Palestinians march in dawn funeral of the martyrs Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal

Palestinians march in dawn funeral of the martyrs Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal

Hundreds of Jerusalemites participated at dawn on Thursday, December 25 in the funeral of the martyrs, Comrades Uday and Ghassan Abu Jamal, the fighters who carried out the Deir Yassin operation and were killed by Zionist forces on November 18. The occupation had held their bodies hostage for 36 days.

Nearly 2000 Palestinians participated in the funeral despite the conditions imposed upon the family by the occupation authorities, including the participation of only 40 members of their family in the funeral and their burial in East Sawahreh, outside Jerusalem.

The funeral came after a legal battle with the occupation for the past 36 days.

Al-Haj Ahmad: UN Security Council draft must be withdrawn: We will not allow this project to pass

Al-Haj Ahmad: UN Security Council draft must be withdrawn: We will not allow this project to pass

The Popular Front absolutely rejects the draft resolution submitted to the UN Security Council purporting to recognize a Palestinian state by 2017, said Comrade Osama al-Haj Ahmed, member of the Central Committee of the PFLP.

Such a resolution is a strategic action that impacts the interests of all of our people, said al-Haj Ahmed, noting that it is incumbent that any such action by Palestinian officials be carried out with full discussion and prior approval by all of the Palestinian political forces, factions and civil society. On the contrary, he pointed out, this did not happen and instead the draft was formulated to satisfy the interests of international and regional actors and not those of the Palestinian people, particularly in regard to the issue of the security of the Zionist colonial occupier and its demands.

He pointed out that the draft contains explicit and unambiguously dangerous frameworks regarding Jerusalem being the capital of two states and in reference to Palestinian refugees’ right to return. “These statements dilute the existing UN resolutions and violate the decisions of the Palestinian National Council and the Palestinian people’s minimum demands of return and self-determination,” he said. 

“Right now, there is a raging war on our people in Jerusalem. The occupation is pursuing its program of Judaization and displacement of Palestinians by all means available, through taxation, home demolitions, and colonization, and we are facing a struggle over every in ch of Jerusalem. This framework of 

‘Jerusalem as the capital of two states’ amid this context means legitimizing the Judaization of Jerusalem and the attempts to destroy Palestinian and Muslim identity in the city.” Further, he noted that the right of refugees to return must be adhered to strictly and that the text of the resolution for “a just and agreed solution” is part of a project to liquidate the right of return, replace UN resolution 194 and bargain on this central issue of the Palestinian national project as a whole.

He urged the PLO Executive Committee to act immediately and adhere to national principles and force those who have submitted this draft to withdraw it. The adoption of this draft resolution, he said, “will lead to the erosion of the rights of our people and the character of our struggle. We will not allow this project to pass.”

Event in Lille, France supports Palestinian resistance, highlights 47 years of PFLP

Event in Lille, France supports Palestinian resistance, highlights 47 years of PFLP

Comrade Ziad Ahmed of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine spoke in Lille, France in an event hosted by the Collective in Support of Palestinian Resistance on Friday, December 19.

Ahmed discussed the 47th anniversary of the Front and its history, as well as the current situation in Gaza following 51 days of resistance to Zionist aggression, the attacks on Jerusalem and the West Bank, including ethnic cleansing, home demolitions and expulsions of Palestinians as well as the construction of colonies, and the struggle of thousands of Palestinian political prisoners.

The event was organized with Generation Palestine, CSPR, UJFP, Lille-Nablus Friendship and Solidarity with Georges Ibrahim Abdallah.

Shishtari: It is time to bury the Oslo accords and the path of negotiations once and for all

Shishtari: It is time to bury the Oslo accords and the path of negotiations once and for all

It is time to bury the Oslo Accords and all that came with them and end the futile negotiations once and for all, said Comrade Zaher al-Shishtari, a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, emphasizing that the PFLP will work in the coming days to besiege the whole approach of Oslo through popular and national pressure in coordination with all forces who stand against the route of Oslo and negotiations.

In an interview with Al-Quds TV, Shishtari emphasized the need to end the division in reality not just in words and avoid the approach of bilateral and exclusionary quotas and instead act to serve the people. He spoke about the need to rebuild the PLO on the basis of struggle and inclusion as has been agreed on many occasions in the past, and to end security coordination and the Paris protocol on economy that has devastated the Palestinian national economy.

