I apologize; you can hear that I have a bit of a cold today.  However, as I said earlier, I absolutely refused to cancel this meeting.  I changed my schedule today, but this meeting was very important to me.

I want to congratulate you, Ramaz.  You head a very important municipality, and in addition you now serve in one of the most important representational positions in the Arab populations living in the State of Israel.  I do not want to go into all the arguments with members of Knesset who represent the political movements, but they represent political movements – they do not represent the population which has needs, problems, hardships and other issues on a daily basis which the central authority, in cooperation with the local authorities must provide for.  In the end, the real test of equality for the Arab population will be, first and foremost, the relationship between the central and local authorities.  I want to congratulate you and thank you.

I wish to congratulate my friend, Shawki al-Hatib.  As was mentioned, you served in the position for eight years, which is a long time.  During those eight years, we met many times in my various positions.  In fact, I was a member of the Government for six of those eight years during which you served as head of the Council of Heads of Authority, and as a result, we met many times.  Let there be no misunderstanding, Shawki al-Hatib is not an easy man, but he has merits which I believe are more important than anything else – he possesses nobility, he is polite, he is cultured, he is genteel.  Even when he says or writes things with which, at times, one does not completely agree.  As you conclude your tenure, I wish to present you with a letter:

To: Mr. Shawki Hatib, the outgoing Chairman of the Council of Heads of Arab Authorities

Dear Shawki,

As you conclude your tenure as head of the Council of Heads of Arab Authorities, I wish to thank you for your exemplary performance.  One cannot deny the many differences of opinion which became apparent between the Arab sector under your leadership and the Government – differences of opinion ranging from the question of the identity of the State to the practical implications of equality and integrations.  Nevertheless, you ran an open and practical system of dialogue between the Government and the Arab public, and primarily with the heads of the authorities.

The Prime Minister’s Conference for the Minority Sector, which gathered last July at my Office’s initiative, and in which you played an active role, can and should continue in the coming years as well.

I have learned that you have chosen to work in the field of the economic development of the Arab sector.  Like you, I believe that this is the central path to advancing integration and equality, and to building a lively and stable relationship between the Arab and Jewish publics in Israel.

Good luck on your future path,

Signed, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

I give you this letter, and an additional little memento – pens.  I believe one of them is a fountain pen; you can sign important documents.

Honorable Minister of the Interior, my friend Meir Sheetrit,

Honorable Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office,

Incoming Chairman of the Council of Heads of Authorities,

Outgoing Chairman, my friend Shawki el-Hatib,

My friend, Arieh Bar, Director General of the Ministry of the Interior, one of the most senior and excellent directors general in the civil service, and the man whose indefatigable work and dedication to the effort we made to connect with the Arab populations and with its leaders, is worthy of praise.  I wish the wider public knew how many important things you have done,

My friend Reuven Gal, the director in charge of the Civilian Service, which in my opinion is also a very significant step in the direction of finding a common foundation, not one which involves friction, but one which involves connection.  This is why his job is so important,

And of course, head of the Authority for the Economic Development of the Arab Population, my friend Aiman Saif – our friendship is already second generation,

I am excited about this meeting.  I heard what Shawki had to say, and was pleased to hear it for one reason – I know Shawki very well.  If he wants to say something critical, if he had felt the need to say something critical, he would not pass up the opportunity for any reason.  He would not compromise himself because that is who he is.  One can agree with him, one can disagree with him, but one must accept him for who he is – he walks the path of truth.

I am an optimistic person.  I am a great believer, with all my heart, that soon there will be peace between Israel and the Palestinians, even though there are those on both sides who try to ensure failure on both sides.  Let there be no misunderstanding, I am not, for one moment, trying to pretend – there are those among us who want peace, but they only want peace which has no chance of existing.  There are those among the Palestinian people who are doing everything in their power so that there will not be peace.  I regret this with all my heart.  I tell them here, I deeply regret that I was unable to get the head of the Palestinian Authority, President Dr. Mahmoud Abbas, to sign a peace agreement with me – everything was closed.  I think this was a lost opportunity that I greatly hope we will not have to cry over as time passes.  You know very well where I come from in the public sphere of the State of Israel and which positions I represented – when Meir was a dove and I was a great hawk, and there were serious differences of opinion between us and today we are in the same place. 

I believe that we can reach an arrangement of two states for two people, to distribute the land based on the ’67 borders with an exchange of territory.  There is no other way.  It is impossible to evacuate all the territories that we settled, but a great portion of them will be.  I repeat, based on the ’67 borders – I did not say something else, something about division and return, where the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem are a part of the State of Israel and the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem are part of the Palestinian state, and accordingly Jerusalem will also serve as the capital of the Palestinian Authority, of the Palestinian state, and of course also as the capital of the people of Israel.  A solution will be found for the Holy Places which will ensure freedom of religion, freedom of expression and freedom of access for all religions, not just Muslims and Jews, but also Christians, in a manner that I believe is both possible and practical.

