Your Excellency Secretary General
Mr, Antonio Guterres,

On the 22nd anniversary of UNSC Resolution 1325 and the annual open discussion at the Security Council for the advancement of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda, the Palestinian Women’s Civil Coalition for the Implementation of UNSC Resolution 1325 would like to bring your attention to the fact that the suffering of Palestinian women living in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) has unprecedentedly escalated since this resolution was passed, due to the Israeli occupation’s ongoing, hostile policies, systematic violations of human rights and grave breaches of international humanitarian law that are disproportionally impacting women and girls in the OPT. These violations include extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrests, restriction on movement, military blockades, house demolitions, land confiscation and illegal de-facto and de-juri annexation, in addition to the ongoing isolation of areas of the OPT from one another. This has had both individual and collective impact on the lives of women, impeding their access to resources, compounded by the deteriorating economic situation due to the occupation’s control and dominance over land and resources. Added to this is the rise in poverty levels due to unemployment, military blockade on the Gaza Strip for over 15 years and the occupation’s exercise of systematic long-term violence against the Palestinian protected population in the OPT, settlement expansion combined with settlers’ violence and vandalism

The Palestinian Women’s Civil Coalition strongly believes that 22 years since the passage of UNSC Resolution 1325 has not resulted in concrete measures for the advancement of the women, peace and security agenda to Palestinian women living under Israeli prolonged military occupation. A lot still need yet to be made by the Security Council to maintain peace and security for Palestinian women living under military occupation. To the contrary, complications and challenges to Palestinian women have increased in terms of implementing the WPS agenda, due to Israeli impediments to its implementation. Israel, the occupying power, has also placed enormous obstacles before Palestinian women who seek to implement this resolution, given its continued occupation of the OPT and the absence of a just and durable solution to end this prolonged belligerent occupation. No concrete measures were taken by the international community to implement UN resolutions related to the question of Palestine, namely UN Resolutions 242, 338, 194 and 2334. Instead, Israel is intent on confiscating and annexing more land to build settlements, which has severed any path to the establishment of an independent and contiguous Palestinian state. Instead, OPT has been transformed into isolated islands more like the Bantustans of apartheid South Africa, as indicated in the most recent evidence based-report by Amnesty International, describing Israel as an apartheid regime, where one racial group is discriminating against other racial groups.

The Palestinian Women’s Civil Coalition, would also like to point out to the remarkable conclusions of a UN independent Commission of Inquiry (CoI) in its recent to the UN General Assembly in New York on 20/10/2022, which considered the Israeli occupation as unlawful according to international law. The report called on the UN General Assembly to ask the International Court of Justice for an urgent advisory opinion on the illegality of this prolonged military occupation, and the impacts of the Israeli illegal measures and violations against the Palestinian civilian population in the 1967 OPT.

Your Excellency UN Secretary General,

As the UNSC is meeting to discuss the advancement of the WPS agenda, we would like to draw to their attention the double standards employed by the United Nations in dealing with its own resolutions, especially when it comes to Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the practices of Israel, the occupying power against Palestinian civilian population. Israeli illegal policies in the OPT , has not only curtailed Resolution 1325 from guaranteeing protection for women and involving her in security and peacemaking, it has also thwarted all international tools and mechanisms for the protection of civilians in times of war and under occupation. This is due to the failure of the international human rights and humanitarian law especially the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protections of Civilians at time of War and under occupation. The reason for this is that the UN itself is discriminatory and has double standards in its handling conflicts, and peoples’ causes due to the huge imbalance in justice and the policy of impunity, which Israeli, the occupying power enjoys. These policies have allowed Israel to escape from accountability or any punitive measures in accordance to UN Charter and more specifically Article 11 of UNSC Resolution 1325, which demands that perpetrators of crimes and violations during war are not afforded impunity. The fact that Israel is treated as a country above the law, and the absence of any form of accountability has only encouraged it to commit more crimes and violations. A case in point is the recent murdering of Palestinian Journalist Shirine Abu Akleh, where no one has been held accountable thus far, although the incident was caught on tape and there is hard evidence proving that her death was the result of premeditated and extrajudicial killing by the Israeli army.

During its evaluation and review of its action plan, the Palestinian Women’s Civil Coalition noted that Resolution 1325 and the nine subsequent resolutions, pinpointed the reasons for the outbreak and development of conflicts in various regions of the world to racial, religious and ethnic disputes. However, it excluded women under racist, colonialist occupation, which is the case of Palestinian women under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including occupied East Jerusalem. Thus, it has disregarded all international resolutions pertaining to the rights of the Palestinian people, over and above Israel’s disregard for its responsibilities as an occupying power. This necessitates a special resolution addressing the status of Palestinian women under racist, colonialist occupation, and addressing the root causes of the suffering of Palestinian women and the major obstacle they face in meaningful political participation, and in moving forward in the advancement of the women, peace and security agenda.

