Hassan Nasrallah: Repression in Bahrain is comparable to Israel's

Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah, on January 9, 2015, on the occasion of the anniversary of the birth of the Prophet.

Translation: http://sayed7asan.blogspot.fr/

Transcript:

[...] Regarding this point I want to say to our people, especially in the border villages and Lebanese people, in confronting this danger, the Lebanese are not incapable or weak and they don’t need anybody's help. With our strength, army, people and resistance, just like we defeated the Israelis we will defeat the takfiris and anyone who thinks about harming the Lebanese and their dignity. Let us be at peace knowing that despite the snow and martyrs and burdens, nothing of this can change anything regarding the will and determination of all of us, especially the Freedom Fighters, when it comes to defending the people and its security and they did this and are ready to continue assuming this position till the end.

I call on everyone not to take part in this intimidation and intimidate people, nobody can guarantee that no operation will take place here or there. This can happen in any country, whether France, Britain or Europe, all these countries are now in a state of emergency  but this talk about a large scale military operation...

People haven’t been killed and this country is full of men and strong women there is no problem in this regard. God willing in confronting  one of the biggest and strongest army in the world we were able to persevere and achieve victory, so what can we say regarding these terrorists ?

The final words I want to say - I don't want to take up to much of your time - of course the issue of the region are extensive and importan..

The developments in Palestine, very dangerous developments in Palestine regarding the Palestinian people and al Quds and al Aqsa mosque

Or the Gaza strip or the prisoners or the surrounding areas, Iraq, Yemen, Bahrain and other situations in these regions and the world.

I don’t have time to discuss the regional situations but I will have an interview in the next few days where I will speak more extensively. Who ever would like to listen will listen....

In the remaining minutes I find myself obliged to focus on the issue of Bahrain.

In the past few days the Bahraini authority arrested the secretary general of al Wifaq, Sheikh Ali Salman, may God preserve him.

This was dangerous and the continuation of his arrest is also dangerous. In terms of its significance with regards to what can be said in condemnation we can't say enough

But there is something we should focus on is that the Bahraini authorities have reached a dead end despite their efforts the past years.

The people of Bahrain who are demanding their legitimate rights and these rights cannot be debated

One of the most basic rights when everybody talks about democracy is that they have an elected parliament, and that the parliament that puts laws is elected

Having a parliament and then at the same time others, so you appoint a government to participate in drafting the laws of the political process.

What are these people demanding? They are saying we want an elected parliament which enjoys complete power

Number two, these people from day one have chosen peace in their movement, a peace movement

This distinguishes today, someone was speaking about Bahrain, but what about here or there

We’re talking about a country, in this country, its people from day one said, these are our natural logical rights, not just this, but of others, , but this is one of the most important right

And they chose a peaceful manner, they opened fire on them, but they didn’t return fire, they were killed on the street, but they didn’t respond by killing

It’s just not that they didn’t use weapons, or explosives or they didn’t bring in fighters or groups from the outside, even a knife , they didn’t use a knife

And they insist on the peaceful nature of this movement, and this is what further cornered the Bahraini authorities

The leadership of the opposition, the clerical leadership and the political leadership all agree on the peaceful nature of the movement.

First and foremost Ayatollah Sheikh Issa Qassem May God preserve him and first and foremost, Al-Wefaq Association led by Sheikh Ali Salman may God preserve him

We the Lebanese know that peaceful movements, abiding by the peaceful nature is very difficult, when someone is struck or when fire is opened he takes up arms and begins to open fire

If he has arms and if he doesn’t have arms, he goes and buys arms and begins to think day or night about those weapons

But these people, their house are attacked, their family are attacked, their clerics are in prison, their religious symbols are in prison, women, you know what happens in prison

They were killed on the streets, but they didn’t resort to any form of violence, they continued to insist on protests and speeches and the peaceful means,

There are maybe certain means which can be described as non-peaceful and violent but they didn’t resort to those means.

The Bahraini authorities always spoke about dialogue only as a way of talking not within a serious dialogue

But this opposition has always been ready for dialogue, the nature of its movement, the nature of its peaceful goals, in agreement with it reaching dialogue

But the authority always ran away from dialogue and the result of dialogue.

The Bahraini authorities in the last two years, what did they hope for, they hoped that in the end people would get tired

They protested first day, second day, first month, first year, second year, third year… We in Lebanon, we get tired from protests in two or three months

It’s enough, these protests don’t lead us anywhere, but we have people who have been protesting for years and for four years they have been striking,

And for four years they have been carrying out peaceful movements, this is a distinguished movement in this world.

I all different places the movement derailed and became violent very quickly, in this place the movement did not become violent

Not because there are no men in Bahrain, there are men in Bahrain, the people of Bahrain are known for their courage and for their enthusiasm. This is their history.

