Arafat: Continue to fight until refugees can return (but don't kill
"civilians"); seek freedom for all who attack Israel

Excerpts - President Arafat`s Address to PLC Session
30/10/2002 Palestine Media Center

Official Translation, 29/10/2002
http://www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=2&id=67

Ladies and Gentlemen

Today we meet again in this Council, on this sacred land, in order to
present you the Fourth Palestinian Cabinet since the presidential and
legislative elections of 1996.

...

I have announced many times before you and I would like to reiterate that to
you, to my people, and the whole world that we are against all types of
violence that target civilians, Palestinian or Israeli civilians. I
reiterate my announcements and declare that every human being has a sacred
right to life. We respect this right for Israelis and Palestinians. We
condemn all terrorist acts against civilians anywhere worldwide. Such an
attitude emanates from our values and ethics. It is our political and human
attitude that we do not consider such acts a way to solve political
problems.
...

Ladies & Gentlemen, Members of the Palestinian Legislative Council,

This is our vision through the conflict, for peace and the rights of our
people. In order to get out of the conflict to the shining future horizon, I
would like to propose the guidelines of our fourth government program:

1 - Continuing the national struggle for independence, freedom and ending
occupation, as being the goal which unifies all Palestinians and becomes the
common dominator for political and civil events, in order to reach the
establishment of the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and the
return of refugees. It is based on our adherence with the comprehensive and
just peace strategy, and our determination to activate the peace process in
order to achieve this goal.
...
First: Continuing National Struggle for Independence & Continuation of Peace
Strategy

We shall go ahead in defending our national interest, based on freedom,
independence and the ending of occupation until establishment of the
Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its capital within the borders of June
4th 1967, and a just solution to the refugees issue based on international
legitimacy. The international legitimacy provided the solid basis for such
solutions as represented in the Security Council Resolutions 242, 338, 1397,
1402, 1403 and 1435. And by the Arab Peace Initiative based on the
initiative of His Royal Highness Crown Prince Abdulla Bin Abdul Aziz, of the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which added a pivotal Arab dimension and was
approved by the Beirut Summit and as acknowledged as significant in
subsequent international initiatives.

We are committed to this initiative and these resolutions. Also, we
seriously and positively discussing the proposal submitted by the Quartet
Committee, which is based on President Bush’s speech on 26.4.2002, the
European Initiative together with Arab Peace Initiative and international
resolutions. We support every Arab and international action that contributes
to ending the Israeli occupation and re-open the door to the peace process
and building the Palestinian state. The Palestinian People’s Intifada and
refusal of occupation and settlement does not mean refusal of just and
comprehensive peace. Peace is our strategic option, as well as the option of
our Arab brothers and option of the whole world.

We shall wisely and carefully consider the best means to defend our
aspirations, based on our right to resist the occupation, which is a right
guaranteed by all international laws and conventions. These means must stem
out of the human and moral values and cultural privacy, which distinguish
our People who share with the world such ethical standards.

It is prohibited to touch the spirit of our struggle by targeting civilians,
in order to prevent enemies of peace from derogating the noble and heroic
sense of our struggle. I repeatedly denounce this position. Our struggle is
neither revenge nor a vengeance, but the most noble human struggle for
freedom and peace. We must maintain this potential strength, and this
government will exert its best endeavors to stop any diverting from this
meaning of our noble struggle.

....

I also ask the whole world, especially the countries signatory to the Fourth
Geneva Convention to protect our prisoners in the Israeli prisons, to refuse
transferring them to Israeli prisons and to expose them to biased military
courts. This new government will work in freeing all our prisoners and for
their return to their families and country.
....

In the Security Domain: The police, preventive security forces, and the
civil defense will be integrated under the Ministry of Interior. The
security institutions will be rebuilt; the cadre will be trained to protect
the national security and the citizens, to implement the law, ending their
meddling in politics, media, and financial issues unless provided for by
law.

...