THE PALESTINE NATIONAL LIBERATION MOVEMENT

_^ AL - FATEH

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION

II. HISTORY OF THE PALESTINE PROBLEM

III. EVACUATION OF PALESTINE

IV. THE EMERGENCE OF AL-FATEH

V. .AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

VI. THE POSITION OF AL-FATEH

a) The "State of Israel"

b) The Arab Countries

c) The United Nations

VII. AL-FATEH AND THE FUTURE

I. INTRODUCTION

"For twenty years our people have beenwaiting for a just solution of the Palestineproblem," wrote a graduate student at theAmerican University of Beirut in a letter tohis parents. "All that we got was charity andhumiliation while others continue to live inour homes. I refuse to remain a 'refugee*. Ihave decided to join the freedom fighters,"

Meanwhile, in a refugee camp near Amman,.Jordan, the mother of a freedom fighter whodied in action on occupied Palestinian soilsays: "I am proud that he did not die in thiscamp. The foreign press comes here and takesour pictures standing in queues to obtain foodrations. They publish these photographs,giving the impression that we are a 'nation ofbeggars*. This is no life. I am proud ofhaving sent my second son to replace the first;and I am already preparing my eight-year-oldboy for the day when he can fight for libera-tion too,"

Thousands of Palestinians have sincejoined tug ranks of the Palestinian freedomfighters.

They are carrying on an armed revolu-tion aimed at establishing just peace in theHoly Land. Most of them are young. Theiroverwhelming majority is below 30 years ofage and they represent Palestinians from allvalks of life, including university graduatesand camp refugees. Their will to sacrificestems from a deep sense of patriotism andrebellion against injustice and humiliation.They breathe the same national aspiration and

are haunted with nostalgia for their wrestedhomes and homeland.

For twenty years the Zionist propagandamachinery succeeded in concealing from worldpublic opinion the plight of these dislodgedpeople. But Palestinians still possess an un-diminished faith in a better future and theknowledge that the means to this future is theliberation of their homeland.

With this firm conviction, they choseto recapture the initiative in order toliberate Palestine, vindicate the supremesacrifices of their past generations andrealize the hopes and visions of livingPalestinians.

The Palestinian revolution is now infull growth.

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II. HISTORY OP THE PALESTINE PROBLEM

The Palestine problem is the result ofthe forcible dispossession of the Palestinianpopulation, their expulsion from their country,and the implantation of an alien sovereignty ontheir soil to make room for the ingathering inPalestine of world Jewry.

Along with the upsurge of nationalconsciousness in Europe in the course of the19th Century, a similar national upsurge wascrystallizing on the eastern shores of theMediterranean. It involved a small populationof about 700,000 Christian and Muslim Arabitizens living on the Land of Palestine and

striving, along with other Arab states, toliberate their country from the yoke of the600-year-old Ottoman occupation which hadtied these countries down to under-developmentand ignorance.

At the same time that the intelligentsiawere returning from universities in Beirut,Istasabul and Paris to lead the Arab revolution-ary movementj campaigns were underway inanother part of the world to persecute andtorture certain Jewish minorities in CzaristRussia. Fleeing these campaigns, the lattersought refuge in the Holy Land.

Typical of Palestinian traditionalhospitality we accorded these immigrants awarm welcome on our Land and in our midst,seeking to alleviate their sufferings.

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Our love for our homeland, freedomand independence was sufficiently strong forus to absorb these guests in an integratedcommunity, Their numbers at the time of ourrevolt against Ottoman rule in 191̂ did notexceed 50,000 Jews.

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Completely engulfed in the revoltagainst Ottoman rule, our people devoted to itall their energy and effort. They did littleheed to the plots that were being brewedagainst their progress until they discoveredon their day of victory that Britain, vhichhad offered to support them as an ally in theiiwar of independence, was actually plottingagainst them. This plot took place in conni-vance with alien groups and with the intentionof taking over Palestine as soon as it riditself of Ottoman occupation.

