Deputy general secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Jamil Mezher, in interview with Al Mayadeen. Photo: Al Mayadeen.
Deputy Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Jamil Mezher, said in an interview with Al Mayadeen that the Palestinian factions have no choice but to escalate Resistance in the West Bank.
Mezher made this comment after delegations of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the PFLP met in Beirut. Mezher said that the meeting was held in Beirut because “the Lebanese capital is an incubator of resistance.”
“We are facing a grave danger threatening the Palestinian national cause,” he stressed, and added that “we must escalate the resistance to confront the occupation.”
Mezher pointed out that “strengthening battlefront unity is important to protect resistance fighters against the occupation,” because “the path of settlement and negotiation [with Israel] has brought nothing but disappointments and setbacks to our people.”
Regarding the resistance in the occupied West Bank, Mezher said that the West Bank is a major axis and arena for clashes with the Zionist occupation, and the resistance there is a fundamental pillar against the apartheid state’s onslaught.
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He emphasized that “the resistance fighters need protection in the face of Israeli aggression and the policy of assassinations,” noting that “the Israeli enemy believes that through raids and arrests in the West Bank, it can weaken the resistance.”
“All attempts by the Israeli enemy in the West Bank fail, as hundreds of young people are joining the resistance forces,” he continued. “The resistance operations that confuse the Israeli enemy are continuing and renewed on a daily basis.”
Mezher also stressed that “the qualitative and continuous development of the resistance adds new elements in confronting the Israeli enemy… this battle with the enemy is long and requires accumulation, development, and gathering of all components of power.”
“The resistance is recording great victories,” Mezher added. “It will lead to the enemy’s departure from our land, like how the occupation had to leave the Gaza Strip. The enemy must retreat and think about withdrawing from the occupied West Bank. This is an important step that we are working on, and all resistance forces must unite in that.”
“The continuation of resistance in the West Bank and its escalation and development could force the enemy to retreat and withdraw,” he added.
On the issue of the Palestinian Authority’s security coordination with Israel, Mezher stressed that it is causing great harm to the resistance and its elements, and that there are national consensus decisions to end it, but those decisions have been kept hidden. Mezher highlighted the necessity of “ending the security agreement with the occupation and complying with and implementing the national consensus decisions, which call for ending the relationship with the occupation and withdrawing recognition of it, and call on the Palestinian Authority to give the resistance the opportunity and space to move without restrictions or obstacles.”
Mezher also spoke about the current state of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). He explained that the PLO is supposed to be the sole political representative of the Palestinian people, but it needs to be rebuilt, and bring together all Palestinian forces. He said that the decisions issued by the PLO have remained a dead letter, and the methods of implementing them would require a Palestinian national dialogue.
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He also commented on the alleged Israel-Saudi normalization and its effect on Palestine. “Saudi Arabia is a central state in the Arab and Islamic world, and its involvement in normalization will cause great harm.”
“If Saudi Arabia gets involved in the issue of normalization, this will encourage other Arab parties to do the same,” Mezher continued.
He called on the Palestinians to reject all attempts of normalization with the Zionist entity. “If someone believes that normalizing relations and concluding agreements with the enemy can protect their thrones, then we say that the Arab peoples will not accept this cancerous body in their region, and what is required of the Palestinian side is to reject any offers of normalization in exchange for money and privileges, and to adhere to a clear political position on this issue.”
In an interview with Fox News released on September 20, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman admitted that Saudi Arabia was getting closer to normalizing ties with the Israeli occupation.
“Every day we are getting closer,” Bin Salman said when asked to describe the discussions focused on normalizing diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
A recent report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Palestine shows that the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli occupation forces in the occupied territories this year has already exceeded the total death toll for the entirety of 2022.
Israeli forces fatally shot 13 Palestinians in the West Bank between July 25 and August 10, including three children, the report detailed.
