Middle East: The voice of reason must prevail on the voice of hate

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Your Excellencies, Dear President of the University of Jordan,

Dear University faculty, Dear students,

Authorities, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Salam aleykoum.

It is an honour for me to be here, and I am humbled to receive this honorary doctorate from the University of Jordan.

I am moved because you went back to my childhood. You found the pictures of my family, my father, when I was six or seven years old. How did you managed to find the pictures of when I was a child, playing in the streets of my old village.

My father was dragged to the war, to the Spanish civil war. He went to the war and it took him six years to come back to the village. He was telling me all the time: "Do not play [games of] war, war is over."

He knew, he knew by his own experience how awful war could be. In particular a civil war.

Then I grew up, and you have been following my personal trajectory - political and academic trajectory. You even put a picture of Florence, where I had the honour to be chairing the European University Institute.

But you missed a picture, when I was working in a Kibbutz in Israel. It is part of my history too. When I finished my studies at university, I volunteered to work in a Kibbutz. It was not because I was supporting Zionism, but because the Kibbutz represented for the young people on the 60s, 70s, in Europe, the ideal of socialism. The ideal of living together, sharing everything in a kind of collective life.

So, since I was 20 years old I have been travelling to the region - it is part of my intimate history.

I want to pay tribute to Jordan, to this extraordinary country at the crossroads of the civilisation. At the crossroad of the tensions of our world.

I want to pay tribute to the leaders of Jordan, to the present and past leaders. Without them, Jordan would not be a pillar of stability. Without them, Jordan would not be an anchor of stability in the region.

In order to navigate in the storm you need to have a good captain, such as the late King Hussein and His Majesty King Abdullah. Their achievements are commendable because they made their case in upholding a few and strong principles.

The first was to make the Hashemite monarchy the symbol and guarantor of the unity of the country - including in critical situations. That is why everything that we need to be done to help and support Jordan in these terrible times has to be done, from the European Union's side. That is why it was important for me to come to Jordan on my last visit to the region in my capacity as High Representative.

In three weeks, I have been in South Korea [and Japan], I have been in Ukraine, and now I am in the Middle East - the three poles of geopolitical tension of our world today.

The second consists of protecting Jordanian specificity and its different components, taking into account the regional reality - including the presence of the State of Israel with which Jordan maintained relations of necessary dialogue even when others rejected this very idea.

Jordan understood before many others that you cannot choose your neighbours, you cannot choose geography. That is why Jordan always advocated moderation and always was being praised for its moderating role.

Jordan never compromised with principles. One thing is to be moderated and another thing is to forget your principles. You can have both. You can be moderator, a wise person, and understand the complexity of the world, and not forget your principles. Jordan has always believed that swapping peace with territories was the only possible solution to bring peace in Palestine.

Third, is that while defending principles, its sovereignty and its integrity, and also the custodianship of the Holy Sites in Jerusalem, Jordan has never sacrificed its links with the rest of the Arab world and with the Palestinians, even when the Arab world was deeply divided. You were always in the side that supported the Palestinian people. Jordan has in certain circumstances taken considerable risks, which were not required to take and whose merits have not always been recognized enough.

Finally, Jordan has always, in its conduct, skilfully taken into account the global determinants, the global balance of power, [on] which [it] has often weighed on. Jordan, through its leaders and its people, has always demonstrated strong resilience and leadership.

His Majesty King Abdullah showed wisdom when describing Jordan as being "caught between Iraq - a rock - and hard place". And this "place" has become much harder during the last time, because the situation in the whole region has become much harder.

Let's talk about this conflict. Let's talk about the dramatic situation in your neighbourhood.

I will say what comes from my heart. I will try to be sincere with you. Knowing that maybe I am not representing fully all the European Union's positions - because there are different positions in the European Union about this conflict. You know very well.

When the United Nations votes, the European Member States in some cases vote "yes", in some cases "no", in other cases "abstention". So, it is very difficult to represent all European Union Member States, but I have to fulfil my obligations as High Representative and try to look for a balance. Explaining to you what I feel about this conflict.