Only then, and just as they were aboutto realize a new world of freedom followingthe long and arduous struggle against occupa-tion, did our Palestinian people discover thata congress had been convened in Basle,Switzerland, in August 1897, by Theodor Herxl.

A Jew, conscious of the persecution ofJewish minorities fleeing Czarist Eussia andfinding refuge on our Land and amidst ourpeople, Herzl convened the Basle Congress.His intention was the creation of a Zionistmovement which would endeavor to establish afanatic Jewish state by usurping the Land ofPalestine from its people and granting it tothe alien people without a land.

This plot was masterminded by Herzl;Chain Veizmann, his successor as head of theZionist movement; and Britain, the state thatpretended to be our ally in our struggle forindependence. Their aim was to gain controlof Palestine and thrust its people, about toreap the fruits of taeir struggle for freedomand independence, back into the gloom ofoccupation. Thus, we were confronted withthe unconceivable treachery of our ally andwelcomed guests.

Our Palestinian people's reaction tothis unexpected threat and sudden turn ofevents following their long struggle forindependence was to hold on to their arms inorder to resume the struggle. Whereas theirformer struggle had been directed against theOttomans for the sake of obtaining theirfreedom, this renewed struggle was one forexistence and survival directed against theBritish-Zionist alliance. Britain's motivein the alliance was to take over control ofthe land and the people of Palestine from theOttomans. The Zionist movement's objectivewas to clear the coveted Land of its inhabi-tants. The victim of both policies was theunfortunate native population of Palestine.

Such are the roots of the problem andin this way began the struggle of thePalestine people for their freedom and exis-tence: A population seeking only to live inpeace and dignity on its Land and fightingfor its independence and sovereignty, andtwo aliens joining hands — one with theintent of clearing the Land from whateverexisted on it and the other intending tocontrol the Land along with what it held.The Palestinians were left with no choicebut to take up arms again.

Our people expressed their unyield-ing determination to survive on their ownLand by the repeated upheavals which markedthe first half of the 20th Century. Un-fortunately, they were unable to thwart theforeign alliance combining the militarystrength of the British Empire and thefinancial might of world capitalist mono-polies.

Britain, entj-asted by the League ci"Nations with temporary Mandatory Power overPalestine, succeeded in paving the groundfor the establishment of a National JewishHome in Palestine. This vas in fulfillmentof a "declaration of sympathy" made in 1917by her Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,Arthur James Balfour, to the representativeof world capitalist monopolies at the time,Lord Edmond <le Rothschild, The "declaration"was made without the Palestinians* knowledgeor consent at the same time that they wereengaged in the struggle for independencefrom Ottoman rule.

Britain subsequently drew on threesources to implement its plan: (l) theprerogatives delegated to it by the Leagueof Nations as the Mandatory power responsiblefor Palestine, (2) the military strength madeavailable by the possession of a vast Empi>re,and, (3) the policies formulated by the worldcapitalist monopolies. The British planorganized the immigration of aliens intoPalestine to challenge our native populationon its own Land,

Consequently, whereas strict Britishmandatory laws were vigorously enforced onany Palestinian Arab found in possession ofany kind of weapon, a Jewish Agency forPalestine was given legal authorization andallowed to become a state within a state.As such, it claimed its own regulations,army, military setups, officers, armamentand stores and operated under various namessuch as the Irgun, Haganah and Stern.

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In the wake of the Second World War,the British government under Lord Bevin feltthe first pangs of guilt at the role it hadplayed in Palestine. It had betrayed thepeople and deprived them of their hard-earnedfreedom, plotted to evict them and replacethem with aliens, and betrayed the League ofNations' directives which called for preparingthem for self-government.

However, the "state within the state"could not tolerate such hesitancy on the partof Britain which could lead it to discard theBalfour Declaration arid would bo.lster thedetermination of the Palestinian people tostruggle for their existence and survival ontheir own Land.

