Category: Palestine

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Dec. 30 statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)

PFLP: Annexation bill targeting Jordan Valley requires escalating international confrontation

The new Zionist Knesset bill annexing the Jordan Valley indicates once more that the occupation state will never allow any form of Palestinian state with full sovereignty, said Comrade Khalida Jarrar, member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

It is critical to promote the international campaign to boycott the occupation state at all levels, said Jarrar, stressing the need to halt security coordination, fully activate the resistance in all its forms, end the persecution of resistance forces, and build on international solidarity at popular and official levels, in order to confront the ongoing attack on Palestinian existece.

The occupation continually imposes new facts on the ground, including the massive construction of settlements, said Jarrar, noting that the Palestinian Jordan Valley is a closed zone to Palestinians. Palestinian farmers from the Jordan Valley cannot enter their own land without a special permit from the occupation state, said Jarrar.

In an interview with Voice of the People (Sawt al-Shaab) radio station, Jarrar said that there is clearly no option in the struggle for self-determination and freedom for Palestinians but struggle and sacrifices; the futile negotiations with the Zionist entity carried out by the Palestinian Authority leadership and the PLO will lead nowhere but to greater losses for Palestinians.

Jarrar called for an immediate end to the negotiations and to develop a collective and comprehensive plan of struggle and confrontation, including political struggle at the level of international institutions – in particular, the International Criminal Court. She urged the international prosecution of the officials of the Zionist state for the crimes they commit against the Palestinian people, saying that this is an international political option that is a clear alternative to the futile and dangerous negotiations.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)

Statement on the work of the Seventh National Conference of the PFLP

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine issued the following statement regarding the Seventh National Conference of the Front, recently convened, as an important station on the road to return and the ongoing revolution until the liberation of the entire Palestinian national soil.

The National Conference was held in three sessions in the homeland and in diaspora to carry out a comprehensive review and evaluation of the Front’s methods, work, overall policies and plans, and the formulation of a political vision and organizational methods for the new phase of struggle. The Conference aimed to form the base for developing the Front’s positions and policies, building the Front’s effectiveness, role, and presence in the struggle to achieving our goals of national and social liberation.

The Front began with a moment of silence in honor of the martyrs of our people and our nation who sacrificed their lives for Palestine and its freedom, and in respect of the prisoners, detainees and the freedom fighters who continue to march on a difficult path to obtain our inalienable, legitimate, and historical national rights of our Arab Palestinian people.

After the adoption of the agenda, the Conference was presented with a comprehensive statement and letter from imprisoned General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat, addressing political issues, organizational matters, and theoretical issues, as well as addressing the role of the Seventh National Conference in the future direction of the Front.

The conference discussed draft reports submitted by the Central Committee, as well as recommendations submitted by the conferences of the Front’s branches, and ended with the election of the members of the General Central Committee and the Central Supervisory Board. The conference’s output reflected democratic principles on the workings of the internal life of the Front, as well as emphasizing the importance of wider participation in formulating the policies, programs, plans, and basic direction of the Front. The Conference emphasized the importance of strengthening the unity of the organization through the deepening of democratic systems and structures at all levels.

The Seventh National Conference came at a time of serious political concern and complexity, when continuing U.S. imperialist and Zionist schemes aim at the liquidation of the Palestinian national cause by exploiting the conditions within Arab countries and their internal political, economic and social programs to exercise additional pressure on the Palestinian Authority to conclude more agreements ignoring international law, UN resolutions, and the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people.

The conference discussed the international environment around the Palestinian and Arab situation and its effects on our national struggle for liberation, and the struggle of the Arab people. The United States government is hostile to the aspirations and goals of our people for freedom, self-determination and return, a fact that is reflected every day on the ground and in international diplomatic forums, engaged in a security partnership with Zionist aggression. The Conference also noted the historical impact of international and regional events on the Arab scene.

The rise of the role of Russia, China, and regional powers has shifted on some level the equations of international conflict. The Conference discussed the Arab political, economic and security situation, in its international context, as well as the structural disorder of Arab regimes and the failure of Arab states to safeguard national sovereignty, political independence, or economic security.

The Front noted the large mobilizations witnessed in a number of Arab countries which aimed to confront injustice, poverty, and tyranny, and build modern democratic societies. It further noted the high level of imperialist interventions hostile to the aspirations of the Arab nation in an attempt to steal and co-opt the goals and objectives of Arab popular movements through external military interventions and political efforts to spur sectarian and ethnic conflict in order to control the destiny of the Arab peoples while protecting the Zionist entity.

