PFLP: It is time to bury the Oslo accords and the path of negotiations once and for all

Tuesday 23 December 2014

PFLP: It is time to bury the Oslo accords and the path of negotiations once and for all

It is time to bury the Oslo Accords and all that came with them and end the futile negotiations once and for all, said Comrade Zaher al-Shishtari, a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, emphasizing that the PFLP will work in the coming days to besiege the whole approach of Oslo through popular and national pressure in coordination with all forces who stand against the route of Oslo and negotiations.

In an interview with Al-Quds TV, Shishtari emphasized the need to end the division in reality not just in words and avoid the approach of bilateral and exclusionary quotas and instead act to serve the people. He spoke about the need to rebuild the PLO on the basis of struggle and inclusion as has been agreed on many occasions in the past, and to end security coordination and the Paris protocol on economy that has devastated the Palestinian national economy.

Shishtari reaffirmed the Front’s complete rejection of any return to negotiations that have reaped nothing for the Palestinian people but destruction and devastating, emphasizing that the alternative is Palestinian national dialogue and building a political movement to the United Nations to implement the existing resolutions on Palestine, not to re-negotiate those rights and resolutions, alongside the escalation of the resistance in all forms.

Shishtari also emphasized the need to support our steadfast people in Jerusalem and their confrontation of the occupation through an escalating popular uprising, and the need to provide a national space to support uprising and intifada throughout Palestine. He also emphasized the need to respond to the killing of the struggler Ziad Abu Ein by confronting the occupier, not by returning to the devastating and futile negotiations.

Further, the Front reiterated its rejection of the draft resolution before the United Nations, noting that the draft resolution does not reach the minimum points of a Palestinian national program. The Front also noted the fact that Palestinian participation in the development of the draft, with the potential to deeply impact the future of the Palestinian people’s rights and struggle, was exclusive and monopolized, with no participation from the PLO, its Executive Comittee, and the Palestinian parties and factions. The draft resolution is not a mere tactical issue but contains within it explicit and unambiguous formulations that pose real risks to all of the rights of the Palestinian people.

The resolution appears to be calculated to appease the interests of international actors who see no solution to the struggle in Palestine except the denial of Palestinian rights to return and self-determination and in Palestinian responsibility for Israeli security demands. It is clear that the draft resolution does not even mandate a sovereign, independent Palestinian state over the lands of Palestine occupied in 1967. It also threatens once more to impose bilateral negotiations, this time with the imprimatur of international legitimacy.

Once again, the Front noted that the “solution” put forward in the draft is no solution at all, does not resolve the conflict, and that there is no “fair settlement” but through the achievement of all of the rights of the Palestinian people, and that in particular, the right of return of Palestinian refugees must be protected, honored and implemented, not undermined as it is in the draft text. The Palestinian refugees’ rights are not a matter for bartering and bargaining in the halls of international institutions.

The right of the Palestinian people to establish independence and full sovereignty over the lands occupied in 1967 does not bind the Palestinian people to the so-called “two state solution,” nor to any recognition or acceptance of the occupation state that is entirely based on the dispossession of the Palestinian people and the colonization of Palestinian land. The Front emphasized that Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine and rejects the resolution’s framework of a “capital of two states,” which once again places Jerusalem and its Palestinian people at risk while the occupation state is working to ethnically cleanse the city.

This resolution must be rejected in its entirety by all Palestinian forces and the Executive Committee of the PLO and the national and Islamic forces must assume their responsibility to reject this resolution and instead affirm the explicit clear texts that maintain the rights of our people and cut the road before any such attempts to undermine the rights of our people.