Tuesday, April 04, 2017

Tunis Conference Marks 100 Years of Palestinian Resistance
Posted by ALEXANDRA VALIENTE
APRIL 3, 2017

PFLP

The Arab Left Forum convened in Tunis, Tunisia on March 24-26, 2017, under the slogan, “Palestine: 100 Years of Resistance,” with the participation of the Arab Left Forum and a number of friendly international parties, organizations and societies from the Arab world and from Asia, Europe, Africa and South America.

The conference included seven sessions, including the implication of current trends of global imperialism and colonialism in attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause within the framework of the “new Middle East project” and reproduction of the Sykes-Picot agreement, through fragmentation and encouragement of sectarianism and ethnic division.

Discussions also addressed the difference between Arab revolutionary movements and sectarian and reactionary frameworks and their impacts on the struggle of the Palestinian people against Zionist occupation, as well as the struggle of Palestinian political prisoners in Zionist prisons for freedom and liberation.

The discussion at the conference centered on action plans to support the Palestinian people and their liberation movement. Among the priorities identified at the conference was exposing and confronting Arab regimes’ and political parties’ normalization with the Zionist state, and confronting the liquidationist projects being proposed by the United States with Arab reactionary regimes as its accomplices. The participants were highly alert to the risk posed to the Palestinian cause by such projects aimed at undermining Palestinian resistance. In addition, the participants attacked the onslaught of international and regional alliances with imperialism that seeks to attack and divide Syria, Libya, Yemen, Iraq and Bahrain, leaving the Zionist entity as the regional political, economic and military dominant power.

The conferees also supported Arab mass popular struggles for national liberation, democratic change and social emancipation, denouncing serious violations against political parties and democracy by Arab dictatorships. The meeting expressed solidarity with the progressive movement in Bahrain, especially with the Wa’ad association against ongoing repression.

The participants issued a political declaration on the Palestinian and Arab struggle, under the title “Tunis Declaration to support the Palestinian Cause.”

The meeting of Arab left-wing parties gathered in Tunis for its eight conference, under the slogan, “Palestine: 100 Years of Resistance.” After discussion of the overall political situation, international and Arab issues and their repercussions on the Arab liberation movement in general and the future of the Palestinian cause, especially among the Arab popular masses and the forces of freedom and progress in the world, the conference declares the following:
1. The Palestinian cause has been and will continue to be the central issue of the Arab national liberation movement, which requires all to participate to support the people of Palestine and their national, democratic movement in resisting occupation and settlement and confronting the liquidationist projects aimed at destroying the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people by all legitimate means, including armed struggle.
2. The Zionist project is the spearhead of imperialist projects aimed at dismantling the Arab world and tearing apart its social fabric through encouraging and formulating sectarian and ethnic conflicts through the formation and support of reactionary, obscurantist, violent organizations and entities.
3. Confronting the Zionist project requires the mobilization of popular forces on the basis of social and national struggle to prevent Arab regimes from engaging in normalization and participating in liquidationist programs.
4. The revolutionary forces in the Arab world support the completion of the Arab struggle for national liberation, social and class justice and liberation, and democracy, against all counter-revolutionary projects.
5. The struggle of the Arab national liberation movement is a part of the struggle of the peoples of the world against imperialism, particularly US imperialism, reiterating its determination to develop relationships of struggle with the forces of freedom and progress in the world against class exploitation, national oppression, colonialism, racism, reactionary policies and wars of aggression.
6. The Arab left conference salutes the martyrs of the Arab national liberation movement and the people who have given their most precious life to liberate their countries and people, pledging to move forward toward achieving their goals. It also salutes all Palestinian and Arab prisoners in Zionist jails, saluting their ongoing struggle and, in particular, the leadership of Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in the prisoners’ struggle. The conference declares its solidarity and support and that of all the forces of progress and freedom in the world for their liberation.

They agreed also to some basic planning points for struggle:
* Organizing in the Arab world for Palestinian Prisoners’ Day to mobilize in all fields of struggle to liberate the prisoners
* Distribution of the report prepared by ESCWA on the Zionist entity’s violation of human rights in occupied Palestine
* Development and escalation of the political, economic, cultural and academic boycott movement gainst the Zionist state, building support at all levels and among unions, institutions and progressive parties around the world for this struggle
* Organizing a commission of jurists to support the Palestinian cause in the area of political and human rights with international bodies and international human rights organizations
* Arab action on May 15 (Nakba Day) to support the Palestinian Cause
* Coordinating with the continental and global left networks, including the Sao Paulo Forum and the African Left Network
* Contributing to marking the anniversary of the October Revolution, which exposed the Sykes-Picot agreement and gave new impetus to the Arab popular and national liberation movements.
* Including the Palestinian cause within the program of these celebrations to build international solidarity against imperialism and Zionism
* Calling upon the Palestinian Authority to end all political and security coordination with the Zionist entity ansd support the struggle of the Palestinians throughout occupied Palestine, including occupied Palestine ’48, who are daily facing displacement on an ongoing basis.

Finally, the conference urged the unity of progressive and left Palestinian forces to build victory for Palestinian rights, including the right to return for Palestinian refugees to all of the lands from which they were displaced, and Palestinian national liberation and self-determination with an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.

The conference also called for the institutionalization of the Arab left conference so as to ensure the unification of all left forces in the Arab struggle against imperialism, Zionism and their agents in the reactionary Arab regimes in order to achieve national liberation and Arab unity, democracy and social justice.

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