The coward assassination of Iran’s top military commander Qassem Souleimani by the United States on January 3 divided the main Palestinian political parties.
By: Hassan al-Barazili
The Palestinian National Authority (PA), led by Mahmoud Abbas, has not issued any statement condemning U.S. imperialist action.
The PA’s stand represents a capitulation both to U.S. imperialism and its allies in the region – the Zionist state and the Gulf countries – who hailed the coward murder.
This position is unacceptable. President Donald Trump is at the forefront of the initiative he calls the “Deal of the Century”, which aims to legitimize all State of Israel crimes against the Palestinians – ethnic cleansing, theft of land and property, the criminal siege on Gaza, among others. To this end, it has the support of its Gulf allies and the State of Israel itself. They are enemies of the Palestinian cause. In addition, the United States has no right even to be present in the Middle East, let alone carry out murders and attacks.
At the other end, Hamas sent a delegation to Tehran to attend the funeral of the Iranian general, led by none other than Ismail Haniyeh, who called Qassem Souleimani “Martyr of Al-Quds” (Jerusalem in Western languages).
This position is also wrong. General Qassem Souleimani was the main organizer of the massacre carried out against the Syrian and Palestinian-Syrian peoples from 2012 to the present day. Certainly the Palestinians who lived in the Yarmouk camp, the largest refugee camp outside occupied Palestine, do not have fond memories of him. The forces of the Syrian regime, the foreign militias brought by Souleimani and the Russian air force decimated the refugee camp. More than 4,000 Palestinians died in Syria as a result of this murderous Russian and Iranian intervention.
It is correct to denounce U.S. imperialist action and demand the withdrawal of all American forces from the Middle East. But it is not correct to call “Martyr of Al-Quds” one of the butchers in Yarmouk, 4,000 Palestinians in Syria and half a million Syrians.
Hamas has the right to seek support from anyone to fight for the liberation of Palestine and to defend itself against the daily aggressions from the Zionist state. However, to call the Iranian general “Martyr of Al-Quds” is to break the necessary ties of solidarity with the true allies of the Palestinians: the Arab and Iranian peoples who struggle against authoritarian regimes in their countries.
