Thursday, June 16, 2011
Elder of ZiyonLebanon’s grand mufti said Friday that resistance was “the only means to liberate Palestine and guarantee the return of Palestinian refugees.”He sounds like a strong supporter of Palestinian Arabs, doesn't he?
Ending this tyranny starts by standing by the side of our besieged people in Gaza and Palestine and supporting them through all possible means and not leaving them alone in confronting the enemy,” Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani said in a statement to commemorate the 44th anniversary of the Naksa, or the fall of East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Syria’s Golan Heights and the Egyptian Sinai desert under Israel’s control in the 1967 war, which is observed on June 5.
Qabbani said boosting Palestinian national unity, in line with the Palestinian reconciliation inked last month, would enhance the steadfastness of the Palestinians and help them restore their right to an independent state, with East Jerusalem as its capital along with their right of return.
Last Saturday, Qabbani spoke to a delegation of PLO representatives, and his words were a bit more interesting. From Al-Arab:
Palestinian sources reported that Lebanese Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani was visited by a Palestinian delegation that visited on Saturday to discuss a gathering of Palestinian refugees in Beirut. The delegation was surprised when the Mufti shouted in their faces and called them obscene and vulgar names. He told them, "You are spies and usurpers and we no longer want you guests." The Mufti also said: "You are garbage and will not win for your cause; I'm against you" and continued to repeat these words over the quarter of an hour.
It appears that some of the vaunted Arab "support" for the "Palestinian cause" is really because they want to get the Palestinian Arabs the hell out of their countries.
After I wrote this I see that Khaled Abu Toameh covered the incident in more detail in the JPost. (h/t DK)
