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Keynote Speech at the European Palestinian Network Conference

My speech at the opening  of the European Palestinian Network Conference in Copenhagen, January  31, 2026

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Dear all 

The recipients of these rewards are testament of the extremely horrific living conditions for the entire people of Palestine.  

As expressed by UNRWA the other day – Gaza is also the most dangerous place on earth for relief workers and journalists.

We are faced with an immense human tragedy and flagrant violation of all international law.

We urgently appeal to European and other governments, to react more strongly against the genocide in Gaza and the violent ethnic cleansing on the West Bank and in occupied East Jerusalem.

There is a huge risk that governments, media and the general public cast their attention elsewhere, because the total war is on pause, Israeli hostages are back, and rapid and concerning developments elsewhere on the globe absorb the attention.

But real peace for Palestine is nowhere near – and justice, freedom and self-determination for the Palestinians are even further away.

Two million people in Gaza are caught in muddied ruins, in ravaged tents or under the open sky, without the promised supply of food, water, medicine, shelter – and with no prospect of a decent life in sight. At the same time, the number of illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land on the West Bank is exploding.

Europe must call for full and rapid implementation of the so-called American peace plan for Gaza as it was approved and understood by the Security Council of the United Nations. 

The peace plan is weak and vague. And even worse – it is not being implemented in the least. 

The composition of the so-called Peace Council is extremely counter-productive for successful implementation. President Trump gives himself veto power and he has very close relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli prime minister was against the peace plan and will do whatever he can to maintain Israel’s iron grip on Gaza. He will try to stop any movement towards phase two in the peace plan. He openly says he will destroy any possibility of a Palestinian state. He continues the destruction of buildings and infrastructure in the major part of Gaza, still occupied by Israel. Netanyahu’s government is perpetrating the most lethal and dangerous terrorism by far, seen during the hundred years of fight over Palestine. And his most extremist coalition partners openly talk about driving the Palestinians out of Palestine.

That’s why we must call for the strongest international attention and pressure on the governments of Israel and the United States – from progressive forces inside both countries as well.

We must demand an immediate end to the random killing of Palestinians in Gaza – which continues even after the declaration of the cease fire.

We must demand also an immediate end to all the Israeli restrictions and limitations to both local and all international relief efforts. The open warfare against UNRWA and other UN organizations must end. All supplies and equipment for decent survival must be given immediate free access.

Basic security in Gaza can only be reached with rapid deployment of the international peace force, paving the way for Israeli withdrawal from the occupied major part of the Gazan territory, demilitarisation of  Hamas and the establishment of a civilian Palestinian administration and police force.

We must call for Arab and other Muslim as well as European countries to contribute to the peace force.

We appeal to Europe and the whole international community to keep up pressure to free the thousands of Palestinians who are detained in Israeli prisons and camps – without charges or unjustly convicted to excessive or lifelong imprisonment – among them Marwan Barghouti. 

We need popular Palestinian leaders to be free, so they can contribute to a much-needed reconstruction of the Palestinian Authority into an elected and representative institution.

We must appeal for sanctions against trade with illegal Israeli settlements, against leading figures in the settlement movement and political and military leaders responsible for war crimes.

We must call on European governments to actively support and secure free access and free reporting for journalists to the Palestinian territories, so the cruel truth of genocide and destruction can be documented after years of determined efforts to keep free media away.

And let us never give up the demand from the overwhelming majority of member states in the United Nations for Palestinian statehood.

Speech held at The European Palestinian Network Conference in Copenhagen 31st of January, 2026

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The Paths to Peace are Few, Narrow and Uncertain

Sadly, peace and justice for Ukraine require ever more weapons from the West to liberate the occupied territories. And the ultimate horror scenario is that Putin’s response to being pushed back along the front lines becomes a desperate decision to use tactical nuclear weapons to destroy Ukraine’s military. This would multiply the loss of both military and civilian lives in one fell swoop and lead directly to NATO’s participation in the war, which may lead to war and arms races spiraling completely out of control.

Therefore, all hope rests on a change of heart and perhaps a change of power in the Russian leadership, in order for peace negotiations to start – and thus paving the way for rebuilding life in Ukraine.

We must also sincerely hope that a peace in Ukraine will lead to the West being able to negotiate once more with Russia to restore agreements on controlled limitations of missile and nuclear weapons systems and the prohibition of the proliferation of nuclear weapons, which contributed crucially to ending the old Cold War.

Only renewed cooperation between the West and Russia, expanded to include China, can slow down the ongoing arms race and prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons to more and more states. Dare we believe in such cooperation?

Doubtful promises

Nuclear proliferation can hardly be avoided without very tangible guarantees for and alliances with the countries that must renounce nuclear weapons, that they will not be exposed to military attacks from other countries.. However, deep distrust in the long-term sustainability of such guarantees will prevail. Remember that in 1994 Russia helped to guarantee Ukraine’s borders in exchange for handing over Ukraine’s share of the old Soviet nuclear weapons stockpiles.

North Korea’s seemingly insane drive to massively stockpile nuclear weapons and long-range missiles is hardly based on the delusion that the country and its regime would exist only minutes after a nuclear attack on the United States. But the dictator Kim Jong-un’s logic is simple: Would Saddam Hussein or Gaddafi have been removed by military force, had they possessed nuclear weapons to respond with?

The same logic led Iran’s clergy to toy with developing nuclear weapons. It was a particularly risky project because, in the conflict-torn Middle Eastern region, it could quickly lead to a preemptive attack by Israel and a nuclear race with Saudi Arabia and other neighboring countries. The non-proliferation agreements could be completely blown up.

Trump’s brutal deal-breaking

Therefore, up until 2015, a brilliant diplomatic offensive to lift economic sanctions against Iran and so as to let the country experience not being under threat of attack – while Iran, in return, had to renounce plans to develop the bomb. An agreement, the JCPOA, was concluded not only between the US and Iran, but including Russia, China, Great Britain, France, Germany and the EU as well, and furthermore confirmed in the UN Security Council.

Against the backdrop of many decades of conflict between the United States and Iran, this agreement was historic, and it served to strengthen the more moderate forces in Iran that had brought about the agreement. This is why it was terrible and idiotic that three years later Trump tore up the deal and re-imposed an even harsher sanctions regime on Iran. It is tragic that as the new president Joe Biden did not manage to move swiftly to restore the nuclear deal. This have prevented the return to power of the radical clerics , nurturing their strong doubts about whether guarantees from the West were trustworthy, and thus nuclear force could be dispensed with. Now the Iranian regime may be so cornered by domestic problems that it might still want an agreement. But the opportunity is definitely missed.

Iran out of reach

At this point in time, no Western power or organisation can make deals with a regime that massacres participants of huge popular protests, and executes countless young men for petty offenses, in order to scare people from joining the mass movement that threatens the regime’s very survival. A regime which, by the way, also supplies hideous drone weapons for Putin’s war of aggression against the Ukrainian civilian population.

In Iran as in Russia, we must now cling to the narrow hope of regime change from within.

But there may be dramatic interludes, with Israel’s new right-wing Netanyahu government trying to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities before a nuclear bomb is ready for use. This might delay the bomb, but hardly prevent it. And it will convince the clergy even more of its necessity. In addition, Iran has many opportunities to – with the help of allied forces in Israel’s vicinity – trigger a new and larger conflict in the war-torn Middle Eastern region.

The paths to peace are few, narrow and uncertain.

This is a translation of a piece published in Danish in Berlingske on 23rd of January, 2023