Democratic Palestine : 24 (ص 4)
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- Democratic Palestine : 24 (ص 4)
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Palestinian National Dialogue
On April 13th, a week of inter-Palestinian dialogue began in Algiers,
in preparation for the Palestinian National Council that convened on
April 20th. After meeting with PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat for the
first time since 1983, PFLP SecretaryGeneral George Habash an-
nounced that Fatah had decided to cancel the Amman accord signed
by Arafat and Jordan’s King Hussein in February 1985. With the
removal of this big obstacle to Palestinian national unity, the com-
prehensive dialogue began.
Participating in the dialogue from
the beginning were the PFLP, DFLP,
Fatah’s Central Committee, Popular
Struggle Front (PSF), Arab Liberation
Front (ALF), Revolutionary Council
(Abu Nidal) and the two branches of
the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF),
led by Talat Yacoub and Abu Abbas,
respectively. While the PSF and Abu
Nidal withdrew from the dialogue due
to dissatisfaction with the results, the
Palestinian communist Party joined in
the last days preceding the PNC.
Previous contacts and agreements
among Palestinian resistance organiza-
tions had laid the basis for the national
dialogue, including the Tripoli docu-
ment (see text in this issue) and the
Tunis document agreed on between
Fatah’s Central Committee, DFLP and
PCP. Also contributing to the dialogue
were the views of Palestinian in-
dependents.
Attending the April 13th meeting
between Arafat and Habash were
Khalil Al Wazir (Abu Jihad), Salah
Khalaf (Abu Iyad), Hani Al Hassan
and Hayel Abdul Hamid from Fatah,
and comrades Abu Ali Mustafa, Abdul
Rahim Mallouh and Omar Quteish
from the PFLP. After the meeting,
comrade Habash stated: «...brother
Yasir Arafat reaffirmed the decision of
Fatah’s Central Committee to cancel
the Amman accord. He also reassured
the PFLP delegation that a PLO Ex-
ecutive Committee meeting would be
held to issue an official cancellation of
that accord prior to the PNC’s conven-
ing. For the PFLP, «the official
cancellation of the Amman accord
opens the way for discussing political
and organizational issues which the
Front considers essential for the
restoration of the PLO’s unity on a
firm basis.»
4
On April 14th, dialogue continued
between the secretary generals of the
Palestinian organizations. The dif-
ferent viewpoints concerning relations
with Egypt were reviewed. Fatah ad-
vocated continuing these _ relations,
while the PFLP made breaking rela-
tions with the Camp David regime a
precondition for its participation in the
PNC. The DFLP called for an in-
termediate solution to this problem.
This disagreement did not, however,
change the overwhelmingly optimistic
atmosphere among the main resistance
organizations.
Dr. Habash indicated that the PFLP
had not yet decided finally whether or
not to participate in the PNC, saying
that this depended on the developments
in the dialogue, in particular reaching
agreement on relations with the Egyp-
tian regime. Comrade Habash added
that the PFLP would «exhaust all ef-
forts to reach an agreement, bearing in
mind the tragedy the Palestinian people
are experiencing in the occupied ter-
ritories and in the camps of Lebanon.»
The third day of the dialogue was
dedicated to a general discussion of the
internal situation in the PLO and rela-
tions with the Arab states.
On April 16th, there was a meeting
between the delegation of Fatah, head-
ed by Yasir Arafat, and the PFLP
delegation, led by comrade Habash. On
this day, Hani Al Hassan, Fatah Cen-
tral Committee member and political
advisor to Arafat, created uneasiness
among the participants in the dialogue
with his speech. Some interpreted it as
an attempt to justify continuing rela-
tions with Egypt, on the pretext of
preventing further tightening of the
siege around the PLO. Others con-
sidered that Hassan’s speech ignored
the Egyptian regime’s true position on
an international conference in order to
conclude that relations with this regime
were necessary to make such a con-
ference successful.
Discussions continued between the
Palestinian leaders on April 17th. A
meeting of the secretary generals of the
participating organizations reviewed
the proposals made by the committee
responsible for formulating communi-
ques, and discussed the issues of
disagreement. The discussions focused
on an international conference, rela-
tions with Egypt and with Syria.
Mohammad Sharif Musa’idiya, the
second man in the Algerian leadership,
and Ahmad Taleb Al _ Ibrahimi,
Algerian foreign minister, began ef-
forts with the Palestinian leaders to
resolve the obstacles to convening the
PNC. Comrade Ali Salem Al Beedh,
secretary general of the Yemeni
Socialist Party, also participated in
these efforts. As a result, a meeting
took place on April 19th between
Algerian President Shadli Ben Jadeed
and the Palestinian leaders. The
Algerian president conveyed his relief
about the great political and organiza-
tional results that had been achieved.
Comrade Bassam Abu Sharif, PFLP
Central Committee member, confirmed
that the PFLP had become more op-
timistic about the prospects for con-
vening the PNC, adding that a solution
to the problem of relations with Egypt
was very close at hand. He confirmed
that Algeria, Democratic Yemen and
Libya were playing a positive role in
promoting the success of the dialogue.
On April 20th, prior to the convening
of the PNC session, comrade Habash
held a press conference, explaining the
PFLP’s decision to participate: «In the
light of the meeting that took place with
President Shadli, the PFLP decided at 4
p.m. Sunday (April 19th) to participate
in the PNC. In view of the PFLP’s
analysis of the problems that led to the
PLO’s division over the past three
years, we outlined the political and
organizational basis whereby unity
could be restored... cancelling the
Amman accord, stopping relations with
the Egyptian government and adhering
to political principles and organiza-
tional reform, i.e. collective
leadership... We still consider this basis
necessary for the restoration of the
PLO’s unity so that it can be an in- - هو جزء من
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