Leila Khaled on Suicide Bombing as a tactic of the Resistance

With the rise of Political Islam the tactic of suicide bombing became widely employed, especially during the second intifada. What is the PFLP leadership’s position on suicide bombing as a tactic of the resistance movement?

We don’t see that it’s a way of facing occupation. We don’t see it as a strategic action or a strategic policy. But the question that should be asked before this question is, why do those Islamic factions use such a tactic? Those who went to different places to explode themselves, Israel minimises the distance between life and death to the extent that they didn’t see a difference between death and life, although we are the ones to defend the lives of people and not have the idea or the education of death. The Islamic groups use this to face the Israelis among the civilians which Israel used to get “Those Palestinians are terrorists!”

Why, we asked the question, who planted terror in our country? Isn’t it occupation? It is.

But at the same time we have advised our brothers in Hamas and Al Jihad that using this, it’s a controversial thing so they have stopped it afterwards. Because when we say that Israel target civilians in the West Bank and the Gaza strip whether by assassinating or by bombarding, like what happened in Jenin in 2002 and in Gaza last year, we have to (inaudible) we must protect lives of civilians and the Israelis who are not. That’s why you haven’t seen any of these actions. But when I said that we want to ask the question, why those people who are young who also dream of a good future and a bright future go and explode themselves? Because they didn’t find any other means. And the ideology that they are going to paradise is also one of the factors that provoked them to do it but now it has stopped and I think they realised that such action is not for the interests of the struggle.

Founding Document of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

Founding document of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - December 1967

People of the Arab nation....
People of Palestine...

Fifty years ago, the masses of our people faced a continuing series of assaults by Zionism and colonialism upon the people of this nation, and our right right to liberty and life. Fifty years later and the global forces of Zionism and imperialism continue concocting plots, attacks and wars in order to establish the idea of an entity - the State of Israel. On each day of this historic era, the masses of people are struggling against each of these schemes. We have seen throughout the years in the life of our Palestinian people, a continuation of this struggle through upheavals and uprisings, crystallizing in the last period in commando work practiced by the vanguards of the people on the ground with full refusal of submission, surrender and compromise, and other serious forms and methods of political action. This advance has also represented the determination of the masses of the Palestinian people to take the initiative to pave a road to full emancipation, which is simultaneously the responsibility of the entire Arab masses.

Our struggling people..

The military defeat suffered by the Arab armies served as the beginning of a new phase of work in which the revolutionary masses must take their responsible leadership role in confronting the forces and weapons of imperialism and Zionism, which history has proved is the most effective weapon to crush all forms of colonial aggression and to give the initiative to the popular masses to formulate the future according to their will and interests. The only weapon left to the masses in order to restore history and progress and truly defeat enemies and potential enemies in the long run is revolutionary violence in confronting Zionist violence and reaction. There is no other option in front of the masses of the Arab nation - they face a fierce enemy who wants them to surrender unconditionally. The hopes and anticipation of the Arab masses have reached a qualitatively new level from before the fifth of June; they are aware of the nature of the stage and the objective conditions have matured to the extent that allows us to raise the slogan of the popular armed struggle and put it into practice until victory in a long and protracted battle, a victory that must be achieved through the will and aspirations of the masses.

The entire masses of our Palestinian people live today for the first time since the catastrophe of 1948 on a completely occupied Palestinian territory, confronting a rapacious enemy face to face, and we now must take up this challenge to its conclusion or we must accept or surrender to the ambitions of the enemy and the daily humiliation of our people and absorbed fortunes of our lives. The displacement and dispersion of the last twenty years have created a circumstance in which we must confront the Zionist invaders; the fate of our people and our cause and every human being in Palestine relies upon our Palestinian determination to fight the invaders in order to preserve our dignity, and our lands and our rights.

Palestinian people displaced in the camps of displacement and isolation ...
Tillers of our inflamed land...
Oh poor, steadfast in our cities and villages, in the camps of misery...

