Fatah official calls for “resistance in all its forms to continue”
“Fatah Central Committee member and Chairman of the Arab American University Board of Trustees Muhammad Shtayyeh gave MBA students a lecture on ‘Development in Palestine in the Shadow of Occupation’…
Shtayyeh opened the lecture by saying: ‘Israel does not want us to develop. This appears in the Bible, when we were described as ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water’ (i.e., slaves) [parentheses in source]. To get out of the current financial crisis, develop our resources and build a state, we must end the occupation. This will come to be only if the reconciliation [between the PA-controlled West Bank and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip] is completed; [if] the two parts of the homeland are unified; [if] an agreement [between Fatah and Hamas] is reached on a clear and defined national economic strategy with which we will communicate with the world; [if] international pressure on Israel is increased to force it to enter serious negotiations; [if] resistance in all its forms is continued as a means of pressure; [if] an appeal to the UN bodies and institutions is made; [if] lawsuits are filed against Israel, especially after the PA receives membership in the UN; and [if] an effort is made to convene an international conference on Palestine at the end of the current negotiations [between Israel and the PA].’
Shtayyeh opened the lecture by saying: ‘Israel does not want us to develop. This appears in the Bible, when we were described as ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water’ (i.e., slaves) [parentheses in source]. To get out of the current financial crisis, develop our resources and build a state, we must end the occupation. This will come to be only if the reconciliation [between the PA-controlled West Bank and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip] is completed; [if] the two parts of the homeland are unified; [if] an agreement [between Fatah and Hamas] is reached on a clear and defined national economic strategy with which we will communicate with the world; [if] international pressure on Israel is increased to force it to enter serious negotiations; [if] resistance in all its forms is continued as a means of pressure; [if] an appeal to the UN bodies and institutions is made; [if] lawsuits are filed against Israel, especially after the PA receives membership in the UN; and [if] an effort is made to convene an international conference on Palestine at the end of the current negotiations [between Israel and the PA].’