USPCN uplifts the demands of our people who have called on us to shed light on the so-called Palestinian Authority (PA), its corruption, and its use of brutal force to silence, murder, and imprison dissenting voices!

We demand freedom for all Palestinian political prisoners who have been targeted by the traitorous PA and its security apparatus in the past few days. Every branch is an enemy to the cause of liberation, and the PA never has been and never will be a legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

The PA is only empowered because of Oslo and its funders; and because its source of power are those who ethnically cleanse and oppress the Palestinian people, we are not surprised by the PA’s recent mass arrests of dignified Palestinian activists following its murder of the esteemed shaheed, Nizar Banat.

Those arrested include Ubai al Aboudi and his wife, Hind. Ubai played a critical role in framing USPCN’s Campaign for Liberation and Dignity, which has raised over $65,000 of unconditional aid for the people. Fortunately, Ubai and Hind were released hours ago and are now safely in the company of family.

Meanwhile, the PA furthered its corruption with vaccine deals, squandered conditional aid money to fund its Western tastes, and sat with U.S. Secretary of State Blinken while doing the bidding of the Zionist enemy, Israel.

Banat was killed for pointing out these patterns. After targeting Hind and Ubai, former prisoners, journalists, professors, students, and lawyers have all been rounded up for arrest as well. Mays Abu Ghosh is one of those arrested, and managing to release a text message before her phone was taken away, she shared that all were taken away for interrogation. They collectively refused to sign an agreement, and then the women and men were separated. Some have reportedly been beaten, according to Mays.

Please share these posts and continue to press for the release of all Palestinian and Arab political prisoners from Israeli and PA jails. #FreeAllPalestinianPoliticalPrisoners #CondemnThePA #FreePalestine

Until Liberation and Return,

USPCN

#UnitedStates #Palestine #MiddleEast #PeoplesStruggles #PalestinianAuthority #USPalestinianCommunityNetwork

New York, NY – About 40 protesters gathered at Lexington and 65th, the location of the Palestinian Mission, to join an international day of action demanding justice for Basel Al-Araj and an end of the collaboration between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israeli forces. The protest was called by the New York chapter of Palestinian Youth Movement.

Basel Al-Araj was a Palestinian youth freedom fighter against the violent and brutal Israeli regime. He and five of his fellow activists were imprisoned by the PA last year. They were tortured and beaten throughout their captivity for planning opposition to Israel. Al-Araj and his comrades launched a hunger strike and were released after eight days. However, once they had secured their release from the PA prison, they were pursued by Israeli forces. While Israel was able to capture four of the six, Al-Araj was able to escape and had been on the run since last year. On March 6, Israeli forces found Al-Araj’s hideout and bombarded it with rockets and bullets. Al-Araj was effectively executed without trial or due process.

Despite an impending blizzard, protesters were in high spirits as they chanted in Arabic and English. One of the chants was, “Israeli Zionists – number one terrorist!”

Towards the end of the protest, people from the crowd went to the center and spoke up regarding Palestine, the Israeli apartheid and the movement in the U.S.

Michela Martinazzi spoke on behalf of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoners Network and said, “Basel was on the run from the Israeli forces when they found him and extra-judicially executed him. He bravely fought them off for two hours before he died amongst bullets and rocket fire. Basel's unrelenting passion for freedom and justice should be an example for us all. Basel was a hero and freedom fighter. And we have to honor him by securing liberation for Palestine!”

She also reminded the crowd that Samidoun hosts weekly protests on Fridays, where each week a Palestinian political prisoner or liberation fighter is highlighted, and how this week they chose Al-Araj. The crowd continued to chant for the next hour until it became dark. One of the organizers of the event thanked the crowd and protesters walked away chanting, “We’ll be back!”

