TEHRAN (FNA)- Dr. Saeb Sha’ath, author and political expert, says resistance against Israeli occupation is an inseparable part of the life of all Palestinians in the occupied lands, refugee camps in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, and all over the world.
In an exclusive interview with FNA, Dr. Sha’ath stressed that Palestinians will continue the resistance “until they free their homeland from the clutches of the white European Zionist colonial occupation", adding that "the right of return is the heart of the Palestinian struggle for justice”.
Dr. Saeb Sha’ath is an internationally recognized political expert in the West Asian affairs. He headed the Palestine General Delegation to Ireland until 2002. Dr. Sha’ath is the chairman of the Palestine Aid charity and a co-founder of Irish Map (Medical Aid for Palestine), aimed to improve the Palestinian health facilities in Gaza.
Below is the full text of the interview:
Q: Palestinians have been resisting Israeli occupation for 72 years now. Why does the Palestinian resistance consistently continues to stand so strong?
A: The Palestinians are mourning the 72nd anniversary of the 1948 Nakba "catastrophe", a cruel catastrophically event during which the British made, and USA-Western supported colonial Zionist terror gangs devastated the Palestinian population, mowing lots of them by heavy machine guns, massacring people, young and old and pushing the survivors to the sea. They all carried out under the British watchful eyes.
Since 1917 [(the Balfour Declaration)], the Palestinian people have been engaged in all forms of resistance against the, then British empire’s colonial occupation. Today the Palestinian people continue their struggle against the Zionist colonial entity ‘Israel’, a continuation of the British colonial occupation.
Resistance is a part of the Palestinians daily life, it takes many forms and goes through many phases; a revolutionary violence manifested in the armed struggle, non-violent resistance, the weekly Great March of Return protests in the Gaza Strip, confronting the raiding Israeli force and their colonial settlers, local and global cultural and popular resistance, such as protests and Boycott, Divestment and Sanction campaign, ‘BDS’.
The Palestinians are adamant and determined to fight until they free their homeland from the clutches of the white European Zionist colonial occupation.
Observing the Palestinians daily life in occupied Palestine, or in the refugee camps across Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, we are able to see that Nakba very much is a living reality, and it keeps the Palestinian resistance spirit ignited.
Q: According to the UN documents, there are over six million Palestinians refugees eligible to return to the occupied lands. After 72 years now, do they still hope the UN resolution 194 of 1948 (Right of Return) will be implemented some day?
A: Palestinian’s villages and towns that resisted the British-American supported Zionist terror gangs were flattened, ill-equipped Palestinian resistance were cornered and crushed, people were mascaraed and pushed out into the sea.
A few years ago, we heard a Colonel of the Zionist terror gangs, who participated in massacring the Arab inhabitants of Deir Yassin village, saying: "there was a feeling of considerable slaughter and it was hard for me to explain it to myself as having been done in self-defense. My impression was more of a massacre than anything else." Zionist entity founder David Ben-Gurion famously remarked: "I support compulsory transfer. I do not see anything immoral in it."
The right of return is the heart of the Palestinian struggle for justice. Hundreds of thousands of the Palestinian people in Gaza Strip, weekly participate in the Great March of Return, marching to the fences that separate them from their homes and towns which they demand to return to. Many of the unarmed civilian protesters fall victims to the Zionist occupation forces bullets, while demanding to return to their homes and towns. The right of return for refugees is a universal right, enshrined in international law through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Convention. UN resolution 194 affirms that Palestinians have a right of return to their homes.
The Great March of Return takes place as well in many of the Palestinian refugee camps across the region, and around the world the Palestinians are voicing their right to return home, through many different forms and activities.
Therefore, the Palestinian struggle, will continue until the day the international community finalizes the implementation of the Palestinian right of return, as this right is the core key of the Palestinian struggle, to achieve justice for the refugees and erase the Zionist entity from the land of historical Palestine.
Q: Do you believe Trump’s so-called deal of the century will affect the way the Nakba Day is marked inside Palestine? Or worldwide?
A: The US Administration crafted the ‘deal of the century’ to aid the Zionist entity in looting most of the Palestinian lands to be annexed to the greater ‘Israel’ colonial project.
Today all Palestinians from all sides of the political spectrum, understand that there is no difference between the Zionist entity and USA, the enemy of the Palestinian people is the US’s imperialism and its function Zionist state ‘Israel’.
Neither Trump’s so-called deal of the century, nor international community with its supranational bodies can invalidate the narrative and struggle of the Palestinian people to liberate their homeland Palestine, their refugees to return home, and to exercise their right of self-determination.
No comments:
Post a Comment