(Your Voice in a World where Money, Steel, and Fire have turned Justice Mute)
(This statement on the current situation in Palestine was approved on December 26, 2004, after extensive dialogue, on the Arab Nationalist list. We are hereby asking all those interested to distribute it as widely as possible).
Translated from Arabic by Muhammad Abu Nasr
Today our Arab People are under savage assault by the international forces of darkness. The outlines of their plans have become clear in Iraq, in what is going on in the Sudan, in their interference in Lebanese affairs, and in their threats to Syria. All of this is taking place at a time when there are two currents in the Arab Region. One of those currents will never be able to break the will of the peoples. Resistance always finds a way to stand up to the invaders even if it reaches a point that the human body is turned into a deadly weapon.
The situation in Palestine today is but another part of the struggle between the two currents: the current of resistance and liberation and the current of giving up and selling out. This noble people and their glorious intifada, and in the first place the heroic resistance movement, are under a hostile attack of a special kind that combines the big stick of the occupation - destruction, massacres, murder, the uprooting and displacement of people and their very fields, i.e., the attempted genocide of our people and the subjugation of those who are left – with the carrot, the hint, in fact the open declaration, that peace is at hand and that all we must do to achieve it is to prepare to enter the new order, dressed appropriately in honor of their venerable culture. At the same time, money has begun to pour in, in a precise and well-directed manner, and taking advantage of the difficult living conditions endured by our people to try to rob them of their steadfastness and determination, putting before them the choice of paradise or the fire. Along the same lines they have come at us with the innovation of the “Non Governmental Organization,” with its mysterious foreign sources of funding, inevitably linked with the programs and positions that serve to totally crush the liberation struggle, that demand at the very least that the basic right to armed resistance against occupation – in particular the martyrdom operations and the martyrdom fighters – be abandoned.
The Oslo Agreement substituted the chimera of a state for the reality of the revolution to put an end to the first intifada, and we suffered a two-fold loss. That agreement replaced the slogan “Revolution until victory” with a Palestine “Authority” that possessed no land, no water, nor even airspace. It gave up most of Palestine while at the same time relieving the occupation of its moral, historical, and practical burdens. It rewarded the lackeys and turned the revolutionaries into fugitives. And what was the outcome? That anyone who obstructed their way would be poisoned. What a shameful bargain!
Faithful people, we must not fall into the same hole twice. Today the engineers of ruin are eying us again, and this time they plan to take all that is left of Palestine. Arms are no longer a man’s honor but his shame. An end must be put to “anarchy.” To speak the truth or to complain are “incitement” against the Zionists which has been prohibited by a “presidential order” issued before presidential power has even been conveyed to its issuer. Our motto now must be to “understand the sufferings of the Jews,” and this will be our admission ticket to the club of America’s friends, the key to a treasure chest of promised wonders.
We have surveyed the history and experience of the world’s peoples. We understand the dimensions of the Zionist and imperialist programs on our land. We are guided by our forefathers who never for one day accepted humiliation but freely gave their lives to resist oppressors throughout the ages so that our country might remain free and pure of all desecration. We can see the bright rays of the light of victory coming from the hands of the glorious heroes of the triumphant Iraqi resistance. We take pride in the hard-won victory in southern Lebanon, the fruit of a resistance struggle that addressed the aggressor in the language he understands. In accordance with the law of Heaven and the behests of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, Mahir al-Burnu, The Guevara of Gaza, of al-Ayyash and ash-Shiqaqi, and all those now awaiting their turn to join the every-growing line of martyrs, we declare the following:
First. Palestinian national work, the behavior of Palestine’s representatives, and the course taken by its leaders must be based on the historic authority of Palestine and the original Palestine National Charter, (which was falsified by the national council when they met US president Clinton – a step that was illegal, given the fact that the Council and even the Palestine Authority has no authority to pass resolutions affecting the destiny of the Palestinian people who come from all of Palestine, that which was stolen in 1948, as well as the West Bank and Gaza, as well as those living dispersed around the world, and in the first place those in the refugee camps awaiting their return home.), and they must affirm the Arab and Islamic dimension of Palestine.
