A L - F A T A H The National Liberation Movement

PRESS RELEASE N° 1

January 1968 The following press release is issued by the . Palestine National Liberation Movement, AL - FA- TAH, in order to clarify its stand vis-a-vis the Israeli occupation forces and enlighten world public opinion as to the present dimensions of its struggle for its liberation of Palestine.

• The Palestine Revolutionary Liberation Move- ment (Al-), in this first general international communique to the world press, wishes to clarify certain misunderstandings concerning its operations -.. and the nature of the struggle now being waged by .3 the Arab Palestinian people against the Israeli in- vador. sation has failed to resolve their problem. Moreover, • The Palestine problem is essentially the problem its many resolutions stating that refugees should be of an entire people, the Arab majority of Palestine, allowed to return to their country or receive com- uprooted and expelled from their homeland in order pensation were never implemented. All this time, to permit the establishment of . As a result, Israel continued to elaborate and perfect its expan- before the June aggression, nearly a million and a sionist plans. These were expressed in the 1956 Tri- half Arab were being forced to live as partie aggression when Israel occupied Sinai and the refugees in numerous camps throughout the Arab for four months in defiance of the U.N.'s World, surviving on United Nations subsistance ra- admonition to withdraw. They were revealed beyond tions. The remaining 300,000 inside Israel have been a doubt once again after the June aggression when grossly discriminated against by that regime and Israel occupied and boasted of its unlawful annexa- denied jobs and educational opportunities and every tion of the Western Bank of the Jordan River, the human right. For two decades Israel has denied the Gaza Strip, the southern portion of and the Arab refugees' continual requests to return to their Holy city of Jerusalem in defiance of all international land. law and in complete contempt of the Charter of the United Nations, the Geneva Conventions and the • At first the expelled, suffering Palestinian people Declaration of Human Rights. Today the United looked to the United Nations to resolve their tra- Nations has revealed its inability to impose a just gedy. However in 20 years this international organi- solution to the Palestinian tragedy, by failing to — 4 — — 5 — reach an agreement concerning the withdrawal of people over the years gave rise to a new, truly po- the aggressor from the occupied territories. pular dynamic Palestinian liberation movement ® It must be admitted that over the years several which expressed the people's revolt against the Arab leaders have exploited the Palestine problem Israeli invader. Al Fatah (the Palestine National for their own benefit. Moreover the successive Arab Liberation Movement) which was forced to operate Summit Conferences have failed to give the Pales- clandestinely in the occupied land, began in 1965 to tinian people their due support. Similarly, it must carry out overt guerilla operations sabotaging be acknowledged that the PLO (Palestine Liberation Israeli military and strategic installations in order Organization) headed by Ahmed Shukairy failed to to weaken and unnerve the oppressor who was threa- liberate Palestine. Although progressive Palestinian tening our people's very existence as a nation as well elements genuinely wanted the latter organisation to as menacing the entire Arab World. Until the June represent the Palestinian people, certain reactionary 1967 aggression, these operations — which received forces tried to use it to dominate the Palestinians. immediately the enthusiastic support of the Pales- Today the PLO, this pseudo-liberation organisation, tinian Arabs throughout the Arab World — had to is no longer playing any significant role in the libera- be waged from outside. However, the Six-Day War tion of Palestine. The reason being that it did not and the catastrophic effects it had on the entire spring from the masses themselves but was artifi- Palestinian population inside and outside Israel cially imposed from above. brought about new conditions in their struggle to • The suffering and frustration of the Palestinian liberate their homeland. Ironically enough, due to the