Nothing illustrates more how hard this place is, how difficult the situation in Gaza has become than reminding that today is the World Children's Day. It was established by the United Nations in 1954. At that time, for sure, nobody could have thought that 70 years later, today, we would have seen a war where 70% of people being killed are women and children; and where the most frequent age group among the people being killed is children below nine years old.

That is the tragic reality: the most frequent age of people killed in Gaza are below nine years old. Almost 50 children have been killed every day for one entire year. This is a children's war. That is a horrific situation. That is the reality, whether you like it or not.

I want to echo the words of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palstine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini when he said that "this is a war is against children". It is a war on their childhood and is killing the future of a whole generation.

I want to pay tribute and express my support to the vital role played by UNRWA. The role it is playing and has to continue playing to defend the rights of the Palestinian people. On that, I am representing for sure the position of the European Union as strongly supporting UNRWA and being one of the most important financers of this organisation.

I want also to remind the spirit of the United Nations. The spirit of the United Nations is compromise, dialogue, respect for international rights, and pushing back against any kind of chauvinism, any kind of intolerance, any kind of supremacy, any kind of dehumanisation of human beings.

This is the spirit of the United Nations, and we have to defend the Charter of the United Nations, otherwise, in which world are we going to live? We have to raise our voice against any attempt to attack the United Nations Charter, the United Nations Organisation, serving the Palestinian people.

We have also to fight against any discussion which is not being based on evidence. This is a University. 'University' is about truth. 'University' is about facts. 'University' is about discussions based on intelligence. It is not based on lies, it is not based on propaganda, it is not based on disinformation, which is invading today the minds of the people around the world.

These people that promise to bring back "the good old days," the good old days that could be 50 years ago, or maybe 3,000 years ago. It is not for the universities to listen to these voices; on the contrary, to fight against them. We have the voice of the reason. We have the voice of the science. We have the voice of intelligence.

We have to fight against disinformation, against any message of hate. Any message of hate against any human being. Against any human being - wherever this message comes from. If it comes from the voices of an Israeli minister as much as if it comes from the voice of an extremist from any field.

All human beings have equal dignity and there is nothing more stupid created by humanity than anti-Semitism, or 'anti-anything' that represent belonging to a human group - because of religion, because of culture or because of ethnic considerations. Only on this basis we can make peace.

Do not listen to the ones who claim for total victory. The victory is never total. Let's talk about inclusion. Let's talk about raising bridges, building bridges instead of building walls.

On the situation in Palestine, we have to work for a voice of peace. We have to [raise our] voice against hate messages, we have to raise our voice against the lies, against the caricatures, against the people depicting the other as an animal, not deserving to live. Against any message of hate. This is what I want to tell you today and I am sure you understand that. Because this is the temple of intelligence. This is the place where human beings can meet together in order to build peace.

What can we do?

First, we need to understand and acknowledge the problem. We need to acknowledge that there is a narrative trying to present the problem as a fight between the West and the East or against the South, or against the Muslim world.

Believe me, this is a fabrication, this is a fallacy. This is a caricature that has to be deconstructed and rejected. We have to avoid any kind of clashes based on religion, civilisation or ethnicity.

Let us discuss about values. Let's also discuss about interests - because diplomacy is also to take into consideration not only the value but also the interests, otherwise we would be living in an angelical world. Values and interests coexist, and they have to be managed.

Second, we need to go against the current that seeks to drive us apart. This needs courage. This needs courage and strength. This needs the leadership and determination that Jordan, and in particular my colleague and friend [Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs] Ayman Safadi, has been able to show.

I have seen, I have been listening to [Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman] Safadi in international fora promoting peace. He deserves the respect due to somebody who is courageous enough to tell the Foreign Ministers of the European Union that they are wrong, that they are not fulfilling their values. Contesting what is wrong, and raising his voice asking for peace.

We have to understand that only a Global Alliance to implement the Two-State Solution, will bring peace to this region.

Last September, I was one of the members of this [Global] Alliance [for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution] that we launched at the United Nations General Assembly. The key word is "implementation" because talking about the Two-State Solution might be what we have been talking about since Oslo times, thirty years ago - and today it looks further away than 30 years ago.