Second. Resistance is the option for driving out the occupation, for crushing it, compelling it to retreat, for burying its illusions forever. Resistance is not a bargaining chip; it is a sacred, moral, and human duty for which we will be judged by God and history. In this context we warn against so-called Palestinian presidential elections that will be taking place under the occupation, and affirm that our priority now is to rally around the option of fighting the enemy, of massing forces against him. Therefore the intifada is the means available today on the path of liberation. It must continue and deepen in opposition to Oslo and the conciliators. We refuse to operate using a logic like that of the enemy, but this does not mean that we must remain silent regarding the errors of those who persist in committing mistakes within our own ranks. The Oslo Agreement has lost all credibility even in the eyes of those who formerly had illusions about it. The aim of Oslo has become crystal clear, and it would be best for those who have defended it and promoted it to apologize to our people and to withdraw, out of moral considerations to say nothing of political ones.
Third. The right of return and compensation is not subject to negotiation, to give and take, to say nothing of being thrown away and abandoned. Is it reasonable to demand that the person whose house has been stolen, who has been displaced and made homeless should look on and smile because the one who kicked him out has now solved his own housing problem? Or even to go and willingly help him remodel the house so that it suits him better? The right to our home is a basic right enshrined in the Declaration of Human Rights and indeed in the logic of history before any international bodies and institutions were created. If our fathers never let go of the keys to our homes, it is not for us to throw out the rights of future generations. We inherit this land as we inherit our names and genetic characteristics, and their loss means the loss of our humanity, of our status as human beings.
Fourth. We would like to be able to hand over our problem to what is called international legality if this were a perfect world, if the word of judges were listened to, not thrown aside or abrogated, if they were all like Mandela, Gandhi, Mother Theresa, or Jesus Christ, we too would turn the other cheek, and at the end of the day our rights would be returned to us. But since that is all a dream, and so long as murderers and their henchmen sit on their thrones, then reality in the first place makes us take back by the sword that which has been taken from us by the sword, for that which has been taken by force cannot be regained except by force. Until the dream of a perfect world comes to pass, putting faith in international legality is nothing but suicide for the weak, but suicide under a cloak of legality.
Fifth. The course of “rational” submission and conciliation (as represented by Mahmud Abbas, Yasir Abd Rabbuh, and the rest of the Oslo and Geneva gang) is not the course chosen by the Palestinian people. They do not have the right to sell, concede, or give up anything in their name. The active forces among our resisting people must come to an agreement on a way to elect a leadership that represents all of the Palestinian people, everywhere they are, one that continues to hold on to that which is greater than the leaders or us individually – the Palestine National Charter and the basic national priniciples that stand above everyone, like Palestine. Until such time, our spokesman will be the resistance, our official announcements will be the bullets and rockets of the resistance, until such time as someone who can speak by their logic is elected.
Sixth. It is not important whether the language we use is in agreement with the language used in quarters that do not believe in the Arab character of Palestine. What good is it if we win over the world but lose our own rights?
If it were the correct path to persist in common error at the expense of a right that is hard to obtain, then the Prophet Muhammad would not have preferred the religion of his Lord over having control of the moon in his right hand and the sun in his left, then Jesus Christ would not have rebelled against the armies of oppression and murder without having a Katyusha nor a million men behind him. His only weapon was what was right and a readiness to sacrifice everything for it.
Should we give away Palestine in order to win someone else’s approval? Would they be listening to us if it were parts of France or America that were occupied. We are respected in the eyes of the world to the extent that we respect ourselves, and in the first place our own rights. Our enemies killed Count Bernadotte. They spied on America. They turned off the electricity to an exhibit where there was a picture of a girl martyrdom fighter. They have made a mockery of every resolution passed by the United Nations if they thought that to be in their interests. They do that and are in the wrong, yet are ready to fight to the death, even though they are alien thieves occupying someone else’s land. Is not this kind of determination more appropriate for the descendants of Salah ad-Din, al-‘Awwam, and Khalid Ibn al-Walid?