Al-Haj Ahmad: UN Security Council draft must be withdrawn: We will not allow this project to pass

Al-Haj Ahmad: UN Security Council draft must be withdrawn: We will not allow this project to pass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