Democratic Palestine : 16 (ص 18)
غرض
- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 16 (ص 18)
- المحتوى
-
PNSF Mass Rally
Day of
the Land
The Palestine National Salvation Front convened a mass rally in Yarmouk camp, outside Damascus, to
celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Day of the Land. The first speaker was Dr. Alaiddin Abdin, member
of the Central Committee of the Arab Socialist Baath Party. Next spoke Rashad Abu Shawwer of the
Palestinian Writers and Journalists Union. The Salvation Front’s speech, delivered by Dr. George
Habash, General Secretary of the PFLP, is printed below.
In these days, ten years ago, the land of Palestine expio-
ded in a stormy uprising, confronting occupation. Hundreds of
thousands of Palestinian citizens in the land that was occupied
in 1948, rose up on the morning of March 30, 1976. They said
no to the Zionist plans to seize Palestinian land. They said a
loud, daring no to the conspiracy of containing and cancelling
their Palestinian national identity. They emphatically declared
that they are an inseparable part of the Palestinian people. It
was the same with our people in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip, despite the occupation’s might and all the attempts to
impose the colonialist Israeli identity...Hundereds of
thousands of Palestinian citizens answered the call of the
mayors and local councils to hold a general strike and
demonstrate on March 30, 1976. They marched in the streets
of Nazareth, Taibeh, Sakhnin, the villages of the Galilee and
Triangle, and in all the West Bank and Gaza cities, towns and
camps. They embodied the solid unity of the Palestinian
people, wherever they may be, under the banner of the PLO,
leader of our people’s struggle and their sole, legitimate rep-
resentative.
| need not speak at length about the Day of the Land, for
it has been emblazened in the minds of every Palestinian man,
woman and child. It is the story of fierce struggle to defend
Palestinian land...It is the story of the martyrs who confronted
the most powerful military force in the region with their bare
hands...Rather, | will highlight the lessons of that heroic con-
frontation...to learn from them in our future struggle:
First lesson: Adherence to the land
The Palestinian people adhere to their land and will spare
no effort to defend it...!t is they who are most concerned about
the land and cause, for it is theirs. It is they, along with the Arab
16
masses, who have given their lives to liberate the land from the
taint of the unjust Zionist occupation. Those who have given
martyrs don't need lectures about the land and how to save it,
from those who have squandered this land and sold it cheaply.
Yet we see that King Hussein and his like are not ashamed to
cry crocodile tears over the land and the people.
Second lesson: Unity
The Palestinian people are all one people and allow of no
division. This has been seen at many turning points in the his-
tory of our cause and revolution. On the Day of the Land, our
people again proved the depth of their national unity and
genuineness. The mass uprising in 1948 occupied Palestine
was accompanied by similar uprisings in Gaza and the West
Bank...Our people in the camps in exile were mobilized in sol-
idarity, despite the regimes and their oppression. Of course,
this mass uprising would not have assumed such proportions
were it not for the successes achieved by the PLO.
Third lesson: Two bases
The Day of the Land uprising materially stressed that the
contemporary Palestinian revolution relies on two essential,
complementary bases. The first is the struggle of our people in
the occupied homeland and their steadfastness against the
Zionist enemy’s policies of land seizure, settlement-building,
expulsion, ‘civil’ administration and ‘autonomy’. The second is
the struggle of our people outside, the role of the Palestinian
revolution in terms of armed, political and mass struggle.
Experience has shown the interrelation between these
two bases and the extent to which they influence one another.
Without the PLO's achievements on the Arab and international - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 16
- تاريخ
- مايو ١٩٨٦
- المنشئ
- الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
Contribute
Not viewed