Tariq Abu Ziyad, knight of the campaign to recover the bodies of the martyrs

Written by: Jamal Zaqout
Within the framework of the activities of the National Day to recover the bodies of the martyrs, the national campaign devoted one of its main activities to honoring its knight and one of the initiators of its founding, the late fighter Salem Khallah "Tariq Abu Ziyad", and it also launched a book about his national biography.
This took place in a wide national presence, presented by the families of the martyrs whose bodies the campaign succeeded in recovering, and those who are still striving to recover them in order to honor and bury them in a manner befitting them and their human dignity as heroes of the freedom that Palestine deserves.

"Abu Ziyad" is a high stature from the stature of Palestine, which occupies the mind and conscience from the first meeting and without introductions, and it is not possible to leave the memory even after his departure from the world. Abu Ziyad became associated in my memory initially through his friend and companion, my brother, the martyr Bashir Zaqout, and this relationship became a special relationship between our two families, and like many families that were involved in the struggle, it became a relationship of intermarriage that formed an organic extension of the friendship relationship. It was not for my mother, may God have mercy on her, to reach Damascus on her way to visit the tomb of the martyr Bashir in the martyrs' cemetery in Beirut without passing through their house in the Yarmouk camp.

Abu Ziyad remained always in my memory, and before I met him, he was one of the great people who filled the world with their dedication, and the great missions for which they assumed responsibilities. In the later years, after his return to the homeland, I had business relations with him on more than one level. A person will not need much time to quickly identify his leadership traits and his choice of tasks of a special nature. He was creative, enlightened and flexible, and was never a prisoner of thought or ideology when he discovered its need for development or change. Only Palestine, the future of its freedom, and the victory of justice for its people were what preoccupied his mind, and occupied his immediate and long-term concerns. It was not just a coincidence that Abu Ziyad assumed with full responsibility and human warmth the tasks of the national campaign to recover the bodies detained by the occupation forces, or the so-called bodies of the martyrs of numbers.

This file has remained like a black box, and the issue of the martyrs whose bodies are withheld has remained one of the major stumbling blocks in the course of the revolution, as this national and humanitarian issue did not receive the attention it deserves, until the launch of that campaign, with which the name of the great fighter Salem Khallah "Tariq Abu Ziyad" was associated with since. its launch, coordinating its work and activities.

My communication with this exceptional man was strengthened in the midst of the achievements of this campaign and its possession of a serious and tangible space in the Palestinian public opinion, which deserves these martyrs the highest degrees of human and heroic honor at the same time. Abu Ziyad is also a member of its general assembly and then its board of directors. At the time, the government approved the adoption of the "National Day for Retrieving the Bodies of the Martyrs" by a decision of the Council of Ministers on the third of August 2008, considering the twenty-seventh of August of each year as the national day for retrieving the bodies of the Palestinian and Arab martyrs. The continued detention of these bodies by the Israeli occupation authorities, and the failure to disclose the missing persons, is a clear violation, and a fundamental violation of the Hague Treaty of 1907, which is related to the laws and customs of war, as well as a violation of the First Geneva Convention in Articles 15 and 17, which obliges the occupation authorities to hand over the bodies of the martyrs to their families and bury them while preserving their dignity according to their religious and social beliefs.

The campaign succeeded in recovering many bodies, but with the escalation of the occupation's brutality and killings and assassinations in recent years, the number of martyrs whose bodies are withheld continued to increase, and the name of Abu Ziyad remained associated with this campaign that continues its work and pursues its tasks until today.

With the intensification of the impact of the division and the dangers of it turning into a separation that threatens the future and status of the national cause and the rights of our people, and its serious repercussions on Palestinian society, especially the toiling and poor groups, Abu Ziyad was one of the most prominent initiators of launching the "Patriots to End Division" campaign, and we worked together in the follow-up and coordination of the activities of this campaign, as Abu Ziyad always represented a patriotic conscience aware not only of the political dangers of the dimensions of division, but also of the profound harm and impact it inflicts on the lives of our people in the Gaza Strip, and in the countryside and marginalized and settlement-threatening areas in the West Bank, all of which have become prey to the ambitions and plans of the expansionist Zionist colonial project. The system of military and settlement occupation is unique to it. Abu Ziyad has always been the voice of conscience for these groups that are paying the price of division from their daily sustenance, from their sources of livelihood, and from their land that has been violated and threatened with confiscation.

Comrade Salem realized early on the need to dedicate efforts to build a broad democratic current, and the division, which constituted a fatal blow to the national project, came as a result of the state of polarization and the struggle of the powers dominating the Palestinian scene, far from the interests of the overwhelming majority of the sons and daughters of our people. He also realized that this divisional polarization cannot be achieved. To put an end to it without bringing about a fundamental change in the balance of social forces and their political expressions through devotion to the necessity of crystallizing a broad national democratic current that breaks the cycle of infernal division, and is able to restore life to the inclusive national institutions within the framework of a national government whose top priority is the interests of the overwhelming majority, providing the requirements for their steadfastness, and mobilizing Unifying national energies within the framework of the leadership institutions of the Liberation Organization, and reconsidering its coalition nature as a broad national front.

In the difficult moments of his illness, the smile did not leave the face of "Salem al-Yafawi," as the poet Sami al-Kilani calls him, in reference to his birthplace, the beautiful city of Jaffa, from which he was abandoned in his childhood, to settle with his family in Ya`bad al-Qassam, from which he grew up and took the first steps of his long struggle in the various arenas and fields of struggle. .

Your memory will remain as fragrant as our comrade with a magical smile, and your memory and the memory of Bashir and Abu Rabi` will not leave me, which brought you together with a life of struggle and a distinguished personality. The fighter who turns the page of life with the will of the martyrs, and I think these were also your last words in farewell to the journey of life that will not miss your fingerprints, your immortal deeds, your memory, their memory and all the martyrs.

A final and indispensable word, which is that honoring heroes in their lives and in their absence must always be based on respect for their choices and their outcomes. The right to difference and diversity is a feature of living revolutions, and its recognition is a condition for keeping up with the spirit of the times in a changing world.