Democratic Palestine : 25 (ص 14)
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- Democratic Palestine : 25 (ص 14)
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the brightest landmarks of the last two
decades. The emergence of the Palesti-
nian revolution represented the popular
response to the 1967 defeat. The
Palestinian resistance represented a
contradiction not only to the Zionist
project, but to the Arab reactionary
project as well. In practice, the
Palestinian revolution has become the
vanguard of the Arab _ liberation
movement.
Having disappointed the calculations
of the Zionist-imperialist-reactionary
alliance, the Palestinian revolution has
been the prime target for this alliance.
In fact, the PLO’s major task during
the past twenty years has been to con-
front the enemy alliance’s political and
military conspiracies.
On the military level, there were the
1970 Black September massacres in
Jordan; the 1975 Israeli-backed,
Phalangist war against the Palestinians
and the Lebanese national movement,
and the 1976 Tel Al Zatar massacre; the
1978 and 1982 invasions of Lebanon,
and the Sabra-Shatila massacre; the
1985-87 war on the camps waged by the
sectarian Amal movement; and the
continuous Israeli raids on Palestinian
camps, especially in South Lebanon.
On the political level, liquidationist
solutions have. never stopped pouring
in, among them: resolution 242, the
Rogers plan (1970), King Hussein’s
United Kingdom plan (1972), Saudi
Prince Fahd’s plan (1980), the Reagan
plan (1982) and last, but not least, the
cancellation of the Cairo accord
regulating Palestinian civilian and
armed presence in Lebanon.
Yet like the phoenix, the Palestinian
revolution rose up again and survived
all the military and political con-
spiracies. Moreover, the PLO has
grown to be a well-known, respected
and recognized political body, as the
sole, legitimate representative of the
Palestinian people. Over 150 countries
recognize the PLO. The principle of
self-determination and the right to an
independent Palestinian state are now
accepted on the international level.
Only those who hide their heads in the
ground, like the ostrich, refuse to
recognize these rights. Their rejection is
translated into daily, US— backed,
Zionist aggression against the Palesti-
nian people inside and outside occupied
Palestine.
Unfortunately though, the con-
tinuous blows dealt to the PLO during
these twenty years have yielded some
results. Unlike the Israeli tenats, the
14
Palestinian tenats have been shaken
during the past few years, due to some
Palestinian forces’ betting on US solu-
tions and harboring illusions about the
results to be gained. This policy
resulted in the Amman accord, but it
proved to be futile, and this failure
paved the way for restoring the PLO’s
unity at the PNC session in Algeria this
April. This unification session
rehabilitated the Palestinian tenats
which are as follows:
I. rejecting resolution 242 because it
does not constitute a solution for the
Palestinian problem; rejecting the
Camp David accords, the Reagan plan,
and all capitulationist plans and
unilateral solutions;
2. adhering to the Palestinian people’s
right to self-determination, return and
establishing an independent Palestinian
state;
3. adhering to the Palestinian people’s
historical rights in Palestine;
4. adhering to the PLO as the sole
legitimate representative of the
Palestinian people.
These tenats are totally contradictory
to the Zionist tenats, and this explains
the failure of all the attempts to arrive
at a solution to the Middle East con-
flict. Such solutions have consistently
ignored the nature of the conflict and
the Palestinian people’s rights. For
twenty years, political activities in the
region have focused only on attempts to
find a solution for the 1967 territories,
ignoring the original occupation of
Palestine.
‘Israel’ and its allies offer one of two
‘solutions’: either ‘autonomy’ or a
confederation with Jordan. The PLO
and its allies, on the other hand, offer a
just solution based on the necessity of
recognizing the legitimate rights of the
Palestinian people. The Arab reac-
tionaries look for a middle solution,
one that includes Israeli withdrawal
from most of the occupied territories in
return for peace, recognition and coex-
istence with ‘Israel’. Such a solution ts
undoubtedly at the expense of the
Palestinian people’s legitimate rights.
There are even two understandings of
the proposed international conference.
That of Shimon Peres is an international
umbrella under which all the parties
concerned, except the PLO, would
negotiate directly. To the PLO and its
allies, an international conference
means one where all parties concerned
participate under UN auspices, with the
PLO participating on an independent
and equal footing.
It is true that the PLO’s just solution
will take a long time and much struggle.
However, it is equally true that the
proposed Zionist solution will continue
to be in crisis, despite whatever tem-
porary successes may be achieved.
WHOSE DEFEAT WAS IT
ANY WAY?
Despite the gloomy outlook in the
region during the last twenty years,
there is one fact that should never be
overlooked. The Arab- masses’
capabilities have been suppressed, but
this situation cannot last long. The
most encouraging example is Lebanon.
In 1982, the Zionists intended to
reenact their successful June blitzkrieg,
like in 1967, but the Israeli expectations
of a 72-hour victory over the Palesti-
nian and Lebanese fighters vanished in
thin air only a few hours after the start
of the invasion. Unlike the 1967 ag-
gression, the 1982 invasion of Lebanon
did not yield a quick Israeli victory. The
Israeli army failed to conquer Beirut
despite nearly eighty days of siege and a
barbaric military assault. The Lebanese
people’s heroic resistance, led by the
Lebanese National Resistance Front
and supported by Palestinian forces
and Syria, succeeded in driving the
Israeli occupiers out of most of
Lebanon. The invasion of Lebanon was
the most costly aggression ever staged
by the Zionists.
In addition to the Lebanese example,
one should never forget the heroic
uprisings of the masses in occupied
Palestine and the Golan Heights. The
Palestinian masses’ continuous upris-
ings in the occupied territories affirm
the dialectical relationship between our
masses’ struggle, whether inside or
outside occupied Palestine. Since 1967,
250,000 Palestinians have been im-
prisoned in Israeli jails; 1,215 have
been deported or expelled; and 1,300
homes have been demolished by the
Israeli authorities. These are Israeli
statistics and therefore modest estima-
tions, but they give an idea of the scope
of mass involvement in the struggle.
The latest example of the capabilities
of the Arab masses was the 1985 upris-
ing in Sudan, that overthrew the
Numeiri dictatorship. So whose defeat
was it in 1967? It was the defeat of the
Arab regimes, not the masses. An Arab
poet once said that the chains will be
broken, and the darkness will fade
away. Undoubtedly, the darkness will
fade away. @ - هو جزء من
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