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Yasser Arafat, Speech (Parts of it) at UN General Assembly
Geneva, General Assembly 13 December 1988
1 am both proud and happy to meet with you today, here in Geneva, after an arbitrary American decision barred me from going to you there. I am proud because I am in your midst and you are the highest rostrum for the problems of justice and peace in the world. 1 am happy because I am in Geneva, where justice and neutrality are a guidepost and a constitution in a world where the arrogance of power drives some to lose their sense of neutrality and justice. The resolution passed by your esteemed assembly, with 154 member nations voting to move the session here, was not a victory over the American decision but an unprecedented landslide for the international consensus in favor of justice and Peace. It is proof that our people’s just cause has become embedded in the fabric of the human conscious.
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Fourteen Years ago on 13 November l974, I received a gracious invitation from You to expound the Problem Of Our Palestinian People before this dignified assembly. Here I am returning to you after all these eventful years to see now Peoples taking their places in your midst, crowning thereby their victories in the battles for freedom and independence. To the representatives of these peoples, I extend the warm congratulations of our own. Let it be known that I return to you with a stronger voice, a firmer determination and a greater coincidence to reiterate my conviction that our struggle will bear fruit and that the State of Palestine, which we proclaimed at Our Palestine National Council, will take its place among you to join [bands with] You in consolidating the charter of this organization and the Universal Declaration of Human rights, (full text at) http://www.geocities.com/arabtnp/arafat.html |
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