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Following are excerpts from a public address delivered by Ahmad Jibril, leader of PFLP-General Command, which aired on Al-Jazeera on August 2, 2010.
Ahmad Jibril: This Zionist entity came to our region for a purpose – to protect the interests of the West in our important region. Our region has geographical importance, and has now become a coveted region of economic importance, after the discovery of petroleum and natural gas.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, our battle is not only against a group of Jews who have come to Palestine. Our battle is against the oppressive and arrogant forces, which want to humiliate and plunder this Islamic nation. They tried to do so in the tenth century CE, when the European kings and princes came in the Crusader campaigns, under the pretext of restoring the Cross to Jerusalem. But they were liars.
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This is our land. We know full well that this conspiracy was not concocted by a group of Jews, who were gathered from all corners of the earth to settle in our land. Therefore, we said that this would be a long and difficult battle. Fifty years ago, when we laid the first building blocks of the armed struggle and the popular war, we said that these Arab armies and regimes would not liberate Palestine. Even at their best, their military capabilities do not suffice for this, and this is without considering their [tendency] to desert and conspire.
We said: How can we confront this onslaught? How can we confront Great Britain, France, and the US? Therefore, brothers and sisters, fifty years ago, we said that our path was one of a popular liberation war, of resistance, of armed struggle. For fifty years, we have carried our weapons, and we know that these weapons are the path to the glory and honor of the nation.
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It was the resistance that achieved victories for this nation over the decades. Imaging this, brothers and sisters: If not for this resistance – first in Palestine, then in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan – what would have become of this nation? We would have become slaves, and they would have used us for trade, and would have subjugated us.
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In conclusion, I would like to say that Mahmoud Abbas does not represent the Palestinian people at all. From where does he derive his legitimacy? He was parachuted down onto the Palestinian scene. He has no history, he did not participate in the struggle, or anything. We hear that like Salam Fayyad, he got 1.5 billion dollars from the US and Europe. That's the only thing that Mahmoud Abbas has.