Introduction

The objectives of this document which sums up the dialogue and the interaction going on inside the organizations of The Popular Front for the Liberation Palestine PFLP in homeland and diaspora before culminating at the sixth National Conference of PFLP which took place in the form of three integral cycles in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and diaspora include: - reaching to methodological reading of the Palestinian political developments taking place since the first National Conference in 1994; formulating a political vision to deal efficiently and clearly with the problems ensuing from them and to point out the directions of work in accordance with the rights and interests of our people on the basis of the continuity of the struggle and resistance until our inalienable rights have been achieved and to uncover the dangers and deviations, taking place in the national arena at a time when the American Israeli liquidationist plans have not disappeared.

In this context, this document tries to distance itself from minor details to focus on the main direction of developments and the essential aspects of the struggle in conformity with our deep understanding that the function of the national conference is an essential station at which it would be possible to reconsider our conception of the struggle and the way to manage it, on one hand, the contents and dimensions of that struggle, on the other. Thus, it would be possible for us to manipulate our capacities in a long term policy and secure that party bodies would be able to evolve in form and content and to be suitable for the conditions and objectives of the national project at present and in the future.

Within this perspective, it would be recommended to pay attention to the following points while dealing with this document:

Firstly

This is a scientific document reading the developments depending on our vision, role, national function and our leftist democratic and progressive thinking. However, it still remains a subject for debate, criticism and, enrichment in agreement with the dynamics of the situation and the struggle process. Within this meaning, it remains relative in terms of evaluation.

Secondly

This document should be looked at and dealt with as an integral part of PFLP positions and vision embodied in other documents issued by previous conferences and other leading central committees. Reference should be particularly made to the document of the first National Conference in June 1994, which is considered the foundation of what was included in the document to the sixth National Conference which adds to and enriches the vision, rather that than abolish it. Consequently, the document of the conference referred to above remains politically and ideologically in a agreement with this present one.

Thirdly

Since the Sixth National Conference, the Palestinian arena and the national problem have both witnessed very remarkable developments most important of which is the uprising (Intifada) continuing since 28 September 2000, which broke out to defend the rights and aspirations of our people. Thousand, of martyrs, fell and tens of thousands were wounded on the road of freedom and independence and in the confrontation with the endless terrorist war launched by the occupant army against our besieged people in order to break their will and impose political solutions on them.

Accordingly, there are many subjects and political as well us social questions which need to be dealt with and formulated. This is the task of the leading central bodies of PFLP (The General Central Committee (GCC) and the Politburo) in order to further promote the PFLP vision and positions and enhance its national role continuously. So, it is necessary to paid remember that this document is limited by the period it covers and deals with when dealing with it.

Fourthly

When dealing with this document, which has condensed the general vision, the party and the tendencies of its political analysis of it should be always remembered, that a considerable attention has to be paid to the peculiarities of the different party bodies at the socio-economic political levels, and that flexibility as well as creativity will no doubt be indispensable while drawing work programs and means of struggle for every Palestinian community in consistence with its own priorities and characteristics, provided that nothing should cross the boundaries drawn in the central document of the party.

Finally

Any document, regardless of how strong it is, remains unable to include all the details and dynamics of situation. It would be enough if it were able to envisage the right course governed by the national, liberational, socio – economic and democratic determinants.

The will and comprehensive awareness of all party members and bodies are required to change this vision into an effective practice, cadre, and institutions, on one hand, and to change the vision and the policy into accumulated national achievements. These are the factors that give or justify the role and function of any party and guarantee its position among the people and help it gain their respect.

Chapter One: No dreams beyond reality-No future without present and past

Political Report of the 6th Congress of the PFLP-2000
Political Report of the 6th Congress of the PFLP-2000
Author	PFLP
Written in	2000

Firstly: We don't begin from Zero point

When we say that the Palestinian problem is in a unique stage, this does not mean that we jump over everything in the past as if history and the Palestinian national work began with Oslo. One simple reason makes us say the above mentioned fact, namely, that the Oslo process and its repercussions are absolutely and completely engrossed by the results of the struggle in the previous decades. This does not refer to the Palestinian dimension only, but certainly the Arab, Israeli and international dimensions, as well.

