PFLP Political Bureau calls for October mobilization for Comrade Sa’adat

The following is from the website of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine:

The Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine issued a statement on July 18, 2010, calling for the broadest expression of solidarity and support for Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the PFLP, in mid-October 2010, when his continued isolation in the jails of the occupation will again come before the court.

Israel’s new strategy: “sabotage” and “attack” the global justice movement

The following article by Ali Abunimah is from Electronic Intifada:

An extraordinary series of articles, reports and presentations by Israel’s influential Reut Institute has identified the global movement for justice, equality and peace as an “existential threat” to Israel and called on the Israeli government to direct substantial resources to “attack” and possibly engage in criminal “sabotage” of this movement in what Reut believes are its various international “hubs” in London, Madrid, Toronto, the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.

The Reut Institute’s analyses hold that Israel’s traditional strategic doctrine — which views threats to the state’s existence in primarily military terms, to be met with a military response — is badly out of date. Rather, what Israel faces today is a combined threat from a “Resistance Network” and a “Delegitimization Network.”

Iran celebrates 31 years of sovereignty

Millions demonstrate in Tehran to commemorate the 31st anniversary of the revolution that ousted the U.S.-backed monarchy.

The following article is from Fight Back! News:

Iran celebrates 31 years of sovereignty
By Kosta Harlan February 12, 2010
Read more articles in Iran

Tehran, Iran – Millions of Iranians rallied on Feb. 11 to commemorate the 31st anniversary of the revolution that overthrew the hated U.S.-backed Pahlavi monarchy. In Tehran a massive crowd of 5 million took to the streets, while rallies were held in 800 other cities around the country.

Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammad Khazaee, commented that the enormous demonstrations showed “the nation’s determination in maintaining national unity…in the realization of political, economic and social developments and particularly in advancing civilian nuclear technology.” Addressing the propaganda in Western media that attempts to show the Iranian government as unpopular or weakened by the opposition movement, Khazaee said, “The Islamic Republic has now become a powerful and strategic country, where people enjoy a strong sense of unity and solidarity. It is a fact that Western powers must learn to deal with.”

Gaza stands resisting and steadfast one year after occupation massacres

The following article is from the website of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine:

Comrade Mizher: Gaza stands resisting and steadfast one year after occupation massacres

A rally in Ezbet Abed Rabbo, one of the most devastated areas in last year’s Zionist assault on Gaza, organized by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine marked the one-year anniversary of the aggression on December 25, 2009. Thousands of residents of Abed Rabbo and members and supporters of the PFLP rallied in the village, amid the ruins of destroyed homes, waving Palestinian flags and PFLP banners.

PFLP: So-called “settlement freeze” is merely a deceptive cover for settlement building and war crimes

The following is from the website of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine:

Comrade Jamil Mizher, a member of the Central Committee of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said that the so-called “settlement freeze” announced by the fascist Netanyahu regime is simply a tactic meant to deceive the world and attempt to cover up the war crimes of the occupation.

Furthermore, Comrade Mizher said on December 3, 2009 in his interview with Jerusalem Net News Agency, the position of the United States on the so-called “settlement freeze” is simply the continuation of its scandalous and notorious firm strategic alliance with the Zionist occupation. He demanded that the Palestinian Authority stop all forms of direct or indirect “negotiations” with the occupier, saying that such meetings and negotiations, as always, only provide a veneer of legitimacy to the criminal occupation regime.

Shlomo Sand: “The Invention of the Jewish People”

The following video is a discussion by Israeli professor, Shlomo Sand , about his book, The Invention of the Jewish People (Verso, 2009), which critically examines and deconstructs the idea of a Jewish nationality (“the Jewish People”) and consequently the Zionist claim for a Jewish homeland (Israel) in Palestine. The video is interesting in its exploration of the national question.

Joseph Stalin gave the Marxist-Leninist definition of a nation as a “historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture“. He goes on to say, regarding Jews,

Bauer speaks of the Jews as a nation, although they “have no common language”; but what “common destiny” and national cohesion is there, for instance, between the Georgian, Daghestanian, Russian and American Jews, who are completely separated from one another, inhabit different territories and speak different languages?

