Exiled PA leader salutes Martyrs’ children, calls for Palestinian unity
Video and text posted on the Facebook page of exiled PA Parliament Member Muhammad Dahlan
Posted text: “The words of [PA Parliament] Member Muhammad Dahlan at a graduation ceremony of outstanding high school students of 2019, which was organized by the Fatah Movement’s Shabiba [Youth] Movement in Gaza Plaza.”
PA Parliament Member Muhammad Dahlan: “My outstanding brothers and sisters in the Gaza Strip, I will take this opportunity to speak about the excellence not only in the Gaza Strip, but in all areas of Palestine. On the personal and social level, we are making efforts, standing firm, struggling against death, and overcoming it. This is how you have acted, our children in the Gaza Strip, my brothers and sisters. I wish to give a special thanks to all of our children, the children of the Fatah Movement’s Martyrs and the children of the Martyrs of the entire Palestinian people – to their families, to their brothers, to their neighbors, and to those who love them. We will never abandon you. We Palestinians are different from others in everything. What we lack is to find a leadership that will be close to the sentiments of the civilians, that will respond to the Palestinian public’s aspirations, which will bring people together and not separate them. We in the leadership of the [Fatah] reformist movement – yes, we, the children of this homeland, have come from its land, from its streets, and from the alleys of its refugee camps, and therefore we are with you. We will never leave you by yourselves and we will stay with you until we bring you to the gate of hope. Do not let your enemies and your opponents incite you against our people in the West Bank and against our people in Jerusalem who are suffering the same suffering as you and standing against the occupation alone without leadership, without rule, and without factions – but they have succeeded in standing firm and strengthening their presence. As Palestinian nationalists, and not as leaders as it were, we are obligated to guarantee the minimum for the continuation of this success… The national unity is more sacred than anything that we hear about in the political process, because everything that you hear is a lie and falsehood. Dealing with what is called ‘the deal of the century’ (i.e., refers to US President Donald Trump’s as yet unpublished Middle East peace plan) [can be expressed by] just one word – geographic national unity, national unity between the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem, a joint national plan of struggle. We are prepared to set up the appropriate plan for the Gaza Strip together with you, and we will never give up on this. We promise you that we will knock on all the doors in order to provide our children in the Gaza Strip with the minimum in order to strengthen their resolve and empower their future, Allah willing.”