Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.
Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem stressed on Saturday that the Resistance Party will continue accumulating weapons, training troops and augmenting military power to face any Israeli war.
Addressing the Arab Forum for Supporting the Palestinian Prisoners in the Israeli jails, Sheikh Qassem reiterated Hezbollah stance which backs the prisoners and condemns all the Zionist measures against them.
Sheikh Qassem indicated that supporting the Palestinian cause is the duty of all the liberals across the world, adding that the fall of the Israeli occupation is just a matter of time.
Sheikh Qassem also noted that some Lebanese parties reject the resistance weaponry in order to identify themselves with the Arab regimes normalizing ties with the Zionist entity.
A protest against US military aid to Israel. (Photo: File)
– Jeremy Salt taught at the University of Melbourne, at Bosporus University in Istanbul and Bilkent University in Ankara for many years, specializing in the modern history of the Middle East. Among his recent publications is his 2008 book, The Unmaking of the Middle East. A History of Western Disorder in Arab Lands (University of California Press). He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.
What a chamber of horrors the third millennium has been so far in the Middle East, without even a quarter of it having passed. Iraq, Syria and Yemen on a scale unimaginable even at the high point of imperialism in the 19th century. An estimated 300 children under five dying every day in Yemen from malnutrition, Palestinians shot dead in their occupied country every day, Lebanon and Syria slowly strangled by US sanctions, Iran threatened with military destruction and the revelation of yet another massacre by the US, in Syria, where “about” 70 women and children were killed at Baghuz by bombs dropped one after the other to make sure that no-one escaped.
There is no suggestion that anyone should be punished for yet another ‘mistake.’ This is where thousands of years of drawing up covenants to make the world a safer place have ended up: back where we started, the law of the jungle.
This is what the guardians of ‘western civilization’ have given to the world just in the past three decades:
Two wars on Iraq, the ‘cradle of civilization’ shattered by the cradle of a violent hamburger junk culture, millions killed or displaced. Libya, the most developed country in Africa, pulled up by its roots, uncounted thousands killed, the leader of its 1969 revolution slaughtered as Hillary Clinton cackled with glee like one of the witches around the cauldron in Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’. Syria torn to pieces, ancient cities and markets destroyed, and half a million killed. In Yemen, more than 230,000 dead, with 43 percent of prematurely born babies dying because of the lack of medical equipment and a genocidal famine – 75 percent of children are suffering from acute malnutrition – continuing even as fresh supplies of weaponry are dropped off in the Saudi kingdom by the US and Britain. Iran, Syria and Lebanon targeted with economic sanctions: in occupied Palestine, in Syria and in Iran the Zionist state continues its murderous march through history.
Not one of the global criminals responsible for these massive crimes against humanity has been punished. They play golf or roam the world picking up millions for their speaking engagements and their ‘philanthropic’ foundations. Not one word of contrition or remorse has been spoken by any of them for the lives they have ended or ruined. Not even the death of children has forced admission of guilt out of them. Others have been punished for lesser crimes but not this gang. They are completely remorseless.
Imagine the reaction if these crimes were committed in Europe and white people were being slaughtered or driven out of their homes, out of their countries and drowning in their thousands as they tried to escape across the seas.
Well, between 1939-45 it did happen and those responsible were hanged at Nuremberg. We have no Nuremberg now but we do have an International Criminal Court (ICC) which does punish the architects of war crimes and crimes against humanity – as long as their skin is the right color. With the exception of pale-skinned Balkan Serbs charged after the breakup of Yugoslavia, all those hauled before the ICC have been brown or black.
The tsunami of death and destruction which began rolling across the region when Napoleon landed in Egypt in 1798 shows no sign of receding. Almost no country from the Atlantic coast of West Africa down to the Arab Gulf has avoided being swamped by it and many have been swamped several times.
