The Israel-Arab Reader (83 page)

We witnessed, you witnessed, the world witnessed the tip of the iceberg of problems that we shall have to overcome in the implementation of even the first phase of the Declaration of Principles [DOP]. To overcome 100 years of animosity, suspicion, bloodshed, it's not so simple. There is an opposition on both sides to what we are doing today, and it will require a lot, a lot on both sides to make sure that we will succeed and achieve peaceful coexistence and, in addition to the coexistence, to bring a permanent solution.

Today we signed the Gaza-Jericho First agreement, which is the first phase of implementation. It's a very daring project, and we are committed by signature today to make sure that it will work. We will achieve our goals; we will be able to overcome all these problems.

In 1889, 105 years ago, Avraham Jablonsky, a blacksmith, was murdered in his clay hut in Wadi Khalil. Avraham Jablonsky was the first victim in the history of the Jewish settlement in Eretz Yisra'el in modern times. He was the first victim of the bloody conflict between us and the Palestinian people since our return to the land of our forefathers after 2,000 years of exile. Since Avraham Jablonsky's death, the experience of our grandparents, parents, ourselves, and even our children and grandchildren has been almost solely one of blood and bereavement. For 100 years, this blood gave us no rest. What did we want? We wanted to return to the land of our forefathers, to the land of the Bible. We wanted a homeland; we wanted a home; we wanted a safe haven; we wanted a place to call our own; we wanted to live as all men live, to be like other nations. We wanted to live.

The war for the land of our forefathers took our best sons and daughters. It drained us of spiritual and physical energies and channeled our entire spiritual and physical existence to paths we did not want, to paths of pain. We deplore that. Even in our most difficult times, our hearts ached at the sights of devastation, hatred, and death. Even in our most bitter moments, we knew that the tears of a bereaved mother from within our midst are no different from the tears of another bereaved mother; that they are equally piercing and painful in any family; that the cries of despair are the same even when uttered in other languages.

We decided to try to put an end to this terrible circle of pain. We decided to look ahead at a different future. On 13 September 1993, on the White House lawn in Washington, we decided to embark on a new road. Tomorrow we will begin implementing the DOP. The DOP and its implementation—in Gaza and Jericho, at this point—is designed to attain a dual purpose: to enable the Palestinian authority to administer the lives of the Palestinians and to uphold public law and order in their places of residence. Our goal is to uphold security for Israelis wherever they may be, particularly in the wake of the change that is scheduled to take place in Gaza and Jericho. If the security of the Israelis is not ensured and if the Palestinians are not given new hope, the goal of the agreement will not be attained.

A great deal depends on the Palestinians. We are embarking on this new road with a lot of hope and with strong will, and we know that it entails wonderful chances as well as serious risks. We are convinced that both peoples can live on the same strip of land, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, as the Biblical prophets envisioned; to give this land, the land of stones and graves, the taste of milk and honey it deserves.

At this hour, I appeal to the Palestinian people and say to them: Palestinian neighbors, 100 bloody years have instilled in us hatred for each other. For 100 years, we wanted to see you dead and you wanted to see us dead. We killed you and you killed us. Thousands of our graves and yours dot the mountains and the valleys, and they are painful landmarks in your history and ours. Today, you and we are extending our hands in peace. Today we are opening a new account. The Israeli people expect you not to let them down. Let the new hope flourish. It is not easy to forget the past, but let us try to overcome the rancors and obstacles in order to open a new, unique, and historic horizon; an opportunity which may never recur for a different life, a life that is not fraught with fear, a life that is not fraught with hatred, a life that does not involve the frightened eyes of children, a life that does not entail pain, a life in which we will build a home, plant a vineyard, and live to a ripe old age alongside our fellow men. . . .

On a spring day of 1994, two weeks ago, the late Second Lieutenant Shahar Simani was murdered. He was 21 years old and a resident of Ashqelon. His bullet-riddled body was found by the roadside on the way to Jerusalem. A thread of blood links the Israeli people from the murder of Avraham Jablonsky, the blacksmith, 105 years ago, to the murder of Second Lieutenant Shahar Simani two weeks ago. I pray: May Shahar Simani be the last fatality among all of us, Israelis and Palestinians.

The new hope we are taking with us as we leave this place is immeasurable. There is no limit to our goodwill, to the will to see a historic reconciliation between two peoples that have lived so far by their swords. In the alleyways of Khan Yunus and on the outskirts of Ramat Gan, in the houses of Gaza, in the squares of Hadera, Rafah, and 'Afula, a new reality is being born today. One hundred years of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and millions of people who want to live are watching us. May God be with us.

In the name of every Palestinian man and woman, I look with great confidence and hope at our brothers and our people's friends who are participating in this historic occasion and I think of those who could not come. I thank them all and stress to them that our people today in the West Bank, Gaza, holy Jerusalem, and in all the diaspora are looking more than ever toward your role so that this first step in Gaza and Jericho will become the real start for completing the peace process, guaranteeing our Palestinian people's legitimate rights, achieving justice and equality by ending the occupation of our Palestinian territories, and building the Palestinian future based on democracy, development, and progress, a future linked with the tradition of its glorious Arab nation. . . .

The withdrawal from Gaza and Jericho is the prelude; it opens the door to removing the entire occupation and to establishing new relations between our peoples, Prime Minister Rabin, between our Israeli and Palestinian peoples, for the sake of our children and yours.

Completing this step required Herculean courage after long periods of war and violence. The coming stage will require still greater courage, a thorough insight, real farsightedness, and firm patience so that we can establish a firm and unshakable peace, the peace of the bold.

