Jordanian MP Yahya Al-Saud Incites to Violence at the Palestinian National Council Session: I Am a Slave to Whoever Teaches Me the Path of Martyrdom

Jordanian MP Yahya Al-Saud delivered a fiery speech at the Palestinian National Council meeting in Ramallah – the first PNC session in over two decades. "I am a slave to whoever teaches me the path of martyrdom," he said, and called Ahmad Jarrar, who gunned down an Israeli citizen in January 2018, a "great martyr." Al-Saud, who chairs the Palestine Committee of the Jordanian Parliament, praised the nation "[whose] children charge into fire, armed with knives, determination, and absolute faith in Allah," and prayed to Allah to "liberate our holy places from the plundering Jews" and to "grant us martyrdom on the threshold of the Al-Aqsa Mosque." His speech, which was attended by Palestinian leaders, was broadcast by the official Palestinian Authority TV channel on May 1.

Yahya Al-Saud: "I am not – as the saying goes – 'a slave to whoever teaches me anything,' but I am a slave to whoever teaches me the path of martyrdom, and who teaches me that bullets have a rhythm, a trajectory, and a point of origin. I am a slave to whoever takes me to Palestine as a fighter, and not as a conciliatory peacemaker. I am a servant to the path paved by the great martyr Ahmad Jarrar, when he took a gun and fought all alone, [killing an Israeli citizen in January 2018], in the name of every olive tree, every free woman, and on behalf of every Arab worn out by the [enemy's] wickedness, and by despair and grief. I am a servant and a slave to those who wield knives in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, to those who have planted fear in the hearts of every criminal and killer. They established worldly justice by the blade of their knives, honed in the depths of the heart. What a nation! Our children charge into fire, armed with knives, determination, and absolute faith in Allah, knowing that a bullet might kill them at any moment, perhaps even ripping their intestines and crushing their bones. At that moment, however, they believe that they are paving a new path in the struggle and a new doctrine, and that they are creating, for the whole world, a new school of sacrifice, of which the Palestinian people alone are worthy.

[...]

"Oh Allah, liberate our holy places from the plundering Jews. Oh Allah, grant us martyrdom on the threshold of the Al-Aqsa Mosque."