Israeli aggression is still besieging Palestinian society, still killing and assassinating with the excess of destructive power it commands over an unarmed people, a people defending all that remains of their imperiled existence, the rubble of their houses, their olive groves threatened with yet more uprooting. The involvement of other states and peoples in the confrontation raging in Palestine today, and their standing by a Palestinian people deprived of normal life, proves not only that these states and peoples are committed to political stability in the Middle East as a means of protecting their interests but tests, too, a moral position that, in turn, examines the credibility of freedom, justice and equality in the lives and cultures of these peoples. It is necessary not only to purge the sin of the past but also to prevent the perpetration of future sins, the adding of yet another chapter to the book of the Nakba. We have not forgotten the beginning, not the keys to our houses, the street lamps lit by our blood, not the martyrs who nourished the unity of land, people and history, not the living who were born on the road that can only, as long as the spirit of the homeland remains alive inside us, lead to a homeland of the spirit. We shall forget neither yesterday nor tomorrow.
Tomorrow begins now.
This was a speech given at Westminster Cathedral for a Palestinian Remebrance service, on Saturday May 2, 1998. It is an eloquent speech that shows how many Palestinians feel about Al-Nakba. By Afif Safieh Victims of the victims of European history, we the Palestinian people, Muslims and Christians alike, we were constantly denied our legitimate share of sympathy, solidarity and support. To add insult to the many injuries inflicted, while our society was taking care of our collective and individual scars, admiring voices were raised around the globe about trees and forests being planted. As a the question of Palestine - awaiting still , in 1998, an equitable,adequate, satisfactory answer.