THE jailed Palestinian leader of the Second Intifada, Marwan al-Barghouthi, has written from his prison cell in Israel to urge the Palestinian leadership to organise armed resistance to the Israeli army of occupation and the gangs of armed settlers.
The occupiers earlier this year attacked Gaza for 51 days killing hundreds and injuring thousands of people, from the very old to the very young, and today they are attacking the Palestinians on all fronts.
They are driving Palestinians out of their land and homes both in Israel and the West Bank to construct new settlements, they are making incursions into the Al-Aqsa mosque, and making threats against the mosque itself, and are now bringing forward schemes to replace the ‘two-state solution’ with a ‘one-state solution’ – that is with a Greater Israel, which is to be formed through annexing most of the West Bank and all of Jerusalem leaving the Palestinians with two choices, either to huddle in a few Bantustans or else quit Palestine altogether.
In the letter published on Tuesday, Barghouthi urged the Palestinian leadership to give its backing to ‘armed resistance’.
In a letter to mark 10 years since the death of veteran leader Yasser Arafat, Barghouthi said that ‘choosing global and armed resistance’ was being ‘faithful to Arafat’s legacy, to his ideas and his principles for which tens of thousands died as martyrs’.
Barghouthi has always said that he does not support attacks on Israeli civilians inside the Zionist entity, and wants the Palestinian leadership to prevent isolated acts of desperation by Palestinians tormented beyond endurance by leading an organised Third Intifada, at a time when the whole world outside the Zionist entity supports the establishment of the Palestinian state.
Indeed, the desperate actions of the Zionists against the Palestinian masses come as a direct and desperate response to the fact that what support the Zionists had internationally amongst ordinary people has now been lost for ever, and that governments such as the Cameron government who still support them, have to tread very carefully lest they anger the mass of the UK population.
We have already seen the Swedish government recognise the Palestinian state, and the British House of Commons urge Cameron to follow the Swedish example!
The PLO has already said that it now intends to see that a resolution is put down on the UN Security Council to name the date for the ending of the occupation of Palestine, regardless of whether the US will veto it or not.
Currently, the Palestinian people are being driven to take desperate actions by the attacks of their Zionist persecutors.
Now the Palestinian leadership must act as Arafat and Barghouthi acted to organise the resistance of the Palestinian people so that there is a worldwide front marching against the Zionist entity and its international allies.
In Barghouthi’s words: ‘The Palestinian Authority must review its priorities and its mission … and put an immediate end to security cooperation which is only strengthening the occupier.’
He also remarked on the circumstances of Arafat’s death, saying his ‘assassination’ was the result of ‘an official Israeli-American decision’, and called on the Palestinian leadership to give its backing to ‘armed resistance’ against Israel.
He emphasised that ‘choosing global and armed resistance’” was being ‘faithful to Arafat’s legacy.
‘It is imperative to reconsider our choice of resistance as a way of defeating the occupier,’ he wrote.
Now the whole world front, the Palestine masses and their leadership, and the working people of the world must advance to establish the State of Palestine, with no settlements, with Jerusalem as its capital and with all refugees having the right to return.
As part of this advance, the UK trade unions and the trade unions of the world must establish permanent boycotts of Israel and keep these boycotts clamped on until the state of Palestine is established.
Forward with the Palestinian state!
Forward to the victory of the world socialist revolution!
