PFLP, February 2, 2011

Comrade Hussein al-Jamal, member of the Central Committee of the Gaza branch of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said on February 2, 2011 that "the Front will never stand aside or claim neutrality toward popular revolution or the national liberation movements in the Arab world. Our Front stands beside all of the Arab people, and especially the peoples of Egypt and Tunisia at this time of their great revolutions."

In an interview with Gaza-based Voice of the People radio, Comrade Jamal said that the "clock of the Arab world will not go backwards, but instead forwards toward freedom and emancipation from oppression," adding that the victory of the Arab revolutions would deal a severe blow to Israel and the Zionist movement.

He noted that Israel is currently confused and carefully watching events in Egypt, and warned of attempts by the state meant to subvert the popular revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. Comrade Jamal said further that the common factor of these revolutions is their popular base and origin, and have a fundamentally progressive and leftist character.

Comrade Jamal related the revolutionary Arab movements to the Palestinian cause, saying that the Arab masses are raising slogans against Zionist occupation and normalization with the Israeli enemy as part of the national, patriotic, progressive direction of the popular uprising. He said that the basis for the revolution are the popular classes, seeking freedom from oppression, social justice, rights and dignity. He recalled the call for national dignity inspired by Mohammed Bouazizi, the Tunisian street vendor who burned himself alive in protest, sparking the Tunisian revolution, alongside the call of the Egyptian people for national dignity, and recalling the involvement of Palestinian workers in 1987 in demanding their dignity that sparked the Intifada.

Comrade Jamal warned against any attempt to suppress or divert the popular Intifada in Egypt and Tunisia in order to serve U.S. interests in the region. It has been clear from the beginning that the U.S. and Israel have been put on edge and greatly alarmed by the demonstrations, he said, as they represent mass rejection of U.S.-imposed, Israel-accommodating dictators.

He especially praised the involvement of Egyptian youth in the revolution, including the young leadership of the April 6 movement, pointing to the role of youth in a revolutionary moment, representing the present and the future.

In Lebanon, Comrade Marwan Abdel-Al, member of the Political Bureau of the PFLP spoke at a mass meeting in solidarity with the people of Egypt and Tunisia in Sidon. The hall filled with crowds of citizens, trade union activists, Palestinian organizations, and Lebanese progressive groups. Comrade Abdel-Al praised the revolutionary movements and said that Egypt's youth today are breaking the chains of the future and of history, and also lifting the restraints placed upon the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause.

He added that today in Tahrir Square the voice of Egypt is being heard and the spirit of Gamal Abdel Nasser appearing once more. He recalled Nasser's words that "what was taken by force can only be restored by force," as a seed-word of resistance planted in the generations that have come since and endured so much injustice through the years of dictatorship and defeat. He said that it was clear that through all these years, the people of Egypt have never accepted injustice, and that the limits of the revolution do not end at ending dictatorship and corruption. Comrade Abdel-Al noted that the Egyptian people and popular movements have always rejected normalization with Israel despite all attempts to force it upon them through trade and politics.

Furthermore, he praised the Egyptian and Tunisian activists who long stood against the regimes, enduring exile, deportation, torture and imprisonment, saying that their long years of work are bearing fruit today; he noted that the Arab regimes had rejected all calls for political social and economic reform and are now facing a people committed to change and true justice. He noted that "regime change" had been attempted to be imposed by the U.S., forcing separation and division upon the Arab people, which had always been rejected, but an entirely new type of regime change was being created today by the popular masses in the streets of Egypt and Tunisia, who were establishing new levels of unity in ridding themselves of their U.S.-sponsored dictatorships.

Dr. Osama Sa'ad, president of the Nazareth Popular Organization, also spoke at the event, saluting the Arab people and noting that this will lead to the collapse of regimes based on dependency, corruption and exploitation. Corrupt regimes, he said, will not survive in the face of the will for change among the Arab revolutionary people. He noted that victory in Egypt will change the face of the Arab world, prompting terror and alarm in Washington and Tel Aviv, and warned against all attempts and conspiracies to end the Intifada early and push people to accept superficial change while retaining the existing character of the regime.

The meeting included a phone call from Egypt from Amin Iskandar, of the Karama Party and involved in the Intifada, who saluted the support of the Lebanese people and called for support from all Arabs to stand beside the Egyptians, and said the Egyptian Intifada would continue until the end of the regime. He called for the public display of pictures of Gamal Abdel Nasser as a national symbol of the Egyptian people and the Arab nation who stands for social justice, independence and freedom and rejects colonialism. He said that Egypt today reemerges after a long absence to proclaim: no to slavery, no to subservience, no to America and Israel, yes to democracy, yes to resistance, yes to liberate the Palestinian people who have sacrificed so much and will earn victory in the end. He said that no matter how despotic the Mubarak regime becomes, the sun will shine and the Egyptian people will prevail.