Myths & Facts: Quotes - HUMAN RIGHTS
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In Israel top
“Israel plans to invest significant amounts in infrastructure that will increase the accessibility of holy sites to all worshippers. By doing so it aims to honor and allow freedom of worship to all, irrespective of their faith, and protect the holy sites. There is no violation of Muslim or Christian religious rights in any holy place."
— Shimon Peres, Israeli President
“I cannot argue with feelings. I can tell you that we want to work together with the Jewish majority for the betterment of all of Israel. Religiously, politically and socially, we want to remain part of the State of Israel.”
— Sheikh Hasham Abed Elrahman, Umm el-Fahm Mayor
In Palestinian Territories top
“[Palestinian ambulance drivers] would coordinate with the Israelis before we pick up patients, because they have all our names, and our IDs, so they would not shoot at us.”
— Mohammed Shriteh, Palestinian Red Crescent Society
“I expect our Christian neighbors to understand the new Hamas rule means real changes. They must be ready for Islamic rule if they want to live in peace in Gaza.”
-- Sheik Abu Saqer, Jihadia Salafiya Leader
“Inside Gaza, press controlled by Hamas is heavy-handed. There are few press freedoms inside Gaza and Hamas controls who reports from there and where they can go. While pictures of wounded children being brought to hospitals are clearly encouraged, we rarely see images of Hamas fighters or their rockets being fired into Israel."
— Anderson Cooper, CNN Reporter
“We were filming the beginning of the demonstration. Suddenly, a van pulled in hurriedly. Inside, there were Fatah militants. They gave their orders and even distributed Molotov cocktails. We were filming. But these images, you will never see. In a few seconds, all those youngsters surrounded us, threatened us, and then took us away to the police station. There, we identified ourselves but we were compelled to delete the controversial pictures. The Palestinian Police calmed the situation but censored our pictures. We now have the proof that those riots are no longer spontaneous. All the orders came from the Palestinian hierarchy.”
— Jean Pierre Martin, Belgian Television RTL-TV1 Reporter
“We fear the Palestinian Authority takes advantage of the focus of international media on the American riposte to restrain more and more the right to free information”
— Robert Menard, Reporters Without Frontiers
General Quotes top
"The conflict we're trying to solve is between two peoples.... The basis for the creation of the State of Israel is that it was created for the Jewish people. [The Palestinian] state will be the answer to all Palestinians including the refugees. Putting an end to [right of return] claims means fulfilling [the] national right for all."
— Tzipi Livni, Israeli Foreign Minister
“I would love to be involved in a useful conference that addressed continuing issues of racism and discrimination around the globe... [Durban II though] is hypocritical and counterproductive"
— Barak Obama, US President
“I wish Israel did not need defensive weapons of mass destruction or the region’s most powerful defense forces. I wish the world had not driven the Jewish State into allocating its limited resources away from its universities and toward its military, but survival must come first, and Israel’s military strength is the key to its survival. Anyone who believes that survival can be assured by moral superiority alone must remember the Warsaw Ghetto and the Treblinka gas chambers.”
— Alan Dershowitz, Harvard University Professor of Law
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