Fight Back News Service is circulating the following August 27 statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

On the 16th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Palestinian, Arab and international leader, Comrade Abu Ali Mustafa, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, we reaffirm our commitment to fulfill his vision of the liberation of Palestine, embodied by the martyr since he first joined the ranks of the national liberation movement. He marched on the road of the martyr without hesitation or reluctance. His burning spirit, conscious will, and firm conviction in his people, the justice of their cause and great hope for victory were a catalyst and guide throughout his years of struggle.

He recognized that the nature of the struggle against the Zionist invasion of our Arab homeland and Palestine in particular requires the concerted efforts of all national, organized, collective and conscious forces on the field of struggle. This realization led him to first join the ranks of the Arab Nationalist Movement and then to become a leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine after contributing to its founding.

Throughout his life of struggle, the great martyr Abu Ali Mustafa represented values, lessons and principles that deserve to be highlighted, especially amid the current Palestinian reality with all of its problems, crises and complexities:

First, the awareness and culture on which Abu Ali Mustafa relied to formulate his own understanding. He never stepped back from his will to read, learn and develop his knowledge and education, building up his ever-evolving consciousness and developing politics and culture in the service of national liberation. Valuing the issue of culture and knowledge amid our reality comes to confront all attempts to falsify history, obscure reality and develop an atmosphere of despair, frustration, destructiveness and defeatism.

Second, for him, the struggle was an approach to life. This was reflected in his behavior, his words and his actions. The struggle was not linked to him by a title, location, rank, position, decree or ritual. He was connected with his people in all their various locations, inside and outside Palestine, and their forms of struggle – military, political, organizational and popular. He was among his people through all stations of his life, as he was at the moment of his martyrdom.

These forms of struggle and their exercise must be on the agenda of all political forces, so we can employ the best of all forms of struggle – political, cultural, military, popular, media and others – without pitting them against the other, in order to serve our vision and goals of national liberation.

Third, holding fast to the strategic goal of the Palestinian national struggle, the liberation of all of the land of Palestine, and not to allow it to be truncated in the name of “tactics,” but to serve this goal and walk on this path.

Today, after a quarter of a century of negotiations and the Oslo Accords with the Zionist enemy, the futility and catastrophic damage to our rights, our cause, and the unity of our people, of the road of conciliation is clear. It is necessary to cast away all illusions that there is any way forward in this “process” for a real Palestinian state, self-determination and return. Instead, we must break firmly with this path and all of the political and economic consequences and reject any pressure to return to negotiations, and confront any attempt to spread illusions about the possibility of achieving the goals of the Palestinian people through the trading of these schemes and projects. This includes the so-called “deal of the century” or “regional solution.” The alternative is to work seriously to restore the Palestinian national liberation movement, end division and build Palestinian national unity.

Fourth, the unity of the Palestinian national struggle means upgrading the role and function of the tool of that struggle through the rehabilitation and rebuilding of the Palestine Liberation Organization with a program, charter, moral and material base to bring together the energies and abilities of the Palestinian people.

Loyalty to the martyr Abu Ali and all of the martyr who struggled for the PLO, its program and national role, defending the unity of its representation, means the necessity of upholding the national agreements made in Beirut and completing the work of the preparatory committee to ensure the organizing of a true national unity council outside Palestine. This also means rebuilding the institutions of the PLO on a national, democratic, united and correct basis with pluralism and democracy in its institutions and in all matters of national affairs.

Glory to the martyr and the leader, Comrade Abu Ali Mustafa!

We pledge to continue on the path of struggle to achieve the goals of our people to liberation and return.

Victory is inevitable!

August 27, 2017

#GazaPalestine #Gaza #Palestine #PFLP #AbuAliMustafa #MiddleEast

On Aug. 27, the Israeli government assassinated Abu Ali Mustafa, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Memorial meetings were held in a number of cities around the country. We are reprinting a speech delivered by Stephanie Weiner, of Freedom Road Socialist Organization, at the memorial meeting held in Chicago.

It is with sadness and anger that we learned of the assassination of General Secretary Abu Ali Mustafa. Freedom Road Socialist Organization wishes to convey our condolences to the Palestinian movement in Chicago, to the leadership and members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and to the General Secretary's family and friends.

We realize that Abu Ali Mustafa was a hero in every sense of the word, and that he devoted his life to the complete emancipation of Palestine. He was among those who stood in the forefront of the struggle against Zionism, imperialism, and all reaction.

The actions of the Zionist state are criminal. Its policy of killing Palestinian children and the leaders of the resistance movement are the desperate acts of an entity that is living on stolen land and borrowed time. Freedom Road Socialist Organization wishes the Palestinian people every success in the difficult period ahead.

We know that it is the government of the United States that is the principal backer of Israel. We know that the U.S. uses Israel as a weapon to attack and to suppress the national democratic aspirations of the Arab people as a whole. Let no one feel alone on this point – the $4 billion of U.S. aid a year is an enormous number, but there are 6 billion people in the world, the majority of whom are opposed to U.S. global exploitation!

