Monday, December 1, 2008

Leila Khaled: The entire Palestinian people and Arab nation must unite for the right to return

Comrade Leila Khaled, member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, stated that the achievement of the right of return requires collective work of a united Palestinian people and the entire Arab nation and the full involvement of Palestinians in exile, noting that Arab and international dimensions are key elements in the right of return.

She made these statements at the Arab and International Forum on the Right of Return in Damascus, Syria, on November 25, 2008, noting that the right of return is the key to the resolution of the Palestinian issue, and that without the return, all so-called negotiations and agreements are pointless. She drew particular attention to the Palestinian internal division, stating that this division is like a dagger in the side of our cause and a roadblock in the face of the national project of the Palestinian people.

Comrade Khaled emphasized that the right of return faces serious challenges today, from settlements, closure, isolation, Judaization and Zionisation programs and mass imprisonment and arrests, and called for upholding the resistance that has been proven successful in expelling occupation in Lebanon and throughout the Arab world. She noted that any attempt to destroy our right to return is doomed to failure and that it is our human right and our right under international law, and that conspiracies and programs designed to undermine our rights will indeed fail in the face of popualr mobilization.

Comrade Khaled said that "The Palestinian struggle and the Arab struggle for freedom, despite displacement and settlement projects, will win our right to return, and through unity, struggle and armed resistance we will obtain our rights and all of our rights as Arab people, and our rights as humans, to be free, to return, and to live as free people with self-determination."

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