The Jewish Agency swiftly went intoaction and shifted the center of Zionistinfluence from Britain to the United States,the dominant power in the post-war period.Simultaneously, the Jewish Agency's Stern andIrgun terrorist gangs struck brutally againstBritish personnel and troops in Palestine.The aim, as expressed by Uri Avnery of theIrgun, was to deter Britain from adopting aneven-handed attitude in Palestine and to forceher to continue supporting the establishmentof the Zionist state.

The war broke out in 1948... Ourpeople fought it out.

In its wake, our people facedwilderness in scattered refugee camps. Thosewho found shelter, found it in tattered tents.Throughout the early 1950'B, they enduredhunger and cold. But they still hoped. Theyhoped that something would be done by world

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organisations, institutions and states torestore justice and peace as w«ll an theirusurped rights and future. They waitedfor long but in vain.

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Each Fall, and for 20 consecutiveyears, the United Nations General Assemblyconvened and resolved that they be repatri-ated, Yet despite the abundance ofrepatriation resolutions, the aliens whousurped the Land refused to comply. Others,who could force an implementation, were notprepared to do so. Our people's vait wasfruitless and aimless,

Then ve were convinced that unlesswe took our issue into our own hands, otherswill do nothing for us. Experience hadtaught us that the usurpers do not understandthe language of appeals, statements andpetitions. We had to seek a language theywould understand — • a language they had usedto determine the fate of our Land.

ns, without much choice, we foundourselves taking up arms again,

This is bow the Palestine NationalLiberation Movement, al-Fateh, was born.

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III. EVACUATION OF PALESTINE

Oppression, terror and deceit were themethods employed to accomplish the ultimateobjective of the Zionist movement, which was"to give the country without a people to thepeople without a country". This led theBritish Historian Arnold Toynbee to state ina lecture at McGill University in Montreal.Canada, that the Zionist treatment of theArabs was as morally indefensible as the Nazicrimes.

Nathan Chofshi, one of the originalZionist pioneers in Palestine, wrote thefollowing to the editor of the Jewish News-tetter in February 1949:

"If you really wanted to know whathappened, we old Jewish settlers inPalestine who witnessed the fight couldtell you how and in what manner we.Jevs, forced the Arabs to leave citiesand villages. Some of them were drivenout by force of arms; others were madeto leave by deceit, lying and falsepromises. It is enough to cite thecities of Jaffa, Lydda, Raraleh, BeerSheba, and Acre from among numberlessothers. Here we have people who livedon its own land for 1,300 years. Wecame and turner1 the native Arabs intotragic refugees.. Vnd still we dare toslander and malign them, to besmirchtheir name. Instead of being deeplyashamed of what we did and of tryingto undo some of the evil we committed.by helping those unfortunate refugees,we justify our terrible acts and evenattempt to glorify them,"

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A noted Jewish thinker, professorErich Froiam, has this to add:

"It is often said that the Arabsfled, that they left the countryvoluntarily, and that they, there-fore bear the responsibility forlosing their property and theirland. But in public internationallaw the principle holds true thatno citizen loses his property orhis rights of citizenship, and thecitizenship right is de facto aright to which the Arabs inPalestine have much more legitimacythan the Jews".

Suppose the Arabs fled, ProfessorFronmi goes on, "since when is that punish-able by confiscation of property and bybeing barred from returning to the land onwhich a people's forefathers have lived forgenerations?" Professor Fromzn adds: "Theclaim of the Jews to the land of Israelcannot be a realistic political claim., Ifall nations would suddenly claim territoriesin which their forefathers have lived twothousand years ago, this world would be amad house."

Tbe Zionists went about planningtheir campaigns to vacate Palestine of itspeople by employing terror, massacres, anddeceit,

The pro-Zionist author ArthurKoestler described the April 9, 1948 eventsat Deir Yassin as the "blood bath that wasthe psychological decisive factor in theArabs' spectacular exodus,"

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On that day, the Zionist terroristorganisation, Irgun Zvai Leumi, killed 254men, wosaen and children and mutilated theirbodies. As part of the systematic Zionistplan for the complete evacuation of thePalestinians so that they may be replacedby Jewish settlers, blood baths continuedin occupied Palestine after 1948 — Ikrit(1951), al-Tira (1953), Abu Ghosh (1953),Kafr KasseM (1956), etc.,,

These were the conditions thatforced the Palestinians to leave theirhomeland.

