SENZA CENSURA n.12
Italy, october 2003

ROAD MAP: THE US PLAN FOR ISRAELI "SAFETY"

by Abdel Latif, president of the Palestinian association "Addameer"


We, the Palestinians, need demonstrations of international solidarity for our struggle, demostrations without which would be more difficult to go on against imperialism all over the world.
In Palestine there's a conflict into which it is victim since 100 years. We can't speak about 100 years of Palestinian struggle, but we can speak about the Road Map, the peace project, and the prisoners.
Since three years the Palestinian people, through the Intifada, is trying to oppose with all means the occupation and the aggression carried on by the Israeli army. During this occupation Israel has killed and hurt nearly 50,000 children, kids and women. It has destroyed 26,000 houses with family still inside. It has destroyed 50,000 olive threes. It has closed all towns and zones making impossible displacement and creating big problems for water and light.
They have made all this against Palestinians because they are looking for their life and their liberation. With all these means the Israeli army is trying to make the Palestinians give up every hope, but the Palestinian people straight on with the struggle for its rights. In this moment they have decided to propose the Road Map to enshroud the Intifada and the resistance. But we are analysing the Road Map: what is it bringing us? Where is it carrying us? To a right peace or the contrary? It's a trap which turns around the principal problem to kill politically the Palestinian cause. It's clear, also after the war in Iraq, why it has been made to redefine Middle East for imperialist interest. The global system can't propose itself in this area without finding a solution in Palestine. There are two kinds of peace for Palestine: the first legitimated by the International Community which shows it as good, the other project is American, not legitimated by the UNO because it doesn't respect our rights. We invite the USA and all nations of the world, with theUNO, to apply a peace plan that could be accepted by the Palestinian people.
The Road Map is the contrary of the solution proposed by the International Community, by UN, because it doesn't speak about the right of refugees to come back and about the others points. The imperialism and the Zionism want to oblige Palestinian people to accept it.
For this we know that our friends in the world love freedom and independence and they are with us against this big enemy.
The Road Map carries us to the initial point because it speaks about stopping violence , that Israel calls "terrorism". And they want to oblige the Palestinian people to discuss again its right as happened in Oslo, that is to say to find a solution without consider our rights. We don't have to repeat the mistakes committed in the past because we have to learn also from history.
America and Israel think that the self-defence of Palestinians is "terrorism". How can we call the social and economic destruction that Israel causes to Palestinians? We defend ourselves. The real terrorism is organized by the Israeli state.

Prisoners in Israeli jails

Since the beginning of the second Intifada 20,000 Palestinians have been arrested, among them there are women and children; now there are 6,500 prisoners, 500 are kids between 12 and 18. They are deprived of human rights in the Israeli jails, and they straight on with their struggle also with hunger strike. For example they deprive them of the right to see their family since three years. They are living a very difficult situation, and they are condemned by a military court; the important thing is that they are the flowers of Palestine because they defend their own country and their own cause. For Israel they are criminals, terrorists. For this they are defending themselves politically and they are defending their life conditions. A child that throws stones against an armed car is considered a "terrorist".
The Palestinian political heads which are also members of the P.L.O., like Marwan Barghouti, are treated in a inhuman way, without any right; the Road Map doesn't speak about these Palestinian leaders, to prevent them to come out of jail and to not leave any hope to improve their conditions. The question is: how can we speak about the Road Map while partisans, Palestinian struggle leaders are in prison? What kind of peace is it?
And so also when they speak about the liberation of Palestinian prisoners, they are disposed to speak about hundreds of prisoners excluding a partisan who fought with weapons against Israel excluding also a person that they think he is Israeli blood-stained; at the end Israel speaks about the liberation of only the 10% of prisoners. For this we invite all comrades who love freedom, all associations, movements, political forces to support and to be active for prisoners because it is a very important point.
We can't divide justice, we can't forget their liberation, therefore with your solidarity we can fight imperialism and everybody who is against us.

www.addameer.org