Through your valor and resistance in confronting the enemy, one slogan is paramount and repeated daily - only armed resistance, and there is no life for us on our occupied land except the life of popular armed struggle in the service of our objectives and the daily battle. The armed resistance is the only effective method that must be used by the popular masses in dealing with the Zionist enemy and all of its interests and its presence, the masses are the authority, the guide, and the resistance leadership from which victory will be achieved in the end. It is necessary to recruit the popular masses and mobilize them as active participants and leaders, something that can only be achieved through systematic organization addressing the armed struggle of the forces of the masses, creating a heightened awareness of the full dimensions of the battle and the stages, and continuous recruitment of manpower for the armed organization, building he revolutionary leadership in order to become more able to exercise resistance and continue despite all the difficulties and obstacles. Therefore, in order to unite the forces and energies of the Palestinian masses in the occupied land, we have held a full meeting between the following Palestinian organizations: The Heroes of the Return, the Palestinian Liberation Front squads (Organization of martyr Abdul Latif Shrour - Organization of the martyr Qassam - Organization of the martyr Abdul-Qader Al-Husseini), the National Front for the Liberation of Palestine (Youth Organization for Vengeance), and several other Palestinian groups on the homeland. These organizations have agreed among themselves to unite under the banner of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, achieving a fateful unity among these forces, realizing that the nature and dimensions of the battle and the hostile forces requires us to cluster all efforts and revolutionary ranks for our long and bitter struggle against our enemies.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, iniiated and directed by a core group of revolutionaries, is at the same time open to all forces and Palestinian groups, to meet in a broad national revolutionary front in order to achieve a national unity established between all factions engaged in armed struggle. The unity of all the freedom fighters is real demand for our people, as the battle is long and cruel and rupture is intolerable in the ranks of the national movement, and therefore the Popular Front is dedicated entirely to this requirement, because it has formed on this basis. Today our masses are marching through the doors of armed struggle and we believe that the masses' leadership in the armed struggle, bearing its standard as the only guarantee for the steadfastness of this struggle and its escalation up to the level of the Palestinian revolution, with all of its dimensions and content.

Our fighting people...

The only language that the enemy understands is the language of revolutionary violence. The armed struggle is the main curriculum for our protracted conflict that we are waging against occupation and against attempts to liquidate our struggle through attempts at settlement, which have begun again in some areas of the Arab homeland and impose a totally unacceptable occupation upon some parts of our Arab land. We are fighting against the enemy in every land where the feet of his soldiers march. This is our historical approach - where we are going until we reach the stage where we open a wider front against the enemy and turn our land into a burning hell for the invaders. The crossfire of armed struggle is not known to have limits and the armed resistance should not be confined to the militants, but also embrace all parts and sectors of the Palestinian resistance against the enemy at every level, dealing with the enemy militarily, but also a total boycott of all economic, civil and political institutions of the enemy and a rejection of all ties.

The slogan of our masses must be resistance until victory, rooted in the heart with our feet planted on the ground in deep commitment to our land. Today, the Popular Front is hailing our masses with this call. This is the appeal. We must repeat it every day, through every breakthrough bullet and the fall of each martyr, that the land of Palestine today belongs to all the masses. Every area of our land belongs to our masses who have defended it against the presence of the usurper, every piece of land, every rock and stone, our masses will not abandon one inch of them because they belong to the legions of the poor and hungry and displaced persons. In order to liberate this land, and for our steadfast people, our fighters today fall with their heads lifted. The masses - Oh sons of our heroic people - are the lifebreath of the fighters, and it is the involvement of the masses in the battle that ensures victory in the long run. The popular support for the militants at all levels in every land form the basis for genuine, firm, and escalating struggle and steadfastness, rising until we crush the enemy.

In this war for our occupied land, and the fate of collaborators and traitors and enemies of the people will be the fate of the occupying enemy, crushed in full. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is determined to reject delay and hesitation in engaging in the struggle in our occupied land and declares its determination to reject humility and humiliation and settlements. We stand today before our masses, our people, promising to provide them with the truth, the whole truth in every respect, regarding our struggles, achievements and obstacles facing our armed action. The truth must be the property of the masses because there is no other force more committed to their own interests. The masses must be fully aware of the achievements and problems of the armed struggle without exaggeration or hype because they are the custodians of the objectives of this struggle and their aspirations, which will be given to this struggle, include every possession, up to their blood. The active members, the fighters on the Palestinian land today pursue a new path of political action and deal with the masses with full openness and truth.

People of the Arab nation ...