Mr. Secretary General,

Finally, we in the Palestinian Women’s Civil Coalition for the implementation of Resolution 1325, thank your Excellency for your understanding, and for conveying our concerns to all nation states during the open debate on WPS in the Security Council this year. We call on you to dedicate ample attention to the status of Palestinian women during the 22nd Security Council meeting on Resolution 1325, with the objective to develop and push forth the WPS agenda and put into action the role of international tools of accountability. We ask you to provide the necessary protection for Palestinian women under occupation, by closely overseeing the implementation of this resolution and the party responsible for impeding its application on the ground, namely, the Israeli occupying power that has exacerbated the suffering of Palestinian women at all levels and increased discriminatory measures against them.

With our sincere thanks and appreciation,
The Palestinian Women’s Civil Coalition for the Implementation of UNSCR1325

Mr. President, Esteemed Members of the Security Council,

I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to address you today, especially thankful to H.E. Ambassador Macharia Kamau, Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary and the Republic of Kenya for the kind invitation.

For over 70 years, the UN and its various bodies have been seized of the Palestine question; repeatedly reviewing conditions, adopting resolutions, and dispatching fact-finding missions, to no avail. Sadly, this Council has been unable to assert authority, allowing this injustice to become a perpetual tragic human, moral, political and legal travesty.

So it would be disingenuous of me to come before you assuming I could inform you of something you do not already know. Nevertheless, I do appreciate the opportunity to communicate in a candid manner, not to recite endless statistics, nor to reiterate the ongoing pain of a people, deprived of their basic rights, including even the right to speak out, admonished not to “whine” or “complain,” as a means of silencing the victim.

The tragedy is that you know all of this; yet, it has had a minimal impact, if any, on the horrific conditions in Occupied Palestine.

I imagine it must be disheartening and frustrating for this distinguished organization and its members to find themselves trapped in this cycle of deliberate disdain and futility.

It is therefore imperative that this Council consider where it has gone wrong and what it can do to correct course and serve the cause of justice and peace.

Undoubtedly, the absence of accountability for Israel and of protection for the Palestinian people has enabled Israeli impunity to ride roughshod over the rights of an entire nation, allowing for perpetuation of a permanent settler-colonial occupation.

Mr. President,

Much of the prevailing political discourse overlooks reality and is diverted and subsumed by chimeras and distractions proffered by Israel and its allies under such banners as “economic peace,” “improving the quality of life,” “normalization,” “managing the conflict,” “containing the conflict,” or “shrinking the conflict.”

These fallacies must be dismantled. Volatile situations of injustice and oppression do not shrink. They expand and explode, with disastrous consequences. Similarly, the delusion of “imposing calm” under siege and systemic aggression, particularly as in Gaza, is an oxymoron, for calm or security on the one hand and occupation or captivity on the other are antithetical and irreconcilable.

Likewise, the fallacy of “confidence-building measures” is misguided since occupation breeds only contempt, distrust, resentment, and resistance. The oppressed cannot be brought to trust or accept handouts from their oppressor as an alternative to their right to freedom and justice.

The misleading and flawed “both sides” argument calling for “balance” in a flagrantly unbalanced situation is another attempt at obfuscation and generating misconceptions.

Israel’s impunity is further enhanced using such excuses as being the so-called “only democracy in the Middle East” or a “strategic ally,” or having “shared values,” or even for the sake of protecting its “fragile coalition.”

There has also been tacit and, at times overt, acceptance of Israel’s ideological, absolutist arguments, including the invocation of religious texts as a means to dismiss and supplant contemporary political and legal discourse and action. Hence, the so-called “Jewish State Law,” which allocates the right to self-determination exclusively to Jews in all of historic Palestine, is endorsed and normalized.

In the meantime, a massive disinformation machine persists in its racist maligning and demonizing of the Palestinian people, going so far as to label them “terrorists,” or a “demographic threat,” a dehumanizing formula exploited as a way to deny the right of millions of Palestine refugees to return.

Such slander has warped political focus and discourse globally. Some states have gone off on a tangent pursuing Palestinian textbooks for so-called “incitement,” or adopting the IHRA definition that conflates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism, or criminalizing BDS, or intimidating and censoring academics and solidarity activists who stand up for Palestinian rights.

These distortions ignore the unequal and unjust laws designed to persecute Palestinians, individually and collectively. It is evidenced in the defamation of our political prisoners and the targeting of their families’ livelihoods, as though Israeli military courts or prison systems have anything to do with justice or legality.

The mindless refrain that Israel has the “right to defend itself,” while the Palestinian people are denied such a right, is perverse in that the occupier’s violence is justified as “self-defense” while the occupied are stigmatized as “terrorists.”

We cannot afford to disregard the context of occupation and its systemic aggression as the framing device for all critical assessments and action.

