Democratic Palestine : 1 (ص 5)
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- Democratic Palestine : 1 (ص 5)
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Editorial
The Arafat-Mubarak meeting, which took place on
December 22nd in Cairo, raised varying and controversial
reactions all over the world. Some circles cheered loudly,
while others condemned the meeting and rejected any
probable results beforehand.
_ The United States administration expressed support for
the meeting, as did west European. officials. The pro-US
circles in the Arab world applauded the Cairo meeting. Such
stands are substaritial indications of the nature of this
meeting. Yet the Palestinian response remains as the most
important. It is the sum of the Palestinian reaction which will
decide what the Cairo meeting will lead to.
Dr. George Habash, General Secretary of the PFLP,
condemned Yasir Arafat’s meeting with Mubarak, defining it
as “a step into the Camp David agreements”. He called for
Arafat’s immediate resignation from his post of Chairman of
the PLO Executive Committee, because of this dangerous
deviation from the decisions of the Palestinian National
Council. Furthermore, Comrade MHabash_ urged all
Palestinian resistance organizations, all mass organizations
and all PNC members to work together in order to oust
Arafat.
Condemnation of Arafat’s step has come from a broad
spectrum of Palestinian patriotic personalities, resistance
organizations, trade unions, mass organizations and PNC
members. (See following pages for examples.) It is now clear
that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians condemn this
step and reject its consequences.
Why this meeting?
The Cairo meeting, which took place directly after the
departure of Arafat and his troops from Tripoli, was no mere
ceremony. Nor did either party enter into it spontaneously or
naively. Rather it is a clear expression of the political line of
rightist circles within the Palestinian nationalist bourgeoisie; it
is an indicator of the future path chosen by influential
rightists in the PLO, and a result of Arab reaction’s cultivation
of this trend.
Arafat’s visit to Cairo was an announcement that he has
decided to yield to US pressure, to accept the Reagan plan
and give a mandate to King Hussein of Jordan to negotiate
the future of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Such a
political line was rejected by the PNC at its 16th session held
in Algiers, in February 1983. The PNC explicitly rejected the
Reagan plan because it denies the Palestinian people their
right to self-determination and to establish an independent
state, and, moreover, because it ignores the PLO as the sole,
legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. In other
words: Reagan’s plan aims to liquidate the Palestinian
national struggle and cause. It is a supplement to the Camp
David accords signed by Sadat in 1979. These accords were
the result of Sadat’s capitulation to the US-Israeli conditions.
Capitalizing on the results of the 1967 war, which led to the
occupation of the Sinai, Golan Heights, Gaza Strip and West
Bank, the US and ‘Israel’ planned for liquidating the Arab
national liberation movement in order to totally dominate the
area. The Camp David accords were the first revenues
collected by the US and ‘Israel’. However, this agreement
remained confined to the Egyptian front, contrary to the
expectations of Sadat, Begin and Carter. This was due to the
steadfast stand taken by Syria, the PLO, Algeria, Democratic
Yemen and Libya. They decided to counteract Sadat’s
capitulationist step and managed to isolate it at the Baghdad
Summit. Continuing Palestinian resistance in the occupied
land and in common struggle with the Lebanese national
forces blocked Camp David on the Palestinian level.
The US and ‘Israel’ had provided for ‘resolving’ the
Palestinian issue through an annex to the Camp David
accords, calling for “administrative self-rule” in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip, under Israeli or Jordanian auspices.
Such a solution would obviously mean liquidation of the
Palestinian cause, but it was moreover planned as the bridge
for spreading Camp David in the rest of the area. With the
Palestinian people united behind the PLO, the US and ‘Israel’
planned the invasion of Lebanon. The goal, as expressed by
Shamir on June 8, 1982, was to “destroy the PLO which is the
obstacle preventing the peace process to go on in the region.”
On September Ist, Reagan came up with his proposals,
once again seeking to use liquidation of the Palestinian issue
as the bridge to the rest of the area. Based on the idea that the
PLO had been greatly weakened and was thus in no position
to confront the Camp David trend, the proposals had the
same contents.
The rightist circles in the PLO started to push for the
adoption of these proposals. However, this political line was
checked by the democratic struggle that took place in the
16th PNC. session. Yet the rightists in the PLO’s Executive
Committee, led by Arafat, didn’t commit themselves to the
decisions of the PNC. They kept their contacts with King
Hussein and the Egyptian regime, trying to find a way of
getting around these decisions.
The siege of Tripoli and of the Palestinian camps in this
area elicited Palestinian and Arab sympathy for Arafat as
Chairman of the PLO. This provided Arafat with the
opportune moment to divert from the political line adopted
at the PNC. He did it. He payed that visit to Al Quba palace,
where he discussed with Mubarak their joint plan. Thus,
Arafat breached the moral and political contract he had
signed with the other Palestinian organizations. He deviated
from the political line decided by the representatives of the
Palestinian people. Above all, Arafat stabbed the Palestinian
national struggle and cause in the back by yielding to the US,
Israeli and Arab reactionary conditions. His visit was an
announcement that he had given up the aims for which our
people have given great sacrifices in the past eighteen years.
Organizationally speaking, this step by Arafat is illegal to the
point of depriving him of legitimacy as Chairman of the
PLO’s Executive Committee.
This situation puts new demands on the political struggle
of the democratic forces within the PLO, to combat this
deviation. The democratic forces are now mobilizing the
broadest possible sectors of the Palestinian people against
Arafat's step, with the following aims:
1. To preempt any probable results of this visit.
2. To take the necessary organizational measures against
Arafat, namely to oust him from his post.
The Palestinian people will continue their struggle with
the same zeal and patience. Based on long experience, they
know that long-term struggle against imperialism and
Zionism is the only way to fulfill their national rights and
goals. - هو جزء من
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