[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 51 (Monday, December 21, 1998)]
[Pages 2487-2492]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the Palestine National Council and Other Palestinian 
Organizations in Gaza City

December 14, 1998

    Thank you. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Za'anoun, Chairman Arafat, Mrs. Arafat, 
members of the Palestinian National Council, the Palestinian Central 
Council, the Palestinian Executive Committee, Palestinian Council Heads 
of ministries, leaders of business and religion; to all members of the 
Palestinian community, and to my fellow Americans who come here from 
many walks of life--Arab-American, Jewish-American--this is a remarkable 
day. Today the eyes of the world are on you.
    I am profoundly honored to be the first American President to 
address the Palestinian people in a city governed by Palestinians.
    I have listened carefully to all that has been said. I have watched 
carefully the reactions of all of you to what has been said. I know that 
the Palestinian people stand at a crossroads: behind you a history of 
dispossession and dispersal, before you the opportunity to shape a new 
Palestinian future on your own land.
    I know the way is often difficult and frustrating, but you have come 
to this point through a commitment to peace and negotiations. You 
reaffirmed that commitment today. I believe it is the only way to 
fulfill the aspirations of your people, and I am profoundly grateful to 
have had the opportunity to work with Chairman Arafat for the cause of 
peace, to come here as a friend of peace and a friend of your future, 
and to witness you raising your hands, standing up tall, standing up not 
only against what you believe is wrong but for what you believe is right 
in the future.
    I was sitting here thinking that this moment would have been 
inconceivable a decade ago: no Palestinian Authority; no elections in 
Gaza and the West Bank; no relations between the United States and 
Palestinians;

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no Israeli troop redeployments from the West Bank and Gaza; no 
Palestinians in charge in Gaza, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Hebron, Tulkarem, 
Jenin, Nablus, Jericho, and so many other places; there was no Gaza 
International Airport.
    Today I had the privilege of cutting the ribbon on the international 
airport. Hillary and I, along with Chairman and Mrs. Arafat, celebrated 
a place that will become a magnet for planes from throughout the Middle 
East and beyond, bringing you a future in which Palestinians can travel 
directly to the far corners of the world; a future in which it is easier 
and cheaper to bring materials, technology, and expertise in and out of 
Gaza; a future in which tourists and traders can flock here, to this 
beautiful place on the Mediterranean; a future, in short, in which the 
Palestinian people are connected to the world.
    I am told that just a few months ago, at a time of profound 
pessimism in the peace process, your largest exporter of fruit and 
flowers was prepared to plow under a field of roses, convinced the 
airport would never open. But Israelis and Palestinians came to 
agreement at Wye River, the airport has opened, and now I am told that 
company plans to export roses and carnations to Europe and throughout 
the Gulf, a true flowering of Palestinian promise.
    I come here today to talk about that promise, to ask you to 
rededicate yourselves to it, to ask you to think for a moment about how 
we can get beyond the present state of things where every step forward 
is like, as we say in America, pulling teeth. Where there is still, in 
spite of the agreement at Wye--achieved because we don't need much 
sleep, and we worked so hard, and Mr. Netanyahu worked with us, and we 
made this agreement. But I want to talk to you about how we can get 
beyond this moment, where there is still so much mistrust and 
misunderstanding and quite a few missteps.
    You did a good thing today in raising your hands. You know why? It 
has nothing to do with the government in Israel. You will touch the 
people of Israel.
    I want the people of Israel to know that for many Palestinians, 5 
years after Oslo, the benefits of this process remain remote, that for 
too many Palestinians lives are hard, jobs are scarce, prospects are 
uncertain, and personal grief is great. I know that tremendous pain 
remains as a result of losses suffered from violence, the separation of 
families, the restrictions on the movement of people and goods. I 
understand your concerns about settlement activity, land confiscation, 
and home demolitions. I understand your concerns and theirs about 
unilateral statements that could prejudge the outcome of final status 
negotiations. I understand, in short, that there's still a good deal of 
misunderstanding 5 years after the beginning of this remarkable process.
    It takes time to change things and still more time for change to 
benefit everyone. It takes determination and courage to make peace and 
sometimes even more to persevere for peace. But slowly but surely, the 
peace agreements are turning into concrete progress: the transfer of 
territories, the Gaza industrial estate, and the airport. These changes 
will make a difference in many Palestinian lives.
    I thank you--I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your leadership for 
peace and your perseverance, for enduring all the criticism from all 
sides, for being willing to change course, and for being strong enough 
to stay with what is right. You have done a remarkable thing for your 
people.
    America is determined to do what we can to bring tangible benefits 
of peace. I am proud that the roads we traveled on to get here were 
paved, in part, with our assistance, as were hundreds of miles of roads 
that knit together towns and villages throughout the West Bank and Gaza.
    Two weeks ago, in Washington, we joined with other nations to pledge 
hundreds of millions of dollars toward your development, including 
health care and clean water, education for your children, rule of law 
projects that nurture democracy. Today I am pleased to announce we will 
also fund the training of Palestinian health care providers and airport 
administrators, increase our support to Palestinian refugees. And next 
year I will ask the Congress for another several hundred million dollars 
to support the development of the Palestinian people.
    But make no mistake about it, all this was made possible because of 
what you did, because 5 years ago you made a choice for