That is the reason why PELP has taken this systemic step while analyzing the crisis of the Palestinian National Movement, including the crisis in PFLP, because we believe that the phenomena and results should be linked with their historical socio- economic and ideological reasons. Furthermore, such a stop reflects a firm belief that should the mentality of treating consequences apart from the reasons continue, it would mean we should go indefinitely round ourselves in a vacant circle. Besides, it threatens to distort awareness, spread illusions, accumulate mistakes and consequently waste much more time and other components of struggle in the future.

What was mentioned above represents workable methodology in the socio – political and organizational practice- especially because it emphasizes the continuity between history and reality. It is necessary to understand very well that insistence on a link with reality does not mean having it fragmented or being separated from it. Similar to history and the present, reality, with all its components should be present. An absolute separation from reality and history embodies an absolute extinction.

In the same context, the present should not be regarded as an automatic continuity of history. It is a conclusion or summary of the historical interaction of the struggle, which resembles, to a very large extent, a chemical interaction, which begins with certain qualitatively and qualitatively definite elements and compounds. At a certain minute, and in certain conditions, the elements and compounds are changed into a qualitatively new material which consists of the very same elements with new characteristics bound together by new relations.

Naturally, the socio- historical interaction is more intricate than it is believed to be, because the dynamics appearing in the reality we live would interfere and thus draw and determine the courses of history. It is a process whose results are governed by the form and content of the management of the struggle resorted to by individuals as well as socio- political forces. It is a process which has historical characteristics, is governed by the socioeconomic development, and effected, to some extent, by human consciousness.

Accordingly, it is necessary to be aware of and recognize the dimension, and intricacy of the process, because that would help keep the transparency and efficiency necessary for a scientific and quiet reading of our experience, preserve the remarkably rich experience of the Palestinian people and the Arab nation, maintain historical and spiritual value of the great and sacrifices, and turn them into a material power complementing the power they have already possessed. Such a power, which can never, at any rate, be little, helps maintain the internal balance in the collective as well as the individual psyche.

It should always be kept in mind, while we are trying to read the present situation, that retreat has a potentiality of a revival and that it has valuable lessons which have to be analyzed and highlighted so that they might be transformed into constructive factors. Otherwise, retreat might become a destructive spiritual and material factor of exhaustion. The best proof of the above- mentioned assessment what is we, as a party and a national movement, have felt and lived. We have found out that the problem is not limited to the defeat in the battle field, but goes beyond that to the state of incapacity to reach a political and intellectual vision capable of transgressing defeatism engulfing all the currents and factions of the Palestinian national movement whose work and discourse continued as though nothing had happened.

Defeatism has led the to frustration, motionlessness, the deterioration of confidence between the organized political movement, on one hand, and between the parties and their popular grassroots. Confusion, complaints and inefficiency spread everywhere. We believe that the atmosphere of disappointment has neither rational nor scientific grounds, once we are able to form a comprehensive and clear vision of the conflict with its premises and continuously open dimensions whose keys are not in the pocket of any one if even if he wanted or imagined. Are we exaggerating or merely projecting our desires? Let's carefully, prudently, and openly examine the situation in order that we might find correct answers to our questions.

Secondly: A historically open–ended struggle:

The historical evolution of events was deeply contrary to the illusions of those who imagined that the American-Israeli project would easily dig its way through Palestine and the Arab World. The peace process has revealed that the more the characteristics of the enemy project got clear and its dimensions became concrete the more socio- economic and popular strata were involved in it.

We should point, in this context, to the intensifying resistance and popular opposition all over Palestine, they are gaining much momentum at the popular level and the levels of the forms and means of confrontation. There were times when the struggle looked as though it had been at its embryonic beginnings, but later an uprising broke out, for example the uprising which followed the opening of the tunnel beneath Al-Aqsa Mosque and the confrontations with settlement expansion policies.

