Beyond the emotionalism and the obvious sense of relief on all sides, I think that there is a recognition that reality may intrude, that perhaps the steps ahead and the days ahead are going to...

We’re here because this is our city. It’s an occupied city, I know. They have arms, they have weapons, they have police, they have mortar guns, but it is Palestinian and it is under occupation.

This is a very serious development. We are witnessing some sort of regression in social norms. Palestine has always been famous for its tolerance, pluralism, amicable relations, lack of discrimination and sectarianism. It is quite...

The new Israeli government must have a peace agenda, and very clearly it does not have a peace agenda, it’s [a] policy of anti-peace,

If Abu Mazen wins, I’m afraid there will be payback time. Lots of people will expect to see him deliver different things on different fronts to different addresses.

We don’t want the Palestinian people and cause to be isolated. We don’t want a theocracy.

We know what they say, they want all of Palestine (including Israel) and say that negotiations did not work. They talk about wanting reform. That doesn’t mean they will do it.

It’s just a war that is systematic, that is daily, that is incremental, that is indeed debilitating, that is destroying the very fabric of Palestinian reality and infrastructure,

there is tremendous displeasure with the function and dysfunction of the government and the Palestinian Authority.

They don’t take orders from Arafat. They think for themselves and act for themselves.

We want it to be a mandate that will put an end to any small group or minority trying to hijack Palestinian decision-making,

Nobody wants him to resign and I don’t think he will. He understands this is a question of the national interest.

We’re here because we want to go to the Orient House. We’re here because this is our city. It’s an occupied city, I know. They have arms, they have weapons, they have police, they have...

[Yasser Arafat] is not just a husband or a father,

He was a genuine man of the people, and he was characterized by his high sense of values, his honesty, his integrity, his unwavering commitment to his people and human dimension.

In view of the crisis in the peace process and the Israeli refusal to implement agreements and the continuation of its settlement activity, the Palestinian Authority took a decision not to participate.

Sharon was a strong and charismatic leader who steered the politics toward the right and extremism.

I feel that Sharon is certainly a negative addition. He will sour the atmosphere. He will shift the whole terrain of the discourse to the extreme right.

Now we see a major shift, an unprecedented shift, in Palestinian life.

It’s not just a question of numbers. There will be more women (in parliament) who are conscious of women’s rights … There will also be women who are not committed to equality.

I think they will be able to see him because he is head of state.

Israel’s policy for deliberate assassination

Nobody should think that he is above the law. Hamas can compete through dialogue, and through political means. Everybody is requesting the PA to preserve law and order, and to build institutions; otherwise we are...

We are not interested in a show of negotiations without substance.

The occupation is a source of violence that has to stop.

It looks like we will have a bipolar reality.

It’s clear Israel has suspended the peace process, despite the so-called moderation of the Arab world, because it has no interest in peace.

We accepted the (U.S.) initiative, trying to be helpful in getting the peace process back on track. We are not willing in any way to renegotiate the initiative … I think the clock is ticking...

It seems to me as usual they are looking at the wrong address. They should look closer at home. I don’t think the Sharon policy of attempting to besiege a whole people … is a...

a decisively negative impact.

Sharon has subverted the whole process by turning it into something sequential and conditional and, of course, by making himself the interpreter of the road map,

We cannot superimpose on any conflict very simple, borrowed and ready-made solutions … The Americans constructed a simplistic paradigm for our peace process. And they expected everybody to think like Americans, to behave like Americans.

We need to stop Sharon. His lethal policies are drawing blood on both sides. That’s why we need a serious intervention — international troops. And we need to end the occupation if there is to...

It is not even within the boundaries of Jerusalem. Israel extended the boundaries of East Jerusalem to include disputed land and build settlements there.

We’re being shelled and bombed and assassinated and killed. Our homes are being destroyed, our children traumatized. Our livelihoods, our institutions, our infrastructure totally demolished.

I don’t see Sharon’s new party as a centrist party. It’s a party that represents a unilateral approach,

a very cynical and willful manipulation of an extremely volatile situation.

It’s very clear, that while they want to shell and pound and kill and destroy Palestinian people and their institutions with total impunity, that [while] putting enormous pressure on the Palestinians, on their victims, to...

You can’t simply redefine Jerusalem. The Palestinian claim is based on legality, on the international recognition that the situation created by the war in ’67 is not valid.

These weren’t pre-emptive moves. If we wanted to do that, we would have taken steps on other measures dealing with security or dissolving the parliament.

It’s very clear that Mr. Barak’s intentions all along have been to undermine the peace process, to evade it, to avoid it,

We can’t allow a group or a handful of armed groups or militias to threaten the holding of elections in a fair and free environment. We can’t allow them to hijack the electoral process.

this is an Israeli occupation army on our land, shooting our children, besieging our cities, using tanks, using fighter helicopters, using every brutal method in order to suppress … a civilian population on its own...

Dennis Ross has to be very careful if he wants to adopt the Israel priorities and the Israel discourse, and really fall prey to this deliberate campaign of fabrications of false accusations that Israel has...

Control does not come from strong police forces, does not come from oppression and repression, does not come from violating people’s rights or giving the security systems undue powers,

Atmosphere of violence, instability …

Even if Ross were not coming to visit the region, we have learned from our experience that Netanyahu will come up with all kinds of excuses to weasel out of the obligation in the agreements...

The absence of such a charismatic figure who controls single-handedly the political apparatus will be very significant to the political map. Right now you have a weakened government. The weaker you are, the more insecure...

This really exposes Barak’s real intentions when it comes to peacemaking, that either (Israelis) beat (the Palestinians) into submission in accepting what (Israelis) want, or (Israel) will suspend the peace process and … pursue a...

We are not interested in a symbolic state, and statehood generally is not a concession from an occupying power.