The Conference also discussed at length the Palestinian reality and the numerous developments in the over a decade that has passed since the Sixth Conference in 2000, reviewing the most important events in the Palestinian scene. At the center of this review are the ongoing and disastrous effects of the turning point in the Palestinian struggle in 1993, marked by the signing of the Oslo agreement. The Conference emphasized multiple issues, particularly the centrality of rejecting the negotiations, which do not serve the Palestinian people’s interests, and the need to fully reject the entire process of negotiations and “solutions” that have failed for over twenty years.

The importance of rehabilitating the Palestinian national liberation movement and building a new Palestinian strategy based on achieving the full rights of our people was viewed as critical by the Conference. In particular, this will mean drawing lessons from this last stage and entirely ending the absurd negotiations for which our people have paid dearly.

Further, the Conference discussed the Front’s organizational report, looking at the objective and subjective factors that have affected the structure of the Popular Front. This included engaging in a criticism of the organizational state of the PFLP, and learning lessons from past experience in order to tighten and develop the Front’s organizational structure and theoretical and political vision as a way out of crisis for the Front.

The Conference also discussed amendments to the rules of procedure and agreed upon a number of amendments to the Front’s internal structural documents.

The Conference addressed the political program, emphasizing the continuation of the struggle of our people to achieve their strategic objective, and that the goal of the struggle of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is to liberate every inch of Palestinian land from colonial occupation and establish a democratic state on the entire Palestinian national soil.

The Conference confirmed political tasks in the revolutionary struggle, including the following:

• the utmost importance to rebuild the institutions of the PLO on new democratic and inclusive foundations, rehabilitating the PLO’s original program and charter
• working to develop and strengthen the unity of the Palestinian people as the sharpest weapon of the national liberation movement to achieve its goals and break the cycle of division
• armed struggle is fundamental to the confrontation of the occupation, as imposed by the nature of the occupation and its violence, and is central and a primary component of overall resistance against occupation.
• resistance to all plans and projects of political liquidationism proposed by imperialism and Zionism to bury the Palestinian cause
• the struggle for the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their lands and homes from which they were expelled in 1948 must be at the center of work, rejecting all plans and projects aimed to liquidate this right
• the issue of prisoners and the necessity to free them from Israeli jails is a central issue that must be taken up by all political means, through international bodies, and through the national struggle by all means
• the central importance of the struggle for identity and liberation of the Palestinian people in 1948 occupied areas and their resistance to all attempts to displace them and Judaize the Palestinian cities and villages
• the need for unwavering struggle against all forms of political discourse that attempt to legitimize the “Jewish nature” of the racist state, to expose the objectives of these attempts and their effects on the future of the national struggle and the Palestinian people
• emphasize the importance of the role of the steadfastness of the Palestinian people in all locations and in exile, including exposure to difficult and complex conditions.

Our people in diaspora have played a key role in the march of the contemporary Palestinian revolution and it is critical to focus on the issues of our people in exile and diaspora.

The Conference stressed the need to continue efforts to develop the democratic trend in the broad Palestinian arena. At the conclusion of the Conference, the delegates elected the General Central Committee and Central Supervisory Board in an atmosphere of democracy and transparency, with a significant number of new members elected to the leading bodies.

The Conference also expressed its constructive criticisms in a spirit of camaraderie and national responsibility, and sent warm greetings to the General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat and all prisoners in Israeli jails, as well as paying tribute to the comrades who retired from their leadership positions to support the advancement of young leaders and the renewal of the Front. The Conference also expressed its vow to the martyrs and the prisoners to continue their struggle and march on the same long road to liberation, saluting the Front’s founder, Dr. George Habash, the martyred General Secretary Abu Ali Mustafa, the martyr leader Abu Maher al-Yamani and tall of the martyrs of the Front and the Palestinian revolution.

The Conference saluted the Palestinian people, struggling everywhere, and all factions and forces of the Palestinian revolution, the Arab liberation movement, and popular forces of the Arab homeland; and greeted all of the forces of progress, freedom and socialism around the world who oppose and confront injustice, oppression and imperialism, the enemy of the people and the enemy of humanity. Glory to the martyrs and victory to our great people.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
General Central Committee

 

Minneapolis, MN – More than 30 people came together here, Dec 12, for a community dinner to build support for Chicago Palestinian activist Rasmea Odeh. Odeh, who is facing a trumped immigration case in Detroit, is at risk for prison and deportation.

Meredith Aby of the Minnesota Committee to Stop FBI Repression told the crowd, “Rasmea Odeh overcame vicious torture by Israeli authorities while imprisoned in Palestine in the 1970s. She is one of the millions of Palestinians who have not given up organizing for their rights to liberation, equality and return. It is shameful that the U.S. government is now attempting to imprison her once again.”