Besides, there is qualitatively and quantatively developing resistance in south Lebanon which has led to a change in the political positions of the majority of political, social, and official powers towards, embracing this phenomenon, regardless of the serious pressure exerted by the enemy alliance to break this stand. That resistance to the normalization of relations with the Zionist regime has acquired a really popular and organized dimension. Prior to that, it was limited to the form of imposed political resolutions. Currently, resistance to normalization takes the form of initiatives by society activists and trade unions.

There is a remarkably noteworthy phenomenon which is growing and spreading everywhere across the Arab World from the east to the west. Such a phenomenon is represented by intellectual activity which has deep and far – reaching significations. It has already crossed the borders of the regional ghetto and begun discussing the concerns of the Arab nations, the conditions of its awakening at both the regional and national levels. The level of this intellectual activity is high enough and capable of preserving the unity and integrity of both mind and dream.

In addition to what has been mentioned above, there is a symptom of a return of the pan Arab co-ordination and an attempt to control the tempo at the national level. The value and significance lie in the fact that the initiative and the cooperation related to it are among the centers of official resolution in the Arab World nowadays. The examples and phenomena mentioned above represent a flagrant announcement of an effective and deeply rooted interaction in the collective memory and conscience of the Arabs whose content is so huge and constitutes and essential push force for the natural oppositions which are fed up continuously, spiritually and materially by, the objective factors which cause the historical struggle with the Zionist enemy.

The various forms of the comprehensive and growing resistance and opposition reveal that the objectivity of the conflict is neither limited to nor released by the wishes of individuals or leaders, or the good or bad wishes. It is a process with an endless action and reaction, latency though it sometimes experiences stages of retreat, stagnation or curvature, there is always capacity to create means to face the new challenges of the conflict through limitless manifestations, which would connect things to their roots or references.

The creativity of any party or political movement appears in the ability to be in harmony and interaction with the course of action, to have this movement consciously and scientifically managed, and help it move from spontaneous reaction, to a comprehensive process and vision.

Being aware of the historicity of and objectivity of the struggle helps keep the debate within its right and logical course, and will inevitably lead everyone to deal with it as a socio-historical confrontation between the Arab nation, particularly the Palestinian people on one hand, and the Zionist imperialist project on the other. Such a radical sociohistorical struggle of the Arab nation for existence is directed against the infinite attempts to distort, derail or subject it to opponent project. Within this meaning, the struggle has a variety of forms including the armed one.

An insightful reading of the practices of the Zionist project one hundred years after the first Zionist Conference in Basle in 1897, would reveal that, in spite of the great victories of this project, it has been constantly reviewing and reconsidering its strategies and tactics to guarantee preserving the successes achieved, on one hand, and secure the required conditions for an offensive assault to achieve more targets. Such a fact suggests that it is essential for the enemy project to consolidate its ideological, political and cultural bases and have them continuously developed in order that they create a firm and renewable impetus to mobilize more powers and capacities to be at the service of expansionism and aggression.

An awareness of this fact would enhance the quality of dealing with the current situation, explain the qualitative deflections witnessed by Zionist imperialist project in each and every stage of the socio – historical development of the struggle to complete the accomplishment of the objectives, it has reached in accordance with an accumulation process taking place, and indicate the revision in strategies and tactics which reflect dynamically as well as flexibly the balance of power or both sides of the conflict.

The struggle over existence does not necessarily signify an absolute physical liquidation of one party to the conflict, but an accumulation of power to expose the Arab party to bitter historical defeatism, compel it to capitulate through various forms of socio– political and military pressure and violence, forcibly make the Arabs in a stage of an almost complete submission and surrender to the Zionist–imperial project. Here, we believe, is the place of the opinion which stresses the historicity of defeats, demands that the situation we live in be referred to the total consequences which have been accumulating since Sykes–Picot. Such consequences have an accumulative nature and become heavier with the passage of time.

Furthermore, there are the symptoms of backwardness engulfing the Arab peoples, which, with the passage of time, have generated their own internal dynamism and rules. Unless such symptoms have been broken and removed, they would always feed up the state of underdevelopment and according to this imbalance, pave the way for further defeats. A deep understanding of this fact necessitates the awareness that the removal of these symptoms is a far - reaching socio- historical process, which is independent of the volition of one party to conflict because the factors and dynamics of the conflict are more comprehensive and intricate than those possessed by each of the two parties. It is a combined, historical and dynamic summary of the historical struggle process as a whole.

