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Abbas does not have a national programme, says PFLP

April 24, 2018 at 11:16 am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, West Bank on 11 April 2018 [Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency]

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) has said that Palestinian Authority, PLO and Fatah President Mahmoud Abbas does not have a national programme, Quds Press reported on Monday. A source close to the organisation’s political bureau revealed that it has made a “final decision” not to take part in the Palestinian National Council (PNC) meeting slated for the end of April for this very reason.

This decision, the source explained, came after lengthy discussions about a letter sent by the PFLP leader in Gaza, Jameel Al-Majdalawi, to the deputy leader of the group, Abu Ahmed Fuad, in which he urged the leftist PFLP to take part in the PNC meeting to support Abbas’s position against the “Deal of the Century”.

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“The overwhelming majority of the members of the PFLP political bureau rejected Al-Majdalawi’s letter and decided that Abbas’s programme is not national or democratic,” the source said. “They also decided not to allow the concentration of all Palestinian power in Abbas’s hands.”

The PFLP went on to describe the Great March of Return as the “greatest popular uprising” that has taken place since the 1987 intifada. The bureau called for such action across the occupied West Bank. Furthermore, it warned against the militarisation of the protest, and possible attempts by Hamas or Fatah to dominate proceedings.

While also issuing a warning about being dragged by Hamas into its programmes, the PFLP claimed that it had succeeded in pushing the Islamic Resistance Movement into the national arena by being involved in the popular protest action of the Great March of Return.

Palestinians along the Gaza-Israel border reaffirm the ‘Right of Return’ and get shot by IOF - Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

Palestinians along the Gaza-Israel border reaffirm the ‘Right of Return’ and get shot by IOF – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]