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IV. THE EMER

Tbe sufferings, frustrations andsacrifices of the Palestinian people overthe years have given rise to a nev popular-based dynamic movement: the PalestineNational Liberation Movement, al-Fateh,

Al-Fateh movement was started in1956 by young Palestinians during thetemporary occupation of the Gaza Strip byIsraeli forces.

The military operations of al-Fatehare carreid out by its military wing,al-Assifa.

Al-Assifa's first military operationwas carried out on December Jl, 1964. Thefirst communique was released on January 1,1965, two and a half years before the Junewar.

With old rusty weapons and againstheavy odds, al-Assifa freedom fightersembarked on the revolution with all thedetermination and persistence of a long-oppressed people.

During the past four years,Palestinians have sacrificed scores ofmartyrs on the battlefield. During thesame period, many more have died inrefugee camps from bitter cold, poornourishment and disease. As the revolu-tion embarks on its fifth year of struggle,the fruits of i\,s sacrifices have startedto ripen.

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V. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

Al-Fateh aims at the establishmentof a unitary, democratic, non-sectarianPalestine State in which all individualsand groups will have equal rights andobligations, irrespective of race, coloror creed,

Meanwhile, al-Fateh is doing itsbest to change the patterns of Palestiniansociety. Concomitant with the necessityof mobilizing all Palestinians, among otherthings, it is aware of the need to attendto the social and human needs of thePalestinian refugees. It set up for themmedical care as well as educational andvocational training centers.

Its youth movement, Ashbal Fateh, isintended to provide Palestinian youth withproper education and training which wouldalso enable them to be of service to therevolution.

Al-Fateh also supports and helpsfamilies of its freedom fighters who diein action or are imprisoned. Rehabilita-tion and the moulding of better Palestiniancitizens are among its primary goals.

VI. THE POSITION OF AL-PATEH

Al-Fateh has a definite standvis-a-vis the "State of Israel," theArab countries, and the United Nations.

a) The "State of Israel"•

Like the people of Palestine, al-Pateh has not and will never bestow undeservedlegitimacy upon the Zionist settler-state ofIsrael. This state remains a usurper addictedto violence, bent on territorial expansion tcoccupy all of the so-called "Eretz Israel,"and fundamentally motivated by principles ofracial and religious aelf-aegregation, ex~clusiveness and supremacy. Inasmuch as Nazismsought a "final solution" to the Jewishproblem in Germany, Zionism has sought a"final solution" to the Arab problem inPalestine, Both concepts have sought toeliminate the unwanted human element by the"Master Race" and the "Chosen People",

While al-Fateh is fighting theconstitutional existence of the Zionist Stateof Israel, it is also fighting to create thenew Palestine of tomorrow — a democratic,non-sectarian Palestine where Jews, Muslimsand Christians will work, worship and livepeacefully together while enjoying equalrights and obligations. This is no utopiabecause people of all three faiths had livedpeacefully together in the Holy Land untilthe beginning of Zionist colonization ofPalestine. The Arabs of Palestine accordeda hospitable welcome to Jewish refugeesfleeing persecution in Christian Europe andto Armenian refugees fleeing persecution inMuslim Turkey.

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Al-Fatfth does not intend to solvethe Palestine problem by creating a "Jewishone." But it also cannot see peace achievedin this area at the expense of thePalestinians.

It is in this spirit that al-Fatehlooks forward to the future — a future inwhich all factions of the Palestiniancommunities will unite in a common strugglefor justice and peace and against such "isms*as Zionism and anti-Semitism.

