As part of the Tripoli Book Fair and the organizing of Israeli
Apartheid Week in Tripoli, Lebanon, Comrade Leila Khaled, member of the
Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
and leader of its department on refugees and the right of return, spoke
at a political symposium at the Rashid Karami International Fair on
current developments and their impact on the right of return.
Palestinian refugees from Nahr el-Bared and Beddawi refugee camps,
representatives of Palestinian and Lebanese political and cultural
organizations attended the event, which was introduced and facilitated
by Comrade Khaled Yamani, a member of the PFLP’s refugees and right of
return department, who introduced Leila Khaled.
Khaled discussed the Nakba and the displacement of Palestinians and
the history of Palestinians’ inextricable struggle for return and
liberation, which goes beyond the issue of UN resolutions to fundamental
principles of justice and rejection of racism, imperialism and
colonialism. She reviewed the history of resettlement projects put
forward in order to undermine Palestinian refugees’ struggle to return.
She also noted historic campaigns of propaganda against Palestinian
refugees conducted amongst Lebanese and other Arabs, promoting myths
that the Palestinians “sold their land” in order to distort the reality
of the Palestinian cause and attempt to justify the suppression and
denial of rights of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. She also reviewed
the experience of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon leading the
Palestinian revolution and falling as martyrs for liberation and return,
as well as the history of destruction and massacres, in Tel al-Zaatar,
Sabra and Shatila, the invasion of Lebanon, the continuing destruction
in Nahr al-Bared, and the crisis in Yarmouk as part of a systematic
project and attempt to undermine the right of return.
Khaled noted that the goal of the Oslo process was to undermine the
right of return and tether Palestinians to engage in security
coordination with the enemy through the Palestinian Authority. She
demanded the immediate rejection of Oslo, and the ending of security
coordination, instead prioritizing Palestinian national unity to
confront the occupier.
She engaged in questions and discussion with the audience as well as interviews with television programs.
No comments:
Post a Comment