At Last, a Palestinian State!

It was about time! After a sixty-year wait, and with the persistent opposition of the Israeli government (but not of a good part of its citizens) the international community is finally going to recognize the State of Palestine in a vote to be held tomorrow during the General Assembly of the United Nations.

I am pleased that the institution that lighted the way with glowing beacons for Palestine’s “take-off” was UNESCO, whose General Conference approved the Palestinian State’s membership in the Organization by a huge majority over a year ago.

For the moment the United Nations will grant Palestine “observer” or “associate state” status, but the adjective is of little importance. What is important is that Palestine be recognized as a State, which will undoubtedly facilitate a new era in which the peace process may be rapidly concluded.

Tomorrow I will especially be remembering Yasser Arafat, whom I met for the first time in 1987 and who did so much to make this dream come true, and Yitzhak Rabin, whose great vision and courage was about to make peaceful coexistence a reality... and perhaps he was assassinated precisely for that reason.

Congratulations to the United Nations for its decision. Congratulations to UNESCO for having taken that first step.

Congratulations, with much affection, to the Palestinian people.

At last, a Palestinian State!

Israel: All human beings are worth the same

"All human beings are equal in dignity" is a universal ethical principle that is the cornerstone of all human rights.

It was precisely with Israel that it was made clear in all of our minds that no race is superior to another, that all of them must be respected and judged by the same rules.

For that reason the Israeli authorities and ultras must be advised that the world won’t passively ignore its murderous acts. Another Gaza episode: No! The whole world would turn against Israel. Israel should remember its own history and be reminded that all human beings are worth the same.

DON’T FORGET PALESTINE

They are pressuring us so much with the current economic crisis, they are distracting us so much with the entertainment media “bubble”…, that we forget what we should constantly remember, for the sake of dignity, solidarity and justice: the great challenges of today –hunger, extreme poverty, social inequalities, victims of great natural disasters (Haiti…) war (Darfur…), damage to the environment… and the future.

We can’t continue like this, with only a few people holding the reins of our common destiny in their hands, while the rest of mankind, distracted, submissive, often barely surviving, and the scientific, academic, intellectual and artistic communities failing to assume their corresponding leadership in the “awakening” that, in any case, is on the horizon.

And prominent among the essential motives for reviving our collective will and conscience is Palestine. Over and over again the dream of culminating a process for peaceful coexistence has been frustrated by Israel’s inclement, persistent, powerful, violent and arrogant attitude. The years go by and generations of Palestinians live and die in humiliation, subjection and dominion. Whole lives lived in refugee camps, whole lives alienated, without perceiving any light at the end of the tunnel. All mankind should now rise up in favor of Palestine and against their respective fundamentalist groups, to achieve the peaceful coexistence that the majority of Israelis and Palestinians desire. And especially against the influential Israeli authorities (Israel doesn’t work with the American Administration, but rather within it) who not only have been able to postpone the culmination of the peace process many times, but have convinced the United States not to pay its dues in international organizations that accept Palestine as a member.

I am proud that UNESCO accepted Palestine as a member State several months ago by a majority vote of its Member States at a General Conference. But it is tolerating the intolerable: allowing the United States to continue within the Organization without paying its dues, imposing a local law on an international institution.

At UNESCO headquarters there is a beautiful Tolerance Plaza, designed by the great Israeli artist Dani Karavan and inaugurated in 1997 in honor of Isaac Rabin. He was about to sign a peace treaty with Yasser Arafat, including Jerusalem as co-capital. But he was assassinated soon thereafter and I decided to honor him in that way, so that there would be a public testimony to the fact that peace is possible, and to permanently impress the Palestinian tragedy upon our collective conscience.

Let’s stop obeying plutocrats and assume our responsibilities. Let’s re-found an effective United Nations… and start down that road to the future that we all dream of, in which one of the first objectives is precisely the full recognition of Palestine.

Let’s not forget Palestine for even one more day.