73 Quotes by Palestinian authors

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.

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"Peace for us means the destruction of Israel. We are preparing for an all-out war, a war which will last for generations"

Yasser Arafat, Leader

"We will not bend or fail until the blood of every last Jew from the youngest child to the oldest elder is spilt to redeem our land!"

Yasser Arafat, Leader

"Palestine is the cement that holds the Arab world together, or it is the explosive that blows it apart"

Yasser Arafat, Leader

"We plan to eliminate the state of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian state. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion. We Palestinians will take over everything, including all of Jerusalem"

Yasser Arafat, Leader

"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"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"We want the Israelis to leave. They want to leave - so let us let them leave"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"No state on earth can afford to allow several authorities to co-exist next to one another"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"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"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"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"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"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"

Ahmed Yassin, Activist

"Our main battle has always been against Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers"

Ahmed Yassin, Activist

"Sons of Islam everywhere, the jihad is a duty - to establish the rule of Allah on earth and to liberate your countries and yourselves from America's domination and its Zionist allies, it is your battle - either victory or martyrdom"

Ahmed Yassin, Activist

"Our law is a Jordanian law that we inherited, which applies to both the West Bank and Gaza, and sets the death penalty for those who sell land to Israelis"

Yasser Arafat, Leader

"The Palestinian Rifle is ready and we will aim it if they try to prevent us from praying in Jerusalem"

Yasser Arafat, Leader

"Whoever stands by a just cause cannot possibly be called a terrorist"

Yasser Arafat, Leader

"The victory march will continue until the Palestinian flag flies in Jerusalem and in all of Palestine"

Yasser Arafat, Leader

"Whoever thinks of stopping the uprising before it achieves its goals, I will give him ten bullets in the chest"

Yasser Arafat, Leader

"In order to obtain the goal of returning to Palestine, all of us sometimes have to grit our teeth"

Yasser Arafat, Leader

"I come bearing an olive branch in one hand, and the freedom fighter's gun in the other. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand"

Yasser Arafat, Leader

"This is my homeland no one can kick me out"

Yasser Arafat, Leader

"It's always convenient for certain people to heap accusations on Israel"

Yasser Arafat, Leader

"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"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"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"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"We have one authority and one law and everyone has the responsibility to follow that law and that authority"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"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"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"We have accepted the principle of democracy and we are committed to respect the popular verdict and the result of that national consultation"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"We cannot build foundations of a state without rule of law"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"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"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"We differ on several issues. And this may include settlement, the release of prisoners, the wall closing institutions in Jerusalem"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"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"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"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"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"Let us all pledge to protect this opportunity in order to see that the wish of peace becomes a true and daily fact in this region"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"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"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"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"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"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"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"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"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"We cannot build a viable state with a country that is disintegrating into small pieces"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"I can certainly put myself in Israel's shoes. They are humans just like we are. They want peace and security inside their borders"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"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"

Mahmoud Abbas, Statesman

"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"

Ahmed Yassin, Activist

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