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peace, and because through all the tough times since, when in your own 
mind you had a hundred reasons to walk away, you didn't, because you 
still harbor the wisdom that led to the Oslo accords that led to the 
signing in Washington in September of '93--you still can raise your hand 
and stand and lift your voice for peace.
    Mr. Chairman, you said some profound words today in embracing the 
idea that Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace as neighbors. 
Again I say you have led the way, and we would not be here without you.
    I say to all of you, I can come here and work; I can bring you to 
America, and we can work, but in the end, this is up to you--you and the 
Israelis. For you have to live with the consequences of what you do. I 
can help because I believe it is my job to do so; I believe it is my 
duty to do so; because America has Palestinian-Americans, Jewish-
Americans, other Arab-Americans who desperately want us to be helpful. 
But in the end, you have to decide what the understanding will be, and 
you have to decide whether we can get beyond the present moment where 
there is still, for all the progress we have made, so much mistrust. And 
the people who are listening to us today in Israel, they have to make 
the same decisions.
    Peace must mean many things: legitimate rights for Palestinians--
[applause]--legitimate rights for Palestinians, real security for 
Israel. But it must begin with something even more basic: mutual 
recognition, seeing people who are different, with whom there have been 
profound differences, as people.
    I've had two profoundly emotional experiences in the last less than 
24 hours. I was with Chairman Arafat, and four little children came to 
see me whose fathers are in Israeli prisons. Last night, I met some 
little children whose fathers had been killed in conflict with 
Palestinians, at the dinner that Prime Minister Netanyahu had for me. 
Those children brought tears to my eyes. We have to find a way for both 
sets of children to get their lives back and to go forward.
    Palestinians must recognize the right of Israel and its people to 
live safe and secure lives today, tomorrow, and forever. Israel must 
recognize the right of Palestinians to aspire to live free today, 
tomorrow, and forever.
    And I ask you to remember these experiences I had with these two 
groups of children. If I had met them in reverse order, I would not have 
known which ones were Israeli and which Palestinian. If they had all 
been lined up in a row and I had seen their tears, I could not tell 
whose father was dead and whose father was in prison or what the story 
of their lives were, making up the grief that they bore. We must 
acknowledge that neither side has a monopoly on pain or virtue.
    At the end of America's Civil War, in my home State, a man was 
elected Governor who had fought with President Lincoln's forces, even 
though most of the people in my home State fought with the secessionist 
forces. And he made his inaugural speech after 4 years of unbelievable 
bloodshed in America, in which he had been on the winning side but in 
the minority in our home. And everyone wondered what kind of leader he 
would be. His first sentence was, ``We have all done wrong.'' I say that 
because I think the beginning of mutual respect, after so much pain, is 
to recognize not only the positive characteristics of people on both 
sides but the fact that there has been a lot--a lot--of hurt and harm.
    The fulfillment of one side's aspirations must not come at the 
expense of the other. We must believe that everyone can win in the new 
Middle East. It does not hurt Israelis to hear Palestinians peacefully 
and pridefully asserting their identity, as we saw today. That is not a 
bad thing. And it does not hurt Palestinians to acknowledge the profound 
desire of Israelis to live without fear. It is in this spirit that I ask 
you to consider where we go from here.
    I thank you for your rejection fully, finally, and forever of the 
passages in the Palestinian Charter calling for the destruction of 
Israel. For they were the ideological underpinnings of a struggle 
renounced at Oslo. By revoking them once and for all, you have sent, I 
say again, a powerful message not to the Government but to the people of 
Israel. You will touch people on the street there. You will reach their 
hearts there.

