Sections
About
Back
Document

Palestine National Council, 5th Session: Political Statement

Palestin­e National Council

Fifth Session

Political Statement

Cairo, 4 February 1969

Our Valiant Palestinian People,

This session of the Palestine National Council was convened at a crucial moment. The Palestinian armed resistance movement and popular resistance throughout Palestine have succeeded in bringing the Palestinian people back into the limelight of world events and history and in forcing recognition for the existence of a Palestinian people with a right to the entirety of its homeland. Now that the Palestinian resistance movement and Palestinian popular resistance have succeeded in defeating the Zionist-imperialist conspiracy to eradicate the Palestinian identity and do away with the Palestinian people, the Palestinian cause is once again menaced with the threat of liquidation (which would be to the interest of Zionism and imperialism) by means of the 22 November, 1967 Security Council resolution as well as all the other peaceful solutions or liquidation schemes, including the Soviet proposal for drawing up an agenda for the imple­mentation of the Security Council resolution.

On behalf of the Palestinian revolution and what it stands for and on behalf of the aspirations of the Palestinian people and with the full force of its determination to hold fast to its sacred right to the entirety of its homeland, Palestine, the Palestine National Council hereby affirms its categorical rejection of any of the policies of the Western powers or of the United Nations or any intervention on their part which would impair the right of the Palestinian people to its homeland and its right to direct its own affairs. It rejects tutelage or subservience in any shape or form as it rejects Arab intervention in Palestinian affairs or in the rising Palestinian resistance movement, whether at the official level or through the United Nations.

In accordance with these principles, the Palestinian Arab people vehemently rejects all projects or resolutions which would entail the liquidation of the Palestinian cause, including the 22 November, 1967 Security Council resolution, the Soviet proposal or any other such projects. The objective of the Palestinian people behind the bitter struggle in which it is engaged for the liberation of and the return to its land is to set up a free and democratic society in Palestine for all Palestinians, including Muslims, Christians and Jews, and to liberate Palestine and its people from the domination of international Zionism in so far as the .latter is a reactionary and racialist religious movement with a fascistic basis that is integrally affiliated with and serves the interests of world imperialism. Furthermore, Zionism mars interhuman relationships and gains enmity and hatred for the Jews in as much as it provokes anti-Semitism wherever the Jews may be found throughout the world for it encourages dual national loyalties and stands in the way of the integration of the Jews into the societies in which they live and prevents the development of true ties of loyalty to their countries of origin.

The Palestine National Council salutes all the fighters in the rank and file of the resistance movement, it salutes all the steadfast and struggling Arab masses throughout occupied Palestine, it salutes all Arab armies that are stationed along the front which are in accord with commando action and it salutes the Arab masses throughout the Arab homeland for the splendid fashion in which they have rallied around the resistance movement, particularly the Jordanian and Lebanese Arab masses which are putting up with constant Zionist raids patiently and in the spirit of self-sacrifice. The National Council wishes to stress the fact that the road of resistance and liberation is long and arduous, it demands blood and tears and the highest examples of self-sacrifice.

We have been forced to follow that road thanks to the Zionist movement which is a form of settling colonialism and which is in collusion with the imperialist nations, particularly the United States, for there is. no other way to repell the Zionist-imperialist invasion of the Arab homeland, which has established a bridgehead in Palestine. Moreover, in order for the Arab nation to develop, progress and flourish, in order for it to awaken from its slumbers and develop its resources, it follows that the Zionist-imperialist

invasion must be repulsed and the whole of Palestine liberated, for the two are fundamentally interdependent. If this is not done, then both the lands and the people of the Arab nation will remain divided and the Arab countries will be transformed into a permanent sphere of influence for Zionism and imperialism. The National Council therefore calls on the Arab masses and the Palestinian masses in particular to mobilize all their resources and to back the Palestinian armed resistance with all their strength in view of the fact that the Palestine liberation movement is an integral part of the overall Arab revolution.

As a basic step toward national unity, the Palestine National Council calls on all Palestinians and the working force among the Palestinian people to consolidate national unity, for this will increase and boost the potential of the resistance movement. The National Counicl feels that it must stress the following unconditional truth: that arms in the hands of our fighters are meant to be used against one and only one target, i.e., the Zionist enemy, seeing as the fundamental conflict at this stage is with the Zionist enemy and with imperialism; all other conflicts of a domestic nature must cease, for these are no more than secondary in importance.

In keeping with the Palestinian National Charter, as amended during the July, 1968 session of the Palestine National Council, and in keeping with its new, revolutionary formulation, the Palestine Liberation Organization calls on the Palestinian masses to rally around it in an organized fashion and in full force and to ostracize that deviationist and defeatist group of people who advocate the liquidation of our cause and the establishment of a counterfeit Palestinian entity that would be the stooge of Zionism and imperialism. During its current session, the Councils passed the necessary resolutions and formulated an appropriate plan for escalating the activities of the resistance. The priority goes to the unification of commando action, setting up a single organ for the collection of contributions, strengthening the Palestine Liberation Army, increasing its combat potential and further coordinating its activities with the revolution and developing that revolution into a popular war of liberation.

In view of the fact that the implementation of this revolutionary plan will require adequate financing, the Palestine National Council calls on the Arab and particularly the Palestinian masses to step up their financial contributions and it calls on the Arab countries to live up to their full financial commitments to the Palestine Liberation Organization. The National Council furthermore calls on the Arab countries to facilitate work opportunities, visas and the ability of their Palestinian residents to move about freely, with a view to the furtherance of their potential to support the Palestinian revolution in all respects, as mentioned above.

The Palestine National Council, which views the Palestine Liberation movement as part and parcel of the world liberation movement, sends its best wishes to all liberated and honourable individuals in the world who support the right of the Palestinian people to their homeland and calls on all the forces of goodness and progress in the world to increase their support for the Palestinian people.

 

Source: International Documents on Palestine, 1969. Beirut: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1972, pp. 589-590.