http://www.pflp.ps/english/

Editorial: On the launch of the English website

We are launching this English website today, on our historic anniversary, for a number of reasons. We stand today amidst an ongoing assault on our people, marked by occupation, exile, imprisonment, siege, assassination, destruction and invasion, an assault that has continued for sixty years.

Amid those conditions of oppression, of displacement, of occupation, and against the heavy weaponry of the enemy, our people have stood firm, steadfast, and continued to rise in resistance again and again, never ceasing and remaining fundamentally committed to the liberation of our people and our land.

The 40 years of the history of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine are 40 years in the history of our people and our national liberation movement, in the history of the Arab people's movement for liberation, and in the history of international struggle for justice, freedom and human dignity. These are 40 years of strength, of resistance in the face of all enemies of our people and our cause, of principled commitment to the cause of our people and our nation. They are 40 years that have seen thousands of martyrs fall and thousands more imprisoned, and they are 40 years of resistance and struggle, of organizing our people in Palestine and in exile, in all of our sectors - students, youth, women, workers, farmers - in our march toward victory. They are 40 years of courage and steadfastness in the face of Zionism, imperialism and reaction; 40 years on the road to return, 40 years on the road of resistance, 40 years on the road to liberation.

And so, it is on this anniversary that we launch this website as a vehicle for broader communication on an international level, as an occasion for improving and building upon our international media work, making the voices of our people, in our occupied homeland and in exile, available directly to all forms of English-speaking media, including the independent media - a location where the justice of our cause and the voices of our people may clearly be heard. We also seek to provide information and resources and improve our communication with English-speaking readers, with international progressive forces around the world. The struggle of our people is not one that is limited to the borders of Palestine, nor is it limited to the Arab homeland. On the contrary, it is an international struggle, and a flashpoint of popular resistance to imperialism. It is critical that our links of communication and information be strengthened with all those internationally who stand with us, and all those progressive forces who confront imperialism and oppression alongside us. This website is a conduit for information and also a call for solidarity. Our just cause is supported by millions upon millions around the world, and that support and solidarity is critical. We wish to engage, to communicate, to expand, strengthen and build upon our common commitment to the cause of justice and liberation, and we believe that, while one small, simple step, this website in English will enhance our communication and relationships with media and international progressive forces.

In addition, we seek to utilize this opportunity for direct communication in order to shatter the myths and lies of 'terrorism' inveighed against our resistance and to counter the attempts of Zionism and imperialism to silence and criminalize the voices of our resistance, the voices of our people. The resistance of our people, the resistance in Lebanon, in Iraq, around the world - is a sharp counterpoint to the military machine brought to bear against us, and that resistance exposes the weakness, injustice and fundamental inability of the occupier and the oppressor to break the will of the people. Our resistance stands steadfast and on the front lines of confrontation against the brutal and vicious attacks against our people, which is why the resistance and our people as a whole is constantly subjected to invasion, kidnapping and imprisonment, targeting and assassination, as we stand, struggling and fighting to live. Amidst this targeting, international political support and solidarity for the resistance of people of conscience around the world is critical in order to stand against assassination, invasion, kidnapping and imprisonment. The people of the world can clearly see through the lies that attempt to equate resistance with 'terrorism,' and know that our resistance is legitimate and necessary, a struggle in the cause of freedom and liberation and a force against the terror, oppression and brutality of occupation.

On the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the PFLP, we take the opportunity to assert once again our firm adherence to the Palestinian national consensus, to the achievement and implementation of the right to return, our sovereign independent state with Jerusalem as its capital, and self-determination. Every day, the strength and steadfastness of our people reveal once more the fundamental failure of the Zionist project, a racist project based on dispossession and oppression, dependent for its existence upon an endless war against our Palestinian and Arab people. The racist wall, the calls for "transfer," the failure of Zionist government after Zionist government, their announcement of an expansion in their colonization project reveal nothing more than the collapse of an unviable racist enterprise attempting to maintain itself through billions of U.S. dollars in weaponry, yet constantly aware of its own impending and inevitable defeat - and the inevitable victory of our people. We look forward on the road of liberation to a free, democratic and secular Palestine, without Zionism, occupation, imperialism, colonialism, racism, sexism and oppression, based on the principles of freedom, equality and socialism.

This anniversary also coincides with the anniversary of the passage of UN Resolution 194 on December 11, 1948, affirming the right of the Palestinian people to return to their homes and lands. For 59 years now, this resolution has been continually violated and the right to return of millions of Palestinians in exile, in the West Bank and Gaza, throughout the Arab homeland, and around the world, has been denied. Every year, the UN has reaffirmed Resolution 194, yet each anniversary of its passage comes both as a bitter example of the impunity of the occupier and as a call to action to our people and all of our allies and supporters, to demand the immediate implementation of the right to return.

This year also marks the sixtieth anniversary of Al-Nakba, 60 years of the occupation of our homeland and 60 years of exile. On this momentous anniversary, we call upon all supporters of our people and our cause, all people of conscience, to join with our people in our homeland and in exile around the world, in marking this anniversary not as a mere occasion for the remembrance of suffering but instead as a clarion call, a milestone in the history of our cause. We call upon all to take up the sixtieth anniversary of Al-Nakba, in events, rallies, demonstrations, publications and, most centrally, in organizing and in supporting the numerous blossoming initiatives of our Palestinian people in our homeland and in exile, to organize, reclaim and reassert our national identity and national cause, raising our voices together in one voice to rebuild and strengthen our national movement and mobilize our communities for full participation. This sixtieth anniversary is a time when our people are asserting their narrative and raising their voices and their hands to build this movement. Initiatives throughout the diaspora - meetings and conferences in Europe, in North America, in our Arab homeland - and new organizing among youth, students and many sectors throughout our community - offer a true and realizable potential for our people to make this anniversary an indelible mark in our history. On the 60th anniversary of our dispossession and occupation, let this be a year of the reclamation of our cause and the rebuilding of our national movement. Our people must, can, and will build our Palestine Liberation Organization as our sole legitimate representative, holding fast to our national commitments and surging forward to mobilize, unite and build in our communities. All people who support justice, who stand beside us, should take up this anniversary as a year of action towards liberation and return, and join us in together declaring this milestone anniversary.

This is also a time when over 11,000 Palestinians are abducted, held prisoner by the occupying enemy. Political imprisonment has been a weapon used against our people, our sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers - a constant threat of violent abduction. And despite the difficulties and hardships of their surroundings, our prisoners stand strong, looking towards freedom not only for themselves but for our people as a whole. The voices of the world are necessary to be heard, loudly and clearly, demanding freedom for all of our Palestinian and Arab political prisoners, freedom for our prisoners of freedom. Among these 11,000 prisoners is our General Secretary Ahmad Sa'adat, kidnapped with his comrades from Jericho Prison in a brutal display of military might, yet refusing to recognize the illegitimate occupation courts and standing alongside his fellow prisoners as an inspiration and a beacon of strength, integrity and justice amidst institutionalized degradation and injustice. Join us in campaigning for the release of Ahmad Sa'adat and all of the prisoners of our people and our cause.

We thank all of our friends and supporters for their many years of firm support and solidarity. We welcome you to this website, to communication that breaks through the walls of lies and injustice, and to building international solidarity and support for our people.

On this 40th anniversary, we vow to continue our struggle on the path of return, struggle on the path of liberation of Palestine!

Glory to the martyrs and freedom to the prisoners!

Victory to the resistance in Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and everywhere!