The prime beneficiary of all of the above in the past century has been the settler state implanted in Palestine after 1918. Israel is the heart and soul of US foreign policy. Indeed, US foreign policy is no more than the Stars and Stripes draped over the interests of the Zionist state.
Take Iran as an example. After the death of Ayatullah Khumayni, Presidents Rafsanjani and Khatami sought to repair relations with the US. They offered investment concessions, diplomatic rapprochement and a political pathway into a region of critical interest, central Asia. Iranian society is conservative and God-fearing, rather like the US itself, but as long as Rafsanjani and Khatami refused to drop Iran’s righteous defense of the Palestinians, nothing else counted. Even in the ‘moderate’ Khatami’s time, economic sanctions were tightened, paving the way for the election of the ‘hardliner,’ Mahmud Ahmedinejad.
The attempted strangulation of Iran and Syria through war, assassination and sanctions necessarily involves Lebanon, Hezbollah’s home base. Since the 1980s Hezbollah has successfully fought off all attempts by Israel – backed to the hilt by the US of course – to destroy it. Far from being weakened, Hezbollah has gone from strength to strength, militarily and as a Lebanese political party. The lesson learned by the US and Israel is just that they have to try harder, to tear Lebanon apart if that is what it takes to destroy Hezbollah.
The latest provocation through Israel’s agents took place in Beirut on October 14, in the predominantly Shia neighborhood of Chiyah, bordering predominantly Maronite Christian Ain Rummaneh, where the ‘bus massacre’ of 27 Palestinians on April 13, 1975, was the trigger pulled to start the civil war.
This time snipers positioned on rooftops shot at Amal and Hezbollah supporters as they moved towards the Palace of Justice in Al Tayouneh to hold a vigil calling for the removal of Tariq al Bitar as the judge appointed to investigate the Beirut port explosion on August 5, 2020, on the grounds that he is running a heavily politicized inquiry heading towards a preordained conclusion, that this was a crime committed by Hezbollah.
Holding Hezbollah or Syria responsible for the crimes they have not committed was first tried after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005. Initially, four ‘pro-Syrian’ generals were imprisoned for four years before an international tribunal took over the prosecution and released them for lack of evidence. It immediately pointed the finger at Hezbollah, eventually finding one person, Salim Ayyash, guilty of “involvement” on the sole basis of tapped phone calls made through communications networks known to have been completely penetrated and manipulated by the Zionist state.
The tribunal cleared Hezbollah’s leadership. What this actually means is that if the leadership did not order the assassination, no senior figure in the movement would have carried it out. Nasrallah and Hariri had differences but a good working relationship and it is virtually unthinkable that Nasrallah would ever have sanctioned such a heinous act.
The only beneficiaries of this monstrous act were the US, Israel and their agents in Lebanon. Syria was embarrassed internationally and had to withdraw its remaining forces from the Bika’a valley. Lebanon was thrown into the chaos that gave birth to the rise of the anti-Syrian/pro-Saudi, US and Israel March 14 alliance.
Hezbollah produced intercepted reconnaissance footage showing that Israel had been tracking Hariri with drones wherever he went for years and was flying an AWACS plane and another reconnaissance aircraft over Beirut at the precise time of the assassination. One of its agents had been located at the scene of the killing only the day before. None of this circumstantial evidence was ever followed up by the tribunal. Israel and the US have shed buckets of blood in Lebanon over many decades, have between them committed the most atrocious crimes, but the tribunal never even considered them as suspects.
The snipers waiting on the top of apartment buildings in Tayouneh on October 14 killed seven people, one a woman shot dead in her own home. Not just on rooftops, however, but on the ground, the demonstrators were surrounded by militiamen waiting to ambush them with guns, knives and even rocks. Despite denials by Samir Geagea (Ja’ja), the head of the fascist/sectarian Maronite Christian Lebanese Forces (LF), the armed men were clearly LF and acting on his orders. Of the 19 arrested, several quickly implicated him.
