Palestinian Official: The Only Solution Is To Wage Armed Resistance Against Israel Until Palestine Is Liberated From The River To The Sea And From Ras Al-Naqoura In The North to Umm Rashrash In The South

In his February 25, 2023 column in the Palestinian daily Al-Quds, PLO National Council member Faisal Abu Khadra lambasted the Palestinian leaders, stating that they should be ashamed because they have made no progress towards resolving the Palestinian problem and have nothing to offer but promises and flowery speeches. Stating that the Palestinians yearn for a leader like Saladin who will unite the Islamic nation and liberate Palestine, he called on the Arab countries to wake up and make serious efforts to help the Palestinian people "with money, weapons, foreign policy and everything else [they] need." The only solution, he argued, was to wage armed resistance against Israel until all of Palestine is liberated, "from the river to the sea and from Umm Rashrash [Eilat, in the south] to Ras Naqoura [in the north]." 

Faisal Abu Khadra (image: Al-Quds, East Jerusalem)

The following are translated excerpts from his column:[1]

"Where are Khalid Bin Al-Walid,[2] Tariq Bin Ziyad,[3] Hamza [Bin 'Abd Al-Muttalib] and 'Amr Bin Al-'Aas[4]? Where are Abu 'Ammar [Yasser Arafat], Khalil Al-Wazir,[5] Dalal Al-Mughrabi[6] and Sheikh Ahmad Yassin? Yes, all our [past] leaders are displeased with the leadership of our honorable leaders [today], who have nothing to offer but promises and flowery speeches, which the Palestinians, the wounded fathers and bereaved mothers… have grown deaf listening to. Today the people yearn for a Palestinian Saladin who will unite the nation under one banner and liberate our eternal homeland, Palestine…

"At the last Arab Summit in Algeria, we believed that the dispute [between the Arab countries] had been settled for good and that they had shaken off the dust of cowardice and of defrauding the long-suffering Palestinian people inside and outside occupied Palestine. The Palestinian leaders should be ashamed that they continue to weep over the Nakba, that has been ongoing for 75 years without any diplomatic horizon [or hope] for a solution to the Palestinian problem. [They must be ashamed that] they have attained only 22% of historical Palestine, and are still waiting for [the implementation of] international resolutions. The whole world has seen that these resolutions have not been implemented and will never be, because [not implementing them] serves the interests of the oppressive occupation, which is supported by the imperialist Western world, led by the racist U.S. 

"Where are the Arabs and Arabhood? They convene and make decisions, but then fail to implement any of these decisions. And why do they not follow the advice of the late King 'Abd Al-'Aziz[7] -- who said explicitly, "Give the Palestinian people weapons and money, for they are capable of winning' -- while the occupation and its settlers murder our sons in cold blood every day?

"The Palestinian people are tired of the Arab summits that have divided the Arab nation. It is time that these leaders wake up and realize that Zionism, which is part of the Freemasons movement, is the greatest danger to the Arab states and that the only solution is thus to… end the [internal] conflict and for the Arab countries to make serious efforts to help the Palestinian people with money, weapons, tangible foreign diplomacy and everything else it needs. For the Palestinian people has proved that it is a people that perseveres, a fighting [people] that is not afraid of death or of fascist arrests. It is time for a true awakening. It is time for our leaders to wake up and assist this people, which is fighting bare-breasted and protecting the honor of the Arab nation and of the many free nations.

"Thank Allah, Palestine is surrounded by the ring countries [i.e., the countries bordering Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon], four Arab countries that can help the Palestinian people, and beyond them by the [other] Arab countries, whose peoples and leaders are deeply [proud of] their Arab nationality, and most of which support the Palestinian people because it deserves freedom, independence and the expulsion of the occupier… 

"Today we can count on nobody but ourselves, with assistance from the Arab countries. We have only one solution, namely to fight the racist Zionist enemy, weapons against weapons, and not as is happening today, with [Palestinian] blood, [assisted with nothing but] condemnations. [We must do this] so that Palestine returns to us and we return to all of Palestine, from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea and from Umm Rashrash [Eilat] to Al-Naqoura [on the Israeli-Lebanese border]. For this occupier does not heed the international resolutions that it, as well as the racist U.S., are signatory to. What is even worse and more bitter is that the novice [Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich says that there is no Palestinian people, when [this people] is descended from the Canaanites, the authentic inhabitants of the land, while all the others are invaders whom history will expel sooner or later."