PFLP statement on the 56th anniversary of its founding

The following announcement was posted on Resistance News Network on Dec. 11: 

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has decided to cancel all its activities and celebrations which it holds every year, on its 56th anniversary, which is Dec. 11. It has directed all its fighters and cadres to transform this anniversary into an occasion for escalating the confrontation with the Zionist enemy and the settlers across all fronts and points of clash in Gaza, the West Bank, Al-Quds, and everywhere in Palestine. 

The Front is committed to providing support and assistance to our people to alleviate their social suffering and to enhance their resilience and unity in the face of all challenges and threats, especially in the sector which is experiencing an unprecedented genocide and criminal starvation war. It also calls for widespread participation in demonstrations and sit-ins in various squares and capitals around the world, and for joining the world’s free people in protests, surrounding the embassies of the Zionist, U.S., and Western aggressors that participate in the aggression against our people.

The Front pledges to our people and the free people of the world to continue the struggle, fight, and resistance as the sole path to liberation and return; affirming that its comrades and fighters in the brave Gaza Strip are confronting the aggression, side by side with the resistance factions and inflicting significant losses on the Zionist enemy.

The following statement was issued by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine on Dec. 10, posted on Resistance News Network:

On the occasion of the 56th anniversary of its glorious inception.

All guns toward the enemy. The resistance continues.

O great masses of our Palestinian people,

O masses of our Arab and Islamic nation,

O all free and honorable people in the world,

Fifty-six years have passed since the birth from the womb of the homeland, from the profusely bleeding wound of all Palestine, from its epic love in the resisting “breath of Gaza” to the depths of history in the “Flower of Cities [Al-Quds],” with the guns of generations throbbing in the “heart of the West Bank” and the rest of the cities of Al-Jalil and Al-Naqab, to the land of our ancestors that inhabits our stories, not confined by geography nor surpassed by history. Let us set forth and affirm that our legendary people, who sacrifice without limits, deserve life and deserve Palestine.

Fifty-six years and our faith in the sanctity of our struggle and the justice of our cause is reinforced. The confidence in our people’s ability, patience, and resilience is renewed, with a firm will and unyielding determination, since we emerged from the womb of the Arab Nationalist Movement. 

On December 11, 1967, the birth of the revolutionary response marked a qualitative station, a historical turning point in our people’s struggle, and a response to the Naksa of June 4, 1967, expressing rejection of its implications, the occupation of the remaining land of historic Palestine, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights.

Fifty-six years, and throughout its combative journey, on the path to liberating all of Palestine, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has presented tens of thousands of martyrs, from its finest leaders, cadres, and fighters, and long caravans of martyrs, wounded, and prisoners, defending the honor and dignity of the nation, and all values of truth, justice, and humanity in the world. 

It formed a model of pride for all the rebellious fighters of our people, our nation, and the free of the world, in various fields of the existential and civilizational conflict with the occupation entity on political, combative, cultural, and media levels, having the honor of actively contributing to acquainting the world with the Palestinian cause, the reality of the conflict, and exposing the Zionist and Western narrative based on the myth of “A land without a people for a people without a land.”

The 56th anniversary of the launch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine comes this year, at a time when the genocidal campaign waged by the occupation army continues for more than two months, with participation, complicity, and savage U.S.-Western support, and the impotence of the international community and its human rights and humanitarian institutions, and official Arab betrayal reaching the extent of complicity, aiming to break our people’s will and impose surrender, and liquidate its national cause, fought for over 75 years, and still offering blood and body parts, unbowed and unbroken, believing in the justice of its cause and the sanctity of its struggle, more determined and resolute to continue raising the flag of resistance, more clinging to its inalienable historical rights, unyielding to compromise and trade, on the path to liberation and return.

‘Our people stand with all pride and defiance’ 

O great masses of our Palestinian people,

O all the free and honorable in our nation and the world:

The anniversary of the launch, for us in the PFLP, is an occasion to evaluate and review our journey of struggle, and to renew the pledge we made to our people since the launch, that we will remain steadfast to the covenant and the promise, loyal to the blood of the martyrs, the pain of the wounded, the torments of the prisoners, the tears of the mothers, the cries of the orphans, to the hopes and dreams of our people, we will not change or alter, we will not compromise or relinquish, and we will always remain loyal to the oath and the covenant, no matter how severe the difficulties and the sacrifices. 