Tracy Molm, also of the MN Committee to Stop FBI Repression, urged people to take action, and encouraged to sign the online petition demanding the charges against Odeh be dropped.

A link to the petition can be found here: http://www.stopfbi.net/2013/10/23/solidarity-palestinian-american-activi…

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Dec. 7 statement from the Popular Front of the Liberation Palestine (PFLP)

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine marked the 46th anniversary of its founding with a mass rally in al-Katiba courtyard in Gaza City, with tens of thousands of participants, including leaders, cadres and members of the Front, women’s, student and youth organizations, with the participation of representatives of the national and Islamic forces.

Large images of the General Secretaries of the Front – the founder, George Habash (Al-Hakim), Abu Ali Mustafa, and imprisoned General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat – adorned the banner at the front of the stage, as well as the image of national martyrs and leaders Yasser Arafat, Fathi Shikaki and Sheikh Ahmad Yassin.

Banners were draped on the walls, calling for Palestinian national unity, and resistance, and saluting the Front’s history over 46 years. Performers played national Palestinian and PFLP songs and danced dabkeh, traditional Palestinian dance.

Comrades Hani Thawabteh and Shireen Abu Oun chaired the rally, at which Comrade Jamil Majdalawi delivered the keynote address. He saluted the martyrs, the prisoners, and the masses of Palestinians at home and in exile, particularly those in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria facing continued repression and new displacement, and to our people in the Naqab who are confronting the Prawer plan, the new Zionist scheme to displace Palestinians.

Majdalawi said that over the years, the harvest of the Palestinian national movement has not reached the great sacrifices or the goals of our people, and all of our forms of resistance have been weaker than they should be and can be, which only exacerbates the imbalance of power in favor of the Zionist enemy.

He described internal Palestinian division and lack of national unity as devastating to the Palestinian movement. In addition, the Palestinian Authority’s return to the dangerous and futile negotiations with the Zionist enemy in open rejection of Palestinian national consensus is particularly damaging.

Instead of negotiations, what is needed is resistance in all forms and the implementation of our people’s rights to return, self-determination and national liberation, Majdalawi said.

He saluted the ongoing steadfastness of the Palestinian people, which will be what secures the victory of our people over the criminal enemy. He particularly saluted the steadfastness of our people in Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine, in all of its forms to confront the enemy and its continuous plans. Support for the struggle of our people is growing inside and outside Palestine; hundreds of international activists confront soldiers and illegal settlers beside the steadfast Palestinian people and various levels of political, cultural and economic struggle are taking place around the world.

Majdalawi highlighted the ongoing siege on Gaza which is denying access to the most basic necessities including food, medicine, building materials and fuel, causing an electricity crisis in the sector, and transforming the area into a massive prison due to the ongoing, prolonged and repeated closure of the Rafah crossing, the only exit for the Palestinians of Gaza to the outside world. This comes in addition to mass unemployment and the drinking water crisis, attacks on fishers at sea, and the retreat in services by the UNRWA, when refugees are over two-thirds of the population in Gaza.

Majdalawi said that there is a decline in the grip of the United States over international affairs, and this weakening of the leader of imperialism and injustice in the world will necessarily mean an increased weakness in the enemy camp that supports and sustains the Zionist aggression on our people, emphasizing that the US is still the primary economic and military power in the world and that there are long years of struggle to come by the people and exploited classes of the world to defeat imperialism and achieve justice and equality.

On the Arab level, Majdalawi expressed support for the democratic process in Tunisia and the importance of protecting pluralism in Tunisia, warned of the dangerous exclusivity taking place in Egypt that must be discarded in favor of pluralism and democracy for all, and expressed his standing with the Syrian people in the struggle for a united Syria, with democratic freedoms and equal rights for all Syrians and their political and social forces without discrimination, in addition to our stand against external interference which aims to destroy the potential of the country’s future and sink the country into the morass of obscurantism, as supported by the U.S. imperialists and their allies.

Majdalawi announced that the Front has just completed its seventh national conference. Several historic leaders of the Front have stepped down from their positions and did not put their names forward in the elections at the conference, in order to support renewal in the organization and to prevent ossification and bureaucracy, including comrades Abdel Rahim Mallouh, Younis al-Jalou, Abdelaziz Abu Al-Qaraya and himself, Jamil Majdalawi.

He concluded by calling for progressive and democratic Palestinian forces to come together to build resistance and unity and mobilize the people towards victory.