Excellencies,

Occupied Palestine, including Jerusalem, is the target of a comprehensive and pervasive policy of colonization and erasure, of displacement and replacement, in which Israel is appropriating everything Palestinian; our land and resources; our cultural and human heritage; our archeological sites, which we have safeguarded for centuries; our history; our cuisine; the names of our streets; and most egregiously the identity of Jerusalem, as we witness in the ethnic cleansing of the Old City, Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan among others. Even our cemeteries have been desecrated such as the building of a so-called “museum of tolerance” on top of human remains in Maman’ Allah cemetery. And, Israel continues to stoke the flames of a “holy war,” with repeated assaults on our holy sites, particularly Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Jerusalem is being targeted in a deliberate campaign of annexation and distortion. Israel now brazenly declares its intent to complete the settlement siege of Jerusalem and destruction of the territorial contiguity of the West Bank, with its outrageous plans for E-1, Qalandiya airport (Atarot), “Pisgat Ze’ev” and “Giv’at HaMatos.”

We cannot be distracted by symbolic gestures that create a false impression of progress. Claims that the “time is not right,” or that it is “difficult now” to work for a peaceful solution, give license to Israel to persist in its perilous policies. Likewise, repeating a verbal commitment to the two-State solution, while one state is allowed to deliberately destroy the other, rings hollow.

Mr. President,

All of this does not preclude our recognition of our own shortcomings. We do not shirk our responsibility to speak out against internal violence, human rights abuses, corruption, or other such practices that are rejected and resented by our own people. It is our responsibility to carry out democratic reform and revitalize our body politic while ending our internal divisions. This is a Palestinian imperative.

But we must caution others against exploiting our shortcomings to justify Israeli crimes or international inaction, or to condition any positive engagement on the creation of an ideal system of governance in Palestine while we languish under a lawless system of Israeli control.

We ask that you, trustees of the rules-based order, uphold your responsibilities: provide us with protection from aggression and empower our people to amplify their voice, both in governance and liberation.

Esteemed Members of the Council,

Peace is not achieved by “normalizing the occupation,” sidelining the Palestine Question, or rewarding Israel by repositioning it as a regional superpower. Such an approach maintains the causes of regional instability and insecurity, while enabling Israel as a colonial apartheid State to superimpose “Greater Israel” on all of historic Palestine.

Generation after generation, the people of Palestine have remained committed to the justice of their cause, the integrity of their narrative, the authenticity of their history and culture, and their inviolable right to live in freedom, and dignity, as an equal among nations and in the fullness of our humanity.

It is time to reclaim the narrative of justice and invoke our collective will to activate the UN Charter and affirm the relevance of international law.

The time has come for courageous and determined action, not just to undo the injustice of the past but to chart a clear and binding course for a peaceful future of hope and redemption.

I thank you.

To view the full Speech as PDF

We, the undersigned global coalition of leaders –from civil society to academia, art, media, business, politics, indigenous and faith communities, and people of conscience around the world– call upon the States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to act decisively to put an end to Israel’s notorious use of arms and military equipment for the commission of serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights against Palestinian civilians by immediately imposing a comprehensive two-way arms embargo on Israel.

In the spring of 2021, the world once again watched in horror as Israeli occupying forces attacked defenceless Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and inside Israel. Palestinian civilians peacefully protesting against colonisation of their land were assaulted with live fire, rubber-coated steel bullets, sound bombs, tear gas and skunk water. Israel’s deadly military aggression against the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip was the fourth in a decade. Over 11 days, 248 Palestinians were killed, including 66 children. Thousands were wounded, and the reverberating effects of the use of explosive weapons on hospitals, schools, food security, water, electricity and shelter continue to affect millions.

This systematic brutality, perpetrated throughout the past seven decades of Israel’s colonialism, apartheid, pro-longed illegal belligerent occupation, persecution, and closure, is only possible because of the complicity of some governments and corporations around the world.

Symbolic statements of condemnation alone will not put an end to this suffering. In accordance with the relevant rules of the ATT, States Parties have legal obligations to put an end to irresponsible and often complicit trade of conventional arms that undermines international peace and security, facilitates commission of egregious crimes, and threatens the international legal order.

Under Article 6(3) of the ATT, States Parties undertook not to authorise any transfer of conventional arms if they have knowledge at the time of authorisation that arms or items would be used in the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva conventions of 1949, attacks directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such, or other war crimes as defined by international agreements to which they are a Party.

Under Articles 7 and 11, they undertook not to authorise any export of conventional arms, munitions, parts and components that would, inter alia, undermine peace and security or be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law.

It is clear that arms exports to Israel are inconsistent with these obligations. Invariably, Israel has shown that it uses arms to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity, as documented by countless United Nations bodies and civil society organisations worldwide. Military exports to Israel also clearly enabled, facilitated and maintained Israel’s decades-long settler-colonial and apartheid regime imposed over the Palestinian people as a whole.

Similarly, arms imports from Israel are wholly inconsistent with obligations under the ATT. Israeli military and industry sources openly boast that their weapons and technologies are “combat proven” – in other words, field-tested on Palestinian civilians “human test subjects”. When States import Israeli arms, they are encouraging it to keep bombing Palestinian civilians and persist in its unlawful practices. No one –neither Israel, nor arms manufacturers in ATT States parties– should be allowed to profit from the killing or maiming of Palestinian civilians.

