 I'm in New York. You're in Athens. I wish I could be there with you all this evening. I was invited by Yanis and by Mera Ikoshipende. I am just a hair older than the Nakba, five years older. I'm ashamed to say that I spent the first 60-odd years of my life mildly unaware of the story of Palestine. Notwithstanding the fact that my father was in Palestine in the 30s he actually he taught English at St. George's school in Jerusalem and I have letters at home that he sent to my grandmother and in a couple of them he expresses his grave concerns as to the future of the Palestinian people because he could see the rise of Zionism going all around him when he was there in the 30s. As I grew up I had no idea that that had been my father's experience. He was then killed in the Second World War fighting the Germans in Italy and then what happened in 1948 in Palestine we all know only too well. Sometimes it feels like that the road is too hard and difficult and rocky particularly in the face of American foreign policy these days but the fact is that the resolve of the Palestinian people is so immense so moving so heartbreaking but also so heartwarming that there is no question of those of us who support their cause ever letting go of it ever giving up and we are making great step. I tend to focus on the United States because that's where I live but it's not just the United States reactionary governments also happening in Germany in France and now in the United Kingdom we are getting stronger every single day and we are winning this fight and we will continue with this fight until the Palestinian people are free from the Yoke of Occupation and that either have a state of their own which seems unlikely these days or that the whole of the country that we all knew as Palestine becomes democratic where people have equal human rights. I in my work and in all my thinking have come to place my faith on a very small platform and that platform is the platform of basic human rights equally for all people all our brothers and sisters all over the world but particularly in Palestine irrespective obviously of their roots or nationality or religion or anything else we will not rest none of us will rest for a single second until the promise of the declaration of universal human rights by the United Nations in Paris in 48 is brought to fruition and our people are free so we're with you and we will stay with you until the fight is won and thank you Yannis. Thank you so much.