PLO Statement on the First Intifada
(April 1988)
O masses of our great people, our people. through their
continuous struggle and their blessed revolutionary uprising that is
entering its 5th month, have, scored additional achievements and victories.
This has led to a deepening of the crisis of the Zionist occupation and its protectors in Washington. The enter world is now
certain that this great people are determined to continue the way of
jihad and struggle until, with the help of God. they achieve full victory
and establish an independent Palestinian state on our sacred national
soil.
The glorious Land Day on which a total strike was
observed throughout our occupied homeland, has proven that the solid
and firm unity of our nation, the cohesion and solidarity of our ranks,
and the firm insistence on the singleness of representation [without
al-tamthil] are the strongest factors in confronting all Zionist-U.S.
plots and all forms of oppression, slaughter, and destruction perpetrated
by the Zionist occupation troops and the herds of the armed fascist
settlers. Land Day was a day of cohesion and national solidarity among
all the masses of our Palestinian people in the steadfast Galilee, the
Triangle, and the Negev and in a position of clash and struggle in Lebanon
and its south and in all areas of the diaspora.
It was another day of glory and confrontation in the
steadfast West Bank and Gaza against all methods of fascist terrorism
invented by Israel's rulers and generals including the war of starvation,
the economic and media blockade, the perpetration of crimes and acts
of slaughter against women, children, and defenseless citizens, and
the demolishing of houses and communal arrests. Our heroic and faithful
people have shown that these crimes can never weaken their escalating
resistance or extinguish the flame of the uprising which is shaking
the earth under the feet of the occupants and invaders.
The PLO Executive Committee, having discussed in detail
all developments, tasks, and ways to escalate and develop the struggle
of our people and their great uprising, stresses the following:
l. Extending a salutation of pride and appreciation
to the struggling masses of the Palestinian people in the Galilee. the
Triangle, and the Negev for their great actions on Land Day and throughout
all of the days of the blessed uprising as they firmly and faithfully
joined the masses of the West Bank and Gaza and their escalating continuous
revolution which constitute,, through our nation inside and outside
the occupied homeland. this unified innovative revolutionary fabric.
The Executive Committee calls for further consolidation, entrenchment,
and adherence to national unity and to further cohesion of the ranks
of our peoples masses--children and women, cadres, heros and revolutionaries
--on the path of liberation return, and victory.
2. Emphasizing great appreciation for the role of
the democratic forces which support the mammoth uprising of our people
and firmly condemn the Nazi terrorism of Israel's rulers against our
uprising masses who demand freedom and independence, the PLO Executive
Committee calls for deepening and developing this role in all fields---political
and media-to break the blockade that the Israeli rulers impose with
the aim of concealing their barbaric crimes from the eyes of the world.
3. The PLO Executive Committee expresses, in the name
of our entire people in all locations, the highest pride in the legendary
steadfastness embodied by the blessed popular uprising through its daily
epics in all sites. Every village. camp, neighborhood, and city in our
occupied territory has provided its share of martyrdom, heroism, and
sacrifice. They stood as a strong barrier before the enemy forces at
a time when our masses in Lebanon and its south continue to pay the
price of the confrontation and the clashes with more martyrs and sacrifices.
All of our people proved that the banner of jihad will continue to fly
high [words indistinct] with our blood, the souls of our martyrs, our
captives, wounded, and detainees until the establishment of our independent
state and the liberation of the precious soil of our homeland from the
aggression and occupation of the Zionists.
4. The PLO Executive Committee emphasizes the need
to continue to develop all forms of revolutionary cohesion, empathy,
and support by the groupings of our Palestinian people outside the homeland
for the blessed popular uprising and harness all struggle, political,
media, and material capabilities and resources for that purpose on the
Palestinian, Arab, and international levels.
5. The PLO Executive Committee emphasizes the need
to adopt all measures and means to develop all forms of mass organization
and action to maintain and escalate the uprising and to develop the
role of the popular national committees in all positions under the banner
of the PLO, the Unified National Command of the Uprising, until the
uprising achieves its objectives of shattering the fascist racist terrorism
inflicted upon the masses of our people and eliminating the abhorrent
Zionist occupation and until the inalienable national rights of our
struggling and persevering people are achieved.
6. The PLO Executive Committee emphasizes the stand
on which our people are unanimous in confronting the serious U.S. plans:
that a just and comprehensive solution must be based on the achievement
of the national rights of our people and their right to national independence
under the leadership of the PLO, their sole and legitimate representative.
The PLO reaffirms its complete rejection of all liquidatory
plans and all forms of autonomy and the sharing of roles, whatever their
color and under whatever name. The PLO believes that the appropriate
framework for a just solution is a U.N-sponsored international conference
with effectnc powers attended by the five permanent members of the Security
Council and all the parties to the conflict in the region including
the PLO. on an equal tooting wish the other parties and on the basis
of international legality and UN resolutions on the Palestine question
and the Middle East.
We are confident that U.S. imperialism and its ally
the Zionist enemy, which is squatting on our land and sanctities. will
not he able to bring our people to their knees or deprive them of their
legitimate right to selfdetermination. Our people will wrest their inalienable
national rights through blood and enormous sacrifices. Foremost among
these rights are their right to repatriation, to self-determination,
and to establish a free and independent state with Jerusalem as its
capital.
7. The PLO Executive Committee, while it salutes the
masses of our Arab nation, all of its forces, parties, institutions,
and national bodies for their sincere stands in support of our people
and their struggle, calls on the Arab masses to develop their support
for our people's uprising and to stand firmly in opposing liquidatory
U.S.-Israeli plans which they are trying to impose on our Arab nation
and the entire region. The PLO Executive Committee appeals with confidence
and faith to the entire Arab nation to achieve effective Arab solidarity
based on implementing the resolutions that reject separate solutions
and deals. The PLO Executive Committee calls for the consolidation of
the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people on the basis
of Arab commitment and Arab resolutions.
8. The PLO Executive Committee affirms its great appreciation
for the extensive solidarity with our people's valiant and just struggle
which has embarrassed and isolated the rulers of Israel and exposed
official U.S. collusion with the crimes of the racist Zionists and their
savage terrorism against our people, children, and women.
In this regard the PLO Executive Committee salutes
all friends and honorable people in the world who support our people
and just cause, particularly in the African, nonaligned, and Muslim
states as well as the socialist states, led by the Soviet Union and
the PRC, and the friendly European countries.
9. In accordance with its responsibilities, the PLO
Executive Committee will continue its efforts through all means, forms,
and capabilities to maintain the continuity of our revolutionary march
and to escalate our people's valiant uprising. The PLO Executive Committee
calls upon international and friendly bodies to provide more support
and backing for our struggling masses and our just cause, particularly
in confronting the organized and official war of terrorism and the crimes
perpetrated against our people by the fascist and racist Zionist occupation
authorities.
0 masses of our proud people, thanks to your enormous
sacrifice, the day of victory is approaching. With your great unity
we face the enemy.
Sources: Walter Laqueur and Barry Rubin, ed, The
Israel-Arab Reader, (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2001) |