PFLP calls for united Palestinian action against ISIS in Yarmouk

PFLP calls for united Palestinian action against ISIS in Yarmouk

Once again, the Yarmouk refugee camp is facing destruction, murder and slaughter at the hands of criminal gangs, following a remarkable development as they have seized the camp and seek to displace our people outside Syria, in order to undermine and attack the right of return. The invasion of the so-called ISIS in complicity with Jabhat al-Nusra to seize the camp and commit more killings and displacement is a new stage in this crisis, before which all attempts at reconciliation failed. It is critical to take a clear response to this new development in order to stop the suffering of the Palestinian people in the camps.

In light of this emerging crisis inside the camp and the failure of all attempts to remove the gunmen inside and the persistence of ISIS and Nusra in the camp, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine calls upon all Palestinian factions to take a serious and responsible stand to confront this emergency and the suffering of our people. There is a clear goal of the liberation of the camp from these criminal gangs and the lifting of the siege, and cutting the road on the project to destroy the camp, the return of displaced persons to their homes inside the camp, and neutralizing it entirely from the Syrian crisis, to preserve the compass of our struggle, towards Palestine.

In this context, the PFLP calls for the formation of a joint force of Palestinian factions and the Palestinian Liberation Army to meet this challenge. The Popular Front also emphasizes the need to make this a clear unified Palestinian position, politically and in the battlefield, in order to liberate the camp, expel the criminal gangs, and return our people to their camp.

PFLP salutes Comrade Ibrahim al-Rai, hero of the interrogation rooms, on the 27th anniversary of his martyrdom

PFLP salutes Comrade Ibrahim al-Rai, hero of the interrogation rooms, on the 27th anniversary of his martyrdom

On the 27th anniversary of the martyrdom of the legend of the interrogation rooms, Ibrahim al-Rai (Abu Al-Muntasser). After more than ten months in continuous solitary confinement, interrogation and torture, Comrade Al-Rai was assassinated by his Zionist jailers in captivity, in the interrogation cells, on April 11, 1988. He did not give one word, nor one confession, to the jailers and torturers. He inspired a generation of Palestinian militants inside the prisons who refused to confess, who strengthened their steadfastness and sumoud, to meet the example of resistance and revolutionary commitment personified by Ibrahim al-Rai, a leader and a struggler in all aspects of revolutionary Palestinian work, in direct confrontation and in the organizing of Palestinian workers and students. The call, “Resist, resist, like al-Rai under interrogation,” has remained an inspiration and a clarion call for 27 years and will always be so, until liberation.

The following statement was issued by the PFLP in Qalqilya, marking this anniversary:

On this anniversary, the imperialist powers are still represented by the United States of America and its allies, with all of their power and their might directed against our rights and the rights of the Arab nation to be free and live with dignity, amid attacks and interventions against the Arab people in Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Yemen…

With the escalation of the fierce Zionist attack against the Palestinian national cause, the theft of our land and settlement construction; the Judaization – the Zionization – of Jerusalem; the increasing arrests of our comrades and our Palestinian people, including the most recent arrest of the national leader and struggler, Comrade Khalida Jarrar; the attacks against our brave prisoners in the Zionist jails facing repression, unjust trials and deliberate medical neglect, the martyrdom of dozens of prisoners, including the most recent yesterday, the martyred freed prisoner Jaafar Awad; this requires all of us as forces and factions of the national movement to act and respond commensurate to the Zionist arrogance and assault on our national rights to return, to freedom, to liberate Palestine.

On this anniversary, we see our heroic Palestinian people, struggling in all fields and arenas, in clashes and in every aspect of daily life, in the camps and in the battles, to defend their existence, constantly and creatively developing their own methods of struggle in defense of their rights.

The leader, Comrade Ibrahim al-Rai, struggling in the darkest and most difficult circumstances, isolated and subject to all forms of torture, was willing to sacrifice his own life, to face death at the hands of the executioners, rather than speak one word to give up or betray his party, his comrades or his people. He exemplified commitment, dedication and sacrifice of himself, in order to protect the vision of liberation and the rights of his people. His example is one of steadfast confrontation, who refused to break in the interrogation rooms, and who has inspired generations of revolutionaries in their commitment to steadfastness, to refuse to confess to the Zionists, and who pledge to continue to carry on his path, fighting the Zionists everywhere until every inch of the land of Palestine is liberated.

