Palestinian United National Leadership "declares the launch of a comprehensive popular struggle which will draw inspiration from the intifadas"
Headline: “The United National Leadership of the Popular Resistance declares its measures to fight ‘the deal of the century’ and the normalization agreements”
The following is the full text of a statement by the United National Leadership of the Popular Resistance – a committee to oversee and direct the “popular resistance” that was established following the meeting of the Secretary Generals of the Palestinian factions on Sept. 3, 2020. Together with Fatah, the committee includes representatives of internationally designated terror organizations such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The statement was broadcast on official PA TV under the headline “Announcement number 1”
“The United National Leadership of the Popular Resistance
‘O you who have believed, persevere and endure and remain stationed and fear Allah that you may be successful’ [Quran 3:200, Sahih International translation], Allah spoke truth
Our heroic Palestinian people in the homeland and in the diaspora, masses of the members of our Arab and Islamic nation, free people in the world
‘If the people will wish to live one day, fate must accede’ (i.e., a quote from a famous poem by Tunisian poet Aboul-Qacem Echebbi)
Out of our reliance on Allah, and out of our faith in our historical right to our land, our homeland, and our Jerusalem, we are fighting with our living flesh and the exposed chests of our sons against the occupation’s state terror and its military vehicles. We are making great sacrifices while standing proudly and crowding on the first line of defense of our Arab, Islamic, and human depth, its values, its interests, and the legitimacy of its existence.
In order to implement the decisions of the Sept. 3 [2020] conference of the secretary-generals of the national action factions, we declare the launch of a comprehensive popular struggle, which will only stop when the national independence of the State of Palestine whose capital is Jerusalem is achieved.We draw inspiration for its actions and stages from our people’s intifadas from the 1920s until this day.
We call on the members of our lauded Palestinian people, the Arab peoples, and the free people in the world to stand by Palestine – the spearhead of those who are standing firm – whose swords are directed against our central enemy [Israel] that is crouching on the lands of our state and our Jerusalem. This is in order to revive the Arab front that supports our legitimate struggle against the occupation, the deal of the century (i.e., refers to US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan), and the Arab normalization; and in order to thwart the agreements of disgrace and treason that were signed by the rulers of the UAE and Bahrain (refers to peace agreements with Israel; see note below –Ed.), so that they will meet the fate of those who betrayed and conspired in the 1940s; and also in order to close the gates of the embarrassing collapse of these governments and their supporters before the occupation state.
We rely on our unity, which we will restore and strengthen through resistance and sacrifice, and we promise you that we will not again allow anyone to manipulate our people’s unity, to bypass our principles, and to destroy what we have agreed upon, while we are determined and committed to the following permanent principles of our popular struggle activity in the homeland and in the diaspora:
1. Comprehensive popular resistance and activity – in its human, liberating, and cultural nature – will break out at a growing pace that will develop to the point of its loftiest forms on the lands of the State of Palestine.
2. Our resistance will be managed at a harmonious pace in all the occupied Palestinian territories, and foremost among them Jerusalem, in accordance with the circumstances and data on the ground and in a comprehensive social, political, and geographic manner, under one slogan: Thwarting the deal of the century, ending the occupation, uprooting the settlement enterprise, realizing national independence, and ensuring the [Palestinian refugees’] right of return. It will develop out of a self-dynamic, in accordance with the developments on the ground.
3. It is necessary to implement active deeds and implement methods to defend the lives and dignity of the residents, their holy sites, and their property against the settlers’ terror that is being carried out under the auspices and protection of the occupation army. It is necessary to implement popular resistance measures on the ground, to restore the honor to the popular mass struggle, and to respond in the same manner to the Israeli attacks, out of the principle of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth on the occupied lands of the State of Palestine and Jerusalem. This is a priority in our plan of struggle, until we reach the point of comprehensive national rebellion.
4. The Palestinian flag is the only umbrella in whose shade all the activities in the homeland and in the diaspora are carried out.
Therefore, we call on you as follows:
1. To view Sept. 15 [2020] (i.e., the day of the signing of the peace treaties between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain at the White House) as a day of popular rejection and intifada in the homeland, on which Palestinian flags will be waved in our cities, our villages, and our refugee camps in the homeland and in all the places where our communities are located, in order to express our firm rejection of the waving of the flag of the occupation, of murder, and of racism from the flagpole of lowliness in Abu Dhabi and Manama (i.e., the capitals of the UAE and Bahrain respectively).
We call on the living forces, the non-governmental organizations, and the students’ and women’s organizations in our entire beloved Arab world to wave the flag of Arab honor and the Palestinian flag, as a condemnation and rejection of the agreement of disgrace on this black day.
