UNABLE to accept the might of Palestinian resistance in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, the occupation forces arrested senior Palestinian resistance member, Bassam El Saadi, hoping to provoke those who have been accused by Israel of preparing for an attack with the support of Iran.

The Palestinians did not respond militarily to the arrests. It was only after air strikes by Israel in Gaza, which killed at least 15 Palestinians, including a five-year-old girl, that the Palestinians claimed they had fired more than 100 rockets into Israel. Unable to attack Iran, the cowardly occupiers have now resorted to attacking anyone they think Iran supports.

I want to commend all those involved in this struggle for not retaliating against the occupiers of Palestine after the arrest of El Saadi. By attacking people other than Hamas activists, this time Israel was hoping to cause an internal division. That failed as Hamas strongly condemned Israel’s action, and worked tirelessly to end the aggression by the occupation forces.

In a cunning move, by dragging Iran into the current self-created crisis, Israel is hoping to drum up support from anti-Iran neighbouring countries. The occupiers have killed members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Hamas and others. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is part of Fatah whose leader Mahmoud Abbas has bent over backwards pleasing his masters whether they be in Europe, the United Sates or Israel. Abbas does everything he can, but nothing has stopped the occupiers from attacking the Palestinians over one pretext or the other.

Muslim rulers across the Islamic world need to end their support to Israel. What binds us is faith, whether you are in Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Iran, Algeria, Uzbekistan or in the Arabian Peninsula; Jerusalem is dear to us all and so are the Arabs who live there.

Fathi Shaqaqi, martyred by Zionist agents in Malta in 1995, was the co-founder and secretary-general of the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine. He once said that those who were in favour of the Oslo, Davos and Cairo negotiations for peace with the occupiers, wanted to use Palestine as a way of preventing an Islamic renaissance.

Let the Islamic renaissance begin. It will take unity within the community to get our true liberation. It is a target worth pursuing.

Angabeen Ahmad
Karachi

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2022