Archbishop Atallah Hanna to ST: If Arab Leaders Cut Relations with US, They will Lose Nothing
Archbishop of Sebastia of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of al-Quds [Jerusalem] Atallah Hanna has underscored that boycotting US products and expelling US ambassadors from Arab countries are the reactions wanted from Palestinians and Arab countries after the US president Donald Trump’s recognition of al-Quds as Israel’s capital.
He told the Syriatimes e-newspaper that a campaign for boycotting US products has been launched in Palestine following the worst and the most dangerous decision adopted by president Trump, who has been biased towards the occupation ‘state’
“We have not been surprised by the decision of the US President Donald Trump, who is biased towards the occupation ‘state’. The US has always been biased to Israel,” he said, indicating that The US President’s al-Quds decision has unmasked the hostile stances of the successive US administrations towards the Palestinian people and the Arab nation.
The archbishop went on to say:“ President Trump’s al-Quds decision is one of the worst and the most dangerous US decisions related to the Palestinian cause. It is an insult to our people and Arab nation and our friends all over the world.”
He affirmed that this decision will enhance the Palestinians’ steadfastness, their adherence to their belonging to al-Quds and their defense of Muslim and Christian sanctuaries in al-Quds.
Trump’s decision ‘evidence of the US administration’s hostility to Palestine’
“We will never surrender and this US recent decision means nothing to us. It is just another evidence of the US administration’s hostility to our people and our just national cause. This decision will make no change in the situation of al-Quds city, which is an occupied city. This occupation must end,” the clergyman added.
He explained what is wanted from Palestinians and Arab countries at this time.
“I think that the reaction wanted from Palestinians at the decision is to cut relations with the current US administration and to launch a campaign for boycotting US products. And this campaign has been launched in Palestine.”
“However, at the Arab level, we hope that Arab leaders will cut diplomatic relations with the US and will expel US Ambassadors from Arab countries and will boycott US products. But this requires a popular movement and we hope that our Arab peoples will move and will demonstrate to express their rejection of the US bias towards Israel,” he said.
The archbishop added: “ I want to assure the Arab leaders, who will cut their relations with the US, that they will lose nothing, on the contrary they will win their peoples and they will cut their relations with the state that has exploited and blackmailed them and stole their money for implementing its projects in our Arab region.”
US and its allies conspire against Palestine and just Arab causes
He reminded those who need a reminder that the US, whose president declared al-Quds as the capital of Israel, is the same state that has been conspiring against our Arab countries . “The US is the main cause of setbacks, disasters and Nakbas [exodus] that took place in our region. The US and its allies have conspired against Syria and other Arab countries.”
The archbishop underlined that no one has authorized Trump to adopt such decision and he has no right to do that.
“When President Trump visited Saudi Arabia several months ago, he did not go there for pilgrimage or for tourism. He went there for stealing Arab money in order to finance the US colonialist projects in our region, ” he said, regretting that the US and Arab nation’s enemies are conspiring against Palestine and against its national causes, while some Arabs are financing the US colonialist projects by their oil money.
“Trump took hundreds of billions of dollars from Saudi Arabia. If this amount was used positively there would be no poor person in our region. If oil money that were paid for terrorism and wars in our region were used in a good way, we would be able to liberate Palestine and to restore al-Quds as well as to solve all economic and social problems in our region,” the archbishop added, asserting that the Arab oil has become a cause of disasters instead of being a cause of development in our region.
“I do not expect that the US and Israel will change. Those who bet on changes in US policy are mistaken. Our Arab situation must change and Arabs should be more united and their compass must be al-Quds and Palestine,” Archbp. Hanna concluded.
Interviewed by: Basma Qaddour