#NewYorkNewYork #AntiwarMovement #Palestine #PeoplesStruggles #PalestinianAuthority #BaselAlAraj #MiddleEast

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the West Bank demanded the Palestinian Authority security apparatus and its intelligence services immediately halt the campaign of arrests and persecution of its supporters and members in various parts of the West Bank on March 20. Specifically, the PFLP statement pointed to al-Azza refugee camp, where 5 PFLP supporters were arrested, dozens of homes raided, and 5 others being pursued by PA security forces.

The PFLP denounced the Authority’s security forces’ campaign against a Palestinian national faction that is targeted by the Zionist occupation, which is increasing its aggression against our people everywhere, including targeting our comrades with murder and mass arrests.

The PFLP demanded that the PA end security coordination with the occupation, which has been a scourge upon our people, including the arrests of many honorable activists. It recalled that the past days have seen several occasions in which the Zionist occupation has arrested Palestinian activists and freedom fighters hours after they were released by the PA security apparatus.

The Front demanded that the PA must learn that these practices are rejected by the Palestinian people. It is the proper task of any Palestinian security force to protect our people, their activists and their freedom fighters and not become a whip to lash at the rising of their own people and their activists.

#Palestine #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #PFLP #PalestinianAuthority #PoliticalRepression #MiddleEast

US Palestinian Community Network’s response to the Palestinian Authority September statehood bid

In recent months, the Palestinian Authority has been intensifying diplomatic efforts to declare statehood at the United Nations. Wasting no avenue, the PA has been seeking to mobilize popular forces in Palestine and in the shatat (diaspora) behind this initiative. Students, community associations, solidarity campaigns, and organizers, across the US, have all been called upon to “make Palestine the 194th state.”

We call on all Palestinian and Arab community associations, societies and committees, student organizations, solidarity campaigns, to reject fully and unequivocally the Statehood initiative as a distraction that unjustifiably and irresponsibly endangers Palestinian rights and institutions.

Any diplomatic initiatives, including the initiative at the United Nations this September, must preserve the status of the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinian people at the United Nations and protect and advance our inalienable rights. The current Statehood initiative does neither, and is therefore an unacceptable threat to the Palestinian national movement.

We call on all Palestinians across the United States to participate in strengthening the campaign for direct elections to the Palestinian National Council by participating in Palestinian Movement Assemblies and Community Meetings for Democratic National Representation. Held throughout the summer, these meetings will continue through the fall and throughout the country. They will grow as the campaign grows, building a critical mass for our demand for democratic representation. You can find more information and when a PMA will be taking place near you here.

Let us all join the rally at the United Nations on September 15. The march will take place on Thursday, September 15 in New York City, with a 4:30 gathering in Times Square followed by a 5:30 march to Grand Central and the United Nations. Coordinated by a broad coalition of organizations and campaigns, the Palestine UN Coalition demands the United Nations hear our voice. We are the people of Palestine, we are the allies of Palestine, and we will be heard by the General Assembly.

USPCN’s Coordinating Committee has attached a comprehensive statement titled, “Liberation and Return are the Demands of the Palestinian People: A note of caution to our people and our allies,” to this press release, which further clarifies USPCN’s position, articulates an alternative to the Palestinian Authority’s subversive maneuvering, and explains the current statehood bid within the context of the broader Palestine liberation movement and its goals.

uspcn.org

Liberation and Return are the Demands of the Palestinian People:

A note of caution to our people and our allies

In recent months, the Palestinian Authority has intensified diplomatic efforts to declare statehood at the United Nations. Wasting no avenue, the PA has been seeking to mobilize popular forces in Palestine and in the shatat (diaspora) behind this initiative. Students, community associations, solidarity campaigns, and organizers, across the US, have all been called upon to “make Palestine the 194th state.”

While the call sounds attractive, many community members wonder what to make of it. Will this initiative bring Palestine closer to liberation? Will it help Palestinians achieve their right to return? Some have remarked that, if nothing else, it will not hurt.

The US Palestinian Community Network, a grassroots community-led network of democratically elected chapters across the US, asserts that such initiatives, in fact, do hurt. They are not benign exercises, but can cause great damage to achievements made through the hard, brutal, struggle of generations of Palestinians.

