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Michel Aflak |
On Palestine
"The present conditions do not allow us to wait for the question to be resolved
from its roots and as these conditions should make room for strife and discord,
there remains before the Arabs the urgent task for rescuing Palestine. They must
leave governments behind and bid farewell to their last hopes in the efficiency
of the official policy and turn to popular action, devoting to it all their
efforts."
(The Arabs should not wait for a miracle. Palestine
cannot be saved by the governments but by popular action, 1 -A1-Baath- August 6,
1946)
"When our eyes and hearts turn to struggling and menaced Palestine at this
moment, when we are determined to die to maintain our immortal rights there and
repulse the aggressors, we should not forget that the cause of justice is one
and that the liberty of the Arabs is indivisible. The people are determined with
equal force to solidify its right in liberty and a dignified life, and prove to
the countries slighting our rights and doubting our moral values and ideals that
we are capable of repelling aggression wherever it comes from. The defense of
the constitution of Syria and to rescue it from the menace of dictatorship will
not be less worthy or of lesser advantage and nobility, in the esteem of the
higher Arab interest, than the defense of the Arabic character of Palestine."
(The tragedy of Palestine and the amendment of the
Syrian constitution, - AI-Baath - November 16, 1947)
"All this is on top of the tangible things in which everything has become
obvious, misery, backwardness, degeneracy and hunger among the majority of the
classes of the people. The incapacity to win a victory in Palestine has also
become apparent."
(Defense before the court of appeal, 4 - October 30,
1948)
“It is our unshakable belief that if the battle takes place sooner or later it
will not be to liberate Palestine alone but the whole Arab homeland. The people,
when entering the field of struggle, will not be satisfied with conquering one
enemy only.”
(The Arab unity and socialism, 5 - February 1956)
“The most important of these national quakes is undoubtedly the battle of
Palestine, and the conspiracy and collusion of the imperialist states against
the Arab cause when they decided to establish a state for Zionism in Palestine.
This event, as the conscious combatants of our nation have felt since the time
of its occurrence —that is, eight years ago, and as the people and the
overwhelming majority have started to feel gradually—this event is a historic
one which has been and still is greatly instrumental in moving the Arabic
structure and in unmasking the falsehood of the conditions in which the Arabs
have been living. It made a fundamental and profound change in the souls and
mentality of the Arabs, so much so that it moved them decades ahead. In short,
the calamity of Palestine has ushered the Arabs in the modern age.”
(The relation between the governments and the Arab
people, 4 - April 12, 1956)
“In Lebanon there are also seeds of suffering and revolution, even though they
are of a different kind. There and among some of its groups have accumulated
feelings of passivity and suspicions about the genuineness of the Arab nation
and in its capacity for revival. In it have assembled the residues of defeatism
in the Arab soul and the desperate attempt of a people that wants to get rid of
its weakness by denying its identity and renouncing its nationality. But Lebanon
has moved at last and for the first time we see a positive motion, which suffers
from no disease and shuns no responsibility. The credit for this goes to the
revolutionary orientation embodied in the Arab policy of liberation which
derives its strength from the sufferings of Uruba (Arabism) in Algeria and
Palestine.”
(Algeria and Palestine are the two wings of the Arab
revolution and the guarantee for its continuity, 2 - June 7, 1957)
“The nature of the historical stage through which the Arabs are passing becomes
clear in its landmarks and its direction becomes defined by two grave phenomena
in the modern life of the Arabs: the battle of Algeria and the disaster of
Palestine. The Arab struggle, with its decisive and revolutionary standard, and
the Arab future with its universally humane principles, have had their first
lines written and their forthcoming image been drawn up in these two wounds in
the heart of the Arab nation, Algeria and Palestine, where the Arabs have
experienced the deepest human sorrow. The nation fated to undergo such a trial
cannot but give the deepest good and creativeness in its possession. As long as
the nation is one and so long as we are concerned about its unity and persist in
clarifying the oneness of its cause, it is inevitable that the other parts
should interact and be uplifted to the level of the parts of greater suffering
and revolution.”
(Algeria and Palestine are the two wings of the Arab
revolution and the guarantee for its continuity, 2. June 7, 1957)
“The question of Palestine is not different from the nationalist question in
general although it is the most important part of the latter. At this stage
almost the whole question is summarized in Palestine. I mean to say that the
solutions in our view do not differ. There is no specific solution to the
Palestinian question. There is the solution in which we believe for all the
problems of the Arab homeland: the revolutionary solution.”
(The question of Palestine and the revolutionary
solution, 3 - May 25, 1969)
“For a long time the imperialist states and the reactionary regimes have been
trying to isolate the question of Palestine from the cause of the other Arab
regions. How many times was it said to Algeria and the Arab Maghreb in general:
what have you to do with the Arabs? Take care of your own affairs and you will
get help from us. How many times was Egypt told: What have you to do with the
Arabs and the Arab lands? Take care of your own affairs and you will find help,
aid as well as prosperity for your people. The Palestinians are told today to be
realistic. This realism is false and deceptive. They are told to be interested
in their own affairs and the affairs of their country and that perhaps they can
save it or save a part of it.”
(Palestine is the Summing up of the Arab cause, 3 - May
30, 1969)
“What is taking place today is that Egypt wants the restoration of its land and
so does Syria. The Resistance should not take refuge in the capitulation of the
regimes and their acceptance of settlement. It will then be similar to the
leaderships of regimes who agree to the settlement. The Palestinian state in as
much as it is an __expression of the settlement, is an _expression of the
reduction of Palestine or the Palestinian question from its historic size, the
size of the destiny of the Arab nation, to a geographical size, regional, slight
and disfigured!!”
(The regimes and the masses are two opposing facets of
the Arab nation. Atha’ir Al-Arabi (The Arab revolutionary) - April 15, 1974)
“When the question of Palestine is considered the origin and the foundation and
the principal Arab question, then will be no difference between the land of
Palestine and the land of any other Arab region, except as far as concerns the
danger of solidifying the Zionist settlement and enhancing the false historical
Zionist claim to its in Palestine.
But when the price of the restoration of these lands to Egypt and Syria is the
sale of Palestine to Zionism, when the return of these lands becomes a beginning
of Egypt and Syria giving up the fight for liberation and for the unity of
destiny, this restoration, instead of being a gain increasing the preparedness
for the forthcoming engagement with the enemy, will show the renouncement of the
Arab cause. Falsehood and deceit will then be unmasked. The question of
Palestine will be the last one and of the least importance and not the cause of
the Arabs but that of a segment of the Palestinian people! “
(The regimes and the masses are two opposite facets of
the Arab nation. Atha’ir Al-Arabi (The Arab revolutionary) - April 15, 1974)
“Palestine and its people have always been victimized and they are paying the
price. This must not continue, for this portion with which they are trying to
appease the Palestinians does not represent more than one fifth of the land of
Palestine. It will not be free. On top of all that is that a writ that will be
obtained from the Palestinians renouncing their right in their land.”
(The regimes and the masses are two opposite facets of
the Arab nation. Atha’ir Al-Arabi (The Arab revolutionary) - April 15, 1974)