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Following are excerpts from an interview with former Jordanian MP Ya'qub Qarash, a member of the Palestinian National Council, which aired on Palestinian Authority TV on November 1, 2013.
Ya'qub Qarash: Allah be praised, we, the Palestinian people in this age, were honored by God, who opened the passage to Paradise, by opening the gates of martyrdom to us. He opened those gates to us – the gates of forgiveness and repentance, the gates of struggle, Jihad, and resistance to the enemy.
He allowed us to become the first line of defense for the entire nation, against the attacks of the Zionist gangs on this nation, whose pioneering spirit is manifest in the Palestinian people on this sacred land.
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Our Palestinian people is fighting a clear and overt enemy, and those of us who are killed in this fighting are martyrs indeed. We are not engaged in civil strife, as in Egypt or Syria, or some other Arab countries. We pray for Allah to protect Tunisia, Sudan, and so on.
Allah blessed the Palestinian people with a clear and well-known enemy, against whom the fighting is an undeniable right. Anyone killed by this enemy is a martyr beyond any doubt.
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Allah absolves the martyr of his sins with the first drop of his blood. All his sins are absolved, except for the sin of heresy. He is welcomed by the angels. He enters Paradise from the moment he is killed and laid in his grave. He finds himself among the green birds of Paradise. He pleads on behalf of his relatives, and is married off to the black-eyed virgins.
The martyr does not just enter Paradise, but he helps others enter as well. He pleads on behalf of his relatives. He does not just enter Paradise. No, he helps others get in as well.
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The martyrs have ushered the Palestinian people into the path of struggle. Whenever another martyr was killed – people in Amman, Beirut, and Damascus were mobilized for the sake of Palestine and Jerusalem.
The martyr does not just plead on behalf of the dead. He mobilizes the living.
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We must not get it into our heads that only martyrs and prisoners are fighters. It should be made clear that we are all fighters. We must all nurture the spirit of struggle within us.
The [Jews] want everything, although they have no religious rights. They want to prove myths, elevating them above the truth, although these are nothing but myths that they fabricated and now believe in. By Allah, if that [Wailing] Wall really was part of a temple, I am certain that the companions of the Prophet would have honored that. The Islamic nation is known for never having desecrated a synagogue or a church. It is a fact, however, that they do not have any rights. We confront myths.
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[The Israelis] place obstacles, reject peace, and talk about the prisoners and the fighters, in order to portray themselves to the West as if they were in a state of war. They say: Give me money and weapons. I am in a state of war. There are 10, 20, 30 [attacks] every day. They are fighting us.
This has become a part of Israeli economic and social activity. They can only survive as Nazis. I say this loud and clear: The Israelis soldiers and Israeli society have appropriated the moral values of their [Nazi] enemy. The Nazis were hostile to them, fought them, burned them, and now they want to burn us, torture us, and imprison us.
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We do not want to deny people the right to take pride in the martyrs or prisoners, who emerged from their homes...
Interviewer: We are just as proud of the prisoners as their families are.
Ya'qub Qarash: Of course. We understand the pride of the family of one, two, or three martyrs. We understand the pride of the families of the prisoners too. But sometimes, things go too far, and people try to make a profit: "My son was martyred, give me a job somewhere." "My brother is a martyr, so I deserve this or that." Sometimes it turns into an attempt to secure privileges from the martyrs' blood and the prisoners' struggle.
We need to examine this from all aspects. The families must exercise self-restraint. They must understand that the PLO and the PA are not that wealthy, and they cannot give them all that they want.
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I would like to remind the wealthy people and the people who give charity...
Interviewer: They should play a role in the struggle.
Ya'qub Qarash: They should share the responsibility.
Interviewer: This is financial Jihad. It wouldn't hurt them to support the family of a prisoner, who is still in prison, or has been released.
Ya'qub Qarash: Exactly.
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