Welcome address by Yaniv Sagee, Executive Director of the
Givat Haviva Center for Shared Society
Mr. Mohammed Al Madani and the Palestinian delegation, the Deputy Chief of Mission at
the US Embassy, Mr. William Grant, mayors, heads of peace organizations, the
Kibbutz Movement, youth movements, students, dear citizens – Salam aleikum!
Welcome to Givat Haviva, ahalan wa-sahalan!
From the day it was founded, 65 years ago, by the kibbutzim of Hashomer
Hatzair, Givat Haviva has been committed to peace. We have organized this
conference together with our Palestinian associates from Al Tawasul, out of a sense of urgency shared by
citizens who are holding hands, demanding their leaders to make peace.
It was almost a year ago that
President Obama visited here in Israel.
He chose to make his keynote speech at a public event, addressing the
entire nation. In that speech, he said:
"That's where peace begins -- not
just in the plans of leaders, but in the hearts of people. Not just in
some carefully designed process, but in the daily connections -- that sense of
empathy that takes place among those who live together in this land and in this
sacred city of Jerusalem.
"And let me say this as a
politician -- I can promise you this, political leaders will never take risks
if the people do not push them to take some risks. You must create the
change that you want to see. "
This is our role – to inspire
the hearts for accepting peace. That is the purpose of this conference, and
those that will follow it, in Israel and in Palestine.
I am standing here before you
as a member of a kibbutz from Hashomer Hatzair movement, Ein Hashofet. I am
standing here as the son of a Holocaust survivor. My father was an orphan and a
war refugee who lost his father and his home as a child, and found new life
when he arrived with his mother to the Land of Israel in July 1948, following
the establishment of the State of Israel.
However, my father's freedom
was only gained following the Palestinian catastrophe, the Nakba. The freedom
of one people is inseparable from the destruction of the other.
I am standing here before you
as a Zionist who believes in the indisputable moral right of the Jewish people
for its own national homeland. With all that baggage, I am standing here and I
say: Enough.
Enough with the evil,
destructive occupation.
Enough with the wars and the
rivers of blood of innocent victims on both sides.
Enough is enough! The time
has come to put an end to fear and hatred.
The time has come for
reconciliation and peace – for our own sake, for the sake of our children, for
all the inhabitants of the Middle East and the entire world.
97 years ago, on November 2,
1917, the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour, made a
declaration in the name of His Majesty's government, identifying with the
Jewish Zionist aspirations:
"His Majesty's
government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home
for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the
achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be
done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish
communities in Palestine."
92 years ago, the League of
Nations, which preceded the UN, approved of this declaration as global policy.
This policy was expressed in the UN decision from the 29th of November 1947 on
the establishment of a Jewish State beside an Arab State – here in this land.
Today, almost 100 years after
the Balfour Declaration, 66 years after the establishment of the State of
Israel, we no longer need anybody's recognition as to our place as the national
homeland of the Jewish people. There is no dispute about that. The dispute is
about the image of the Jewish State as the conqueror of another people, as
discriminating against its Arab citizens, as a country where Judaism and
democracy collide. This is not the state that was founded in 1948 as the
manifestation of the Zionist vision. This is what we might have if there is not
peace, and soon! Without peace, there is no chance for democracy, justice and
equality.
The Israeli Declaration of
Independence opens with the following words:
"Eretz Israel [The Land
of Israel] was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual,
religious and national identity was formed."
It goes on to define the
clear vision for the State of Israel:
"THE STATE OF ISRAEL
will be open to the immigration of Jews and for the Ingathering of the Exiles
from all countries of their dispersion; will promote the development of the
country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; will be based on the precepts
of liberty, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; will
uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without
distinction of race, creed or sex; will guarantee full freedom of worship,
conscience, language, education and culture; will safeguard the sanctity and
inviolability of the shrines and Holy Places of all religions; and will
dedicate itself to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations."
This is the Zionist vision
for the State of Israel: The national homeland of the Jewish people as a country
providing full and complete equality to all its citizens, living in peace with
its neighbors and loyal to the principles of the United Nations.
People who support this in
Israel nowadays are referred to as extreme anti-Zionist leftists, and those who
are acting to make this vision impossible are considered true Israeli patriots…
Cry the beloved country, for
the forces of destruction have overtaken you!
Cry against the destruction of Judaism, Zionism, and the spirit of
Israel! Cry, for things have turned, and now the founders and builders of
modern Israel are publicly condemned as traitors…
I assert that it is the other
way around. Naftali Bennett, members of his Jewish Home party, Likud ministers
and its Knesset Members who participated a week ago in the demonstration
against the peace process led by their own government – they are all
post-Zionists. They are the destroyers of the Zionist Movement and of modern
Israel. If they have the upper hand, it will be the end of the Zionist
enterprise that gave rise to this country. If they have the upper hand, this
will be one state, undemocratic, denounced by the entire world. That is their
alternative, which we will oppose with all our might.
I would like to counter the
shameful slandering of John Kerry, of the United States and of the European
Union with a word of thanks. Thanks to those nations of the world who do not
give up on us, who do not let us get away with it. Thank you, Mr. Kerry, for
years of supporting the real Israel, culminating with your insistence on making
peace based on the Two State Solution.
There is no other peace but
one that is grounded in the 1967 borders. These are the lines that will warrant
the future of Israel as a sane, democratic country, as the national homeland of
the Jewish people where all citizens are equal.
I would like to thank all of
you for coming today to Givat Haviva. It is our duty to act with all our might
to convince, to influence, to make sure we do not miss the opportunity. Let us
hold hands, citizens of Israel and of Palestine, and demand peace. Here, in
Israel, Jews and Arabs are going to work together as one front, in order to
create for ourselves the future of a common, egalitarian society that lives in
peace with its neighbors.
I would like to wish my
friends and partners, the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel, that together we
will bring the peace that will put an end to their conflict between their
country and their national identity.
I would like to end my words
with an appeal to our leaders, Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas: It
is your responsibility! You have the ability to bring peace! If you will it,
you can bring peace, reconciliation, and a new future for our children. If you
refuse, you will lead us to great destruction, to blood and hatred, to the
continued suffering of the Palestinian people and to the obliteration of the
vision of the State of Israel. The time has come for the leadership of the
brave. History will remember you either way. Will it be as leaders who saved
their peoples and built paths to peace? Or will it be as leaders who brought
destruction, pain and blood?
From here, today, we want to
send you our support and our faith in your ability to make peace!
Be strong and of good
courage!
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