Senior Catholic priest calls for civil disobedience against PA

Senior Roman Catholic priest Monsignor Manuel Musallam has called for resistance against the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli authorities in occupied Palestine and abroad, Shehab.ps reported on Monday. He called specifically for acts of civil disobedience in the occupied West Bank.

The veteran activist and member of the Islamic-Christian Committee to Protect Holy Sites told Shehab that the Palestinian resistance should establish an army and announce obligatory service across Palestine and in the diaspora. Protest tents, he added, should be erected in front of the office of PA President Mahmoud Abbas to “scream” in his face.

“He [Abbas] must not be let go while Gaza is suffering,” explained Monsignor Musallam. “He and the PLO must be compelled to lift their sanctions on Gaza.” This, he suggested, could not be achieved peacefully, but through massive demonstrations and civil disobedience. “The problem which Fatah does not recognise is that the Palestinian people are not ruled by a single faction. The Palestinians must choose their leadership from all the Palestinian factions.”

READ: Father Musallam calls for civil disobedience against PA to lift sanctions on Gaza

Regarding Donald Trump’s so-called deal of the century, the Catholic priest said that it has been ongoing since 1948, when Palestine was occupied, and includes the 1967 occupation of Jerusalem, Judaisation and settlements as well as Israeli aggression. “The deal of the century is an illusion, not a reality, and our slogan against it must be resistance from the beginning until the end.”

Asked about the Jewish Nation State Law, Musallam said that this emanated from the infamous Balfour Declaration in 1917, which promised a national home for the Jewish people.

As far as the current truce is concerned, he stressed that if resistance itself is legitimate — which it is — “The Palestinian resistance factions must not negotiate about rights.”