PFLP mourns Jaafar and Ziad Awad, demands action on medical abuse of Palestinian prisoners

PFLP mourns Jaafar and Ziad Awad, demands action on medical abuse of Palestinian prisoners

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine mourns the martyr Ziad Awad, killed by the occupation army while protesting after the funeral of the martyr, Jaafar Awad, in the village of Beit Ummar north of al-Khalil. The Front also extends its sincere condolences to the Palestinian people on the martyrdom of freed prisoner, Jaafar Awad, at dawn in al-Khalil. His death was caused by the policy of medical negligence and abuse by occupation forces in Zionist jails, the impact of which is carried long after freedom from captivity.

The Front urged all official and popular institutions and the International Committee of the Red Cross to take action to confront the policy of medical abuse practiced systematically against Palestinian prisoners, targeting their lives, and ensure that prisoners receive appropriate treatment and medications, and full health care in independent hospitals for prisoners suffering from chronic disease or severe illness.

The Front also demanded that the Health Ministry and medical institutions act to expand the system of health care protection for freed prisoners and conduct periodic tests for their health, including investigating any chronic illnesses in order to address them before they become more severe and lead to the deterioration of health and the loss of life. Our freed prisoners are national symbols and precious for the future of Palestine.

Comrade Leila Khaled speaks at Tripoli Book Fair and Israeli Apartheid Week on the Right of Return

Comrade Leila Khaled speaks at Tripoli Book Fair and Israeli Apartheid Week on the Right of Return

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.

PFLP: Administrative detention order against Khalida Jarrar will not shake her steadfastness

PFLP: Administrative detention order against Khalida Jarrar will not shake her steadfastness

In response to the Israeli occupation’s administrative detention order for six months against Palestinian leader and Palestinian Legislative Council member Khalida Jarrar, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said that it is confident that this racist, fascist state and its attacks will in no way lessen or undermine the determination and resilience of the struggler Jarrar, nor will it lessen her ability to challenge and resist the occupier.

She is an example of the great steadfastness of the Palestinian people, who do not stop resisting the occupation despite arrests or expulsions, as she did when she challenged and defeated the order expelling her to Jericho.

The Front urged a wider campaign of solidarity with Jarrar and urged all Palestinian official institutions to uphold their responsibilities to act urgently on political and diplomatic levels in order to release her.

The crisis in Yarmouk camp after the invasion of ISIS

The crisis in Yarmouk camp after the invasion of ISIS 

 

Report by Amal Asfour, member of the Palestinian National Assembly for Relief, Yarmouk camp

The following report was written before the last two days, which have seen some progress for Palestinian forces and setbacks for ISIS in Yarmouk. The author emphasizes both the need for urgent Palestinian action and unity to defend Yarmouk camp and its Palestinian people, and also the fact that this crisis is, at its core, caused by the denial of the right of return for Palestinian refugees for 67 years. Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their homes and lands in Palestine must be implemented – and must be at the center of all work to defend the rights of Palestinian refugees:

The assassination of Yahya Hourani (Abu Suhaib), who was primarily responsible for Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis in Yarmouk camp, on March 30 exacerbated the crisis and intensified the plight and suffering of our people in Yarmouk camp, and also cut the road in front of a pending Palestinian initiative to neutralize the camp from the conflict in Syria. After the assassination, one of the groups of Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis arrested elements from ISIS in the camp, over the objections of Jabhat al-Nusra. These events prompted Jabhat al-Nusra to turn on Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis, despite some elements having coordinated with them in the past, and launch a conspiracy in full collaboration with ISIS groups to invade al-Hajar al-Aswad and al-Takadom, to invade Yarmouk camp, control it, and eliminate Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis. This invasion took place over a very short period of time, demonstrating the extent of the coordination and cooperation with Al-Nusra, in order to pave the way for ISIS to achieve this control without any difficulties or confrontation. This invasion forced people remaining in the camp [there were originally 180,000 residents of Yarmouk; approximately 17,000 remain today] to flee to various unsafe neighbouring regions under the control of a number of opposition groups, such as Ababil Horan, Liwaa al-Islam, and Sham al-Rasoul; all of these are small forces belonging to the Islamic Front in the southern areas under Zahran Alloush, who is known to be supported by Saudi Arabia. This imposed a new reality which directly threatens the Palestinian presence in Yarmouk refugee camp, sparking fear, panic, displacement and looting.