Geagea is one of the most murderous individuals in Lebanese history, which says a lot given the bloody track record of many others. During the civil war (1976-1989) he killed rivals within his own Maronite Christian ranks as well as Palestinians and other enemies outside them. In 1994 he was sentenced to four life sentences for the assassinations of former Prime Minister Rashid Karameh (1987), National Liberal Party leader Dany Chamoun (1990), Falangist (Kata’ib) head Elias al Zayek (1990) and the attempted assassination of Defence Minister Michel Murr (1991). In 1978 he and Elie Hobeika, at the behest of Bashir Gemayel, then head of the Falangists, led 1200 men in an attack on the north Lebanon family home of Tony Frangieh, leader of the Maronite Marada (Giants) faction. Geagea was wounded and had to be taken away before Frangieh, his wife and three-year-old daughter were killed.
In the 1990 attack, Dany Chamoun’s wife and two of his sons were also killed. If there is any poetic justice in any of this shedding of blood – including entirely innocent blood – it lies in the 1982 assassination of Bashir Gemayel and the car bombing murder in 2002 of Elie Hobeika, Israel’s leading henchman in the Sabra and Shatila massacres of 1982.
Geagea himself served eleven years of four life sentences before being released under amnesty after the assassination of Hariri and allowed to take up the leadership of the LF. His brutality is a powerful weapon in the hands of Israel and the US, whose ambassador, Dorothy Shea, has been open in her interference in Lebanese politics.
US economic sanctions against Lebanon have one primary target, Hezbollah; one secondary target, Syria; and one-third target, Iran. How many Christians die defending ‘Christian Lebanon’ is not an issue for the US and Israel any more than the number of Muslims who die fighting them. All they want is the chaos that will further their ambitions. They tore Lebanon apart before and they will do it again, mercilessly, ruthlessly, callously, without a care for the innocent blood of thousands that will be shed.
Whatever cause Samir Geagea thinks he is serving, the piecemeal destruction of Lebanon, indeed of the entire Middle East, is primarily about the protection of Israel. However, Israel is not as safe as it used to be or it might think it still is. It is confronted by enemies who have not backed off one meter from the struggle to liberate Palestine. Israel has tried hard to destroy them. Up to now, it has failed, so it is getting ready to try again. While planning/contingency planning is a constant, Israel now appears to be actively preparing for a massive military strike that would target Iran’s nuclear plants and missile capacity.
In September the Zionist chief of staff, Avi Kohavi, said plans for such a strike had been “greatly accelerated.” The military has been given an additional $1.5 billion to buy aircraft, drones and ‘bunker buster’ bombs that would probably include the USAF’s new 5000 lb. (2,267 kg.) GRU-72 Advanced 5k Penetrator, which would be aimed at Iran’s underground nuclear installations. Anticipating a simultaneous war with Hezbollah, Israel has also been carrying out extensive military exercises in northern occupied Palestine, coordinated with all emergency civil services to deal with an expected crisis on the domestic front once the missiles start falling. Israel is clearly planning for a big war, and can be expected to throw everything into this attempt to crush its principal enemies once and for all.
Unlike the white settlers in South Africa, the Zionist leadership sees no writing on the wall, no indications that history is not on their side even as it builds up against them. No more than Netanyahu does Naftali Bennett have any intention of giving anything back to the Palestinians except the smallest fragments of municipal responsibility. Like Netanyahu, he sees no need to negotiate, no need to give anything away. Why would he, when in the last resort Israel even has nuclear weapons to destroy its enemies? This is the question to which there can be no answer until the day comes when Israel faces the reality that even its conventional weapons are not sufficient to destroy its enemies.
All appearances to the contrary, unlimited US economic and military support has been a curse for Israel. It has created the illusion of power. Israel is like a plant with shallow roots. Only as long as the US keeps watering it, can the plant thrive. There is no permanent, unbreakable bond between states and all appearances to the contrary, there never will be between Israel and the US. Slowly, Americans are waking up and Israel’s incessant pleading is already beginning to fall on deaf ears, as the public becomes more aware of Israel’s criminality and as congressmen and women (mainly women) are emboldened to speak out. The time may come when the US can no longer afford Israel. The time may come when public opinion has changed to allow a US government to treat Israel as it treats other states.
