Yes, Brazil is right.
Ten years after 9/11, the US still hasn't learned that the Palestinian issue is the root of the violence in the Middle East.
In her international debut, as the first woman to open the UN General Assembly in New York, President Dilma Rousseff made history. Not only because of her gender and by proclaiming the "century of women," but above all, because of the emphasis she placed on the most sensitive issue in international relations: the Palestinian question. Nothing is as urgent and necessary today as the creation of a sovereign state for the Palestinian people, who are denied the basic right to freedom of movement and who, for years, have lived confined to narrow pieces of land, in an open-air prison controlled by Israel.
Dilma made her speech ten days after the tenth anniversary of September 11, 2001. And it's unbelievable that a decade hasn't been enough for the United States to see the obvious: the root of the violence in the Middle East is not religious fundamentalism, but rather the systematic – and almost genocidal – oppression of a people. "Only a free and sovereign Palestine can fulfill Israel's legitimate aspirations for peace with its neighbors," said Dilma. But in recent years, instead of seeking peace, Israel has preferred to expand its settlements and further confine its neighbors.
What peace is possible under these conditions? Certainly not the one proclaimed by Barack Obama, who, at the same UN General Assembly, washed his hands of the matter. He, who had pledged to fight for a Palestinian state, went on to say that genuine peace can only be achieved between Palestinians and Israelis. In short, he preached that the oppressed should play games with their oppressor. But, back then, the State of Israel was not born through dialogue. Not even the Holocaust of the Second World War was enough to guarantee it. It was conquered by force, thanks to the bravery of those Jews who fired bombs and drove the British out of Palestine – and who, in their time, were called terrorists.
In 1948, when the State of Israel was born, Brazil played an important role, thanks to the work of Oswaldo Aranha. Now, it is time to once again stand on the right side of history. In favor of the Palestinian state.