In an article he published on November 29, 2023 well-known Palestinian businessman and millionaire Munib Al-Masri justified Hamas’ October 7 terror attack in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were murdered and about 240 were kidnapped, including men, women, children and infants. He called this attack a “natural reaction” to the to the Israeli occupation and a “legitimate right” sanctioned by international law and human rights treaties. He went on to heartily congratulate “the Palestinian resistance” for its “legitimate struggle,” for managing to impose its conditions upon Israel and the international community, and for “restoring the Palestinian cause to its rightful place, at the top of the international agenda.”
Munib Al-Masi in front of his home in Nablus (Image: palestineeconomy.ps, September 9, 2015)
The following are translated excerpts from his remarks in the context of Hamas’ October 7 attack.
“Today [November 29] is International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, according to a UN General Assembly resolution from 1977 that designated it as an annual event… This year, this symbolic day occurs amidst the unusual circumstances that the Palestinian people have been experiencing since October 7 and amidst the escalating plots to eliminate the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian national enterprise, and the attempts to impose Israeli-American plans that deny Palestinian people’s right to self-determination…
“The suffering of the Palestinian people did not start on October 7. Some people pretend that history started on that day, when the Palestinian resistance declared war on Israel. This is a lie that the Zionist occupation has tried to peddle all over the world. The sterling truth is that October 7 was a natural reaction to the crimes that the Israeli occupation has been committing since 1948. It is an uprising against the global injustice that has been suffered by the [Palestinian] people since the cursed Balfour Declaration of 1917. According to international law, October 7 was a legitimate right, guaranteed to a people that has been bent under the yoke of occupation for many decades.
“October 7 was the result of the escalating Israeli terror since the advent of the present far-right government. It is the result of 17 years of siege and collective punishment in Gaza, and of shameful global silence in the face of the suffering so inhumanly and immorally [inflicted upon] two million Palestinians. It is a natural reaction to the ongoing aggression against the blessed Al-Aqsa mosque and all the holy places, and to the unjustified terror against the prisoners in the Israeli jails.
“Occupation begets resistance, [that is] an indisputable law of nature. How can any free person with a just cause give up his cause, his land and his rights? That is why international law and human rights treaties guarantee the right to resist, as stated in Article 2 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, passed [by France’s National Constituent Assembly] on August 26, 1789, [which says] that ‘resistance against oppression is a basic right’…
“On the occasion of International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, congratulations to the Palestinian resistance for its legitimate struggle for freedom, independence and the building of the homeland. Congratulations to the Palestinian resistance for managing to impose a humanitarian ceasefire after the international community failed to do so. Congratulations to the resistance for managing to impose the delivery of petrol and humanitarian aid [to Gaza], after the [UN] General Assembly and Security Council could not implement their own resolutions. Congratulations to the resistance for managing to free the women and children from the occupations’ prisons. Congratulations to the resistance for restoring the Palestinian cause to its rightful place, at the top of the international agenda, after prolonged attempts to dissolve this cause.”[1]
[1] Al-Quds (East Jerusalem), November 29, 2023.
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