42nd anniversary of The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ( PFLP )

"We stand marking the 42nd anniversary of the founding of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine amid continued siege and aggression and in dire need of unity and to end the division. We open our forty-third year committed to struggle, to uphold our principles, and hold firmly to our guns against the occupier."-Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the PFLP
42nd anniversary of The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ( PFLP ) - December 11, 2009 (1967)
PFLP statement on 42nd anniversary: Time for a new political era of resistance and national liberation
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine stands today, 42 years from its founding on December 11, 1967. The PFLP was founded in response to the defeat of regimes and ideologies in the June 1967 war, and took action to initiate resistance in all forms on a strategic, long-term basis, mobilize the masses of the Palestinian Arab people to fight, neutralize the technological advantage of the occupation war machines through lightning attacks, and defeat the enemy and the entire Zionist and imperialist colonial scheme.

Looking at the anniversary of the founding of our Front, it was a culmination of the historic experience of our people throughout generations of confrontation of successive colonialist and Zionist attacks. It was an extension of this existing struggle and a quantitatively new expression that transformed and upgraded the movement, intellectually, politically and organizationally, growing from the glorious experience of the Arab Nationalist Movement, led by the founder of the ANM and the PFLP, Comrade Dr. George Habash. This breakthrough came as an expression of the objective necessity to represent the political identity of the Palestinian Arab people and promote a substantive and militant alliance basd on the organic unity of the struggle of our Palestinian people and the peoples of the Arab nation for national and social liberation, led by social forces historically capable of leading the revolutionary struggle and the liberation movement, until the achievement of the victory of our people and our nation, based on the accumulated experience of struggle and the bitter lessons that emerged from the experience of political feudalism, religious leaders and authoritarian and dictatorial regimes.

At the time when the Arab regimes were reeling under the weight of shame and defeat, the forces of the Palestinian revolution were emerging, providing hope and confidence to the Palestinian and Arab masses hungry for steadfastness and resistance to restore our land and our rights and take the road of freedom, progress and unity. The founding of the Front is not only a key momemt for the Palestinian and Arab struggle only or its own resistance forces, but a step forward in the national, democratic and social dimensions of the progressive international popular struggle against imperialism and Zionism, in developing the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian revolution. The PFLP made clear that the national struggle is an integral part of the struggle against reactionary Arab forces, international Zionism and
imperialism, and for liberation, justice, progress and peace.

This annivrsary of the founding of the Front coms at a moment of national crisis, when the occupation's tyranny attacks all aspects of the lives of the Palestinian people and their struggle, through aggression, murder and war crimes, occupation and criminal siege of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank of Palestine, as it imprisons thousands of prisoners of freedom behind bars, attempts a frenzied conversion of the holy city of Jerusalem in an attempt to change its Arab and Muslim character, spreads settlements, builds the wall of annexation, isolation and displacement, and enhances its firmly entrenched policies of racism and extremism in a rapid and intense attack in order to exploit the conditions to attempt to kill and bury the Palestinian national struggle in its entirety. It seeks to replace the Palestinian national project with the so-called "state with temporary (permanent) borders," the liquidation of the Palestinian cause and the constants and rights of our people, amid the dictatorship and disabled 'democracy' of the Arab countries, the silence of the official Arab order, continued normalization of shame between reactionary regimes and the occupying power, and the collusion, deception, absolute and blind aggression and hypocrisy of the United States, aided and abetted by the European Union's hypocrisy, visible as many countries refused to vote for the Goldstone report, revealing their subservience to Washington's power and Zionist pressure.

At the same time, our internal Palestinian situation is beset by exclusivity, quotas and acquisitiveness, internal fighting, military solutions, the violations of public freedoms, civil rights and the rule of law, further entrenching the political and geographic divide and damaging Palestinian social fabric and the traditions, values, structures, and national institutions of our people. This has happened particularly in light of the lack of political will on both sides of the split to restore unity and give priority to the primary contradiction with the occupation and the supreme national interest of the Palestinian people. It has become apparent that the emergence of layers of bureaucracy and hierarchy and parasitic power in the authority find their selfish interests in the status quo, thus opening the door wide for the occupation to continue its
occupation and dispossession of land and violation of Palestinian rights and for international silence and complicity, shirking all political, legal and ethical responsibilities to protect the Palestinian people. All of this takes place under the cover of a darkness called "calm and security coordination," on the basis of the Madrid-Oslo policies of disaster and betrayal, and a foundation of so-called "negotiations."
On the 42nd anniversary of its founding, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine declares:
* An official announcement must be made of the utter failure of the 'negotiations' and the entire Oslo process, the reliance on the United States, the so-called 'roadmap' and the Annapolis conference process.

