TEHRAN — On Tuesday, the Resistance leaders, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, spoke out against the barbarity of the Israeli regime and supported the resistance of the Palestinian fighters, trying to attract the attention of the global community to the Palestinian question.

In his meeting with the university students late on Tuesday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei touched on various issues going on in the world, but he dedicated the last part of his speech to international Quds Day, which falls on April 29 this year.
 
Referring to the forthcoming Quds Day, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution considered this year’s Quds Day different from previous years and said, “This year, Quds Day is different from other years. Palestinians have made great sacrifices both last Ramadan and this Ramadan. The Zionist regime is committing the worst crimes. They commit every crime they want, and the U.S. and Europe support it.”

Ayatollah Khamenei called the Palestinian people powerful while oppressed, and praised the struggle of the Palestinian youth who do not allow the Palestinian cause to be forgotten.

He added, “Quds Day is a good opportunity to express sympathy and solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian people and give them a morale-boosting.”

He also strongly criticized the silence of some Islamic countries on the issue of Palestine, noting, “Unfortunately, Islamic states have behaved very badly (in this regard) and are not even willing to talk about the issue of Palestine. Some of them think that the way to help Palestine is to establish relations with the Zionists, while this is a grave mistake.”

Referring to the great mistake made by the Egyptian government more than 40 years ago that established relations with the Zionists, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution asked, “Does the Islamic world want to repeat the same mistake of Anwar Sadat?”

He then critiqued those countries that copied the same strategy of Sadat, saying, “Normalization with the Zionist regime will harm the copycats and the Palestinians.”

Emphasizing that establishing relations with the Zionist regime will not be of any use, Ayatollah Khamenei said, “We hope that with God's grace, the conclusion of resistance in Palestine will be a happy ending, and that the Palestinians regain domination of their land and Al-Aqsa Mosque soon.”

On the same day, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah gave a key speech about the resilience of the Palestinian fighters.

Nasrallah said, “The most important reason for what we are exposed to in Lebanon, as well as to what countries and resistance movements in our region are subjected to, is everyone who belongs to this movement (of resistance), to this axis, to this idea, to this origin, to this goal, faced siege and sanctions and restrictions. We are subjected to these sanctions at the international, regional and domestic levels, and the sanctions’ main goal is to abandon Quds, Palestine, the logic of resistance, and the culture of resistance.”

Speaking at the “Al-Quds Forum 2022 – the Equation,” Nasrallah said that war in Quds means a “regional war.”

“Today, we’re standing on the verge of great and final victory,” he said, declaring that the axis of resistance is prepared to make whatever sacrifices that are necessary to realize the prospect.

“Quds is our model and goal,” he said and urged that the axis of resistance be rather called “the al-Quds axis” due to the centrality of the holy city to unity among the axis’ members.

Nasrallah, meanwhile, warned that the global arrogance’s strategy on the issue of Palestine rested on “killing time” so the Palestinian and other Muslim nations end up forgetting and despairing of the Palestinian cause.

“However, what is actually taking place is contrary to their desire,” Nasrallah said.

He then concluded his speech by saying that the resistance movement will continue its path regardless of how great the sacrifices, threats, difficulties and dangers will be. 

“God willing, we will continue together hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder. All the resistance factions, all the resistance movements, all the peoples of the resistance, and all the countries of the resistance will break all restrictions and nullify all conspiracies. All the daggers that try to stab in our backs and in our chests will fall. Our real battle that will create complete freedom for the holy Quds, and Quds will remain the title, the goal, and the foundation of the axis,” he stressed. 

Similarly, Ismail Haniyeh, chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau stated that resistance was the Palestinian nation's preferred option, citing effective Palestinian operations across the occupied West Bank since the start of Ramadan.

As a result, he argued, issues like the occupation and the right of Palestinians to return to their homeland "cannot be handled at the negotiating table."

Realizing this, the Zionist regime began restoring relations with several regional powers in order to "legitimize its existence and its objectives for the destruction of the Palestinian cause," Haniyeh remarked.

According to Haniyeh, Tel Aviv was also attempting to exploit the situation in Ukraine as a smokescreen for its intentions for al-Quds and the al-Aqsa Mosque.

"However, all of the regime's efforts to manipulate the Palestinian nation have failed," he said, adding that "our nation does not tolerate distortion of the al-Aqsa Mosque's identity and the historical realities that apply to it."

The Palestinian conflict has been ongoing on since World War II, but the global community has chosen to be silent despite flagrant violations of Palestinians’ basic rights. But now the world is turning its attention to Palestine.

In a significant development, UN human rights experts called on the international community to take immediate and effective steps to protect and sustain the six Palestinian civil society groups that were designated as “terrorist organizations” by the Israeli regime in October 2021.

In a press release by the Office of the High Commissioner of the United Nations Human Right body, the UN experts dubbed the Israelis’ move to designate civil society groups as terrorist organizations as a “disturbing designation.”

“Israel’s disturbing designation of these organizations as ‘terrorist organizations’ has not been accompanied by any public concrete and credible evidence,” said the human rights experts. “We note that the information presented by Israel has also failed to convince a number of governments and international organizations that have traditionally provided funding for the indispensable work of these six organizations.”
Recently, a four-year study by Amnesty International partly revealed the true color of the Israeli regime and called on the international organizations to bring the Israeli officials to justice. But the million-dollar question is, will the world listen?

Amnesty International's rigorous study and legal analysis, conducted in cooperation with other experts, shows that Israel pushes ahead with its malicious behaviors toward Palestinians through enacting laws and practices that ensure continued harsh discrimination.

Specific unlawful acts performed under a totalitarian ideology and supremacy with the goal of preserving it constitute the crime against humanity of apartheid, according to international criminal law. The Apartheid Convention and the Rome Statute define these crimes as unlawful killing, torture, forcible transfer, and denial of basic rights and freedoms.

Massive seizure of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer, severe movement restrictions, and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians are all components of a system that amounts to apartheid under international law, according to the comprehensive report titled “Israel's Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime against Humanity.” This system is upheld by transgressions that Amnesty International determined to be apartheid as a crime against humanity, as defined by the Rome Statute and the Apartheid Convention.

Amnesty International has urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to include apartheid as a crime in its ongoing investigation in the OPT, and all governments to use universal jurisdiction to prosecute perpetrators of apartheid crimes.

For committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians, Israeli authorities must be held accountable.

In this regard, as Iran's leading international daily, the Tehran Times will host its first online event, dubbed "Remember Palestine." The event will focus on various aspects of the Palestinian cause as the Islamic world's number one issue.

The event is aimed to commemorate the chivalrous Palestinian fighters, as well as the free-spirited people around the world who take the issue of injustice done to the Palestinians seriously. It also explores various aspects of Intifadas, as well as the issue of human rights violations in Palestine.

It will also promote awareness on the plight of Palestinians whose land has been under Israeli occupation immediately after World War II. "Remember Palestine" will be held on Friday, April 29, which coincides with international Quds Day, and will end on May 15, known as Nakba Day (Day of Catastrophe).

To register and know more about event categories and submission topics, visit event.tehrantimes.com.