Palestinians have sailed the 7 seas, and yet never encountered the horizon. They’ve looked the burning sun into the eyes, while wondering how come they were seeing no light, and feeling no warmth. Their journey is about resurrection. Only peoples who have at one point in their history been embraced by the shadows of oblivion can understand how it feels to be on the verge of disappearing from both geography and history. But we found our way back into life. After decades of silence, we shouted, and our voices carried the suffering together with the hope, the wounds, and the path to their healing. We, the subjects of fear and despair, became verbs of existence. And we built a house that was small enough to unite us, and big enough to embrace us all: the PLO. And battle after battle, we grabbed recognition, and we emerged as a people. We affirmed our rights and our determination not to relinquish them.
In 1974, when Arafat addressed the world in the house of all nations, we went from darkness to light, from denial of our rights, to the hope that only struggle can bring, the hope of being. We, the refugees, became freedom fighters. We were recognized then as a people, and the PLO as our representative.
When the Israelis surrounded Beirut, and after 88 days of solitude, forced us to resume our dialogue with the sea, while we were eager to finally write the alphabet of the land, we thought we would be forgotten again. The uprising came then unexpectedly from within, as the heartbeat knocking on the chest, and calling the names of both martyrs, and children yet to be born, reconciling the past with the quest of the future. Our Intifada from within the occupied Palestinian territory made us erupt once again on the international arena, and after the international community’s recognition of our existence, we imposed recognition of our plight and of the need to address it.
On we went to fight once again for our longstanding dream. International conferences, secret talks, and peace initiatives followed. And these unforgettable images of Yasser Arafat landing in Gaza, and kissing the soil as you kiss your loved ones in a family reunion, after a very long separation. We were back to part of our original land, but freedom had evaded our luggage before our arrival. We negotiated to ensure the implementation of our rights, while Israel was waiting for us to surrender. We were seeking a horizon, they were spreading smokescreen. And when we called their bluff, we were blamed for revolting against our oppressors who did not wish to become our partners. And while our message was one of peace and coexistence, of forgiveness and life, and while their message was one of occupation, exclusiveness and exclusion, denial and rejection, we were blamed for the failure of a peace process that was making our land vanish piece by piece.
The 2nd Intifada was an uprising of frustration, not of hope. We underwent once again years of siege, attacks, curfews, arrests and killings. Arafat, our President, besieged, his headquarters destroyed. A clear symbol of the shattering of this existence we spent decades rebuilding. Is it our destiny to be reminded to ashes each time we light our flame? We cannot accept it. So we tried once again, peacefully to convey our message. We acted responsibly and built our institutions, and committed to a cease fire our oppressors denied us, despite the massacres, the occupation and the siege We fulfilled all of our obligations. We underwent all the tests. The world should not however overestimate our patience, nor should it underestimate our determination. We will rise again and again, and from ashes, we will turn into flames of hope, and we will resurrect to remind our oppressors that freedom cannot be buried, and that justice cannot be silenced.
A group of Palestinians decided to send a Seat symbolizing our membership in the UN to wonder the world. Their message: Palestine deserves independence. A small seat symbolizing our presence, we the children of the tents of absence; our rights, we the children of a too long oppression; of our freedom, we who have only known occupation and exile, we who can no longer recognize our land as it has been disfigured by walls and settlements, checkpoints and barbed wires.
This Seat was welcomed in refugee camps in Lebanon by chants and zagarid, reviving the memories we buried together with our martyrs in the soil of Lebanon. The welcome the seat enjoyed in the Palestinian communities, especially in the refugee camps, is vivid testimony of our eagerness to unite our efforts, to sew back on our national fabric, a reminder of the Palestinian refugees’ need to be remembered, to be respected, and to be included. Did not know a Chair could do all of that. But it did. It shows to what extent this battle is first and foremost about our people, and its own voice which is key to deliver its message to the world.
The Seat was welcomed in the European Parliament to call on Europe, which recognized our rights three decades ago to support the State it helped us build and to demonstrate consistency, as it is the only way to enjoy credibility. The welcome the Seat enjoyed triggered strong feelings within us. We have raised our flag around the globe, and our Seat made its way to places that were not long ago unreachable. It is our sacrifices, our losses, our everlasting struggle that allowed us to gain this recognition, as an important victory towards raising one day our flag in our own capital that remains forbidden to our dreams and hopes.
We want a Seat to be able to stand up. We want existence to coexist. We want membership to build partnership. We want to live freely and in dignity on our land. We want to walk the ancient roads of Jerusalem to build a future, one that is in harmony with the city’s essence: pluralism and tolerance. We want to return to our homes to reconcile with our destiny and with those who have ripped us out of it.
This small Seat is a symbol of our right to have our place among all other nations, with equal rights after having fulfilled all our duties. Our Seat as full member in the UN would be a consecration of our longstanding struggle for international recognition, as a prelude for the fulfilment of our inalienable rights, not as a substitute to it. We are on the doorstep to freedom, and we are determined to enter. We want our long overdue State, our freedom, our capital and our return, and the UN bid is our foot in the door of history, and nobody will be able to shut this door in our faces. It is our first step towards the conclusion of a long journey, a step we make while looking at our brothers in the Arab world who decided this year that spring shall start in winter, and we intend for our struggle to blossom together with theirs.
We are carrying our own Seat, and on the way, we rediscovered our own voice. And we take God as our witness, the whole world will have to listen.