When Leadership Becomes a Final Trench for the People

In this weary East where capitals fall, homelands disappear, and positions change with the first storm, Palestine stands as if it is the last story still resisting collapse, with a man at its helm carrying the pain of an entire people on his shoulders, a people that has known nothing but siege, betrayal, wars, and waiting for decades.

It’s not easy to be the president of an oppressed people, but it’s even harder to be the president of a people living under a form of oppression like no other and a siege like no other, facing constant targeting for decades.
In Palestine, leadership is not measured by the number of speeches or pictures but by the extent of the fire that one walks on daily to keep this people standing on their feet.

Since the launch of the Palestinian revolution until this moment, President Mahmoud Abbas has not known the taste of comfort, nor has the Central Committee of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) known complete calm or stable tranquility.

Long years of political pressure, attempts to break the national will, internal divisions, and continuous targeting of the Palestinian cause have continued, yet the man has remained steadfast in his position, clinging to his people's right to freedom, statehood, independence, and peace, believing that Palestine deserves to be protected no matter how fierce the storms become.

This man, who has accompanied the giants from Yasser Arafat to the generation of founders and fighters, has never abandoned his conviction that the Palestinian people deserves a dignified life, and that the responsibility of leadership is not mere words spoken, but long patience in the face of pain, betrayal, and the immense pressures exerted from every direction.

Perhaps one of the deepest things that can be recalled in this context is the saying of Allah the Almighty:
﴿He who fed them from hunger and made them secure from fear﴾,

which has transformed in President Abu Mazen's thought and approach into a principle of political and humanitarian work, based on protecting the Palestinian human being, preserving his dignity, and constantly striving to secure his livelihood and safety above his land despite all the harsh circumstances.

Despite the fatigue, the president still roams the world again and again, not in search of personal glory, but in pursuit of protecting his people, breaking the political and economic siege on them, and gathering the largest possible support for the Palestinian cause.

Here, his brothers in the Central Committee spread across the capitals of the world, some in Amman, others in Damascus, and another in Canada, carrying the pain of Palestine with them to the entire world and trying to open every door that can relieve this weary people from wars, hunger, siege, and division.

Despite everything that has happened, the insistence remains that legitimacy is built through the ballot boxes, not through chaos or imposition of facts on the ground.

Everyone witnessed that the municipal elections were held in the West Bank and even in the Gaza Strip when it was possible, in a clear message stating that the Palestinian national project still believes in democracy and the people’s right to choose their representatives.

Tomorrow, when the eighth conference of Fatah convenes, it will not just be an organizational meeting but a national station to renew the covenant with the Palestinian people and renew the belief that this movement, which has paid thousands of martyrs, prisoners, and wounded, is still capable of carrying the national project and defending it under the most difficult circumstances.

Within this movement, the members of Fatah know how to distinguish between those who serve the people and those who serve themselves.

The members of Fatah look with admiration to those who step up to serve the Palestinian people and protect their cause, but at the same time, they observe with a critical eye for those who seek to exploit their suffering for personal gain.

Fatah, which made the revolution, knows well how to protect its national project and how to differentiate between the true fighter and those who wear the cloak of nationalism in search of privilege or a seat or personal benefit.

Mercy to our righteous martyrs who wrote with their blood the tale of Palestine, and urgent freedom to our heroic prisoners in the occupation’s prisons, those who paid their lives for the dignity of this homeland.

No people can forget their martyrs, and no cause can remain alive without loyalty to the freedom prisoners who are still waiting for dawn behind bars.

Yes... the situation is harsh, and the occupation grows more ferocious, and the pressures multiply day by day, but the president remains steadfast despite all that is exerted against him and continues to cling to national constants, and most importantly, behind him is a people who knows well who stood with him in the most difficult moments and who continued to carry the cause when everyone else grew weary.

To President Mahmoud Abbas...

To the members of the Central Committee, each by name and title...

Continue to protect the sons of this people. There is a whole people that still sees in your steadfastness a safeguard for the Palestinian national project amidst this great darkness.

And to all who served Palestine sincerely: whether politically or as fighters, as patient mothers, or as young people who carry the dream of state in their hearts... we are with you.

As for those opportunists who trade in Palestinian pain and seek their interests above the backs of the weary, Palestinian history has never spared the fools and will not spare them today.

They will pass just as others have passed, and Palestine will remain for its honorable ones, for the true owners of the cause, and for those who have preserved the trust and did not sell it.

Palestine does not seek heroes of paper...

Palestine seeks those who stand strong when the country becomes weary.