Your Excellency Brother Yasser Arafat,
President of the State of Palestine,
Your Highnesses and Excellencies,
Dear Brothers,
You are welcome to this emergency meeting which is held in very critical circumstances. I do not wish to repeat that the region is going through grave escalation caused by the oppressive practices and continuous aggression carried out by Israel against the Palestinian people.
The initiative to call for this meeting was in response to a request by President Yasser Arafat and in line with the commitment of the Organization of Islamic Conference to its responsibilities towards the serious events in Palestine and the accelerating pace of deterioration resulting from them.
In fact the question that imposes itself on us in these difficult circumstances is: how can we support our Palestinian people? How can we protect these people from the aggression and harm they are exposed to? We can condemn and repeat that we are with them in their ordeal; but how can that convince the Palestinians who have a memory that we are really with them in their suffering? How can our thoughts and theirs, our positions and theirs, actually converge tangibly and not wishfully? It is undoubtedly not enough at all in this situation to repeat phrases of condemnation and denunciation, or issue resolutions that will have no response or effect on the actual reality.
God bless the people of Southern Lebanon who knew how to liberate their land, and by the means they chose and followed to reach their goal. If the people of Southern Lebanon were repeating what we repeat, could they have been able to achieve that victory?
Let us also ask ourselves: Could the action and practices undertaken by the Israeli government chaired by Sharon have been done if they had not already known that the Islamic reaction, and the Arab response in particular, will not go beyond condemnation and denunciation, and that while we demand peace from Israel we do not have the power that would help impose peace?
What is happening now in the Palestinian territories is first and foremost due to a feeling of injustice, frustration and loss of hope as a result of this Israeli policy and its oppressive practices. Since the first day of this Intifada, the Israeli response was excessively violent and brutal. There is no moral, political or security justification for responding to stones with air strikes, guns and rockets and all kinds of weapons of a sophisticated war machine against unarmed people who have nothing but their belief in the justice of their cause and their right to live in freedom and dignity.
Hence the Intifada is continuing and the Palestinian people wanted to completely depend on themselves. These struggling people are well aware that their brethren will not assist them with more that issuing statements of condemnation and denunciation, or some financial aids.
We are for peace; if the Intifada is the force that will dictate peace, we, as Muslims and Arabs, have to stand up bravely and provide material and moral support for this Intifada. It deserves every backing up from us. It has compelled us and its heroes have forced us to stand in all pride before their heroisms and pray for its martyrs. We have to move earnestly and effectively for the support of our brethren, and provide them with what they need in assistance and backing to alleviate their harsh suffering, and enable them to stand steadfast in the face of the aggression to which they are exposed under this grave imbalance of powers. In doing so, we do not only assist the Palestinians but also defend our sanctities and rights.
Brothers,
All of us have to expose to the international community this stark contradiction and double standards imposed by Israel at the level of international legality. Here is a United Nations member state which we see, as do all others, disavowing all its obligations and repudiating all its commitments.
We were hoping that with the growing concern of the international community with human rights and the fundamental developments in International Law in this field, and in other related domains such as the conventions regulating the rights and protection of civilians under occupation, that the international community will have a firm stance vis-à-vis the daily crimes committed by Israel against unarmed women and children in the occupied Palestinian territories. Yet what we see daily in Palestine, and the whole world sees, makes us doubt the credibility of those principles and values which we, as members of the international community, have blessed and endorsed.
That is why despite our appreciation for the international favourable response to the Mitchell Committee Report that has been welcomed by the Palestinian Authority and adopted by the United States as a course for its action, our experiences with Israel and its indifference to international resolutions, coupled with the inability of the international community to impose them upon it, make us fear that this report will be treated in the same way as several other international resolutions and agreements it has signed.
Hence, I hope that we emerge from this meeting with a unified Islamic strategy based on activation of the Doha Summit Conference resolutions in coping with the present circumstances, and material support to the Palestinian people in their legitimate struggle, while calling on the United Nations and the Security Council in particular to provide international protection for this people, and force Israel to halt all kinds of settlement activities in the Palestinian territories, and put an end to all forms of expansion and confiscation, and stop its constant violations of Islamic or Christian sacred places. We have to seek in all earnest to activate the strategic role of the co-sponsors of the peace process, i.e. the United States of America and the Russian Federation, to carry out their fundamental responsibilities in this direction.
The United States of America, with the capabilities it has, has played a pivotal role in sponsoring the peace process since the 1991 Madrid Conference. This role helped strengthen confidence in its ability to bring this process to its desired goal, which made several Arab countries take part in it. It is, therefore, necessary that the United States continues to honour its commitments in the Arab-Israeli conflict, which will only end with the complete withdrawal of Israel from all the occupied Palestinian and Arab lands and recognition of the lawful national rights of their Arab people.
Hence I call upon the American administration and upon President George Bush in person, to the necessity of immediate intervention to put an end to this deteriorating condition which should no longer be kept silent about, and put pressure on the Israeli government to force it to halt its aggression and return without any prior conditions to abiding by the principles on which the peace process was based and the resumption of negotiations from the point where they have stopped.
Israel cannot remain outside the framework of international legality, nor should it be beyond implementation of U.N. resolutions and conventions and the principles of human rights. If such resolutions and conventions and principles have to be executed, why are they not applied to Israel?
Arab and Islamic countries have been blockaded in the name of international legality. We have to wonder why this legality has been applied on some Arab and Islamic countries when it is not applied on Israel?
Where is this international legality that cannot provide security for an unarmed people, as is the case now in the West Bank and Gaza Strip?
We all know and always repeat double standards, while the double standards will always be applied on the weak peoples.
If these resolutions, conventions and principles are to be applied anywhere and to all crises and conflicts, they must necessarily be applied to the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Palestinian cause. The Palestinian people deserve to live like all other people of the world in freedom and dignity, and enjoy security and protection, and benefit from peace and prosperity in their homeland and on their land. Israel itself has to choose today between living in this region in security and peace or the continuation of this conflict for decades and generations, with all the resulting catastrophes and calamities that will fall on all states and peoples of the region.
Brothers,
In the face of these critical circumstances to which our brothers in Palestine are exposed, I propose that the Ministerial Committee formed at the 9th Islamic Summit should immediately resume its task by first calling for an emergency meeting of the Security Council to review the grave situation in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Committee should urgently proceed to the capitals of the five permanent member states of the Security Council, the European Union and the United Nations to discuss finding the necessary formulas and mechanisms for dealing with the deteriorating situation. I think it is necessary that the Committee should consider itself to be in continuous session to follow up the developments and propose the next steps.
May the Almighty God bestow His mercy on those who walked along the track of martyrdom and won it, and lead to triumph a people who believed and struggled and still is struggling to gain its right to live in freedom, with dignity and independence.
May the Peace and Blessing of God be upon you.