US economic and military aid has had the same effect on Israel as steroids have on a bodybuilder. The 97-lb weakling is now the neighborhood bully swaggering down the street with pumped-up muscles. He smacks people around or they run in fright but Hezbollah and Iran are not running. They are standing firm and preparing to defend themselves. In any case, in the next war, Israel will take damage it has never experienced before, to the point where so many Jewish Israelis will just want to get out that Israel as a Zionist state is likely to crumble from within and die of its own contradictions. Is this what it is going to take for peace to become possible?
رحيل الكاتب والمناضل سماح سهيل إدريس صاحب دار الآداب التي أسسها والده الراحل سهيل إدريس، والتي واظبت في عهديهما على خط ثابت في الوفاء للقضية الفلسطينية، خاتمة مسيرة لنموذج للمثقف الذي فشلت محاولات التطبيع والتمييع والتتبيع في إغرائه، على رغم ما تمليه ضرورات دور النشر من بحث عن الأسواق حيث المال، وعن المال الذي يفتح الأسواق، فصمدت دار الآداب وصمد سماح حيث صمدت فلسطين، وفق معادلة ما نتحمله بسيط بالقياس لما تتحمله فلسطين، وهذا التشارك في كلفة الصمود هو أضعف الإيمان.
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حمل سماح إدريس لواء المقاطعة لكيان الاحتلال ومنتجاته الاستهلاكية والثقافية، ومقاطعة الشركات والمؤسسات الثقافية والفنية الداعمة له، كمهمة نضالية، حتى كادت تتحول إلى مهنة يحترفها بلا مقابل، يسافر ويكتب ويحاضر ويغرد لأجل تعميم ثقافتها، تاركاً وراءه إرثاً ممتداً بين لبنان والخارج، وصل إلى جامعات الغرب ومؤسساته الثقافية، كما إلى لجان المستهلكين في العديد من الدول الغربية، وربط مكافحة التطبيع الثقافي والسياسي والاقتصادي بخطة المقاطعة، كركنين في ثقافة المقاومة التي آمن بأنها الطريق الوحيد إلى فلسطين.
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خسر المؤمنون بفلسطين وخسرت المقاومة قامة مثقفة تميزت بالأخلاق الرفيعة والتواضع والتفاني، كانت مثالاً للمثقف المشتبك الذي ينجح بتقديم القلم بموازاة البندقية، ويحمل تبعات الموقف حصاراً وفقراً وملاحقة، وعندما داهم المرض سماح إدريس وتفوق على قدرته على الصمود، لم تكن لسماح وصية شخصية، بل كانت وصيته لا تنسوا فلسطين، فإذا تخلينا عن فلسطين تخلينا عن أنفسنا.
Following message was written by Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons on the death of Samah Idriss, Lebanese Arab revolutionary intellectual. The editor-in-chief of Al-Adab magazine, Samah Idriss was the co-founder of the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of “Israel” in Lebanon. In his speech to the Masar Badil (Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path) conference in Beirut on 30 October of this year, he declared, “If we abandon Palestine, we abandon ourselves.”
We republish in full the letter from Palestinian prisoners:
The prisoners’ message in memory of Samah Idriss
It is an unusual morning, when the news of your departure comes to sink its teeth into the delicateness of love and emotion, the morning turns into sunset and your soul sets there, Samah. We remain in its shade as it flutters and fills the space on this exceptional morning. The news of the tragedy of your departure replaces for now our thoughts of liberation and freedom. Your absence keeps us transfixed in time, we look around us and remember you, and we still need your words and your committed, principled positions. We are still in the middle of the road to freedom, Samah.
