DESPITE A PAINFUL PAST WE WILL NEVER FORGET LEBANON – AMBASSADOR RIYAD MANSOUR
October 26, 2024In an exclusive interview with Ambassador Riyad Mansour, the Permanent Representative for Palestine at the UN, he expresses the love between Palestine and Lebanon, despite the obstacles faced in the past.
“But regardless of all these things over the past, Lebanon, at least for me, it feels often like a second home to me. Every time I used to land in Beirut airport, I used to feel that I am so close to Palestine. We suffer together. We work together. We fought together, fought against each other.”
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English Script:
Daizy Gedeon: I want to ask you something about the Lebanese situation, you know, being Lebanese. It took a while for Lebanon to get on board and now there’s a lot more support for Palestine. There’s always this memory of unfortunately the war and some have this one perspective. I’ve studied the war, I’ve made documentaries on it, and I want to know what you feel our relationship is, the relationship between Palestine and Lebanon is? How you feel, because there’s a lot obviously, there’s still so much love and support for the Palestinians across Lebanon. There’s going to be a certain number of people, certain sector of the population that has still a pain when they think of Palestine. What would your message be to the Lebanese people who have these, you know, reservations still?
Riyad Mansour: You see that we have a special relationship with the Arab countries in a different way. Lebanon, it has a special spot in our hearts and minds. Many of us, including myself, I spend a lot of time in Lebanon, and it is true we were a very strong ally over the national movement. And then there were the issues inside Lebanon, but regardless of all these things over the past. Lebanon, at least for me, it feels often like a second home to me. Every time I used to land in Beirut airport, I used to feel that I am so close to Palestine. We suffered together, we worked together, we fought together, we fought against each other. We learned tremendous amount of lessons, but we never wavered on our love and attachment to Lebanon, and we felt that we received reciprocation even when we were fighting at a certain time in Lebanon. Also, those fights taught us many lessons, good ones and bad ones. But we learned lessons that we are brothers and sisters regardless of everything that happened in the past. And also, we wish for Lebanon the best, to put things together, to save Lebanon, to rebuild Lebanon, and to bypass so many of the difficult challenges that they are facing. Lebanon is super special to us and you know I love Lebanon immensely, we will never forget Lebanon.
Daizy Gedeon: Thank you.
Riyad Mansour: You are super special to us.
Daizy Gedeon: Thank you.
