Oslo, December 10, 1994
In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate. But if the enemy
incline toward peace, do thou also incline toward peace, and trust in
God.
Your Majesties,
Chairman of Nobel Prize,
Ladies and Gentlemen
Since my people entrusted me with the hard task of searching for our lost
home, I have been filled with warm faith that those who carried their keys
in the diaspora as they carry their own limbs, and that those who endured
their wounds in the homeland and maintained their identity will be rewarded
by return and freedom for their sacrifices. I have also been filled with
faith that the arduous trek on the long path of pain will end in our home's
yard.
As we celebrate together the first sight of the crescent of peace, I, at
this podium stare into the open eyes of the martyrs within my conscience.
They ask me about the national soil and their vacant seats there. I conceal
my tears from them and tell them: How true you were; your generous blood has
enabled us to see the holy land and to take our first steps in a difficult
battle, the battle of peace, the peace of the brave.
As we celebrate together, we invoke the powers of creativity within us to
reconstruct a home destroyed by war, a home overlooking our neighbor's,
where our children will play with their children and will compete in picking
flowers. Now, I have a sense of national and human pride in my Palestinian
Arab people's patience and sacrifice, through which they have established an
uninterrupted link between the homeland, history and the people, adding to
the old legends of the homeland an epic of hope. For them, for the children
of those good-natured and tough people, who are made of oaks and dews, of
fire and sweat, I present this Nobel Prize, which I will carry to our
children, who have a promise of freedom, security and safety in a homeland
not threatened by an invader from outside or an exploiter from inside.
I know, Mr. Chairman, that this highly indicative prize has not been granted
to me and my partners, Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign
Minister Shimon Peres, to crown a mission that we have fulfilled, but to
encourage us to complete a path which we have started with larger strides,
deeper awareness, and more honest intentions. This is so we can transfer the
option of peace, the peace of the brave, from words on paper to practices on
the ground, and so we will be worthy of carrying the message that both our
peoples and the world and human conscience have asked us to carry. Like
their Arab brethren, the Palestinians, whose cause is the guardian of the
gate of the Arab-Israeli peace, are looking forward to a comprehensive, just
and durable peace on the basis of land for peace and compliance with
international legitimacy and its resolutions.
Peace, to us, a a value and an interest. Peace is an absolute human value
which will help man develop his humanity with freedom that cannot be limited
by regional, religious or national restrictions. It restores to the
Arab-Jewish relationship its innocent nature and gives the Arab conscience
the opportunity to express - through absolute human terms - its
understanding of the European tragedy of the Jews. It also gives the Jewish
conscience the opportunity to express the suffering of the Palestinian
peoples which resulted from this historical intersection and to find an echo
for this suffering in the pained Jewish soul. The pained people are more
capable than others of understanding the suffering of other people.
Peace is an interest because, in an atmosphere of just peace, the
Palestinian people will be able to achieve their ambitions for independence
and sovereignty, to develop their national and cultural existence through
relations of good neighborliness, mutual respect, and cooperation with the
Israeli people. Peace will enable the Israeli people to define their Middle
East identity and to enjoy economic and cultural openness toward their Arab
neighbors, who are eager to develop their region, which was kept by the long
war from find its real position in today's world in an atmosphere of
democracy, pluralism, and prosperity.
As war is an adventure, peace is also a challenge and a gamble. If we do not
fortify peace to stand against storms and wind, and if we do not support it
and strengthen it, the gamble will then be exposed to blackmail, perhaps to
fall. Therefore, I call on my partners in peace on this high platform to
expedite the peace process, achieve early withdrawal, pave the road for
elections, and to move to the second stage in record time, so that peace
will grow and become a firm reality.
We have started the peace process based on land for peace, on UN Resolutions
242 and 338, and on the other international resolutions calling for
achieving the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. While the peace
process has not yet reached its target, the new atmosphere of confidence and
the modest achievements of the first and second year of the peace process
are promising. Therefore, the parties are urged to abandon their
reservations, facilitate measures, and achieve the remaining goals, foremost
of which are transferring powers and taking steps toward an Israeli
withdrawal in the West Bank and the settlements. This will finally lead to a
comprehensive withdrawal and will enable our society to build its
infrastructure and utilize its status, heritage, knowledge and awareness to
formulate our new world.
In this context, I call on Russia and the United States, sponsors of the
peace process, to accelerate the steps of this process, to take part in its
formulation and to overcome its obstacles. I urge Norway and Egypt, in their
capacity as hosts to the Palestinian-Israeli agreement, to continue their
good initiative,which started from Oslo and reached Washington and Cairo.
Oslo, as well as the names of the other states that have been hosting the
multilateral talks, will remain shining names linked to the peace of the
courageous. I also urge all countries, foremost of which are the donor
countries, to make their contributions quickly to enable the Palestinian
people to overcome their economic and social problems, to rebuild themselves
and to establish their infrastructure. Peace cannot grow and the peace
process cannot be entrenched unless their necessary material conditions are
met.
I then urge my partners in peace to view the peace process in a
comprehensive and strategic way. Confidence alone cannot make peace, but
only recognizing the rights, together with confidence, can make peace.
Encroaching on rights generates a sense of injustice, keeps the fire under
the ashes, and will push peace to a dangerous point and toward quicksand
that may destroy it. We view peace as a strategic option, rather than a
tactical option influenced by temporary calculations of loss and profit. The
peace process is not only a political one, but also an integrated process in
which national awareness and economic, scientific and technological
development play an important role. The interaction of cultural, social and
creative elements also play basic roles in strengthening the peace
process.
I view all this as I recall the difficult peace march, in which we have
covered only a short distance. We should have courage and move as far as
possible to cover the greater distance based on just and comprehensive peace
and to absorb the strength of creativity which is contained in the deeper
lesson of peace.
As long as we have decided to coexist and live in peace, then we should
coexist on a solid basis that can last through all time and that is
acceptable to the future generations. In this context, full withdrawal from
the West Bank and the Gaza Strip requires deep discussions about the
settlements that cut through geographic and political unity, prevent free
movement between the areas of the West Bank and the Strip, and create
hotbeds of tension that conflict with the spirit of peace, which we want to
be free of anything that spoils its purity.
As for Jerusalem, it is the spiritual home of Christians, Muslims and Jews.
To Palestinians, it is the city of cities. The Jewish shrines in the city
are our shrines, the same as the Islamic and Christian shrines. So let us
make Jerusalem an international symbol of this spiritual harmony, this
cultural brightness, and this religious heritage of humanity as a whole.
There is an urgent task that activates the peace mechanism and enables it to
overcome the problem that is troubling hearts, the question of prisoners. It
is important to release them so smiles can return to their children, their
mothers, and their wives. Let us together protect this little baby from the
winter's winds, and let us provide it with the mild and honey it deserves in
the land of milk and honey in the land of Salim, Ibrahim, Isma'il, and Ishaq
- the holy land, the land of peace.
Finally, I again congratulate my partners in peace - Israeli Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Simon Peres - for winning the
Nobel Peace Prize. I also congratulate the friendly Norwegian people for
this warm reception, which is evidence of the genuineness and deep root of
this people.
Your Majesties, ladies and gentlemen, I emphasize to you that we will
discover ourselves through peace more than we did through confrontation and
conflict. I am certain that Israelis will find themselves through peace more
than they did in war.
Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, and good will toward
men.
Thank you.
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