Palestine Video and Transcript: Mahmoud Abbas Makes Statehood Bid at UN General Assembly
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 17:28 | Scott Lucas in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran PART 1 OF 3
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I come before you today from the Holy Land, the land of Palestine, the land of divine messages, ascension of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the birthplace of Jesus Christ (peace be upon him), to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people in the homeland and in the the Diaspora, to say, after 63 years of suffering of the ongoing Nakba: Enough. It is time for the Palestinian people to gain their freedom and independence.
The time has come to end the suffering and the plight of millions of Palestine refugees in the homeland and the Diaspora, to end their displacement and to realize their rights, some of them forced to take refuge more than once in different places of the world.
At a time when the Arab peoples affirm their quest for democracy --- the Arab Spring --- the time is now for the Palestinian Spring, the time for independence.