Your Excellency Macky Sall, President of the African Union Summit,

Your Excellencies, Heads of State and Government,

Your Excellency, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission,

Your Excellency, the Secretary-General of the United Nations,

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,

 

May Allah's peace, mercy, and blessing be upon you

 

On behalf of His Excellency President Mahmoud Abbas, who sends you his warmest greetings and wishes you success at this Summit, I am deeply honoured to deliver the speech of the State of Palestine. 

 

It gives me great pleasure to congratulate the Republic of Senegal and His Excellency President Macky Sall on assuming the presidency of the current session of the African Union. We wish him every success. We also extend our gratitude to the Democratic Republic of the Congo for its presidency of the previous African Union session.

 

This year's Summit is being held under the increasingly important theme "Building resilience for food security and nutrition on the African continent: Accelerate the Human Capital, Social and Economic Development."

 

Having long enjoyed the support of the African Union, as well as the exemplary relations, cooperation, close coordination and mutual support with our friendly and brethren countries, the State of Palestine assures you that we stand with you in achieving your priorities to the best of our abilities, expertise, and competencies.

 

Mr. President,

Your Excellencies,

 

A few days ago, Amnesty International published a new report, titled: "Israel's apartheid against Palestinians: a cruel system of domination and a crime against humanity," which confirmed that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid in violation of the International Human Rights Law and the International Humanitarian Law.

 

From the report, I quote: "Almost all of Israel's civilian administration and military authorities, as well as governmental and quasigovernmental institutions, are involved in the enforcement of the system of apartheid against Palestinians across Israel and the Occupied Palestinian territory and against Palestinian refugees and their descendants outside the territory. The patterns of proscribed acts perpetuated by Israel both inside Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian territory form part of a systematic as well as widespread attack directed against the Palestinian population, and that the inhuman or inhumane acts committed within the context of this attack have been committed with the intention to maintain this system and amount to the crime against humanity of apartheid under both the Apartheid Convention and the Rome Statute."

 

Israel has created and is maintaining a system of oppression and domination of Palestinians through four main strategies:

 

 - Deprivation of economic and social rights: Palestinians are deliberately impoverished to keep them at a considerable disadvantage compared to Jewish Israelis.

 

 - Segregation and control: a system of policies and laws that confine Palestinians to enclaves where they are subject to several measures that control their lives and are segregated from Jewish Israelis.

 

- Dispossession of land and property: Decades of discriminatory land and property seizures, home demolitions and forced evictions.

 

- Fragmentation into domains of control: This system is rooted in keeping Palestinians apart into distinct territorial, legal, and administrative domains.

 

Mr. President,

Your Excellencies,

 

Human Rights Watch said the Israeli authorities had crossed the threshold by committing crimes of apartheid and persecution. Across the territories under its control, Israel has demonstrated an intent to maintain the domination of Jewish Israelis over Palestinians. In conjunction with that intention, Palestinians have been subjected to systematic oppression and inhumane treatment. Together, these three elements constitute apartheid.

 

When he was Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said in 2019: "Israel is not a state of all its citizens… [but rather] the nation-state of the Jewish people and only them."

 

Currently, two million Palestinians live in Israel, three million Palestinians are under military occupation in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and two million Palestinians live in Gaza. Nearly seven million Palestinian refugees suffer from Israeli racist policies that deny them the right to return to their homeland.

 

Mr. President,

Your Excellencies,

 

B’Tselem, an Israeli Information Center for Human Rights, asserted that Israel is an apartheid state. It concluded that "The Israeli regime enacts in all the territory it controls (inside the Green Line, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip) an apartheid regime. One organizing principle lies at the base of a wide array of Israeli policies: advancing and perpetuating the supremacy of one group –Jews– over another –Palestinians."

 

Based on these invulnerable facts documented by neutral parties, should Israel be rewarded for its adoption of apartheid, which targets the Palestinians with discrimination policies related to land, planning and housing, and hinders agricultural and industrial development for the Palestinians?

 

Should Israel be rewarded for deepening this fracture following its military occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip in 1967, which has led to the establishment of a military system and a separate legal and administrative system to govern the occupied territory and resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians?

 

Mr. President,

Your Excellencies,

 

Should Israel, the occupying Power, be rewarded for its unlawful killings, torture, administrative detention, persecution, severe injuries inflicted upon the defenceless Palestinian people, and depriving them of their freedoms?

 

Should Israel be rewarded for illegally constructing 280 colonial settlements in the West Bank inhabited by more than 700,000 Jewish settlers? Should it be rewarded for unilaterally annexing East Jerusalem and pursuing measures to continue to change the status and demographic composition of occupied Jerusalem?

 

Should Israel be rewarded for building the Annexation and Expansion Wall in the occupied West Bank, deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice? Should Israel be rewarded for its crimes, including the ongoing siege, bombardment, killings, targeting civilians and destroying infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, in flagrant violation of international law?

 

Additionally, should Israel be rewarded for the imposition of movement restrictions, the closure and siege of the Gaza Strip, the confiscation of land, the creation of isolated and besieged enclaves "bantustans" in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, the forcible transfer and displacement of Palestinians, the violation of residency and civil rights, as well as depriving refugees of their rights?

 

 

Mr. President,

Your Excellencies,

 

Our faith lies in your alignment with the principles of truth, freedom, peace, and justice. We are confident in your willingness to support the Palestinian people under Israel's prolonged occupation. Israel should never be rewarded for its violations and for the apartheid regime it imposes on the Palestinian people. As an entity, Israel has progressed from a victim complex to paranoia, extremism, militarism and colonial expansion. This must stop.

 

Based on your stated historical positions and your support for the Palestinian right, and per relevant decisions of the UN and previous African Union Summits, we call for the withdrawal and objection of Israel's observer status at the African Union. We believe that granting Israel observer status in the African Union is an undeserved reward. This is actually a reward that encourages Israel to continue violating international treaties and breaching all agreements with us. With this reward, it gains impunity and unaccountability. I am confident in your inner wisdom and judgment.

 

Mr. President,

Your Excellencies,

 

The African Union has continually rejected and condemned Israel's discriminatory policies and practices. The time is right to condemn Israel for its crimes of persecution and apartheid. To end Israel's colonial occupation and enable the Palestinian people to have their right to self-determination towards realizing the independence of the State of Palestine on the borders of 4 June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital. And to allow the return of Palestine refugees.

 

Mr. President,

Your Excellencies,

 

I stand before you today to reaffirm our position, vision, and peace initiative announced by H.E. President Mahmoud Abbas during his speech before the United Nations General Assembly on 24 September 2021. In his speech, the President called for the launching of political negotiations under the sole auspices of the Quartet based on international legitimacy and the Arab Peace Initiative, leading to a just and comprehensive solution for the question of Palestine. To end Israel's occupation of our land and people towards the embodiment of an independent State of Palestine on the borders of 4 June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, within a specified time frame.

 

Let me close by wishing you a successful and fruitful summit. We hope that Africa, its countries and people will achieve their aspirations for prosperity based on comprehensive and sustainable growth, integration and political unity, good governance, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. We hope for a peaceful and secure Africa where development exists and is shaped by the abilities of women and youth, helping make Africa a strong and influential player in the international arena.

 

 

Long live Africa and its friendship with Palestine.