PA daily: Armed resistance (i.e., violence) is an integral part of Palestinian culture
Headline: "The culture of resistance and us"
"Is it true that the era of philosophical revival of the resistance to the occupation and to colonialism has reached its end, with the death of the last of the giants who created the culture of glory, which draws from the rootedness of this people and its heritage? Is it true that it has been replaced with the culture of non-violent resistance, and restoring our rights by means of flowers and candles? ...
The talk about many of the nations of the world having been liberated without real resistance is not true, and not realistic in our Palestinian situation, even if it succeeded in other countries. It does not have to be one of the forms of the Palestinian struggle, because in Palestine everything is different, and every revolution has its strategy, its conditions, and its means. In addition, the assumption that this approach (i.e., the diplomatic political non-violent approach) will succeed with an occupier that wants you down to your last drop of blood, is nothing but another way of pleading and whining over our weakness, for there is no nation that has restored its rights from an occupier through pleading, and there is no nation that has been liberated from colonialism other than through resistance and revolution. The talk about non-violent resistance of nations is simply an idea that is foreign to our culture, which we have passed down from generation to generation, and it is nothing but a new means of invasion and occupation…
Perhaps we will discover that this form [of resistance] has recently been slowly but surely penetrating the Palestinian national culture … perhaps we will also see that this form of weak, peace-seeking resistance represents a cheapening of the concept of true resistance which leads nations towards freedom and independence, and that it is one of the tools of modern colonialism…
The resistance, whether we agree on its form or disagree about its timing, remains the only means for nations kneeling under occupation… It is a right concerning which there is no argument, and it cannot be subservient to any condition other than the national conditions, which are set down by the revolution… It is our obligation to maintain the accumulation of national values, and not to exchange them under any circumstances. We must not agree to external intervention – only we shall decide – and we must not be subservient to any institution or any person for a few dollars, and market the culture of non-violence in the face of aerial bombings, the siege, the military death roadblocks. This requires that we think seriously in order to consolidate a national strategy for struggle against these plans."
"Is it true that the era of philosophical revival of the resistance to the occupation and to colonialism has reached its end, with the death of the last of the giants who created the culture of glory, which draws from the rootedness of this people and its heritage? Is it true that it has been replaced with the culture of non-violent resistance, and restoring our rights by means of flowers and candles? ...
The talk about many of the nations of the world having been liberated without real resistance is not true, and not realistic in our Palestinian situation, even if it succeeded in other countries. It does not have to be one of the forms of the Palestinian struggle, because in Palestine everything is different, and every revolution has its strategy, its conditions, and its means. In addition, the assumption that this approach (i.e., the diplomatic political non-violent approach) will succeed with an occupier that wants you down to your last drop of blood, is nothing but another way of pleading and whining over our weakness, for there is no nation that has restored its rights from an occupier through pleading, and there is no nation that has been liberated from colonialism other than through resistance and revolution. The talk about non-violent resistance of nations is simply an idea that is foreign to our culture, which we have passed down from generation to generation, and it is nothing but a new means of invasion and occupation…
Perhaps we will discover that this form [of resistance] has recently been slowly but surely penetrating the Palestinian national culture … perhaps we will also see that this form of weak, peace-seeking resistance represents a cheapening of the concept of true resistance which leads nations towards freedom and independence, and that it is one of the tools of modern colonialism…
The resistance, whether we agree on its form or disagree about its timing, remains the only means for nations kneeling under occupation… It is a right concerning which there is no argument, and it cannot be subservient to any condition other than the national conditions, which are set down by the revolution… It is our obligation to maintain the accumulation of national values, and not to exchange them under any circumstances. We must not agree to external intervention – only we shall decide – and we must not be subservient to any institution or any person for a few dollars, and market the culture of non-violence in the face of aerial bombings, the siege, the military death roadblocks. This requires that we think seriously in order to consolidate a national strategy for struggle against these plans."