Moqawama.org’s Exclusive Interview with Samir Al Kintar: “I only Left Palestine to Return Back!”
Local Editor, 22-04-2010
22nd of April is an unforgettable day to Samir Al Kintar, the dean of detainees who spent three decades in "Israeli" prisons and is a live manifestation to perseverance, insistence and steadfastness of resistance in the face of the Zionist atrocities.
On the memory of Al Kintar's detention by the Zionist entity, moqawama.org conducted an exclusive interview with this hero who imposes himself and his values wherever he goes in a world of atrocities and conflicts.
According to Al Kintar, the 22nd of April is a historic station that he is never to forget.
"On the personal level, this day is a historic station as I fulfilled my aim of going to Palestine; which is the dream of every believer in the Palestinian plight. This day represents a station through which I was able to fulfill some of my ambitions, and it is a day when my fellow brothers who took part in the operation were martyred. It is also a unique day as I was detained while suffering injuries; it was my first day of challenge and perseverance." Samir said.
Another date of importance Samir shed light on was the 12th of July 2006 as it embodies the "Truthful Pledge" which was set off by His Eminence Secretary General of Hizbullah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Samir said "This day is a day that proved the Zionist enemy
wrong as it thought it is a day out of reach. It is a day that proved that the resistance is capable of breaking the will of the enemy who tried to take revenge on me and make me an unforgettable example to all those who fight for the plight."
3 decades of imprisonment trigger curiosity on what the impact of 30 years behind the bars is like; 30 years not in any prison but in the prison of the most merciless and brutal entity that knows no humanity.
Regarding the impact of the long years of imprisonment, Samir said a lot remains in heart and in memory, but he said that most important is "to be free in soul and at mind."
"There are a lot of memories with thousands of fellow Mujahideen (resistance fighters) in the dark and harsh nights, days of torture, days of endurance, days of food strikes, days when captives were martyred in detention. All those are memories I insist to hold tight onto because it makes me realize I am still continuing my struggle."
And how can it be that we interview the "dean of detainees" and not ask about the impact of the title he earned and the responsibilities that lie beneath it?
Samir said "It is in deed a big responsibility. A person who gets this much of respect and appreciation always feels the responsibility of keeping all he had presented in the past and of pursuing the same path. I feel this is my responsibility and it actually has a reflection in all the domains of daily life, and it also stimulated me to be up to the level of my ambitions."
As for the things that changed in Samir throughout the long years of detention, he said it is more like an interaction rather than a change. "I figured out that a human's will is so strong. I never imagined that I can be that tough, that I can be as patient, enduring, and tolerant as I was. Owing to imprisonment, I started believing in my potentials and capabilities as a human."
On evaluating the captives' cause and the way it is dealt with, Samir recalled "As captives, we always needed a stance of support and protest against our detention. True it is that protests cannot set the captives free, but it does support them morally."
He continued "We always wagered that the resistance is alone capable of liberating the detainees, as so far none is capable of liberating a captive that had killed a Zionist other than the resistance. Protests help, but the main role is for the resistance, and here I highlight the accomplishments of the Islamic resistance regarding the detainees, which assures the detainees cause will remain to top its agenda."
As we commemorate the "Week of Arab Detainee", Al Kintar had a message to deliver to all detainees whether those who were freed or the approximately 11 thousand captives who remain in "Israeli" prisons.
"I tell you, all of you detainees whether those freed or the rest who remain behind bars, just like I was liberated by the resistance; the day will come when you as well will be freed. All you need is patience."
At the end of the interview... a word from Al Kintar to the Arabs and another to the Zionist rapists of land and lives.
To the Arab regimes, Al Kintar had nothing to say "I have nothing to tell them as I have lost faith and hope in them."
To the Arab people, Dean of Detainees said "history should not know societies and people who watch in silence, it is time that you, Arabs, make a move and be ready to spread the culture of resistance."
To the Zionist entity, Samir said "I tell the enemy and I reiterate: 30 years of detention, my will was never broken, just like the will of the detainees remaining in "Israeli" prisons is unbreakable. I only left Palestine to return back to Palestine."
*The 22nd of April 1979, it was the operation dubbed "The Nasser Operation" centered on Naharya settlement. Kintar was leading the group which departed from Tyr in South Lebanon in an attempt to capture "Israeli" soldiers and later exchange them by Arab detainees in "Israeli" prisons, a precedent that gave Kintar and his comrades their medals of honor..
The storm was there, an "Israeli" Sergeant killed, an "Israeli" atomic scientist captured and others injured. At the end of the battle, Kintar and his comrades were down either dead or injured, that was the very beginning of Kintar's journey of detention, yet his soul was and will always be free.
Samir Kintar remains to be a symbol of Lebanese and Arab resistance against the "Israeli" atrocities, and will forever be a free and boundless soul that reaches out to thousand and thousands of "Kintars" in each and every one of us, as he is the dean of freedom of all manacles and a beacon that will always light up the path of resistance.