The Front will remain as you have known it, the front of the poor and the revolutionaries, the front of loyalty, honesty, altruism, and sacrifice, drawing determination from our people’s steadfastness. From their patience and firmness, we grow more determined and resolute to continue the struggle until achieving the upcoming victory that will inevitably embrace the skies on the wings of glory and write on the forehead of the sun a legend of a people who know no impossible.

As the occupation escalates its crimes and massacres, in a frenzied campaign, and a premeditated plan to displace the residents of the Gaza Strip, Al-Quds, the West Bank, and the occupied territories of Palestine of 1948, aiming to realize the project of the Jewish state and entrench it as a reality in the context of its plans wrapped in Talmudic myths, with partnership, support, and unprecedented U.S.-Western coverage, our people stand with all pride and defiance, with the strength of right and survival and an unyielding will in the face of the most brutal Nazi killing machine of the modern era, practicing the latest forms of moral obscenity, unprecedented in its savagery, racism, and bloodiness, devoid of all human values, burning children and women, choking fetuses in their mothers’ wombs, crushing the bodies of unarmed civilians, destroying homes, schools, and life facilities, exploding hospitals, mosques, and churches, targeting everything connected to human life in the Gaza Strip. 

All this to break the will of our people, who refuse to surrender and submit, growing more solid and aggressive, more determined to fight and withstand, until defeating the objectives of the aggression and defeating the occupation army, which is incapable of confronting the resistance in the battlefields.

In light of the ongoing aggression, and the cover provided by the U.S. administration, Western governments, and some international bodies and organizations, the aggressor acts as if it is above international and humanitarian law, disregarding all international charters and norms, away from accountability and responsibility. 

Its aggression intensifies to implement its diabolical projects, intensifying settlements, Judaizing sacred sites, besieging and storming cities, towns, and camps in Al-Quds and the West Bank, raiding homes, arresting citizens without accusation, pursuing and cold-bloodedly assassinating children and young people, severing the West Bank, setting up checkpoints, hindering the movement of citizens, and unleashing settler gangs, providing them protection to wreak havoc, killing and terrorizing unarmed civilians.

In response to all this, our people have decisively replied that resistance is the means to deter the occupation, restore our legitimate rights, and the Al-Aqsa Flood epic constitutes one of the advanced and shining stations of our people’s struggle, which history will inscribe in golden letters.

‘Solidify Palestinian national unity’

O great masses of our Palestinian people,

O all the free and honorable in our nation and the world,

Facing all the enormous challenges and dangers threatening our people, our nation, and global peace and stability, we affirm and call for the following:

We call for an immediate halt to the aggression on the Gaza Strip. We emphasize that the introduction of relief aid is important and vital, but it loses its importance in the context of the ongoing Holocaust the occupation perpetrates against our people. We consider the U.S. and Western positions and statements regarding the protection of civilians to be deceitful and misleading, aiming to absorb international public outrage and cover for the continuation of the aggression.

We affirm that our people’s resistance to the occupation is a legitimate right, guaranteed by all international charters and norms. Our people are committed to exercising this right, regardless of the sacrifices. The resistance continues as long as the occupation exists. We highly value our people rallying around the option of resistance. In this context, we salute the men of resistance on the battlefield, the brigades and battalions, the valiant fighters, the lions of the field, and say to them, “Glory bows to you, O you who have shattered the might of the occupation army, humiliated its leaders, officers, and soldiers, crushed their tanks and personnel carriers, and inflicted a resounding defeat they will not forget for days to come.”

We confirm that the genocidal campaign our people in the Gaza Strip are subjected to, and the barbaric practices of the enemy in Al-Quds and the West Bank, are not merely a response to October 7, as claimed, but a continuation of the conspiracy and aggression our people have been facing for over 75 years.

