Former head of Arafat’s office: Fatah slogan was and still is "All rifles towards the enemy"
PA TV program Topic of the Day. Topic: the anniversary of Arafat's death.
Guests: Former assistant for security matters to the Supreme Commander (Arafat), Ismail Jabr [currently advisor to Abbas on district affairs] and former head of Arafat's office, Sami Musallam.
PA TV host [addressing Jabr]: "You were at [military] bases and you trained many people, Palestinians and Lebanese. People also say that the Shahid (Martyr) Yasser Arafat instructed that brothers from the Hezbollah and the like should train at Fatah bases – I mean, the bases of the revolution. Is that correct?"
Jabr: "We don't deny that. We do not deny that. There were people from the Hezbollah leadership, who had originally been in Fatah, and they acknowledge this. We are proud of that."
Host: "That is our pride."
Jabr: "The Amal movement (i.e., Shiite national movement in Lebanon, which began as a militia) was among those [that trained]. We are proud of that. We trained them and armed them and withheld no effort from the Lebanese National and Islamic Movement."
Musallam: "Our slogan was always, and still is – [corrects himself] – at that time – ‘All rifles towards the enemy.’ Any rifle which, together with us, was against the enemy – the Fatah movement and the PLO leadership supported it. We are in favor of the national liberation of all the nations which are under colonialism and are under oppression, and we used to help, just as others helped; we used to help others to achieve, or to take part as far as possible so that they would achieve their aims. We helped in Africa, we helped in Latin America, we helped in Asia, in all countries, all nations. The help wasn't necessarily military. The help could [also] be adopting fighters."
Guests: Former assistant for security matters to the Supreme Commander (Arafat), Ismail Jabr [currently advisor to Abbas on district affairs] and former head of Arafat's office, Sami Musallam.
PA TV host [addressing Jabr]: "You were at [military] bases and you trained many people, Palestinians and Lebanese. People also say that the Shahid (Martyr) Yasser Arafat instructed that brothers from the Hezbollah and the like should train at Fatah bases – I mean, the bases of the revolution. Is that correct?"
Jabr: "We don't deny that. We do not deny that. There were people from the Hezbollah leadership, who had originally been in Fatah, and they acknowledge this. We are proud of that."
Host: "That is our pride."
Jabr: "The Amal movement (i.e., Shiite national movement in Lebanon, which began as a militia) was among those [that trained]. We are proud of that. We trained them and armed them and withheld no effort from the Lebanese National and Islamic Movement."
Musallam: "Our slogan was always, and still is – [corrects himself] – at that time – ‘All rifles towards the enemy.’ Any rifle which, together with us, was against the enemy – the Fatah movement and the PLO leadership supported it. We are in favor of the national liberation of all the nations which are under colonialism and are under oppression, and we used to help, just as others helped; we used to help others to achieve, or to take part as far as possible so that they would achieve their aims. We helped in Africa, we helped in Latin America, we helped in Asia, in all countries, all nations. The help wasn't necessarily military. The help could [also] be adopting fighters."