60 Palestine Quotes That Shed Light On The Struggle For Independence & Dignity

By Norbert Juma

Master quote curator and editor on a mission to inspire

Published November 1, 2023

Palestine quotes are hard to find, which served as a stimulant for us to create a comprehensive list of such quotes.

If you are interested in reading and sharing quotes about Palestine, this is the article for you.

In addition to the quotes section, we have also discussed Palestine and the different aspects associated with this region.

So, without any further delay, please continue reading!

A Brief Introduction to Palestine

Palestine is a state located in the eastern Mediterranean.

It is bordered by the following countries:

Jordan to the East
Mediterranean Sea to the West
Lebanon to the North
Egypt to the South

This state has a long history, which dates back to ancient times.

Besides, Palestine has been declared a conflicted region for decades.

Historical Aspects of Palestine

This area’s complexity is associated with various aspects, including cultural and religious diversity.

A wide array of religious and ethnic groups inhabited the Palestinian territory for thousands of years.

These groups include Jews, Muslims, and Christians.

The strategic location of this land made it a crossroads for various civilizations.

A few of the most prominent and known civilizations that lived in this region include:

Assyrians
Babylonians
Greeks
Romans
Ottomans

Conflicting Situation between Palestinians and Israelis

The most noteworthy aspect associated with Palestine is the ongoing conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.

It is one of the complex and enduring conflicts that date back to the 20th century.

The conflict started when Jewish settlers started their migration to Palestine under British rule.

Once the Second World War was over, the population of Jewish immigrants substantially increased in Palestine.

This led to unsettled tension between the Muslim and Jewish inhabitants.

In 1947, the partition of Palestine into two states was proposed through a resolution passed by the United Nations.

The Jewish community accepted this proposal but was rejected by the Muslims.

Current Situation

Palestine is now divided into two territories, including the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The West Bank is located east of Israel.

The Gaza Strip is a narrow strip located near the Mediterranean coast.

It is ruled by the Palestinian political party known as Hamas.

Involvement of International Community

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is always mediated by the international community.

The international community is attempting to serve as a mediator to introduce peace in the region.

The Oslo Accord is one of these attempts.

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israeli authorities signed this agreement in 1993.

However, this agreement never reached its final status – a permanent settlement between the two parties.

Top 10 Palestine Quotes

Here are the top 10 Palestine quotes from famous leaders and activists.

1. “Get the hell out of Palestine.” — Helen Thomas

2. “Long live jihad and long live Palestine.” — Saddam Hussein

3. “Palestine needs earth, but it does not need lawyers.” — Franz Kafka

4. “You get America out of Iraq, you get Israel out of Palestine.” — Cindy Sheehan

5. “I prefer being penetrated by iron to seeing Palestine is loose.” — Theodor Herzl

6. “One Cow in Palestine is worth more than all the Jews in Poland.” — Yitzhak Gruenbaum

7. “Today the eyes of orthodox Jews of the earth are fixed upon Palestine.” — Joseph Franklin Rutherford

8. “The preeminent obstacle to peace is Israel’s colonization of Palestine.” — Jimmy Carter

9. “Palestine is only a stone’s throw away for a small Palestinian boy or girl.” — Yasser Arafat

10. “In the United States, we can talk about ISIS, but we can’t talk about Palestine.” — John Cusack

Palestine Quotes about Optimism & Liberation

The following quotes effectively convey the Palestinians’ deep desire for and optimism regarding their eventual independence.

11. “I have no fear that the candle lighted in Palestine years ago will ever be put out.” — William Ralph Inge

12. “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” — Nelson Mandela

13. “You are the generation that will reach the sea and hoist the flag of Palestine over Tel Aviv.” — Yasser Arafat

14. “Resistance in Palestine will continue until the final liberation of all the Palestinian lands.” — Ahmed Yassin

15. “BDS represents three words that will help bring about the defeat of Zionist Israel and victory for Palestine.” — Ronnie Kasrils

16. “The Hamas movement will lead Intifada after Intifada until we liberate Palestine – all of Palestine, Allah willing.” — Ismail Haniyeh

17. “Palestine is Arab and must be liberated from the river to the sea, and all the Zionists who emigrated to the land of Palestine must leave.” — Saddam Hussein

18. “A lasting solution to this problem will have an exceptionally positive influence foremost on the peoples of Palestine and Israel, as well as on the region and the international community.” — Recep Tayyip Erdogan

19. “I bring good tidings to our beloved Prophet Muhammad: Allah’s promise and the Prophet’s prophecy of our victory in Palestine over the Jews and over the oppressive Zionists has begun to come true.” — Khaled Mashal

20. “I believe that we now have a duty to remove the aggressor from our land and to regain the Arab territory occupied by the Israelis. We can then engage in a clandestine struggle to liberate the land of Palestine, to liberate Haifa and Jaffa.” — Gamal Abdel Nasser

Palestine Quotes on Jews & Zionists

The following quotes illustrate how people perceive Jews in relation to Palestine.

