“I assure all of you: to the enemy, to the friend, to the whole world: You cannot eliminate Hezbollah, nor will you be able to eliminate the honourable resistance movements in Palestine. You will never be able to do so, because the resistance is not a conventional army, and because the resistance is, first and foremost, the people. A people who possess faith, willpower, confidence in victory, who love martyrdom, and who reject humiliation and disgrace. This is a people that no one can defeat. You may kill its men, women, children and elderly. You may destroy their buildings and homes over their heads. But you cannot defeat them. And with us as well, I assure, the resistance will not break. And the resistance will not be defeated.” – Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network mourns with the deepest respect and salutes with the highest honour the great Arab, Islamic and international leader, the lifelong struggler, the brilliant revolutionary strategist, the anti-imperialist, anti-colonial icon, the beloved of the oppressed, the military and political commander, the tireless and victorious mujahid on the road to al-Quds and the liberation of Palestine, His Eminence, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
We extend our condolences and congratulations to the Lebanese people, the Palestinian people, Hezbollah and its leadership, members and supporters, the resistance fighters on the front lines, all of the forces of resistance in the region, the revolutionary movements of the world, and his family and loved ones on the martyrdom of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, assassinated by the Zionist regime in a murderous attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut, on Friday, 27 September 2024. At the moment of his martyrdom, as he did throughout his life, he was deeply engaged and devoted to the liberation of Palestine, loyal in all circumstances, continuing to fight and advance for Palestine and Lebanon, confronting to the end the Zionist entity, its U.S. imperialist directors and all of their agents in the region.
Continuous building for liberation
In 2000 and 2006 and continually until this moment, Sayyed Nasrallah and the revolutionary movement he dedicated his life to building and leading struck blow after blow against Zionism and imperialism, as the Lebanese Resistance, led by Hezbollah, liberated the south of Lebanon from Zionist occupation after nearly 20 years of struggle and victoriously confronted the Zionist assault once again in 2006. Sayyed Nasrallah was the architect of a historic liberation that ushered in a new era of Palestinian, Arab, Islamic and international struggle and broke the back of Zionism, exposing its pretenses of military superiority and eternal domination over the region. He was renowned always for his wisdom, honesty and precision, with a clear vision of the enemy’s capacities, exposing its lies and manipulations, and planning for a strategic victory.
Sayyed Nasrallah’s leadership and struggle was also directly connected to the prisoners’ movement and the liberation of the prisoners of the Zionist regime. From the liberation of Khiam prison by the victorious Lebanese resistance in 2000, liberating the torture dens of the occupiers and their collaborators and turning it into a museum of honour for those who struggled and sacrificed there, to the repeated prisoner exchanges achieved by Hezbollah, the Lebanese Resistance, including the 2004 prisoner exchange, which liberated 400 Palestinian prisoners as well as 23 Lebanese, five Syrians, three Moroccans, three Sudanese, one Libyan and one German-British prisoner jailed by the Zionist regime. These exchanges, in which Sayyed Nasrallah himself played a major role, illustrated once again that the only viable mechanism available to liberate the prisoners in occupation jails is to liberate the land and to achieve an exchange.
Anti-imperialist vision targeted by a US/Zionist aggression
He always led, spoke and analyzed with the highest clarity about the forces of the enemy faced by the Lebanese and Palestinian people, recognizing and exposing the alliance between Zionism and US imperialism, saying: “America itself is the decision maker. In America, you have the major corporations; you have a trinity of the oil corporations, the weapons manufacturers and the so-called ‘Christian Zionism.’ The decision making is in the hands of this alliance. ‘Israel’ used to be a tool in the hands of the British, and now it is a tool in the hands of America.” In April of 2024, he reiterated this statement, affirming: “The claim that the Americans cannot force Israel to do something is nonsense. According to some theories, Israel controls America. No sir. It is America that controls Israel.” He did not hesitate to confront Arab and Islamic reactionary forces working as agents and allies of imperialism and Zionism, working tirelessly instead to build a revolutionary resistance alliance and deepen even further the unbreakable bonds of blood, commitment and struggle between Lebanon and Palestine.
