"Territory for peace is a travesty when territory for illegal settlement is official Israeli policy and practice. The settlements must stop now."
Dr. Haider Abdel Shafi, Opening Address at the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference
- Dr. Haider Abdel Shafi, 1919-2007
Ramallah, 07-11-07: Tributes to Dr. Haider Abdel Shafi, the late President and co-founder of the Palestinian National Initiative, were replete with warnings to Palestinian negotiators at the upcoming Annapolis peace meeting not to compromise on the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, a staunch position for which Dr. Abdel Shafi was renowned and widely respected.
The tributes came at a commemorative event organised by the Palestinian National Initiative in Ramallah on Monday, marking an end to the forty days of mourning for Dr. Abdel Shafi. In death as in life, Dr. Abdel Shafi was able to bring together Palestinians from all walks of life, with representatives from all political factions, religious leaders, and foreign diplomats attending the event, as well as members of Palestinian and international civil society organisations, and hundreds of PNI supporters wishing to pay tribute to one of the greatest leaders of the Palestinian national struggle and a symbol of honesty, integrity, democracy and national unity.
Speaking on the memory of his close friend and mentor, PNI Secretary General, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP said that Dr. Abdel Shafi set out clear conditions for peace with Israel, based on the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state on all territories occupied in 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital, the dismantlement of settlements and the Apartheid Wall, equitable access to natural resources, the return of Palestinian refugees, and the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners.
Dr. Barghouthi also reiterated Dr. Abdel Shafi’s position on measures needed on the Palestinian side in order to reach a negotiated settlement with Israel, stressing that only a unified leadership with the support of the vast majority of Palestinians could ever reach a settlement that fulfils the aspirations of the widest number of Palestinians. He added that Dr. Abdel Shafi had consistently maintained that "if the Palestinian people were divided, a political strategy for peace could never prevail."
He cited the Oslo Accords, of which Dr. Abdel Shafi was a fierce critic, as an example of the failure of agreements reached without the consensus of the Palestinian people, and of the danger of interim solutions, saying that the Oslo Accords had been "an Israeli tool to impose the status quo as a fact on the ground."
In an implicit caution to the Palestinian delegation to the Annapolis peace meeting, Dr. Barghouthi recalled Dr. Abdel Shafi’s legacy: unity is essential. He emphasised that all talks conducted in the absence of national unity, and without a unified leadership would only set back the Palestinians’ struggle for freedom, dignity, and justice. Furthermore, negotiations that do not address final status issues will only serve the interests of the Israeli government.
The MP extolled Dr. Abdel Shafi’s ability to keep sight of the greater interests of the Palestinian people, to transcend factionalism and overcome personal interests, and to weave together political diversity with national unity. He warned against surrendering the national rights of Palestinians in the pursuit of short-sighted and partial solutions to the occupation.
Dr, Barghouthi ended by calling on those present not only to remember Dr. Abdel Shafi’s memory, but to pledge themselves to following his path of democracy, pluralism, and respect for human rights in the interests of the national cause, and to "unite, unite, unite."
In His Own Words: Dr. Abdel Shafi on Key Issues in his Opening Address at the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference
National Unity
"The Palestinian people are one, fused by centuries of history in Palestine, bound together by a collective memory of shared sorrows and joys and sharing a unity of purpose and vision. Our songs and ballads, our folk tales and children’s stories, the dialect of our jokes, the images of our poems, that hint of melancholy which colours even our happiest moments, are as important to us as the blood ties which link our families and clans."
Conditions on Israel
"Bilateral negotiations on the withdrawal of Israeli forces, the dissolution of Israeli administration and the transfer of authority to the Palestinian people cannot proceed under coercion or threat in the current asymmetry of power. Israel must demonstrate its willingness to negotiate in good faith by immediately halting all settlement activity and land confiscation while implementing meaningful confidence-building measures. Without genuine progress, tangible constructive changes and just agreements during the bilateral talks, multilateral negotiations will be meaningless."