Shishtari reaffirmed the Front’s complete rejection of any return to negotiations that have reaped nothing for the Palestinian people but destruction and devastating, emphasizing that the alternative is Palestinian national dialogue and building a political movement to the United Nations to implement the existing resolutions on Palestine, not to re-negotiate those rights and resolutions, alongside the escalation of the resistance in all forms.

Shishtari also emphasized the need to support our steadfast people in Jerusalem and their confrontation of the occupation through an escalating popular uprising, and the need to provide a national space to support uprising and intifada throughout Palestine. He also emphasized the need to respond to the killing of the struggler Ziad Abu Ein by confronting the occupier, not by returning to the devastating and futile negotiations.

Further, the Front reiterated its rejection of the draft resolution before the United Nations, noting that the draft resolution does not reach the minimum points of a Palestinian national program. The Front also noted the fact that Palestinian participation in the development of the draft, with the potential to deeply impact the future of the Palestinian people’s rights and struggle, was exclusive and monopolized, with no participation from the PLO, its Executive Comittee, and the Palestinian parties and factions. The draft resolution is not a mere tactical issue but contains within it explicit and unambiguous formulations that pose real risks to all of the rights of the Palestinian people.

The resolution appears to be calculated to appease the interests of international actors who see no solution to the struggle in Palestine except the denial of Palestinian rights to return and self-determination and in Palestinian responsibility for Israeli security demands. It is clear that the draft resolution does not even mandate a sovereign, independent Palestinian state over the lands of Palestine occupied in 1967. It also threatens once more to impose bilateral negotiations, this time with the imprimatur of international legitimacy.

Once again, the Front noted that the “solution” put forward in the draft is no solution at all, does not resolve the conflict, and that there is no “fair settlement” but through the achievement of all of the rights of the Palestinian people, and that in particular, the right of return of Palestinian refugees must be protected, honored and implemented, not undermined as it is in the draft text. The Palestinian refugees’ rights are not a matter for bartering and bargaining in the halls of international institutions.

The right of the Palestinian people to establish independence and full sovereignty over the lands occupied in 1967 does not bind the Palestinian people to the so-called “two state solution,” nor to any recognition or acceptance of the occupation state that is entirely based on the dispossession of the Palestinian people and the colonization of Palestinian land. The Front emphasized that Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine and rejects the resolution’s framework of a “capital of two states,” which once again places Jerusalem and its Palestinian people at risk while the occupation state is working to ethnically cleanse the city.

This resolution must be rejected in its entirety by all Palestinian forces and the Executive Committee of the PLO and the national and Islamic forces must assume their responsibility to reject this resolution and instead affirm the explicit clear texts that maintain the rights of our people and cut the road before any such attempts to undermine the rights of our people.

Barakat: The 1 percent Palestinian capitalists confiscate 100 percent of Palestinian political decision

Barakat: The 1 percent Palestinian capitalists confiscate 100 percent of Palestinian political decision

In a series of lectures held in Ain el-Helweh and Beddawi refugee camps in Lebanon on December 20 and 21, Comrade Khaled Barakat attacked the current Palestinian official leadership and the “path of illusions they are presenting to the Palestinian people.”

“Historically, Palestinian capitalists and bourgeoisie have led Palestinians to one misery after another. This class will not and does not defend the Palestinian cause. This class cares only to secure their own, petty interests, and they do not care what happens to the Palestinian people and their rights. This was the same in 1936, 1948, 1967, and it will always be the same. Of course, the occupiers and colonialists bear the major responsibility for the situation of the Palestinian people, but the traditional backward leadership representing this class bears a great deal of responsibility for the miserable conditions Palestinians have reached,” Barakat said. “It is time for a new leadership, of revolutionaries from the impoverished and popular classes, in the refugee camps. Only a solid leadership that is connected to its people and the path of armed struggle, in the homeland and in exile, can be an exit from the current situation.”

Barakat called the draft resolution before the United Nations Security Council “a treason that puts Palestinian rights at risk and endangers the core of the Palestinian cause, which is the right of return.” Barakat asked the audience, “What are you going to do about this? Are you going to raise your voice and say that no one will confiscate our cause? Are you going to raise your voice against the current condition of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which once belonged to you, which you built with your own blood, sweat and money? Are you going to reclaim the path of the Palestinian refugees’ struggle in exile, and reclaim your voices and your revolutionary intellectuals, Ghassan Kanafani and Naji al-Ali? Or are you going to accept this?”