We must be clear: this assassination attack was also a genocidal assault on the Lebanese people, particularly the people of al-Dahiyeh, the popular cradle of the resistance. The Zionist regime dropped 83 one-ton U.S.-made bombs on residential buildings in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, in the aggression. However, this was not simply an attack using U.S. weaponry. It is clear that the U.S. and its fellow imperialist powers, including Germany, France, Canada, Britain, Australia, and Italy, are full partners in the ongoing genocide in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine and in the ongoing brutal Zionist aggression against Lebanon, including the assassination of Sayyed Nasrallah.
Indeed, US president, war criminal and genocidaire Joe Biden praised the assassination of Sayyed Nasrallah, calling it a “measure of justice for a…reign of terror.” Of course, it was Sayyed Nasrallah, his comrades in Hezbollah, in the Palestinian Resistance, in all of the resistance forces of the region who were responsible for bringing down the reign of terror of Zionism and imperialism in Lebanon and confronting it everywhere in the region. Biden further confirmed that the assassination, and indeed, the entire aggression on Lebanon, were meant to break the unshakeable alliance with the Palestinian people and their resistance, saying that “Nasrallah…made the fateful decision to join hands with Hamas and open what he called a ‘northern front’ against Israel.” As Sayyed Nasrallah affirmed in his last speech, he met these demands with defiance and unshakeable commitment: “We will never abandon Palestine.”
Lebanon and Palestine: The Unbreakable Alliance
Indeed, Hezbollah and the Lebanese people and their Resistance joined hands with Hamas and all of the forces of the Resistance, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and all of the resistance factions and the Palestinian people as a whole, to create a major support front in the battle of Al-Aqsa Flood. And they have consistently fought to decolonize the north of Palestine, emptying it of its settlers and soldiers, in order to defend Gaza and demand an end to the genocide. It is Hezbollah, alongside the people, armed forces, and AnsarAllah movement of Yemen, and their fellow resistance forces in the regional resistance alliance, who have taken their responsibilities to prevent genocide seriously, while the imperialist powers arm, fund and indeed direct the genocidal warplanes of the Zionist entity. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah refused to allow the alliance of the support fronts to be broken, committed deeply to the liberation of al-Quds and all of Palestine, from the river to the sea, knowing that his martyrdom was possible and even likely, as was that of his son, Hadi, in the battle to liberate Lebanon in 1997.
The imperialist powers, led by the United States, continue to list Hezbollah on their so-called lists of “terrorist organizations” or “terrorist entities,” despite the fact that Hezbollah is a mass movement and political party in Lebanon, the force that achieved the liberation of Lebanese land from Zionist colonization and terror. This listing is used in an attempt to isolate, sanction and besiege the resistance, as well as to legitimize the assassination and imprisonment of its leaders and members. Listing Hezbollah and the Palestinian Resistance organizations on “terror lists” and under anti-terror laws runs entirely in contradiction with international law and the rights of people to liberate themselves from colonialism and occupation. While this has failed, of course, to crush the resistance or to isolate it from its popular cradle in Lebanon and Palestine, it continues to serve as a mechanism of repression and targeting, much like the sanctions and coercive economic measures targeting nations and states that resist U.S. imperialist domination. In fact, time and time again, the great resistance leaders targeted for assassination by the Zionist regime using US weaponry and intelligence – for example, the martyrs Ibrahim Aqil, Fouad Shukr, Saleh al-Arouri, and Ismail Haniyeh – all appear as “specially designated global terrorists” or even “most wanted” by the United States.
They Can Never Assassinate Resistance
The assassination campaign is nothing new, and it has failed miserably in an attempt to destroy the resistance. The deep faith and commitment of the resistance’s leadership has prepared them for martyrdom, and Sayyed Nasrallah, alongside every fighter for Palestine and Lebanon, carried with him the deepest willingness to sacrifice and struggle despite any price extracted. He said: “We will continue to walk this path, even if we are all killed, even if we are all martyred, even if our homes are destroyed over our heads, we will not abandon the option of Islamic resistance.”
