Today marks the thirtieth anniversary of the assassination of the founding Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, the martyr leader Dr. Fathi Al-Shaqaqi, who was treacherously assassinated by the zionist Mossad in Malta.
Dr. Al-Shaqaqi — through his thought, positions, and jihadist career — represented a turning point in the course of our people’s struggle and resistance against the zionist project on our land, Palestine. Since the movement’s beginnings he and his brothers worked to expose the danger posed by the zionist entity to the Arab and Muslim nation, and indeed to the whole world, portraying it as the spearhead of the Western colonial project directed at the heart of our nation, and as representing all evil and corruption… as events and facts have shown, the essence of the zionist project and its danger to Arabs, Muslims and the entire world have been exposed.
On this occasion we reaffirm the fundamental principles launched by the martyred doctor and his comrades: that Palestine must be the central cause of the Arab and Islamic peoples; that jihad and resistance are the way to confront the danger of this project to our Arab and Islamic nation; and that faith, awareness, revolution, and unity of national and Islamic ranks are the necessary tools to achieve this.
Dr. Al-Shaqaqi thought, may God have mercy on him, and that of his brothers, bore fruit in the heroic steadfastness of Saraya Al-Quds in confronting and combating the enemy on numerous occasions — foremost among them remaining steadfast on the battlefield against the entity in brave Gaza for two full years, side by side with the Martyr Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades and all Palestinian resistance forces. In doing so they offered the best of their leaders, cadres, and sons with dignity and pride. Through its brave brigades in the West Bank, they were at the forefront of clashes with the occupation army in the camps and cities of the West Bank, defending our land and our sanctities, foremost among them the Blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.
On this occasion we affirm that the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine remains committed to the principles for which it was founded, and that it will spare no effort to stop the aggression on Gaza, to deliver aid into the Strip, to force the withdrawal of the enemy army, to rebuild, to restore internal unity, and to thwart the occupation’s projects in the West Bank and Al-Quds.
The course of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine has shown that the assassination of its first Secretary-General only strengthened its firmness and its conviction in the path for which the movement was launched — without compromise, evasion, or appeasement — holding fast to the principles and constants for which Al-Shaqaqi lived and was martyred for, and asserting that armed jihad is the only option to confront the Nazi-zionist crime. It will continue and persist until the liberation of Palestine — all of Palestine — from the river to the sea.