Palestinian words move with the cadence of dabke and the hush of olive groves: spare, stubborn, and generous. They carry sumud, steadfastness, alongside tenderness, braiding memory with hunger for justice, exile with the scent of thyme and coffee. Proverbs speak in flint and bread; poets turn ruins into metaphors of return without surrendering humor or grace. From courtyard laughter to the wind off Jaffa’s sea, these voices hold keys to home and to dignity, reminding that love of land is both a duty and a daily act.
"I say: The time has come for my courageous and proud people, after decades of displacement and colonial occupation and ceaseless suffering, to live like other peoples of the earth, free in a sovereign and independent homeland"
"And also I assert our interest in respecting all our obligations and implementing all our commitments. And will save no effort whatever to protect this newborn opportunity of peace, that is provided through what we have already declared here today"
"History has proven that the PLO and its sectors suffered great damage when walking the way of harming Zionist interests in other countries around the world"
"Our priorities require that all children of Palestine, men and women, be ready for conflict, both from the standpoint of training and from the standpoint of armament"
"Until the June 1967 war I was completely caught up in the life of a young professor of English. Beginning in 1968, I started to think, write, and travel as someone who felt himself to be directly involved in the renaissance of Palestinian life and politics"
"Our efforts are not aimed at isolating Israel or de-legitimizing it; rather we want to gain legitimacy for the cause of the people of Palestine. We only aim to de-legitimize the settlement activities and the occupation and apartheid and the logic of ruthless force, and we believe that all the countries of the world stand with us in this regard"
"Here, I declare that the Palestine Liberation Organization is ready to return immediately to the negotiating table on the basis of the adopted terms of reference based on international legitimacy and a complete cessation of settlement activities"
"We have agreed with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to cease all acts of violence against the Israelis and against the Palestinians wherever they are. Tranquility and quiet that will be witnessed and in our land, starting today, is the beginning for a new era"
"The Palestinian situation is different. We can have military cooperation with other factions in the Palestinian territories. But we cannot have this with Hizbullah in Lebanon"
"The current stage does not allow the entrance of everyone into a military conflict, however everyone must be ready for the day in which it might take place, as the Zionist enemy is planning to attack our people and to control our land once again"
"It is an exaggeration to call the Hamas and Islamic Jihad announcement a military alliance. It is rather a message that our people are united in the face of Israeli aggression"
"We expect President Bush to implement his own vision of a two-state solution, the birth of the Palestinian State and the ending of the occupation that started in 1967"
"There is a requirement to ensure the withdrawal takes place in a civilized manner. We will be able to show the world we deserve independence and freedom"
"The PLO and the Palestinian people adhere to the renouncement of violence and rejection and condemning of terrorism in all its forms, especially State terrorism, and adhere to all agreements signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel"
"We need international support so that our people live a life of normality, of dignity, of liberty and freedom. I hope that our cry for freedom may be heard"
"Israel reoccupied the cities of the West Bank by a unilateral action, and reestablished the civil and military occupation by a unilateral action, and it is the one that determines whether or not a Palestinian citizen has the right to reside in any part of the Palestinian Territory"
"We always have hoped that American diplomacy deploys itself in dialogue and persuasion rather than by ultimatums. That is the path we want in international relations"
"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"
"It is high time that the Palestinian people restore their freedom and independence. It is high time that the decades, the long decades of suffering and pain would stop"
"The core issue here is that the Israeli government refuses to commit to terms of reference for the negotiations that are based on international law and United Nations resolutions, and that it frantically continues to intensify building of settlements on the territory of the State of Palestine"
"There are many resistance movements in the world, like the IRA for instance. But it is only Islamic resistance movements that are put on the terrorist list. This is what I am saying"
"However, the resources at our people's disposal are very few and we require assistance from the neighboring Arab countries, and for weapons in order to fight the enemy"
"There are house demolitions and destruction all over the West Bank and Gaza. Just yesterday in Gaza they demolished three towers under the pretext that they were built close to a settlement"
"Since Israel does not differentiate between attacking this group or that, we are saying our people can work individually or collectively to face this aggression"
