Fight Back News Service is reprinting the following statement for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine , an organization that helps lead the fight to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The statement condemns the Palestinian Authority for requesting the postponement of consideration of the report by Judge Richard Goldstone on war crimes in Gaza at the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva.

PFLP: PA decision to postpone consideration of the Goldstone report is an unjustifiable betrayal

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine denounced the actions of the Palestinian Authority in requesting the postponement of consideration of the report of Judge Richard Goldstone on war crimes in Gaza at the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, declaring that this act of betrayal will not be forgiven by the Palestinian people or by the Front. The PFLP said this is a defeated, unjustifiable action that works hand in hand with the US and the occupation and betrays the struggle of our people and all those who have supported that struggle.

A spokesperson for the PFLP said that any misleading justifications for this action, such as a lack of consensus at the UN, or an “adverse impact” on the so-called peace process, indicate only a starkly clear example of utter surrender and complicity with US and Israeli dictates and complete disregard for the blood, dignity and rights of the Palestinian people. The spokesperson continued by urging all national and Islamic forces to condemn this action and hold the Palestinian Authority leadership in Ramallah accountable for this betrayal that serves the occupation and its plans.

Comrade Khalil Maqdesi, of the Information Office of the Front, said that national unity is impossible with such so-called leaders who act on the international level to implement US/Israeli plans against our people. He said that the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, including its leaders Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad, have sold the blood of the Palestinian people to US imperialism and the fascist occupation state of Benjamin Netanyahu. He demanded that all honest and responsible forces within Fateh take action to hold these so-called leaders accountable for their betrayal of the Palestinian people.

Comrade Maqdesi noted that the Netanyahu regime had indicated publicly that it was demanding the PA drop this resolution at the Human Rights Council in exchange for the approval of new mobile telephone frequencies for Wataniya mobile telephone company, a new corporation supported by the Palestinian Investment Fund and many cronies and members of the Palestinian comprador class aligned with Abbas and Salam Fayyad. Comrade Maqdesi said that this action at the Human Rights Council reveals the nature of the enemies of our people – Israel and Zionism, U.S. imperialism, Arab reaction and the Palestinian comprador class, who sell the rights and interests and blood of our people for cell phone frequencies and lucrative contracts. He noted that this total submission and collaboration with US/Israeli interests in exchange for financial benefit for a very few wealthy Palestinians is the true meaning of the “economic peace” propounded by Fayyad.

Furthermore, Comrade Maqdesi noted that the Front maintained its analysis of the Goldstone report, that it presented a notable opportunity to bring occupation officials to justice in international courts for its ongoing war crimes against the Palestinian people – which continue daily with the devastating siege. He criticized the report for its failure to differentiate between the resistance and the occupier, saying that any attempts to criminalize the resistance to the brutal occupation are utterly rejected by the Palestinian people, and that the resistance forces of our national liberation movement engaged in heroic operations during the Gaza war against the occupation state that had targeted our people with the full range of its military arsenal.

However, Comrade Maqdesi said, the failure of the Human Rights Council to take up the report and its recommendations at this meeting shows complete disregard for the numerous and heavily detailed occupation crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza, and the Palestinian Authority's active participation in this denial of justice reveals whose side it is taking in the Palestinian people's confrontation with the occupation – the side of the occupation state, continuing along the path of security cooperation, “peace process”, and repression of the resistance.

Comrade Jamil Mizher, member of the Central Committee of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, denounced the actions of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah in postponing consideration of the report of Judge Richard Goldstone on the commission of war crimes during the occupation aggression in Gaza as a shameful, reckless insult to the struggles and sacrifices of the Palestinian people and the blood of over 1400 martyrs and 5000 injured in the genocidal war of aggression on Gaza. He added that the Palestinian Authority will be held accountable by the Palestinian people and the Popular Front for this heinous act of betrayal.

Comrade Mizher said in an interview on Al-Quds television on October 3, 2009 that this action shows and confirms that the Palestinian Authority has moved beyond submission to US and Israeli dictates into full participation in US/Israeli actions against the Palestinian people.

He said that there had been a great opportunity at this meeting of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations in Geneva to bring war criminals to justice before the law, particularly that this resolution formed a clear condemnation of the occupation state and the conditions were ripe to take action around such a decision, bringing the leaders of the occupation who committed the most heinous crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza to justice in international courts.

He said further that the PFLP, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Democratic Front and the People's Party met today, October 3, in Gaza City, denouncing this defeatist attitude, saying it reflects the utter failure and lack of any political will on the part of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah to act in the interests of the Palestinian people. He also said that the PFLP and the Palestinian people will punish those who are responsible for this decision and hold them accountable for their actions. He concluded by denouncing their reliance on the racist Netanyahu regime and their strategic partners, the US empire, saying that they will never recognize the national rights of the Palestinian people unless they are forced to do so.

Comrade Hussein al-Jamal, speaking with the Voice of the People radio station, said that this action confirms the existence of secret negotiations between the Zionist occupier and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. He said further that this exposes the PA as completely untrustworthy to the Palestinian people and the national and Islamic factions. He called upon the Palestine Liberation Organization and its Executive Committee to investigate the situation and act in order to prevent another Oslo-like catastrophe, that also surfaced as an end result of secret negotiations that placed Palestinian national rights in the hands of those who would give away our rights to the occupation.

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