Kofi Annan, MS, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, in a Mar. 28, 2001 speech to the Arab League, stated:
"The international community and the Arab world have every right to
criticise Israel for its continued occupation of Palestinian and Syrian
territory, and for its excessively harsh response to the Intifada. But
these points could be made more effectively if many Israelis did not
believe that their existence was under threat. Israel has a right,
enshrined in numerous United Nations resolutions, to exist in safety
within internationally recognised borders... What we need is movement
towards an agreement that responds both to the legitimate desire of the
Palestinians for national independence, and to the legitimate claims of
the Israelis to recognition and security."
Yasser Arafat, former chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), in a Sep. 9, 1993 letter to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, wrote:
"The PLO recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in Peace
and security...The PLO affirms that those articles of the Palestinian
Covenant which deny Israel's right to exist, and the provisions of the
Covenant which are inconsistent with the commitments of this letter are
now inoperative and no longer valid."
Abba Eban, former member of the Knesset Committee on Foreign Affairs and Security, in a Nov. 18, 1981 New York Times article titled "The Saudi Text," wrote the following:
"Nobody does Israel any service by proclaiming its 'right to exist.'
Israel's right to exist, like that of the United States, Saudi Arabia
and 152 other states, is axiomatic and unreserved. Israel's legitimacy
is not suspended in midair awaiting acknowledgement... There is
certainly no other state, big or small, young or old, that would
consider mere recognition of its 'right to exist' a favor, or a
negotiable concession."
Alexander Kalugin, a Russian Mideast envoy, was quoted in a China Daily Online article on Feb. 10, 2006, referring to Russia's position on the election of Hamas:
"We
want them [Hamas] to respect all previous agreements in order to
prevent terrorist attacks. Of course, it is also necessary to embark on
the road toward recognition of Israel 's right to exist."
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister of Turkey, speaking at a public forum at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government on Jan. 30, 2004, said:
"As the prime minister of a nation that has lived in friendship with
its Jewish citizens for centuries and continues to maintain close
friendship with both Israelis and Palestinians, I should like to
declare this explicitly... Turkey will not accept any notion that denies
Israel’s right to exist."
The 1994 Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty, signed by Jordan's King Hussein on Oct. 26, 1994, contains the following statement:
"Peace is hereby established between the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the State of Israel (the 'Parties') effective from the exchange of the instruments of ratification of this Treaty...
They recognize and will respect each other's sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence...They recognize and will respect each other's right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries...
They respect and recognize the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every state in the region."
Ahmad Nasser, former Secretary of the Palestinian Legislative Council, on PA (Palestinian Authority) TV, Feb. 6, 2004, stated the following as quoted by Palestinian Media Watch:
"Israel was established on the basis of theft. The State of Israel is Satan's offspring - a satanic offspring. It was founded on theft from the first moment. It was founded on the basis of robbery, terror, killing, torture, assassination, death, stealing land and killing people and will continue this way, never able to exist because its birth was unnatural, a satanic offspring, and cannot exist among human beings...
It cannot exist naturally, like other nations in this world."
Achmad Cassiem, Imam, National Chairperson of the South African Islamic Unity Convention, in a May 23, 2002 speech given on Radio 786 (a Muslim community radio station in Cape Town, South Africa), stated:
"Our
position is that even if the Zionist State [Israel] is the size of a
postage stamp it has no right to exist. Occupied Palestine must be
decolonized, deracialized and restored to the Palestinian people as a
single sovereign state. In plain English, the Zionist State must be
dismantled."
Neturei-Karta, an Orthodox Jewish group, in a June 9, 1995 New York Times advertisement titled "What About the Ten Rhetorical Questions?" stated the following:
"All
Palestine should be returned to the Palestinians and other occupied
lands should be returned to their owners. And the Zionist enterprise
should cease to exist. Only then will the misery wrought by Zionism
disappear."
Ibrahim Mudayris, Head of the Association for Memorizing the Quran, stated on Palestinian Authority TV, May 13, 2005 that:
"This
Naqba ['Catastrophe'] is the worst day of remembrance for the
Palestinian people ... because with the loss of Palestine, the Arab
nation was lost, and with the establishment of the false state of
Israel, the whole Muslim nation was lost... He who says that the Jews
have any right over this land - besides being occupiers - is a liar,
and they will disappear."
Mahatma Gandhi, the late civil rights leader, in a letter titled "The Jews in Palestine 1938," published Nov. 26, 1938 in Harijan, wrote:
"Palestine
belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the
English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the
Jews on the Arabs. What is going on in Palestine today cannot be
justified by any moral code of conduct. The mandates have no sanction
but that of the last war. Surely it would be a crime against humanity
to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews
partly or wholly as their national home."