Comrade Barakat said that the “most dangerous form of corruption on the Palestinian scene is the political corruption of the current leadership. The Palestinian Authority is a corrupt institution, and it is administrating corruption. Security cooperation with the occupier is treason. Financial corruption, administrative corruption, social corruption come from this source – political corruption. From the 1 percent – Palestinian capitalists – who are confiscating 100 percent of the Palestinian political decision.”

Addressing youth in Ain el-Helweh refugee camp, Comrade Barakat said, “It is Palestinian youth who come from the impoverished classes who are on the front lines of resistance every day, regardless of their faction or political affiliation. In the prisons, in the armed resistance, in Gaza, in the student movement, in the clashes with Israeli soldiers, the martyrs, the wounded, the vast majority are youth. What is their share in this political decision? Who asks Palestinian youth about their circumstances, their conditions, what they want? This is a time of change and revolt, and youth must lead.”

“The monopolist Palestinian Authority in Ramallah have reached a dead end. They have nothing to offer for Palestinians but illusions and more illusions. Yet, the monopolist leadership of Hamas in Gaza are looking at the interests of Hamas above the interests of the Palestinian people and their cause. Therefore, the slogan of ‘national unity’ is empty and worthless unless this national unity is imposed by the popular classes of the Palestinian people in the homeland and in exile. We do not want to enter a ‘national dialogue’ under the auspices of the Arab intelligence services in Cairo, Doha and Amman. We want to build our national dialogue in Ain el-Helweh refugee camp under the auspices of the Palestinian people and with the protection of Palestinian guns,” Barakat said.

“The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is entering a new stage after it convened its seventh national conference with the renewal that it has been witnessing and our people are feeling that the Front is marching forward. No one should expect vague statements or ambiguous positions on the cause of our people and the struggle for return and liberation. The Front belongs to the impoverished Palestinian and Arab people, and people around the world, and it will always be for them, until victory,” said Barakat.

Events inside and outside Palestine commemorate 47th anniversary of PFLP founding

Events inside and outside Palestine commemorate 47th anniversary of PFLP founding

Events and activities marking the 47th anniversary of the founding of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine continued inside and outside Palestine:

On December 22, the Progressive Student Action Front in Tulkarem celebrated the PFLP’s 47th anniversary with a ceremony of support and honor for martyrs and prisoners. Comrade Mohammed Jawabreh noted that the martyrs and prisoners sacrificed so greatly for the dignity and liberation of the Palestinian people and the return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland.

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On December 19, members and supporters of the PFLP marched in Balata refugee camp near Nablus, marking the anniversary. Comrade Maher Harb called for national unity to struggle and confront the occupier, and for rebuilding the Palestine Liberation Organization on a national, inclusive and democratic basis to represent the Palestinian people and defend their cause. He called for building stronger popular campaigns to free Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.

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The PFLP marked its 47th anniversary in Algeria on December 19 at its office in Algiers, with members of the Palestinian community in Algeria, representatives of Palestinian and Algerian parties, Algerian academics and media, and Palestinian students and youth. Comrade Salah Mohammed, representative of the PFLP, spoke, as did Comrade Yousef of the Workers Party of Algeria.

Comrade Mohammed spoke aout the need to permanently put an end to the path of Oslo and negotiations and to reject the actions of the United States that attempt to undermine growing international support for the Palestinian people. He saluted the Palestinian resistance and the accomplishments and steadfastness of the Palestinian people despite the vicious Zionist aggression.

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The Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees in Beit Hanoun organized a reception to commemorate the 47th anniversary of the PFLP. Comrades Haniya Sahwil and Medhat Za’anin spoke at the event, noting the Front’s commitment to the path of struggle of the martyrs and prisoners who have sacrificed so much for Palestine, and the contributions of Palestinian women in all aspects of struggle and resistance, including the history of the Front.

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A reception was held in the Lebanese Press Syndicate in Beirut on December 23, marking the 47th anniversary of the Front’s founding, where Comrade Abu Ahmad Fouad, Deputy General Secretary of the PFLP, spoke to an audience of PFLP leaders, cadres and members, representatives of Palestinian and Lebanese political forces, and supporters.

Comrade Abu Ahmad Fouad recalled the history of the PFLP, its origins in the Arab Nationalist Movement, and its clear vision since its founding that all of Palestine is part of the Arab nation and that the Palestinian and Arab people must liberate all of Palestine through struggle, primarily armed struggle and the protracted people’s liberation war. He noted the importance of Palestinian national unity to achieve victory, noting also that the Palestinian revolution stands at the heart of the Arab and international liberation movements. The Front at its founding identified the camp of friends of the revolution and the camp of enemies – and the Front remains committed to the principles on which it was founded, noted Fouad.