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    I know how profoundly important this is to Israelis. I have been 
there four times as President. I have spent a lot of time with people 
other than the political leaders, Israeli schoolchildren who heard about 
you only as someone who thought they should be driven into the sea. They 
did not know what their parents or grandparents did that you thought was 
so bad. They were just children, too. Is it surprising that all this has 
led to the hardening of hearts on both sides, that they refuse to 
acknowledge your existence as a people and that led to a terrible 
reaction by you?
    By turning this page on the past, you are taking the lead in writing 
a new story for the future. And you have issued a challenge to the 
Government and the leaders of Israel to walk down that path with you. I 
thank you for doing that. The children of all the Middle East thank you.
    But declaring a change of heart still won't be enough. Let's be 
realistic here. First of all, there are real differences. And secondly, 
a lot of water has flowed under the bridge, as we used to say at home. 
An American poet has written, ``Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of 
the heart.'' Palestinians and Israelis and their pasts both share a 
history of oppression and dispossession; both have felt their hearts 
turn to stone for living too long in fear and seeing loved ones die too 
young. You are two great people of strong talent and soaring ambition, 
sharing such a small piece of sacred land.
    The time has come to sanctify your holy ground with genuine 
forgiveness and reconciliation. Every influential Palestinian, from 
teacher to journalist, from politician to community leader, must make 
this a mission to banish from the minds of children glorifying suicide 
bombers, to end the practice of speaking peace in one place and 
preaching hatred in another, to teach schoolchildren the value of peace 
and the waste of war, to break the cycle of violence. Our great American 
prophet, Martin Luther King, once said, ``The old law of an eye for an 
eye leaves everybody blind.''
    I believe you have gained more in 5 years of peace than in 45 years 
of war. I believe that what we are doing today, working together for 
security, will lead to further gains and changes in the heart. I believe 
that our work against terrorism, if you stand strong, will be rewarded, 
for that must become a fact of the past. It must never be a part of your 
future.
    Let me say this as clearly as I can: No matter how sharp a grievance 
or how deep a hurt, there is no justification for killing innocents.
    Mr. Chairman, you said at the White House that no Israeli mother 
should have to worry if her son or daughter is late coming home. Your 
words touched many people. You said much the same thing today. We must 
invest those words with the weight of reality in the minds of every 
person in Israel and every Palestinian.
    I feel this all the more strongly because the act of a few can 
falsify the image of the many. How many times have we seen it? How many 
times has it happened to us? We both know it is profoundly wrong to 
equate Palestinians, in particular, and Islam, in general, with 
terrorism or to see a fundamental conflict between Islam and the West. 
For the vast majority of the more than one billion Muslims in the world, 
tolerance is an article of faith and terrorism a travesty of faith.
    I know that in my own country, where Islam is one of the fastest 
growing religions, we share the same devotion to family and hard work 
and community. When it comes to relations between the United States and 
Palestinians, we have come far to overcome our misperceptions of each 
other. Americans have come to appreciate the strength of your identity 
and the depth of your aspirations. And we have learned to listen to your 
grievances as well.
    I hope you have begun to see America as your friend. I have tried to 
speak plainly to you about the need to reach out to the people of 
Israel, to understand the pain of their children, to understand the 
history of their fear and mistrust, their yearning, gnawing desire for 
security, because that is the only way friends can speak and the only 
way we can move forward.
    I took the same liberty yesterday in Israel. I talked there about 
the need to see one's own mistakes, not just those of others; to 
recognize the steps others have taken for peace, not just one's own; to 
break out of the politics