It is thus abundantly clear that imposing a two-way arms embargo on Israel is both a legal and a moral obligation. ATT States Parties must immediately terminate any current, and prohibit any future transfers of conventional arms, munitions, parts and components referred to in Article 2(1), Article 3 or Article 4 of the ATT to Israel, until it ends its illegal belligerent occupation of the occupied Palestinian territory and complies fully with its obligations under international law. Pending such an embargo, all States must immediately suspend all transfers of military equipment, assistance and munitions to Israel.

A failure to take these actions entails a heavy responsibility for the grave suffering of civilians – more deaths, more suffering, as thousands of Palestinian men, women and children continue to bear the brutality of a colonial belligerent occupying force– which would result in discrediting the ATT itself. It also renders States parties complicit in internationally wrongful acts through the aiding or abetting of international crimes.  A failure in taking action could also result in invoking the individual criminal responsibility of individuals of these States for aiding and abetting the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity in accordance with Article 25(3)(c) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Justice will remain elusive so long as Israel’s unlawful occupation, settler-colonialism, apartheid regime, and persecution and institutionalised oppression of the Palestinian people are allowed to continue, and so long as States continue to be complicit in the occupying Power’s crimes by trading weapons with it.

In conclusion, we believe that the ATT can make a difference in the Palestinian civilians’ lives. It has the potential, if implemented in good faith, to spare countless protected persons from suffering. If our call to stop leaving the Palestinian people behind when it comes to implementation of the ATT is ignored, the raison d'être of the ATT will be shattered.

Joining organisations:

1. Action Sécurité Ethique Républicaines
2. Adalah Justice Project
3. Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
4. AFPS 63
5. Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
6. Aldameer Association for Human Rights
7. Al-Haq, Law in the Service of Man
8. Alrowwad Cultural and Arts Society
9. American Muslims for Palestine
10. Anglican Pacifist Fellowship
11. Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ)
12. Arab Canadian Lawyers Association
13. Arab Organization for Human Rights
14. Argenteuil Solidarité Palestine
15. Asociación Americana de Juristas
16. Association Belgo-Palestinienne WB
17. Association femmes plurielles
18. Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS)
19. AssoPacePalestina
20. Australia Palestine Advocacy Network
21. Australian Centre for International Justice
22. Australians For Palestine
23. Badayl
24. BDS Australia
25. Begian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
26. Campagne BDS France
27. Canadian BDS Coalition
28. Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME)
29. Center for Constitutional Rights
30. Center for International Policy
31. Centro Interdisciplinario de Estudios Estratégicos para la Seguridad y el Desarrollo Social CIESED A.C.
32. CNAPD - Coordination Nationale d'Action pour la Paix et la Démocratie
33. Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine
34. Collectif 69 de Soutien au Peuple Palestinien
35. Collectif BDS 57
36. Collectif Judéo Arabe et Citoyen pour la Palestine
37. Colombian Campaign to Ban Landmines
38. Columban missionaries Britain
39. Columbia Law Students for Palestine
40. Combatants for Peace
41. Comitato BDS Campania
42. Comité de Solidaridad con la Causa Árabe
43. Comité pour une Paix Juste au Proche-Orient asbl
44. Community Action Center - Al-Quds University
45. Confederación Intersindical Gallega (CIG)
46. Cultura è Libertà, una campagna per la Palestina
47. Dagropass
48. De Palestijnse gemeenschap in Nederland
49. Defense for Children -Palestine (DCI-Palestine)
50. Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)
51. docP - BDS Netherlands
52. Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
53. European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP)
54. European Legal Support Center
55. Femmes Unies pour la Paix dans la région des Grands Lacs
56. FILEF Sydney Federation of Italian Migrant Workers
57. Finnish-Arab Friendship Society
58. Friends of Palestine Tasmania Inc
59. Gaza Action Ireland
60. Gesellschaft Schweiz Palästina GSP/ASP
61. Global Kairos Asia Pacific Solidarity For Palestine (GKAPS)
62. Good Shepherd Collective
63. Housing and Land Rights Network
64. Human Rights and Democratic Participation Center “SHAMS”
65. Human Rights Network Nigeria
66. ICAHD Finland
67. ICAHD UK
68. Independent Jewish Voices Canada
69. Indian Writers Forum
70. Indo Palestine Solidarity Forum
71. International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD)
72. International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific
73. Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign
74. Jewish Voice For Peace
75. Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
76. Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement Pour Une Paix Juste
77. Karapatan
78. Kenya Human Rights Commission
79. Labor for Palestine
80. Manushya Foundation
81. National Association of Democratic Lawyers (South Africa)
82. National Justice & Peace Network (NJPN)
83. National Lawyers Guild, Palestine Subcommittee
84. Nederlands Palestina Komitee
85. Newweapons research group
86. Niagara Movement for Justice in Palestine-Israel (NMJPI)
87. North Notts Unite Community
88. NOVACT
89. Oakville Palestinian Rights Association
90. Palestine Solidarity Network - Edmonton
91. Palestinian and Jewish Unity
92. Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)
93. Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (Stop the Wall)
94. Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO)
95. Pax Christi International
96. Pax Christi, England and Wales
97. Paz con Dignidad
98. Platform of French NGOs for Palestine
99. Salaam ragazzi dell'Olivo, comitato di Trieste
100. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
101. SODePAZ
102. Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative
103. The Civic Coalition for Palestinians Right in Jérusalem
104. The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD)
105. The Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC)
106. The National Association of Human Rights Defenders
107. The Oakville Palestinian Rights Association
108. The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC)
109. The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy-MIFTAH
110. UJFP French Jewish union for peace
111. Union syndicale Solidaires
112. US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
113. US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
114. Visualizing Palestine
115. Vrede vzw
116. Vredesactie
117. War on Want
118. Women for Palestine
119. Women in Black Vienna
120. Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling

Joining individuals:

121. Ahmed Ben
122. Ahmed Reda Tolba
123. Alaa Shalaby
124. Alaaeddine Tatak
125. Aline Shaban
126. Amin Abbas
127. Andrea Balduzzi
128. Angie Mindel
129. Ann McNicholas
130. Anne Peacey
131. Ashley Tellis
132. Atamjit Singh
133. Audrey J Bomse
134. Badee M.T. Aldwaik
135. Baruti Likoyi
136. Bernadette McPhe
137. Chirag Shah
138. Claudia Karas
139. Claudia Schiavelli
140. Denise Peillon
141. Denotter JJ
142. Devaki Khanna
143. Dr. Ibrahim Lada’a
144. Dr. Nerina Cecchin
145. Egbert Harmsen
146. Marc Fayard
147. Firoz Ahmad
148. Flavia Lepre
149. Françoise Abadie
150. Frstot Marie-Paule
151. Gabriel Mondragón Toledo
152. Geeta Kapur
153. Geeta Kapur
154. Georges Franco
155. Gillard Francois
156. Gina Cardosi
157. Githa Hariharan
158. Gregory Kotoy
159. Gyan Prakash
160. Haidi Ali Muhammad Eltayeb
161. Hélène Le Cacheux
162. Herman De Ley
163. Huwaida Arraf
164. Ian Ampleford
165. Ian Mc Cabe
166. Indu Chandrasekhar
167. Jake Javanshir
168. James Dickins
169. James Lafferty
170. John King
171. Joop Hoekstra
172. Julia Auf Dem Brinke
173. Julie Hart
174. Kalyani Chaudhuri
175. Karel Arnaut
176. Karin Brothers
177. Karin Verelst
178. Kathryn Kelly
179. Kellie Tranter
180. Lauren Speiser
181. Laurent De Wangen
182. Lee Rhiannon
183. Luisa Morgantini
184. M.N. Harakeh
185. Madeline Lutjeharms
186. Maha Abdallah
187. Maha Alami
188. Malini Bhattacharya
189. Mani Shankar Aiyar
190. Marcy Newman
191. Maria Bartolacci
192. Marjorie Cohn
193. Martin Mavenjina
194. Massimiliano Masini
195. Maxime Florentin
196. Maya Devi
197. Michael Letwin
198. Michel Gevers
199. Mohamad Arouki
200. Mohamed Aboelazm
201. Mohammad Al Nabulsi
202. Mohan Rao
203. Monique Vincent
204. Muralidharan K
205. Nalini Nayak
206. Nandini Sundar
207. Naresh Dadhich
208. Nasir Tyabji
209. Navdeep Mathur
210. Nick Deane
211. Nozomi Takahashi
212. Oishik Sircar
213. P A Azeez
214. Pamela Blakelock
215. Pamela Philipose
216. Paola Manduca
217. Patrick Lechopier
218. Persis Ginwalla
219. Pierre Bordone
220. Pushpa Achanta
221. Pushpamala N
222. Raffaele Spiga
223. Rajni Palriwala
224. Rev Joseph Ryan
225. Rey Asis
226. Rudolf Knutti
227. S. Raghunandana
228. Salim Yusufji
229. Sellin Jean-Christophe
230. Shafey Kidwai
231. Sharib Aqleem Ali
232. Sigour Brigitte
233. Sonia Fayman
234. Stephen Flaherty
235. Sue Ingham
236. Sumanta Banerjee
237. Terri Ginsberg
238. Valter Mutt
239. Vinay Bharadwaj
240. Vincent Basabé
241. Winfried Belz
242. Yousuf Saeed
243. YVes Goaer
244. Yves Jardin

To View the Letter as PDF

It is hard to tell if it was mere coincidence that we both, Palestinians and Israelis, mark in November this year the loss of two peace leaders from our camps. One thing, however, is clear: We both lost two men who managed to set the tone for a genuine peace agreement between the two peoples. Unfortunately, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated ten years ago. A while later, a process of character assassination against President Arafat started. It went on even after the man was laid to rest a year ago next to his wrecked headquarters in the Muqata in Ramallah.