Al-Fateh hopes the day will comewhen the Jewish community in Palestine willshare these views. This is not too much tohope for if the Germans were able to "seethe light again" after getting rid of Naziideology, the people of Jewish faith inPalestine can follow suit one day and ridthemselves of Zionism.

b) The Arab Countries

The Palestinian people are partof the Arab World and, as such, wish to playtheir role in the fulfillment of its goalsand aspirations.

Al-Fateh1s revolution is thuspart of the Arab revolution aiming atindependence, the removal of foreignhegemonies, and the active participation inthe revival of the Arab World through itsinteraction with the other active culturesof the world at large.

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The mobilization of the Palestinianpeople should thus be considered, not only asa tool to support the revolutionary efforts ofthe Arabs, but as part of the Arab World'sprocess of awakening as well.

.While this process is taking place,the Palestinian revolution of al-Fateh willnot interfere in the internal affairs of theArab count' es. Simultaneously, al—Fatehexpects no interference in its own affairsand considers the independence of its revolu-tion as a basic condition for its success.

This does not imply the isolationof the Palestinian people from the ArabWorld, Believing in the common Arab cause,the Palestine National Liberation Movementexpects massive help and support from allArabs and considers their cooperation as avital necessity for its success. The Arabpeople everywhere are the most reliable andpermanent source of support for thePalestine revolution,

c) The United Nations

The United Nations Charter recog-nizes the principle of self-determination ofpeople. The Palestinians have been deprivednot only of their inalienable right to self-determination, but also of their elementalright to exist on their ovn homeland. ThePalestinians' right to repatriation has beenrecognized by thfe United Nations withoutqualification or reservation. Resolutionsto that effect have been taken at the UN

year after year.

The June 1967 aggression wasanother manifestation of the continuedaggression against the Palestinian people.Al-Fateh refuses to consider the 196?aggression as a separate and distinctphenomenon. Any solution focusing on theresults of the last aggression only isthus totally and categorically unaccept-able.

The Security Council resolu-tion of November 22, 1967, and allfurther proposals explaining or modifyingit are therefore inadequate and irrelevant,

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VII. AL-FATEH AND THE FUTURE

For al-Fateh, the past is full ofexperiences. The past bears the errors ofthe militarists and politicians of the oldgenerations. The past also bears the richexperience of Palestinian resistance since1920 against both the British Mandate andZionist colonization, Al-Fateh reveres thelegacy of the older Palestinian generationwhich was dislodged indeed, but not withoutfighting to defend its heritage.

Much more important is the future.To al-Fateh, this future is discerned onlybeyond the screen of a long and difficultstruggle marked by a number of facts. Onesuch consideration is that the problem ofPalestine and its evicted native populationconstitute a threat to peace in the region,if not the world at large.

So far , and for more than 21 years,the world has remained handfolded beforethis problem. The world wants peace with-out endeavoring to achieve it and withoutseriously envisaging how the problem shouldbe solved justly.

The Palestine National LiberationMovement, al-Fateh, which has emerged fromthe tents to struggle for the existence,survival and future of their occupants didnot adopt a similar attitude.

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To demonstrate its positiveness andconcern about a just peace, it has put for-ward a solution to the problem applicable toall Palestinian citizens. Whereas theZionist solution attempts to eliminate theJewish problem by creating an Arab one, thesolution proposed by al—Fateh settles theproblem of Christian and Muslim Palestinianswithout creating a Jewish one.

The solution for which al-Fateh iafighting is the creation of the "Palestine-of-Tomorrow" — a democratic state capableof holding Jews, Muslims and Christiansalike and in which all will have equalrights and obligations, irrespective ofrace, color or creed,

This solution is not, as some tryto argue, a reaction to defeat but acontinuation of the old Palestinian solu-tion as proposed, officially and for thefirst time, to th» Peel Commission in1937. The people of Palestine turned downthe Partition Plan because they had advo-cated and continue to advocate a unitaryPalestine State for one and all.

Al~Fateh hopes that its proposalto solve the problem through & democratic .state will be appreciated as a positiveoffer for peaceful coexistence made by therightful owners of the Land to the alienswho usurped it.

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