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of absolutes; to treat one's neighbors with respect and dignity. I 
talked about the profound courage of both peoples and their leaders 
which must continue in order for a secure, just, and lasting peace to 
occur; the courage of Israelis to continue turning over territory for 
peace and security; the courage of Palestinians to take action against 
all those who resort to and support violence and terrorism; the courage 
of Israelis to guarantee safe passage between the West Bank and Gaza and 
allow for greater trade and development; the courage of Palestinians to 
confiscate illegal weapons of war and terror; the courage of Israelis to 
curtail closures and curfews that remain a daily hardship; the courage 
of Palestinians to resolve all differences at the negotiating table; the 
courage of both peoples to abandon the rhetoric of hate that still 
poisons public discourse and limits the vision of your children; and the 
courage to move ahead to final status negotiations together, without 
either side taking unilateral steps or making unilateral statements that 
could prejudice the outcome, whether governing refugee settlements, 
borders, Jerusalem, or any other issues encompassed by the Oslo accord.
    Now, it will take good faith, mutual respect, and compromise to 
forge a final agreement. I think there will be more breakdowns, frankly, 
but I think there will be more breakthroughs, as well. There will be 
more challenges to peace from its enemies. And so I ask you today never 
to lose sight of how far you have come. With Chairman Arafat's 
leadership already you have accomplished what many said was impossible. 
The seemingly intractable problems of the past can clearly find 
practical solutions in the future. But it requires a consistent 
commitment and a genuine willingness to change heart.
    As we approach this new century, think of this, think of all the 
conflicts in the 20th century that many people thought were permanent 
that have been healed or are healing: two great World Wars between the 
French and the Germans--they're best friends; the Americans and the 
Russians, the whole cold war--now we have a constructive partnership; 
the Irish Catholics and Protestants; the Chinese and the Japanese; the 
black and white South Africans; the Serbs, the Croats, and the Muslims 
in Bosnia--all have turned from conflict to cooperation. Yes, there is 
still some distrust; yes, there's still some difficulty; but they are 
walking down the right road together. And when they see each other's 
children, increasingly they only see children, together. When they see 
the children crying, they realize the pain is real, whatever the child's 
story. In each case there was a vision of greater peace and prosperity 
and security.
    In Biblical times, Jews and Arabs lived side by side. They 
contributed to the flowering of Alexandria. During the Golden Age of 
Spain, Jews, Muslims, and Christians came together in an era of 
remarkable tolerance and learning, a third of the population laid down 
its tools on Friday, a third on Saturday, a third on Sunday. They were 
scholars and scientists, poets, musicians, merchants, and statesmen 
setting an example of peaceful coexistence that we can make a model for 
the future. There is no guarantee of success or failure today, but the 
challenge of this generation of Palestinians is to wage an historic and 
heroic struggle for peace.
    Again I say this is an historic day. I thank you for coming. I thank 
you for raising your hands. I thank you for standing up. I thank you for 
your voices. I thank you for clapping every time I said what you were 
really doing was reaching deep into the heart of the people of Israel. 
Chairman Arafat said he and Mrs. Arafat are taking Hillary and Chelsea 
and me--we're going to Bethlehem tomorrow. For a Christian family to 
light the Christmas tree in Bethlehem is a great honor.
    It is an interesting thing to contemplate that in this small place, 
the home of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, the embodiment of my faith 
was born a Jew and is still recognized by Muslims as a prophet. He said 
a lot of very interesting things. But in the end, He was known as the 
Prince of Peace. And we celebrate at Christmastime the birth of the 
Prince of Peace. One reason He is known as the Prince of Peace is He 
knew something about what it takes to make peace. And one of the wisest 
things He ever said was, ``We will be judged by the same standard by 
which we judge, but mercy triumphs over judgment.''

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    In this Christmas season, in this Hanukkah season, on the edge of 
Ramadan, this is a time for mercy and vision and looking at all of our 
children together. You have reaffirmed the fact that you now intend to 
share this piece of land without war, with your neighbors, forever. They 
have heard you. They have heard you.
    Now, you and they must now determine what kind of peace you will 
have. Will it be grudging and mean-spirited and confining, or will it be 
generous and open? Will you begin to judge each other in the way you 
would like to be judged? Will you begin to see each other's children in 
the way you see your own? Will they feel your pain, and will you 
understand theirs?
    Surely to goodness, after 5 years of this peace process and decades 
of suffering and after you have come here today and done what you have 
done, we can say, ``Enough of this gnashing of teeth. Let us join hands 
and proudly go forward together.''
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 5:30 p.m. in the Main Hall at the Shawwa 
Center. In his remarks, he referred to Speaker Salim Za'anoun of the 
Palestine National Council; and Chairman Yasser Arafat of the 
Palestinian Authority, and his wife Shua.