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PLO Central Council, Statement on Sadat's Visit to Israel

PLO Central Council

Statement on Sadat's Visit to Israel

(Excerpts)

Damascus, November 30, 1977

Sadat's determination to pursue his policy of capitulation to the terms set by the enemy and American imperialism deals the greatest blow to the Palestinian cause since it has existed. For this policy places all its options in the hands of American imperialism and the Zionist enemy, its base and principal instrument in the Middle East. Sadat's visit also gives the Zionist entity a breathing space before starting on the implementation of a new stage in its plans aimed at obtaining complete control of Arab land, and exploiting Arab resources, thus turning the Arab area into one that is politically and economically dependent on the enemy and the forces of imperialism, headed by the US, which supports and protects the enemy. The visit also defies the UN resolutions on the Palestine question, which affirm the right of the Palestinian Arab people to return, to self-determination and to build their independent state in their land under the leadership of the PLO, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. In the light of this analysis of Sadat’s capitulationist visit, the Central Council affirms the following:

1. On the basis of its Charter and in the light of its commitment to the resolutions of its National Councils and to the Political Declaration issued by the thirteenth session of the National Council, the PLO firmly and resolutely condemns Sadat's visit to our occupied homeland and declares its determination to resist Sadat's move and all subsequent measures, including the Cairo meeting called by Sadat, which the PLO rejects in both form and content.

2. The Palestinian Central Council is proud to salute the attitude of all the mass organizations and nationalist bodies of our people in the occupied homeland to Sadat's visit, regarding this intrepid stand as proof of our masses’ rejection of this visit and of their determination to confront its consequences. The Council calls on the masses to strike with an iron fist at any attempt to bypass the PLO.

3. The Central Council is proud to salute the attitude of our Arab masses in all the Arab countries which reject Sadat's capitulationist visit. It also salutes the attitude of the nationalist and progressive Arab regimes that have rejected and opposed the visit, and calls on the other Arab countries to adopt an unambiguous attitude to the visit and its consequences, regarding this as a national duty imposed by the responsibilities of the present stage. The Council also condemns the attitude of those few Arab leaders who have been induced by American imperialism to support Sadat in his capitulationist policy.

4. The Central Council is particularly proud of the high-principled nationalist stand of the nationalist and progressive forces and the masses in Egypt, seeing this courageous attitude as an affirmation by the people of Egypt and their nationalist and progressive forces of their commitment to meet their national responsibilities and to pursue the goals of the Arab national liberation movement in resisting occupation and the Zionist invasion of Arab territory, and confronting those who have deviated from the will of the Egyptian people and the Arab nation. It also sees this attitude as proof of the determination of the great people of Egypt and their gallant army to reject the plans to withdraw Egypt from the sphere of the conflict and from its historic role in the Arab struggle for liberation whose banner was raised so high by the late Arab leader Gamal Abdel Nasser.

5. In calling on the Arab nation at the official and popular levels to ensure that resistance to the conspiracy be commensurate with its dangers, the Central Council stresses the need for the nationalist forces and the masses to support the PLO in its patriotic stand and to resist the American-Israeli solution whose aims have been disclosed by the Palestinian-Syrian joint communiqué. The Council believes that the cohesion of nationalist and progressive forces are the true measure of the seriousness of the confrontation and of the Arab nation's ability to confront this dangerous stage.

6. The Council believes that the strengthening of the strategic links between the PLO and Syria and the cohesion of all nationalist Arab forces and regimes with them constitute the central link in the steadfastness of the Arab nation in the face of the new conspiracy, in resistance to it and in the frustration of its consequences. The Council calls on all the Arab countries to provide the Front for Confrontation and Steadfastness with the support it needs to perform its duty of defending Arab territory and Arab rights.

7. The Central Council calls for effective action to consolidate and develop all kinds of cooperation and coordination between the nationalist Arab forces and countries and the socialist countries, headed by the friendly USSR.

8. The Central Council calls for increased efforts to induce the Islamic and African countries and the non-aligned countries to stand up to Sadat's policy which opens the door to the forces of imperialism and Zionism in our area, in Africa, and in the countries of the Third World.

 

Source: Journal of Palestine Studies, vol. vii, no 3, Spring 1978.