We emphasize our people’s firm rejection of all displacement or guardianship projects, and that our people are the ones who chart their future. Anyone who seeks or aligns with any conspiracies or plans targeting displacement or guardianships will be resisted and confronted by our people and thwarted.

We extend a salute of glory and loyalty to every child, elder, and woman of our people in the Gaza Strip, to those who stand firm and patient, holding on to embers, to the martyrs and the wounded, to their families and loved ones. And to the medical, relief, and ambulance crews, and civil defense personnel who worked with all their strength and determination to assist and rescue our wounded and needy people, setting an example for the world in sacrifice, altruism, and martyrdom.

A salute permeated with the fragrance of the homeland to the national prisoners movement, the title of defiance and steadfastness in the occupation’s prisons, with their will made of steel as they confront the occupation’s brutality and Nazi practices with all pride and vigor. 

We also extend our greetings and congratulations to the recently released women and cub male prisoners from the occupation’s prisons in a prisoner exchange deal, thanks to the resistance’s steadfastness and perseverance, despite the occupation’s reluctance.

We call for strengthening and solidifying Palestinian national unity among all components and forces of our people, and forming a unified Palestinian emergency leadership to confront the aggression and topple its objectives, based on adherence to all our people’s historical rights and disengagement from all agreements signed with the occupation entity, ceasing reliance on illusions of settlement, and the possibility of achieving peace and coexistence with this bloodthirsty criminal enemy, considering that the essence of the conflict is existential, not merely about borders.

‘Escalate solidarity movements’ 

We call on the masses of our people, our nation, and the free people of the world

to engage in the battle to defend its legitimate and just rights, considering that the Palestinian cause represents undoubtedly the most just and sacred human cause of the modern era.

We call for launching initiatives and social and humanitarian solidarity campaigns to provide essential needs for our people in the Gaza Strip, to enhance their steadfastness and stability in their land until the aggression is repelled and its objectives are defeated.

We affirm that the brutal massacres our people are subjected to have exposed the complicity and impotence of international institutions and organizations and their subjugation to the dominance and will of colonial aggressive powers, necessitating serious work with all forces of freedom, peace, and justice in the world, to establish international and legal institutions and frameworks, independent of the dominance and control of the U.S. administration.

We affirm that the decisions resulting from the recent Arab-Islamic summit in Riyadh are not serious, lack courage, and do not rise to the level of the pulse of the Arab and Islamic peoples, remaining merely ink on paper.

We call upon the masses of our people, our nation, and the free people of the world to escalate their solidarity movements with our people in all fields and arenas, in front of embassies, and interests of companies and institutions supporting the aggression, and to besiege ports and airports to pressure for the cessation of arms exports to the usurping entity.

We call upon all institutions, universities, unions, committees, clubs, personalities, writers, journalists, artists, media professionals, and athletes to boycott the occupation entity, its supporters, and those who cover up its crimes and massacres.

We highly appreciate the solidarity movements with our people in various cities and villages of occupied Palestine, and in all places of refuge and diaspora. We also highly value the support and solidarity of the peoples of our Arab nation, and the support, assistance, and advocacy campaigns at the global level. We extend a salute of pride and respect to all the actors and activists who initiated and contributed to launching movements and initiatives supporting our people and condemning the aggression.

We express our highest gratitude and appreciation to all the media platforms and journalistic teams that supported our people and their resistance, playing a crucial and pivotal role in revealing the reality of the occupation and the falsity of its claims, exposing its true, bloody, and savage face despite all challenges and dangers. We also extend a special tribute to the martyrs of media and journalism, martyrs of the honest and committed image and word.

In conclusion, we renew our pledge and covenant that we will continue on the path of the martyrs, we will not bend or break, regardless of the cost of sacrifices, how severe they become, or how long the years of embers last.

The flag of resistance will remain flying high until the certain victory and the liberation of all of Palestine.

Glory to the martyrs.

Freedom for the prisoners.

Healing for the wounded.

And we will certainly be victorious.

Issued by Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Political Bureau

Dec. 10, 2023.

The above statements have been lightly edited.