SAYYED NASRALLAH: I ANNOUNCE MAY 7 A GLORIOUS DAY IN THE RESISTANCE'S HISTORY15/05/2009 Hezbollah held on Friday a ceremony Friday to honor some 2300 graduates at the Sayyed Shouhada complex in Beirut’s southern suburb.
Thousands of students, their families as well as political and religious figures attended the 21st commencement ceremony.
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah addressed the students and praised their efforts to achieve this stage of high education.
His eminence promised to address the serious issues of the Israeli maneuver next month, the Israeli spy network and elections on Monday during an interview on Al-Manar TV.
“Today I would like to speak about you, about the Redwan Class, about the brothers and sisters and the familes, and I would like to speak about Lebanon and tackle the Lebanese issue, especially that we are passing through a critical stage with regards to elections, and then I end my speech with addressing (the May 17 agreement) and the 7th of May.”
Sayyed Nasrallah said that the graduates had the will to achieve education, “which in our religious belief is Jihad for the sake of Allah and on behalf of your brothers in Hezbollah, I thank the families, the mothers and the fathers who insisted and supported their sons and daughters to achieve this level of educations. We know that most of the Lebanese live on the edge of poverty, yet we find that the families spare no effort to provide their loved ones the chance to have education and build their future.”
Sayyed Nasrallah said: “Your class hold the name of the beloved martyr Hajj Redwan. I would like to unveil what most people don’t know about him. He used to urge the mujahideen not to abandon education, especially at universities. He used to provide every organizational and financial facilitation to our brothers to go to universities. It was not a personal desire of his. This was founded on his clear strategic foresight. Our resistance, since the very beginning, has been the Resistance that has the characteristics of will, determination and sacrifice, yet is has also been known to be the Resistance characterized by education, knowledge, specialization and clever minds. This is what our enemies have acknowledged at the battlefields and in confronting the psychological war.”
His eminence added that this great number of graduates constitute the heart of Hezbollah’s path. “You are giving the world the true image of the believer who is not held back poverty and deprivation; the bright image that expresses the path of the resistance in Lebanon, its belief, humane characteristic, patriotism, sincerity, devotion and the great hope in the future. Today, you are also giving a strong message to all those who question the Lebanese opposition’s ability to manage the state of Lebanon in every domain and bargain on the failure of the opposition. They say if the opposition wins the majority we will not participate in a government they would form. I tell those that we would love your participation because this is what we have been calling for, but if you chose not to take part we will not beg you. If you are bargaining on our failure, the answer is the 2883 graduates in this ceremony alone. I tell you that the minds and the hearts and the wills that defeated the strongest state and army in the region is capable of running a country that is 100 times stronger than Lebanon. They accuse us of seeking to create an empire in the region, if this is the case, then 10452 square kilometers will not be hard to manage. Like we managed, with Lebanese hearts, minds and sacrifices, to liberate our land and detainees and to protect our country, we are capable God willing to build our country. ”
The Hezbollah chief added: “The Lebanon we want is the following: A country for all the Lebanese, a country with one people. We have to stop talking about Lebanese peoples whether overtly or covertly. We are one Lebanese people and we have no problem to speak about the historic multiplicity of civilizations and culture. Intellectuals used to argue about what we have, a multiplicity of civilizations or cultures or religions. This multiplicity is a blessing and we can transform it into an asset in our country and the world. I don’t say that we have mutual interests; I say that we have common interests.”
His eminence added that “we look for a unified Lebanon, unified in land, people, institutions. This is why Hezbollah has always rejected dividing Lebanon and we will resist any idea to divide Lebanon, today or in the future. Some still have this idea and this is not a dream, it’s a hope that they speak of in their inner circles. They speak of federalism, but this will never happen in Lebanon. All those who accuse us of seeking a three-party rule are working to achieve federalism. We also look forward for a Lebanon free from baseless racism, but not free from minds, laws and values in our milieu. We also seek a Lebanon with an Arab identity free from racism that has nothing to do with religion, knowledge and humanity.”
Sayyed Nasrallah stressed that the dispute is over the resistance and the arms of the resistance and the defensive strategy. We want a strong state that would tell the resistance fighters to go back to their universities, colleges, fields and to your normal lives. Therefore, we also look forward to a state that practices real and effective administrative reform to implement a modern electoral law that secures the best representation…We want a government that sets sight on the sufferings of the people, poverty and the problem of unemployment, not to spend the next four or five years in a political conflict on issues they know they will fail to achieve any of them even if they use all political, security and media means. We have to help to help find a government that is serious, devoted and sincere to solve our problems of development, finance and economy. We also look forward to a strong and independent judiciary free from political interference. What we have today in Lebanon is not a judiciary, even if the Higher Judicial Council says it is. We have honest judges and corrupt judges.
