Democratic Palestine : 27 (ص 16)
غرض
- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 27 (ص 16)
- المحتوى
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Eventually aimed at joint Jordanian-Israeli administration of
the occupied territories, this plan was marketed under the false
slogans of «supporting the masses’ steadfastness», «stopping
settlement-building»,, etc.
All these plans converged on one goal: eliminating the
struggle in the occupied territories, for this threatens the
ultimate Israeli aims of total control.
THE PALESTINIAN RESPONSE
The Palestinian masses have confronted all these plans,
along with the occupation itself. The modes of struggle have
varied. Any study of the forms of struggle should be based on
the Palestinian revolution’s understanding of the role of the
occupied territories as a struggle arena. Regardless of the posi-
tion of the Palestinian resistance organizations, the masses
have been aware of the plans directed against them and their
cause. Based on their own experience, they have realized that
the battle was a question of existence. From this realization
sprang their resistance and clear rejection of all plans which
neglect their inalienable rights, i.e., their right to liberate their
homeland using all means of struggle - social, cultural,
economic, political and armed. In the course of their struggle,
tens of thousands have been martyred. Hundreds of thousands
of families have become refugees. Homes have _ been
demolished and thousands imprisoned. All this only fueled the
Palestinian people’s determination to intensify the struggle.
The Palestinian people have created a resistance movement
that is unique, not only in the Arab world, but internationally
as well.
In the course of the Palestinian national struggle, the
prevailing objective conditions have served to reinforce the
centrality of the struggle in occupied Palestine within the
overall liberation struggle. The resistance movement outside
Palestine has been subject to constant attack - in Jordan in
1970-71, and later in Lebanon, before and during 1982, and
then the camp wars. The difficulties these attacks have presented
for the Palestinian armed struggle, added to the decline of the
official Arab policies and the Arab liberation movement -
which led to Camp David for instance - plus the class nature of
the Palestinian leadership, have all laid a heavy burden on the
Palestinian masses under occupation.
Facing these difficult facts, the Palestinian masses have not
yielded. Rather they have shouldered their responsibility and
made life unbearable for the occupiers. Complementing the
growth of the Palestinian popular resistance movement, the
role of the PLO has grown to the point of becoming the sole,
legitimate representative of the Palestinian people everywhere.
THE PFLP’S ROLE
Since its inception, the PFLP’s political strategy has posited
the goal of the Palestinian national liberation movement as «the
establishment of a democratic national state in Palestine where
Arabs and Jews live as citizens with equal rights and duties.
This state would constitute an inseparable part of a progressive
democratic Arab order, living in peace with all progressive
forces of the world.» Based on this, the PFLP defined its
political, organizational, military and ideological strategy. The
enemy camp and its nature was defined, as were the camp of
friends, and the suitable forms of struggle for liberating the
homeland and establishing an independent state.
The occupied land was a central part of the PFLP’s pro-
grams. The armed struggle practiced by the Front, and the
alliances it seeks, are aimed solely to achieve the Palestinian
16
people’s goals. This was clear in Tasks of the New Stage, the
political report of the PFLP’s third congress in 1972, which
pointed out that the PFLP’s understanding of the prolonged
and complex nature of the Palestinian struggle «should not
distract us for one moment from the fact that the resistance
movement, the daily struggle in occupied Palestine... is our top
priority...» The PFLP’s specific programs for work in oc-
cupied Palestine were based on the conviction that this arena
should continue to be a hot spot for several reasons: First,
because it is the arena where our masses are confronting the
occupation on a daily basis. Second, because of the high
Palestinian population density in this arena. Third, to obstruct
the plans of the occupation authorities for liquidating the
Palestinian cause. Fourth, to keep the resistance against the
occupation at a high level, which would serve as a deterrent to
any deviationist Palestinian trend. Finally, because any
weakness in this arena would pave the way for the occupation
authorities and Arab reaction to liquidate the Palestinian
cause. From the start, the PFLP concentrated its efforts on the
occupied land, acting as a militant vanguard example.
MILITARY STRUGGLE
The PFLP took the particularities of the Palestinian situa-
tion into consideration and practiced armed struggle based on
this understanding. The most prominent features of the
PFLP’s pioneering military actions in the years immediately
following the 1967 occupation were:(1) properly practicing the
laws of guerrilla warfare;(2) creating underground bases, tak-
ing advantage of the high population concentration in the Gaza
Strip and Hebron area;(3) broadening the field of operations,
whereby attacks were carried out in the Gaza Strip, West Bank
and the 1948 occupied territories;(4) establishing close contact
with the masses;(5) directing the military struggle mainly
against the Zionist enemy on a daily basis; (6) eliminating col-
laborators;.and (7) spreading political awareness among the
fighters, to create fighters with clear political goals.
Concentrating on the military aspect of the struggle in the
first half of the seventies had some negative side effects. The
Front did not expend much effort on creating popular
frameworks. Nor did it give adequate time to establishing its
party organizations that would quarantee the growth of the
Facing the occupation troops is part of the people’s daily life - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 27
- تاريخ
- ديسمبر ١٩٨٧
- المنشئ
- الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
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