honour of his Excellency, the President of the Palestinian National Authority,
Mahmoud Abbas, at Tuynhuys, Cape Town
31 March 2006
Your Excellency, President Mahmoud Abbas and honourable members of your
delegation,
Your Excellencies, Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Madame Speaker and Deputy Speaker,
The honourable Premier of the Western Cape, Ebrahim Rasool,
Your Excellencies, Ambassadors and members of the diplomatic corps,
Our religious leaders,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen:
We are indeed highly honoured that Your Excellency, President Mahmoud Abbas
has paid us a state visit to consolidate the excellent relations and deep
friendship between the peoples of Palestine and South Africa.
I am pleased to use this occasion to convey the warmest welcome of the
government and people of South Africa to you, Your Excellency and your
delegation and through you to convey our fraternal greetings to the Palestinian
Authority and the people of Palestine.
Your Excellency, this visit is very special to all of us because for many
decades both our peoples have occupied the same trenches and shared similar
experiences and anxieties in our quest for freedom and independence.
Naturally the people of South Africa follow events in Palestine passionately
because of this close bond of friendship and comradeship.
Accordingly that brief moment that was rich with positive possibilities, is
still etched in our minds, when two great warriors on the opposite sides
Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat embraced the prospects of a just and permanent
peace.
Unfortunately the cruel finger of the assassin tragically postponed the dawn
of an historic moment that would have silenced the deadly guns and bombs and
brought to an end the prolonged suffering of the sister people of
Palestine.
Your Excellency, we recall this moment because it is our fervent belief that
what that great leader and comrade Yasser Arafat called 'the peace of the
brave' was not necessarily lost and buried with the mortal remains of both
warrior antagonists Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat.
This we say because we emerged from a similar situation of over 350 years of
oppression, brutal repression, massacres, uprooting of millions of Africans and
the general treatment of the natives of this land as something less than human
beings to enter our own 'peace of the brave' whence we embarked on another
challenging road of building a united, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist
society.
Indeed, Your Excellency, having conducted a titanic struggle for freedom
like our brothers and sisters in Palestine we reached a moment at which we had
to make difficult choices as it became clear that the guns and bombs that for
many years advanced our struggle for liberation would soon turn into obstacles
blocking the advance to the same freedom for which we fought.
Seizing the moment to engage in our own 'peace of the brave' we knew that
the progress of the people of this country, black and white towards peace,
development and prosperity could not be postponed because of the lack of will
on both sides of the divide to continue inflicting pain on one another.
I am convinced Your Excellency that both the peoples of Palestine and Israel
desire peace. With the elections in Palestine and Israel now concluded it is
our hope that negotiations will resume without much delay within the context of
previous agreements and the road map that was elaborated by the Quartet.
We are convinced that there is 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.
As in the past, Your Excellency, 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 existing side by side and in conditions of peace
with the State of Israel.
Like other nations we remain deeply concerned about the situation in the
Middle East as a whole and support all initiatives directed at achieving peace
throughout the region. We are convinced that the conclusion of an equitable
agreement between Palestine and Israel would make a fundamental contribution to
the realisation of this important goal.
We are convinced that the leaders of both Palestine and Israel have the
wisdom and capacity to seize this moment to bring lasting peace to their
peoples and thus make an enormous contribution to peace and stability
throughout the Middle East as well.
Your Excellency, we entered into full diplomatic relations in 1995. Since
then we have concluded important agreements especially in the spheres of
diplomacy, education and health.
Clearly we need to ensure that we implement these agreements and look
further into other areas of cooperation so that we are better able to cooperate
for the benefit of our peoples.
Once more welcome Mr President, dear brother and friend. I would like to
assure you that when you are in this country you are among genuine friends who
pray daily that soon your heroic people will regain their statehood that soon
they will be blessed with the gift of living in a peaceful and friendly
neighbourhood.
As you leave us tomorrow we would like you, Your Excellency, to carry a
message to the people of Palestine that here they have brothers and sisters who
are ready to accompany them on the road to peace, however long that road may be
and however difficult it may be.
The millions of our people look forward to that great day when it will be
said that at last the enormously talented peoples of Palestine and Israel have
arrived at an historic agreement acceptable to both sides.
Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen:
Please rise and join me in a toast to the good health, peace and prosperity
of his Excellency, President Mahmoud Abbas and to the continuing solidarity and
friendship between the wonderful peoples of Palestine and South Africa. To
solidarity and friendship!
Issued by: The Presidency
31 March 2006
Source: SAPA