This battle is long and harsh, and the armed resistance today is the vanguard of fighting along the steadfast Arab front. Every Arab demands today to providefull support for the march of the armed combat corps at all levels. The Palestinian fighting masses on the occupied land are actors of the Arab revolutionary march against imperialism and its proxy forces. In our response to the Zionist alliance and colonialism, we must make the organic link between the struggle of the Palestinian people and the struggle of the masses of the Arab people, facing the same risks and the same schemes, and therefore the work of the Palestinian armed struggle determines the position of the Arabs who stand by the struggle, against those who stand against it. The struggle of the Palestinian people is linked with the struggle of the forces of revolution and progress in the world, the format of the coalition that we face requires a corresponding governing coalition including all the forces of anti-imperialism in every part of the world.

Our struggling masses everywhere on Palestinian land...
Fellow workers and peasants ..
Oh poor people and refugees ..
Fellow students ..
Clerks and traders...

This is the beginning of a movement of the people flying the flags of sacrifice, steadfastness and challenge. We are on the ground and we promise that armed struggle is not a rosy dream, but more fighting, led by the political mobilization of the masses to defend the defenseless against reprisal and persecution. We are marching each fighting step today, preparing to fight a long, harsh and bitter battle with your leadership and commitment as the true owners of the cause. That battle is not easy nor quick, but it is the battle of destiny and its presence requires our deep commitment, ability to continue, and steadfastness.

Glory to the steadfast of our Arab nation
Glory to the struggle of our people
Long live the unity of our fighters on the land of Palestine

We will surely win

December 11, 1967

Public Meeting - the Implications of the Terrorism Suppression Act

Palestinian Organisations added to the NZ 'Terrorist List'

Palestinian Organisations added to the New Zealand ‘Terrorist List’

The Spark December 2010 – January 2011

Mike Walker

On the 12th of October 2010 John Key designated “a further seven international terrorist groups under the Terrorism Suppression Act”. He claimed it helped “implement our international obligations under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373″. Under this pretence the addition of Palestinian organisations, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the military wing of Hamas (Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades), to the New Zealand list of designated terrorists, is especially problematic. To highlight the hypocrisy and contradiction involved in these designations I will examine parts of the Terrorist Designations Working Groups (TDWG) paper; “Statement of case to designate the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) as a terrorist entity”.

Terrorist Acts

A terrorist act is defined in the ‘Terrorist Suppression Act (TSA)’, section five, as an act which is carried out “for the purpose of advancing an ideological, political, or religious cause” or to “induce terror in a civilian population.” With outcomes such as “the death of, or serious bodily injury to, one or more persons”, “a serious risk to the health or safety of a population” or the “destruction of, or serious damage to, property of great value or importance, or major economic loss, or major environmental damage”. The case to designate PIJ features two case studies, used to highlight terrorist acts and support the case for designation.

Gaza Rocket Resistance

The first case study concentrates on a “Rocket campaign into southern Israel”. The case study details that during the “Gaza conflict”, “…these rockets killed 3 Israeli civilians. Between the year 2001 and May 2009 the rockets killed a total of 16 Israeli civilians. Since 2007, when a majority of Palestinians voted for Hamas, Israel has maintained a complete siege of Gaza that the United Nations has called a “crisis of human dignity”. Article 33 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions states that “No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed.” The Goldstone report on operation ‘Cast Lead’ stated that Israel used the “application of disproportionate force and the causing of great damage and destruction to civilian property and infrastructure, and suffering to civilian populations.” It details deliberate Israeli attacks on hospitals, schools, ambulances, civilian infrastructure and the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields. It also confirms the deaths of over 1600 Palestinian civilians, one hundred times the number of Israelis killed in almost a decade of rocket attacks. Israel’s ‘Cast Lead’ operation and the siege of Gaza, by definition, would appear to contradict not only international law, but would fit the TSA’s definition of a terrorist act.

Resistance to illegal settlers

The second case study details the “shooting of security guards at Nitzanei Shalom Industrial Park”. The document details that the “the Park is situated on the Palestinian side of the West bank border”, making it an Israeli settlement in occupied Palestine. The settlements in the West Bank that these security guards are paid to protect are in direct violation of Article 49 of the fourth Geneva Convention which states that “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” The case study sees the Israeli settlers, and their protectors, as a benign actor in the conflict. This is far from the truth, since the settlers are both armed and violent.

