Lebanese Religious Leaders Voice Support to Gaza

19-12-2008
As Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah announced Monday night, Friday saw the beginning of a series of actions to end the siege of Gaza. Muslim scholars across Lebanon focused on the siege of Gaza during their Friday sermons and expressed support to the steadfast Palestinian people.
No matter what their religion was, Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, Deputy of Muslim Shiite Higher Council Sheikh Abdul-Amir Qabalan, Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani and Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Nasser Al-Din Gharib all voiced their support to the Palestinian cause and called for the immediate lift of the "Israeli" blockade suffocating Gaza since June 2007.
Ayatollah Sayyed Mohamad Hussein Fadlallah said that the Gaza blockade has become a political blockade that paves the way for another Palestinian displacement on the one hand and force the Palestinians to yield to the "Israeli" conditions. This blockade, Sayyed Fadlallah said, continues under the eyes of the official Arab and Western worlds to an extent that every human right has been breached in Gaza. "The "Israeli" enemy has dared to bar UN Human Rights Commissioner from entering the occupied territories after they detained him for thirty hours; something that caused the UN Secretary General, solely, to express regret and concern," his eminence added.
Deputy Head of the Muslim Shiite Higher Council Sheikh Abdul-Amir Kabalan called on Arabs and Muslims to hold popular conferences in the holy city of Mecca, Cairo and Tehran and come up with a program to rescue the Palestinian people who are sacrificing and suffering from the "Israeli" occupation. In his Friday sermon, Sheikh Kabalan urged the Palestinian people to gather at crossing points and ask for help adding that "it's shameful for us to stand helplessly in front of the Palestinian people who are screaming in vain".
For his part, Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani said that "hungering the people of Gaza would stimulate a more powerful Palestinian resistance which will have unlimited damage on "Israel"." Kabbani called the United Nations and the Arab League as well as the Organization of the Islamic Conference for "immediate action to lift the inhumane blockade of Gaza" and urged them to raise their voice against the human crimes committed by "Israel" in the Strip.
"For how long will the Arab leadership and big countries undermine the Palestinian and Arab rights?" Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Nasser Al-Din Gharib wondered. Sheikh Gharib also urged the Palestinian people to unite in face of Zionist enemy's conspiracies.