The Palestinian people have lived on their land throughout history. They helped to create civilization and raise the voice of peace, the voice of the only all-powerful God, the creator, the lord of the universe and of the three heavenly religions, calling for praising God's blessings, giving, and his name on this sacred land.

The people of Palestine, based on their deep historical heritage, today express their loyalty to the just and comprehensive peace. Thus our people demonstrated faithfulness to the heritage of their successive generations; to the sweat of the Palestinian people, mixed as it is with the soil of the earth; to the Palestinian maker's determination to build life and let it flourish; and to the creativity of the Palestinian intellectual, who always believes that history will never go off its track no matter how much time passes.

Our people, gentlemen, have struggled long to see the beginning of the peace era. For peace to be achieved, our people offered dear sacrifices. To achieve this recognition of our national rights, the eyes of bereaved mothers and of children who were raised to know that love and loyalty to the homeland are the highest values of life looked forward. Also looking forward to this were the prisoners, whose hope of freedom, for themselves and for their people, is renewed every day, and the refugee camp residents, who never lost confidence that a new era of freedom would come.

Nothing has gone in vain. Alive and great nations make their wounds, the sacrifice of their martyrs, and their long suffering the motives for the future and the banners for building a new era based on justice under the shadow of tolerance and coexistence among the three religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam over centuries.

We have offered a great deal to reach this day. We confronted patiently and persistently every hindrance and doubt and we always thought that every step in the peace negotiations, despite all the pain, was a move away from the era of war and violence nearer to the era of equal rights and the implementation of international legitimacy. While today we celebrate the signing of the first step, we must all realize that all those concerned about peace, including our people at home and in the diaspora, measure the seriousness of this step by one criterion: honest and precise implementation and the change it will make to the reality on the ground. It is the right of our people and of everybody concerned with genuine peace to point to the measures isolating holy Jerusalem from its surroundings and preventing the Palestinians from entering it and the other sacred Islamic and Christian places. These measures obstruct life in the city, paralyze its economy, and separate the sons of the same family.

All this is incompatible with the spirit of the just and real peace, with the course of equality, justice, and human rights that we are aspiring to adopt as the basis for free and positive relations between the two neighboring peoples, as Mr. Peres said, between the Palestinian and Israeli peoples. The suffering of the city of Hebron following the bloody massacre cannot continue. It is still suffering encirclement and siege both inside and outside it.

The continuation of the settlement and the attempt to impose the fait accompli in Jerusalem and in other areas conflict with the essence, clauses, and the short- and long-term objectives of the peace process.

The boldness of peace prompts me today to adopt the policy of frankness on peace without which we cannot end the age of confrontation and start the age of constructive and real cooperation. The Arab peoples and millions of Muslims and Christians will observe our practical steps tomorrow to pass judgment on the possibility of coexistence and of opening a new chapter in normal relations. All those who want the success of the Palestinian-Israeli peace experiment realize the importance of the great steps facing this peace, including the settlements, the refugee problem, holy Jerusalem, and the need to solve it later, as we agreed, so as to help create a new era of protecting the future of the entire region and ensuring openness between their peoples and countries on the basis of respect for the rules and resolutions of international legitimacy.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am confident today that the Palestinian people will receive this new stage with a desire to provide a real opportunity for building real peace with the same desire it has for its national identity and its independent national being. Our people extends its hand to the Israeli people to start this era and end the whirlpool of violence for the sake of our real interests today and the interests of our coming generations.

Coexistence is possible. It is inevitable. It is our common fate to live together as neighbors governed by the rules of justice, democracy, and national and human dignity.

Hatred, bigotry, and extremism will only lead to more squandering of our creative and brilliant resources. We are proposing the alternative today, namely equality, joint building, and respect for every people's right and independent choice and security.

Today again I also address our great Arab nation, leaders and peoples, on the threshold of the first step of the return to the homeland and stress to them that their pain, sacrifice, and determination to uphold our Palestinian people's national legitimate rights prompt us today to strengthen our fraternal ties in every field so that peace for Palestine will, as always, be a peace for all the Arabs.

Yes, gentlemen, our peace is a peace for our Arab nation. It is a peace for Israel, for the Middle East region, for the whole world. Yes, it is a peace for the whole world.

O God, you are peace, peace comes from you, and peace is for you. Blessed are you God, full of majesty, bounty, and honor. Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and goodwill toward men. Peace be with you.

Last week, we celebrated the forty-sixth anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel and its independence. Today, we return to our regular lives; but we are all permitted to look back with pride—and forward, with great hope.

Forty-six difficult years of struggle for life, and of building an economy and society have brought about the great accomplishments of the State of Israel. Despite its deficiencies, it is today one of the more enchanting and beautiful countries of the world; one of those in which it is good to live. I want to take advantage of this opportunity, of the opening of the Knesset's summer session, to again congratulate the citizens of Israel on the occasion of Independence Day.

The last Independence Day took place in the shadow of the terrorist attacks, and of the most recent attack—just before the Memorial Day siren. Five civilians and soldiers died in the explosion of a bomb at the central bus station in Hadera.

The bomb was planted by a degenerate murderer, a member of Hamas, who apparently chose to perish with his innocent victims. This House, the entire country, joins in the mourning and agony of the bereaved families . . . to offer our condolences for their suffering. This House, the Government, also wishes a speedy recovery to the wounded.

Last September, we embarked on a new path. We set forth on an honest attempt to turn a page of history that is fraught with the blood of both Jews—later Israelis—and Palestinians. We decided not to deal with past accounts. We decided to overcome the accumulations of hatred and blood. We decided to try and create a new and better future for both peoples who have been summoned to the same tract of land by fate and history.