Due to progress and retreat, along with their own complexities and social consequences, the struggle acquires a historic as well as dynamic character. The state of latency and motionlessness are temporary and transient because they are the result of either a temporary defeat or victory, on one hand; or the unavailability of the required conditions for a rise to a higher level. As long as the requirements of struggle are renewable and accomplished, it is possible that the struggle will break out at each of the so many historical curvatures.

The assessment mentioned above would necessitate more insight and accuracy while reading the current Palestinian situation, bearing in mind the facts which have been created since the singing of the Oslo Accords. These facts show beyond any doubt the depth and continuity of the conflict reasons. They also provide everyone with a framework to protect any analysis and save it from falling into the lethal traps of haste, impatience, subjectivity or the illusions that it is possible to put an end to the struggle, which comes to an end once its reasons have disappeared. Here we move to another title.

Thirdly: Oslo: The Reproduction of the Struggle in Other Forms:

It is not necessary, we believe, to repeat the debate about the dangers and grave accumulated damage befalling the Palestinian cause as a consequence of Oslo and its aftermath, because the political document approved by the first National Conference in 1994, in addition to other documents issued by PELP are more that enough. What we would like to discuss now goes beyond this aspect and aims at deepening our vision and analysis on the basis of the variables and data which have come into being during the few last years.

The Oslo Accords and the agreements that followed it, along with the threats they embodied and carried, are no more than a transient stage in the struggle regardless of how long it might continue. This does not mean an underestimate of the detrimental consequences of those agreements and difficulties they have brought about, nor does it mean minimizing the agreements as though they had not existed. Contrary to such an assessment, we would like to reiterate that the agreements embody a qualitative stage in the struggle which led to the disappearance of factors, components, constructions, structures and patterns and usher in other components, factors, means and new patterns, some of which have already been active others will soon be activated.

The collapse of the Soviet union, the change in the structure of international alliances, the domination of the United states, the changes in the Arab world since the second Gulf War, the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority, the change in the internal balance of powers, the crisis of the democratic powers, the opposition the normalization with Israel are no more then examples.

The movement from one stage into another is not so easy as some people believe. It is much similar to giving birth to a baby, with all the sufferings, bleeding and spiritual as well as psychological transformations. This means at the final stage giving birth and the start of the cycle of a new stage of life, with all its determinants and factors. Accordingly, the current situation, along with the transgression of previous stages it includes, remains tied, through thousands of secret cords, with the previous stages which have their own impact and their shadows on the current situation.

After the collapse of the second Gulf war and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Palestinian leadership has put the majority of the Palestinian cards, including the most important ones, at stake when it trusted U.S.A and the claims of the Zionist regime's readiness for peace. The dangers of such a policy, and the ensuring options for limited agreements, stem from that fact that they do not have a correct vision of the struggle and its roots to depend on, and uncovers a terrorized and superficial conception of the current balance of powers as wells the nature of the Israeli–American peace project and its objectives.

It has responded to the requirements of the American - Israeli strategy, and allowed the dynamics of that strategy to control it and its options. Correspondingly, it has been expropriated of all the factors of legal, historical and material power. The political practices of the leaders looked as though what happened had been the sole possible potentiality or the end of the Arab – Israeli conflict and at its heart- the Palestinian-Zionist conflict.

This policy is a result of a miserable understanding and management of the conflict with the enemy which is the other face of another miserable policy toward inter-Palestinian relations, which took the form of disabled mentality, growing with the passage of time to take the from a destructive bureaucracy armed with corruption. This, in turn, led to the depletion of a lot of the constituents of power, the absence of a far reaching and comprehensive vision aiming at the consolidation of the structure of the Palestinian society everywhere, through the consolidation of the structure of the organizational and administrative institutions of this society.. etc.