The end of this process comes as no surprise to many and was clear long ago to those who do not run away from facing reality. It is the responsibility of the Palestinian leadership to undertake a complete and comprehensive review of its policies, including declaring an end to the phase of "transitional self-rule" and related Palestinian "commitments" as a framework for reference and decision making and return instead to the United Nations, including the principles of international protection for our people and compelling Israel to impelement international law and U.N. resolutions, emphasizing the rights of our people to resist to end the occupation and the settlements, release our prisoners and achieve our rights to national independence, self-determination and return.

* We call for a National Dialogue Committee composed of the leaders of the national and Islamic forces, the Executive Committee of the PLO, and national leaders, to meet urgently to resume national dialogue and national reconcilation on the basis of the Cairo Declaration and the Prisoners' Document and develop mechanisms for implementation and adoption of a national strategy based on national unity.

*The Palestinian national house must be activated through the rebuilding of the Palestine Liberation Organization to include the entire spectrum of national political forces, on the basis of democratic elections through proportional representation in Palestine and abroad. This is a central national issue and emergency that cannot be postponed.

*We demand the implementation of the Prisoners' Document, including establishing a united resistance front, strengthening the resistance to occupation and building our national front on the basis of our national consensus for independent state with its capital in Jerusalem, self-detemination, and return.

*The rules of democratic elections and national partnership, including at presidential, legislative, and local elections, trade unions and popular federations, must be respected in order to preserve and promote political and social democracy in line with our Palestinian national cause and consensus. The only way to protect our cause and the Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people is through truly democratic processes that reflect our united struggle and our objectives as a people.

*We call for the immediate release of all political prisoners and detainees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and we reject the use of internal violence to address matters of procedures, and we call upon all to take up the fight against corruption, to support the rule of law and public freedoms, and to address the rampant unemployment, poverty and hunger faced by our people. We must protect the economic and social development of our people and the families of martyrs, prisoners and wounded in Palestine and in the camps and areas of exile.

*We call upon our Arab brothers on a popular and official level to carry out their responsibilities to their cause, as well as the democratic forces of the world, the allies and friends of our people to continue their actions in defense of our people. We call for an international conference under the auspicies of the United Nations to implement the existing resolutions of international legitimacy as an alternative approach to the utterly failed and damaging 'negotiations' under the authority of the United States, and for international support for the struggle of the Palestinian people for self-determination and return, and to hold Israel accountable and force it to implement international law and prosecute its officials for war crimes.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is struggling to achieve the objectives of our people to return, to self-determination, and an independent state with its capital in Jerusalem, and affirms its commitment to our strategic goal - the establishment of a democratic state on all of the national soil of Palestine where all enjoy equal rights without discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sex or religion.

The Popular Front, recognizing the nature of the stage as that of national liberation and democratic struggle, expresses its renewed determination on this occasion to build a strong, militant left and democratic program that emphasizes the historical role of unity around the Palestinian national constants, uphold the PLO and the program of national liberation, and to renew the promise to fulfill the blood of the martyrs and the objectives for which they died. The PFLP pledges to continue the resistance, which has proven its effectiveness on the ground in Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon and rubbed the nose of the Zionist and American occupations in the dirt and shook their war machine's ability to rain destruction upon us, and it affirms that it will continue to make sacrifices in order to end the division and restore internal democracy and national unity as the law of national liberation and a necessity for victory and the achievement of our national aspirations and objectives.

