pre-recorded video statement by His Excellency Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine. addressing the general debate of the 81st session of the General Assembly pursuant to General Assembly resolution A/RES/81/1. Thank you, Mr. President.

In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful. Excellency Dr. Khalil al-Rahman, President of the General Assembly, Excellency Mr. Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Excellencies, Heads and Members of Delegations, For the second consecutive year, the Palestinian delegation was denied the entry visas required to reach New York and participate in the meetings of the United Nations General Assembly in person. We reject these unlawful punitive measures, and we reject the accusations and justifications on which they were based. We affirm that we have fulfilled our obligations, carried out a comprehensive national reform program, and upheld our commitment to international law, to shunning violence and terrorism, and to the two-state solution, and to peace on the basis of resolutions of international legitimacy. We also affirm that the Palestinian people and its leadership should not be punished for demanding an end for the occupation or for turning to the UN, the International Court of Justice, and the International Criminal Court. Our choice to invoke international law and its institutions is a peaceful and civilized choice and not an act that runs counter to peace. Denying the Palestinian delegation access to the UN headquarters is a violation of the United States' obligations as the host country. Therefore, we call upon the American administration to lift these sanctions and restrictions, return to dialogue and mutual respect, and work with us and with the international community in order to implement the two-state solution on the basis of international legitimacy and to establish peace, rather than punishing the side that has chosen the path of international law and political and diplomatic action in order to guarantee its rights. Mr. President, esteemed member states, I speak to you today as the Palestinian people faces one of the most dangerous times of its history. This is following long decades of historic injustice, uprooting, asylum seeking, occupation, and the deprivation of its basic right to self-determination, freedom, and independence. In the Gaza Strip, Our people are being subjected at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces to killing, destruction, starvation, and attempts at displacement, as well as a genocidal war that has created an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe. It has destroyed neighborhoods, cities, camps, institutions, schools, universities, hospitals, mosques and churches. And it has targeted all the basic necessities of life and the future of entire generations. In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, settler expansion is accelerating. The West Bank is being fragmented and Jerusalem is being isolated and Judaized. Settler terrorism is escalating under the protection of the occupying forces, while the crimes of land theft, home demolition, checkpoints, and raids continue under a system of laws, measures, and practices, all built on racial discrimination, ethnic cleansing, and state terrorism. Ladies and gentlemen, We have long warned the international community, through the United Nations General Assembly and through the Security Council, that these Israeli policies, in violation of international law, would destroy the two-state solution, and that this is what is happening now. Today, we warn of an even greater danger ahead, one that requires international action to address it. The danger is no longer limited to undermining the two-state solution and preventing the realization of the Palestinian state. It has now come to threaten the very life and existence of the Palestinian people on their homeland. What is taking place in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem are not isolated incidents. but rather a malicious colonial scheme aimed at making the lives of Palestinians more difficult in their homeland and forcing them to leave it. We warn you today, do not allow another Nakba to occur. Do not allow further massacres like those that occurred in 1948. Do not allow terrorist gangs protected by the Israeli occupation forces to burn Palestinian homes while their occupants are sleeping inside them. Do not allow our children to live afraid and threatened. Once again, I ask before this assembly How much longer will some states continue to remain silent on Israel or supply it with the weapons that it uses against our people? The world has witnessed the tremendous cost in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. So what is the international community waiting for in order to protect the Palestinian people, ensure their continued presence on their land, end the Israeli occupation and implement the two-state solution on the basis of international legitimacy. This solution guarantees peace for all, instead of the threat emanating from Israeli extremism, which seeks to expand its colonial project towards establishing the so-called Greater Israel. and completely erasing Palestinian presence. Mr. President, esteemed member states, we welcomed President Donald Trump's 20-point plan. We also welcomed Security Council Resolution 2803 and the roadmap for implementing the second phase. This was to halt the aggression against our people and their humanitarian suffering, and secure the withdrawal of the occupation forces from the Gaza Strip and begin rebuilding the Gaza Strip. However, regretfully, we have not seen any of this materialize on the ground. The Israeli killing and aggression continue to claim the lives of men, women, and children in Gaza. Nearly a year has passed since the adoption of resolution 2803 and the establishment of the Board of Peace, and only one year remains of the designated transitional period before the end of 2027. Therefore, we call for accelerating the implementation of the second phase rather than wasting any more time. The transitional period must not be allowed to become a permanent or open-ended situation without any clear time-bound political horizon. Rather, it must lead to the reunification of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, under the authority of the State of Palestine and its legitimate institutions in accordance with the principle of one state, one government, one law, and one legitimate entity authorized to bear arms. Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed member states, the threats and attacks carried out by extremists against Islamic and Christian holy sites, particularly Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron constitute a violation of their historic and legal status and of freedom of worship. They must cease immediately before they devolve into a broader religious conflict in the region and beyond. No one is in need of such an outcome. The ongoing Israeli attacks on United Nations headquarters and institutions in Jerusalem and the West Bank also undermine UNRWA's ability to continue carrying out its duties in providing support and assistance to Palestinian refugees, especially in the fields of education, health care, and vocational training. We call upon all States and international and regional organizations to continue supporting the work of UNRWA, for which there is no substitute, so long as the refugee issue remains unresolved. This requires the continued financial support and political backing, as well as an end to these attacks against UNRWA. We particularly warn also against the implementation of the E1 settlement plan. This plan aims to separate the northern West Bank from its south, isolate East Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings, and prevent the realization of a geographically continuous Palestinian state. This requires urgent and responsible intervention by the United Nations Security Council. It also requires the implementation of Security Council Resolution 2334. This resolution calls for the cessation of all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem. We highly appreciate the measures taken by the United Kingdom, as well as 12 other countries, in order to protect the two-state solution, as well as to ban settlement products. We also commend the call launched by the leaders of France, the United Kingdom, and Canada to convene a summit in New York on this matter. Furthermore, we call upon President Trump to fulfill the commitments he made to the leaders of the Arab and Islamic states last September to prevent the annexation of Palestinian land and to reject displacement. Mr. President, Excellencies, It is impossible to separate Israel's land seizure practices from the dismantling of Palestinian institutions and the depletion of its financial resources. All of these are tools that lead to one same result, weakening our people's ability to remain steadfast and stay on their land. This leads to undermining our people's national institutions and preventing the realization of its state. The Israeli government is withholding more than $6 billion that belong to the Palestinian people. We are demanding the immediate release of all our withheld funds. the guarantee of their regular and full transfer, and the lifting of the financial and economic restrictions and the blockade imposed on our people and our institutions in accordance with the Paris Economic Protocol, which was agreed upon following the Oslo Convention. Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, one year after the International Peace Conference and the adoption of the New York Declaration, I say to you today with full confidence and responsibility, we have fulfilled our pledge. We have fulfilled our pledge. We completed the national reform program to which we had committed before our people and the international community. We strengthened institutional governance, public financial management, transparency, accountability, anti-corruption measures, and the rule of law. We established a unified needs-based national system for social protection and social welfare, abolished the previous laws and regulations on this matter, and obtained an independent international audit confirming the validity of our measures. We also continue to reform the education system and develop criteria and curricula in accordance with international standards and in cooperation with UNESCO in a manner that promotes the values of peace, tolerance, and respect for others while preserving our national identity and the rights of our people. We also proceeded along the path of democratic revival and the empowerment of women and youth. We have held local council elections and elections for the General Union of Palestinian Students. We are headed towards our legislative elections on the 28th of November of this year. And this will be followed by the completion of the renewal of the institutions of the Palestinian National Council, followed by the Palestinian presidential elections. On behalf of the State of Palestine, I reaffirm the commitments in which we believe. We seek security and peace for all. We reject attacks against civilians by any party whatsoever. We reject terrorism and extremism in all their forms. We combat anti-Semitism, racism, and hatred. And we believe in a culture of peace, dialogue, and coexistence. We seek a democratic Palestinian state. that respects the rule of law and human rights, a non-militarized state, a non-militarized state that lives in security and peace alongside the State of Israel. Is this possible? Ladies and gentlemen, our commitment to peace did not begin today. In 1988, Our people and its leadership made a historic and difficult decision, and we accepted a historic settlement founded on the two-state solution on the basis of international legitimacy. Today we say to the world, saving the solution begins with preserving the land on which the Palestinian state is to be established and protecting the people who live on it. The Palestinian people will remain on its land. The Palestinian people will not accept displacement, will not accept displacement and will not disappear. Neither military occupation nor settlement expansion, annexation, nor settler terrorism can be a solution or create lasting security. At the same time, We will not remain in waiting, nor will we accept whatever the governments of the Israeli occupying state decide for us. They have no right to decide for us. No lasting security can be built upon the occupation of another people and the denial of its legitimate rights. We have our own national project, protecting our people from displacement, preserving our land and its unity, democratically renewing our institutions, and building our state while remaining committed to international law and exercising our right to self-determination, leading to the realization of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, along with the return of refugees in accordance with UN Resolution 194. We do not want a new process for managing the conflict while the face of the land changes every day. We want a process that puts an end to occupation and guarantees freedom and self-determination for Palestinians. A process that guarantees also security and peace for Israelis and the countries of the region. Our vision for peace is clear. Palestinian people remaining on its own land, determining its future for itself, and the Palestinian state alongside the state of Israel, and the Palestinian-Israeli peace that paves the way to regional integration, cooperation, prosperity, and security for everyone. Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, we thank all the countries and peoples that have stood by our people. We thank countries and peoples that have lent political, humanitarian, and economic support, and helped us preserve our institutions and provide relief to our people. We also thank the countries that have recognized the State of Palestine, which now number 160 States. And we call on those countries that have not yet recognized the State of Palestine to do so. We likewise call for granting the State of Palestine full membership in the United Nations, similar to the rest of the nations and peoples of the world. Finally, I address the sons and daughters of our Palestinian people in their homeland and in the diaspora. You have painted the greatest picture of pride and dignity by holding steadfastly onto your land, your unity, and your legitimate rights. We will not leave our homeland. We will not accept displacement. And we will not allow anyone to decide our future on our behalf. We decide for ourselves. We will extend our hands to a peace based on international legitimacy so that our freedom and independence can be achieved and so that everyone in the region, everyone in the region may live in security, peace, and good neighborliness. Peace be upon you all and the mercy of Allah and his blessings.