'Beloved Saddam, strike Tel Aviv,' Palestinians chant in West Bank rallies
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
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Thousands of Palestinians chanting "Death to America" marched in West Bank cities on Sunday, while on the third day of Iraq Solidarity Week expressing their opposition to a possible US military strike against Iraq.
At Sunday's demonstrations, spokesmen for various Palestinian groups called on Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to fire Scud missiles at Israel.
"O beloved Saddam, strike Tel Aviv," chanted several thousand demonstrators in Jenin. The protesters carried Palestinian and Iraqi flags and chanted, "We sacrifice our soul and blood for Saddam."
Holding aloft pictures of Saddam Hussein, some 1,000 Palestinians including gunmen who fired shots into the air marched through the streets of Tulkarm.
"Aggression against Iraq represents aggression against Palestine and the whole Arab nation," read one banner. "Iraqis and Palestinians are in the same trench," said another.
Similar rallies have been held in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of Iraq Solidarity Week, which is being sponsored by Palestinian Authority officials.
At one of the rallies organized by Hamas, some 3,000 participants waved signs bearing slogans such as "Death to America" and "Victory from Jerusalem to Baghdad."
Hamas leader Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantisi urged the Iraqi people to stage suicide attacks against the US. "I call on Iraq to establish an army of future martyrs (suicide bombers) and to prepare tens of thousands of explosive belts. Explode next to American soldiers. Blow them up in Baghdad. I call upon all Arab states to scorch the earth that the Americans walk on in every Arab capital city."
Rantisi also published a statement on the Hamas Web site calling on the Iraqi government "to establish a suicide army that will strike fear in the hearts of the enemy. There is no choice but to set up thousands of secretly operating suicide cells with thousands of explosive belts equipped to cause meaningful results," he wrote. According to Rantisi, "the quickest way to reach Paradise is to sacrifice yourself in Allah's name."
Abdullah Horani, chairman of the State Council of the Palestine National Council, announced the establishment of a committee to monitor activities that will be conducted during Iraq Solidarity Week. These activities will take place at various locations in the Gaza Strip under the banner "Iraqi Days in Palestine."
Horani called on the Palestinian public to take part in activities that identify with Iraq against the American-British attack.
The monitoring committee was set up during a meeting of the Palestine National Council to defend Iraq, in collaboration with the Supreme Monitoring Committee of the "National Islamic Forces," several ministers and members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, a senior official with the Muslim Wakf and a preacher at the Aksa Mosque, strongly condemned the US for preparing to go to war against Iraq. He
accused the US and its allies of planning a war designed to dominate the region despite Iraq's full cooperation with UN inspectors, and of fabricating false accusations concerning weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He attacked the "imperialistic infidels" who are trying to uproot Muslims from their land, and called on Muslims not to lend a hand to these evil intentions and to remain steadfast in their faith.
Shiekh Husein lashed out at the US, calling Americans "Muslim-haters conducting a campaign of flagrant defamation of Islam and Muslims. In the face of this defamation there is no choice but to wake up the nation to defend its faith, prophesy, land, and history, particularly since the war is not aimed at Iraq, but against the entire Islamic and Arabic nation." |
