Free Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat
The General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Abnaa el-Balad Movement
Submitting to the pressures of the Israeli racist occupiers and their USA Imperialist backers, the Palestinian “National” Authority arrested yesterday (January 15, 2002) comrade Sa’adat, the general secretary of the PFLP. This is a dangerous and unprecedented step in the long history of struggle of the Palestinian people. The PFLP is the main party of the Palestinian left and the backbone of the opposition within the Palestinian Liberation Organization. The PFLP and all the left and democratic Palestinian opposition where united beyond Comrade Sa’adat after the assassination of the former general secretary of the PFLP, comrade Abu-‘Ali Mustafa, by the Israeli-American missile attack. By arresting comrade Sa’adat the Palestinian authority is playing into the hand of the enemies of the Palestinian people that want to draw us into internal conflict, crash the people’s Intifada and secure eternal rule of racist Apartheid, ethnic cleansing and occupation.
The political detention of comrade Sa’adat, together with previous arrests and oppressive steps against the militants and organizations that resist the Israeli occupation, are a very dangerous blow to the hopes and the struggle of the Palestinian people. By oppressing the resistance to the occupation, the Palestinian Authority is submitting to the occupiers’ logic that claims resistance to the occupation to be “terrorist violence”. At the same time the occupiers themselves are free to kill, uproot, destroy, siege, humiliate and devastate the Palestinian people in the name of their racist “laws” and the immunity from international law supplied by their USA backers.
The PFLP, under the leadership of comrade Sa’adat, is not only a dedicated force in the struggle against the occupation, for self- determination and for the right of return of all Palestinian refugees. It is also the voice of the poor people of Palestine, struggling against corruption and arbitrary rule by the Palestinian Authority, for democratic institutions in the Palestinian society and for social justice. In spite of being the target of constant ruthless Israeli brutality, the PFLP continues to advocate a democratic solution to the Palestinian problem that will include Jews in Palestine as equal citizens in a secular democratic Palestine. It is not by chance that the Israeli occupiers are most interested to silence the voice of the Palestinian Mandelas, first by assassinating comrade Abu-‘Ali Mustafa and now by demanding and forcing the arrest of comrade Sa’adat.
The struggle of the Palestinian people is the heart of the struggle of the Arab masses to free themselves from Imperialist domination and from the fate of poverty, ignorance and despotism that it spells. Resisting the libeling of the Arab freedom fighters as terrorist is the first and vital step for stopping the current Imperiali st drive to victimize the oppressed masses everywhere. A campaign of solidarity with the Palestinian freedom fighters is the immediate and urgent duty of all democratic and progressive forces in the Arab world. It is the same cause everywhere, in all the poor third world countries, as all of them face similar exploitation and victimization. This international solidarity campaign is the duty of all progressive forces and all really democratic and peace loving people all over the world.
For an International Solidarity Campaign:
1. Free Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat!
2. Free all political prisoners and anti-occupation resistance militants!
3. Unite to topple the Israeli occupation!
Together on the road – Ma’an ‘Ala edDarb
Sons of the Country Movement – Abnaa elBalad