22nd of April is an unforgettable day to Samir Al Kintar, the dean of detainees who spent three decades in "Israeli" prisons and is a live manifestation to perseverance, insistence and steadfastness of resistance in the face of the Zionist atrocities.
On the memory of Al Kintar's detention by the Zionist entity, moqawama.org conducted an exclusive interview with this hero who imposes himself and his values wherever he goes in a world of atrocities and conflicts.
According to Al Kintar, the 22nd of April is a historic station that he is never to forget.
"On the personal level, this day is a historic station as I fulfilled my aim of going to Palestine; which is the dream of every believer in the Palestinian plight. This day represents a station through which I was able to fulfill some of my ambitions, and it is a day when my fellow brothers who took part in the operation were martyred. It is also a unique day as I was detained while suffering injuries; it was my first day of challenge and perseverance." Samir said.
Another date of importance Samir shed light on was the 12th of July 2006 as it embodies the "Truthful Pledge" which was set off by His Eminence Secretary General of Hizbullah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Samir said "This day is a day that proved the Zionist enemy
wrong as it thought it is a day out of reach. It is a day that proved that the resistance is capable of breaking the will of the enemy who tried to take revenge on me and make me an unforgettable example to all those who fight for the plight." 3 decades of imprisonment trigger curiosity on what the impact of 30 years behind the bars is like; 30 years not in any prison but in the prison of the most merciless and brutal entity that knows no humanity.
Regarding the impact of the long years of imprisonment, Samir said a lot remains in heart and in memory, but he said that most important is "to be free in soul and at mind."
"There are a lot of memories with thousands of fellow Mujahideen (resistance fighters) in the dark and harsh nights, days of torture, days of endurance, days of food strikes, days when captives were martyred in detention. All those are memories I insist to hold tight onto because it makes me realize I am still continuing my struggle."
And how can it be that we interview the "dean of detainees" and not ask about the impact of the title he earned and the responsibilities that lie beneath it?
Samir said "It is in deed a big responsibility. A person who gets this much of respect and appreciation always feels the responsibility of keeping all he had presented in the past and of pursuing the same path. I feel this is my responsibility and it actually has a reflection in all the domains of daily life, and it also stimulated me to be up to the level of my ambitions."
As for the things that changed in Samir throughout the long years of detention, he said it is more like an interaction rather than a change. "I figured out that a human's will is so strong. I never imagined that I can be that tough, that I can be as patient, enduring, and tolerant as I was. Owing to imprisonment, I started believing in my potentials and capabilities as a human."
On evaluating the captives' cause and the way it is dealt with, Samir recalled "As captives, we always needed a stance of support and protest against our detention. True it is that protests cannot set the captives free, but it does support them morally."
He continued "We always wagered that the resistance is alone capable of liberating the detainees, as so far none is capable of liberating a captive that had killed a Zionist other than the resistance. Protests help, but the main role is for the resistance, and here I highlight the accomplishments of the Islamic resistance regarding the detainees, which assures the detainees cause will remain to top its agenda."
As we commemorate the "Week of Arab Detainee", Al Kintar had a message to deliver to all detainees whether those who were freed or the approximately 11 thousand captives who remain in "Israeli" prisons.
"I tell you, all of you detainees whether those freed or the rest who remain behind bars, just like I was liberated by the resistance; the day will come when you as well will be freed. All you need is patience."
At the end of the interview... a word from Al Kintar to the Arabs and another to the Zionist rapists of land and lives.
To the Arab regimes, Al Kintar had nothing to say "I have nothing to tell them as I have lost faith and hope in them."
To the Arab people, Dean of Detainees said "history should not know societies and people who watch in silence, it is time that you, Arabs, make a move and be ready to spread the culture of resistance."
To the Zionist entity, Samir said "I tell the enemy and I reiterate: 30 years of detention, my will was never broken, just like the will of the detainees remaining in "Israeli" prisons is unbreakable. I only left Palestine to return back to Palestine."
*The 22nd of April 1979, it was the operation dubbed "The Nasser Operation" centered on Naharya settlement. Kintar was leading the group which departed from Tyr in South Lebanon in an attempt to capture "Israeli" soldiers and later exchange them by Arab detainees in "Israeli" prisons, a precedent that gave Kintar and his comrades their medals of honor..
The storm was there, an "Israeli" Sergeant killed, an "Israeli" atomic scientist captured and others injured. At the end of the battle, Kintar and his comrades were down either dead or injured, that was the very beginning of Kintar's journey of detention, yet his soul was and will always be free.
Samir Kintar remains to be a symbol of Lebanese and Arab resistance against the "Israeli" atrocities, and will forever be a free and boundless soul that reaches out to thousand and thousands of "Kintars" in each and every one of us, as he is the dean of freedom of all manacles and a beacon that will always light up the path of resistance.
To read more about Samir Al Kintar, click here.