He reiterated the Front’s categorical rejection of the project of the Palestinian Authority and the “French initiative” to submit a draft resolution to the UN Security Council, noting that this draft violates the Palestinian national constants and is actually an attempt to resume the absurd and dangerous negotiations and to undermine Palestinian national rights. “We reject this project. Any potential draft to be submitted to international institutions, including the General Assembly and the Security Council, must be reviewed fully and supported by all of the Palestinian factions and mass institutions without exception. The Zionist entity, the Arab regimes and the United States are working together to attempt to liquidate the Palestinian cause amid the circumstances of crisis prevailing in the region and the Arab world. We refuse to accept these projects. Instead, we must be demanding that the United Nations apply its existing resolutions,” said Fouad.

He urged an immediate end to the security coordination of the Palestinian Authority with the Zionist occupier. It is deeply damaging to the Palestinian people and cause. “Palestinian security services should have the role of protecting our people throughout Palestine, not working with the occupier,” he said.

He denounced any attempts by reactionary armed groups to enter the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, noting that this is an attempt to damage Palestinian interests and the Palestinian cause, and reiterated the complete rejection of such groups by the Palestinian resistance forces. Further, he called upon the Lebanese state to remove the obstacles, discrimination, infringements of rights and injustices that Palestinian refugees face inside Lebanon, saying that Palestinian refugees have the right to live decent lives on the road to return to Palestine. “We will return, whether sooner or later, we will return to Palestine,” said Fouad.

PFLP: All resistance forces must be prepared to confront the occupation and its attacks

PFLP: All resistance forces must be prepared to confront the occupation and its attacks

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine called upon the masses of our people and the resistance factions to be prepared to confront the occupation in the event of the escalation of aggression once more in light of the ongoing threats against the Gaza Strip and in particular the occupation bombing Gaza once more at dawn on Saturday December 20.

The Front noted that the Zionist occupation has not stopped its aggression against the Strip for one moment and it continues in various forms: of ongoing and relentless siege, closure of crossings, blocking reconstruction, and the various threats of war by officials, and the occupier’s bombing is only part of this aggression. It is not the first and it will not be the last.

The Front emphasized that the continuing situation in the Strip confirms the possibility of a return to the period of the assault and perhaps even more dangerous than that time, especially as the Zionist political scene is on the verge of an early election, and the Palestinian people will once again be made to pay the price for this election.

The PFLP emphasized the urgent need for Palestinian national unity on all levels: military, political and social, drawing lessons from the Palestinian steadfastness and the bravery of the resistance in the July-August aggression on Gaza, with mass struggle in Jerusalem, occupied Palestine ’48 and the West Bank to confront the crimes of the occupation and through serious work to form a united front of all the resistance factions and build unity on the political level that requires the formulation of a national strategy and a political program that determines actions to confront the occupation and its dangerous projects, that must include a full break with the path of negotiations, ending the division and restoring unity.

The Front emphasized that the current challenges require all to take up their responsibilities to support the steadfastness of our people and alleviate their suffering in light of the destruction of infrastructure, the persistence of social problems, in order to protect the Palestinian people and their society in the event of renewed aggression.

Further, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the PFLP, said that “responding to the Zionist occupation’s violations of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and its crimes against the Palestinian people, is a sacred duty. All Palestinian political and military forces must respond to these attacks.” Abu Jamal, the spokesperson for the Brigades, noted that this violation of the ceasefire is not the first of its kind, urging a united resistance of all Palestinian forces to respond to the enemy’s continued abuses everywhere and struggle together for return and liberation.

“The abuses and violations carried out by the occupation…are part of the same war of extermination, including those we see in the recent aggression on the Gaza Strip, the attacks in Jerusalem and in the West Bank, the repression of the prisoners inside Israeli jails. These reflect the nature of the criminal enemy that aim to destroy the cultural, national and historical identity of our people,” said Abu Jamal.

Escalating the struggle and confrontation with the Zionist enemy is the only way to achieve victory and liberation for Palestine, the AAMB spokesperson said.

It should also be noted that the fishers in Gaza are subjected almost daily to the arrest and shooting, and the confiscation of their boats from occupation warships stationed along the coast of the Gaza Strip.