Palestine..Dream for freedom

• Nobel Laureate and Archbishop Desmund Tutu went to Palestine. He stood in Jerusalem on Christmas Day of 1989 and said before an audience

"I am a black South African, and if I were to change the names, a description of what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the West

Bank could describe events in South Africa”

HSRC – 2007 Report: “Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid?”

• 15 months research, 300 pages• suggested originally in2007 by South African

jurist John Dugard, in his capacity as Special Rapporteur to the United Nations Human Rights Council, when he indicated that Israel practices had assumed characteristics of colonialism and apartheid

According to the report• Israel has appropriated land and water in the OPT• merged the Palestinian economy with Israel's

economy• imposed a system of domination over Palestinians to

ensure their subjugation to these measures• Israel has denied the indigenous population the right

to self-determination and• indicated clear intention to assume sovereignty over

portions of its land and natural resources

Apartheid:

South African PastPalestinian Present

Why Should Palestinians have a state?

• United Nation Security Council Resolution 242 (November 1967)

“...inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East in which every State in the area can live in security..”

“..Affirms that the fulfilment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of both the following principles:

•(i) Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;

•(ii) Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.."

• United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3236 (November 1974):

“..Reaffirms the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people in Palestine, including:

(a) The right to self-determination without external interference;

(b) The right to national independence and sovereignty “

• Israel’s admission to the UN: The UN General Assembly Resolution 18 II

“sympathetic consideration to consider Israel for admission”

Isn’t the Palestinian cause sympathetic to the whole world?

• Already 128 countries worldwide recognize the state of Palestine (75% of the world population)

• The statehood proposal is a non-violent action

• Palestine has met all prerequisites to statehood listed in the 1933 Montevideo Convention and the UN membership requirements.

• In April 2011, the IMF declared that Palestinians are able to perform as a “well-functioning state”

• The statehood proposal doesn’t violate any, any, signed agreement

• The statehood proposal doesn’t delegitimize the state of Israel

• Palestine supports entering into final peace negotiation with Israel but as a sovereign state this time

• Even if Americans veto the proposal, we can reapply and reapply. The same happened with Japan and Ireland. The application of these states were consistently vetoed

• The only struggling nation in the world. In struggle for more than 6 decades.

Act before it is too late

The green countries supporting the Palestinian State

Justice will prevail no matter what!!