Interview with Hamas leader Saleh Al-Arouri
Amid assassination threats, the Deputy Head of the Political Bureau of Hamas, Sheikh Saleh Al-Arouri, gave an interview on Al-Aqsa Channel today:
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“We are all part of one organization named the Palestinian people. This is our organization for which all factions and the people work.”
“Either we drive them out, or they drive us out, and we will drive them out by the will of Allah.”
“Does the occupation expect that after its assassination threats, we will declare surrender?! These threats don’t scare us, and as the Palestinian people, we have no options; hence, we will not stop resisting.”
“O sons and daughters of our people, escalate the resistance to a level that holds the entire world accountable. My message to the youth of the West Bank, rise up and fight. With anything your hand reaches, resist.”
Full highlights are below:
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The Right to Resist:
We will not surrender, and our people do not intend to surrender. They have never before discussed the idea of surrender. We are a people who have not succumbed to their fate and accepted what this occupation imposes on them.
The occupation wants to uproot our people from our land, our history, our present, our future, and our holy places, and plant in its place this falsehood they brought from all corners of the world. That’s why we have no intention of surrendering, nor any intention of compromising.
This zionist government says you either accept being our slaves, or we will uproot you from this land. We say to them: as long as this war is of an eradication nature, the newcomers, the invaders, and the scattered ones coming from everywhere in the world are the ones who will be uprooted and will go, just as it happened with other invaders and colonizers. This people will remain.
It is very natural for our people to return to their resistance time and again. This resistance has been ongoing since the inception of the zionist project. It is true that the resistance comes in waves, sometimes rising and sometimes declining due to the severity of oppression, siege, conspiracies, and some illusions that some are convinced of, like the illusions of peace.
The collective consciousness, the subconscious, and the constants of our people return time and again to the true path of dealing with the occupiers, which is resistance. Thus, all the bets and all attempts to create the new Palestinian and intensifying oppression, persecution, displacement, house demolitions, and killing are futile.
Now, the West Bank returns to its recurrent pages of glory, and our people are united in the West Bank, Gaza, the interior, and the diaspora, holding firmly to their right and their thawabet, always ready to face challenges with resistance in order to assert their rights, defend their holy sites, their past, present, and future.
Our people always have the ability to surprise the occupation, and among these surprises is the escalation of resistance in the West Bank in the face of unprecedented challenges.
It’s the occupation that caused the escalation of this resistance by escalating unprecedented actions against our people, our holy sites, and through settlement.
The Hamas movement is a part of this people and at the heart of the resistance. We do not disavow or shy away from resistance. Thus, we are present in the resistance, and we do not allow ourselves to be absent from our people’s resistance.
In the Hamas movement, we strive to be at the heart and weight of the resistance. We don’t consider this an accusation but rather an honor for us and our duty to be at the forefront of those defending our people, our land, and our holy sites.
Organized movements like Hamas always prepare and work towards launching resistance. However, when the confrontation turns into a comprehensive popular resistance, it’s due to the occupation and its measures which push all members of our nation to engage in resistance.
I am more optimistic when there are individual acts of resistance from people who aren’t part of any organization because we are all part of one organization named the Palestinian people. This is our organization for which all factions and the people work.
The occupation imposed on all members of our nation to engage in resistance when it publicly declared its plans. The zionist government stated that it is working on a settlement control in the West Bank, a control that’s irrevocable, and will Judaize Al-Quds and take over the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Response to escalating zionist aggression:
The zionist government made settlement decisions and put all the tools in the hands of the finance minister, Smotrich, who is the most extreme and insane person. He says that during the remaining term of this government, he will transfer at least one million settlers to the West Bank.
The occupation and its government made decisions, utilized tools, and created organizational and legal structures to accomplish their plans of controlling the West Bank, Al-Quds, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque through millions of settlers. Thus, they imposed on us the battle of confronting the settlement and occupation.
Hamas’s stances are clear: as a Palestinian people, we must engage in our battle against the settlements. Until now, Hamas focuses its operations against the settlements because it’s the heart of the occupation, and it’s the most dangerous face of the occupation.
We, as a people, are capable of confronting the occupation. Every day we delay in igniting a comprehensive battle against settler colonialism in the West Bank, we will face this battle in harder and worse conditions.
Smotrich was on a visit to France and presented during a press conference there a map of Palestine and Jordan. According to the decisive plan he and the entire zionist right adopt, Jordan is the homeland of the Palestinians, and historical Palestine remains entirely for them without a Palestinian people.
Instead of confronting this project after they’ve occupied the West Bank with millions of settlers and prepared all the reasons, we should confront them now. We have the opportunity, given their internal division and the global division and an unprecedented negative stance against this government due to its extremism and its violations of all international laws and norms. We have the chance to engage in our battle against the settlements and win it.
We have the opportunity to remove the occupation and the settlements from the West Bank instead of them removing us from it. There’s no escape from a comprehensive battle in the West Bank. Either we drive them out, or they drive us out, and we will drive them out by the will of Allah.
In Hamas, we first planned to show our people, our nation, and the world the danger of this government and its overt, exposed schemes aiming at destroying our people, displacing them, and taking full control over the West Bank. We want to reinforce, push, and provide everything necessary, and to be at the forefront in resisting the settlement project in the West Bank, just as we drove them out of Gaza.
Threats to Hamas:
The threat of assassinating the leaders of Hamas is not new to the occupation. Their project began with massacres, killings, displacement, and torture. Indeed, they assassinate martyrs from our people every day. And we, in Hamas, are part of this people.
We in Hamas are part of this people, and thus we get martyred like our people, we get arrested as they get arrested, our homes get demolished, and we are pursued and hunted. This is the unfortunate normal situation under the occupation. But also, we resist, chase, and fight because we are in the right.