The most remarkable example of what was said above is the fragmentation and dismantling of the most important national framework in our contemporary history, namely, P.L.O. which was being dealt with in a sorrowful manner. If ever this signified any thing, it would be a proof of the short – sighted policy which had been practiced and the foolhardiness of the treatment with this significant framework which was supposed to remain an all – embracing national framework and a real representative of the Palestinian people dispersed and diasporized geographically, economically and socially.

Besides, there is an incapacity or unwillingness to make use of the national capacities and abilities in order to enhance the social structure and strengthen the pillars of national confrontation. Such a policy has constantly been self - revealing and acquired the form of hegemony, unilateralism, corruption of the institutions of the Palestinian society in the occupied homeland, and disrespect of the rights of citizens. So, a Palestinian citizen finds himself between two jaws of pincers: the brutal oppressive and expansionist practices of the occupation, on one hand and the practices of the authority and its apparatuses, on the other. Consequently, the crisis of the Palestinian masses, the national problem in homeland and Diaspora has been aggravated.

Along with what was mentioned above, attention should be paid to other practices which are equally dangerous and short – sighted, namely, the manipulative approach to the Palestinian popular movement. The gap between this movement and the political authority got wider and wider. There is no confidence in the authority which has not preserved nor protected the minimum level of national rights. In the meantime, the policies of the authority have not pointed to any respect to the Palestinian society. These policies have taken three forms.

1- Pursuit and detention of activists upon orders dictated by the occupation

2- Opportunism and temporariness in dealing with the popular movement.

3- An attempt to have the opposition adapted to the ceiling of the authority and its policies.

The impact of this policy on the Palestinian national movement has been grave, because it contributed to the state of dissidence and fragmentation , preserved the causes of depletion and implosion , emptied the policies of the authority as well as the concept of national dialogue of their contents. The problem of national unity, therefore, became a means for maneuvering, not a stable and fixed political line governing the actions of the Palestinian national movement with all its different colors, currents, and organizations.

The political and intellectual mentality which led to this hasty and disabled betting on the American – Israeli peace project is the very same mentality which led to the dramatic state of sub- mission availing itself of the state exhaustion befalling the Palestinian people as well as the Arab nation because of the pressure of the enemy alliance as well as the internal incapacity which was caused by this mentality which was excellent at depleting resources instead of accumulating them.

Since Madrid conference, the enemy has pushed to the political stage all Arab defeats when he deemed it was high time they had had to take a remarkable step embodying the forcible imposition of defeatist policies and having them officially legalized at both the Arab and international levels. This is a movement from direct to indirect war leaning on an imbalance of powers to the benefit American Israeli alliance.

What happened in Madrid and the other stations, agreements and attractions which followed did not go beyond the political offensive led by U.S.A in full coordination with Israel. The American peace project for a settlement, as it appeared in Oslo, is no more then a project to impose, by force, political, and economic capitulation on the region. The dimensions of this project have become unreasonable according to the minimum level of dignity.

The American role has thus been explained, because, once it has made all parties engaged in negotiations, on the basis of general principles, taking into consideration, even partially, the resolutions of the international legitimacy, it began to exert various forms of pressure and blackmail to help Israel dictate its vision for a settlement which, in essence, is not different from its American equivalent. In other words, it aimed at imposing submission on the Arabs not achieving a peace process as they hypocritically claimed. The logic of this policy is applying the philosophy of power as a basis for international relations. The foundation of this philosophy is the right of triumphant to dictate his conditions on the defeated.

This, and nothing else, explains the continuously and flagrantly biased American policy towards Israel. It is high time to put an end to the naïve belief that the American administration which possesses lots of information and expertise in the management of international conflicts is not aware of the fact that a speech about peace in the Middle East would be merely meaning less and deceitful, unless it included the minimum amount of Palestinian the and Arab national rights.

The United States is more conscious of this fact than anyone else. No one is able to defend the lie concerning the intention of U.S.A to reach a real peace in accordance with the simplest bases and principles of international law and the concepts of freedom, justice and balanced relations instead of the philosophy of power to impose what is in conformity with its interests.

