Friday 23/9/2010 was perhaps the most important day in the history of the United Nations. On that day, a majority of the peoples of the world proclaimed their support for the people of Palestine, and for full membership of the independent Palestinian state at the United Nations. Israel will most definitely attempt to thwart the decision of this majority, while the United States will attempt to circumvent it. But either way, they will not be able to prevent the inevitable outcome tomorrow or soon thereafter. I have attended every annual session of the UN General Assembly for 33 years now, and therefore, I know what I'm talking about, and I have never heard any applause that lasted more than, or that was louder than, the one President Mahmoud Abbas received, i.e. that Palestine received. Nor have I seen anything like the standing ovation he was given, when the members of the delegations stood applauding and cheering, as though the new member was their own country. They applauded and cheered when he referred to Yasser Arafat's speech at the General Assembly in 1974, when he said, "Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand”. And so they did when he said that the goal of the Palestinian people is the establishment of the independent Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem, over all the territories occupied by Israel in June 1967. They applauded when he said that our people will continue their peaceful resistance against the Israeli occupation. They applauded when he said that there are those who believe that our people is redundant in the Middle East, or that in truth there is an absent state that must be quickly established. They applauded and cheered when he referred to the Arab spring and said: The time is now for the Palestinian Spring, the time for independence. They applauded at length, cheered and stood when he quoted Mahmoud Darwish who said: Standing here, staying here, permanent here, eternal here, and we have one goal, one, one: to be. They applauded him when he saluted the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, for stating a few days earlier that the Palestinian State should have been established years ago. They applauded him when he said that the time has come for the Palestinian people, after decades of displacement and colonial occupation and ceaseless suffering, to live free in a sovereign and independent homeland. The representatives of the peoples of the earth stood, cheered, applauded and even interrupted Abu Mazen, before he could finish saying that he had submitted to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, an application for the admission of Palestine on the basis of the 4 June 1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital, as a full member of the United Nations. The glorious day, Friday the 23rd of September, 2011, was a jubilee for Palestine at the United Nations. The session restored my faith in humanity. It was clear that the peoples of the world reject oppression and that they dare stand against it, even when Israel and the United States are attempting to stop the march of history. The war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu followed Abu Mazen shortly after, to lie and defend the world's last remaining neo-Nazi racist state. I could not bear seeing him so I left the hall. However, I heard after that some applause that prompted me to return curiously, only to be surprised to see that those applauding him were none other than the Israeli guests and the members of the Israeli delegation, which were was seated directly in front of the Lebanese delegation, where I sat. It was also strange that some people sitting in the seats assigned to the State of Nauru, in the Pacific, were also applauding, but I soon discovered that they were Israelis who had occupied another state's seats, as usual. I was overcome by tears as I listened to Abu Mazen's speech, and tried not to be seen by anyone. However, the men and women in the Lebanese delegation cheered me up. I found that Lebanon's ambassador Nawaf Salam was crying more than me, and his wife, journalist and writer Sahar Baasiri, was there with us, armed with a camera, and she took many photos of us. When I finally overcame my embarrassment with my tears, I stood and found that many eyes were tearful as well, and not all those who were crying were Arabs or Muslims. It was a day where Palestine triumphed over Israeli barbarism, and Abu Mazen put Netanyahu in the dustbin of history, even before he opened his mouth to lie. Congratulations to Palestine and the Palestinians. Congratulations to us all. [email protected]
