Transcript of Abbas' EU speech filled with lies

Here is my translation of nearly all of Mahmoud Abbas' speech to the EU parliament yesterday based on the official Arabic transcript by Wafa. It includes some serious lies that should have been noticed by anyone with a passing familiarity with history.

And yet it was greeted with a standing ovation.

I highlighted some of the more egregious lies, but there were many.

In the name of of Allah the Merciful

His Excellency Mr. Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament

Ladies and gentlemen, members of parliament,

First I want to thank you for inviting me to speak again in front of your parliament, I would like to express my great admiration for the democratic model,..and the high and humanitarian principles represented by the European people, and also express respect and appreciation for your positions in order to lay the foundations of truth, justice and peace in my homeland Palestine.

I am pleased to convey to you the greetings of our people, who look forward to your distinguished parliament ...to work on the empowerment of our people to restore their rights and their freedom and independence, as we appreciate all forms of support you provide for the Palestinian people, and in particular to enable it to fulfill its economy and build the independent state institutions, including making it able to lay the foundations for a democratic system that is transparent and accountable and will apply international standards under the rule of law and respect for human rights.

I can not fail here to pay tribute to your parliament's recommendation to its Member States of the European Union to recognize the State of Palestine, and thanks go also to the parliaments of the Member States, which in turn are the other had recommended to their governments to recognize the State of Palestine...

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

One hundred years have passed since the Balfour Declaration in 1917, and 68 years of Nakba, during which Israeli forces committed in 1948 the killing and massacres and appalling crimes, caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of our people and turned them into refugees, and removed more than 488 villages and towns where people lived for thousands of years.

In 1967, Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and hundreds of thousands of our people fled, and our people are still under occupation.

In short, to say the least, on the Palestinian scene, is that Palestine is the homeland and its people, history and heritage, identity and geopolitical presence has been subjected to historical massacre and theft unmatched in the twentieth century and is still going on in the twenty first century, under the watchful eyes and of the international community.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The dark chapters of our people's lives are still continuing. Our people in Palestine live within the tyranny of occupation, its arbitrary actions and abhorrent racism, while the people who live in the refugee diaspora have lives of misery and deprivation.

But we are determined to hold out, and stay at home and work to get rid of the Israeli occupation, by political, diplomatic and peaceful means, we have come a long way, and we succeeded at the international level.

But we are still bogged down on the relationship with Israel, and we have tried very hard to return to the implementation of signed agreements, and respect for the obligations on us and them, but they refuse to carry out a minimum of them, instead devoting themselves to their occupation and control of all aspects of our lives.

In this regard, we are working to change the reality of the city of Jerusalem and to its historical identity, and protect Christian and Muslim holy sites, with the settlements continuously accelerating everywhere, in addition to land confiscations, house demolitions and constructions, and the arrest of thousands.

On the other hand, Israel is witnessing these days wildest ongoing violence, reflected by the settlers and their terror practices, as happened in the burning of the Dawabsheh family, as well as the brutal practices of the Israeli army and killings committed outside the law, and this extremism reached the extent of prompting a number of Israeli politicians and officials to direct criticism of their government, such as Herzog, the opposition leader, and Ya'alon the Defense Minister who resigned, and Ehud Barak, the former prime minister, and Deputy Chief of Staff, and a number of journalists, all of whom said that Israel exercises and the expansion of its behavior is fascist and racist, in their own words.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The resolution 181 taken by the United Nations was dedicated to sharing the land of historical Palestine between the two sides almost equally, but Israel has taken control by military force of 78% of historic Palestine in 1948, was not satisfied with that, but occupied the rest of it in 1967.

In spite of the international resolutions and the efforts of the international community, according to the vision of two-state solution, there is no independent state of Palestine yet, although it became a state in the United Nations system since 2012, and joined the many international organizations and treaties, and had been recognized by 138 countries.

