Jouzou Blames Jumblat for Returning to “Phony Arabism” Slogan
Mount Lebanon Mufti Mohammed Ali Jouzou on Tuesday admonished Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat for "returning to the arms of fake Arabism."
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Jouzou blamed Jumblat for talking about "Druze privacy and forgetting about the major Iqlim al-Kharroub stronghold that had stood beside him and his father (the late Kamal Jumblat) and contributed to maintaining the Jumblati leadership."
Addressing the Druze leader, Jouzou said: "Jumblat knows that our Arab identity is genuine … and that we have embraced the Palestinian cause before anybody else."
"But when the cause became a trade item and when Arabism became a phony slogan we damned those people because they are fake and have nothing to do with Arabism," added the Sunni Mufti of Mount Lebanon.
Jumblat recently announced he was eliminating his alliance with the majority March 14 forces, stressing his keenness to maintain his "privacy and distinction."
"The Druze mountains and the PSP have some kind of privacy," Jumblat has said. "My allies should respect my privacy."