THE HALA FOUNDATION FOR ARAB-AMERICAN LEADERSHIP

April 15, 1998

Dennis Ross is going to the Middle East. Dennis Ross came back from the Middle East. Dennis Ross will be going again to the Middle East.

This is what the peace process has boiled down to: "motion without movement" to sustain the impression that the process is still alive when it has long ago become comatose. Sadly, the United States, this great power, is reduced helplessness when it comes to Israel. That the United States is so concerned that UN resolutions be followed to the letter when they pertain to Arab countries and that it allows Israel to trample on these resolutions and defied them with impunity is mind-boggling.

Hala and her fellow Arab ambassadors' spouses on a hunger strick in front of the White House to focus U.S. attention on the devastating human consequences of the invasion and to protest American support of Israel. Washington D.C., 1982And Israel, armed with the knowledge that the United States will support it no matter how arrogantly it behaves, can treat Robin Cook, the British Foreign Secretary, the way it did two weeks ago, with utmost disrespect and contempt, and get away with it. The United States, in the meantime, is negotiating a withdrawal from 13 percent of the Occupied Territories, 13 percent of disconnected territory, Bantustans surrounded by Israeli occupying forces and settlements, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserts that he will never allow a Palestinian state to see the light and the Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the state of Israel. Israeli intransigence and continued violations of basic standards of human rights and international law are planting the seeds of war for generations to come. The elements of the just and comprehensive peace are clear and unequivocal and were enunciated in Madrid.

The concept of land-four-piece is a crucial component. But beyond the political jargon we must not forget that the Palestinians are a people. They have the basic human right of self-determination in their own state, as does every other people, and Jerusalem has to be the capital of that state. Jerusalem is a trust in our hands for the next generations. Bringing peace to the "city of peace" can only be achieved through shared sovereignty. Jerusalem cannot and will not be under the exclusive sovereignty of one party seeking to dominate the other.

Moreover, the issue of the Palestinian refugees must be resolved. Palestinian refugees scattered throughout the globe -- some living in abysmal conditions in camps amounting to shantytowns -- deserve to have an identity and should be compensated for their losses as stipulated by UN resolutions. That the world should find reasonable for Jews to ask for reparations for their losses during the Holocaust, while Palestinians should be denied compensation for their dispossession, is a glaring double standard which is unacceptable.

As the American media, politicians and pro-Israeli groups celebrate 50 years of the state of Israel, we commemorate 50 years of Palestinian dispossession, occupation and exile. A national campaign is underway to organize its war of quilts representing the 418 Palestinian villages destroyed by Israel in 1948 the 418 panels making up the quilt were stitched by volunteers around the country eager to contribute to telling their heart wrenching stories of dispossession. It is our way of making sure that the other side of the story is told.

Tonight CBS will be airing a two-hour primetime television program celebrating Israel. How could it be that two whole hours of primetime American TV is being devoted to celebrating another country? After all, this is unprecedented for any other nation. According to USA Today, there is a perfectly logical explanation to this: if years that Israel's Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion on is also the great uncle of CBS-TV executive Leslie Moonves. When asked if he worried about requests for specials honoring other countries, Moonves replied that the thought had never even occurred to him. It obviously never occurred to him either to celebrating 50 years of Israel without recognizing 50 years of Palestinian dispossession and suffering amounts to participating in the perpetuation of a lie. I urge each and everyone of you to contact CBS when you go home tonight and asked for equal time. The American public deserves to know the whole truth about what 50 years of Israel's existence has meant in terms of human tragedy, destruction, pain and suffering, as well as the resilience and the strength of the Palestinian people throughout their ordeal.

The Palestinians have suffered enough. 50 years since al-Nakba, the Catastrophe, the Palestinian people continue to yearn for peace. But for peace to prevail they must be offered, like everybody else, the prospects of a decent life for their children and the life of dignity as citizens of a Palestinian state.

Speech given at the University of Maryland, April 15, 1998.