Palestinians in Germany defeat Zionist attack, host Leila Khaled at Land Day event

Palestinians in Germany defeat Zionist attack, host Leila Khaled at Land Day event

The Coordinating Committee of Palestinian Communities and Institutions in western Germany organized a festival and mass rally to mark Land Day on April 9 in the city of Wuppertal, with the participation of Palestinian leader and struggler Comrade Leila Khaled and Palestinian writer Abdul-Bari Atwan. 

Al-Karmel folkloric band performed a spirited and lively Palestinian dabkeh performance to close the evening.

Supporters of the Zionist movement attempted to stop the organization of the event through pressure on the German government and the first venue scheduled to host the event, and attempted to distort public opinion in order to prevent the visit of Leila Khaled and her meetings and events with the Palestinian and Arab communities in Europe. However, the attacks failed, and the event – held in a new venue – was packed with hundreds upon hundreds of members of the Palestinian community in western Germany. 

Khaled saluted the Palestinian people who struggle daily to liberate their homeland and achieve return. She offered scathing criticism of the Palestinian Authority and its leadership, emphasizing that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine rejects all so-called “solutions” that undermine Palestinian rights. Further, she urged confrontation of the official Palestinian institutions and in particular the practice of security coordination with the occupation, saying that it is a betrayal of the Palestinian people and their resistance. 

She saluted the efforts of the Palestinian communities in Europe and of Palestinian refugees, emphasizing the centrality of the right of return as the core of the national cause, and urged broader Palestinian participation in the boycott and BDS movements against the occupation and in confronting the Zionist movement in Europe. 

She highlighted the struggle of the martyr Comrade Omar Nayef Zayed, saying that the Palestinian Authority proved that it cannot protect the Palestinian people, demanding the trial of Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki and Ambassador Ahmad al-Madhbouh for the events leading to the death of Nayef Zayed.

Palestinian writer Abdel-Bari Atwan denounced Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his policies, referring to them as a “catastrophe and calamity” for the Palestinian people, urging national unity on the basis of resistance. He said that the Palestinian situation had reached an unprecedented situation of political degeneration and urged immediate action. 

Naim Mattar, a former Palestinian prisoner, spoke on behalf of former prisoners and highlighted the role of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement as a compass toward liberation and return and the full rights of the Palestinian people. He saluted the prisoners in occupation prisons, led by Comrade General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat and the leader Marwan Barghouti, and the struggle of Omar Nayef Zayed, demanding justice in his case.