SENZA CENSURA n.7
Italy, february 2002
TO THE MASSES OF OUR PALESTINIAN PEOPLE IN THE HOMELAND AND SCATTERED ABROAD
Political Statement - (communiqué)- Issued by the Political Bureau of the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
18 February 2002
The Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
convened a meeting in the first half of February 2002 that dealt with the Arab,
regional, and international developments surrounding our national cause. After
saluting the steadfastness of our people as they confront the
escalation of Zionist aggression supported by the American Administration, the
Political Bureau noted the following:
1. The American war program under the signboard of fighting terrorism in order
to strengthen the means for imposing imperialist hegemony is continuing. The
Arab region occupies the chief place in this program, the aggression against
Afghanistan being only one link in its chain. In accordance with this program,
US hegemony is not necessarily to be effected only by means of warfare but also
by a series of economic, political, and intelligence measures. The low level of
global objection by peoples and governments to what took place in Afghanistan
has encouraged the American Administration to go further and to direct its
threats with rudeness and impudence at the states and forces that stand up
against the policy of hegemony (such as Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Hizb Allah, and
the organizations of the Palestinian resistance), indicating that the Middle
East region faces new aggressive acts.
2. Within the framework of the links between America's plans for this region and
the regional role of the Zionist entity in these plans, the Zionist unity
government has escalated its aggression against our people qualitatively (tightening
the total blockade; destroying houses in Rafah and Jerusalem; increasing the
intensity of destructive bombing and shelling of Palestine Authority national
security offices; launching incursions into Tulkarm, Bayt Hanoun, Tammoun, Sayda,
and Halhoul; and stationing tanks just meters from the headquarters of President
Arafat . . .) Probably the state of panic and fragmentation that afflicts
official Arab circles, indeed their complicity at some stages, has helped reduce
America's caution about returning to a policy of total congruence with the
policy of the Zionist entity government, providing political cover for its acts
of aggression, and abandoning even the taste (a bribe) of vague support for the
establishment of a Palestinian state that the US expressed before the beginning
of its campaign against Afghanistan.
3. In light of the above-mentioned international and Arab circumstances, it was
absolutely necessary that the highest level of exactness be used in drawing up a
Palestinian national strategy for struggle. But the Palestine Authority and its
leadership resorted to a policy of counting down, calling for a cease-fire,
declaring a State of Emergency, closing down offices, declaring the military
wings of some Palestinian organizations to be illegal, labeling the resistance
and resistance organizations as "terrorist," going beyond partial political
arrests to return to the practice of broad campaigns of sweeping arrests and the
serious hunting down of militants and their weapons. These measures, carried out
under the slogan of depriving the Sharon government of its excuses, have only
led to more Zionist aggression, more American pressures, and to European
activity that timidly differs relatively from the American position by opposing
the rude impression of American policy, or by urging that the Palestinian
struggle against the Zionists not be treated exclusively as a security problem.
The decline of official Palestinian policy has gone so far that a return to
where things were before the intifada broke out has become their dream, whereas
it used to be an Israeli demand. This decline brought back serious signs of
shaken faith and frustration to the Palestinian street. It has undermined the
unity in the field that grew strong in the battles of the intifada and
resistance, setting off warning bells of the worsening of internal
contradictions that appeared recently in the outbursts of tribalist, group, and
factional feuds in which unfortunately the Authority's security agencies played
a role, where they should have been a part of the effort to prevent and treat
such occurrences.
