Newspaper
Hoy
Buenos
Aires, February 24, 1988
Interviewing Suhail Akel, a representative from the Palestine Information Office in Argentina
New generations have overcome fear (view)
-What do you think of this terrible repression which has been unleashed against the Palestinian people?
-We believe that Zionism has come out into the open. It is showing itself as it really is. World public opinion ratified its condemnation by means of UN resolution 3379 (11-10-1975) which compares Zionism with racism. This ominous Israeli repression is not something new for Palestinians. On the contrary, this is typical of the Zionist policy, taking into account Deir Yassin’s massacre in 1948, Sabra and Chatila and the main objective of uprooting and exterminating the Palestinian people these days.
-With a population of 5,000,000 and 1,700,000 people living under the occupation, aren’t there great risks of extermination?
-In June 1969, Zionist Golda Meir told the Sunday Times: “There is no such a thing called Palestinians, they did not exist simply”. On the other hand, on October 18, 1973, the president of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament), David Hacahen, expressed that “they are not human beings, they are not people, they are Arabs”. He was clearly referring to my people. Nevertheless, neither the 40-year dismemberment of Palestine nor all the power of the English imperialism and colonialism were able to put an end to the heroic Palestinian people. Today those Palestinians who are on the streets are the new generations of children and young people who have overcome fear –our last enemy. They have unleashed a heroic war of stones against the murderous bullets of the occupation. This proves that the Yanki-Zionist imperialism has not succeeded in carrying out its disintegration objective. The Palestinian people are stronger that ever for the liberation of their land because we are struggling for a conviction: Palestine, a National Identity which is the OLP and an undisputed guide: Yasser Arafat.
-According to you, which could be the way out of this problem?
-We expect our martyr people to get a dignified peace. We believe that the solution could take place within the framework of the United Nations by means of an International Peace Conference with the 5 permanent members of the Security Council and the participation of all parts in conflict, including the PLO –a sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. The PLO has accepted this proposal, the progressive Jews and Israelis have also accepted it and they have met in Rumania and Budapest. In Argentina, progressive Jews have publicly met with us by means of a Palestinian Jewish Round Table (30-7-87) where the WPP has participated giving its support. This proves that we, Palestinians, have no differences with those Jews who acknowledge our national rights. Searching for dialogue, the PLO has wrecked the ominous sophistry used by Zionism to cause the PLO to lose prestige, for example they refer to PLO’s intentions of throwing Jews into the sea. However, those who use that specious arguments are precisely the ones who have tried to throw Palestinians into the sea by stealing their land and attempting to exterminate them. On the other hand, we see how the great speakers of anti-Semitism in Latin America and the world have served as shields to the Zionist army which constantly attacks the Semite Palestinian people due to the fact that Zionists are the main anti-Semites.
-It is said that the insurrection is not headed by the PLO, but by a “Muslim fundamentalism” which developed from the people.
-The international press –headed by imperialist interests- have constantly changed the Palestinian history. Why not do it now? But I can assure you that the Islamic revolution is the same as the PLO revolution. They are only one body and they have a sole objective –territorial liberation- to erect a free and democratic Palestine where all Moslems, Christians and Jews may coexist in peace. However, I would like to say the following: the press spread that slanted data and it is the same press which speak of the great demonstrations carried out by Palestinians in the occupied territories and outside of them in support to the PLO and Brother Yasser Arafat, an undisputed leader of our Revolution. I would like to express one of his sayings:
“If our men were not able to struggle any longer...
our women would struggle.
If our women were not able to struggle any longer...
our children would struggle.
But if our men, women and children were not able to struggle any longer...
our deaths would revive and they would fight”.
Photo: Palestinian women, proving the capacity of women for fighting, prevent troops from registering their homes in Gaza.