Naji Alloush Has Passed Away

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Naji Alloush has passed away — one of Palestine’s staunch unionist men, who spent his life in defense of the Arab nation and the rights of the Palestinian people. Alloush was a man of resolve, principle, and confidence — in himself, in his people, and in his nation — and he remained ever confident that the Arab nation would rise and take its distinguished place in the making of human civilization. Alloush was marked by a number of positions and qualities, foremost among them:

First: the man was a son of ordinary people, of the poor, the strugglers, and those bound together in mutual love, who had no aim but to build a nation capable of defending itself and safeguarding its rights. He was not a son of hotels, but a son of trenches, and he was never arrogant except toward the arrogant, nor haughty except toward the haughty who see themselves as above other people.

Second: he was a capable thinker who enriched the library with his intellectual works on Palestine and beyond. He offered profound intellectual analyses of the disintegration that afflicted the Arab nation, and of the loss of Palestine. And he laid much of the blame for the loss of Palestine on old and modern Palestinian leaderships that sided with their own material interests and standing at the expense of national rights.

Third: he was a struggler and a fighter in confronting the Zionists, and he never once retreated from a confrontation, never turned his back on gunfire; he stands as an emblem of the strugglers who hold fast to burning coals and refuse to relinquish what they believed in and fought for.

Fourth: the man was subjected to pressure and enticements meant to change his positions, from Palestinian and Arab leaders and from intelligence services alike, but he withstood every pressure and rejected every temptation. He remained committed to the liberation of the whole of Palestinian soil, rejected the establishment of a Palestinian authority acting as an agent of the occupation, rejected recognition of the Zionist entity, and rejected every form of settlement that would diminish the rights of the Palestinian people.

Fifth: he remained a committed unionist, believing that the Arabs have no future except through unity, and that the liberation of Palestine rests upon the shoulders of all Arabs together.

What is painful is that Naji Alloush passed away while watching young men, raised at the hands of American and Zionist intelligence services, toying with the Palestinian cause and speaking in the name of the Palestinian people. This is a time of confusion and loss. But his consolation is that the banner will not fall, and the flag of liberation and unity will remain flying high.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “ناجي علوش في ذمة الله” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.