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With news of the recent
agreement between "Israel" and the Resistance in Lebanon
over the exchange of prisoners, the story of Samir Quntar,
who is to be among the Lebanese detainees to be released by
the Jewish entity, has again resurfaced with the official
propagandistic version of the "Israeli" government being
presented as the factual depiction of the event which led to
the capture of Quntar. This version portrays Samir Quntar as
a brutal, merciless, cold-blooded killer who killed a Jewish
civilian in front of his 4-year-old daughter and then
proceeded to smash the young girl's head against a rock with
the butt of his rifle. It is an image of a heartless
psychopath whose only intent was to terrorize and murder
innocent civilians. Unfortunately, although Quntar's version
of the event was never heard, most media outlets, including
Al-Jazeera, have presented the concoction disseminated by
the Jewish state as the true and accurate version of the
event.
This depiction of Samir Quntar is in fact part and parcel of
the continuous campaign waged by "Israel" and its allies to
discredit the Resistance and tarnish its image before the
world. The ultimate aim is to conceal the reason for the
very existence of the Resistance and to strip it of its
cause. The world must be prevented from seeing that the
Resistance has a cause, which is to liberate its land from
foreign occupiers and protect and defend its people's
inherent rights. As such, Resistors are transformed from
freedom fighters to murderers and trouble-makers whose sole
objective is to terrorize civilians.
The reason that "Israel" chose to fabricate that very story
about Samir Quntar is because the tale implies that Quntar
organized this entire operation for the sole purpose of
killing a civilian in front of his daughter and then
crushing the skull of the little girl. In reality, Samir
Quntar, and three of his comrades, embarked on an operation
on April 22, 1979 the purpose of which was to attack one of
the biggest "Israeli" military bases, located in Nahariya,
in order to prevent the continued establishment of permanent
Jewish settlements on Palestinian land.
The operation initially succeeded brilliantly in that Quntar
and his fellow fighters were able to drive their speedboat
into occupied Palestine, maneuvre through six squadrons of
warships, hide the boat from the seashore guards and
"Israeli" radar, and enter the settlement camp of Nahariya
after combatting and defeating an "Israeli" patrol squad.
However, the subsequent detection of Quntar's group by
"Israeli" forces led to a gun battle that resulted in the
death of several people including an "Israeli" settler
family of four. The exact details of the event are still
unclear (Samir Quntar has recently
given true details of the event, proving that the Jewish
father and his child were killed by the Israeli soldiers),
but Quntar at the time engaged in a battle in order to
escape and return to Lebanon. His intention was thus to get
back into the boat and make his way back. However, his plan
was stopped short and once the dust of the battle cleared,
people were found dead.
The idea that Quntar would take time from his heated battle
with "Israeli" forces in order to shoot a father in front of
his child and then crush the skull of the child is
completely implausible. However, "Israel" needed a tale that
would demonize Resistance fighters and all those who dare
stand up to the Jewish state and its occupation of their
land. It also needed to minimize the success of the
operation in the ability of 4 fighters to penetrate
"Israeli" security. As such, during the course of the sham
trial (this was a trial run by the occupiers to try
resistance fighters from among those whose land is occupied)
the illegitimate prosecution presented to the illegitimate
court fabricated evidence to demonstrate that Samir Quntar
was nothing more than a brutal, cold-blooded killer,
equivalent to any common criminal.
Unfortunately, this story has floated around for so long
that anyone who dares regard Samir Quntar as a hero is seen
as a hypocritical, callous apologist for a disgraceful
criminal. As such, the successful liberation of Quntar by
the Resistance in Lebanon is portrayed as a group of
terrorists whose moral bankruptcy allows them to insist on
the freedom of a convicted murderer. What is most saddening,
however, is not the position of the enemy on this issue, as
this is normal and expected, but rather the position of
fellow citizens whose very honor and dignity the Resistance
is fighting to defend.
After his sentence was announced, Samir Quntar responded
saying "I don’t care if the sentence was 9 or even 10 life
sentences, the important thing for us is that we made them
realize that we are here to stay. Now and tomorrow." These
words express the mindset of a person struggling to defend
his land and his people against an unjust, brutal
occupation, and not that of a murderer. It is in line with
the spirit which says that there is nothing easier than for
some nations to surrender their right to life for the sake
of an "everlasting peace", and we refuse be among those
nations.
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