Yasir Arafat Speech to the United Nations

                                  Nov. 13, 1974

                               (Excerpts, Part IV)

     In the past 10 years of our struggle, thousands of martyrs and twice as

many wounded, maimed and imprisoned were offered in sacrifice, all in an effort

to resist the imminent threat of liquidation, to regain our right to self-

determination, and our undisputed right to return to our homeland. With the

utmost dignity and the most admirable revolutionary spirit, our Palestinian

people have not lost their spirit in Israeli prisons and concentration camps,

or when faced with all forms of harassment and intimidation. They struggle for

sheer existence and they continue to strive to preserve the Arab character of

their land. Thus they resist oppression, tyranny and terrorism in their ugliest

forms.

     ....Through our militant Palestine National Liberation Movement, our

people's struggle matured and grew enough to accommodate political and social

struggle in addition to armed struggle. The Palestine Liberation Organization

was a major factor in creating a new Palestinian individual qualified to shape

the future of our Palestine, not merely content with mobilizing the

Palestinians for the challenges of the present.

     The Palestine Liberation Organization can be proud of having a large

number of cultural and educational activities, even while engaged in armed

struggle, and at a time when it faced the increasing vicious blows of Zionist

terrorism. We established institutes for scientific research, agricultural

development, and social welfare, as well as centers for the revival of our

cultural heritage and the preservation of our folklore...The Palestine

Liberation Organization has earned its legitamcy because of the sacrifice

inherent in its pioneering role, and also because of its dedicated leadership

of the struggle. It has also been granted legitimacy by the Palestinian masses,

which in harmony with it have chosen it to lead the struggle according to its

directives....The Palestine Liberation Organization represents the Palestinian

people, legitimately and uniquely.

                                      *****

     I am a rebel and freedom is my cause.

     I know well that many of you present here today once stood in exactly the

same adversary position I now occupy, and from which I must fight. You were

once obligated by your struggle to convert dreams into reality. Therefore you

must now share my dream. I think this is exactly why I can ask you now to help,

as together we bring out our dream into a bright reality, our common dream for

a peaceful future in Palestine's sacred land.

     As he stood in an Israeli military court, the Jewish revolutionary Ahud

Adif said, "I am no terrorist; I believe that a democratic state should exist

on this land." Adif now languishes in a Zionist prison amongst his co-

believers.

     And before those same courts there stands today a brave prince of the

church, Bishop Capucci. Lifting his finger to form the same victory sign used

by our freedom-fighters, he says: "What I have done, I have done that all men

may live on this land of peace in peace." This princely priest will doubtless

share Adif's grim fate.

     Why therefore should I not dream and hope? For is not revolution the

making of real dreams and hopes? So let us work together that my dream may be

fulfilled, that I should return with my people out of exile, there in Palestine

to live with this Jewish freedom-fighter and his partners, with this Arab

priest and his brothers, in one democratic state where Christian, Jew and

Moslem live in justice, equality and fraternity.

     Is not this a noble dream worthy of my struggle alongside lovers of

freedom everywhere? For the most admirable dimension of this dream is that it

is Palestinian, a dream from out of the land of peace, the land of martyrdom

and heroism.

     Let us remember, Mr. President, that the Jews of Europe and the United

States have been known to lead the struggles for secularism and the separation

of church and state; they have also been known to fight against discrimination

on religious grounds. How do they then refuse this humane paradigm for the holy

land? How then do they continue to support the most fanatic, discriminatory and

closed of nations in its policy?

     In my formal capacity as Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization

and as leader of the Palestine revolution, I proclaim before you that when we

speak of our common hopes for the Palestine of tomorrow we include in our

perspective all Jews now living in Palestine who choose to live with us there

in peace and without discrimination.

     In my formal capacity as Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization

and leader of the Palestinian revolution I call upon Jews one by one to turn

away from the illusory promises made to them by Zionist ideology and Israeli

leadership. Those offer Jews perpetual bloodshed, endless war, and continuous

thralldom.

    ....In my formal capacity as Chairman of the Palestine Liberation

Organization I announce here that we do not wish the shedding of one drop of

either Arab or Jewish blood; neither do we delight in the continuation of

killing, which would end once a just peace, based on our people's rights,

hopes, and aspirations is finally established.

    In my formal capacity as Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization

and leader of the Palestinian revolution, I appeal to you to accompany our

people in its struggle to attain its right to self-determination. This right is

consecrated in the United Nations Charter, and resolved upon repeatedly

thereafter by this august body. I appeal to you further to aid our people's

return to its homeland from an involuntary exile imposed upon it by force of

arms, by tyranny, by oppression, so that we might regain our property, our land

thereafter to live in our national homeland, free and sovereign, enjoying all

the privileges of nationhood. Only then can we pour all our resources into the

mainstream of human civilization. Only then can Palestinian creativity be

concentrated on the service of humanity. Only then will our Jerusalem resume

its historic role as a peaceful shrine for all religions.

     I appeal to you to enable our people to establish national sovereignty

over its own land.

     Today, Mr. President, I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom

fighter's gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.

     War flares up in Palestine, and yet, Mr. President, it is in Palestine

that peace will be borne.