The above-mentioned Jews undoubtedly lead their economic and political life in common with the Georgians, Daghestanians, Russians and Americans respectively, and they live in the same cultural atmosphere as these; this is bound to leave a definite impress on their national character; if there is anything common to them left, it is their religion, their common origin and certain relics of the national character. All this is beyond question. But how can it be seriously maintained that petrified religious rites and fading psychological relics affect the “destiny” of these Jews more powerfully than the living social, economic and cultural environment that surrounds them? And it is only on this assumption that it is possible to speak of the Jews as a single nation at all. (Marxism and the National Question)

The point of this argument is to say that Jews of course have the right to full equality, but not to territorial self-determination (i.e. in Palestine). This is very similar to the argument that Professor Sand makes in this video. I would also suggest the book One Country by Ali Abunimah on the need for single, secular and democratic state in all of historic Palestine. As Ahmad Saadat, the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has argued in an interview with Fight Back! News,

Some have argued that the current reality is pushing towards a two-state solution – an Israeli state next to a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 borders. Of course, this solution involves ignoring the Right of Return, or replacing it with reparations. We in the PFLP argue that forcing such a solution on the Palestinian people will not end the struggle, because the facts and reality contradict such a solution. The two-state solution that is based on the racist notion of ‘a national, homogeneous Jewish state’ totally disregards the fact that over 1.3 million Palestinians – 20% of the entire population – live inside ‘Israel.’ This will continue to permit the causes of conflict to remain inside Israel. Therefore, the solution based on two states is a myth.

Our people’s quest, like any other people, is a democratic and free society. This democratic state – the only state form that can produce social and economic development – cannot be led or dominated by the parasitic and comprador bourgeoisie, but by a unity of the popular forces that share structural interests in national independence, return to the homeland, popular democracy and economic development. This is, simply, our view in the PFLP, and the view of the national, democratic liberation movement.

PFLP: U.S. is not a mediator, but an enemy of the Palestinian people

The following is from the website of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Marxist-Leninist organization in Palestine fighting for national liberation and socialism:

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said on November 3, 2009 that the Palestinian Authority, and all Palestinian parties, must immediately end any and all illusions about the United States or its president, Barack Obama, and instead reject its “negotiations” based on surrender and rely on the Palestinian people and their resistance, unity and national rights.

PFLP 5th Conference (1993) document now online

The following is from the website of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist-Leninist organization leading an armed national liberation struggle against U.S./Israeli occupation:

The Fifth Coference of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine took place in February 1993.  As part of our effort to provide online, searchable access to the major documents of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine we are presenting the full English text of the general report of the Conference.

The Conference came only months before the Palestinian cause faced a new era of momentous challenges with the betrayal of Oslo, signed in September 1993. It followed on the heels of the great Intifada of 1987, and also at a time when our movement confronted the crisis of socialism internationally and the fall of the Soviet Union and the European socialist bloc, the Gulf War, and the new era of U.S. imperial domination.

This valuable and important document explores the fundamental political outlook and commitment of the Front, as well as presenting a clear picture of the situation of the day.

Click here to view the table of contents of and read the Program of the 5th Conference of the PFLP

Minnesotans detained in and deported from Israel return home, denounce, “the tight grip of the Israeli occupation of Palestine”

The following is from Fight Back! News:

Minnesotans detained in and deported from Israel return home, denounce, “the tight grip of the Israeli occupation of Palestine”
By staff  

Katrina Plotz, center speaking at airport press conference. Sara Martin to her left.

Bloomington, MN – Israeli security forces refused entry to three U.S. solidarity activists for attempting to participate in a human rights delegation organized by the Palestine Solidarity Group. Sarah Martin, member of Women Against Military Madness, and Katrina Plotz, of the Anti-War Committee, refused voluntary deportation and were forcibly deported Sunday evening, August 2. It was an emotional reunion at the airport on Monday afternoon, as Martin and Plotz were greeted with cheers and embraces by dozens of friends and supporters, carrying signs reading “Free Palestine!” and “End the occupation!”  

URGENT ALERT: Minnesota activists jailed in Israel

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Twin Cities-based Anti-War Committee (www.antiwarcommittee.org):

URGENT ALERT: Minnesota activists jailed in Israel

Please forward * Take action today

We have just learned that Israeli security forces have refused entry to three U.S. activists attempting to visit the Palestinian Territories. One of them, Karen Sullivan, is being sent home on a flight tonight, and two others, Sarah Martin and Katrina Plotz have refused to leave, and are being taken into custody. They are being treated as criminals, while their only goal was to learn about the reality of life for the Palestinian people. All three should be allowed to enter the country, as millions of tourists do every year.