A Salute to Ali Hamdan

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

I heard, on television screens, Ali Hassan Hamdan, some Palestinians objecting to your manner of confronting the vile Blair (and I do not hesitate to describe him as vile), saying it was uncivilized, or that it reflects a bad image of the Palestinian people. Perhaps these pedantic hypocrites do not wish to remember the blood of Palestine’s children spilled by Blair and by Britain’s rulers before him; they would rather sell themselves and their honor, hoping this criminal might reward them with a few sweet words. This is the shedding of Arab blood, and no amount of cursing him will ever be enough.

Ali: what you did is what every Palestinian in whose veins runs Palestinian, Arab, and Islamic blood ought to do. You are right. This criminal, and other criminals like him, did not hesitate to subjugate the people of Palestine, to kill its sons, to displace them, and to pursue them across every corner of the earth — so should we hesitate to let him hear what he needs to hear? What you said is true: Blair is a terrorist, a criminal, a barbarian, a savage, and he does not come to these lands except to savor the pain that he and his forefathers inflicted on the people of Palestine and on the whole Arab and Islamic nation. Imagine: Blair and his like among the peoples of Europe and America describe our mujahideen and our strugglers as terrorists every single day, yet it is forbidden for you to call him a terrorist, when he is among the grandmasters of terrorism!

Nations, Ali, hold us in contempt because we do not respect our own blood, our heritage, or our rights — we embrace our enemies, trample on the blood of our martyrs, and forget the cries of our orphans and the sorrows of our widowed women. We are not faithful to our cause and our rights, and had there been a shred of dignity left in our veins, we would never have allowed this scoundrel to set foot on our land; we would have pursued him, and men like him among the British, on land and in the air, and we would have dug up the graves of his forefathers, who did not hesitate for a single moment to drive the people of Palestine toward the abyss.

Pay no attention to feeble commentary. You did what was our duty, to the extent of your ability, and may God reward you on our behalf with every good. I pray that your capabilities grow to the point where you can bar Blair and those of his kind from entering our lands altogether. And know this: freedom has a price, and the harm done by the faint of heart will never touch us.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “تحية إلى علي حمدان” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.