Sayyed Nasrallah himself was elected as the General Secretary of Hezbollah in 1992, following the Zionist assassination of Sayyed Abbas al-Musawi. The assassination of al-Musawi failed, despite the predictions of the day, to destroy Hezbollah and the Lebanese resistance; on the contrary, the resistance rose to greater strength and power, ridding the land of Lebanon of the colonial zionist forces occupying the South since 1982.
From Ibrahim Aqil to Fouad Shukr to Abbas al-Musawi, from Ismail Haniyeh to Saleh al-Arouri to Fathi Shiqaqi, Abu Ali Mustafa, Abdel-Aziz Rantisi, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Imad Mughniyyeh, Yahya Ayyash, Abu Jihad, Kamal ‘Udwan, Mohammed al-Najjar, Basil al-Kubaisi, Kamal Nasser, Wadie Haddad, Ghassan Kanafani, Mohammed Boudia, Basil al-Araj, Tariq Izzedine to Samir Kuntar; the Zionist regime relies on the assassination weapon against the liberation movement. However, despite these assassinations, the forces of resistance are stronger than they have ever been and the Zionist regime continues to crumble. Assassinations have little effect on the capabilities of the Resistance, for they cannot kill the ideology of resistance as it is not embodied in individual men but in the popular consciousness of the broad masses.
As Tareq Izzedine said, “Whenever a leader ascends, ten will emerge to replace them. When a martyr ascends, 100 martyrs will emerge to replace them. The march continues, and it does not stop until the defeat of the occupation.” And as Saleh al-Arouri said, “We are martyred like our people, we are arrested as they are arrested, our homes are demolished and we are being chased and pursued. We fight because we must.”
On the road to Al-Quds, on the road to victory and liberation
The pain of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s assassination is felt in the heart of every free human who cherishes liberation, justice and a future of dignity for all. His revolutionary honesty and clarity, brilliant strategic wisdom, and deep commitment is cherished everywhere, from the villages, cities and refugee camps of Palestine, where spontaneous marches burst into the streets at the news of his martyrdom, to the popular cradle of south Lebanon and among the Lebanese people as a whole, to those who march for Palestine and against the genocide in the centre of Johannesburg, South Africa, to a commune in Venezuela working to build popular solidarity and confront U.S. imperialism, to even the streets and campuses of the imperial core, where mass movements confront genocide, imperialism and Zionism. He represents not only himself, but the true promise of the resistance, for victory, return and liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, for the defeat of Zionism, imperialism and their reactionary agents and partners. Committed always to uplifting the oppressed, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah lived his life as a mujahid on the road to al-Quds, and a true international revolutionary leader of our time.
The Zionist and imperialist forces seek to declare an illusory “victory” or “achievement” over the Resistance through the assassination of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and the mass targeting of the Lebanese and Palestinian people. However, despite their genocidal campaigns of aerial bombing, they have been utterly unable to uproot or destroy the Resistance and its deep commitment among the people. Al-Aqsa Flood has exposed before the world the true nature of Zionism and imperialism and has made it clear that a liberated Palestine and indeed, a liberated Arab nation and a liberated region are fully possible and achievable. Despite their genocidal attempts to erase the revolution and the resistance in a sea of blood, they will never kill the resistance nor the Palestinian, Arab, Islamic and international revolution against Zionism and imperialism.
We hold the deepest confidence that the unified Resistance will ensure that the occupation is held accountable for its genocidal aggression and its cowardly assassinations. For those of us in the imperial core, this is a moment to escalate our struggle, to organize more actively, to take direct action, to fill the streets, and to make it impossible for imperialist business as usual to continue.
As the martyr Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in his last speech, “The end of this battle will be a historic victory.” Our collective movement must, with full confidence and commitment, do everything in our power to ensure the correctness and inevitability of this statement.
This great crime will only inspire even more resistance and struggle along the path set out and exemplified by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the great leader and the great martyr, until the defeat of the Zionist regime and its imperialist partners and sponsors, until victory: the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, and the liberation of the Arab people and the region from Zionism, imperialism and their agents and collaborators.
