The Arabs said: If every dog barked, I would throw a stone at it, and the stone would become worth a thousand dinars. And their saying proved true. Our life in the East is full of ravens, and how ugly and loud their cawing is. From time to time, they become more insolent, exploiting the falcons’ disdain for mischief, littering, and attacking the clean opponent.
Politicians fully understand that weak and lowly souls roam the political field to polish the masters’ suits, licking their shoes to gain scraps of their favors. The caravans of ravens increase with the misery of society and the corruption of its authority. This phenomenon is not limited to the Arab East but is far more rampant here than in other societies. In our Palestinian case, it is distinctly severe and grows proportionally with the disappointing decline at the top of the authority and its diminishment of our people's sole reference institutions, the PLO.
It is not my habit to respond to the cawing of ravens that meddle among us and spoil the atmosphere. This is beneath my personal level and position. I dedicate my efforts to critiquing political performance, convinced that constructive criticism of those who deviate from Palestinian national consensus is the concern of every patriotic Palestinian who watches over the homeland and its people. I draw my conviction from the German philosopher Otto Brenner, who devoted his life defending the working class. His famous phrase I adopted as a measure for my political contribution is: 'Neither silence nor submission to authority is the primary duty of a citizen, but continuous criticism and democratic awareness.'
Silence in the face of the ravens’ cawing becomes harmful to the national interest if this discordant cawing targets the honorable leaders of our people and their sincere national contributions. Silence then becomes destructive and unforgivable if it prolongs against the symbols of clean political leadership.
A few days ago, we received the cawing of a shabby black crow named Hassan Al-Hassan. He attacked comrade and symbol member of the Executive Committee, Tayseer Khaled, with vile words. We did not respond or engage with this person’s ordinary critical message for two reasons: first, everyone has the right to criticize public-serving figures and comment on their political or departmental contributions. Second, Hassan Al-Hassan’s evaluation of any Palestinian politician cannot be taken seriously because we know exactly who he is and what his capabilities are. Had he been polite and criticized within the bounds of decorum, which he does not master, we would have replied with the Arabs’ saying, which proved true: 'If the blame comes from a deficient person, it is a testimony that I am complete.'
Comrade symbol Tayseer Khaled and the department he heads, the 'Department of Expatriates in the PLO,' are, according to President Mahmoud Abbas, Tayseer’s colleagues in the Executive Committee, and political leaders from all Palestinian political spectra, the most active and successful Palestinian political departments despite their very limited financial resources. Here, I can only confirm that neither Comrade Tayseer Khaled nor his team needs a 'national certificate' from anyone, certainly not from a fallen person like Hassan Al-Hassan.
Personally, I was not surprised by the vile words uttered by Al-Hassan, nor do I think anyone who knows him was surprised by his filthy vocabulary. This is his highest level allowed by his modest intellect. To those expecting different words from this fallen person, I say: No one expects honey from a fly! The fly is rotten and dirty, and what comes out of it is what is inside... The same applies to the so-called Hassan Al-Hassan. He was honest with himself and spoke what he contained inside: filth and baseness mixed with hatred and animosity.
What is truly painful and unfortunate is that this fallen person was once the secretary of Fatah movement in Germany! This venerable organization in Germany produced national cadres that honor every Palestinian and are the crown of the national movement inside and outside. It is sad that none of the movement’s cadres has dared publicly, so far, to disavow Hassan Al-Hassan’s disgraceful words and actions that harmed the Palestinian national movement and its reputation among our German friends.
It suffices for anyone who wants to know the truth about this despicable fallen person to ask in the city where he lives, Bremen in northern Germany. Ask the last community president and the successful Palestinian businessman who accompanied Hassan for years... Ask Dr. Detlef Griesche, former member of the state parliament for the Social Democratic Party and close friend of former ambassador Abdullah Al-Faranji, about the funds embezzled by Hassan Al-Hassan that were collected to support solidarity activities at the state level. Ask the German solidarity group with the Palestinian people about Hassan’s embezzlements and his insolence towards the group’s leaders, Anette Klassj and Avissa Loben... The disgraceful history in Bremen and Germany requires dozens of pages to narrate... Yet, this fallen person still speaks in the name of the pioneering Fatah movement and its honorable sons, tarnishing their reputation and that of the national movement without restraint from the movement’s leadership in Germany.
Dear brothers in the Fatah movement – Germany, brothers in the mobilization and organization department of the movement, you are certain that the fallen Hassan Al-Hassan and his ilk are rot in the body of your movement, and the first and greatest harm returns to your venerable movement. It is time to come out of the shell of monitoring and sweet talk to soothe feelings... The time has come to take the right steps to rid the rot that harms your movement’s body. We address you out of concern for the movement’s reputation and its honorable cadres... Out of concern for the cleanliness of the national trench that unites us. Rot does not disappear by itself but increases day by day and eventually becomes a danger to all.