As has been recently revealed, this initiative in no way protects nor advances our inalienable, and internationally recognized, rights—fundamental of which are our right to return to the homes and properties from which we were forcibly expelled, our right to self-determination, and our right to resist the settler colonial regime that has occupied our land for more than 63 years. The Palestinian people, wherever they are, hold these rights. They are non-negotiable. No one can barter them away for false promises of “peace” and “stability.” The cynical irony of turning a UN resolution enshrining our right to return under international law (UNGA Res. 194) into a rhetorical ploy should give anyone pause. That it is being advanced at a time when the PA does not even have the political mandate of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza through Palestinian Legislative Council elections must also give us pause.

Our inalienable rights give us the foundational principles with which we seek liberation and return. When these two things are achieved, it is then that we will achieve independence. Not before, and not without the mandate of the entirety of the Palestinian people. Indeed, it is in struggle and the emboldening of our emancipatory spirit that we free ourselves. Resistance is our first independence.

But, the question remains. Who protects our inalienable rights? Who speaks in the name of the Palestinian people?

In our long Palestinian revolutionary struggle, no matter where we lived, we fought for our right to determine our own destiny; pave a path to freedom that would be of our own design, our own democratic will. In 1968, we rescued the Palestinian Liberation Organization from Arab regimes, and through a generation of struggle and sacrifice, transformed it into the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, recognized by the Arab League and by the United Nations.

Through the PLO, and its countless popular committees, associations, unions, and camp formations, many (though not all) Palestinians had a voice within their movement. Indeed, it is that popular democratic mobilization that gave the PLO its legitimacy. And in its continued role as legitimate representative, the PLO, and only the PLO, has the legal mandate to advance the political will of the Palestinian people.

Any diplomatic initiatives, including the initiative at the United Nations this September, must therefore preserve the status of the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinian people at the United Nations and protect and advance our inalienable rights. The current Statehood initiative does neither, and is therefore an unacceptable threat to the Palestinian national movement.

We say this knowing full well that, in the last few decades, the PLO has been decimated by corruption, ineptitude, collaboration, and betrayal. It must be reclaimed, cleaned, revived and rebuilt. It is we, the Palestinian people, across the shatat and in the homeland, who will do it. It is ours. We will not allow it to be stolen from us. The PLO must expand to truly represent all Palestinians, inside Israel, in the West Bank and Gaza, in the camps, and across the shatat. It is we who give it legitimacy; it is we who give political mandate to our leadership; it is we who will breathe new life into our long too dormant national institutions through popular democratic mobilization.

In the mean time, we hold the current occupants of PLO positions ultimately responsible for protecting the PLO’s role as the representative of the Palestinian people. A failure to do so must have consequences.

We call on all Palestinian and Arab community associations, societies and committees, student organizations, solidarity campaigns, to reject fully and unequivocally the Statehood initiative as a distraction that unjustifiably and irresponsibly endangers Palestinian rights and institutions.

We need not be concerned that to do so would be to stand with the interests of the US or Israel. Lack of US and Israeli support for the statehood initiative is a red herring, meant to distract us from the continued support that both have provided for an Authority and “peace process” that daily cost the Palestinian people their liberty, self-determination and lives.

However, such an initiative nonetheless has potential to positively impact our struggle. It clarifies for us that we must return to a framework we once had, but one that has been thwarted by decades of endless and cynical negotiations, diplomatic stunts, and “peace deals.” We must return to a framework of genuine struggle and a cohesive and coherent strategy built upon our inalienable rights.

The first step in such a strategy must be an escalated focus on Palestinian mobilization for direct elections to the Palestinian National Council (PNC), the legislative body of the PLO. It is the PNC that holds the mechanism by which Palestinians can collectively determine the strategy the PLO must execute in our name. Its democratization is key to cohering us, bringing back to us our collective force. Indeed, democratization of our movement must reach into all aspects of our political work, in each of our community associations, as well as all our student, labor and popular formations.