We do not fear the threats of the occupation, and I feel that I have exceeded my default life, and martyrdom is welcome when it comes like the rest of those who preceded us, and Mohammad Al-Deif was threatened with assassination, but he will enter Al-Quds, Allah willing, with the occupation in the dustbins of history.
Does the occupation expect that after its assassination threats, we will declare surrender?! These threats don’t scare us, and as the Palestinian people, we have no options; hence, we will not stop resisting.
Once, a defense minister named Lieberman came and said, “I will cut off Ismail Haniyeh’s head.” Now he’s in the dustbin of history, while Ismail Haniyeh still serves our people’s cause. Similarly, they tried to kill the leader, Mohammed Deif. Allah willing, he will enter Al-Quds, and they will be the ones out of history.
Resist!:
My message to our people in the West Bank is that this occupation and this government have left us no choice but to fight. No one has an excuse to refrain from participating in this battle. I neither think nor believe that any youth among our people would accept bearing this shame in their history and conscience.
The occupation wants to demolish Al-Aqsa, build the temple, Judaize Al-Quds, uproot our people from the West Bank, and falsify our entire history. Therefore, it’s incumbent upon each one of us to have a role in resisting the occupation in the West Bank. I focus on the West Bank because it is the heart of the battle right now.
Every Palestinian, every free and honorable Arab and Muslim, should contribute to this battle. This is the battle to liberate Al-Aqsa, to defend it and to prevent its Judaization.
The number of youths clashing with the occupation in the West Bank is limited. Yet, this occupier can’t sleep at night. They are in a constant state of tension, holding endless meetings, and are in confusion and distress. As a result, the personal security of the settlers is lost, and the government’s attempt to bring millions of settlers becomes much more difficult day by day.
Instead of a thousand youths participating in the resistance, a hundred thousand should participate, and a million should participate. Then, the occupation will depart, they will be defeated, and they will destroy their houses with their own hands and with the hands of the resistance fighters.
O sons and daughters of our people… The settlements in the West Bank are illegal in the eyes of international law, the United Nations, the US, and the entire world. Therefore, your fight is legitimate and legal in every sense and at all levels. You are not terrorists in the eyes of the United Nations. You are defending your land that the occupation is trying to steal from you.
O sons and daughters of our people, escalate the resistance to a level that holds the entire world accountable. You will find that the world will stand with us when they see our determination for our right and our readiness to face all challenges to achieve our rights.
My message to the youth of the West Bank, rise up and fight. I know that the Palestinian people in the West Bank have more weapons than the settlers. It’s forbidden to neutralize these weapons when settlers attack Palestinians in Turmusa’ya, Huwara, or villages in the Jordan Valley and in Yatta.
Smotrich and Ben-Gvir are not allowed to reside in the West Bank. The settlements are prohibited to be here. Hence, everyone should contribute in some way. Throw a stone or a Molotov cocktail, with a pistol or a homemade rifle; with anything your hand reaches, resist.
The resistance is centered in the north. They had to mobilize most of their ground army in the West Bank because the proliferation and spread of the settlements have become a burden on them. They need 25 to 30 battalions of their army to guard them. Imagine if the resistance spread across the entire West Bank.
Now Al-Khalil has started to be hit, and the army is beginning to mobilize again in the south, so we must fight them throughout the West Bank until the occupation realizes that this endeavor is a losing one.
I heard a comment from one of the leaders of this zionist government saying that killing a mother in front of her daughter is something that cannot be ignored. I ask: does this apply to us as Palestinians as well? Don’t we have sanctity or feelings when a mother is killed with her daughter, when a daughter is killed in front of her family, when children are killed in front of their mother?
Our people have options in responding to the aggression, and the days will reveal to you what you were ignorant of, and bring you news you weren’t expecting.
On Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa Mosque:
Any aggression on Al-Aqsa Mosque with the intention of controlling it and changing its current status will be met with a regional battle.
This government is leading the region into war, and the problem is that America, along with unfortunately some Arab countries and the [Palestinian] Authority, want calm. And calm means that we, as the Palestinian people, stop resisting, while the plans of the “israeli” government to control Al-Quds and the West Bank do not stop.
If the occupation government continues with its plans, the entire region will witness a comprehensive war. We are confident that when we reach this all-out conflict, we will inflict a defeat upon the enemy like they have never experienced before.
The regional war that will defeat the occupation if Al-Aqsa is threatened and settlement activity escalates is not just a threat stemming from ancient Arab bravado. We are a resistance that exists on the ground. We have previously defeated the occupation and expelled it from Gaza, and similarly, the resistance expelled it from southern Lebanon.
On Fatah and the Palestinian Authority:
The brothers in the Fatah movement are an integral part of this nation. Fatah is a great and grand movement with an honorable history in resistance. It has also offered thousands of martyrs, from its primary leadership to all its organizational levels. It cannot be misled. It knows the right direction, which is why they were part of the first and second Intifadas, and now they fight alongside all the sons of our nation.
The flaw lies in the policies of the [PA] Security Forces, not in all components of these forces. We witnessed during the second Intifada how most of these forces took up arms against the occupation. However, there are, unfortunately, narrow circles whose commitment to the occupation surpasses their commitment to our people. This is very regrettable and very dangerous, but these are small, narrow circles.
The danger is that this small, marginalized narrow circle tries to hide behind the Fatah movement because they know that their position is a historical mistake and a crime to collaborate with the occupation.
Anyone who tries to incite between Fatah and Hamas, provokes the [Palestinian] Authority against Hamas, and claims “Hamas wants to topple the [Palestinian] Authority” serves the enemy directly. Because what threatens all of us and aims to uproot all of us is the occupation, not Hamas.
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