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Sheikh Nasrallah on Resistance Print E-mail
Written by Michael Warshawski, Alternative Information Center (AIC)   
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
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Nasrallah's speech is characterized by a political and comprehensive world and strategic view, far removed from the
Nasrallah's speech is characterized by a political and comprehensive world and strategic view.

Two years ago, during the second Israeli war against Lebanon, we published not a few texts of the Hizbullah, including speeches by Sheikh Nasrallah. This was necessary, in light of the crucial role played by the Hizbullah in thwarting the American-Israeli comprehensive war in West Asia, and in transforming the region into one of the most humiliating defeats of this American-Israeli strategy.

If Israeli politicians would take the time to read the words of Nasrallah and other Hizbullah leaders, it is possible they would better understand the meaning of the Israeli defeat; if peace activists took more of an interest in the political thought of the Lebanese organization, it is reasonable they would be less surprised by the results of the 2006 military adventure. However, both of these groups are stuck in stereotypes and prejudices and will therefore, time after time, be surprised.

For our part, we will not stop taking an interest in one of the most important political movements in the Arab world, and to translate some of what is written and said by its leaders so that the Israeli women and men activists, at least them, will understand what is occurring on the regional political stage. Below is a selection from a speech given by Nasrallah on the occasion of the prisoner exchange and freeing of Samir Kuntar. The speech is characterized by a political and comprehensive world and strategic view far removed from the image of “religious fanaticism” which is affixed to his words by the Israeli media, “commentators” and “experts in Arab matters”.

“[…]We must emphasise that resistance movements in this region, and particularly in Palestine and Lebanon, complement each other, represent one continuity while their efforts, experience and victims are accumulative, all in order to attain the same goals: freeing of land, the people and the holy places.

Brothers and sisters. From the place on which we are standing, and at the side of the fallen from the past thirty years, we are reminded of the sacrifices of all the resistance fighters, Lebanese, Palestinian and Arabs, Islamic, national or pan-Arab, from the entire intellectual rainbow and from all the organizations. We are proud of them, and we respect and cherish all the organisations, parties of resistance and all the activists and fallen who came before us on the path of resistance and struggle. We benefit from your experience, receive inspiration from your sacrifice and preserve your respected place in the past, present and future of the resistance. 

In this context, I wish to repeat what I have said in the past: the real identity of the peoples in our region, their deep and continuous identity, is resistance, the desire to resist, the culture of resistance, the opposition to the occupation, the oppressors and oppression, whoever the occupiers, oppressed and rulers may be. This is the reason you will always find, throughout entire decades, those who will take up the flag of resistance, a flag that will not slip as it is passed from hand to hand, from group to group, from organization to organization, from party to party. The names of these organizations and their addresses are nothing but a superficial and passing phenomenon. The real character of the people is the resistance and refusal to accept injustice and the oppressors […]”


 
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