Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Jibril Rajoub: We Are Proud of Heroic Palestinian Attackers.









Transcript:

Fatah Central Committee Deputy Secretary Jibril Rajoub recently lauded the Palestinian attackers, saying: “These are individual acts of heroism, of which I am proud.” In the interview, which aired on the official TV channel of the Palestinian Authority on October 17, 2015, Rajoub further said: “We refuse to pay the bill for the Holocaust. What is being done to us is exactly the same as what was done to the Jews in Europe.”

Following are excerpts:

Jibril Rajoub: These are clearly individual operations, but they require heroism, courage, and a value system, which forces the Palestinian elite and the Palestinian national forces to see in the final words of one of those heroes, written in a blog, a document that could be taught in schools in a lesson about the meaning of martyrdom…

Interviewer: You are referring to Fadi Alwan…

Jibril Rajoub: ...and about the meaning of patriotism. This is not about factions or about personal agendas. Today, we are at a crossroads. The Palestinian conduct on the ground, which is characterized by a readiness for self-sacrifice… You see a soldier with his gun fleeing a guy with a knife, or even someone empty-handed. You see a soldier terrified by a Palestinian, merely because he is a Palestinian… The self-confidence of this racist soldier has clearly been shaken. We should rise to the level of that understanding, and translate it into a strategy with goals. I believe that the confrontation between the Palestinian people and the occupation has reached the point where coexistence is impossible.

[…]

I am telling you that these are individual acts of heroism, of which I am proud. I am proud of these [attacks] and I salute all the people who carried them out. We are proud of them. We must view this in an objective and accurate way. The various factions have greater capabilities. They are capable of carrying out huge military operations, which would shake the whatchamcallit… But I think that politically speaking, we do not want these operations, because our goal is liberation and independence. We fight the occupation, but we want the international community to be on our side.

[…]

For the international community, it is unacceptable for a bus to explode in Tel Aviv, but it does not care what happens to a settler or a soldier who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time in the occupied land. Therefore, we must fight in a manner that keeps the world on our side. I believe that there is a consensus about this.

[…]

We are 4.5 million Palestinians who have been living under this racist occupation since 1967. We refuse to pay the bill for the Holocaust. What is being done to us is exactly the same as what was done to the Jews in Europe. We will not pay the price. We will not be a scapegoat. But our conduct must also rise to the occasion.

[…]