I knew the late Arafat for close to four decades. From the outset, his dedication to a political settlement of the question of Palestine was resolute. He never tried to hide his agenda of reaching a historical reconciliation with Israel. Even when such an approach was very unpopular in the Arab world, Arafat took his strategic decision of moving towards peace with Israel. Without his resolute and firm commitment to this strategy, the Palestine Liberation Organization would never have adopted the two-state solution. In 1988, we all saw how Arafat fought to convince the Palestine National Council members who were convening in Algiers to accept UN Resolutions 242 and 338, setting the foundations of the two-state solution.

Without Arafat, the Middle East today would have looked much worse. Arafat's imprints on the peace process are there and will continue to exist in spite of the "there is no partner" mantra that former prime minister Ehud Barak raised right after the Camp David 2000 negotiations.

Aren't thousands of victims on both sides whose lives were claimed by the violent showdown of the last five years enough for today's leadership in Israel under Ariel Sharon to avoid a similar mantra of "there is no partner" referring to President Mahmoud Abbas and branding him a weak leader? Of Arafat, they said he was capable but unwilling to reach a peace deal. Of Abu Mazen, they claim he is willing but incapable. Sharon is doing everything he can to weaken the Palestinian Authority and empower the extremists not only on our side but also within Israel.

Has anyone thought of the consequences if the current Palestinian leadership is weakened and replaced by forces of fundamentalism and extremism? One doesn't need to be a genius to understand that continued sieges of Palestinian cities, further assassinations, construction of additional kilometers of the separation wall and the wall-to-wall collective punishment Israel is using against the Palestinian people can never create any atmosphere conducive for a resumption of genuine peace talks.

The Oslo process was a remarkable landmark for Arafat. He believed that the process he started with the late Rabin would eventually lead to a two-state permanent peace settlement. Rabin's assassination and the failure of all his successors to honor his legacy have led to detrimental delays in implementing the Oslo agreements. This delay, in return, caused high levels of frustration and disappointment among large sectors of the Palestinians.

When in the year 2000 President Clinton insisted on hosting a summit meeting in Camp David, Arafat told us, the Palestinian leadership, that he was very keen on attending the summit but was not sure if the Israeli leadership was ripe to deliver. Genuine peace, he always argued, could only be achieved by genuine concessions from both sides. Being pretty sure that former prime minister Ehud Barak was not ready for the historical moment of signing a permanent peace deal, Arafat still agreed to attend the summit. He left Ramallah with a resolute decision to give peace a chance and to be as forthcoming as possible. The talks collapsed and Arafat was the first to be blamed.

Since then, many key players and participants in the negotiations, including Israelis, Americans and others, have revealed the reality of what went wrong. The blame, so it appears from their impartial and neutral findings and writings, was not exclusively Arafat's. The U.S. administration, the Israeli government and members of the two negotiating teams had a share in a series of mistakes that finally led to the collapse of the Camp David talks.

The major mistake at Camp David was Israel's refusal to apply UN Resolution 242 to the occupied Palestinian territories. This universal resolution was applied in full on the Egyptian, Jordanian and Lebanese fronts. It also formed a fundamental part of the Rabin promise to Syria when he pledged to pull out of the Golan Heights in return for full peace and normalization with Syria. But when President Arafat insisted that 242 was the term of reference in the Camp David talks, he was blamed for the collapse and later branded as "no partner."

Another attempt to reach a peace agreement was resumed in Taba in 2001. Arafat was very keen on reaching a deal. Barak wasn't. Prior to the outbreak of the intifada, Arafat warned that the level of his people's disappointment and frustration was getting too strong to control. No one listened in Israel. Or perhaps, they did listen and wanted this self-fulfilling prophecy to occur in order to blame Arafat not only for failing to reach an agreement in Camp David but also for igniting the intifada.

Arafat failed to control the street. Even when he tried to intervene and stop the deterioration, he could not do a lot. His security forces had been lacerated by systematic attacks launched by the Israeli army. A year without Arafat is pretty tough for all. The election of President Mahmoud Abbas was so promising for the Palestinians who are still waiting for the visible achievements they expected from their new leader.

Israel's failure to move forward and its insistence on the "no partner" mantra threatens to push us back to square one where the higher the expectation, the deeper the frustration.

The writer is a PLO executive committee member and co-author of the Geneva Initiative with Yossi Beilin.

Almost one year ago, dozens of Palestinian and Israeli politicians, academics, authors and other members of civil society signed a draft peace agreement in Geneva that laid to rest the lie that Palestinians and Israelis could never agree to a comprehensive peace agreement within a two-state solution.

The official receptions by the Palestinian and Israeli government to the Geneva Accord differed significantly. The late President Yasser Arafat insisted on sending an envoy to the signing ceremony to read a statement of support on his behalf. In later private meetings, he repeatedly emphasized his willingness to support a comprehensive peace deal along the lines detailed in the Geneva Accord. I know because I was the primary Palestinian negotiator for those accords and as a member of the PLO's Executive Committee, I continued to meet with Arafat regularly.

