The Bush administration knows nothing about peace. The administration backed Israel's brutal, right-wing Sharon government from day one, and waged a cowardly military attack on Iraq. In the aftermath of militarily defeating the Iraqi government, the Bush administration is trying to reshape the Middle East, dominate the entire region and eliminate all opposition to the United States. While the attempt to put down the Iraqi resistance continues, Washington is now taking aim at the Palestinian liberation struggle. Central to the struggle for freedom in the Middle East, the battle of Palestinians for Palestine serves as an example and an inspiration to all the Arab peoples of the region.
Fight Back! interviewed the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Ahmad Saadat, on May 20. At a time when the eyes of the world are focused on the Middle East, we are grateful for the opportunity to bring you, our readers, the thoughts of one of the key leaders of the Palestinian resistance in his own words.
Fight Back! is publishing the following statement criticizing the Geneva Accord – which purports to be a framework for achieving peace in Palestine. Like Bush’s ‘road map for peace,’ the Geneva Accord does not square with the aspirations of the Palestinian people for justice and liberation. When the text of the Accord was released Dec. 1, thousands protested in Gaza and other Palestinian cities.
Palestinian Prisoners' Day, commemorated throughout Palestine and by solidarity activists the world over, April 17, is a day to bring attention to the plight of all Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli jails and to demand their immediate release.
The ‘Wall’ which the Israeli government began constructing in June of 2002, and which lies well within the borders of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, is devastating fertile Palestinian land, cutting off even more Palestinian water resources and destroying Palestinian villages – in some cases enclosing them on three sides. Israel is illegally, according to international law set out by the United Nations, snaking its apartheid Wall up to 3.8 miles inside the West Bank’s ‘Green Line,’ the internationally recognized borders for the West Bank.
New York, NY – Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, held its second international convention here April 16, entitled “Sustainable Struggle: The Road to Palestine.” Several hundred Palestinians and supporters, hailing from Canada, the U.S., Europe and Palestine, held a series of informational and strategy workshops aimed, in general, at advancing Palestinian rights, and, in particular, at the right of Palestinian refugees’ to return to their homeland.
Abu Dis, Palestine – Inside a Hunger Strike Solidarity Tent, one of the many erected across Palestine to back the 4500 political prisoners on hunger strike who are demanding decent treatment from Israeli authorities. These women are refusing food in solidarity with their imprisoned husbands, sons and brothers. Many of the women have more than one family member in prison. In almost every city or village, five to fifteen people participated in the hunger strike. The strike came to a successful end in early September when the Israeli authorities gave in to a number of the demands.
Fight Back! News Service is circulating the following statement demanding the release of Palestinian political prisoner Ahmad Saadat. Saadat is the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Before the death of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, Nov. 11, there had been an enormous amount of speculation raised, and analysis offered, concerning the issue of succession. And now that the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Rawhi Fattouh, has been named the interim president, the speculation will continue for at least 60 more days.
Freedom Road Socialist Organization mourns the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (1929-2004). We regret the loss of a freedom fighter who worked tirelessly for the emancipation of Palestine.
Minneapolis, MN – In a great display of unity and solidarity, activists from around the country gathered on the University of Minnesota campus, Feb. 9-10, for an organizing conference to plan the anti-war protests at the Republican National Convention.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following obituary on the passing of Ali Qased, a lifelong fighter for the complete liberation of Palestine who resided here in the U.S.
Editors note: The Palestinian resistance has forced an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Fight Back News Service is circulating the following article by Emily Gharabally, which analyzes the limited nature of the Israeli pullout and the role of settlers in occupied Palestine.
Fight Back News Service received the following statement of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a leading organization in struggle to liberate Palestine. The statement marks the fourth anniversary of the Israeli assassination of the PFLP leader Abu Ali Mustafa and deals with some recent developments in Palestine.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement that demands the release of Ahmad Sa'adat, one of the key leaders of the struggle to liberate Palestine. Sa'adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) was interviewed by Fight Back! in May 2003, a year after his incarceration.
In the upcoming elections for the Palestinian Authority’s Palestinian Legislative Council in the Israeli-occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Ahmad Saadat, the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), has announced his candidacy from jail.
Oslo is dead. This is not much of a scoop, as analysts and pundits have been saying and writing these words for many years, at least since the Intifada of September 2000 began. But now that the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) elections of Jan. 25 are over, we can officially turn off the lights on the Oslo agreement that, along with the first U.S. invasion of Iraq in 1991, has led to, arguably, the most difficult period in the modern history of Palestinian and Arab world politics.
Fight Back! is posting the video Mass Rally for Gaza in Chicago, created by the Chicago-based Labor Beat. The Jan. 2 rally, initiated by the Coalition for Justice in Palestine, drew 5000 people.
Minneapolis, MN – Progressive activists from all over the country will attend an organizing conference here Feb. 9-10 to prepare for a national anti-war rally and march set for Sept. 1 – the first day of the Republican National Convention. The conference is hosted by the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War.
