Rami Hamdallah. Photo: Washington Institute.

PA prime minister Rami Hamdallah spoke at the Asian-African Conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, last week. In his speech, he said that the independence of Palestine and gaining freedom from Israel is the last remaining objective of this conference from its inception 60 years ago.

Hamdallah said that his people are still suffering from the historical injustice done to him, and that living under occupation is unjust and claustrophobic. And he said that the pain of exile and asylum is still continuing and worsening. He called for the establishment of a fully sovereign Palestinian state on the “1967 borders.”

But the first Asian-African Conference was held in 1955, way before 1967. Why wasn’t there any mention then of creating a Palestinian Arab state in the illegally annexed West Bank and Gaza?

The Palestine issue was addressed in the 1955 final conference communique with a very vague paragraph:

In view of the existing tension in the Middle East, caused by the situation in Palestine and of the danger of that tension to world peace, the Asian-African Conference declared its support of the rights of the Arab people of Palestine and called for the implementation of the United Nations Resolutions on Palestine and the achievement of the peaceful settlement of the Palestine question.

Nothing about statehood.

In fact, that 1955 declaration included pacts that Palestinian Arabs have consistently violated against Israel:

• Respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations.
• Recognition of the equality of all races and of the equality of all nations large and small.
• Abstention from intervention or interference in the internal affairs of another country.
• Respect for the right of each nation to defend itself singly or collectively, in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations.
• Abstention by any country from exerting pressures on other countries.
• Refraining from acts or threats of aggression or the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any country.
• Settlement of all international disputes by peaceful means, such as negotiation, conciliation, arbitration or judicial settlement as well as other peaceful means of the parties’ own choice, in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations.

Why doesn’t Hamdallah insist that his own people adhere to all of these principles?