Yasser Arafat

In order to obtain the goal of returning to Palestine, all of us sometimes have to grit our teeth.

The Palestinian Rifle is ready and we will aim it if they try to prevent us from praying in Jerusalem.

Whoever thinks of stopping the uprising before it achieves its goals, I will give him ten bullets in the chest.

Confidence alone does not make peace, but acknowledging rights and confidence do. Failure to recognize these rights creates a sense of injustice; it keeps the embers burning under the ashes.

The Arabs are looking forward to developing their region, which the long years of war had prevented from finding its true place in today's world, in an atmosphere of democracy, pluralism, and prosperity.

I come bearing an olive branch in one hand, and the freedom fighter's gun in the other. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.

I would like to congratulate my partners in peace - Mr. Yitzhak Rabin, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Mr. Shimon Peres, the Israeli Foreign Minister - on being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

We plan to eliminate the state of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian state. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion. We Palestinians will take over everything, including all of Jerusalem.

We started the peace process on the basis of land for peace and on the basis of U.N. resolution 242 and 338,1 as well as other international decisions on achieving the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

I call on Russia and the United States of America, the cosponsors of the peace conference, to help the peace process take bigger steps by contributing to the process and helping to overcome all obstacles.

I assure you, Ladies and Gentlemen, that we shall discover ourselves in peace more than we have with war and confrontation, as I am sure that the Israelis, in turn shall find themselves in peace more than they have found it in war.

The Palestinians, whose national cause guards the gates of Arab-Israeli peace, look forward like their Arab brethren to that comprehensive, just, and lasting peace based on 'land for peace' and compliance with international legitimacy and resolutions.