This stood in stark contrast to the almost hysterical reaction from the Israeli government. Although no Israeli or Palestinian signatory claimed this was a formal peace deal, the Israeli government panicked because it realized that the Geneva Accord could become an excellent tool for marshaling popular support in Israel and in Palestine for an end of conflict along the lines of two viable states with the 1967 borders as the baseline for the borders between a secure Israel and a free Palestine.

The Israeli government's response was to introduce the idea of a unilateral Gaza disengagement to replace the internationally mandated road map that was supposed to create a Palestinian state by 2005. For reasons most Palestinians still cannot understand, the United States accepted the plan, shelved its own road map and sat back.

But we haven't. Today, Palestinians are engaged in our most exciting democratic attempt yet. It has never been enough for Palestinians to demand our independence from Israel's brutal occupation. We have always emphasized, from the founding days of the PLO, the necessity that the Palestinian state be democratic. Indeed, Palestinian society is at its heart democratic and pluralistic, as can be witnessed by the scores of civil society movements, trade unions and student organizations. To the extent this hasn't been witnessed, it has been a result of Israel's occupation as well as that of a Palestinian bureaucracy that has been ill-equipped in the past to figure out how to promote democracy for a society still under occupation.

But now we are pushing ahead. By Jan. 9, Palestinians will hold presidential elections for the Palestinian National Authority. A few months after that, we expect to hold parliamentary elections. It is amazing enough that Palestinians are doing this in the Middle East, but what is truly remarkable is that we are proceeding with our goals despite Israel's occupation, settlement construction on Palestinian territory, checkpoints and sieges, and Israel's construction of a wall snaking through Palestinian territory to isolate Palestinian population centers into ghettos.

Unlike many Americans, perhaps, we Palestinians also realize that we have a partner in Israel in the body of the silent and not-so-silent majority of Israelis who want a fair and just peace between our two peoples. We know that the policy of promoting a unilateral Gaza disengagement plan instead of returning to the road map is one that the majority of Israelis support out of fear, because they had accepted the myth that Palestinians would never sign a peace agreement with them.

But leaders should never lead with fear, but with hope and vision. We have an opportunity now to have an elected Palestinian leadership negotiate with the United States and Israel on ending the conflict once and for all. Yes, certainly Israel should leave the Gaza Strip and much more in the course of those negotiations, but the United States and the others in the Quartet (European Union, United Natons and Russia) should make it clear that such a withdrawal is conducted as preparation for the full withdrawal from the territory Israel occupied in 1967 -- necessary if there is ever to be a viable Palestinian state.

This means not only that the United States should lead in reapplying the road map but that the Quartet must also lay out the parameters of a final status agreement so that Palestinians know we are negotiating our way to freedom, not a Middle East parody of a Bantustan. Those parameters are well known and form the basis of the Geneva Accord.

We all have a historic opportunity to end this conflict in short order. The Arab world stands by with its own historic Arab Summit Resolution of March 2003, prepared to establish normal relations with Israel as soon as it signs comprehensive peace treaties with Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. The Palestinians have launched a newly energized campaign to establish the foundations of a democratic society, and the Israeli political establishment is awakening from its long slumber as Israelis realize they have a partner if they want a true peace.

But we need the United States to be a positive part of this equation. We'll do our part, but we hope you do yours as well -- for all our sakes.

Your Excellency,

Israel has lately decided to confiscate vast areas of Palestinian land northwest of Jerusalem for the purpose of building the Separation Wall in the West Bank. The areas in question belong to a number of villages including Beit Urr Al Tahta, Kharbatha, Beit Liqya, Tireh, Beit Duqqo, Qbeibeh, Beit Surik, Beit Ijza, Beit Iksa and Biddo. The exppropriation of these areas of land will leave thousands of Palestinian families whose livelihood depends solely on their agricultural land, without any means of suvival. It will further complicate every international and domestic effort to reach a peaceful settlement based on two states for two nations; Palestine and Israel.

Such a decision by Israel, along with the continued work on other segments of the tremendously dangerous and dispicable Separation Wall, drives the whole region yet again into a new cycle of violence and unrest. The Separation Wall is in fact a wall that will lead to the creation of an apartheid regime and will turn the Palestinian territories into isolated bantustans. Even Israeli Justice Minister Yosef Lapid was aware of this fact when he warned the Israeli cabinet on Sunday, 4 January, 2004, that the debate on the issue of the wall at the International Court of Justice in The Hague "is the first step toward turning Israel into the South Africa" and that there is "a danger that we will be exposed to international boycotts as was the case prior to the fall of the regime in South Africa."

Therefore, it is time for the international community to stop the blame game and go into action and stop this destructive policy of the Israeli government. Every delay in action against Israel in this respect makes our role in preaching a peaceful settlement even more complicated and difficult. The support that the international community has expressed towards the Geneva Accord as a model for solving the Arab-Israeli conflict demands urgent action by this same international community to stop this Israeli policy that brings destruction to the Palestinian people and augments voices of extremism on both sides.