What kind of judicial authority is that which punishes agents who spent decades collaborating with Israel and commits high treason? What kind of a judiciary is that which sentences to one month or six months or even a year and then sets them free for some of them to return to collaborate with the Israeli enemy, and on the other hand the same judiciary detains senior officers for three years and eight months without charges? Is this an honest and independent judicial authority?
Since the very beginning we pledged to hand the collaborators to judicial authorities and we did not follow the example of all resistance movements throughout history; the movements that set up field tribunals and punished the traitors. I told this to the French Ambassador after Jospin described Hezbollah as a terrorist group. Months later liberation was achieved and I told the French Ambassador: Relay my greetings to your Prime Minister and tell him that our resistance is more civilized and more ethical than the French resistance, because you executed ten thousand agents, some of which never had a trial, whereas we have not killed ‘a chicken’ that belonged to Antoine Lahed.”
Sayyed Nasrallah stressed a unity government was the best for Lebanon. “If you want democracy then let it be complete democracy. The best form of such democracy would result from democratically electing a parliament based on an electoral law that makes Lebanon one electoral district.”
On the “one-third veto power”, sayyed Nasrallah said: “I call on our brothers in the Future movement to look back at martyr Rafik Hariri’s sufferings in forming cabinets and find out why he did not head the last government before his assassination. Martyr Hariri used to tell me that ‘If I don’t name one third of the ministers, I will not form a government.” He always sought to have one-third of the ministers and when he couldn’t, he stepped back and PM Omar Karami was appointed. Anyone who wants real partnership should search for the guaranteeing third or the veto power in the opposition government. As for the three-party governance, this is something that they had created and nourished. No one in the resistance has spoken about it. No one even understands what three-party rule they are speaking about: based on confessions, sects or political alliances?”
The Hezbollah Secretary General added that the aim at this phase was at the Christians of the opposition, “because when they say that the Shiites in the opposition want the three-party rule – if we assume that they mean three-party rule base on confessions, then this might not harm the Shiites, not the Sunnis who will have the second one-third. What they are trying to tell Christians in Lebanon is that General Michel Aoun, Suleiman Franjieh, Elie Skaf and other Christians in the opposition agree to this kind of governance. This is baseless. General Aoun did not accept such formula in Jizzine, so how can you accuse him as such? As opposition, we must not stay on the defensive. We want participation and we want to implement the Taef Accord and work on developing our political system.”
“In respect of our memory and to the commemoration of the May 17 (agreement), it is regrettable to see those who stood up to the May 17 agreement that was signed by the then Lebanese regime that yielded to Israeli conditions out of weakness, defeat and disgrace take a different position today.
Sayyed Nasrallah stressed a unity government was the best for Lebanon. “If you want democracy then let it be complete democracy. The best form of such democracy would result from democratically electing a parliament based on an electoral law that makes Lebanon one electoral district.”
On the “one-third veto power”, sayyed Nasrallah said: “I call on our brothers in the Future movement to look back at martyr Rafik Hariri’s sufferings in forming cabinets and find out why he did not head the last government before his assassination. Martyr Hariri used to tell me that ‘If I don’t name one third of the ministers, I will not form a government.” He always sought to have one-third of the ministers and when he couldn’t, he stepped back and PM Omar Karami was appointed. Anyone who wants real partnership should search for the guaranteeing third or the veto power in the opposition government. As for the three-party governance, this is something that they had created and nourished. No one in the resistance has spoken about it. No one even understands what three-party rule they are speaking about: based on confessions, sects or political alliances?”
The Hezbollah Secretary General added that the aim at this phase was at the Christians of the opposition, “because when they say that the Shiites in the opposition want the three-party rule – if we assume that they mean three-party rule base on confessions, then this might not harm the Shiites, not the Sunnis who will have the second one-third. What they are trying to tell Christians in Lebanon is that General Michel Aoun, Suleiman Franjieh, Elie Skaf and other Christians in the opposition agree to this kind of governance. This is baseless. General Aoun did not accept such formula in Jizzine, so how can you accuse him as such? As opposition, we must not stay on the defensive. We want participation and we want to implement the Taef Accord and work on developing our political system.”
“In respect of our memory and to the commemoration of the May 17 (agreement), it is regrettable to see those who stood up to the May 17 agreement that was signed by the then Lebanese regime that yielded to Israeli conditions out of weakness, defeat and disgrace take a different position today.
