Following are excerpts from statements by speakers at a Fatah rally, held in Ramallah under the auspices of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to honor students who completed their matriculation exams. Footage of the rally aired on PA TV on July 27, 2009.
To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memri.org/legacy/clip/2193 .
"In the Name of Palestine - Haifa, Acre, Jaffa, and Our Arab Jerusalem"
Young woman: "In the name of the land, the homeland, and the cause,"
Young man: "in the name of the martyrs, the prisoners, in the name of the stone and the rifle,"
Young woman: "in the name of people who revolted in the face of tyranny, screaming at the top of their lungs: 'We will not give up what was bequeathed to us,"'
Young man: "in the name of Fatah - a storm that raged so that the sun of liberty will rise -"
Young woman: "in the name of Fatah - the school that taught us the meaning of patriotism -"
Young man: "in the name of Palestine - Haifa, Acre, Jaffa, and our Arab Jerusalem -"
Young woman: "in the name of Palestine - Gaza, the West Bank, and a flag embodying national unity -"
Young man: "in the name of the man whom they wished would be wanted, imprisoned, dead, but who declared at the top of his lungs: a martyr, a martyr, a martyr, thus making the Arab nation shake -"
"In The Name of Yasser Arafat, and In The Name of the Martyrs of Palestine... We Raise the Banner of Knowledge, Which Will Serve as a Bridge That We Will Cross to Jerusalem"
Young woman: "in the name of the man who raised the banner of knowledge, along with the bullets of the rifle -"
Young man: "in the name of Yasser Arafat, and in the name of the martyrs of Palestine, today, we raise the banner of knowledge, which will serve as a bridge that we will cross to Jerusalem, the eternal capital of Palestine." [...]
"We Are All Seekers Of Martyrdom"
Raed Radwan, Secretary of Fatah in Ramallah: "We have come here to say that the Palestinian people turns pain into hope, towards Palestine, towards Jerusalem, towards knowledge. This is the Palestinian people that said and will continue to say that we are all seekers of martyrdom - the student and the worker, the clerk, the father and the mother, the brother and the sister - towards Palestine."