A recent report by Defence of Children International concludes that “Apart from the loss of land taken for the settlements and their related infrastructure, settler violence, such as beatings, shootings and destruction of property are a common occurrence in the lives of Palestinians, including children.” From March 2008 until July 2010 there were 38 documented incidents of Israeli settlers targeting Palestinian children resulting in 45 deaths. The acts “serve a political and strategic goal, and are carried out by ideological settlers”. Once again this would seem to fit the definition of a terrorist act.

The case for designation against PIJ then adds that these types of attacks carried out by Palestinian armed groups have an objective of compelling “Israeli withdrawal from the Occupied Palestinian Territories”. This is an overt political motive which supposedly supports the acts’ definition as a terrorist one. But what is missing is that the Palestinian objective is in line with International Law, whereas the Israeli objective is in direct contravention.

The Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) & Violent Self-Determination

The TSA provides for one caveat to the definition of a terrorist act, being that it “is not an act that occurs in a situation of armed conflict…in accordance with rules of international law applicable to the conflict.” The document seeks to answer the question “does the LOAC apply?” This relates firstly to a “key distinction between armed conflict and other internal disturbances”, related to the “level, kind and consistency of violence”. It then comes to the conclusion “that it is not clear…whether that conflict is an international or non-international one”.

The case study attempts to brush aside over 60 years of armed resistance to the state of Israel, concluding that “outside of the combat period” (of ‘Cast Lead’) the resistance does “not meet the threshold to be considered an armed conflict”. In a report produced by the International Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL), it refutes the test applied by the TSA in determination of Armed Conflict and the intensity of hostilities:

As to the condition that the liberation movement should attain a minimum of effectiveness as a belligerent, i.e. it should be a party to a real on-going armed conflict: it is the whole approach of the Conventions that international armed conflicts are defined not as a function of the degree of intensity of hostilities, but in terms of its parties and the type of relations existing among them. It does not appear as a requirement in either Article 1 or Article 96 nor for that matter common Article 2 of the Conventions.

It is also clear that this is an international conflict. The UN General Assembly passed Resolution 3103 (XXVIII) which states:

The armed conflicts involving the struggle of peoples against colonial and alien domination and racist regimes are to be regarded as international armed conflicts in the sense of the 1949 Geneva Conventions.

The United Nations has also on many occasions reaffirmed the right for people to struggle, with violence if necessary. General Assembly Resolution 2649 (XXV) affirmed the “legitimacy of the struggles of peoples under colonial and alien domination recognised as being entitled to the right to self-determination to restore to themselves that right by any means at their disposal.” Resolution 3070 (XXVIII) of 30th November 1973 reaffirmed the right to struggle for self-determination “by all means, including armed struggle,” while Resolution 2787 (XXVI) in 1971 sought to clarify further, with the General Assembly identifying and recognising the legal characteristics of armed conflicts as wars of national liberation, i.e. involving peoples against colonial and alien domination and racist regimes, explicitly including those in South Africa and involving ‘the Palestinian people’.

The ‘Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning the Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States’ resolves what would appear to be a controversial issue posed by cases of violent self-determination. It clearly states “that the ‘forcible action’ or force which is prohibited by Article 2, paragraph 4 of the Charter is not that used by people struggling for self-determination but that which is resorted to by the colonial or alien governments to deny them self-determination.” This in itself would provide for an interesting caveat to all of the designations so far in this country, putting the focus on the violence and brutality of the oppressor with their modern armies and war machines, and not the guerrilla struggles of the oppressed.

The “Geneva Declaration on Terrorism” further reiterates this concept stating that the “terrorism of modern states and their high-technology weapons is far worse than the political violence practiced by groups who want to end oppression and live in freedom.” It concludes that “it is a cruel extension of the scourge of terrorism to classify the struggle against terrorism as ‘terrorism’.”

International Law and the state of Israel

Why would you try to manipulate clear distinctions regarding the nature of the conflict and attempt to label it non-international? The answer is simpler than it would seem. If this is defined as an International conflict the LOAC and thus the Geneva Conventions apply, which validates the Palestinian National Liberation Struggle and condemns the Israeli state to being the terrorist.

It should be patently obvious that International Law is vigorously applied to one side and ignored for the other. So while useful for highlighting the contradictions and hypocrisy involved in terrorist legislation, it also needs to be put into its own context. Terrorist Legislation should be seen as a part of a system that is used to maintain the imperialist powers’ spheres of influence in the third world. The truth is that many of the liberation movements condemned as terrorists represent a direct threat to western control of third world resources and politics and thus the maintenance of capitalism worldwide.