Who signed the agreement? Who wanted to succumb Lebanon to Israel through that agreement? Who stood up to the agreement, from scholars, men and women, particularly in the Imam Rida mosque in Bir el-Abed (Beirut’s southern suburb)? Who spilled his blood to declare Lebanon’s rejection to the agreement, other than martyr Mohammed Najdeh?
Who signed the agreement of disgrace with Israel? Today, those who had sought to give in Lebanon to Israel have become symbols of sovereignty, freedom and independence while those who offered their blood to liberate Lebanon have become symbols for subordination to the outside powers. Isn’t this unfair? Can we forget this? We want a strong state that can gain back its lands not by begging for it and not by grants from Netanyahu during elections season.”
“A few days ago was the first anniversary of the May 7 events.
As opposition, we avoided raising this issue because raising it will cause more strife in this elections season. However, the other camp still recalls these events in every speech they make. Our silence was described as weakness or embarrassment. I found myself obliged to comment this out of respect to the blood of martyrs who fell on the 7th of May. Therefore, I remind those who are raising the May 7 events issue that they ought to remember what they did on the fifth of May that same year. It is enough to read the Winograd report to know that one of Hezbollah’s main assets that should be eliminated is the party’s communications network. Does anyone doubt that the Israelis are eavesdropping everything in Lebanon? The most efficient weapon during the 2006 war was the fortified communications network that was beyond eavesdropping.
The government back then convened and decided to dismantle the network and consider it illegal and against the state’s sovereignty. The government also decided to bring to justice everyone involved in it. The illegitimate government ought to realize that May 5, 2008 was a stigma on its face and its history because it sought to achieve what Israel had failed to achieve in 33 days of war.
Why did they deploy thousands of fighters from outside Beirut? The Beirutis may as well ask those who want their votes to be in retaliation to the May 7 events, who turned Beirut into a city of militiamen and filled it with arms under the camouflage of security firms? Who deployed thousands of fighters in Beirut’s apartments?
The scheme was that the government takes the decision, Hezbollah would call for protests and civil disobedience thus giving way for the government to seek other options: if the protests were banned then a confrontation between the resistance and the Lebanese army would ensue. The scheme was thwarted because we have a national patriotic army. Some foreign sides had studied whether the army was ready for such a confrontation with the army and reached a negative conclusion because they found that they can never depend on the army to fight the resistance. This is a legion of honor for the army that preserves national security.
There had been a scheme to drag Beirut to sectarian strife that would last for weeks. Consequently, they would call in foreign forces to help stop a sectarian war in Lebanon. The scheme of May 7 was set for execution. Then why did stay up until morning? Why did you call Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the US during the Cabinet session? This is no longer a secret. That illegitimate government had taken a decision to put Lebanon in front of a sectarian war between Sunnis and Shiites.
I tell all the Lebanese, the Sunnis and the Shiites in particular, to our brothers and sisters in Beirut, what happened in May 7 had put an early end to a sectarian war that could have led to setting Beirut ablaze.
May 7 had also stopped a conspiracy against the resistance. May 7 had preserved the houses and the families of Beirut. After hearing what is being said today, I say that May 7 was a glorious day for the resistance in Lebanon. Consequently, May 7 has put Lebanon on the right track towards solution and pulled it out of the stalemate that was imposed on it.
The relative calm in the past year was the fruit of the May 7 events and the blood of the martyrs. I have been hearing a lot of slogans like ‘we won’t forget (May 7), who told you that we want you to forget? It is required that we don’t forget May 7 so that no one would repeat the stupidity of May 5.
As for the people who were brought in from the regions, I want to be fair to them. We know that the people of Akkar and Bekaa are courageous, credible and they are not cowards and they don’t run away from the battlefield. But you brought them not to fight Israel. You may try them with Israel. But you brought them to fight their own people, to fight the resistance that every Arab –whatever his religion or sect- is proud of. So, yes they did not have the motive and the momentum to fight their people in the resistance. They were brought to a battle they never ever believed in.
We don’t want May 7 or May 17. We are calling for cooperation and partnership. To discard the past and to merge efforts, build our country hand in hand and pull it out of its different crises. Like I said before, we have close ranks to build Lebanon hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder.
Whatever the results of the election will be, we will need all this cooperation and joined efforts to protect Lebanon and build it together. I once again congratulate our graduate brothers and sisters for their achievements and success.”
We don’t want May 7 or May 17. We are calling for cooperation and partnership. To discard the past and to merge efforts, build our country hand in hand and pull it out of its different crises. Like I said before, we have close ranks to build Lebanon hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder.
Whatever the results of the election will be, we will need all this cooperation and joined efforts to protect Lebanon and build it together. I once again congratulate our graduate brothers and sisters for their achievements and success.”
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