However it is for the sake of peace, and an end to decades-long conflict, and the use, homelessness, and the diaspora of our people, we accepted the establishment of an independent State of Palestine on less than a quarter of the area of ​​historic Palestine, according to the 1967 borders, and despite this great sacrifice, since the Madrid Conference and the Oslo Convention   we are still caught up in the vicious cycle of negotiations for negotiations, imposed by Israel in the game to gain time, to establish facts on the ground, and which still continues to settle them and confiscation of our land, the construction of the wall of segregation.

Israel launched, and in a matter of six years, three wars on Gaza, killing thousands, it eliminated the presence of tens of Palestinian families, destroyed thousands of homes and structures in the Gaza Strip. Since Israel's occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip a million Palestinians entered Israeli jails and still there are 7,000 prisoners in Israeli jails;

We wonder in light of this bitter and dangerous reality, is not it time, ladies and gentlemen, that the Israeli occupation of Palestine ends? Why don't international laws and resolutions apply to Israel? And why do Security Council and General Assembly resolutions remain just ink on paper when it comes to Palestine and the Palestinian people's rights? And how long it will Israel act with impunity and escape the benefits of peace, recognition of historical injustice and the offense caused to the Palestinian people?

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our people are looking forward to life in freedom and dignity in their homeland as other peoples, and will not continually accept occupation and settlement imposed on them, no matter what the size of suffering and sacrifices. My friends, help us to remove the causes of frustration and hopelessness experienced by our people, and to get rid of the occupation which is the longest ever known in modern history.

Is it rational that the Palestinian people, one of the oldest peoples in the region and the world culture and knowledge, to be deprived of their own state? Is not it high time that they enjoys his freedom without restrictions and obstacles, and barriers and military checkpoints and gates and bridges open and close depending on whim and mood of the Israeli occupation army?

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Israel has used the strength of the occupation to turn our homeland Palestine into a big prison for our people.

Here, I reiterate before you, that we do not want to remove the presence of a geo-political entity, as some claim, but we will not allow one that eliminates the presence of our land, and our right to it. The continued denial of the rights of our people in their homeland only serves extremists, and generates terrorism and violence, and gives advocates their excuse for it, do not make your on the issue of Palestine and Jerusalem as a pretext for these and those, but make them a model of justice, peace, freedom and fairness.

Abbas seems to have expanded on this in his actual speech: “In order to overcome terrorism, we also need to end Israeli occupation by creating a Palestinian State within the 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital...[The absence of a two-state solution would give] “pretext to those who commit terrorism in the name of religion. Once this occupation ends, those pretexts will disappear and extremism will be over as will terrorism...There will be no more terrorism in the Middle East nor elsewhere in the world.”

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

We look forward to the European Union and its member states and its honored parliament, for the continuation of efforts and played a political and diplomatic role of an actor, all the way to a peaceful solution just and lasting peace in our region, according to the two-state solution on the basis of 1967 and the resolutions of international legitimacy. Both Israel and Palestine have enjoyed EU partnership agreements and neighborly common membership in the Union for the Mediterranean, which qualifies the European Union in order to play this role, and so as to achieve security and stability for all.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

To be clear and explicit as is always my habit in my conversations, and I answer some questions that may inspire some people, we want the two-state solution and the establishment of the State of Palestine on the entire territory of the West Bank, according to the borders of June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, we do not object to the reciprocal minor adjustments.

And that the refugee issue is handled in accordance with Resolution 194, as stipulated in the Arab Peace Initiative, meaning a just and agreed solution to the refugee issue.

We reject the transitional solutions, and reject the state with temporary borders, and we want the Arab peace initiative to be applied also approved without changes.

One issue raised by the Israelis is incitement, and despite the fact that Israeli incitement is uninterrupted and practices of the occupation and the settlers do not stop, and to address this phenomenon, we call to reactivate the tripartite committee the problem of Israel and Palestine and the United States of America, in 1998, with Mr. Netanyahu personally, and welcome to enter the European Union fourth party in this Committee.

[Here is where Abbas seems to have said "Only a week ago, a number of rabbis in Israel announced, and made a clear announcement, demanding that their government poison the water to kill the Palestinians. Isn't that clear incitement to commit mass killings against the Palestinian people?")