After storming the camp, ISIS arrested some members of Aknaf and some civilians, and the first thing they did was to impose their control over Palestine Hospital, the only functioning hospital in the camp, which provides medical services despite a lack of medical equipment and medicine, and to trap the medical staff inside. Finally, the siege by ISIS on the hospital was broken and medical staff went to work in Al-Bassil Hospital which also lacks medical equipment, but has been used to treat some simple cases of the wounded and injured in the clashes between Aknaf on the one side and ISIS and Nusra on the other side.

After ISIS dominated a large portion of the camp, they entered the mosques and broadcast calls for the surrender of Aknaf members to Nusra, assuring them of safety, which caused some of the members of Aknaf to surrender themselves to Nusra. Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis then announced collectively that they were compelled to confront this cooperation between Nusra and ISIS inside the camp. They called for help from the opposition Islamic Front forces, but these forces ignored and did not respond to this call. The camp was cut off from all sides, from the intersection of Tadamon/Palestine, and from the intersection of Yalda/Palestine Square.

Aknaf found itself itself in confrontation with these gangs who took advantage of the opportunity to break furniture and steal food from displaced families and forcibly invaded some offices that were providing relief services to the people of the camp, including the office of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, where the civil relief association of PLO factions is headquartered, where they broke furniture, stole goods and materials that they could take, burned posters of the martyrs, banners, and Palestinian flags, and wrote slogans on the walls, such as “We will kill you, infidels.” Following these invasions and during the clashes, comrades were able to restore the office and resume their work.

After this, ISIS deployed snipers inside houses and on the rooftops of buildings to forbid the movement of civilians, injuring and killing five civilians, some of whom died because of the lack of medical care and medical supplies for the health workers in the camp, and the martyrs were buried in the places they fell because the martyrs’ cemetery in the camp cannot be accessed due to the clashes between ISIS/Nusra and Aknaf.

ISIS managed to control large parts of the camp, and Aknaf did not have the ability alone to respond to this attack and asked for help from the Alliance Factions in coordination with the Syrian state to defeat ISIS and force their withdrawal from the camp. In light of this reality, there is on the horizon potential threads of an alliance between the Palestinian popular committees and the factions on one hand and Aknaf on the other hand, but without a unified Palestinian position and vision for the liberation of the camp.

The delegation of the Palestinian Authority participated in failing to form a unified position in its meeting with the PLO factions on April 7, and then in the meeting of the 14 factions on April 8. Meanwhile, the fear and suffering of people trapped inside continues, as they fear being hit by missiles, rockets or bombs targeting ISIS and its invasion.

In the same context, there was a realization among Aknaf that any assistance that they can get from Yalda/Palestine Square intersection will help Aknaf, but events have proven that they have stretched their presence thinly in order to protect their defense lines.

We cannot say for sure what the current position is; nothing is yet decided, every party is in their position without progress, ISIS and Nusra in Loubia street, Aknaf and the Alliance Factions in the vicinity of Salah al-Din mosque. Fighting and clashes are continuing between the parties. This is a dangerous development in the crisis of the camp, that complicates matters further and puts a greater burden and responsibility on the shoulders of the Palestinian factions to move quickly and urgently to adopt a unified position, and the PLO factions must seize this opportunity to do so, to defend the people of the camp against this attack and their further dispersion.

This situation exists because for 67 years, Palestinian refugees have been denied their right to return home. The racist, colonialist Zionist project has forced Palestinian refugees from their homes and continues to deny their right to return and is fully responsible in every attack on the rights and the lives of Palestinian refugees, who continue to struggle, first and foremost, for their return and for the liberation of Palestine.

 

 

Palestine: Israel Arrests Leftist MP Khalida Jarrar