International Law
"All other resolutions pertinent to the Palestinian question [...] form the larger body of legality, including all relevant provisions of international law, within which any peaceful settlement must proceed. If international legitimacy and the rule of law are to prevail and govern relations among nations, they must be respected and, impartially and uniformly, implemented. We, as Palestinians, require nothing less than justice."
Danger of Interim Solutions
"We are willing to accept the proposal for a transitional stage, provided interim arrangements are not transformed into permanent status. The time frame must be condensed to respond to the dispossessed Palestinians’ urgent need for sanctuary and to the occupied Palestinians’ right to gain relief from oppression and to win recognition of their authentic will."
Jerusalem
"Palestinian Jerusalem, the capital of our homeland and future state, defines Palestinian existence - past, present and future [...] Jerusalem defies exclusive possessiveness or bondage. Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem remains both clearly illegal in the eyes of the world community and an affront to the peace that this city deserves."
Prisoners
"As we speak, thousands of our brothers and sisters are languishing in Israeli prisons and detention camps, most detained without evidence, charge, or trial, many cruelly mistreated and tortured in interrogation, guilty only of seeking freedom or daring to defy the occupation. We speak in their name and we say: set them free."
Refugees
"To our people in exile and under occupation, who have sent us to this appointment laden with their trust, love, and aspirations, we say that the load is heavy, and the task is great, but we shall be true. In the words of our great national poet, Mahmoud Darwish: "My homeland is not a suitcase, and I am no traveller." To the exiled and the occupied, we say: You shall return and you shall remain and we will prevail, for our cause is just. We will put on our embroidered robes and kafiyyas and, in the sight of the world, celebrate together on the day of liberation."
Settlements
"The settlements must stop now. Peace cannot be waged while Palestinian land is confiscated in myriad ways and the status of the Occupied Territories is being decided each day by Israeli bulldozers and barbed wire. This is not simply a position; it is an irrefutable reality. Territory for peace is a travesty when territory for illegal settlement is official Israeli policy and practice. The settlements must stop now."
Land Confiscation
"What requiem can be sung for trees uprooted by army bulldozers? [...] who can explain to those whose lands are confiscated and clear waters stolen, the message of peace? Remove the barbed wire, restore the land and its life-giving water."
Two-State Solution
"We, the Palestinian people, made the imaginative leap in the Palestine National Council of November 1988, during which the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) launched its peace initiative based on Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, and declared Palestinian independence based on Resolution 181 of the United Nations, which gave birth to two states in 1948: Israel and Palestine. In December 1988, a historic speech before the United Nations in Geneva led directly to the launching of the Palestinian-American dialogue. Ever since then, our people has responded positively to every serious peace initiative and has done its utmost to ensure the success of this process. Israel, on the other hand, has placed many obstacles and barriers in the path of peace to negate the very validity of the process. Its illegal and frenzied settlement activity is the most glaring evidence of its rejectionism, the latest settlement being erected just two days ago."
Palestinian State
"In the Middle East there is no superfluous people outside time and place, but rather a state sorely missed by time and place - the state of Palestine. It must be born on the land of Palestine to redeem the injustice of the destruction of its historical reality and to free the people of Palestine from the shackles of their victimization. Our homeland has never ceased to exist in our minds and hearts, but it has to exist as a state on all the territories occupied by Israel in the war of 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital, in the context of that city’s special status and its non-exclusive character."
Self-Determination
"Self-determination, ladies and gentlemen, can neither be granted nor withheld at the whim of the political self-interest of others, for it is enshrined in all international charters and humanitarian law. We claim this right; we firmly assert it here before you and in the eyes of the rest of the world, for it is a sacred and inviolable right which we shall relentlessly pursue and exercise with dedication and self-confidence and pride."
Dr. Haider Abdel Shafi
1919-2007
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