In view of this reality, the Political Bureau of the Popular Front affirms and
calls for the following:
First. The nature of international circumstances after 11 September, and what
they represent as seen in the content of the American imperialist war, do not
contain anything that can push the cause of our people forward. The American war
against what it calls terrorism involves, among other things, a war against our
people's resistance that is based on the resolutions of the United Nations and
international law. Therefore Palestinians cannot protect themselves and defend
Palestinian goals by trying to get out of the path of the crazed American bull -
its rage is studied and intentional and not some emotional reaction. Rather it
must be confronted by a policy of self-defense and defense of our rights, by
focusing on defending the legitimacy of our people's resistance. International
support for the resistance must be secured by waging the broadest possible
informational and diplomatic campaign to demonstrate the fact that our people
are the victims of the terrorism and the crimes committed by the occupation with
such open American political cover that George Tenet, Director of the American
Central Intelligence Agency, went so far as to list Hamas, the Islamic Jihad,
and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine as targets of American
aggression. Tenet ignored the fact that organizations of Palestinian national
activity and resistance in general only emerged as a result of the occupation,
and with legitimization by international documents and United Nations
resolutions. These organizations will not disappear until the occupation ends
and the national rights of our people to their return, to freedom, and to
independence are attained.
Second. Waging a broad popular democratic struggle, strengthening national
steadfastness and unity in the field, and the demanding that the Palestine
Authority stop complying with American-Israeli demands - these are necessary
conditions for bringing more factors of Palestinian strength to bear on the
confrontation with the Zionist aggression that depends on American political
cover and the fragmented and impotent state of official Arab regimes.
Third. The need to stand firm in order to stop the collapse of some class strata
in Palestinian decision-making circles that have been opposed to the intifada
and the renewal of the resistance struggle since the beginning They applied
pressure to gain acceptance of what was proposed at Camp David, and they are
pushing now for acceptance of what is called the Abu `Ala' - Peres Agreement and
the open statement on the possibility of bargaining over and encroaching upon
established national principles, first among them the return of Palestinian
refugees to their homes in accordance with UN Resolution 194.
Fourth. The impotence of official Arab regimes does not diminish the importance
of the initiative to activate the machinery of Arab national popular struggle,
and to participate actively in initiatives on this level.
Fifth. Reasserting the importance of the popular democratic nature of the
intifada is a matter of the utmost importance. The armed resistance is a reserve
for this side, not a substitute for it. Activation of the mass organizations,
popular federations, and peoples' associations must not be limited to energizing
their role in the battles being waged on the ground, but must extend to their
participation in the effort to build bridges to similar organizations in the
Arab world, in this region, and internationally in order to broaden the spheres
of support and assistance for our national cause and the right of our people to
resist the occupation.
To the masses of our people:
In concluding its political review, the Political Bureau examined the offense
committed by the Palestine Authority of waging a campaign of political arrests
that culminated in the arrest of the comrade General Secretary Ahmad Saadat.
After expressing thanks and high esteem for all those who have participated in
the political, informational, and mass campaign on the Palestinian and Arab
levels to secure the release of the General Secretary and to condemn the arrest
for the serious political implications that are inherent in it, and the real
dangers it poses for national unity, the Political Bureau expressed its
condemnation and astonishment at statements by the Palestine Authority and its
leadership that link the arrest of our comrade the General Secretary to the
effort to arrest the heroic comrades accused by Israel of liquidating that
symbol of Zionist extremism, Ze'evi. Such statements go a long way to making
internal Palestinian affairs subject to American-Zionist dictates, going so far
as to entertain the illusion of demanding that the leadership of the Popular
Front turn in those heroic comrades to the Palestine Authority. This matter
never was and never will be subject to discussion or deliberation. The Popular
Front and its leadership have never been and never will be for political arrests
of people for their opinions or for resisting the occupation. It does not share
the illusion that leaders of the Palestine Authority entertain that more
subservience to and compliance with Israeli dictates and demands is a way to
break the blockade of our people or the President Yasir Arafat. The Israeli
demands are endless. They are aimed at imposing conditions of surrender on our
people.
Therefore the Political Bureau of the Popular Front, as it condemns the arrest
of the comrade General Secretary and demands his immediate release together with
all those detained by the Palestine Authority, it also rejects the pursuit of
the heroic comrades accused of liquidating Ze'evi. The Political Bureau
reiterates that it rejects on principle any discussion of the subject of their
arrest.
The Political Bureau
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine