Palestinian officials, politicians, and civil leaders have denounced the Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassem al Thani for saying the Arab states could not lend any support to the Palestinians in their present confrontation with Israeli.
Bin Jassem said on the Qatari al-Jazeera television on Thursday that "the Arabs can't help the Palestinians, and we have to beg the US to stop the violence. The word `beg' disturbs me, but begging is the right word, for the Arabs don't possess the power and their situation doesn't allow them to exercise any pressure in favor of the Palestinians."
PA official Hani al Masri condemned the remarks as "sinful and criminal," according to the Iranian official news agency (IRNA). "The Qatari foreign minister should realize that the Arabs' weakness is not attributed to lack of power and the factor of powers, but to the absence of the political will to use and utilize their political, economic and even military power," said al-Masri.
Sheikh Naef Rajoub, a popular Islamist leader in the Hebron area, labeled the Qatari minister as "abu Reghal," referring to the man who led Abyssinian invaders to the Ka'aba in Mecca the year the Prophet of Islam Mohammad was born.
"Even the disbelievers of Quraish (the prophet’s tribe) were not that vile and cheap," said Rajoub who was delivering the Friday sermon before five thousand worshippers at the Grand Mosque of Dura. "If you want to surrender and raise the white flag, do it atop your house. We are not about to surrender," said Rajoub.
"You are part of the problem, you can't be part of the solution. You and the likes of you are a cancer upon the conscience of the Muslim umma (nation)," stressed Rajoub. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
