Palestine Is the Issue and Gaza is the Embodiment of its Essence

by Syrian President Bashar Assad, November 11, 20223

Following is the speech of Syrian President Assad at the joint Islamic- Arab Summit held in Ryadh Saudi Arabia on Nov 11, 2023. It has been lightly edited for clarity in translation from the Arabic.

His Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Your Majesties, Sovereignties and Highnesses

Gaza has never been an issue alone. Palestine is the issue and Gaza is the embodiment of its essence and a blatant expression of the suffering of its people.

Talking about it individually loses the compass, as it is part of a whole. The recent aggression against Gaza is just the latest event in a long context that dates back seventy-five years of Zionist crimes with thirty-two years of a failed peace. The result is that the entity has become more aggressive and the Palestinian situation has become more unjust, oppressive and miserable.

Neither the land nor the right has returned, neither in Palestine nor in the Golan. This situation has produced the following political equation: more Arab meekness toward them has equaled more Zionist ferocity towards us. More hands extended by us has equaled more massacres against us.

In light of this very clear equation, the aggression against Gaza cannot be investigated in isolation from the context of the Zionist massacres against the Palestinians previously.

In light of this very clear equation, we cannot isolate this ongoing crime by dealing “as Arab and Islamic countries” with the repeated events in a fragmented and partial manner regarding the Palestinian issue. Our continued dealing with the aggression against Gaza today with the same methodology means paving the way to complete the massacres until the annihilation of the people and the death of the cause.

The emergency at our summit today is neither aggression nor killing, as both are ongoing and both are inherent and characteristic of the entity. The emergency is Zionism outpacing itself in barbarism.

This places before us responsibilities of unprecedented magnitude, both humanly and politically. From a humanitarian standpoint, there is no dispute about our duty to bear a large share of restoring the minimum requirements of life, whether through immediate aid or rebuilding the necessary infrastructure later.

But should we continue to revolve in a vicious circle of killing and aid, then massacres then aid, attacks then statements? The most important question is: What do the Palestinians need from us? Do they need humanitarian aid from us first? Or do they need protection from the ongoing genocide?  Here lies our role, and here lies our political work. But if we do not have real tools for pressure, then any step we take or speech we deliver has no meaning. The minimum that we have are the actual political tools, not the rhetorical ones. The most important tool is stopping any political track with the Zionist entity with all that the political track includes, whether economic or other issues, so that its return is conditional on the entity’s commitment to an immediate and long-term cessation, not a temporary one, of crimes against all Palestinians in all of Palestine, while allowing bringing immediate aid into Gaza.

As for talking about the two states and launching the peace process and other rights, despite their importance, they are not the priority at this emergency moment. We know that talking about them will not bear fruit or work, because there is no partner, no sponsor, no reference, and no law, and because it is not possible to restore a right. The criminal became a judge, and the thief became a judge, and this is the state of the West today.

Western countries and international institutions bear historical colonial responsibilities based on the oppression and plunder of peoples.

By our will and the overwhelming popular public opinion in our countries, with the new reality imposed by the Palestinian resistance in our region, we possess the tools for change. Let us use them, and let us take advantage of the global transformation that has opened political doors that have been closed for decades. Let us enter through them and change the equations. Let the precious souls that rose in Palestine spur us to achieve what we were unable to do in the past and what we must accomplish in the present and in the future.