21. “Most Zionists don’t believe that God exists, but they do believe that he promised them Palestine.” — Ilan Pappe

22. “It would be my greatest sadness to see Zionists (Jews) do to Palestinian Arabs much of what Nazis did to Jews.” — Albert Einstein

23. “If whole branches of Jews must be destroyed, it is worth it, as long as a Jewish state in Palestine is created.” — Theodor Herzl

24. “Palestine is not the ultimate goal of the Jews; the world is. Palestine is just the place for the world state headquarters.” — Israel Shamir

25. “Jews and Muslims’ dialoguing’ has nothing to do with Palestine. The problem is settler colonialism, apartheid, and occupation, not religion.” — Remi Kanazi

26. “It is highly probable that the bulk of the Jew’s ancestors ‘never’ lived in Palestine ‘at all,’ which witnesses the power of historical assertion over fact.” — H. G. Wells

27. “It’s a matter of principle. If Jews born in Brooklyn have a right to a state in Palestine, then Palestinians born in Jerusalem have a right to a state in Palestine.” — Christopher Hitchens

28. “If every single Jew born anywhere in the world has the right to become an Israeli citizen, then all the Palestinians who were chucked out of Palestine by the Zionist Government should have the same right, very simple.” — Tariq Ali

29. “Let the Jews who claim to be the chosen race prove their title by choosing the way of non-violence for vindicating their position on earth. Every country is their home, including Palestine, not by aggression but by loving service.” — Mahatma Gandhi

30. “The oppressed people of Palestine, whether those who dwell in that bloodstained holy land or those who continue to bear the brunt of hardship and displacement worldwide, are all in all the victims of Zionist discrimination and aggression.” — Mohammad Khatami

Palestine Quotes about Israel-Palestine Issue

Take some time to read the following quotes, which offer the point of view of different individuals on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

31. “Controlling the master narrative of Israel means vigilantly controlling the narrative about Palestine.” — Jon Rubin

32. “The heart and mind of every Muslim is affected by whether or not the Israel-Palestine issue is dealt with fairly.” — Jimmy Carter

33. “I feel like the history between Israel and Palestine has a lot in common with the history between India and Pakistan.” — Freida Pinto

34. “President George W. Bush is the first American president to call openly for two-states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.” — Lee H. Hamilton

35. “The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states.” — Barack Obama

36. “Israel cannot continue to exist in an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity without threats and aggression. If this regime stays on one inch of Palestine’s soil, it will continue its threats.” — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

37. “The Partition of Palestine is illegal. It will never be recognized …. Jerusalem was and will forever be our capital. Eretz Israel will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And for Ever.” — Menachem Begin

38. “Imagine the situation between Israel and Palestine. It’s such a big mess. You can be on one side or the other. But what’s clear is that there’s an urgent need for a solution there, and that’s been dragging on for so long.” — Javier Bardem

39. “In Palestine, the Israelis claim they found a land without people,’ a Syrian officer explained to us. ‘Now they will take southern Lebanon and claim they have found another land without people if these refugees do not return.” — Robert Fisk

40. “It is Israel that must recognize Palestine’s rights. We cannot believe in empty statements, twiddle our thumbs, and watch our children getting killed. Israel must end occupation and aggression, and our actions won’t take much longer after that.” — Khaled Mashal

Palestine Quotes on Arabs & The Arab World

The following quotes illustrate the significance of the Arab world in the issue of Palestinian liberation.

41. “There cannot be peace in the Middle East without giving Palestinians their full rights.” — Mohammed Morsi

42. “Palestine is the cement that holds the Arab world together, or it is the explosive that blows it apart.” — Yasser Arafat

43. “Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French.” — Mahatma Gandhi

44. “Fear is the main factor in Arab politics… There is no Arab who is not harmed by Jews’ entry into Palestine.” — Moshe Sharett

45. “The increasing mistrust between the Arab-Muslim peoples and the western world is rooted in the conflict in Palestine.” — Ismail Haniyeh

46. “The zionist argument to justify Israel’s present occupation of Arab Palestine has no intelligent or legal basis in history.” — Malcolm X

47. “Jordan is Palestine. The capital of Palestine is Amman. If Palestinian Arabs want to find their political expression, they will have to do it in Amman.” — Ariel Sharon

48. “You can’t ignore reality. You won’t wake up one morning and find that the Arabs of Umm al-Faham have become part of Palestine and are no longer in Israel.” — Ami Ayalon

49. “The Palestinians need more help from the Arab countries. Since 1967, the world has learned that there is not going to be real progress in the region until Palestine gets something back that they had.” — Bruce Dern

50. “Palestine must be built up without violating the legitimate interests of the Arabs.. Palestine is not Rhodesia… 600,0000 Arabs live there, who before the sense of justice of the world have exactly the same rights to their homes as we have to our National Home.” — Chaim Weizmann

51. “The word Palestine always brought to my mind a vague suggestion of a country as large as the United States.” ― Mark Twain

52. Let us protect the letter ‘P’ for Prayers..for PALESTINE…for Peace..” ― Munia Khan

53. “Yemen produces coffee, Egypt cotton, Iraq dates, Palestine oranges, and Syria trouble.” ― John Gunther

54. “We do not recognize the right of the Palestinian Arabs to rule the country, since Palestine is still undeveloped and awaits its builders.” ― David Ben-Gurion

55. “The time has come to end the suffering and the plight of millions of Palestine refugees in the homeland and the Diaspora.” ― Mahmoud Abbas

56. “In the glory which overhangs Palestine afar off, we imagine emotions which never come, when we tread the soil and walk over the hallowed sites.” ― Bayard Taylor

57. “The metaphor for Palestine is stronger than the Palestine of reality.” ― Mahmoud Darwish

58. I simply want tomorrow to be better than today. I want Palestine to be independent and sovereign… Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.” ― Mahmoud Abbas

59. I want to say to you, friends, that the Jewish community in Palestine is going to fight to the very end.” ― Golda Meir

60. “If I had means, I would like to spend half a year in Palestine in order to contemplate what has been, and half a year in Poland in order to preserve what remains.” ― Janusz Korczak