From: "Stasi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Peoples War] Palestine: Intifada Gives New Life To Radical Left - AFP AFP. 8 September 2001. Intifada gives new lease of life to radical Palestinian left. ===================================== RAFAH, Gaza Strip -- The militarisation of the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation has given a new lease of life to the radical Palestinian left, marginalised since the 1993 Oslo accords. "The intifada has provided them with a unique opportunity to restore their credibility," Palestinian political analyst Ziad Abu Amr says. Following the collapse of the Communist bloc, it had become very difficult for the marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) to survive on a political scene "polarised by (Yasser Arafat's) Palestinian Authority and Hamas," the dominant Palestinian Islamic group, Abu Amr says. But at the end of August, scores of red flags dotted the funeral processions for two DFLP activists killed in a daring raid against an Israeli military position and for an assassinated PFLP leader, Abu Ali Mustafa, bearing witness to a revival. "They have made progress since the start of the intifada (uprising)," says the head of the Palestinian centre for public opinion, Nabil Kokali, estimating support for the PFLP at around 8 percent after its leader's assassination by Israel. Before then, support oscillated around 4-5 percent, far from its level in the seventies, when George Habash's PFLP made world headlines with spectacular airplane hijackings. "We are not starting from scratch; the PFLP has a history and bases among the Palestinian people," says Imad Abu Rahma, a member of the movement's central committee in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah. Meanwhile, Talal Abu Zarifa, the DFLP's spokesman in the Gaza Strip, says "many youths call us." He adds that his organisation had no intention of resting on the laurels of its latest daring feat, when two of its men penetrated an Israeli army position in an embarrassing breach of the army's defences. "There will soon be an operation in the very heart of the settlements," he says, explaining that the DFLP, the first Palestinian movement to have supported negotiations with Israel, has set "the liberation of the territories occupied since 1967 as its priority." Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's escalating military response to the intifada has broken down some of the barriers between the various Palestinian movements, creating a sort of "holy union." The secular DFLP and PFLP no longer hesitate to carry out joint operations with the radical Islamists of Hamas and its smaller rival, Islamic Jihad. When asked about the resumption of armed fighting and bombings on Israeli territory, options his movement had rejected for several years, Gaza Strip PFLP leader Jamil al-Majdalawi says the reasons are both strategic and political. "At the end of December, when the intifada was still only a popular uprising, we already had 400 dead. We made this decision to get the message across (to Israel) that there was a price to pay for occupation," he says. "Naturally, I favour attacks against soldiers or settlers, but it has become very difficult to hit the army," Majdalawi adds, justifying bombings as the only way to take the army by surprise. After the assassination of its leader on August 27, the PFLP vowed to strike US or Israeli interests abroad. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
