Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine on the 12th anniversary of the arrest of Ahmad Sa’adat

The following statement was released by the leadership of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine on Jan. 15:

To the struggling masses of our people …

On January 15, 2002, the Palestinian Authority security apparatus committed the crime of arresting Comrade General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Majdi Rimawi, Hamdi Quran and Basil al-Asmar, in compliance with the requirements of security coordination. This did not stop the attacks on the resistance, the escalation of settlements and the building of the segregation wall.

The Authority’s crime was completed by the enemy’s attack and abduction of the comrades from Jericho prison, when all agreements were disregarded in U.S. and British collusion with the attack, which exposed the inability of the Authority to protect even its prisons, while our comrades were taken to spend long years in isolation — for which the occupation is not solely responsible.

We honour these heroic comrades — at their forefront, Comrade leader Ahmad Sa’adat, and affirm today that he was unanimously re-elected with full confidence in his leadership as General Secretary by the Central Committee and the Seventh National Conference of the Front. This is a well-deserved trust that he has earned, demonstrating steadfastness, clarity and unwavering commitment to struggle, principled and ready for struggle, with a broad political vision and carrying a high level of national respect. He and his imprisoned comrades, and all of the prisoners of our people together are at the forefront of the struggle, insisting on Palestinian national goals and rights in their totality on the ground, without prejudice, compromise, negligence, or barter.

To the masses of our resisting people …

The courage shown by the people of Qusra village and its area are a brilliant example of the struggling steadfastness of our people and their willingness to continue in all circumstances to confront and resist the enemy and their settlers. As we call on all to be inspired and learn from the steadfastness of our farmers and our prisoners, we are fully aligned with the alternative they present to relying on the futile negotiations. It is clear that the goal of the negotiations is the liquidation of the national liberation cause of our people, enhancing the status of the Zionist entity in the Arab world, and opening the doors to the official Arab regimes to normalize relations with it.

Today, we confront the ongoing lessons of Oslo and all subsequent agreements and negotiations, while the Palestinian Authority continues to drive the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organization] into relying upon this absurd and devastating process, attempting to close the door on a popular option while yielding to U.S. and Arab reactionary pressure.

To our people and our nation …

This date shares an appropriate coincidence with the shuttle diplomacy tours of the Secretary of State of the U.S. imperialists, between Palestine and the Arab countries, in order to liquidate our national cause and replace it with the issue of exchanges of land and population, drawing borders, and in support of the Israeli demand for recognition of the enemy state as the “state of the Jewish people.” This is an attempt to liquidate the Palestinian right of return and to whet the appetite for ethnic cleansing against the rights of our people in the areas of Palestine occupied in 1948.

All of this comes with total disregard of international legitimacy and United Nations resolutions on Palestine, and of the United Nations as a reference, to implement the U.S./Zionist vision.

What is happening now requires popular confrontation of any party who seeks to negotiate a temporary or permanent solution that detracts from fundamental Palestinian national rights. This moment requires of all national and social forces among the Palestinian people to mobilize to thwart this new scheme, to protect the resistance option, and return the Palestinian issue to the U.N. as a reference, with its resolutions to be implemented — not negotiated.

Our cause is in danger from this heated American pursuit to enforce upon us the terms of the enemy. It seeks to take advantage of the state of demobilization and national division, and the resulting confusion about events in the Arab world. It is clear that the leadership of the Authority is unable to confront, and its options have been reduced to negotiations, negotiations, and then more negotiations.

It is urgent to move past the era of division and return to the clear Palestinian national constants, build our movement and abandon once and for all the illusions that have proved thorny and dangerous. It is our people’s right to know what is going on in the corridors and backrooms of negotiations, and it is their right to decide and judge on the basis of that reality.

To the masses of our great people …

On this occasion, we reconfirm our emphatic commitment to our pledge to the heroic comrades and all of the martyrs and prisoners. We renew our rejection of security coordination and we demand to put an end to the continuing illusions of negotiations amidst a frenzy of settlements and settler violence. We call for an end to the devastating division and the rebuilding of the Palestine Liberation Organization on the basis of a principled political strategy and a national democratic movement to restore the political unity of our people in the homeland, diaspora and exile, to rise and march again in the national liberation struggle.

Salutes and tributes to our comrade General Secretary and his comrades

Glory to the martyrs, freedom for the prisoners

Unite to confront Kerry’s plan for the liquidation of our national cause

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — Political Bureau

January 15, 2014