Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Dec. 9 statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

As our people’s struggle continues against the rising fascist Zionist attacks, we reach the 47th anniversary of the founding of our party and the 27th anniversary of the outbreak of the great Intifada of our people in 1987. On these two occasions we rise and pay tribute to the martyrs of the march of our people over a century of struggle for national liberation. We remember all of those who fought on the path of national struggle: Jamjoum, Hijazi, al-Qassam, Abdulqader al-Husseini, and all of the martyrs who have fallen in the battle for liberation. We recall the leader and founder of our party, Al-Hakim (George Habash), whose revolutionary commitment and integrity instilled in us our values; the great martyr Abu Ali Mustafa, who worked tirelessly for our people; we remember Wadie Haddad, Ghassan Kanafani, Abu Maher al-Yamani, and Guevara Gaza. We recall the long line of national leaders of the Palestinian people whose blood was shed on the road of freedom, Abu Ammar (Yasser Arafat), Abu Jihad (Khalil al-Wazir), Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Fathi Shikaki, Khaled Nazzal, Omar al-Qassem, and the list goes on. We remember the suffering of our brave prisons in the enemy jails, led by the General Secretary of our party, the national leader Ahmad Sa’adat, and we salute the wounded, emphasizing our determination and our pledge to remain firmly loyal to the banner of struggle until the liberation of all of Palestinian national soil and the realization of the full national rights of our people to return, self-determination, independence and a free Palestine with its capital in Jerusalem, as our people continue their comprehensive struggle and Intifada in all forms.

On the anniversary of the founding of our party and the great Intifada, our people are mounting a struggle against Zionist fascism on the political front and on the battlefield. This fascism expresses itself in the systematic murder of our people, the attacks of hordes of colonists, the policy of mass destruction and genocide during the 50 days of war and aggression against the Gaza Strip, the Judaization of Jerusalem, the escalation of settlement looting in the West Bank, combined with the arrogant policies and laws of the occupier government, including the new “national state of the Jewish people” law, attempting to strike down the Palestinian cause, the presence of our people, and our national and historical rights. It is an attack on the right of return and an attack on the rights of our people in occupied Palestine 1948, as well as a blow to the illusions of bilateral negotiations under U.S. auspices. It is clear that this so-called “option” did not recover any of our land nor bring peace, nor has it stopped the Zionist officials from their aggression for two decades, despite the absurd negotiations and the devastating political, economic and security conditions of these negotiations for our cause. We are facing an attack on our people’s cause at all levels, aiming to eliminate our people and our rights.

Since last June, the popular resistance is attempting to break out of all of the restrictions imposed upon it, and reflect the will of the people and their unlimited willingness to practice resistance in all of its forms, to withstand all attacks and renew their inexhaustible dedication to the people and the cause, giving unceasing sacrifices and paying a high price. Our people know clearly that it is useless to continue negotiations – that it is an absurd, destructive choice. This clarity of the Palestinian masses requires the monopolistic leadership of the PLO and also the leadership of Hamas must listen to the voice of the masses and open their options to confront the Zionist war machine which engaged in massive killing and destruction in the Gaza Strip. Our struggling people proved there that unity and the choice of resistance is capable of repelling aggression. Now is the time to support the popular struggle launched from our eternal capital Jerusalem, and work to build a unified national leadership to support our people to defend themselves, their land and their holy sites, and leave aside the internal division and dependency on negotiations and finally and fully reject the absurd and devastating political, security and economic obligations of the Oslo project against our people. It is time to end the division, not through power-sharing and division of interests and Authorities between the West Bank and Gaza. We urge the immediate meeting of the full provisional leadership of the PLO including all Palestinian parties to rebuild the national and democratic foundations for unification of the Palestinian national movement and restoration of the sole legitimate representative of our people everywhere, leading our struggle in the homeland and exile.

Amid the Zionist attacks, the rising popular struggle in the West Bank and in the heart of Jerusalem and in occupied Palestine 1948, and following the valiant resistance of our people in the Gaza Strip and their legendary steadfastness in the face of aggression, we in the PFLP emphasize the following:

First, it is past time to end the path of Oslo and its security, economic and political obligations, and return the Palestinian cause to the United Nations to demand the implementation of the relevant resolutions rather than negotiating on our rights, first and foremost the right of refugees to return to their homes from which they were displaced and to compensation under UN Resolution 194;

Second, it is time to end the internal divisions and rebuild and unite the PLO institutions on a national and democratic basis as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people in the homeland and diaspora. The Palestinian struggle is in a stage of national liberation, and not of the construction of an authority under occupation.

Third, it is time to end the period of calm and unleash the resistance of our people in all forms to confront Zionist fascism. This is a comprehensive and open struggle between a national liberation movement and a settler colonial racist exclusionary occupying power, not a conflict between two equal armies. This is clear on a human, economic, political and moral level.

Fourth, it is time to respect the will of our people and support their steadfastness and resistance for freedom, independence and return, and pay attention to their suffering in the worsening economic and social situation caused by the continuing occupation as well as the social and economic policies of the Palestinian Authority.

A true exit from the national impasse requires a thorough review of the results and consequences of the Oslo agreement and how it has burdened our people, their cause, their unity and resistance, and its replacement with a unified national strategy. The challenges facing our people from the onslaught of Zionist fascism are unprecedented, and the suffering of our people in the homeland and in diaspora, the problems and issues of concern to their daily lives, must be given a high level of attention by all parts of our national liberation movement. This is particularly the case in refugee camps in Syria and Lebanon, as well as the need to rebuild what was destroyed by the occupier’s aggression against the Gaza Strip, and must be done on the basis of meeting the needs of the people rather than on competition and rivalry between parties, through the formation of a national body for this purpose. It is also necessary to develop the popular struggle in Jerusalem and form a unified national leadership to sustain and expand throughout the cities and villages of the West Bank, hand in hand with deepening the popular initiative for comprehensive boycott of the occupation, supporting national production and employment opportunities for youth, which are needs that are not being met by the economic and social policies of the Authority aligned with the rich at the expense of the poor and popular classes. These policies operate in accordance with the dictates of the World Bank and such advice destroys communities in independent states, let alone a society in the stage of national liberation.

We stand before a new phase to end the path of negotiations and uphold the resistance, a stage that reinforces the popular direction of struggle and confrontation of the enemy, learning lessons from the resilience of the Gaza Strip and the sacrifices of the people of Jerusalem, and we must take those examples to a new path of confrontation with the occupation and strengthening our relationship with the masses, the only reference upon which we rely.

Long live the PFLP; Long live the glorious uprising of our people; Glory to the martyrs and freedom to the prisoners; the Resistance will inevitably be victorious!

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