Your news has traveled and reached us as the dew drops fade from the prison fences and bars. With it, our feelings crept in, and we felt the wound of losing you publicly. We want you to hear our last cry, you, who always spoke with our voice and our screams, or perhaps we want to bid you farewell with a whisper of screaming.
Our words will certainly reach you. We are in the prisons of the Zionist colonizer, and we wanted to meet you. You can see and, as you taught us, the journey is still long, and our lamp still needs a lot of oil, so why have you left now?!
Samah, we know that you have not left the mountain. You are as a mountain in your stances, and your steps are engraved in the path of this long journey. You are our beloved comrade, a companion on the hard path of struggle, a friend on the long road. Your body has left us, but your spirit will remain an inspiration to us. Your words and your positions are a beacon that we raise, debate and discuss as we walk. We will keep walking, comrade, until we get there.
From behind bars, behind walls, behind fences, in the clutches of the Zionists, we salute your family, your loved ones, your comrades and your companions. We mourn you with pride and admiration, and the highest commitment to the struggle. We mourn you as a writer, an intellectual, a comrade, and a fighter for the freedom for which you died. Sleep with clear eyes, and know that the road to freedom will never be cut off for free people.
Hezbollah mourned in a statement released on Friday the righteous fighter and writer Samah Idriss who passed away yesterday after a long struggle with disease.
“Lebanon and the Arab world have lost the fighter and writer Samah Idris,” the statement read, adding that the Palestinian cause lost, with his departure, a hero and a solid defender, who harnessed his culture and literary production in defense of Palestine and the freedom of its people, and in the face of all forms of cultural, political and economic normalization throughout the Arab world.
“Hezbollah is deeply saddened and extends its deepest condolences and sympathy to his family and loved ones and to all strugglers on the same path of resistance and facing normalization,” the statement concluded.
Idriss was a writer, publisher, editor, thinker, editor-in-chief of Al-Adab magazine and co-founder of the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of “Israel” in Lebanon. He constantly amplified the voices of Palestinian political prisoners in the pages of Al-Adab, and his work is known among the prisoners themselves.
He was one of the initiators of the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement and his speech at the Beirut conference was recently published by Al-Akhbar. His last speech contained his hope for the revolutionary future of Palestinian and Arab liberation.
Samah Idris, the writer, novelist, and co-founder of the ‘Campaign to Boycott Supporters of “Israel” in Lebanon’ passed away, but the fight against normalization with the Israeli occupation lives on.
Hezbollah Secretary General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivered a televised speech on Friday evening in which he tackled the latest local political developments, mainly announcing the beginning of the second phase of distributing diesel oil to the families for heat in Winter.
At the beginning of his speech, the Resistance leader congratulated all the Lebanese people on the Independence Day that was celebrated a few days ago, and wished that they can preserve their country’s sovereignty and independence, stressing that “There must come a day in which the annually renewable argument about the independence of Lebanon in 1943 would be settled.”
“Preserving the independence, unity and liberty of the country requires a continuous battle,” Sayyed Nasrallah said, noting that it is the responsibility of all the Lebanese people to preserve their independence, even if it is a figurative one, and turn it into a real and true independence.
His Eminence hailed the many Lebanese people who resisted and believed in the different types of resistance until they reached the major victory in 1985 when the occupying forces withdrew from the capital Beirut, Mount Lebanon, Saida, and Rashayya, until the most prominent victory of 2000 when the ‘Israelis’ fled South Lebanon.
However, Sayyed Nasrallah lamented the fact that “When Lebanon is banned from benefiting from its resources, and when the US every day blatantly interferes in the judiciary, politics, security, and future parliamentary elections, then the country’s sovereignty is incomplete.”
As long as Lebanon is within the circle of the continued ‘Israeli’ threats, this means that we are in the middle of the battle for independence and sovereignty; the Hezbollah leader underscored, while also noting that “we’ve triumphed in many phases of this battle and we are quite sure that once we continue this path with determination and steadfastness then more victories are to come.”