We urge you to strongly condemn the construction of the Apartheid Wall and to exert whatever pressure or influence you have on the Israeli government to stop this systematic process of blowing up every chance for peace. We strongly believe that the current Israeli government under Mr. Sharon is not only preventing an agreement at present between the two sides but is also trying to create facts on the ground that would make impossible any future peaceful settlement based on a two-state solution. This policy is imposing a repetitive scenario of destruction on the whole region and should be stopped immediately.

YASSER ABED RABBO
PLO Executive Committee Member
Head of the Palestinian Peace Coalition

PLO Executive Committee Member Yasser Abed Rabbo, also head of the Palestinian Peace Coalition, sent the attached letter to all diplomatic and consular representatives of the foreign countries to the PNA asking for their immediate intervention to stop Israel from contstructing the Separation Wall which has been referred to by Palestinians lately as the Apartheid Wall.

Israel's most recent excuse for why it cannot negotiate peace with the Palestinians is that the Palestinians have been unable to develop a fully democratic society while living under Israeli occupation. This excuse is better known as "reform." And yet, when Palestinians are invited to go to London to further the reform process, the government of Israel prevents us from doing so.

Yes, Palestinians are expected to reform, but no, we are not supposed to succeed at it. The truth is that Israel's purported interest in reform is merely an attempt to divert the world's attention from the crux of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Israel's 35-year occupation of Palestinian territory and the denial of Palestinian freedom.

Never mind the occupation. Never mind the assassinations, the home demolitions, the continuing theft of Palestinian land and water resources and the "curfews" under which entire populations are held hostage in their homes by the threat of a bullet should they go in search of food or medicine. Never mind the sadistic Israeli soldiers ordering civilians at gunpoint to strip naked or to beat their friends or to pick their fate from a "lottery" with tickets labeled "broken arm" or "broken leg." None of this is relevant to Middle East peace, goes the new Israeli narrative. All that is relevant is that the Palestinians reform their political institutions.

Reform is indeed needed and has been underway for some time. Reform is also popular among the Palestinian population -- 85 percent of Palestinians support fundamental political reform -- and Palestinian support for it predates the sudden interest in the matter by Israel and the United States. Despite Israel's effort to use it as a diversion, reform is nevertheless good for the Palestinians. And, remarkably, progress has been made.

Drafting of the Palestinian constitution has continued unabated. The draft constitution would establish basic human rights and strive to achieve the delicate balance of powers among the executive, legislative and judicial branches. In the area of financial accountability, the new Palestinian finance minister, Salam Fayyad, has earned the praise and trust of Palestinians, Europeans and even Israelis for his new transparent budgets and measures to ensure greater accountability for the use of public funds.

But there are limits to how much Palestinians can reform while living under Israeli occupation, and Israel has done its best to simultaneously make reform the issue du jour while systematically undermining Palestinian reform efforts. A major Israeli obstacle to Palestinian reform is Israel's collective punishment policy of closures, checkpoints and curfews that restrict the freedom of movement of more than 3 million Palestinians under Israel's occupation. Visitors to the occupied Palestinian territories routinely witness elderly couples climbing over muddy hills to reach their homes or buy food. Palestinians in need of medical assistance are prevented from reaching hospitals -- to date 18 infants have died as a result of being born at home or at Israeli checkpoints, and 76 Palestinians have died from lack of medical access. Whether to go to the corner store for milk has for some Palestinians become a life-or-death decision.

But in addition to the human suffering, Israel's closure policy adversely affects Palestinian reform efforts. An inability to travel prevents effective meetings of the elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council -- thereby thwarting any meaningful democratic process with respect to debate and the adoption of reform laws or the annual budget. Palestinian elections, originally planned to be held this month, were postponed. How does a candidate campaign for election if she cannot leave her home? How does a voter vote if the polling stations are behind Israeli tanks and trigger-happy occupation forces?

Another obstacle to Palestinian reform is Israel's self-declared right to withhold tax revenue owed to the Palestinians -- nearly $600 million. The withholding of Palestinian funds not only deprives the Palestinian Authority of the critical financial resources needed to implement reform, it also destroys the Authority's ability to pay its civil servants. This ultimately leads to impoverishment and financial desperation -- two factors that foster corruption.

Successful Palestinian reform needs Israeli cooperation. First, Israel must end its system of closures and curfews, illegal under international law. Second, Israel must finally transfer all Palestinian tax revenue to the Palestinian Authority.

Many Palestinians are skeptical of reform, justifiably asking, "What good are democratic reforms while Palestinians have no freedom? What good are elections when Israel has demonstrated that it will not respect democratically elected leaders or even allow democratically elected parliaments to convene?" That is why, for reform to truly succeed, Palestinians must know they will eventually be free. Stated simply, Israel must end its occupation.

Yes, the Palestinian Authority is committed to reform. But no, Palestinian reform will not bring peace to the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. The problem in the Middle East is, and has been for the past 35 years, Israel's occupation of Palestinian land. And no Palestinian budget, no Palestinian law and no Palestinian constitution is going to change that fact.

The writer is the Palestinian Authority's minister of culture and information. He was to have headed the Palestinian delegation to the London talks today.