|
|
|
|
|
English Translation of the Statement Issued by Arafat's Bureau The Palestinian Liberation Organization The Palestinian National Authority The President's Bureau In the Name of Allah the Compassionate and Merciful A Statement Made on Behalf of the Liaison Committee, Marking the First Anniversary of the Al Aqsa Intifada. Lo, the great crowd of our Palestinian people clutching [its land], standing fast and patient, whose roots are in the land of the fathers and grandfathers. You, with your steadfast determination and adherence [to the land] ever since Allah ordered so, [for] more than half a century, fighting the conqueror who plunders our land and homeland. It was fated that you and the next generations, until the day of resurrection of the dead, shall keep this homeland. You keep this deposit, which is [hanging] on your neck and the neck of your grandchildren, because you are the defenders and guardians [of the homeland] and live in it, and you are its original and lawful owners, and you are its heirs until the day you are resurrected. With you and with your help, we pay homage to the first anniversary of the spark of the Intifada... the blessed Al Aqsa Intifada in which our people is waging in the liberated territories and occupied territories, and abroad around the world, stressing the strength of the struggle treasured in its soul to explode the spark of anger accumulating at the face of the robbers of the twentieth century, the creators of international terrorism, the killers of children, women and the elderly, plunderers of land and livelihood, who destroy and burn the soil, the seeds and the rocks. Indeed, the people, with all its sects and groups, started the Intifada everywhere it could. The ties have interlaced, that connect the sons of Jerusalem and the West Bank with those of the Gaza Strip and those of the cities occupied since 1948 [i.e. the Israeli Arab citizens], who have always been and forever will be the natural depth and fortified wall of our Palestinian people and its just cause. The [Palestinian] people has indeed started its Intifada in order to pave, with its pure and stainless blood, the pavements and alleys and squares of the holiest of holy places, the capital of the independent Palestinian state. The man and the rock, the bird and the tree, have started the Intifada in the allies of Jerusalem and its holy places, the mountains of the West Bank and its valleys, the shores of Gaza and its refugee camps, the planes and hills and peaks of Palestine, the cities and villages of Palestine occupied since 1948 [i.e. Israel], the supreme one, withstanding its bitterness, holding fast and taking roots. Yes, we will draw up with blood the map of the one homeland ["al watan al wahad"] and the one people ["al shaab al wahad"]. We will indeed outline the marks of the nobility and national coping with the policy of discrimination, racism, land appropriation, deportation and intended expulsion, taken against the Palestinian person, in the absence of the international community [and while maintaining] false justice. Today, we expect absolutely nothing of the rulers of the [Arab] nation, which is overcome with sleepiness and bound by silence and overwhelmed by cowardice. We are expectant and we follow with dreamy nationalist eyes our families and great people in the towns and villages of the steadfast resistance of 1948. For they share the cause and the fate, share the one national dream. The Al Aqsa Intifada and independence have fulfilled the unity and national alliance of all the sons of the determined Palestinian people, despite the blocks created by the occupation, despite all the acts of massacre committed by the Zionist gangs since the 1948 disaster [the "Naqba"]. To commemorate this great memory, we now emphasize, together and equally, the ongoing will of the one people, the life of the noble liberty, despite the policy of suppression and racial discrimination taken against us by the bullies of the worst of occupiers ever known in history, in order to express in its rage the historical exploitation that came upon us since the beginning of modern history by the stone Intifada, the Intifada of the hidden rage... Today, no voice can overcome the sound of the Intifada. It will continue to be the Intifada of the one people and one outburst of blood... it will continue to be a prolonged Intifada of rage... a prolonged Intifada of independence... an Intifada of innumerable generations which will continue until our supreme national dream is fulfilled. Since we are the lawful owners of the land and the truth, of the independent homeland and independent state. Therefore, with you and with your help, and by the respectable members of our Arab Islamic nation, and by the people of freedom in the world, we will establish our independent Palestinian state whose capital shall be the holy Jerusalem... with you and with your help we shall liberate our holy places, the Church of the Nativity and the Al Aqsa Mosque, in order for the Palestinian flag to fly free in the sky of Jerusalem, cradle of the heavenly religions, land of the apostles, the land where the people shall convene in the Day of Judgement. Glory and eternity to our innocent casualties, Quick recovery to our wounded heroes, Liberty to our imprisoned heroes, Disgrace and contempt to the agents [collaborators] and those who were corrupted, This is a revolution until victory. The Liaison Committee
|
   
|