“There will come a day when, through cooperation with all the faithful people, we will bring for our nation the unquestionable independence, sovereignty, and freedom.”
Moving to the escalating processes of normalization with the ‘Israeli’ occupation regime, Sayyed Nasrallah lashed out at “the accelerating track of normalization many Arab countries are witnessing, the last of which was the shameful and blatant developments that took place in Morocco.”
As for blacklisting Hezbollah, His Eminence suggested that it might be either tied to the regional developments or the [upcoming] parliamentary elections.
Covid-19 in Lebanon
As he warned that the rise in the Coronavirus cases and virus-related deaths in Lebanon is critical, Sayyed Nasrallah reiterated that since the beginning of the Coronavirus crisis in Lebanon, Hezbollah has announced a plan that it implemented and succeeded in, and declared that the resistance movement decided to activate this plan with a 100% effectiveness.
He then urged the Ministry of Health to exert more efforts no matter what are the difficulties, voicing Hezbollah’s readiness to help in all fields.
Meanwhile, His Eminence made it clear that the political affiliation of the health minister is not an important issue as the country is in danger; adding that “as it happened with the previous one, Hezbollah sets all its capabilities at the disposal of the current Health Ministry.”
Additionally, Sayyed Nasrallah called on the Lebanese Prime Minister and all the concerned parties to revisit the recent decision about lifting the subsidies that were offered for some medicines.
“Lifting the subsidies on some drugs could not be justified by saying that the state doesn’t have enough cash for this; there are thousands who are exposed to the danger of death due to such uncalculated decisions,” His Eminence warned.
Moreover, Sayyed Nasrallah called on canceling certain ministries and budgets given the fact that there are thousands of people whose lives are in danger, and explained that this has nothing to do with political bids.
Lebanese Pound Crisis
In reference to the Lebanese currency’s steep crisis, Sayyed Nasrallah urged brave and daring action against the uncontainable prices of the Lebanese Pound against the US Dollar.
“We shouldn’t remain silent regarding the uncontainable price of the US Dollar and the state can make something, but what we need is a will, a decision, and shouldering the responsibility; the matter requires a brave and daring action,” the Hezbollah leader highlighted.
He then declared that Hezbollah decided to activate it institutions and medical centers to meet as much as possible the people’s need for those drugs.
Lebanese Judiciary
Regarding the judicial inspector, Sayyed Nasrallah remarked: “We found out that the concerned judicial parties are submitting to the politics and what happened in the past two days proves what we’ve been talking about over the past year.”
His Eminence then asked: “Is there today within the Lebanese judiciary a judge who dares to disqualify the judicial judge? There is one judge who tended to do this but was threatened in return.”
The Hezbollah leader noted that “what is taking place right now is that the members of the Lebanese judiciary establishment are defending each other; all data indicate that the judges concerned with the Beirut Port blast are within the circle of suspicions and accusation,” warning that the current judicial track of the Beirut Port blast won’t lead to the truth.
The Tayyouneh Incident
With respect to the Tayyouneh incident, Sayyed Nasrallah announced that the issue has been turned to the military judiciary, which, since the first days, has been subjected to huge pressure from religious and political parties.
“Some of the arrestees have been released and pressures are being made to release the other arrestees,” His Eminence said, blasting the religious and political pressures on the judiciary as insults for the martyrs, the wounded, their families, and the sides they are affiliated with, cautioning further that such pressures “might push the families of the victims to take revenge.”
“Adhering to the current track in the Tayyouneh incident is dangerous and may lead the nation to chaos,” His Eminence added.
Hezbollah’s Diesel Oil Initiative
In reference to the initiative Hezbollah has launched to bring in diesel oil from Iran, the party’s secretary general explained once again the reasons behind this move.
