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Khaled Barakat is a Palestinian writer in Canada. Welcome, Khaled.
Hello.
Khaled, what is your first impression on the General Strike on July 15 in Palestine?
I think that is always important when we discuss settlements, land confiscation and land theft, to go back to 1948 and what happened starting the Zionist occupation to this area
or to any other area. We always have to start from here, the Nakba of 1948 and the relationship between then and the Prawer Project, because - what is the project? It is the project of confiscation of properties of Palestinians who were displaced
in 1948 They are confiscating 360000 dunum from the Western Naqab,
and 240000 from Al-Azazma Area of the Naqab, and unfortunately people do not know that the size of Al-Naqab is over half of the homeland.
It is twice the size of the West Bank, 12000 sq kilometers. When they confiscate these lands they will push our people in the Naqab to be isolated. 200000 Arab Palestinians who are Bedouins will be isolated in 1% of their land.
These episodes of uprooting and displacement are happening under the eyes of the world and it is a continuation of the Nakba that started in 1948.
And today we see it in front of our eyes, attempting to destroy over 35 Palestinian villages and completely destroy them and all of this is taking place under the pretext of the development of the Naqab
and what they call the "resettling of the Bedouins," and it is not resettlement of Bedouins
it is uprooting them and stealing their land.
Khaled, do you think that the strike was successful , and was supported by activities in the occupied West Bank and Gaza?
First the strike was successful and second of all there is a long history of resistance in al-Naqab,
by the Bedouin. This is 65 years of resistance. Many Israeli projects have failed over the past to implement these policies,
in 1980 the enemy said that they will confiscate 100,000 dunum and they did ironically under the pretext of war with Egypt [ironic because Camp David was signed in 1979]
but before that and after that all of their projects have failed. But today, they feel that there is an opportunity to implement this plan for many reasons.
One, the Palestinian people are living a crisis of its national liberation project. The main reason is the existence of the so-called Palestinian leadership in Ramallah.
This leadership in Ramallah is abandoning our people in the Naqab today and they said clearly that they are not responsible for the Palestinian people.
Therefore this leadership needs to stop its nonsense about being the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people,
because if you want to be the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, all of our embassies around the world
need to be mobilized in their full capacity to confront this dangerous plan. And all of our representatives in the United Nations should be mobilized with full capacity
and strength and mobilize the Arabs and our friends in the world to confront this plan. But why the silence from this Palestinian leadership in Ramallah?
And why they are being complicit with this Israeli plan
to the extent that the PLO disclaimed a solidarity statement with our people in the Naqab
that was issued under its name?
But there is a confidence that what is happening today is going to regain the strength of the Palestinian national movement
and its unity, and it will confront this plan and defeat it.
In the context of what you were saying, there were many rejections and demonstrations in front of the PLO
in Ramallah on the day of the strike. I don't know the demands,
what do you think, are these demonstrations timely at the time? Is it a start to rebuild the PLO in its entirety?
Yes, These are events that were responses to the call by the National Committee against Normalization
and youth groups in occupied Palestine. This is a continuation of efforts
and proves that our people are engaged in many battles, and on many levels.
Particularly in the face of normalization, because the demonstration you are pointing to,
the demand was the expulsion of Yasser Abed Rabbo and Nabil Shaath, and they chanted slogans
that demanded the their expulsion, particularly Yasser Abed Rabbo, because he is the secretary of the Executive Committee of the PLO.
They are receiving the killers of the Palestinian people
and the criminals of Shas, Kadima and Likud in the headquarters of the PLO.
Things have never been at such a deep level of degradation.
The truth is they are challenging our people's feelings and they distort the image
of the Palestinian humanity and its struggle and the justice of their cause,
because they are a group of mercenaries and slaves
who claim they represent the Palestinian people. There are efforts
and those efforts will continue to expel them and in this context
I want to salute the position of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine,
on their position in the last meeting of the Executive Committee,
the representative of the PFLP. She demanded the expulsion of Abed Rabbo from his position as secretary of the Executive Committee.
OK, Khaled, let's turn to the file of the resumption of negotiations. Today,
the Palestinian Authority and Mahmoud Abbas have accepted
the resumption of negotiations with the occupation state. Some news agencies
have reported that the resumption of the negotiations is going to be:
without conditions, with the freezing of the refugee file for five years,
pumping money from Israeli banks to the Palestinian Authority,
fourth, an agreement on the security file, and fifth, to secure the temporary borders in order to be secure borders,
sixth, that Palestinians will declare that Israel is a state with sovereignty in front of the international community, seventh, an airport in Ramallah,
eighth, to support the Palestinian Authority and its security with all of its needs in order to carry out its role to maintain security in the West Bank,
and ninth, freezing of the Jerusalem file until further notice.
Yes, and all of this affirms what we just said. That who negotiates today does not represent the Palestinian people
and our people must know that they are not bound by any agreement
that Mahmoud Abbas and his team sign. Whether it was Oslo agreement in September
1993, this does not commit Palestinians to it, or any other
agreement that Abbas will sign today.
In two months, it will have been 20 years that passed since the signing of Oslo.
These leaders are taking our people into more of a labyrinth
and a road of futility and a path of disaster, Fateh and Hamas
must recognize that the cause of our people is being lost
and they should present a model for Palestinian national unity,
in confronting the real threats that are facing our people.
Isn't the priority now for the hunger strikers and the 5,200 Palestinian men and women prisoners and detainees in the enemy's prisons?
Isn't the priority today for the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria, to be the first item on the Palestinian national agenda?
Isn't the priority for us today to support the steadfastness of our people in Gaza and to break this brutal siege imposed upon the Strip?
This is the priority of our people. But these defeated leaders
are going today into a new Oslo.
The masses of our people must reject and confront and say to Mahmoud Abbas
and Yasser Abed Rabbo and all of these so-called leaders: Enough!
We will not accept to see our people
and our cause is being lost in exchange for a few dollars.
Who's going to get those billions of dollars
that Kerry is promising them? Munib al-Masri and his class
that is dominating the Palestinian political decision.
Those are the ones who are going to be benefiting from airports, products and security agencies.
But is this the priority of our people? This is the question.
Thank you. This was Khaled Barakat,
Palestinian writer and journalist, speaking to us from Canada. Thank you.
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