We therefore call on all Palestinians across the United States to participate in strengthening the campaign for direct elections to the Palestinian National Council by participating in Palestinian Movement Assemblies and Community Meetings for Democratic National Representation. Held throughout the summer, these meetings will continue through the fall and throughout the country. They will grow as the campaign grows, building a critical mass for our demand for democratic representation. You can find more information and when a PMA will be taking place near you here.

Organize an assembly, community meeting, or town hall in your area. USPCN will be with you every step of the way, with support, guidance and coordination. We can only demand of our struggle what we put into it. We are indivisible from the Palestinian people. We must activate and elevate our role in the shatat for our common liberation and return.

To students, solidarity campaigns and allies, we caution you against this distraction of resources, time, and energy. The path for solidarity and mutual struggle is clear. We must continue the work of building our common struggles for all forms of emancipation and liberation. We must continue to isolate Zionism, and strengthen the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement in the United States by getting involved in the growing campaigns across the country. We must return to international institutions with our inalienable rights intact, and utilize all legal instruments, vigorously, to challenge Israel’s impunity for its continued and unceasing crimes in Gaza. We must support the legal campaigns against Israeli war criminals, shame them, hound them, and try them at the International Criminal Court for their continued crimes against our humanity.

And we must also take to the streets. Let us all rally at the United Nations on September 15 (more info). The march will take place on Thursday, September 15 in New York City, with a 4:30 gathering in Times Square followed by a 5:30 march to Grand Central and the United Nations. We demand the United Nations hear our voice. We are the people of Palestine, we are the allies of Palestine, and we will be heard by the General Assembly.

To our beautiful brave Arab people, from Tripoli to Cairo to Homs to Sana’a to Amman to Manama, we salute you and stand with you. In devoting ourselves to our liberation, we honor your sacrifices and struggle for our Palestine and for our Arab future. Stand with us, open the gates and crossings that besiege us, and rest assured: we will not stop until the banner of freedom flutters above the skies of our Jerusalem.

Until liberation and return.

US Palestinian Community Network

August 27, 2011

#UnitedStates #Palestine #PLO #PalestinianAuthority #MiddleEast

(Also available from Fight Back New Service – an interview with Leila Khaled on the Israeli attack on Gaza, conducted in Beirut, Lebanon Jan. 1, 2009 by Fight Back! editor Mick Kelly. http://www.fightbacknews.org/2009/02/leila-khaled-speaks.htm )

Comrade Leila Khaled calls for dismantling the Authority that undermines the Palestinian national cause

Comrade Leila Khaled, member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine called for dismantling the Palestinian Authority if that body is the cause of Palestinian division, speaking in Damascus on April 27, 2010.

Comrade Khaled said that the internal division among Palestinians “is threatening the Palestinian national project.” She said Palestinians “have not struggled throughout their history for an Authority, but for a homeland for a displaced people and people under occupation.”

Comrade Khaled questioned the usefulness of an Authority that turned the Palestinian people into a people begging at the gates of the donor countries and the International Monetary Fund, emphasizing that the Authority does not represent our people because it are the product of Oslo and those who promote the division, which only benefits the occupation.

Comrade Khaled spoke at an event held in solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners, commemorating Prisoners' Day, in Jermana refugee camp, and attended by leaders of the PFLP and other Palestinian factions.

“In the light of the division, no one has the right to appoint himself as an authority of the homeland and the people,” Khaled explained, saying “the Authority does not represent our people, because it is the product of the Oslo Accords, and anyone behind the division is behind the occupation, which only propagates our geographic separation.

“What is obstructing the restoration of unity is sitting in Ramallah and Gaza,” she said. Comrade Khaled called upon the masses of our people in the camps to express their positions against the division to the Palestinian leadership and protest that any continuation of division only emphasizes that they do not represent our people.

She stressed the utter failure of the Authority and its repeated chasing after “negotiations” with the racist Zionist Netanyahu regime, despite his refusal to stop settlement activity and his insistence upon affirming that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the State of “Israel,” noting that Israel does not want negotiations without these conditions, which should end any reliance on the so-called “peace process.”