— 6 — new borders which Israel now claims for itself, the means at their disposal : strikes, non-cooperation, Palestinians found themselves confronting a common boycotts of Israeli goods, denunciation of repressive Zionist enemy entirely within the territorial boun- measures and annexations, etc. Under Al-Fatah's daries of former Palestine. Moreover, the fascist- coordination, political and religious personalities have type, repression which Israel began to implement refused to implement the enemy's decrees, teachers against the Arab inhabitants after the cease-fire en- are refusing to reopen the schools and school-children gendered a resistance movement similar to that in are staying away from classes so long as their home- Vietnam. This popular rebellion against repression land is dominated by this hostile power. is being admitted by Israel. Its proportions and con- • During this post-aggression period, Al-Fatah's crete manifestiations can no longer be ignored or armed wing, Al-Assifa, has also been intensifying its denied by Israeli spoksmen. military and sabotage operations against Israeli • Immediately after the aggression, Al-Fatah be- installations including military camps and stores, gan clandestinely organising the Arab people in the electric power plants and railways, in order to un- newly occupied as well as formerly occupied terri- dermine the nemy's economy and weaken its ability tories, and encouraged them to have confidence in to dominate our people. Israel's industrial plants, their own ability to liberate their homeland. Led by printing-presses, administrative centres and para- their vanguard, the Palestine National Liberation military kibbutzim now being implanted in the newly- Movement (Al-Fatah), they are now resisting a vast- occupied zones are also being attacked by Al-Fatah's ly superior militarily enemy in their midst by every commandos causing great damage and casualities and increasing tension in Israel. Our people have this land alongside Jewish minority uninterreptedly realized that no other course is open to them if they for 4,000 years are not to live in slavery. • Al-Fatah, the Palestine National Liberation Mo- « The occupation of all Palestine by Israel made vement, wishes to point out, however, that its ope- possible one of Al-Fatah's most important long-range rations — which today enjoy the support of the objectives — the transference of all its military bases entire Palestinian people, — are in no way aimed into the occupied homeland. This transference has at the Jewish people as such with whom they lived now been completed. From these many well-hidden, in harmony in the past for so many centuries. Nor well-stocked bases, Palestinian commandos — most does it intend to «push them into the sea». This of them dedicated peasants and students — are now resistance and the liberation movement Al-Fatah is operation operating dozens of times daily throughout coordinating is aimed solely at the Zionist-military- the old and newly occupied areas. No part of Israel, fascist regime which has usurped our homeland and no Israeli installation, no Israeli target is out of expelled and repressed our two million people, con- their reach and that regime may henceforth expect demning them to a life of destitution and misery. the steadily increasing disruption of its colonialist • Al-Fatah also wishes to correct once and for all existence in the weeks and months to come. This the Zionist insinuation that this «terrorist* move- undermining of the Israeli Zionist existence will con- ment is inspired and directed from outside by such tinue until Palestine has been restored to its rightful countries as Syria, Jordan and Algeria. Under the owners, the Palestine Arabs, who have lived on conditions existing in the Middle East today, no such

10 11 | taneous people's armed upsurge in defence of their foreign-imposed «movement» could long survive for | dignity and their usurped rights. The movement Al- it would soon be rejected by the people. On the other I Fatah is leading is the organised expression of this hand, the Palestinian people's liberation movement ; people's liberation struggle whose counterparts are has arisen out of their desperate frustration and deep to be found throughout the world, wherever fascist aspirations for liberty, justice and dignity in their land imperialist aggression is being waged in Viet- own self-administered historical homeland. To this Inam, South Africa, Angola, Bolivia or elsewhere. In it owes its strength. occupied Palestine as in these countries the humble, • The world should recall that those who have ordinary subjugated people are taking up arms in sufferred most of all from the Israeli existence for self-defence and for the eventual liberation of their the last two decades are the Palestinian people. And homeland. the world should note that those who are today tak- • Today, the Arab people of Palestine have decided ing up arms to engage wholeheartedly, unitedly and feo take their destiny into their own hands. Today, courageously in combating the brutal Israeli oppres- with arms and courage they are restoring their own sor in guerilla warfare, under the leadership of Al- lost dignity. Tomorrow, following a long tenacious Fatah, are the Palestinian people. Their reaction to struggle at the cost of many martyrs, — a struggle the napalm bombings, strafmgs, evictions, summary which will undoubtedly have the support of the en- executions, plundering, brutality, imprisonment, des- tire Arab liberation movement and the progressive acration violations and countless other crimes of peoples of the world — they will restore their beloved fascist Israel in recent months has been this spon- — 13 — — 12 — homeland, Palestine. Al-Fatah and the entire Pales- tinian people wholely believe in their just cause and their ultimate victory. And they also know that on the day the of Palestine is hoisted over their freed, democratic, peaceful land, a new era will begin in which the will again live in har- mony, side by side with the original owners of the land, the Arab Palestinians.