The meeting of the General Secretaries of the Palestinian Factions held yesterday in Ramallah and Beirut via videoconference confirmed that our people, unified under the leadership of President Mahmoud Abbas, absolutely rejects all projects aimed at liquidating the Palestinian national cause and the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.
Following is the final communique of the meeting, read aloud by Mr. Jibril Rajoub, Member of the Central Committee of Fatah Movement:
At this fateful moment of the history of our people, when our central cause is facing conspiracies, liquidation and attempts to undermine it in favor of the mere quest of improving the living conditions, and when we are stripped of our right to self-determination, the establishment of our independent and fully-sovereign state on the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital, as stipulated in the National Reconciliation Document, and our right to solving the refugee issue and the right of return of the refugees to their homes as per Resolution 194, plots and conspiracies are being hatched by the Israeli occupation government and the current US administration through the deal of the century and the annexation plans, and through normalization with Israel, and most recently the trilateral US-UAE-Israeli normalization deal, which has been rejected by our people.
In this historic meeting today, a unified Palestinian action has kick-started under the umbrella of the PLO, the legitimate and sole representative of our people, under a courageous joint initiative by Mr. President Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the PLO, and the General Secretaries of the factions. We have agreed to initiate a national effort that responds to the national goals of ending the division, achieving reconciliation, and achieving the Palestinian national partnership.
The Palestinian people, with all its components, at the forefront of which is the Palestinian leadership meeting today headed by Mr. President Abu Mazen, affirms its absolute rejection of all projects aimed at liquidating our national cause and our legitimate rights. The leadership affirms its rejection of any prejudice to Jerusalem and its Christian and Islamic sanctities. It condemns all manifestations of normalization with the occupation, and considers this a dagger in the back of the Palestinian people and the Arab and Islamic nations. The Palestinian leadership calls on our [Arab and Muslim] peoples and the free peoples of the world to confront with all the strength they have all of these liquidation plans.
The meeting of secretary-generals also discussed the rules of engagement with the Israeli occupation, including activating the regional and international factors to confront those plans. The delegates agreed on the means and mechanisms of struggle to confront the occupation on our land, including those means guaranteed by international conventions in the way to fulfill the right of peoples to resist occupation.
As Palestinians, we believe that it is our right to practice all legitimate methods of struggle, and at this stage we agree to develop and activate popular resistance as the most appropriate option for the current stage, in defense of our legitimate rights to confront the occupation.
In order to achieve our strategic goals to end the occupation and establish an independent Palestinian state, we must expedite the end of the political division and achieve reconciliation and national partnership.
In this context, as a unified people who live in a single free nation, we have agreed on the need to live under one democratic political system, one authority and one law, and under a framework of political and intellectual pluralism. We have also agreed to consolidate the principle of peaceful transfer of power through free and fair elections, according to full proportional representation according to international standards.
We also affirm our commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state on the entire Occupied Palestinian Territory, with Jerusalem as its capital, and we affirm here that there will be no state in Gaza, and no state without Gaza.
Realizing the necessity of unifying our position despite the differences in our opinion concerning some issues, we have decided to form a committee of eminent national figures, who enjoy the confidence of all of us, and who will present a strategic vision to achieve an end to the division, and to achive reconciliation and partnership within the framework of the PLO, the sole legitimate representative of our Palestinian people. This shall be done within a period not exceeding five weeks, and the committee will present its recommendations to the upcoming session of the Palestinian Central Council, with the participation of the General Secretaries of all factions, in order to ensure the participation of all under the umbrella of Palestinian national unity.
We also agreed to form a unified national committee to lead the inclusive popular resistance, provided that the PLO Executive Committee provides it with all the means necessary for its continuation.
We offer our greetings to our steadfast and patient people in occupied Jerusalem, and our people in the refugee camps everywhere. We pay tribute and appreciation to the families of the martyrs, prisoners and the wounded.
In conclusion, we express our deep solidarity with the brotherly people of Lebanon in their current ordeal, and we express our thanks and appreciation for Lebanon’s hosting of this historic and national unity meeting.