Democratic Palestine : 27 (ص 14)
غرض
- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 27 (ص 14)
- المحتوى
-
Occupied Palestine
The Palestinian Working Strategy
and the PFLP’s Role
In September 1986, an opinion poll was conducted in the
occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip by the Palestinian daily Al
Fajr, the US daily Newsday and the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation. This poll was taken after nearly twenty years of
consistent Zionist attempts to eliminate the Palestinian na-
tional identity and the PLO as the sole, legitimate represen-
tative of the Palestinian people, or at least to create reactionary
substitute leaderships. Nonetheless, this poll showed that
93.5% of the Palestinians believe that the PLO is their sole,
legitimate representative. Moreover, 77.9% preferred the
establishment of a democratic Palestinian state in all of
Palestine as the permanent solution to the Palestinian problem.
Since the start of the Palestinian revolution, the occupied
land has been a top priority. It has been the subject of a
significant portion of the debate in the Palestinian arena
throughout the past two decades. The PFLP, from the time of
its inception, has had a distinctive viewpoint on this issue. The
PFLP’s view originated from its understanding of the rela-
tionship between the struggle inside and outside occupied
Palestine, and between the Palestinian and Arab national
dimension of the struggle. The Front’s view is also based on its
understanding of the need for supportive operational bases for
the revolution, and the issue of stages in the Palestinian strug-
gle. The following article examines how this viewpoint was
outlined, practiced and developed.
THE GOAL: LIBERATING THE HOMELAND
From the moment that the land of Palestine was occupied,
the main goal of the Palestinian struggle was clearly identified
as liberating all of Palestine. This goal was clearly stated in the
Palestinian National Charter which was adopted by the first
session of the PNC, held in Jerusalem in May 1964. Ever since,
liberating Palestine has been the main obsession of every pat-
riotic Palestinian. This goal became the basis for the many
forms of resistance that spread in the refugee camps and
among the Palestinians living under occupation. It became
even clearer in the course of the conflict between the Palesti-
nian masses and the Zionist enemy. Realizing the nature of the
conflict, the Zionists expend the full strength of their military
machine in an open war against the Palestinian revolution
outside occupied Palestine, aiming to eliminate its operational
bases.
The 1967 occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in
addition to Egypt’s Sinai and Syria’s Golan Heights, gave the
conflict new dimensions and forms. The occupation troops,
with their military might and technological superiority, faced
the masses in the newly occupied territories. On one hand, the
Israelis viewed these territories as a new market that would
eventually import nearly 90% of its needs from ‘Israel’, while
providing a cheap labor force. On the other hand, they found
themselves at war with the masses of the occupied territories,
who have refused to relinquish their national identity and
14
declared goal, thus linking up with the struggle of the Palesti-
nian masses elsewhere. An overview of Zionist policy is in
order here to siiow the environment in which the Palestinian
resistance operates in occupied Palestine.
ZIONIST OCCUPATION POLICY
Realizing that the balance of forces was to their favor, the
Zionists pursued a policy of creating facts, exploiting the
Palestinian masses and land, while forcibly curbing their
struggle. This policy assumed a variety of forms.; A few mon-
ths after the 1967 war, the Israeli occupation authorities raised
the slogan of «open bridges». This was engineered by the then
war minister, Moshe Dayan, due to his awareness that the
future would bring more confrontation. By opening the two
bridges, Damia and Allenby, that connect the West Bank to
Jordan, the Zionists sought to find a way of releasing some of
the pressure on the Palestinians, to avoid the situation reaching
a breaking point.
In their thrust to create facts, the occupation authorities
embarked on a broad campaign of establishing settlements. To
this end, they employed all means of repression, as well as the
laws of the British Mandate and Ottoman rule, to confiscate
Palestinian land. Settlements were built so as to surround
Palestinian towns, cutting them off from each other.
Meanwhile, the occupation authorities waged vicious cam-
paigns against Palestinian nationalists and political forces.
Nearly 300,000 Palestinians have been jailed since the 1967
occupation. Added to this was the deportation of activists, to
empty the occupied territories of effective elements. Palesti-
nians were also expelled indirectly on a regular basis by virtue
of economic restraints. Moreover, the Zionists sought to
distort the Palestinian people’s character by banning or
destroying elements of their national heritage and culture,
while stealing other elements and labeling these as Israeli.
The occupation authorities focused their efforts on impeding
the natural development of the Palestinian economy. In-
dustrial development was hindered and subjected to Israeli
economic interests. Generally, industry in the 1967 occupied
territories has been restricted to producing light consumer
goods, leaving the economic base weak and making the
Palestinian consumer dependent on Israeli production.
Meanwhile, the Israelis opened their own economic institutions
to Palestinian manual laborers. Nearly 120,000 Palestinians
have worked in Israeli enterprises, in the worst conditions and
at substandard wages, not to mention the racist atmosphere.
As a result of Zionist land confiscation, the Palestinian
agricultural sector has deteriorated drastically. Out of nearly
70,000 peasants working in this field in 1967, there are now less
than 38,000. The occupation authorities have enacted other
measures to force the Palestinian peasant off his land. He was
forbidden to expand his cultivation, to drill for water or to
grow the crops of his choice. If he was forced to stop farming - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 27
- تاريخ
- ديسمبر ١٩٨٧
- المنشئ
- الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
Contribute
Not viewed