Speech by Dr Eyad Sarraj

Dr. Eyad Sarraj

"Some people may ask why we are here, leaving behind thousands of Palestinians in Israeli jails. It is true that we have a very difficult case at home, and that for a long time we have been totally preoccupied with trying to expose the Israeli violations of basic human rights and to protect Palestinians from the atrocities of living under Israeli occupation day by day, hour by hour: demolishing homes, arresting people, torturing tens of thousands of Palestinians, killing before court and even after court decisions. But that is Israel. Somehow we felt that there outside, in the civilised world something else is happening. This is why the shock is double when we learned about the miscarriage of justice that is happening in the best country that could claimed to be civilised, democratic, and has a rule of law. This why we are here.

The case of Samar and Jawad tells us that the human rights principle is a universal principle and has to be challenged in every country, and has to be protected in every country; that you cannot allow any government in this world to play around with this principle. Otherwise, you will be at risk, even in Britain. People who think that it is only in Latin America or in Arab countries that we have oppressive regimes, or that only in Iraq and Israel you have dictatorial and terrible regimes, and that they are protected, they are wrong. Because if you leave it, you will be hurt yourself in your own country, and this is what is happening in the case of Samar and Jawad.

One day, and I am telling you a case that I was struck by in my one clinic, a boy of 16 came to see me and he said: I am not a patient, I need your help. And I said: what is it you need. And he said I need a bomb. I said what do you need a bomb for. He said: I read, I lived all my life in this part of the world in Gaza, and now I've been working in Israel as a simple labourer. I read all the books about Palestine that I could have my hands on. And I figured a solution, and the solution is this one: each one of us should kill a Jew and kill himself. And this why I want a bomb. I never knew what happened to this boy, I never gave a bomb of course. But it is a graphic example of how the Palestinian youth would feel after a long history of traumatisation, victimisation, and humiliation. For a long time I myself, was dreaming, and imagining myself being able to control the Knesset (the parliament in Israel), be able to attack it, control the Israeli leaders there, and pin them by my arrows to the ceiling. Of course, we do not want to live in this kind of world, in which people take revenge on each other, generation after generation of cycles of violence. We also understand what the Jews have suffered, particularly in the Holocaust. But that, and even our suffering should not give us the justification to do harm to others.

I was again shocked to learn this harsh sentence of Jawad and Samar, was only that they were said to be planning or thinking; in that case thousands of Palestinians, including myself, would be sentenced to life. Because we were thinking and we were planning, and we were imagining things to happen. But the hard proof here is these two did not bomb the Israeli embassy, and then they have a very harsh sentence that is equivalent to the treatment of the Palestinian because he is a Palestinian in Israel. Look what happens to Israeli terrorists, Israeli settlers who kill Palestinians, point blank, in front of everyone. Very light sentences, with forgiveness or pardon after six weeks. What happens to the Palestinians who think, plan, conspire, or imagine? Twenty years hard labour.

But this not a question of Palestinians and Israelis alone, this is a question of basic justice, and basic human rights. During the last two days, I tell you we have very strong hopes. We have been very well listened to, we are very nourished and encouraged by this community of people who believe in justice. And I believe that within the British system, there are so many people like her ladyship here, and people who defend justice, like Tony Benn, Lord Gilmour and so many others. This is really giving us hope to live and to see the day that Samar and Jawad will be released. And then we will have such a meeting for celebration. Thank you very much."

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