This memorial service gives us all a chance to proclaim publicly our love and political respect for the Palestinian people, and it gives us a chance to shout proudly our common future plans. So here, in this room where Abu Ali Mustafa's vision is so clearly present, we want to reaffirm, as a U.S. Marxist Leninist and revolutionary organization, that we will do all that we can to help stop U.S. aid to its Zionist puppet. We are proud to build support for and to be in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle to establish a truly democratic state in all of historic Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital. We'll join you in the battles for the right of return to be immediately granted to refugees and their descendants. We'll join you in the battles to make the Zionists release all political prisoners. We'll shout with you loud enough to be heard in Durbin, South Africa tonight, that Zionism is racism and that self-determination of the Palestinian people is still the only road to peace with justice.

In closing, a brilliant leader has been assassinated. We are reminded of the sadness we felt when Samir Odeh died, a comrade we worked closely with. We stand here tonight to add our voices to those in Ramallah; in the countryside in Colombia; on the Malecon in Havana, Cuba; and from Vieques, Puerto Rico; to Belfast, Ireland; and to Manila, in the Philippines; confidently saying that we'll all pick up his flag and fight more fiercely. As Chicagoans, we'll see you at the next consulate demonstration. We'll see you if there is a demonstration for Chicago to divest from Israel, we'll see you at the send off to the next delegation to Palestine, and of course...we'll see you at the victory celebration! Long Live the Palestinian Intifada!

#ChicagoIL #Palestine #Remembrances #Statement #AbuAliMustafa #Assassination #MiddleEast

Today, August 27, 2005, marks the fourth anniversary of the assassination of our comrade and leader Abu Ali Mustafa, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a lifelong fighter for justice and liberation for the Palestinian people. Abu Ali Mustafa was murdered by the Zionist state, using a U.S.-made Apache helicopter to shoot two missiles directly into his Ramallah office. They believed that by assassinating a great leader, who had given his life to the struggle of our people, they could murder his ideas and commitment. This assassination was aimed not only at one steadfast leader, but at his front, at his cause, and at his nation, in its entirety. They could not, and will not, succeed in their task. The policy of assassination has been a consistent attempt to destroy the Palestinian nation, and it has never and will never succeed. Our martyrs and our leaders live on in our resistance, and Abu Ali Mustafa lives on with us today in our unbreakable commitment to his ideas, principles and cause.

This commemoration is accompanied by the recent Zionist defeat in Gaza. Their defeat is a result of the struggle of our people and their ongoing resistance, and it will empower and further encourage us to continue this struggle to fully end the occupation presence and control of Gaza – to liberate our borders, skies and water. We will continue the struggle to defeat the occupation of all of our land, and will continue our resistance until the occupier and the occupation are defeated everywhere, from Gaza to the West Bank and Jerusalem, and until the right to return of all Palestinian refugees to their original homes, lands, and homeland is implemented.

This fourth anniversary commemoration comes at a time of brutal imperialist invasion and occupation of our Arab homeland. The rapacious nature of imperialism and Zionism and their intentions toward our people is clear in their massacres, oppression and brutality. Abu Ali Mustafa spent his life struggling against these enemies as they sought to liquidate the Palestinian cause and destroy the Arab nation, and today, our people are carrying on and will continue to carry on that tradition of unwavering resistance to imperialist and Zionist attacks and invasions. The Zionists and imperialists believed that by assassinating Abu Ali Mustafa, they could kill his cause and his firm commitment to struggle, but in our continuing resistance, and in the struggle of the Palestinian people and the entire Arab nation, that cause and commitment continue to guide us.

All of his life, Abu Ali Mustafa was a believer in the national unity of the Palestinian people, and in the unity of the Arab nation. He also knew that the Palestinian struggle was inseparable from the international struggle against imperialism. From Venezuela, to the Philippines, to El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti, Korea, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Puerto Rico, Colombia, and everywhere in the world the people have risen to struggle against imperialism and for their national liberation, the Palestinian cause stands arm in arm with our sisters and brothers in common struggle against all of our common enemies. Despite the policy of assassination against our leaders and the repression that has attempted to destroy our resistance, we will continue to march where Abu Ali Mustafa marched and we will continue to stand where he stood all of his life. We promise that we will continue to base our struggle on the values he taught. In all of our actions, in our resistance and in our eventual victory and liberation, Abu Ali Mustafa's legacy of strength, principle, determination and commitment to our people will live on.

This anniversary also comes at a time when a number of initiatives – the so-called “Roadmap,” the “Sharon Plan,” and all other such initatives – are aimed at continuing the war upon our people under a variety of guises. We will not be tricked into abandoning our resistance and our national cause for these plans that continue to devise new ways to attempt to disunite our people and our nation. No matter what name it carries, we will reject any plan that does not recognize the right to return of all Palestinian refugees to their original homes and lands, our national sovereignty and our national independence. Our national rights and our national cause will not be made subject to the latest plans to destroy our resistance and fragment our people. All of his life, Abu Ali Mustafa stood firmly against such plans and schemes, and for our national struggle. His assassination did nothing to kill our resistance or our refusal and rejection of all such schemes and initiatives, and it has only reinforced our determination to continue upon the path that he walked, and upon the path that our people will walk together, of resistance, and of liberation.

Victory to our People

Freedom to all Prisoners

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

#Palestine #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #Statement #AbuAliMustafa #MiddleEast