Dr. George Habash, Founder of the Arab Nationalists’ Movement and of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Calls for the Formation of the Broadest Possible Arab People’s Front in Support of the Lebanese and Palestinian Resistance
Masses of our Glorious Arab Nation,
Courageous Resistance Fighters in the fraternal land of Lebanon,
Steadfast Masses of our Palestinian people and their Resistance heroes,
Today our Arab Nation faces a historic crossroads, one that reminds us of the great turning points in our contemporary history. Our Arab Nation’s struggle with the Zionist enemy backed by Western imperialist and colonialist circles has always aroused feelings of pain and bitterness over the complicity, impotence, and submission of the official Arab regimes that historically led to defeats and setbacks that our great nation did not deserve. But today and perhaps for the first time, we are filled with a certain sense that this situation is about to change — not because the impotence and complicity of official Arab regimes has ended, for it is the same as always, or maybe even has become more deadly — nor because the international community with its double standards has somehow returned to its senses — but because an epic of defiance and heroism is being written by the heroes of the Lebanese Resistance under the leadership of Hizballah and its General Secretary, his Eminence Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah, and by the heroes of the Palestinian Resistance in Ghazza and other Palestinian cities. This time they have taken the cause into their own hands, without illusions, and now they represent the spearhead of an Arab nation eager to rise up triumphant.
The steadfastness of our people in Palestine and Lebanon, the torrents of pure blood shed by the steadfast women, children, old people, and youths of Lebanon and Palestine will light the path once again before this Nation, which this time must either recover from its fall or sink into a dark abyss for a long time to come.
We are filled with a strong feeling that victory is on the horizon and that we have begun to recover our honor and pride. For the first time the courageous Lebanese and Palestinian Resistance have begun to repair the gap between words and deeds. We are acquiring an enormous credibility that has surprised and confused the enemy and the international community. Words are followed by the deeds of the Resistance on the ground. Slogans are actually put into heroic practice, and the Zionist enemy is robbed of sleep as he tries to impose his will by resorting to the most vicious use of his massive war machine to destroy infrastructure and kill innocent civilians. Yet this does nothing to break the determination of the courageous Resistance or the steadfastness of our people in Palestine and Lebanon who are paying a high price in support of the legitimate national resistance around which they have rallied.
The issue has gone far beyond the matter of Zionist prisoners, which in any case was nothing more than the Zionist enemy’s excuse when it took up the task assigned it by the American administration and the international community to do the dirty work of stripping the Lebanese Resistance of its resistant arms so that the American-Zionist strategic plan could be implemented, pushing Lebanon into the ranks of the defeated and compliant Arab regimes, undermining Syria’s ability to resist, and forcing Zionist dictates on the Palestinian people under separate unilaterally imposed settlement arrangements.
Masses of our Glorious Arab Nation,
Today we are faced with a historic opportunity to arise and resist. Let us form the broadest possible Arab national people’s front that will embrace the vital forces of the masses of our Arab Nation — political parties, trade unions, federations, representatives of civil society, cultural figures, patriotic personalities — to support the spearhead represented today by the heroic Lebanese and Palestinian Resistance.
Let all the latent energies and inventiveness in the masses of our Arab Nation be aroused, everywhere in the broadest possible people’s movement in defense of the honor and pride of the nation to beat back the tyrannical Zionist-American design.
Greetings to the people of Lebanon and their heroic patriotic Resistance!
Greetings to the people of Palestine and their steadfastness and sacrifice!
Freedom to all prisoners and detainees in the dungeons of the occupation!
Eternal glory to the virtuous martyrs!
Victory belongs to the people who resist for freedom and honor!
The original text in Arabic was published at the Web site of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine on 20 July 2006. Translation by Muhammad Abu Nasr.