What's wrong with Penny Wong?
In his May 12, 2024 column in the Qatari dailyAl-Watan, titled "Palestine Is a State, Let's Continue theResistance", Palestinian journalist Samir Al-Barghouti wrote that theOctober 7 attack on Israel increased global awareness of the Palestinian cause,as evident from the May 10, 2024 U.N. General Assembly resolution that upgradedPalestine's status in this body and recommended that the Security Councilconsider granting it full U.N. membership. Al-Barghouti called to continue theresistance "even if Palestine sacrifices millions of martyrs andwounded," and added: " We do not want a ceasefire, we want ongoingwar," because "the enemy understands only a language offorce."
The following are translated excerpts from hisarticle:[1]
"For over 76 years now, thedecision to found a Palestinian state has been delayed in order to appease theZionist state… The nations never managed to establish the Palestinian state onthe territories specified in Britain's White Paper, which assigned to theJewish state the areas of Nazareth, Safad and northern Palestine, up to RasNaqoura, as well as the settlement of Tel Aviv and a safe passage to theAl-Buraq Wall [i.e., the Western Wall in Jerusalem]. To the Arabs it assigned[the region] from Acre to Rafah and to Umm Rashrash [i.e., Eilat], as well asthe West Bank.[2]
"After hatching plots, the Zionistgangs usurped the areas that had been assigned to the Arabs along the coast, aswell as the Negev and Eilat, and Western Jerusalem. In 1967 the rest ofPalestine was stolen, along with Egypt's Sinai and the SyrianGolan.
"From 1967, the year of the Naksa['the setback,' referring to the Arab countries' defeat in the 1967 war withIsrael] until October 2023, there was resistance and battles, alongsideprotest, stagnation and calm that almost caused Palestine to be forgotten. Butthe events of October 7 [i.e., Hamas' terror attack] and the events thatfollowed them [i.e., the war in Gaza] put Palestine back on the agenda.Although the U.S. vetoed [an April 18, 2024 Security Council resolution thatwould have made Palestine a full member of the U.N.], the free world did notrefrain from crying out 'long live Palestine,' and [on May 10] the U.N. passeda resolution in favor of a Palestine state – and this is thanks to theresistance.
"O heroes of the resistance inGaza, thank you. You showed the whole world how honor takes precedence to life,how faith stands fast in the face of weapons, how blood triumphs over pain andhow the free believer stands tall in the face of the bullet. You proved withyour resistance that peoples who surrender have never been safe and have nofuture, whereas peoples who fight for their freedom and honor will surelyachieve their destination someday...
"O people of Gaza, history has never seen a people braver than you,more patient than you [in the pursuit of] the truth, or more generous in sacrificingfor the sake of Allah. O our people in Gaza, despite the martyrs and wounded,you are the springboard of the hoped-for national future of the Arabs andMuslims… No matter how deep the wound, we will continue to resist, because thisenemy understands only the language of force. Even if Palestine sacrificesmillions of martyrs and wounded, we will continue to resist. We do not want aceasefire, we want ongoing war. Victory is at hand… "
