You should know that if we officials of the country had not stopped the people, many of our youth would have shown their presence in the arena of Palestine. On the issue of Gaza, our youth went to the airport and they did not return despite all the measures that officials adopted[1]. They returned only with my message. If I had not issued a message, they would not have returned. They said, "Take us to Gaza". They believed that they could reach Gaza. This is the motivation of our youth.
The issue of Gaza and Palestine is our issue. It is our Islamic issue. It is the issue of all Muslims and it is our responsibility. What we are doing is our responsibility and we do not ask anyone to thank us for this. We have carried out our responsibility and we ask Allah the Exalted to help us continue carrying out our responsibilities.
You friends, who are present at this meeting, should stick to the statements that the gentlemen in this meeting made. One of these statements is that the essence is fighting and that there is no other way other than resistance for Palestine. You should announce this in an outspoken way. You should not allow political demagoguery and political manipulations to dominate the region.
Any Palestinian who stepped away from resistance suffered a loss. Israel is not honest in its request for peace. Even if it were honest, it would not have any right in Palestine and therefore, its request would be illegitimate. But Israel is not honest in its request for peace. Those people who took the path of negotiations were forced to accept the enemy's impositions. If they had turned away from the path of the enemy's impositions even for one moment, they would have been either eliminated or humiliated. You have witnessed both cases. They eliminated some and they humiliated and disowned the rest.
Imam Khamenei, Feb 27, 2010
[1] December 30, 2008
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