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Monday, August 17, 2009

Highlights of the Fatah platform

I finally got to see the full Fatah platform in Arabic from the recent conference. Some of the parts have not been publicized, such as:

* Fatah's insistence that terrorism ("armed struggle") is legal under international law

* Fatah rejecting the idea that Palestinian Arabs could become citizens of any other Arab country and preferring that they remain stateless

* Once again reaffirming that Islam is their official religion while at the same time saying that Israel is a Jewish state is "racism"

* Their glee at President Obama's attitudes towards them and assumption that the US will start to pressure Israel

* Their continued insistence that all "refugees" should "return" to Israel proper

* Their plan to continue to keep their people in miserable refugee camps as a symbol of their plight and to continue to take aid from the UN indefinitely

* The fact that the Israeli "peace" camps are an integral ally in their fight against Israel.


Here are some autotranslated highlights:

2. Methods and forms of struggle

Based on the struggle of the Palestinian people's right to resist occupation, and in the struggle against the settlements and the expulsion and deportation, and racial discrimination, a right guaranteed by laws and international laws. Launched our revolutionary armed struggle in the face of armed rape of our land, but not limited to never, and a variety of tools and methods to include the peaceful struggle, as practiced by the Intifada, demonstrations and protest and civil disobedience and confrontation against the gangs of settlers, and the struggle of political, media and legal, diplomatic, and negotiations with the occupation authority, and therefore, the right of the Palestinian people in the practice of armed struggle against the armed occupation of their territory is an inalienable right by the law and international law. The choice of method of the fight in time and space depends on ... internal and external conditions, the calculation of purchasing power and the need to maintain mobility, and on the ability of people to the revolution and resistance, and to continue the struggle.

3. Personal and independent national Palestinian identity:

Fatah's strategy is based on the Palestinian people and their struggle, and that there is no alternative to him from his homeland, and their movement have been made in all fields to confirm the independent national identity, and to stabilize the Palestinian identity, this identity is based in our our country, and our rejection of resettlement in neighboring Arab countries (as Arabs in our country and our neighborhood), or in any alternative homeland. The Movement believes that the affirmation of personal interest, the need to belong to the public and the nation and the basic social components.

6.Religions

Palestine is the holy land of the heavenly religions, Islam is the religion of the majority of the Palestinian people, which is the official religion of the authority of the state, and for the Christian the same sanctity and respect, do not allow the opening of any distinction between the Palestinians on the basis of religion, faith or the amount of faith, and respect freedom of worship for all, including Jews, our movement has been launched calling for a democratic, not sectarian Muslims, Christians and Jews.

Functions of the next phase:

The winds of change blowing in the United States, under new management, and it is likely to move away from the world single view, and is heading toward more balance and pluralism and dialogue, and commitment to international law.

In total there are strengths and weaknesses in our reality. There are the dangers we face, or avoid, the most important internal divisions, and centralization levels, and we must seize the opportunities there, including the opportunity offered by the defeat of the American project in the Middle East, and the end of an era which President Bush based on the use of excessive force in the conduct of American policy in the region, through the vision single of the world refuses to multilateralism, and international participation in decision-making, has also modified its policy to the U.S. on the conflict - the Iranian, the brightest flames of discord and division in our country and our region. may have a better chance under the new U.S. administration. The opportunities of new national and regional, is Arab reconciliation and the positive role of Turkey and the improvement in Iran's position towards us, the regional forces in the past, she was standing by the enemy and to establish closer alliances with him.

Our goal is to defeat the central occupation and liberation of the country, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and to ensure the right of refugees to return and compensation. For the next stage of our analysis shows the progress of tasks to be performed to achieve this goal are summarized in the face of occupation, settlement and the preservation of the land and the holy sites and its Arabism, and particularly in Jerusalem, and work on the release of prisoners, and to uphold the Bthoaptna[?], and the awakening of the various forms of struggle to defeat the occupation, and negotiating a course correction, but not limited acceptance, or to continue to no avail, and try to get through on the progress towards our goals, and to explore strategic alternatives if it failed to address the peace process in its current form, and continue to build the self - for the continuation of this confrontation.

2. Refugees: Fatah is committed to including the following:

A - to work hard to achieve the right of refugees to return, compensation and restoration of property, and the unity of the refugee issue, regardless of their whereabouts, including refugees in the territories (48).

The Movement believes the need to preserve the camp[s], a key witness to the political refugees who have been deprived from returning to their homes until a solution to their cause, and the need to adhere to the title of an international relief agency and a recognition of the cause of refugees until they return to their homes and their country, while working to improve the situation of refugees and the camps, with confirmation that the PLO is a political reference to Palestinian refugees.

B - emphasis on the rejection of the principle of forced resettlement, or advocacy of the alternative homeland, then resettled in Lebanon, nor an alternative homeland in Jordan.

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The right of resistance: stick to the Fatah movement against the Palestinian people to resist occupation by all legitimate means, including the exercise of their right to armed struggle, which is guaranteed by international law, as long as the occupation and settlement, and dispossession of the Palestinian people of their inalienable rights.

Forms of struggle in the current stage: adopting the Fatah movement of all forms of legitimate struggle, with the option of adhering to peace, but not limited to negotiations to achieve it, and it is this struggle between the forms of exercise that can be successful at the current stage of negotiations for the assignment and activated or alternatively that it did not achieve its goals:

# The awakening of the popular struggle against the settlements and the contemporary model is successful in the continuing confrontation Naalin and Bil'in against the settlements and the wall, and to save Jerusalem and the refusal of judaizing. Our mobilization of all citizens to engage in their activities, and participation of Arab and foreign roots, and provide all the help from the organs of the Authority for the success, leadership and issue mobility and popular and official of the main events.

# Innovation of new forms of struggle and resistance over the initiatives of grass-roots initiatives and the cadres of the movement, and the design of our people's resilience and resistance, including guaranteed by international law.

The restoration of our relationship with the direct and powerful Israeli peace camp, and re-activate it to work for a just peace without mixing with the unacceptable policy of normalization under occupation.