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I assure you that Palestine, if Israeli occupation and settlement ended, and it gained its independence and sovereignty, it should happen soon, it can be represented as a civilized and quality addition in our region, and be an oasis of stability and will be a refined culture and civilization. The capital will be the in East Jerusalem, with the doors open to all the followers of the three monotheistic religions without discrimination.

...We will continue to build the Palestinian state institutions, because the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people is not subject to negotiations with Israel, and we want the continuation of your help with this, and we have as well dozens of colleges and universities, which enjoys a good reputation, and contribute to the construction of an educational and education renaissance in our country, which is a research and scientific mixed institutions, both at the level of teaching staff or on the level of students we are a free society, and open-minded, enjoy where women are just like men with the same rights and obligations, and everyone is equal before the Law.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the third of this month, a ministerial meeting was held in Paris, according to the French initiative, which included 28 countries and three international organizations, and we appreciate the noble effort, we look forward to see results in the convening of an international peace conference, according to international law and international legitimacy and the resolutions of the Security Council, and the Arab peace initiative as approved at the Beirut summit in 2002, and the roadmap, and the agreements signed, and determine the time limits of the negotiations and implementation, as well as the formation mechanism and the framework for follow-up, similar to what has been with Iran.

As the European Council of Ministers adopted at its last meeting, during the final statement of the meetings of Paris on the third of June 2016, they and the Arab brothers and the vast majority of countries in the world support this French effort. President Francois Hollande has assured me that a few days ago that France is determined to continue right up to the international peace conference before year-end, and stressed the need to start preparations for the convening and success of the conference, through specialized work teams, and assured him of our full support to these efforts, and I reiterate before you that we as Palestinians and Arabs, we stand with you in the same trench to defeat terrorism and extremism.

This will only be achieved by an end the Israeli occupation and the establishment of an independent State of Palestine on the 1967 borders, and whose capital is East Jerusalem, and to live in peace and security alongside Israel.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The failure of the State of Palestine, and the failure of the idea of ​​a two-state solution that would prolong the life of conflict and strife, it will not only serve the extremists, and the advocates of violence and terrorism, which live on and hurt many countries in our region, and caused waves of displacement of refugees flowing into Europe, and including Palestinian refugees fleeing with them, who hope to be treated the same manner as other refugees, having lost everything fleeing the horrors of war, murder and terrorism, which we condemn whatever its source, and we must defeat terrorism and resolving these conflicts, which unfortunately has no prospects to be solved in the foreseeable future.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

As for the internal Palestinian situation, we are working to unify our land and our people, and to end the siege on the Gaza Strip, and we are still working to end the division, through the formation of a national unity government committed to PLO policies, international and regional obligations and commitments, and go for presidential and parliamentary elections as soon as possible . On this occasion, we thank you very much for your help in the reconstruction of what was destroyed by the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our hand is extended for peace, and we have the will and determination to achieve it: do you have such a will? Do you have to prepare your positions and admit the historical injustice inflicted upon our people and their rights? Just as you so, we also have our narrative, an honest narrative. Our presence on this earth has not stopped since the dawn of history, and to this day, our rights to our land and our holy Christian and Muslim princples are fixed. Only peace and genuine reconciliation can help recognize our rights and to repair the damage.

I assure you that we are not in favor turning the political conflict into a religious conflict, but peace is the interest of all, and I hope this to be the case for you, my neighbors. Come to make a lasting peace, away from the power and domination and control and expansion and settlement. Peace and coexistence based on the foundations of justice, truth and respect for the dignity and humanity and freedom of each party on an equal footing, is the real guarantee for security and stability and a promising future for the generations to come, and your generations.

In conclusion, I thank you again, Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, members of parliament, and I count on your support and my people, and your noble efforts to achieve peace in our region.

Long livethe Palestinian - European friendship, to make Palestine the Holy Land an oasis peace and security to its people and to its neighbors and the world.
Peace be upon you.

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