(20 Oct 1999) English/Nat
The former South African President Nelson Mandela continued his visit to Gaza on Wednesday, with a stopover at the Shati refugee camp and the Palestinian Legislative council.
In his effort to instil peace in the Middle East, Mandela called for an Israeli withdrawal from all Arab lands and the establishment of an international commission to supervise the peace process.
Mandela has been basking in the glow of a warm reception in Gaza, the last stop on his Middle East tour.
Posters bearing Mandela's image dotted walls throughout Gaza, and banners welcomed the former president of South Africa.
On each stop Mandela was accompanied by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat who the Nobel Peace Prize laureate describes as his "old friend."
Speaking in Gaza and earlier in Israel, Mandela spelled out his formula for solving the decade-old Israeli-Arab conflict.
He said Israel must withdraw from all the territories it captured in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Arab nations must recognise Israel's right to exist within secure boundaries.
But Mandela did not stint on expressing sympathy for the Israeli view.
The just-retired South African president repeatedly invoked the similarity between the struggle of Palestinians and South African non-whites.
Mandela recalled a time when both movements were treated as pariahs by the international community - a period that saw the forging of close bonds between the Palestinians and South Africans.
These statements were returned by thunderous applause from the Palestinian legislative assembly.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"In Israel I stressed three fundamental principals. I said it is no use for Israel to talk of peace if they still hold Arab territories which they conquered in during the Six-Day War in 1967."
SUPER CAPTION: Nelson Mandela, former South African President
Palestinians, eager to press Israel to accelerate the revived peace process, drank up the important moral endorsement of a late 20th-century symbol for freedom.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate won extended applause again when he departed from a speech lauding the difficult choice of abandoning an armed struggle for negotiations.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Choose peace rather than confrontation. Except in cases where we cannot get, where we cannot proceed, or we cannot move forward. Then if the only alternative is violent, we will use violence."
SUPER CAPTION: Nelson Mandela, former South African President
Walking the rutted streets of the Shati refugee camp, Nelson Mandela said on Wednesday
that he felt intensely at home among the Palestinians.
The pupils at the Shati refugee girls school hoisted Palestinian and South African flags and cheered upon his arrival.
The 81-year-old former president of South Africa arrived in Gaza on Tuesday.
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20 июл 2015
