Democratic Palestine : 17 (ص 14)
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- Democratic Palestine : 17 (ص 14)
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Interview with Comrade Habash
Palestine: 1948 Disaster and Today’s Struggle
The following is excerpts from an interview conducted by the British journalist David Smith with Dr.
George Habash, General Secretary of the PFLP:
Could you tell us first of all about your own expe-
rience of the West Bank in the period after the ’48
war? What was the plight of the people, refugees
living there then? What sort of identity did their
situation on the West Bank create?
I still remember that period very well and in details that
cannot be erased from the mind. The experience of the usur-
pation of part of the Palestinian land in 1948, was very bitter. I
still remember how we were kicked out of our homes, villages,
farms and shops, leaving all our belongings behind. I still
remember how the Hagana gangs rounded the men up in the
mosque of Lydda, where I was born, and forced them to leave
the town on foot, without any of their personal belongings. It is
still imprinted on my mind how the Zionists prevented me and
others from treating the civilians who had been injured by the
bullets of the Hagana gangs. Can I forget how my eldest sister
was dying before my eyes without our even being able to move
her to a place to be treated?
I leave it to the imagination of any person to picture the situa-
tion of a people suddenly forced to leave their land and wander
in search of shelter. I leave it to the imagination of any person to
picture the horrifying circumstances that would cause a mother
to flee, forgetting her child asleep in bed. I leave it to the imagi-
nation of any person to picture the tragedy that will burden the
14
conscience of a human being forced to leave his mother, sister or
one of his children to die on the road without even being able to
bury them, for fear of the Zionist terror gangs pursuing him.
There is much more involved in the agony which resulted
from the 1948 occupation. Its consequences have accumulated
and continue to do so up to today. A large portion of our people
were transformed into refugees living in camps. Many infec-
tious diseases spread among them as a result of the conditions
they suffered, living in crowded tents, malnutrition, etc. This
was accompanied by severe suffering, psychologically and
socially. The banishment of this large number of the Palestinian
people, who became refugees, brought with it the problem of
unemployment which reached 60% among able-bodied men.
Of course, all of this also affected those Palestinians whose
land did not come under Zionist occupation in 1948. All Pales-
tinians at that time - refugees or not - experienced a deep, hor-
rible shock, and a sense of injury and anger. All wondered: How
could this have happened? By what law can a people be
uprooted from their land? How can any human being commit
massacres such as those committed by the invading Zionist
forces? How can any state representing «civilization» - the US
for example - support this massive crime committed against our
people? We were wondering: What about international law?
What about the principles of the United Nations?
The shock that hit the Palestinian people expanded, involving
the people of the seven Arab countries of that time. They won-
dered: How can it be that our countries were defeated by the
Hagana gangs and the state of ‘Israel’ which they declared?
With such questions began the formulation of an answer as to
how to regain our rights, and what methods of struggle will
achieve what we are convinced is right and just.
In addition to the conditions of the Palestinians, as a result of
their banishment, there were our people’s feelings of vengeance
towards the Jordanian regime in particular and towards all the
Arab rulers of the time. Instinctively and consciously, our
people could see the special role of the Arab regimes, the Jor-
danian regime in particular, in what had happened. Our people
knew that the Arab governments had intended to negate the role
of the Palestinian masses in the struggle to defend themselves
and their rights. Instead, the regimes replaced the masses’ role
with that of the official Arab armies, some of which were led by
British colonialists such as Glub Pasha.
After our people were banished in 1948, feelings of resent-
ment grew towards the Palestinian leadership who had trusted
the Arab governments. Our people accused the leadership of
failures and shortcomings, but did not denounce them for
treason.
In view of these factors, our people began thinking of how to
respond. Young men began penetrating the Zionist lines, singly
and in groups, to carry out military operations against the
Israeli forces. They began clashing with the Jordanian army.
The struggle of our people was two-pronged: It was directed
against ‘Israel’ and its occupation army, and against the Jor-
danian regime and its policy of dissolving the Palestinian iden-
tity through absorbing our people and land. Palestinian struggle
grew after 1948, due to the victory of Nasser’s revolution in
Egypt and the Algerian revolution. These two revolutions
became symbols and moral examples for the Palestinian
struggle. The armed struggle continued. This assumed a Pales-
tinian national dimension before 1967, and grew to become a
great revolution after 1967. - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 17
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