I believe that no prime minster of Israel ever offered such terms; it is a shame that this offer was not accepted in the manner in which I hoped this would all end.

There will be no escape – the historic need of these two peoples to reach peace is stronger than those who try to stop it.  It is our duty as residents to do all we can to push for this.  We must, as the Jewish State of Israel, accept the fact that our country is a country in which the vast majority is Jewish, but we cannot ignore the fact that there is a non-Jewish population here – an Arab and Muslim population.  There are Christians as well, but the vast majority of Arabs in the State of Israel are Muslims, and they are citizens with equal rights.  No one will move them from here; no one will expel them; no one will harm them; no one will deprive them.  We will fight for this.  I believe this; I believed in this during my entire tenure as prime minister.  I believed that it is my right to order the Israeli army to defend the residents of Israel even if it involved severely harming those who want to kill them, but at the same time, I strove, wherever I could, to negotiate with Syria as well, and with Lebanon and with the Palestinians in order to reach a peace agreement based on compromise and on unprecedented far-reaching concessions which I do not believe any Israeli government ever offered.

At the same time, we tried to back the unprecedented steps related to building a different kind of infrastructure for the relations with the Arab population in the State of Israel.  This refers to many things.  This refers to the fact, for example, that after the Second Lebanon War, the resources we allocated to the North included many activities in the Arab sector.  You yourselves spoke of this; Ilan spoke of this, but there is so much more.  We embarked on an effort to regularize the lands of the Bedouins in the South, with an approach initiated by Meir Sheetrit, and which received backing in opposition to the Ministry of Finance’s opinion.  I decided in his favor, and his demand was the first time in history that the Bedouins would be partners on the committee to determine the way in which compensation would be provided to them.  I am convinced this compensation, as expensive as it was, will be cheaper than any conflict it prevents.

We built Terabin; we inaugurated the first school in Terabin in the framework of the plan for the eight settlements designed by the Abu Besama Regional Council, headed by Amram Kalaji.  I was very proud then as I see this as another step towards providing an answer, a solution comprised of more than slogans – but rather a solution built on a real, profound recognition of the sensitivities involved.  After all, this is a question of who was right and who was wrong in the argument, and the daily friction between the Jewish and Arab populations is irrelevant.  The problem is how to create a dynamic that takes into account the sensitivities, takes them into consideration, respects them and creates a movement which leads in the direction of dialogue between people.  I tried as prime minister to talk to the Arab population, whether in seminars, at meetings in my home or in the Conference we held – and this is only the beginning.

I said before to Ramaz, when he said that his team would advance to the championship league that one of my happiest days as an Israeli citizen was when my team won the Israel Cup.  There could be no clearer or more exciting an expression of this but that an Arab team, which is part of the Israeli league, as part of an Israeli system, wins the State of Israel championship, and laps the Ramat Gan Stadium in front of thousands of viewers waving the Israeli flag.  In my opinion, this was a once in a lifetime moment, and it happened for the first time.  This is a tremendous thing, and that is why I wanted to help them so much; I wanted to help them because I thought that it is not possible that such a large population would not be represented in every sphere of life.  The culture of the Arab population is presented as containing outstanding talents which find expression in art and in the economy – not enough, but they exist.  In the field of sports, there is a total disconnection, other than the Bnei Sakhnin and Ahi Natzrat teams, and I hope that these teams will continue to succeed.

Ladies and Gentlemen, one can always be pessimistic.  My world view is optimistic.  I am even leaving with an optimistic feeling.  I do not make claims against anyone; I do not wish to settle scores with anyone.  I am convinced of one thing – I am convinced that the path we set forth in Kadima is the path which will lead the people of Israel.  Remember these words.  It is no coincidence that we were the largest party in the last elections, and that is because we presented a real platform which states that our security must be assured and we will do so with all our strength, but when a compromise must be made for peace, we will go farther and be bolder than anyone who came before us, and the Israeli public understands this and respects it.  I hope that this path will eventually become the dominant path among the Arab population. 

I intend to speak with the next prime minister to be elected at length regarding his part in stabilizing patterns of dialogue with the Arab population in the State of Israel.  We do not have the privilege of fighting – we simply do not.  We have enough superfluous fighting that we want to avoid, and this is certainly not on the agenda – we do not want it.

I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for coming, in fact, out of respect.  I wanted to say goodbye to you.  I thank you again very much for coming.  I thank you Shawki for you service on behalf of Arab residents, citizens of the State of Israel.  I thank you Ramaz for your willingness to continue on this path, and I very much hope that the path of life here in the State of Israel, which is a small country, will bring us together many more times, and that together we see a better life for all citizens of Israel.

Thank you.