On this anniversary, dear to the activists and freedm fighters of our nation and our people, we salute with gratitude and stand with reverence and pride before the victories, the martyrs, and the sacrifices of our people, the comrades and leaders of our party and the national struggle, led by the martyrs, the hero, founder and leader, Dr. George Habash, Al-Hakim, and the former General Secretary, Comrade Leader Abu Ali Mustafa, the heroes and leaders, Wadie Haddad, Ghassan Kanafani, Guevara Gaza, Shadia Abu Ghazaleh, Taghreed Botmeh, Maha Nassar, and the leaders and martyrs of the Palestinian revolution, Abu Ammar, Dr. Haidar Abdel-Shafi, Sheikh Yassin, Fathi Shikaki, Bashir al-Barghouthi, Omar al-Qassim, Abdul Rahim Ahmad, Talaat Yacoub, Abu Abbas, Naji al-Ali, and Mahmoud Darwish, and all the martyrs. We salute with steadfastness and pride all of the prisoners, in the forefront the national leader and the General Secretary of the Front, Comrade Ahmad Sa'adat, brothers and leaders, Marwan
Barghouthi and Sheikh Hassan Youssef, all of the former prisoners, and the thousands of prisoners who struggle for victory every day and hold to their strong and determined will confronting the whips of the jailer, the executioner and the terrorist of the occupation.
Long live the glorious memory of the founding of the Front!
Glory and eternity to the martyrs...And freedom for the prisoners!
Defeat to the occupation, its masters and its cronies!
Victory for our people and our nation!
Political Bureau
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
December 11, 2009
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Unity and steadfastness: Over 70,000 rally in Gaza for PFLP 42nd anniversary
Over 70,000 cadres, members and supporters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the people of the Gaza Strip, converged on Palestine Stadium for the 42nd anniversary rally of the PFLP on December 12, 2009, spilling into the surrounding streets and carrying Palestinian flags, PFLP banners and posters of the Front's martyrs and leaders.

From the early morning hours, crowds of young and old, men, women and children traveled from the various provinces of the Strip and all camps and villages to Gaza City to the rally, answering the call of the Front to attend under the slogan of "Unity, Steadfastness and Resistance - Towards Victory!"

Comrade Dr. Rabah Muhanna, member of the Political Bureau of the PFLP and leader of its branch in Gaza, called for maintenance and escalation of resistance in general and armed struggle in particular against the Zionist enemy, calling for a nationally coordinated resistance framework serving the struggle to regain our rights.

Comrade Muhanna emphasized that the path of negotiations, from Oslo to Annapolis, has clearly reached a dead end, and there must be a declaration by all Palestinian forces of the final death of the path of so-called "negotiations" and the immediate end of the so-called "transitional period," including a complete end of all security coordination with the occupier.

He expressed an urgent call for national unity, saying that it is a necessity for victory and that all political detainees in the West Bank and Gaza must be freed, and unity established on the basis of Palestinian national cause and the Palestinian national interest, responding to the sacrifices of thousands of martyrs, wounded and prisoners: ensuring an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital, self-determination, and return.

Comrade Muhanna saluted the Palestinian people in occupied Palestine '48, in the West Bank, throughout Gaza, in the camps, and throughout the world in diaspora and exile, expressing the Front's complete determination to fight for the achievement of full victory over the criminal, fascist, occupation regime.

He outlined the Front's historical experience in confronting Zionism, as an extension of the struggle of the Arab Nationalist Movement. He said that the Front will continue along the path of its history in the revolutionary struggle to achieve victory and the utter defeat of the criminal Zionist enemy and the entire camp behind it that provides it with its power and aggression and weakens our people and prevents their progress, the imperialist camp and its reactionary arms and components, under the savage leadership of U.S. imperialism.

Comrade Muhanna closed his speech with a call for national unity, invoking the colors of the Palestinian flag and the banners of the Palestinian factions: green for Hamas, white for Fateh, black for Islamic Jihad and red for the PFLP, calling for all of our people to be united together under the complete national flag of Palestine.

Almazah Sammouni, who lost her family in the December 2008-January 2009 aggression on Gaza, spoke, saying "I came here today not to cry or to mourn for my family," the Sammouni family, "who suffered under the fires and missiles of the occupation like thousands of martyrs of our people, but I come to express my pride for their sacrifices and commitment." She called upon all Palestinian forces, particularly Fateh and Hamas, to unite under the banner of the blood of the martyrs and the promise of a better future for our people and children, and to fight to prosecute the occupation and its leaders in international courts for their crimes against our Palestinian people.

