Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-12-12-Speech-3-259"
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"en.20011212.13.3-259"2
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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Luisa, my family, Mrs Sartaoui, I wanted to dedicate this speech to the memory of my father and his Palestinian friend, Dr Issam Sartaoui, who both dreamt of peace thirty years ago.
Mothers are the only ones who know that the death of a child, any child, whether from Serbia or Albania, Iraq or Afghanistan, whether Jewish or Palestinian, is the death of the whole world, of its past and its future. When Luisa told me that I had been awarded the Sakharov Prize, I told her that I did not deserve it, since I had never saved a child, not even my own. But then I thought that the prize had not been awarded to me as a person, but to this voice that I took on through death and which transcends nationalities, religions, and even time. This voice that politicians and generals have tried to silence since man first walked this earth and since men have been waging war.
I have often been asked whether or not I feel the need to exact revenge for the murder of my daughter, who was only killed because she was born an Israeli, by a young man, who had so little hope that he was willing to kill himself and who only killed himself because he was Palestinian. I always quote the verse of the great Hebrew poet Bialik. ‘Satan has not yet created those who would exact revenge for the death of a small child’. And this is not because Satan does not have the means, but because after a child has died, there is no longer vengeance, death, or life. The only feeling that remains, the only desire, the only need, that can never be satisfied, is that of protecting the child. The mothers who have lost their children will tell you that their arms hurt due to the constant need to hold the child and keep it from harm. No mother would ever think of seeking consolation by killing one child for another.
If we do not wish our entire planet to become a kingdom of dead children, we must raise our voices as mothers in order to silence all the other voices. We must once again listen to the voice of God who said ‘Do not harm children’. Otherwise, there will soon be nothing left to say, nothing left to hear, other than this incessant cry of mourning. Ladies and gentlemen, I beg you to listen to the voices that are coming from the underground kingdom of children who have been killed. That is where justice resides today, that is where true multiculturalism holds sway, that is where we know that there is no difference between blood, between skin, between identity cards or flags. Listen to the cries of the dead children and help their mothers to save the children who are still alive.
I am, I feel, obliged, however, to dedicate this speech to the children who were killed yesterday by the Israeli army, simply because they were born Palestinians.
It is a great honour to be here today with you, as winner of the Sakharov Prize. I am well aware that, on such occasions, one should speak of hope and of the human qualities that can lead us to the triumph of compassion and fraternity between people. Forgive me, therefore, for not speaking of this today.
In Jerusalem, where I am from, hope and humanity are fading away. Israel is becoming a graveyard for children, which is growing bigger day by day. It is like an underground kingdom, extending beneath our feet and destroying everything in its wake. It is the kingdom where my daughter lives, with her Palestinian murderer, whose blood, mixed with hers, flows through Jerusalem, which became hardened to the sight of blood a long time ago. They are there with many, many more children, and they have all been let down. The murderer of my daughter has been let down, because his act of murder and of suicide achieved nothing. It did not put an end to the cruel Israeli occupation, it did not lead him to paradise, and those who promised him that his action would have meaning and value go on as if he had never existed. My young daughter was let down because she believed, just as thousands of her new brothers and sisters believed, that she lived in safety, that her parents protected her from evil and that nothing could happen to sweet little girls who cross the road to go to their dancing lesson. And all the children who are there with them have been let down, because the world goes on, as if their blood had never been spilled.
In Jerusalem, where I am from, the men who call themselves our leaders have allowed death to hold sway. It appears, however, that these gentlemen know how to live in peace when they have to. On Friday 1 December, the editorial of a local newspaper in a Jerusalem in mourning told us that there had been peace in Jericho for two months. There are no Israeli soldiers there, no Palestinian policemen, no gun shots.
Do not believe that the Americans have succeeded in convincing Ariel Sharon to stop sending young eighteen-year-old Israelis to kill innocent Palestinians, nor that they have succeeded in convincing the Palestinians to stop blowing themselves up along with their innocent Israeli victims. Far from it. Jericho is at peace because the Israeli and Palestinian leaders have together decided to reopen the casino …
When I read this article, I could not stop myself from thinking that my daughter’s life is not even worth a single roulette chip. Almost 200 children have been killed since the beginning of the Intifada, of this incessant massacre, and they are worth nothing more than roulette chips. And yet, I was not very surprised, since I always knew that our war was not that of the Israeli people against the Palestinian people, but that of people who destroy lives who call themselves our Heads of State against the people from both sides.
These cunning politicians use God, the wealth of the nation, freedom and democracy, and even our periods of mourning as political tools, and they use our children as if they were figurines in their games of chance. For instance, you knock over ten of mine, and I shall knock over 300 of yours, and we will be quits until the next time.
None of this is new in the history of mankind. Leaders have always used God and other sacred values, such as honour and courage, to justify their self-indulgent ambition. And the only voice, throughout history, that spoke out to expose them and to oppose this was always the voice of mothers; the voice of those who produced the Jewish people, who disobeyed the Pharaoh’s orders to kill little boys at birth; the voice of Rachel, our biblical mother, weeping for her children and refusing to be consoled; the voice of the women of Troy; the mothers of Argentina, the mothers of Ireland, Israel and Palestine. It is the voice of those who give life and who are committed to preserving it. It is the only voice that remains after the violence has subsided, and which truly understands the meaning of the end of everything."@en1
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