“In front of the lines in which people were humiliated being waiting in front of gas stations, the growth of the black market, and the lack of the material, we announced that once the situation remains the same, we will tend to buy gas and diesel oil from Iran to ease the crisis.”
However, Sayyed Nasrallah underscored that although the material became available and the lines of humiliation vanished, Hezbollah didn’t abandon its promise and tends to ease the suffering of the people, yet it doesn’t seek to replace the oil companies but just to ease the crisis.
As part of the process, Sayyed Nasrallah explained that Hezbollah has to transport dozens of oil cisterns from Baniays to Baalbek, a distance that is equal to 250 kilometers, which if unloaded at the Zahrani or Tripoli refineries would have been way easier.
However, due to the US pressures on the Lebanese government Hezbollah brought the diesel oil via Syria despite the difficulties and repercussions, His Eminence outlined.
While declaring that the first stage of the project started in September and ended in November; Sayyed Nasrallah announced that the second stage will start within days. “Hezbollah directly delivered diesel oil to many municipalities, governmental institutions, hospitals, orphanages, and nursing homes, despite all the difficulties.”
Talking numbers, Sayyed Nasrallah stated that the amount of the donations delivered in the first phase hit near US $2,600,000.
“In a period of two months, Hezbollah offered diesel oil to 80 nursing homes and orphanages, 320 municipalities to operate water wells, 22 governmental hospitals, and 71 firefighting teams from the official Civil Defense service.”
The first phase of the diesel oil initiative costed Hezbollah US $7,750,000, Sayyed Nasrallah said, adding that it has been ended with the aim to start preparing for the second phase.
The Hezbollah leader further admitted that the applied mechanism was somehow slow and complicated, saying this is normal as time is needed to make sure that the subsidized Iranian diesel oil will be handed to those who are worth it and not be used in the black market.
“We paid in the first phase of the diesel initiative ten million US dollars under the title of helping certain categories in Lebanon and easing their suffering,” Sayyed Nasrallah said, stressing that “The same categories that received donations in the first phase will receive the diesel oil in the second phase also.”
His Eminence then explained that all families residing in the villages and cities located at least 500 meters above the sea level are to take advantage from the second phase of the diesel oil initiative.
Sayyed Nasrallah also announced that Hezbollah will sell every diesel oil barrel to the families for one million Lebanese Pounds less than the official rate.
“According to Hezbollah’s statistics, hundreds of thousands of families will benefit from this project,” he also noted.
Meanwhile, the best way to distribute diesel oil will be through the municipalities which will be contacted to identify the numbers of the families they have and the needed amounts, then the Amana Company will deliver diesel oil to the stations selected by the municipalities, according to the mechanism clarified by Sayyed Nasrallah.
Additionally, another diesel oil ship will arrive within days, Sayyed Nasrallah announced, urging to complete the process of communicating with people quietly because the main goal is to ease their suffering.
While a big share of the required amount has been transferred to the Lebanese territories, there is another part which is being transferred from Syria.
Defaming Attempts
With respect to the attempts of defaming Hezbollah by faking documents that are allegedly referred to the resistance movement, Sayyed Nasrallah mocked those behind such actions as unprofessional and ridiculous.
“In the past weeks and months there has been a major attack targeting Hezbollah; this is not something new, but the new thing is the intensifying of this attack and the alleged documents.”
Sayyed Nasrallah described those fabricating such fake documents as unprofessional and non-Lebanese sides, noting that the content of the documents is very ridiculous.
“We regret that some sides deal with those fake documents with a high level of ridicule, ignorance, and pettiness. Those are operating based on the saying that you lie and lie and lie then people would believe you!” His Eminence added.
Slamming such attempts in a time of unjustness, defamation, and distortion of Hezbollah image, Sayyed Nasrallah advised those who believe such lies to at least examine what they are being told about the resistance movement.
At the end of his speech, Sayyed Nasrallah labeled the act of firing some Lebanese people who work in the Gulf states as and dishonorable, inhumane, and unethical measure.
