Democratic Palestine : 10 (ص 5)
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- Democratic Palestine : 10 (ص 5)
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PALES TUNE Sa
Who Attacks the Damascus Agreement and Why?
To refute the Palestinian right-wing’s furious attack on the Damascus agreement, PFLP’s Deputy Gen-
eral Secretary, Comrade Abu Ali Mustafa, explains the implications of this agreement in relation to the
balance of forces and agreements concluded by the PLO in the past.
In accordance with their particular political and class
backgrounds, several parties have attacked the Damascus
agreement which ended the war on the Palestinian camps in
Beirut. The most fervent attackers are the deviating rightists in
the PLO leadership, who launched a campaign against the
agreement and those who signed it, using two main argu-
ments. The first is that the agreement cancelled the Cairo
agreement signed in 1969, between the PLO and the
Lebanese government, under the auspices of the Arab
League. The secondis that the Damascus agreement included
a point whereby the Palestine National Salvation Front agreed
to disarm our people in the Beirut camps. Some are even say-
ing that the PNSF has agreed to disarm our people in all of
Lebanon. We answer these lies based on the following facts:
The Damascus agreement improves the Cairo
agreement
First, we stress that the Damascus agreement did not can-
cel the Cairo agreement, either implicitly or explicitly. From the
legal point of view, the parties signing the Damascus agree-
ment are not the same as those who signed the Cairo agree-
ment. The Amal movement does not have the same legal pre-
rogatives as the Lebanese government. There has not been
any authorization by all Lebanese parties to make the Damas-
cus agreement.
More important is that the Damascus agreement imple-
ments the Cairo agreement in a better way, by stressing the
right of the Palestinian people to carry arms in Lebanon, to
practice armed struggle from Lebanese territory. The Damas-
cus agreement does not put limits on the number of armed
people who have the right to be in the camps. On the contrary,
it stresses the right of our people to possess arms. It also stres-
ses the need to take into consideration the political, social and
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civil rights of the Palestinian people, that they should be treated
as in other Arab countries.
Where were the Cairo agreement’s «defenders»
at the 16th PNC?
The strange thing is that those attacking the Damascus
agreement have just now noticed that the Cairo agreement is
being called into question. It is as if they had never heard of the
Philip Habib agreement which left nothing of the Cairo agree-
ment except its memory. Even stranger is that these people do
not try to remember the last legitimate session of the PNC, the
16th, held in Algiers, in February 1983. All Palestinian organi-
zations and national figures were represented there. At the end
of the session, the political declaration was read, including the
following well-known paragraphs on Lebanon:
1. Deepening the relations with the Lebanese people and
their patriotic forces, and extending full support to these
forces in their courageous struggle to resist Zionist occupa-
tion and its instruments.
2. Chief among the current tasks of the Palestinian
revolution is to struggle jointly with the Lebanese masses and
their patriotic and democratic forces to terminate the Zionist
occupation.
3. The PNC calls upon the Executive Committee to con-
duct talks with the Lebanese government concerning the sec-
urity and safety of the Palestinian citizens living in Lebanon,
and insuring their rights of residence, freedom of movement,
work, and of social and political activities.
4. Action for ending the arbitrary collective and individual
arrests which were carried out on a political basis, and for
releasing the Palestinian prisoners detained in the prisons of
the Lebanese authorities.
The Cairo agreement, as a basis for organizing Palesti-
nian-Lebanese relations, was completely omitted. We in the
PFLP were not satisfied with this omission. Yet the very people
who now shed tears over the Cairo agreement, were at that
time fully prepared not to adhere to it. This is proven in the third
point, specifying what should be negotiated with the Lebanese
authorities: The Cairo agreement is not mentioned. Actually,
the PNC resolutions could have referred to the Cairo agree-
ment, especially its first four points which state that it has been
agreed to organize Palestinian presence in Lebanon on the
basis of:
1. The right to residence, work and free movement for
Palestinians now living in Lebanon.
2. Palestinians living in the camps can form local commit-
tees to preserve their rights in cooperation with the local
authorities, in accordance with the Lebanese law.
3. The Palestinian military police shall have stations in the
camps, in cooperation with the popular committees, to bring
about good relations with the authorities. These stations are >
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- Democratic Palestine : 10
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