She condemned the leadership's abandonment, persecution and repression of all forms of struggle and resistance and affirmed that all forms of struggle, including the leading role of the armed struggle, are necessary to achieve our return and the restoration of Palestinian rights. She demanded that the Palestinian leadership rise to the level of our people's sacrifices and correct its path in order to confront the enemy and all of its schemes of walls, settlements and oppression.

Comrade Khaled expressed her pleasure to meet with the people of Jaramana camp, and paid tribute to the prisoners, headed by imprisoned PFLP General Secretary Comrade Ahmad Sa'adat and all of the heroes of the prisoners' movement. She emphasized the determination to liberate them, emphasizing their daily role in confronting the occupation and their own sacrifices and the sacrifices of their families. She stressed the achievements of the prisoners' movement and its consistent role in unifying Palestinian ranks and rejecting occupation plans to split and divide the prisoners.

In conclusion, Comrade Leila Khaled greeted the women of the camp, the mothers of martyrs and prisoners, the Palestinian mother who is raising her children in an environment of patriotism and sacrifice, pledging to continue the resistance as long as children hold stones in their hands and men and women hold guns in their hands and dream of return and independence.

#Palestine #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #LeilaKhaled #PalestinianAuthority #MiddleEast

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.

#Palestine #Gaza #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #PFLP #PalestinianAuthority #WarCrimes #UNHumanRightsCouncil #GoldstoneReport #MiddleEast

Fight Back!: What are some of the conditions faced by Palestinian women?

Maha Nassar: Palestinian women, being part of the society, are involved in the struggle, and are also subject to all the oppression by the Israeli government – such as check points, confiscation of land, killing our children, destroying the schools and being arrested. So this is one part of our conditions.

Palestinian women are also confronting the traditional view of women in our society, which considers women to be second or third class in our society. We are challenging the fundamentalist groups and their views of women and their roles. To an extent, some forget our role, which is very important in the whole national struggle, especially during both intifadas.

The third point is the legal situation for women. Laws in our society are biased towards men, so women have to struggle to change the laws. Women need to initiate new laws that protect women from any kind of discrimination and violence, and for workers' rights and family and civil rights.

Fight Back!: How does your organization, the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees, work with women to address these issues?

Maha Nassar: First of all, our union is concerned and works hard to raise the consciousness of women on the national and social struggle, because we believe the three factors of oppression – economic, social and national – that lay on women are interrelated.

The first step we take with women is to organize a lot lectures, workshops and training courses to address women in villages and the poor neighborhoods. The second step is our union tries to create opportunities for women to work, so they can be economically independent – so that they can be socially independent. Then they can be more involved in the national struggle. We also have leadership programs for the young women to become leaders in the future by training them on different levels like advocacy, networking, computer skills, social advising and health advising, so that they can be able to reflect their concerns for women and the national struggle in a better way.

The Union of Palestinian Women's Committees has emergency relief programs. Family sponsorship provides more than 350 families monthly support that can help them overcome the deteriorating economic situation. We do not believe in and we are not a charity organization. We believe that women should find jobs rather than look for charity.

We also organize kindergartens, because it lifts a big burden from women, especially poor women. By having their children in a kindergarten, where they taught the principles of democracy, human rights and gender, women will have the time to go to their work, or to plant, or even to find time for herself.

Fight Back!: Given the heavy repression by the Israeli regime, what is it like to be an activist during the intifada?

Maha Nassar: The Israeli government does not believe that the social struggle is split from the national struggle and they target all social activists because they know their energy is going to be brought in to the national struggle. I'm talking here about those activists who are affiliated with political organizations and mass-based organizations, not those affiliated with intellectuals, academics and charitable organizations. So our activists in the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees and women activists that are affiliated to other political organizations are targeted by the occupation.

I myself was arrested several times during the first intifada for women's politically related activities. I was also under house arrest. And as another example, they have imprisoned the wife of Ahmed Saadat [the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine] because they want to pressure her husband and because she is a woman activist.