So, it is necessary to talk about implementation. In Saudi Arabia a couple of weeks ago, and in Brussels on the last day of my mandate, we will continue working for this implementation process, making people of good will around the world work together.

We have to make everybody understand that on both sides, on the Israeli side and the Arab side, there are people who want peace. There are people who work for peace. There are people who wants peace and security for both sides. We have to defeat extremism. We have to defeat the ones who are sabotaging peace because they want supremacy above anything else. Believe me, there are people in Israel who wants peace as much as there are people in Palestine who wants peace.

We have to avoid any kind of dehumanisation in any circumstances. We have to raise our voice when atrocities are being committed, whoever commits them. One horror does not legitimise another horror. I said it many times: what happened with the terrorist attack of Hamas - which is absolutely condemnable, and we have condemned it- cannot justify another horror by an excessive use of force that can create situations that are against International Law.

We have to raise our voices wherever and whoever violates International Law. Yes, the right to defence exists. But the right to defence, as any other right, has limits: the limits of International Law. We have to take much care that these limits are being respected and when they are not - be it in Ukraine or be it in Gaza - we have to raise our voice.

I know that the Arab countries have been making efforts to build peace. Maybe the Arab Peace Initiative is not well known by Israelis. Or maybe we do not know that in the Israeli society there are people who are working for peace and taking risks for that. So, in both camps, in both sides -the Israeli and the Palestinian one - we have to recognise people who are fighting for peace and support them.

But to achieve peace - a just peace - the illegal occupation has to end, as the International Court of Justice has been asking for. The slaughter and starvation of innocents has to end. The impunity has to end.

This brings me to the issue of accountability, because there is no peace without justice, and there is no justice without accountability. Accountability has to be comprehensive and impartial, regardless of the identity of the perpetrator, regardless of the victim. There must be accountability, no matter who is the actor, or the act. What matters is the act. But there has to be accountability for what is going on in the Middle East, also in the West Bank and in Gaza.

We must look at what is going on in the West Bank in particular - and that is why I have made several proposals to sanction violent settlers and to send a message that International Law has to be respected. As much as I made proposals to sanctions the Hamas leaders exactly for the same reasons.

War crimes and crimes against humanity must be investigated and prosecuted. We have to support the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice. Their work is indispensable. We cannot afford to live in a world where the highest jurisdiction of the United Nations is not being respected and their rulings not taken into account.

We, the European Union, are the leading supporters for humanitarian help to the people in Gaza - and we can be proud of it. But certainly, this is not enough.

Providing humanitarian support is very much needed. I have seen the trucks waiting to enter Gaza, thousands of trucks queueing full of food and not being able to get in when on the other side of the wall there are people starving.

So, in many cases, it is not that there is not enough help. Help is there, but it cannot come inside, it cannot reach [the] people in need - and that becomes a political problem, not just a matter of providing humanitarian support.

I want to say that here, clearly and loudly, because universities play an important role in facing this conflict. Universities, here, in Jordan, can play an important role because you are closer to the conflict. Unhappily, there are no universities left in Gaza. They have all been destroyed. Everything that makes society has been destroyed.

I want to say that because I think it. There is a limit to the right of defence, and the level of destruction that we are witnessing in Gaza is not justified with the right to defence: it goes much further.

The voices of reason, the voices of people who wants to end this tragedy and bring peace and security to everybody - for Israel too - have to start working very hard. Maybe you can start working very hard.

This university, as all universities around the world, is the place not only for demonstrating and expressing concerns, not only to be black and white, on one side or the other, but to look for the arguments, for the reasons, for the facts that can help us build a solution. The solution can only be political. There is not going to be a military solution to this war.

The solutions have to come through negotiations for a just peace and to share the land. That is what the Two-State solution mean. It cannot be a mantra that we repeat every day without doing much to make it happen.

Once again, I am happy to be here with you and with the University of Jordan because I think it is an occasion and an opportunity. You can do a lot; we can do a lot.

The voice of the reason has to win the voice of hate. This is the only way for making peace.

I thank you for this.

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-264274