[News] Leila Khaled: Palestinians united behind resistance

[Anti-Imperialist News]

*Leila Khaled: Palestinians united behind resistance

*
Published yesterday (updated) 11/12/2012 13:05
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=546716

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian people are united behind the 
resistance, which is legitimate as long as Israel occupies Palestinian 
land, national icon Leila Khaled said Monday.

"Your people in the diaspora kiss the ground you walk on because it's 
the land of Palestine," Khaled told crowds during a visit to the 
northern Gaza home of Naem al-Kafarneh, who was killed by Israeli forces.

"In your last battle, you registered epic resistance and determination," 
said Khaled, a politburo member and former fighter of the Popular Front 
for the Liberation of Palestine. "We heard pride ... the voice of 
resistance and determination."

Israel's eight-day operation on Gaza, which ended with a ceasefire on 
Nov. 21, would not be the last war, Khaled said, adding that Israel's 
aggression began in 1948.

"I don't expect to win after the first half of the battle, it's an open 
battle that is being transferred through generations," she said.

Khaled said lessons must be drawn from the war, and warned that Israel 
would continue to strike the resistance and to attack Palestinian 
steadfastness through its blockade and by destroying homes.

"We do not accept this occupation to remain on Palestinian land," she 
said, adding that Israel should be assured "our left hand is always on 
the trigger."

Khaled, from Haifa, was among hundreds of thousands of Palestinians 
forced to flee their homes during the creation of Israel in 1948, a 
period remembered by Palestinians as the Nakba, or catastrophe.

"We are the generation of the Nakba ... We tell all martyrs we are still 
committed to the testament and your blood will not be wasted.

"I tell all prisoners, you are our heroes who lit the light for us to 
Haifa, Jaffa and Akka. This is what I have learned from the PFLP and 
from the determination and resistance of our people."

Khaled warned that the rights of millions of Palestinian refugees to 
return to their homes could not be bargained away, and said Palestinians 
had died for this right.

She demanded that Palestinian leaders reconcile, and end all 
negotiations and security coordination with Israel.

"The Palestinian people didn't struggle for two governments -- one in 
the West Bank and one in Gaza -- but for one homeland," the right to 
return and independence.

"To the leaderships, you must listen to your people who united in 
marches and protests in all places and revolted in 48 areas and the West 
Bank, they revolted in refugee camps and the right of return for them 
became closer that they expected."

She sent greetings to jailed PFLP leader Ahmad Saadat: "You will come 
out to freedom, you and all prisoners."

"We are determined to follow your path and the path of our founder, 
George Habash and Abu Ali Mustafa and before them Wadi Haddad and 
Ghassan Kanafani."

Khaled arrived in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and has toured homes, a 
hospital and a kindergarten in the enclave, surveying sites destroyed 
during Israel's last war.

She gained worldwide notoriety for hijacking an airplane in 1969, which 
she rerouted to Damascus and blew up after passengers had disembarked. 
She has said the pilot flew over her childhood home in Haifa at her 
instruction.

The PFLP icon then had plastic surgery to alter her appearance before 
hijacking an El-Al flight out of Rome in 1970, when her accomplice was 
shot dead by Israeli agents. She was briefly detained in London and 
freed in a prisoner swap deal.

No passengers were harmed on either flights, and Khaled has said the 
hijackings aimed to bring international attention to the plight of 
Palestinians.

She resides in Amman in Jordan.

-- 
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