CYM Statement on PFLP

On the 46th Anniversary of the Founding of the PFLP

On this, the 46th anniversary year of the founding of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Connolly Youth Movement wishes to send its fraternal greetings and congratulations to our comrades in Palestine fighting the Zionist occupation of their homelands.

From its founding in 1967 by George Habash, and throughout these past 46 years of its existence, the PFLP has remained steadfast in its resistance to perpetual Zionist aggression. Throughout its 46 years of struggle, the PFLP has continuously brought the plight of the people of Palestine to the attention of the whole world, and has defended those same courageous people with honour and dignity. During the massacre of innocent men, women and children in Gaza in November 2012, the PFLP, along with other groups, were to the fore in resisting Israel’s attacks, answering each bomb and missile in kind and showing the world that the Palestinian people will not simply lie down in the face of imperialist aggression, but will tenaciously defend themselves.

Further, the PFLP has always rejected the notion that there can be any settlement or ‘peace’ with the racist, apartheid state of Israel as long as it continues to occupy stolen Palestinian land, incarcerate millions of Palestinians in open-air prisons such as the Gaza strip, and refuse millions more Palestinian refugees the right to return to the lands and homes that were so brutally stolen from them upon the creation of the artificial Zionist state in 1948. The PFLP has consistently opposed the cul-de-sac of US-sponsored ‘peace talks’ with Israel, seeing them for what they are - mere distractions from the struggle for true freedom and democracy in Palestine. The fact remains that US imperialism was and is the driving force behind the Zionist state’s criminal acts in Palestine, and any so-called ‘peace’ brokered by such charlatans must be seen for the hypocritical sham it is.

Today, as we speak, the PFLP has several hundred members incarcerated by the Zionist state, among them the General Secretary of the Front, Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat. We call on the Zionist state to immediately release Comrade Sa’adat, along with all political prisoners and prisoners of war unjustly held in Zionist cages for the sole ‘crime’ of resisting the occupation of their lands.

On this, the 46th anniversary year of the founding of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, we salute the martyrs Ghassan Khanafani, George Habash, Abu Ali Mustafa, and all those who have given their lives for the cause of freedom and socialism. We wish our comrades in the PFLP the greatest success and total victory in their struggle to build a single, democratic, egalitarian society in all of historic Palestine, where people of all religions and none can live in peace, with full economic and social freedom.