To be an activist in the national and social struggle is the same, and you have to expect to be jailed, lose freedom of movement, or even to be subjected to bullets of occupation when you are going to bring food, medicine or clothes to a closed area. You should also expect to give most of your time to the cause of your people and to be always ready to respond to any call for any emergency that takes place. You should be ready to take the risk of doing that.

Fight Back!: The Bush administration has proposed a new 'peace' plan, called the Road Map. What do you think of this plan?

Maha Nassar: When Bush proposed this peace plan, it was obvious that our people were going to reject it. It's not a matter of emotions; it is a matter of knowledge, since even our children know that the U.S. government supplies the airplanes, F16 and Apaches, to Israel. They know that these airplanes are used by the Israelis to end our children's lives. And the rockets are American manufactured. So it's obvious, without a prolonged political analysis, that the first Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, is a tool in the hands of the Americans and Israelis.

The road map is only a way to bring security to Israel and does not take into consideration any of the rights of the Palestinian people that were acknowledged by the UN resolutions – such as the right to have a state, the right of return, Jerusalem as a capital and releasing prisoners; and the stopping of land confiscation, building settlements and stealing water resources. The Palestinian state proposed by the road map – which has no borders yet and that is supposed to be in established 2005 – is only a matter of gaining time for the Israelis to create realities on the map that will make it impossible for the Palestinians to struggle.

Fight Back!: How is the Palestinian movement responding to the Road Map?

Maha Nassar: From the beginning, Palestinians started demonstrating against the Road Map because none of the promises of the new Palestinian prime minister were achieved. People started writing slogans on the walls and shouting at demonstrations calling for the prime minister to resign because of his poor negotiating. They were criticizing him for giving up the right of return and asking him to take a step forward on the political prisoners.

The Palestinian Authority should release the prisoners, especially the General Secretary of the Popular Front, Saadat, and his comrades who are kept in Palestinian jails under the watch of American and British soldiers. This is shameful, because the Palestinian government is supposed to be democratic and respect the different ideological affiliations of Palestinians. Keeping the historical leader of the national movement in jail and confiscating simple weapons from people is the role of the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority is doing this to please the occupier. This is raising more and more anger towards the practices of the Palestinian security system, and moving Palestinian people towards revolution against this authority.

Fight Back!: Why are you in the U.S.?

Maha Nassa r: I'm here to raise the consciousness about our cause as Palestinian people and the Palestinian women's movement, and its role in both the national and social struggle through meetings with different representatives, groups and associations and public meetings. I am here to try to make clear that our resistance is not terrorism. Terrorism is the practice that is led by the organized state with a well-developed military against civilians and by the support of the global powers, which is the worst face of colonialism.

I am also here to let the U.S. people know as a fact – Palestinian mothers are not like what is said about us in the mass media – as being with no hearts or feelings. On the contrary, Palestinian women struggle to end occupation because they have hearts, and don't care about themselves as much as they care about the future for their children. Mothers suffer daily when they see their children subject to different kinds of humiliation and neglect, which raises their fear about even their psychological situation when they become older. Palestinian women are peace seekers and cannot be easily deceived by partial solutions of ending the Palestinian cause.

Fight Back!: What can progressive people in the U.S. do to support your work in particular, and the Palestinian resistance in general?

Maha Nassar: When the people in the U.S. pressure their government to change their external policies to terrorize and kill the children of Palestine, it makes a big difference to Palestinian women, that women around the world are supporting them and are giving them the hope of a legitimate peace.

Also, progressive people in the U.S.A. should support the different projects of women; through which they are helping the society, such as kindergartens and advocacy. Progressives here should call for the immediate release of all political prisoners and they should make an alternative media to the ongoing mainstream media.

#UnitedStates #AntiwarMovement #Interview #Palestine #WomensMovement #Interviews #MahaNassar #RoadMap #PalestinianAuthority #PalestinianWomensMovement #MiddleEast