Democratic Palestine : 1 (ص 13)
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- Democratic Palestine : 1 (ص 13)
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to the 1982 Israeli invasion. I think that the Palestinian
revolution will face this same situation in any of the countries
surrounding Palestine, unless we can rely on genuinely
national democratic regimes that will say to ‘Israel’: “The
Palestinians have every right to struggle against you, and we
have every right to support them. We will not curtail them for
the sake of Zionism”. Thus, the Palestinian revolution should
have very close relations with the masses and nationalist forces
in Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon. Only in this way can we
continue our struggle.
Third: Today, it is clearer than ever that Zionism aims not
only at Palestine; it is aiming to establish a Zionist empire that
would. include all of Palestine, the Golan Heights, South
Lebanon. These areas would be within the borders of “Greater _
Israel’. In addition to its territorial ambitions, ‘Israel’ wants to
be an imperialist force in the whole Middle East. Therefore,
any Arab people seeking true independence must fight these
expansionist and aggressive aims. What is happening in
Lebanon is the prime example of this.
If this point can be made very clear to the masses through
active propaganda and organizational work, things will
change in the years to come. ‘Israel’ will not retain its present
position. We must clarify to the Lebanese people that ‘Israel’
has specific interests in occupying the South and dominating
all of Lebanon. We must convince the Jordanian people that it
is. impossible to have dignity or freedom alongside the
presence of Zionism and ‘Israel’. We must work to have the
Egyptian people see things as they are; we must ask them if
they have real freedom and dignity. We must make it clear to
all the Arab people that ‘Israel’ is a tool in the hands of
imperialism, ready to attack anyone that resists imperialism. If
these things were apparent to all, there would not be a solely
Palestinian revolution, which will fail totally. Instead, there
would be a Palestinian-Arab revolution against Zionism and
imperialism. This is the correct path.
Objectively, things are moving in this direction. Today it
is clear to the Lebanese people that ‘Israel’ is not occupying the
South to safeguard its borders from Palestinian guerrillas. The
Lebanese are now fighting ‘Israel’ directly. This must take
place in all the surrounding countries, whereby the aggressive
Israeli policies would be confronted by the millions of the
Arab masses. Then ‘Israel’ would have no way to escape.
We will not be able to liberate one inch of Palestine until
we have secured a base from which to fight, in an Arab
country bordering Palestine. This joint Palestinian-Arab
struggle is the key to liberating Palestine. It is equally in the
interests of the Arab masses, for it is the only path to justice and
genuine peace in this part of the world.
Jewish-Palestinian struggle vs. Zionism
I would like to go beyond the question to mention another
important force that we must deal with when speaking of how
to liberate Palestine. This is the Jews themselves, the
democratic Jews, those Jews who are suffering the effects of
Zionism. To be honest, we have not done very well on this
point. If we knew how to work, this could be a very important
weapon in the hands of the progressive forces in this region. In
fact, there are many Jews who are suffering, but the problem
is that their leaders were successful in convincing them that the
main contradiction is between the forces of Arab national
liberation and all the Jews in ‘Israel’. If we make it clear to
Palestinians and Jews that the real enemy is Zionism, Arab
reaction and imperialism, the struggle to liberate Palestine
would gain a new dimension. Let us join forces and fight for
peace, democracy, freedom and self-determination, for the
Palestinians, for everybody. This would be the path for
defeating Zionism and its plans.
The correctness of the stand taken by the PFLP and DF LP, as
seen especially in the Program for Unity and Democratic
Reform in the PLO, was not enough to prevent the inter-
Palestinian battle in Tripoli. How will we now work to resolve
the Palestinian crisis?
We admit that when the sound of canons rose, the voice of
our program was almost inaudible. However, we do not
believe that the roar of canons will be the loudest indefinitely.
Sooner or later, even the quarreling parties will come to the
conclusion that internal fighting does drastic damage to the
revolution. Moreover, the weight of our people’s opinion, and
that of our Arab and international allies, will bring the fighting
to a stop. In this case, we can really look into the reasons
for this crisis. Knowing the reasons, we can struggle political-
ly for the reforms needed in our revolution, especially since
the departure from Beirut.
The PFLP-DFLP program presented a clear analysis of:
this crisis, its roots ‘and manifestations, and the methods of
treatment: the needed political and organizational corrections.
However, the question which we now face is whether or not it
is a matter of a program. We cannot say that we did our duty
by presenting this program and the matter is finished. Some
might think that since the fighting has stopped, everything is
O.K. This is not the case for us. When the fighting stops, the
political struggle must be escalated. Not only we, but our
people in general, have come to the conclusion that things
cannot continue as they were before we left Beirut. There
should be ammendments in the political and organizational
line, in every field.
Of course, we presented this program because we think
it is correct, but we do not regard it as sacred or immune to
changes. Let all the Palestinian organizations and people take
part in discussing this program. We are ready to listen to all
points of view.
The task facing us now is how to apply a mechanism to
activate this program, so that it can be implemented. After
we and the DFLP agreed on the program, we sent a copy to
all Palestinian organizations with a message demanding their
opinion. So far, two _ organizations, the Palestinian
Communist Party and the Palestinian Liberation Front, have
responded, saying that in general, not in every point, they
regard the program as a good basis for unity in the PLO. We
are still waiting for an answer and resulting discussion with all
organizations, without exception. Yasir Arafat and Abu Jihad
gave a general answer, saying that this program could be
acceptable. Frankly speaking, we will not accept such
answers; we have a long experience with such answers. We
will ask Fatah’s Central Committee what they really mean:
Do they accept this point and that? Are they ready to
implement each point? On the political level, the program is
very clear: The revolution must fight imperialism, Zionism,
peoeuonaty forces. They must say if ld Teally on this,
Palestinians rally at Bir Zeit, Nov. 7th, to condemn the
fighting around Tripoli.
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