Translated by: Saed Bannoura-IMEMC
Palestinian Resistance between slogans and Facts
Rumors of differences and interior crises between the military wings of Palestinian factions, especially Fatah, required clarification in order to unveil the nature of conflict among the two sides.
Linda Bannoura, a reporter at Bethlehem Television, conducted a phone interview with leader of Al-Aqsa Brigades in Jenin, Nasser Ikhzimiyya and asked him about his opinion concerning the internal conflict and his opinion of the new leadership.
Q: several officials said that there is a state of insecurity, and spoke about the need to control the armed groups, what is your opinion about this issue?
A: First, we in the brigades in the west Bank, carry weapons in order to use them in our fight against the occupation, we will not allow anyone to manipulate our struggle, the weapons we carry are to defend our brothers and our people, we will not allow anybody to manipulate this fact, but there are certain groups which try to create differences and use weapons for blackmail and personal gain, these groups are not considered part of us, they are against the Palestinian Interest.
Q: Are there difference between you, in the brigades, and the new leadership?
A: The leadership is not new, but the absence of our president, our leader Yasser Arafat, is new, Abu Mazen, Abu Ala’ and the rest of the leaders are part of the historical leadership of the Palestinian People, the difference is the way our late president used to deal with the movement, with trust and coordination, we will not allow anybody to use the current situation in order to achieve personal goals, and sparkle mistrust and conflicts among our people.
Q: What do you mean about differences in the way to solve problematic issues? Are you referring to the Palestinian standards, Jerusalem, the refugees, and other issues? What is the dispute about with the leadership?
A: I will provide examples and explain my point, the Palestinian leadership talks about chaos, and corruption, but in fact, and since the president died, it did nothing rather than distributing responsibilities, we do not claim that the leadership gave away the rights of the Palestinian People, but we have differences in opinion concerning the operations for instance, some view the military operations inside Israel as an issue which harms the Palestinian cause, others believe that the Intifada should be stooped for a while, in order to give negotiations and political work a chance to proceed.
But, concerning the issue of the detainees, it is not right to give Israel total security while, they [the detainees] who fought for our freedom are still imprisoned, and also the issue of the refugees, those are standards and red points we will never compromise or exclude.
Q: What if you were offered a truce, in order to put the negotiations back on track?
A: We are part of this nation, and its leadership, if stopping the military operations will lead to a just and rightful solution, we will commit ourselves to it, and to the Palestinian legitimate leadership, we will not stand in the way of our leadership, but if Israel violates the truce, we will definitely retaliate.
Q: What do you want the current leadership to do?
A: First of all, we need a detailed statement concerning the death of our president, which includes every detail concerning his sickness, and the 14 days he spent at the hospital in France.
We need to know why is the leadership holding the truth from us, we heard a lot of rumors about poisoning the president, we just want the truth.
Second, we demand the leadership to resolve any personal conflicts among them, and call for a unified leadership which holds a steadfast position. We want peace, real peace, and as the president said “The Peace of the Bravesâ€Â, and not any kind of peace.
Q: Newspapers and Journalistic sources spoke about naming Abbas as the candidate to head the Palestinian Authority, do you confirm such statements?
A: Abu Mazen, is well known among the Palestinians, he is the PLO chairman, if he was nominated to the presidency by the majority, and I mean by all Fatah committees; The Central Committee and the Revolutionary Council, and Fatah leaders, then we will support the decision, because its the decision and choice of the People.
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