Therefore, the problem is not with this or that administration as some people would like to say, but it is basically with the American–Israeli project for peace which is really and logically identical. Otherwise, the United States would have submitted a clear and precise text containing its own project for peace in the Middle East which would be a part of a comprehensive reassessment which will result in making its policy consistent with the minimum level of justice, equilibrium and respect of the inalienable rights.

Hadn't the United States continued its antagonistic policy, it would have put an end to the ambiguous and floating language while talking about peace, stopped exerting the greatest possible spiritual and material pressure on the Arab parties, stopped providing the Zionist regime with all the components of power and ceased pledging to guarantee the continuation of the Israeli qualitative superiority to all the Arab countries. Yet, the United States insists on securing an umbrella for Israeli practices at the international institutions or building military and security alliances which are secretly or openly antagonistic to the Arab world and besiege the Arab world and its interests.

The developments of the recent years have disclosed the objectives, targets and manifestations of the American Israeli peace project which are limited to launching an intensive campaign to achieve the very same targets which have accompanied it ever since its beginnings namely, hegemony, political domination, the annexation of the Arab world economically, the liquidation of the Palestinian problem through a political war, mixed if necessary, with political and economic violence and organized military pressure.

This is the fact which the successive American administrations and Israeli governments have been trying to conceal through a propaganda campaign claiming that the Arab parties are those who always refuse to reach a peace settlement for the conflict. The military operations of the American – Israeli alliance have completely uncovered these targets, because the alliance's war have been going on through political means to make the Arabs surrender instead of making peace with them.

This is the situation that causes the increasing Palestinian and Arab reactions, which have moved from the state of betting, during the Madrid conference and immediately after that, on the peace options, to a state of opposition and widely-spread rejection of the American Israeli projects.

The value of the opposition and rejection referred to above, stems from the fact that they have been assuming a popular character which is growing and constantly expanding and has taken the form of popular initiatives, attracting greater strata of the Arab popular masses who are moving into a state of action. An advantage like this has not been available previously, because the conflict took the from of confrontation between states and commando activity later.

The Arab popular opposition in this stage is characterized by comprehensiveness and expansion, and is based on a conviction that American and Israeli proposals aim at nothing except for attempting to make the Arabs give in by political pressure or threats of war.

This opposition, we believe, is heading towards growing and crystallizing, absorbing new Arab social strata. It is noteworthy here to remember the opposition to the cultural normalization, the rejection of the economic hegemony, the insistence on the principle of a comprehensive peace which should meet the minimum level of the national rights and targets, at the head of which are; the rights of the Palestinian people to return, self-determination and national statehood with Jerusalem as the capital. Some of the manifestations of the opposition appear in the form of intellectual activities in the Arab world, taking the form of debate, criticism, raising essential and crucial questions, trying always to link problems to their basic elements, which, sometimes, include a state of incapacity, backwardness and defeat, others, try to rediscover or reiterate the nature of the struggle which expresses itself through a comprehensive and historical struggle.

The dynamics of settlement according to the American–Israeli criteria have revealed another fact, namely that an Arab citizen has to choose either a humiliating surrender or confrontation and engagement. This is what provides the struggle with new dynamics and constantly new impetus in such a way that a hopeful observer might conclude that the struggle has just begun.

According to the fact mentioned above, we would like to emphasize that the displacements that have taken place represented in signed agreements are no more that temporary and transient displacements of the ground of the struggle itself and can never lead to stability nor to peace. Consequently, any betting on this process expresses a short – sightedness, tragic disappointment and a capitulation to a fate predestined by the American – Israeli project.

Such a discourse does not intend to belittle the dangers of what has been happening, and consequently to deal with the process as if nothing had happened.

Contrary to that, what has happened is weighing heavily on everyone. It should be seen and dealt with in order to change according to revolutionary criteria, considering it as an additional dimension of the struggle.

The Palestinian people as well as the Palestinian national movement, according to what has been said above, should be accustomed, psychologically and mentally, to the required changeability and flexibility, to feel and absorb any movement or variable in the situation, to reduce the noise and shouting, to extensively read the situation and to act according to a comprehensive and integrating vision of the struggle. It is no more a secret that it is a struggle over existence itself, taking place in a tangible reality and governed by the law of the balance of powers.