Al-Safir, Lebanon, Originally posted in Arabic on December 20
I remember speaking to the martyr Samir Kuntar, who was assassinated this weekend in his Damascus home, several years ago.
It was early 2009, and Kuntar returned from captivity in Israel only several months earlier. He gave a speech on an International Forum on the Future of the Golan and told me, at the sidelines of this assembly, that speeches are not enough. “We will return to the Golan as martyrs,” he proclaimed. “Only through armed resistance will we redeem our homeland”.
I also heard him speak in Algeria in 2010, when he attended the International Forum on Arab Prisoners. He was surrounded by dozens of Palestinians who were freed from Israeli prisons in earlier years, and succeeded in reminding them why their struggle was not in vain. He spoke with passion and left all of us with tears in our eyes. “I am not only Palestinian by spirit,” he said, “but also Palestinian through my personal commitment to the land. God willing, we will not stop fighting until we liberate Palestine through martyrdom”.
Even in 1979, when he carried out his heroic operation in Nahariyah, he did so on behalf of the Palestinian Liberation Front. Again and again, Samir proved that it is not enough being Arab; we must also remember our critical commitment towards our Palestinian brothers. This is why he was not only a Lebanese citizen, but also a Palestinian freedom fighter.
His martyrdom this week, just miles away from his beloved Golan, concludes his story. It is the symbolic end of an eagle that hailed from the peaks of Mount Lebanon and flew high above the hills of the Golan, carrying the spirit of the Arabs with him.
Today, Samir joins the long list of Palestinian martyrs who have sacrificed themselves to redeem the Palestinian homeland. He might have died, but his spirit – as well as that of the Golan – will live forever. – Maan Bushur