Democratic Palestine : 11 (ص 5)
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- Democratic Palestine : 11 (ص 5)
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PALES TINE
Interview with Comrade Habash
On August 19th, Comrade George Habash, General Secretary of the PFLP, gave an interview to «Al
Hadaf», the Front’s weekly Arabic magazine. The excerpts we have selected to print below revolve on
seven themes: Palestinian armed struggle in Lebanon, the crisis in Palestinian-Syrian-Lebanese
nationalist relations due to the camp war, Palestinian national unity, the Palestine National Salvation
Front, the danger of the Amman accord, the Casablanca summit and the Damascus agreeement to end
the war of the camps.
Palestinian armed struggle in
Lebanon
«Everyone knows that after the
year 1967, the Palestinian revolution
has depended on two main bases: the
struggle of the Palestinian masses
inside occupied Palestine, and the
phenomenon of overt armed struggle in
the Arab countries surrounding Pales-
tine.
«The war of the camps thrust upon
us a reevaluation of the second base
and its future, for this war was a serious
attempt to put an end to that base; it
shook it. Now we are planning to consoli-
date and protect that base..
«This attempt to put an end to overt
armed struggle in Lebanon is the most
dangerous of many previous attempts.
Why? Because it was carried out by
those whom we considered as sons of
one and the same nationalist camp...
The phenomenon of overt armed strug-
gle carries with it certain burdens. It
seems that some nationalist forces are
not capable of bearing these burdens.
«Our brothers in the Amal move-
ment launched a hard struggle to liber-
ate the South of Lebanon. However,
when they had achieved concrete steps
in the process of liberating the South,
their silent logic was as follows: ‘Now we
have liberated the South. As for the liber-
ation of Palestine, it is a historic, tire-
some, costly, long process.’ The Zionist
enemy contributed to this idea by
threatening to retaliate, inflicting mas-
sive destruction, for any shelling of the
Zionist settlements’.
«All phrases of pan-Arab war, or
that the liberation of the South should be
the door to the liberation of Jerusalem,
evaporated. These slogans reached a
deadend. Now, the reality speaks for
itself: “We are satisfied with liberating
the South. Let the Palestinians concen-
trate their struggle inside Palestine.
When all the Arab states have arrived at
a unified strategy for liberation, we will
not hesitate to fulfill our duty.’
«Now, in the light of the above said
words, can we abandon our gun in Leba-
non? The answer is very clear, and it
should be clear in the minds of all. Our
duty remains the heroic defense of the
Palestinian gun in Lebanon, no matter
what the cost. How can we protect the
Palestinian gun in Lebanon? a) By put-
ting an immediate and decisive end to
the previous improper conduct...for
which the Palestinian right-wing leader-
‘ship is responsible... b) By differentiat-
ing between the importance of preserv-
ing the Palestinian gun in Lebanon on
the one hand, and unnecessary, impro-
per military behaviour on the other...
c) The overt military presence of the
Palestinian revolution in Lebanon must
serve the war against ‘Israel’ and contri-
bute to the war of the Lebanese national
movement against the isolationist
forces... d)We cannot enforce the
Palestinian armed presence on the
Lebanese nationalist forces...This pre-
sence must be agreed upon through
dialogue...»
Crisis in nationalist relations
«The war of the camps led to acrisis
in the Palestinian-Lebanese nationalist-
Syrian relations...
«| remember very well that after the
evacuation of the resistance forces from
Beirut in 1982...we in the PFLP said that
we are facing a new, complicated situa-
tion. We asked ourselves: How can we
deal with this new situation? Our answer
was that there are two interconnected
weapons by which we can overcome the
crisis. The first weapon is Palestinian
national unity. The second is consolidat-
ing our alliances with Syria and the
Lebanese national movement.
«After Arafat's visit to Cairo, the
convening of the splinter Palestinian
National Council in Amman, and the
signing of the Amman accord on Feb-
ruary 11, 1985, we stressed the impor-
tance of the tripartite alliance even more
strongly. Yet that does not mean that we
have abandoned the slogan of national
unity...
«Our viewpoint was that the forma-
tion of the Palestine National Salvation —
Front (PNSF) would be the Palestinian
partner capable of consolidating the
alliance with Syria and the Lebanese
national movement...
«Then the war of the camps broke
out with the aim of ending the role of the
Palestinian gun, irrespective of organi-
zational affiliation...At that time we felt
that our allies see only a political role for >
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- Democratic Palestine : 11
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- أكتوبر ١٩٨٥
- المنشئ
- الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
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