Dr. Majed Nassar, Union of Health Work Committees
7 November 2000
The following document, although it has been edited to reflect a particular reality, is familiar to many of you. We believe that in reading it, you will understand more deeply that the profound longing of the Palestinian people for freedom and independence, their inalienable rights as human beings, is the same as that of other peoples of the world.
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness -That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing all the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of the Palestinian People; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present State of Israel is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the Palestinian People. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.
Israel has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance….
Israel has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures….
Israel has affected to render the Military independent of, and superior to the Civil Power….
Israel has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving its Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation….
For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Palestinian people:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the World:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury;
For transporting us…to be tried for pretended Offences….
Israel has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of its Protection and waging War against us.
Israel has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.
Israel is, at this Time, transporting large Armies ….to complete the works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy of a civilized Nation….
In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury….
We, therefore, the Palestinian People, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good Palestinian People, solemnly Publish and Declare, That the Palestinian People are, and of Right ought to be, a People with a Free and Independent State;….and that as a Free and Independent State, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of Right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.