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Statement on the Arrest of Ahmad Sadat and the Palestinian Intifada

 

by the Editorial Board of the Free Arab Voice

January 23, 2002

The editorial board of the Free Arab Voice condemns in the
strongest possible terms the arrest of Comrade Ahmad Sadat, the
Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine (PFLP),  and calls for his immediate release as well as
the release of all Palestinian militants being held by the Palestinian
National Authority.  We, furthermore, uphold without reservation
the natural right of the Palestinian people to resist a brutal
five-decades-long occupation by all means necessary, including
armed struggle against any Zionist target within reach.

At a time when Sharon is unleashing his Zionist terror machine on
the Palestinian people, it does us no good to oblige Zionists and
Americans by succumbing to pressures to subdue the Intifada and
to reign in Palestinian freedom fighters. As a matter of principle
and under the present political circumstances, the interest of the
Palestinian people lies in putting up the best possible resistance to
these pressures, not in succumbing to them.

The Zionists and the American government are presenting the
Palestinians with a very clear choice: either unconditional
surrender, or total war.  Consequently, this has put those who
advocated rapprochement with "Israel" throughout the nineties in a
state of severe crisis and torrid confusion.  Specifically, three
approaches have evidently reached now a state of complete
political bankruptcy.  These are:

1) the Oslo approach of trying to appease Zionists by accepting
the Zionist occupation on most of Palestine,  in exchange for the
semblance of an independent Palestinian state on scraps of the
rest,

2) the approach that advocated reforming the "Israeli" political
system from within, and winning over "Israeli" public opinion, by
accepting the occupation, but allegedly without its racism!!

3) the approach of the Arab regimes (despite the differences
between them) that adopted peace with "Israel" as a strategic
option, without thinking that even a peaceful settlement of the
Arab-Zionist conflict is not possible without a drastic improvement
in the balance of power in favor of those regimes.

Now all the groups above are targetted, having exhausted their
usefulness after long years of service during the politically gray
nineties.  They have been the flagpoles of defeatist times, but now
they have reached the end of the line.  Specifically, those groups
have sown the seeds of their own destruction by helping the
Zionist project gain enough momentum to move on to its next
logical stage by:

1)  spreading empty illusions about the possibility of peaceful
coexistence with the Zionist project in Palestine amongst large
swaths of the Arab public,

2) arresting the development of more radical Palestinian
alternatives on the ground through security and/or political
cooperation with Zionists and the American government

3) treating the U.S. government as if it were a neutral party or a
potential savior in the conflict, and granting it footholds in the
Palestinian psyche and across the Arab World

4) engaging in treaties and opening the doors of the Arab World
to "Israel" until it became blatantly clear that "Israel" was seeking
to build an empire in the Arab World and to marginalize the
regimes that helped it in.

Hence, the continued detention of Ahmad Sadat and other
Palestinian militants is not merely an issue of political rights.  It is
rather a manifestation of the confusion and agitation of a whole
political approach stuck between the horns of a dilemma:

- On the one hand, trying to accomodate Zionist and U.S.
government demands while maintaining a semblance of Palestinian
or Arab credibility is no longer acceptable to the Zionists.

- On the other hand, too many small interests and illusions make
those who embrace them neither able nor willing to stand up to
American and Zionist pressures, or to act proactively in response
to them.

In fact, the continued detention of Ahmad Sadat and other
Palestinian freedom fighters reflects a pathetic dismay and a doze
of helplessness, as much as it reflects a violation of political rights
and an abandonment of principle.

Thus, while we demand vociferously the immediate release of
Ahmad Sadat, we view that demand in the context of the need for
a larger effort and a long-term program to stand up to the
American and Zionist onslaught on the Palestinian people.  Given
the present rules of the engagement set by the Zionist and
American side (total war or total surrender), what needs to be
done has become quite clear.  Since surrender is out of the
question off hand, the more radical forces on the Palestinian side
should take the lead in escalating the Intifada beyond anything the
Zionists have ever experienced before.  More civilian protests,
and separately, more human bombs and more military strikes
would spiral into an uncontrollable daily nightmare for the Zionist
invaders with no end in sight.  If maintained long enough, this
campaign can force an unconditional withdrawal from the West
Bank and Gaza; a highly achievable short-term goal despite the
dear sacrifices entailed.  An unconditional Zionist withdrawal
means no treaties, no recognition of "Israel", and no forfeiting of
future options, just like in South Lebanon.  Such intensified action
on the ground would effectively neutralize the spinelessness and
the oscillation of the defeatist approach after it has led the
Palestinian people to the current political crisis.

It is also clear what the Arab regimes must do.  They must
immediately cut off all diplomatic and other relations with "Israel",
and close off the damned "Israeli" embassies and diplomatic
missions in Jordan, Egypt, Mauritania, Qatar, and Oman NOW.
No one is asking the Arab regimes to go to war, and no one has
any illusions that they are going to liberate Palestine.  However,
we do have to remind them that they are being targetted by
Zionists and the U.S. government now, and we do have the right
to ask them to get off the back of the Arab people so that the
latter may support the Intifada any which way they can. Once the
Arab popular initiative is liberated from oppression, an escalated
Intifada can instigate Arab grass-roots energies into many creative
channels.  Afterall, in the sixties and the seventies we did not fail
because we fought, but because we didn't fight well.  And now we
are at a historical watershed once more.  Zionist aggression is
rearing its ugly head yet again, and it is up to us to rise up to the
challenge or to become Zionist slaves.  The times are screaming
for us to take a stand for there is no room for illusions anymore.
The Zionists are presenting us with a clear choice: we either do or
die.  So what will it be?

In the eternal words of American freedom fighter Patrick Henry
said more than 225 years ago: "Gentlemen may cry, peace,
peace! - but there is no peace.  The war is actually begun! The
next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the
clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field!
Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What
would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be
purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty
God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me:
Give me liberty, or give me death!"

Freedom to Ahmad Sadat!

Freedom to all Palestinian Political Prisoners!

Freedom to the Palestinian People from Zionist Occupation!

The Free Arab Voice editorial board:

Ibrahim Alloush
Nabila Harb   Abu Nicola Al Yunani
Ziad El Jishi         Maha Abu Ghosh
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