Not because no one can use weapons in Bahrain - here let me say because Al-Khalifa family can’t put me in prison - not because no one can use weapons in Bahrain

Not because nobody can send arms to Bahrain or because there is no one can send fighters to Bahrain

Bahrain is just like any other country in the world, any country whatever be the measures weapons can be sent, fighters can be sent, anyone can sabotage it

Small groups can sabotage a country. The main issue is that the will of the clerics and the political leadership and the people of Bahrain they are insisting on the peaceful dialogue

They hoped that they would get tired, they would just lose their interest, the government even abandoned the international community

Those who supported the Arab Spring when they get to Bahrain they stopped, they described the situation as unjust, they described them as sectarian, however it’s not sectarian,

I don’t have the time to speak about the issue of Bahrain and what the people are subject to, I didn’t want to use this term but I will just this one time.

Tthey have a project similar to the Zionist project, they have settlement activity in Bahrain, they have naturalization, whereby people come from all over the world

They are given citizenship, they are given jobs, they are given high salaries, security, respect, dignity

At the same time the original sons and citizens, the Bahrainis, whose fathers and grandfathers have been in that country, they are not given their basic rights,

When they make political demands, their nationalities are taken away from them or imprisoned and efforts are being made day and night to change identities of the Bahraini people

There will come a day where the people of Bahrain are not of the original Bahraini people, it will be another nationality.

Just as what the Zionists are doing in Palestine, whereby they want the day to come where the real inhabitants of Palestine will be the Jews all over the world, isn’t this injustice?

These people are continued with dialogue despite all of the betrayal so the Bahraini authorities found that the people didn’t get tired, they didn’t give up

In the end the people will call on the leaders, on the clerics, we protested on the first, second, third and fourth year, okay, where have we reached?

In the end, the political leaders say okay, but despite that the political leadership and the clerics insist on continuing on this path

I take responsibility for what I say, I want my colleagues in Bahrain to listen, this is my opinion and stance on the issue

The Bahraini leadership have hoped that the Bahraini youth would be pushed towards carrying out violence, by their oppressive acts

Its in the interest of the Bahraini leadership for people to resort to violence because when the opposition is accused of carrying out acts of violence

Then the leadership will come and speak about national security and will strike the opposition and its leadership and crush it, and therefore put an end to this opposition

The Bahraini leadership from the past four years tried to push the opposition in Bahrain towards an armed confrontation and it failed and once again

Again I repeat one of the most important reasons behind the peaceful nature of this movement is its culture and leadership.

Even if we have a leadership, the people have a different approach, the people have a different culture, a culture of quickly going to wars and fighting

What can the leadership do in this case, bring about miracles, but the culture and leadership of this people allowed their peaceful nature to continue

How do we understand the arrest of Sheikh Ali Salman because he is one of the religious symbols of the peaceful movement which insists on the peaceful nature

And we might witness and this something which everyone must pay attention to, all of the leaders who went to and insist on peaceful movement are being taken to prison,

To strike the peaceful movement and to crack the movement in general, what was the accusation made against Sheikh Ali Salman it was inciting for the committing acts o violence

Now if someone wants to make an accusation, make an accusation which is appropriate, which could be true, All Bahrainis know Sheikh Ali Salman

He is peaceful, peaceful till one loses their breath, even one accompanies with his peaceful movement, you’re too peaceful.

This Sheikh, what is he accused of is that he incites people to resort to violence. Why? For the sake of toppling the regime

Although you know the opposition, there is a debate, some people support toppling the regime, the Al Khalifa family and some in the opposition hold the stance of reform

An elected parliament, a government which is elected, as we hear from the opposition Sheikh Ali belongs to the second group

He didn’t speak about toppling the regime, nor did he incite to commit violence, this is an allegation which is a lie

What the government of Bahrain will discover to what it is doing is an act of stupidity

It will not be able to put a stop to this movement whether it be arresting and imprisoning the former clerics and leaders leaders nor by arresting or imprisoning Sheikh Ali Salman

If they are able to arrest all of the Bahraini people, it’ll put a stop to the movements in the street, but they won’t be able to stop the movement in the prisons

People insist on continuing with movements behind bars and they also insist on the peaceful nature

And I today express my solidarity and our support and from day one we stood in support of this peaceful popular movement and its logical goals and its civil manner

We call for solidarity and explaining the significance, the meaning we call for pressures to be exerted on this tyrannical and oppressive government

In order for it to give them their rights, to the people to release all of the prisoners, first and foremost Sheikh Ali Salman

On the other hand I stress and I support and we all support the call made by Sheikh Ali Salman from prison to insist on the peaceful nature

We must bear in mind that the Bahraini leadership wants by this arrest, by the former arrestswants to wish the Bahraini people violence and armed confrontation

This doesn’t serve the interests of Bahrain nor the people of Bahrain. Look at the countries of the region, look at all of them

When they resorted to arms in those countries, what was the result? What could be the result in any country?

Anyway I wanted to talk about this issue on this occasion and we pray to God that next year our nation is able to come out and pass these tests successfully

And it’s able tot confront these challenges by achieving true victory and the nation is able to overcome these difficult phases by unity by vigilance, by wisdom

By taking responsibility and also by overthrowing all of these plans and conspiracies from within the nation and from outside, which could have pushed the nation into abyss.

God bless you all, happy anniversary and peace, blessings and mercy be upon you all.