2. We call on our released prisoners, the families of our heroic Martyrs, and the families of the Martyrs whose bodies are being held in the occupation’s numbered cemeteries (i.e., Israeli cemeteries for temporary burial of terrorists) to hold rallies on Sept. 15, 2020, condemning the agreement of disgrace in all the districts of the homeland.
3. We call on the Palestinian, Arab, and Islamic communities, and also on the free people and the democratic forces in the world, to demonstrate in front of the embassies of the US, the occupation state, the UAE, and the Kingdom of Bahrain on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020, in order to condemn the agreements of disgrace.
4. We call on the masses of members of our nation and our people – and especially in the [refugee] camps of heroism and return in the homeland and abroad – to commemorate on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020, the memorial day of the Martyrs of Sabra and Shatila (see note below –Ed.), who died under the cleavers of the occupation (sic., they were killed by Christian Phalangists, Israel was uninvolved in the incident), which Abu Dhabi and Manama are waving its flag over their bowed heads.
5. To view Friday, Sept. 18, 2020, as a day of mourning, on which black flags will be waved in all the squares, buildings, and homes in order to denounce the ‘US-Israel-UAE-Bahrain’ agreement. The churches will ring bells as a sign of mourning, and Friday sermons will be a eulogy for the regimes of heresy that betrayed the central cause of the Arabs and Muslims.This will be accompanied by activities at all the friction points in the territories of the Northern Districts (i.e., the West Bank).
6. We welcome the initiative of the coalition of Palestinian and Arab organizations and the American democratic forces to organize protest activities in Washington, the capital of the US, on the day of the signing of the normalization agreement between the governments of Abu Dhabi and Manama [and Israel]. Members of our people, we call on you to abandon the disagreements, to freeze all the [personal] agendas, and to unite and participate in this popular struggle for liberation.There is no voice louder than the voice of the resistance. Let our Palestinian flags continue to wave, let our compass remain stable, and let our faith in Allah and the justice of our cause remain ingrained and rooted in us. We promise that we will not return the sword to the sheath until our independent and fully sovereign state whose capital is occupied Jerusalem is established, and until the problem of the refugees is resolved in accordance with international law, with their return to their lands.
Praise and mercy for our Martyrs, honor for our prisoners, healing for our wounded
This is a revolution and resistance until victory, until victory
Long live free and Arab Palestine
The United National Leadership of the Popular Resistance
Jerusalem, Palestine”
The Trump peace plan – US President Donald Trump announced his Israel–Palestinian peace plan "Peace to Prosperity" – commonly known as “the deal of the century” - on Jan. 28, 2020. Main points of the plan: 1- Israeli sovereignty would be applied to the Jordan Valley and all Israeli towns and cities in the West Bank. 2- Jerusalem, including all its holy sites, would remain under Israeli sovereignty with accommodations made to enable access for Palestinians. 3- The remainder of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and part of what is currently Israeli land in the Negev, the Galilee, and Jerusalem - creating a territory almost equal in size to the West Bank and Gaza Strip - would form the Palestinian state, with its capital in neighborhoods in East Jerusalem that are outside of Israel's security wall. 4- The Palestinian state would be demilitarized, with Israel responsible for external security and controlling all airspace. 5- All Palestinian prisoners except murderers, and those who attempted or conspired to murder would be released. 6- Palestinians in refugee camps would be absorbed into their host countries and, subject to certain limitations, into the Palestinian state. 7- Before becoming a state, the Palestinians would have to carry out extensive reform of their laws and institutions, including implementing a new governing system; granting its people due process and basic human rights and freedoms; end all incitement to and incentivizing of terror; end all glorification of terror and martyrdom; disarm Hamas; and adopt a culture promoting peace. The goal of the plan is to create a Palestinian state beside Israel, living in peace and security. The implementation would be facilitated through extensive international investment.
Israeli peace agreements with the UAE and Bahrain
The Cemeteries for Enemy Casualties (numbered cemeteries) are two burial sites maintained by the Israeli army for burying the bodies of enemy soldiers during wartime as well as terrorists. They are fenced and well-marked. Graves have markers instead of gravestones. Burial is temporary, as the bodies are eventually returned to their countries of origin. No ceremony is held. The bodies are buried in numbered caskets after their identities are documented.
Sabra and Shatila are Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. In 1982, during the first Lebanon War, Muslim residents of the camps were massacred by Christian Phalangists. The PA has a longstanding policy of falsely accusing Israel of committing the massacre or actively helping to carry it out.