Signature Campaign: Protest the Attack against Carlos the Jackal

A few days ago a scandal burst out in Palestine. My comrade Farouk Kaddoumi made an explanation about the people who were associated with the murder of Martyr Arafat, and he put the blame on Mohammed Dahlan and Mahmoud Abbas whom he claimed to participate in this complot he declared. This is a very delicate issue, and requires some assessments to be made, in my opinion.

On top of all, Arafat died after a very serious illness. Moreover, it wasn’t a natural death; he was poisoned. French authorities tried to cure Arafat, but they couldn’t. They applied the possible best treatment for him, but they weren’t successful at saving his life. They did not make an obvious or formal explanation about how and why he died. They didn’t want to. However, the implication of this behaviour turned the death of Arafat into a suspectful death. It is important to say that France does not have any association with the death of Arafat, they are not responsible for this. Arafat was in close relationship with France, their relations were good. In short, they tried everything possible to save his life.

Anyway, the situation in Palestine is very critical now. I had told you something about al-Fatah on the phone a few months ago. I told you that al-Fatah was an organization consisting of all kinds of Palestinians as the historical representative of Palestinian people. You can find every kind of person here from Muslim Brotherhood to Maoists, so al-Fatah has become the biggest organization in Palestine. It was open to everybody. Arafat was originally from Muslim Brotherhood and came there from Cairo, Egypt where he was born. Abu Iyad who was one of the founders of al-Fatah and Abu Jihad who was killed by Israel in Tunisia were from Muslim Brotherhood. And another founder coming from Kuwait was not among the Muslim brothers but among Arab nationalists. This person was responsible of representing the diplomatic branch of Palestinian resistance and he was making diplomatic negotiations around the world on behalf of Palestinian people. In other words, he was actually foreign affairs minister of Palestinian resistance. This person is Farouk Kaddoumi, that is “Abu al-Lutf”. He is the one who blamed Abbas and his clique of “assassination of Arafat”.

Now, why do I need to highlight this different identity or ideological origin between al-Fatah founders and Farouk Kaddoumi? Because of that: Muslim Brotherhood felt themselves closer to the United States of America rather than Soviet Union due to some ideological reasons. Because the USSR, essentially and formally had the qualification of an “atheist” regime. Therefore, Arafat and other al-Fatah founders were closer to the USSR not because of this qualification of regime but because of some strategical reasons. Because they needed the weapon, training and intelligence support of the USSR for military and strategical purposes. That is also why it was claimed that Arafat was directed by the ambassador of the USSR to Lebanon as the excuse of some Israeli attacks organized against Arafat to kill him.

However, in spite of all these things, the feelings were on the side of the USA. I tried to explain why above. Anti-American attitudes observed in the Arab world today are very new, and reflects the disturbance about the USA’s governments’ supporting Zionist policies. If we go back to the past, although Arafat was close to the USSR at a period of time, he did not close all the doors to the USA which was the leading supporter of Israel. He searched for strategical ways to use the USA for the good of Palestinian cause. After the collapse of the USSR, this way became more visible and Arafat’s following such a political way made Israel so much worried. Because the leading threat was Arafat for Israel, and a Palestine Liberation Organization which could take the support of the USA and could legalize the liberation cause of Palestine at international stage was much more dangerous for Israel than “fedai” organizations like anti-American PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine). Is it a treachery what Arafat did? Definitely no. It was a political line that intersected with other ideological and historical goals and what Israel did not like. It became so disturbing that Palestine cause was in the hand of Arafat, so he needed to be eliminated. And the ones who would do that would be the “CIA/al-Fatah” group and the traitors like Mohammed Dahlan. Dahlan was a person who could go to the West Bank or Gaza or Telaviv by plane whenever he wanted with his heavily armed guards, but the others could not do that.

Although Arafat seemed close to the USA, he was not ready to leave Palestine in a way that Israel demanded. He never consented to sign anything under such compromises, and this was a sufficient reason for the clique trained by CIA to eliminate him. This was a group which was much more hostile to Arafat than Israel or the USA. That’s why they cooperated with Israel to kill Arafat. If Farouk Kaddoumi can put such a heavy blame on these people today, he surely must have enough data to prove it. I’m in prison now and I don’t have the opportunity to confirm or contradict the things remotely or criticize the evidence thoroughly. But again, if a reliable person who is an Arab nationalist, radically Baath supporter, ideologically anti-American, and has never got involved in covert cooperations with America like others says these words, it means the situation is really serious.

I would like to add another thing: It was surely Farouk Kaddoumi who had to be leader after the death of Arafat since he was the chief of Palestine Liberation Organization. What happened and Mahmoud Abbas took over the administration? It is full of crucial question marks. Moreover, Palestine does not only consist of the lands we know today, there are much larger “historical” Palestine lands, and there is a very big Palestinian community living out of Palestine. Kaddoumi is the legal leader of all these people as the leader of Palestine Liberation Organization and the resistance, and he had to be the formal government leader. However, Mahmoud Abbas who governs Palestinians in a narrow area took over the power. We have to see the trick under that. He is the representative of a minority today. And, it is also an important point to consider that after the death of Arafat in France, the medical report prepared by French doctors was given to this group of authorities, in other words, pseudo authorities of Palestinian government.

I believe that the clarifications should be made in a political framework among Muslims. Violance should be used only for Israel and Zionist allies. And, I think the members of that clique should be eliminated in this way. They shall leave Palestine and live in the USA as refugees. If they won’t, then they shall pay for their crimes against Palestinian cause. After Mahmoud Abbas’s signing the treaty in Oslo, we are compromising Islam and with enemies of Islam. These have to be investigated. These are extremely disturbing.

Everything in the Middle East was left to supposedly good will of the USA. After Abbas’s signature in Washignton, all the doors were opened for him around the world, he can go wherever he wants, but the same doors are wanted to be closed for the independent future of Palestine. Before the assassination of Arafat organized by them, you know that in what conditions he resisted in Ramallah after he was surrounded by Israeli commandos and isolated from the world. Arafat told me in Beirut, in 1979, holding my hands: “I have a single aim: liberating at least one square meter of these Palestinian lands one day and placing our flag!”. Where is Arafat, where are the supporters of him now? Only Kaddoumi did not surrender to America and the others, and he is the only legitimate leader of the legal Al-Fatah, Palestine Liberation Organization and Palestinian people. This right has been extortioned from him.

I was sad about the clashes between Hamas and al-Fatah in the past, but now I’m thinking: Did Hamas have no other alternative?