RAMALLAH, June 14, 2009 (WAFA)- Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, awarded, yesterday, the 39th US President Jimmy Carter the Palestine International Award for Excellence and Innovation, 2009.
The ceremony was opened by a short film about the Palestine International Award for Excellence and Innovation, followed by the speech of Chairman of the Award Sabeeh Al-Masri.
Prime Minister Fayyad, said that the ceremony confirms that the meanings associated with the prize are ones that could only be taken by sympathy.
He added: President Jimmy Carter, who deserves all the honor, is a good man who knows the Question of Palestine and its history. I thank Mr. Jimmy Carter for what he said, and which affirms his humanity which we celebrate today.
'We welcome him today and at all times, especially when we have an independent state of Palestine.
President Carter, in his acceptance speech, urged the Palestinians to end their internal divisions and stop persecuting their rivals. He said “I hope in the future to address you in your perpetual capital, Jerusalem.
He added “bringing the Palestinian factions together, is not to be done by the United States or the United Nations or Europe, but it is to be done the Palestinians themselves, adding that he considers himself at home in Palestine.
He continued: U.S. President Obama has called for freezing construction and expansion of colonies, and maybe someday will call for dismantling them.
President Carter emphasized that he would be going after his meeting with officials from the Israeli Foreign Ministry, to the Gaza Strip, in an attempt to bring the sons of one people.
For his part, Head of the Negotiations Affairs Department in the Palestine Liberation Organization, Saeb Erakat said that the democratic Palestinian State is to be born,
He added that accountability, transparency, human rights and women's rights are of the most important elements of the survival of the Palestinian people
.
He spoke for the President Carter: I ask you, Mr. President, to tell Hamas, who are part of the Palestinian people that ballets not bullets make democracy. He stressed that there can be no peace without justice, democracy and ending the occupation.
