Irish Republican Socialist Party
A spokesperson for the International Department of the Irish Republican Socialist Party dismissed the Palestinian Authority’s justification as, “transparently false” and “yet another example of caving in to the Zionist’s demands.” Ahmad Saadat is the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He was arrested by Arafat’s Palestinian Authority police for allegedly having ordered the assassination of a right-wing member of the Israeli cabinet. When Zionist troops overan the West Bank, the American and British governments agreed to ensure Saadat was held. Subsequently, the Supreme Court of the PA ruled that Saadat was not gulty and ordered him released. Yet he remains incarcerated, with Arafat claiming this is to protect him from Israeli assassination squads roving the countryside.
The IRSP spokesperson declared:
“In the interests of justice, the IRSP are demanding that the Palestinian Authority immediately release PFLP General Secretary Ahmad Saadat.
“The Palestinian Authority is on record as having recently proclaimed the the independence of the judiciary must be respected. Yet, despite the Zionists and western imperialists demanding that the Authority immediately undertake a series of reforms to become more democratic, none of them are insisting that it abide by the ruling of its own Supreme Court. The Palestinian Authority’s Supreme Court found no evidence that Ahmad Saadat was guilty of any crime and ordered his release, yet he is still being held in incarceration.
“This demonstrates the hypocrisy of the Israeli government, the United States, the European Union, and others who have taken up the demand for a complete overhaul of the Palestinian Authority as a requirement for the renewal of peace negotiations. They are merely supporting Sharon’s attempt to completely reverse the small gains made by the Palestinian’s under the previous government. As Secretary Saadat himself recently stated, the Israeli violence visited upon the Palestinian people is:
‘a military strike aimed at destroying the Palestinian infrastructure, whether that was the infrastructure of the Palestine Authority, or the political infrastructure of the national movement, or the social and cultural infrastructure. There is a feverish effort now on the part of the American Administration, the government of Ariel Sharon, and the staff of Zionist entity to gather the political harvest, by which I mean to exploit the military campaign and impose the Zionist Israeli concept of a settlement on the Middle East region.’
“Similarily they repeatedly denounce so called ‘suicide bombers’, but remain mute regarding the Israel’s killing far more Palestinian civilians. Forty percent of those killed by the Israeli Army have been children, and the Zionists have killed roughly four times as many Palestinians as Israelis have been killed by the Palestinian resistance. Can we expect a condemnation of this genocidal terror from the United States? Probably not, since they killed more civilians in Afghanistan than were killed in the attacks of last September 11th, which were used to justify attacking Afghanistan.
“The Palestinian Supreme Court has found Saadat guilty of no crime and ordered his release. This ruling has been supported by Amnesty International, whose recent report concluded that Saadat should be released immediately, on the grounds that there is no evidence of his having committed any crime. We in the Irish Republican Socialist Party join in demanding the immediate release of Ahmad Saadat and call upon the Palestinian Authority to demonstrate their respect for the independence of their judiciary by abiding by its ruling to release Saadat. Saadat’s only crime is his continued opposition to the Zionist state and the threat the PFLP poses by combining the campaign for national liberation with that seeking social justice for the masses of working people within the Palestine.”
Reflecting a moment, the IRSP spokesperson concluded:
“Ahmad Saadat is the Dessie O Hare of Palestine. In both cases, the courts have ruled that they should be released and in both cases a government disregards its own courts and manufactures excuses for continuing to incarcerate someone on purely political grounds, displaying absolute disregard for human rights and justice.”
