Our Hearts are With You
Today, like many others around the world, I am waiting for word on friends in New York, the city that harbored me for a good part of two decades while I was in exile. I have been here before. In 1999 I sat in New York, waiting to hear what had happened to my family, friends and loved ones in East Timor as the Indonesian army and militia went through my homeland on a bloody rampage.
In each case, it was a handful of corrupt men, and the group stupid enough to follow them, who cut lives short, ripped fathers from their families and children from their parents, and colored the actions of an entire culture.
Yet for all the supposed enmity between our countries, when I finally arrived in Indonesia, in 1999, people stopped me on the street - Indonesians - to say hello, to have their picture taken with me, to ask for my autograph. I am sure that today in the Palestinian world, there are countless numbers of citizens who desperately desire peace and stability in their communities, who want a solution where they can raise their children in a decent life, and who wish Americans no harm.
Those who purport to be their friends -- the extremists in Lebanon, Iran, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, and Afghanistan -- have done them irreparable damage. Those who led groups of them to the street to dance and celebrate at the death of thousands of innocent people in America, under the watch of international television cameras, have harmed the Palestinian people more than any of them could have imagined.
In East Timor I personally lost three brothers and one sister to the Indonesian military. There is hardly an East Timorese family that has not lost a member of the family. Many families have been reduced to one member.
Yet in our long history of struggle, never once did we use violence against Indonesian civilians. We did not allow derogatory racial statements about the Indonesian people in our literature or rallies.
Certainly blacks in Africa and the Americas have grievances against the West. Yet none has launched a terrorist attack and none has attempted to harm Western citizens as a solution.
Those in the Arab world who foment "religious" violence and terrorism in the name of the Palestinian cause do the Palestinians no good. In the last 48 hours, they have nearly sounded the death knell for the cause. The only chance now for a solution is for the Palestinian leadership to step forward, to show real courage, to speak out, and engage Israel in dialogue. And drop violence, once and for all. The guns must go silent. The Palestinians must learn from Mahatma Gandhi if they ever want to have a homeland.
Israeli leaders as well must show greater courage than we have seen to date, to overcome the extremists in their own midst, and take the steps necessary to end the cycle of violence. The two sides of this divide must share the blame for the tragedy that has now engulfed Americans, and rise to the challenge.
Starting in 1977 with Camp David, but particularly during the Clinton Administration, the US has done more to bring peace and dignity to the Palestinians than any other nation. They have made great strides in the past toward the groundwork for a Palestinian state. Today, their country has been changed forever. Unless both sides take action, the losers will not only be the Americans, but the Palestinians as well, whose dream of an independent state is disintegrating, and the moderate, sane on all sides who wish only for stability and a future for their children.
To the American people, the hearts of our small nation are with you. Your country will rise from the ashes of this nightmare, as it did after Pearl Harbor. And with resilience and compassion, you will be greater still. So do not despair. Do not lose faith. And most of all, do not lose your innocence and compassion.
Dr. José Ramos-Horta,
East Timor
