Two hundred and fifty Arab clerics, politicians and activists Wednesday in a statement called on the Arab masses to mark the 53rd anniversary of the Jewish occupation of Palestine, or Nakba, by declaring “a day of rage.”
The anniversary falls on May 15.
The statement, cited by Al Jazeera satellite channel, urged the Arabs to stage demonstrations, general strikes and sit-ins “to render the anniversary a day of confrontation with Israel and the US.”
Prominent among the signatories are Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, founder of Hamas, Muslim cleric Youssef Qardawi, and former Algerian president Ahmad bin Bella
Yassin called on Arab and Muslim leaders to support the Palestinian Intifada with “money and weapons.”
The statement stressed that the Arab states must sever all ties with Israel, and criticized the Arab media for failing to cover the Intifada properly. According to the signatories, this failure has led to a lower degree of Arab support for the upraising.
But this is not the only reason the statement gave for the low-key Arab and Muslim support of the Palestinians.
According to Qardawi in the statement, “binding advice not to respond to and abandon the Intifada,” communicated to the Arab leaders by international parties is another reason why a shadow is cast on the uprising.
The editor-in-chief of a London-based Arabic daily, Abdul Bari Atwan, agreed, charging that many Arab regimes have succumbed to “instructions” by other countries.
This has led to suppressing the Arab backing of the Palestinians and silencing the anger of Arab masses at the Israeli crimes, said Atwan, who heads Al Quds Al Arabi – Albawaba.com
