Sayyed Fadlullah: The Palestinians need, now more than ever ,all the Arab and Muslim support they can get.

Asked in his weekly seminar the following question :How do you view the political prospects of the Intifada as it begins its fourth year??

The Religious Authority Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah said:

The Intifada has, indeed, represented the culture of resistance, steadfastness and confrontation against the Israeli occupation, despite all the attempts of the American Administration, working jointly with Israel, to spread the culture of capitulation by killing the spirit of life and giving and by suggesting to the Palestinians that the Intifada will not yield anything.

To achieve this goal, Israel resorted to a campaign of terror assassination and intimidation against the Intifada factions. But it discovered that the Intifada is not Hamas, Jihad and Al-Aqsa Brigades only; it is the entire Palestinian people who cannot be subdued, although Sharon imagined that he could finish it in 100 days.

Yet, despite all what has been achieved, we need to continue to watch closely the current international status and developments.

In this respect, we notice that America does not want to see Israel defeated in the region. The entire region has become a unified front in which America exerts pressures in all directions to prevent any Israeli defeat even at the psychological level. To do this, America had spread chaos and instability in the region to confront and forestall any popular pressure that was turning into an active and vibrant movement against the American occupation in Iraq and the Israeli occupation in Palestine.

Therefore, although we feel that the Palestinian people has been able to overcome several political and military pressures and that they have become mature enough to study all their previous experiments and draw the appropriate conclusions that will enable them to continue their struggle, we fear that the future will carry further pressures and a tighter siege, accompanied by Arab and international efforts to make them feel tired and fatigued. In this respect, we look at the demonstrations in the capitals of the world including Paris, London… and we do not find that there are similar demonstrations in the Arab lands, despite the fact that the threats are by no means less than they were three years ago, when the Intifada started.

The Palestinians, now more than ever, need the support of the Arab and Islamic peoples who should pressurize their regimes and compel them to take concrete actions.

This emotional coldness might contribute in the success of the plans and projects of others towards Palestine and ultimately in the region.

Thus, we have to benefit from all these demonstrations of support to link the occupation in Iraq with that in Palestine, since what America is doing in Iraq aims at protecting Israel and helping it to serve as the military base that thwarts any attempt by any party to regain any element of strength in the region... The escalating threats against Lebanon, Syria and Iran are but a new attempt to silent all the voices that wish to support the Palestinians in their fight against, the Israeli occupation or the Iraqi people in their resistance of the occupation of Iraq and the region.