Meanwhile, in still-growing collaboration with the Americans and Israelis, King Abdullah has ordered further arrests and stepped-up repression in Jordan against those trying to demonstrate on behalf of the Palestinians. Beginning Saturday evening just days after the King's meetings in Washington with President Bush and Secretary of State Powell dozens of agents from the Jordanian General Intelligence Department (the Mukhabarat) began storming the homes of people who took part in a pro-Palestine march that marked the first anniversery of the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada.

Damascus, Syria Sept. 30, 2001

In commemoration of the first year of the Intifada, 350 delegates representing seven Palestinian organizations and scores of Palestinian activists in the diaspora met in Damascus on Sunday Sept. 30, 2001. The gathering, which convened under the title of ‘The Popular Palestinian Conference for the Support of the Intifada’, was attended and chaired by the first-line leaders of Palestinian opposition organizations and independent activists from across Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and elsewhere.

Some of those addressing the conference were:

1) Khaled Mashaal, the head of Hamas, and the Chairperson of the Conference

2) Abu Musa, the Secretary General of Fateh/ Intifada

3) Ramadan Shallah, the head of the Islamic Jihad

4) Ahmad Jibril, the Secretary General of the PFLP/General Command

5) Bahjat Abu Gharbiyah, speaking for the independents

6) Arabi Awad, the Secretary General of the Palestinian Revolutionary Communist Party

7) Issam Al Qadi, the Secretary General of Al Saiqah Organization

8) Abu Nidal Al Ashkar, the Secretary General of the Palestinian Liberation Front

9) Tareq Al Khadrah, the Chief of Staff of the Palestinian Liberation Army based in Syria,

There were also speakers representing popular committees in support of the Intifada in several Arab countries, including Syria and Sudan.

A final statement issued by the Conference proclaimed its TOTAL OPPOSITION TO ANY ATTEMPT TO PUT AN END TO THE INTIFADA, and vowed to throw the weight of the delegates behind the continuation of the resistance until the occupation is defeated and the Palestinian right of return is achieved.

The statement OPPOSED as well THE CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT RECENTLY DECLARED, the Mitchell and the Tenet Reports, any form of security coordination with the invader by Arafat’s authority, and harking back to the vicious cycle of fruitless negotiations. Instead, “the Palestinian Popular Conference embraces the principle that what has been taken away by force can only be retrieved by force. Thus, IMPROVING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE STRUGGLE AND THE JIHAD HAS BECOME A PALESTINIAN IMPERATIVE… for the Intifada does not seek to improve the conditions of the [so-called ‘peaceful’] settlement or to obtain more percentage points [of our land]. The Intifada is directed in fact against ALL such settlements. It is a resistance movement that seeks to defeat the racist Zionist regime of terrorism, and to liberate Palestine”. In short, the delegates asserted their commitment to the program of Intifada and resistance, and the right of return. No so-called ‘peace talks’ are worth giving away an iota of our people’s rights, the Conference declared.

The statement, which was approved unanimously by the delegates, called for ‘activating pro-Intifada committees across Arab and Islamic countries to break the siege that some circles are trying to impose on the liberation struggle in Palestine’. It went on to greet all activists opposing normalization with the invader in the Arab and Islamic Worlds. In that sense, “the Conference emphasizes that supporting the Intifada, and making victory really possible, means that the Intifada should be ARABIZED, in the full sense of the word”.

[For the record, the committee that drafted the Final Statement of the Palestinian Popular Conference for the Support of the Intifada was made up of six delegates, three representing Palestinian opposition groups, and three representing independents, one of whom was Abu Maher Al Yamani, the FORMER politbureau member of the PFLP, and one representing FAV. Thus, those claiming to speak for Palestinians in international forums will sooner or later have to come to grips with the FACT that the statements above represent the sentiments of very large portions of the Palestinian people. Allow me to state it very simply: Palestine has been occupied by the invader, and so, the invader MUST LEAVE].

Needless to say, daring to host the openly defiant Palestinian Popular Conference for the Support of the Intifada was a gutsy move by Syria, especially in the aftermath the events of September 11 and the U.S. government’s attempt to manipulate the international reaction to those events into a full scale war on Arabs and Muslims. Subsequently, the delegates of the Palestinian Conference for the Support of the Intifada wired an open letter of appreciation to Syria’s President Bashar Al Assad for hosting their meeting at a time when the U.S. government is purposely trying to blur the line between legitimate resistance against oppression and terrorism, such as “the attempt of the U.S. government to terrorize Arab and Islamic states under the pretext of harboring Palestinian resistance organizations and other liberation movements”.

Finally, the Conference issued a call to the Palestinian people to nurture Palestinian unity *IN THE FIELD *, ON THE BASIS OF THE CONTINUATION OF THE ARMED STRUGGLE, AND THE PROGRAM OF THE TOTAL LIBERATION OF PALESTINE. In other words, Palestinian unity is important only to the extent it can lead to achieving liberation, not in an of itself, as some try to make it, in order to enable a defeatist and an incompetent leadership to bargain away Palestinian national rights in exchange for perks and power in the shadow of the invader.