Comrade Amna Rimawi, the wife of imprisoned Comrade Majdi Rimawi and head of the village council of Beit Rima, one of the heroes of the legendary October 17 operation that struck Zionist extremist tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi, spoke at the rally, expressing her greetings on behalf of the families of the prisoners, and calling upon the captors of occupation soldier Gilad Shalit and asking them to uphold the standards they have set for the prisoner exchange, because the families and the prisoners know the only means for their release comes through the resistance.

Mohammad Khalidi, an unemployed Palestinian worker, spoke wearing his work uniform, denouncing poverty and unemployment caused by siege and occupation. He said that "We are are to affirm our steadfastness as workers in the face of the Zionist war machine, the unjust siege, and deadly unemployment."

The rally, chaird by Comrade Hani Al-Thawabteh, member of the Central Committee of Gaza Branch, and Comrade Shireen Abu-Oun, also included poetry, artistic presentations, and dozens of congratulatory messages from the PFLP leadership abroad, Hilda Habash, the wife of the founder, Dr. George Habash, and the General Secretary of the Front, imprisoned Comrade Leader Ahmad Sa'adat, and Abla Sa'adat and Sumoud Sa'adat, his wife and daughter.
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PFLP military wing fires a barrage of rockets, marking 42nd anniversary
The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, announced that it had fired a barrage of Sumoud rockets toward occupation settlements and military sites early morning Sunday, December 13, 2009.

In a statement issued by the AAMB, they stated that this action comes as a natural response to occupation crimes. An AAMB spokesperson said that a settler rampage in Yasuf, near Nablus, including the burning of a mosque, and the killing of Sami Abu Khousa, a Palestinian farmer, by occupation forces' artillery shells, only illustrate the ongoing war crimes of the racist, criminal occupier.

The AAMB statement said that PFLP fighters responded to these criminal actions and honored the 42nd anniversary of the PFLP by firing a barrage of Sumoud rockets toward Kissufim, Asqelan, Sderot, the Western Naqab, Sofa and Nahal Oz in the early morning hours of Sunday, December 13, 2009.

AAMB promised in its statement to continue to struggle and resist the occupation, and to answer the call of the Front at its 42nd anniversary rallies to escalate resistance in all forms until freedom, return and the liberation of our land and people.
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Massive car caravan in Gaza marks 42nd anniversary of the PFLP
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Gaza organized a series of events on Friday, December 11, 2009, marking the 42nd anniversary of the founding of the PFLP and leading up to the central rally on December 12, 2009. A massive car caravan involving over 500 cars and motorcycles filled the streets of Gaza City on Friday, waving PFLP banners and Palestinian flags. The car caravan proceeded from the central square of Gaza City, through Tel al-Hawa and Shujaiya neighborhoods and Shati (Beach) camp, ending at the tomb of the unknown soldier. The cars broadcast calls for the central 42nd anniversary rally on Saturday at Palestine Stadium throughout the city.

Many leaders, cadres and members of the Front in Gaza City, as well as a large crowd of friends and supporters joined in the march and caravan, chanting slogans and chants celebrating the PFLP, the Palestinian Revolution and saluting the steadfastness of imprisoned General Secretary, Comrade Leader Ahmad Sa'adat.

The caravan carried posters and pictures of the Front's martyrs and leaders, including Comrade Sa'adat, Dr. George Habash, Abu Ali Mustafa, Ghassan Kanafani, Wadie Haddad and Guevara Gaza.
The Front in Beit Hanoun also organized a car caravan including over 150 cars and 100 motorcycles that paraded through the streets of Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and Jabalya camp, beginning at 3 pm on Friday, December 11, and concluding at 5:30 pm. Comrade Nasser Shabat emphasized the importance of the central rally and called upon all to attend, stressing that the Front will remain faithful to the blood of the martyrs and the sacrifice of the prisoners to uphold national constants and protect the resistance. The Organization of the Martyr Ehab Abu Rashad in Jabalya camp later led a parade of cars, trucks and motorcycles through Jabalya camp, calling for the right of return and the resistance, and for all to mark the 42nd anniversary of the Front to uphold these principles.

The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the PFLP also issued a statement, calling for the most extensive participation of the masses of our people at the central Gaza rally at Palestine Stadium in Gaza City. "We stand marking the 42nd anniversary of the founding of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine amid continued siege and aggression and in dire need of unity and to end the division.
We open our forty-third year committed to struggle, to uphold our principles, and hold firmly to our guns against the occupier."
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Founding document of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - December 1967
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