Palestinians 'looking to SA'
Shaun Benton
3 April 2006The Palestinian people are looking to South Africa "as a model from which we can draw lessons and inspiration", says Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Abbas, who is also chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, wrapped up a three-day state visit to South Africa on the weekend after meeting former President Nelson Mandela, whom he described as the "father of all liberation movements".
In his speech to Parliament in Cape Town on Friday - following a meeting with President Thabo Mbeki - Abbas said the Palestinian people were "looking towards your country as a model from which we can draw lessons and inspiration, to continue our march to achieve a just and comprehensive peace and regain our rights of self determination, and the establishment of an independent state of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital."
Abbas told South African MPs that he conveyed the sincere greetings of the Palestinian people, members of the Palestine national council and members of the newly elected Palestinian legislative council.
The Palestinian legislative council comprises members of the radical Hamas political formation following elections held in Palestinian territories in January. They were sworn into government by Abbas the day before he travelled to South Africa.
The Palestinian people were "living under extremely difficult and dangerous conditions, where they are subjected to all kinds of torture, siege, suffocation, and confiscation of land by Israel", Abbas told the National Assembly.
"These aggressive and illegal practices are aimed at establishing its occupation, illegal settlement in our land and to undermine the peace process and all the regional and international initiatives to reviving it."
In a clear request for support from South Africa, Abbas said that "your participation and advice is essential under these complex and difficult circumstances, and we are confident that, with our dear friend President Mbeki and members of his government, we can reach a common position, through which we can push towards reviving the peace process in our region.
"We Palestinians are very keen and interested in learning more about your experience that will help us to advance the political process in the Middle East," he said.
"We welcome any effort that your government would make and we assure you that, despite all our suffering, we will remain committed to all peace initiatives and continue to be responsible and objective in positively responding to all regional and international efforts and initiatives aimed at reviving and protecting the peace process."
Referring to an Israeli plan to redraw the final borders of Israel, made by the newly formed Kadima party which emerged as the dominant political party in Israel following elections there last week, Abbas said that "we vehemently reject" any obstruction of the negotiation process by Israel "to replace it with the iron fist and unilateral policies.
"We have agreed to the Road Map sponsored by the Quartet Committee [Russia, the US, the EU and the UN]," he said.
'"The government of Israel, however, has put forward 14 reservations on this plan, and has relied on its force and influence to continue expansionist policies and oppression against our people. It has misled the world by creating the impression that there is no Palestinian partner to negotiate with.
"The real obstacle," Abbas said, "is the Israeli obstinate stance from the one side, and the lack of effective intervention by the international community from the other.
"It is unacceptable to use the victory of Hamas in the elections of the second Palestinian Legislative Council as an excuse to increase the Israeli aggression against our people and punish our people for its democratic choice.
"Given all the difficult circumstances, we need your continued support, together with the international community," he said.
'Peace of the brave'
Speaking at a state banquet at Tuynhuys, Cape Town's presidential offices, on Friday evening, Mbeki said that there was "no other road to peace between Palestine and Israel except the road of negotiations to arrive at a mutually acceptable solution.
"In this regard, it is perfectly obvious that unilateral action can never produce a permanent solution, but would only serve to complicate an already difficult situation," Mbeki said.
"As in the past," Mbeki told the Palestinian leader, "the government and people of South Africa are ready to offer whatever support they can towards the goal of creating an independent State of Palestine with its headquarters in Jerusalem existing side by side and in conditions of peace with the State of Israel".
Palestinians and South Africans, Mbeki said, shared an understanding of what the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat called "the peace of the brave" when the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), under his leadership, laid down their weapons before entering into negotiations with Israel in the early 1990s that led to the Oslo accords.
Mbeki said South Africa had engaged in its own "peace of the brave" as it became clear, in the years preceding South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, "that the guns and bombs that for many years advanced our struggle would soon turn into obstacles blocking the advance to the same freedom for which we fought".
In his remarks at Tuynhuys, Abbas said: "Peace with good intentions in the Middle East, it is possible to be achieved."
Abbas reiterated his invitation to Mbeki to visit Palestine "as soon as possible".
Mbeki told a media conference earlier on Friday that he was prepared to accept an invitation by Abbas to visit the Palestinian territories soon. Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad and Minister for Intelligence Services Ronnie Kasrils are scheduled to visit the region this week.
Source: BuaNews
