Voices of Resistance: Stop the Genocide! | November 14, 2023

Organizers: International League of People’s Struggle and People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty

Leila Khaled, keynote speaker, is a Palestinian activist and long-time active leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. She’s also a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Palestinian National Council and is widely viewed as a revolutionary within the Palestinian national movement.

Thank you very much. It’s my honor, really, to speak to you [amidst] this very difficult time we are living these days.

“Stop genocide.” Who is hearing this? The western governments, the imperialists, USA, are they hearing this? Or are they seeing what’s happening in Gaza? Anyone who has a piece of conscience [will be sad and in a terrible] mood to see that this is happening in the 21st century. But it is. It’s happening in Gaza. Let me tell you that our enemies, who are the same enemies that you are fighting, the imperialists, the Zionists, the Israelis: these are the forces that inflict the whole world with their brutal attack against our children in Gaza. They are not only attacking the children but [also] the family, the parents, and the grandparents. They are attacking every family. Even newborn babies in incubators [are deprived of] electricity and oxygen. These children are dying now. Just 15 minutes ago, I have seen how many children need help in this world. We don’t look at them only to be sad. But we look at the bright scene in the whole world. Gaza area is 360 square kilometers, inhabited by 2 million and a half people. These are the most condensed people living in this small area.

But Gaza has an area [of the] whole world now, because we saw you in the streets, calling for stopping genocide. We saw all peoples of the world, from Washington to Europe to Japan, to the Philippines, to everywhere, and in the Arab world as well. But I say that because you’re with us, then we can bear the responsibility of the dead children in Gaza, and we can be patient enough. We have been patient enough as a people [for] one century, since 1917, when [the United Nations recognized the Balfour Declaration at that time] after the First World War. Anyhow, I’m not here to speak about history but to remind you how our people [have initiated uprisings or taken arms] to defend themselves from the Zionist hegemony and American hegemony. We are also looking forward to passing this difficult time to a brighter one because we believe that peoples of the world have been adopting the Palestinian narrative. The Palestinian narrative has been absent since 100 years ago. Only the Zionist narrative was adopted by the world, especially after the Second World War.

Now, we look forward to answering the question: What should be done?

First of all, I call upon you not only to raise the slogan, “Stop genocide.” We want to have an action on governments to change their attitude toward Israel. Those who are attacking us are war criminals. Until now, the ICC [has not taken urgent steps to address the evidence of genocide]. We call upon the ICC to [initiate] the investigation about this. At the same time, we call upon peoples of the world, including yourselves, not only to [march] on the streets. It’s very important. I tell you that when we have contact with our comrades in Gaza, they [ask us if we’ve seen what happened and if we have electricity]. They haven’t had electricity since the 7th of October. At the beginning of the attack, the Israelis cut electricity, water, and food for our people. They [have also cut] the internet with the help of the huge tech companies who can do that for the sake of the Zionists who are in Israel now.

You have seen just from the beginning that Israel was shocked by the attack—the first attack. I don’t say it’s an attack; it’s a defense. We are people under occupation. We have the right to revolt against our occupants. And this is not a new thing to us. [The United Nations adopted] Item 8 in the Charter: People under oppression or occupation have the right to defend themselves, even by armed struggle. We are using our right to attack those occupants, who all the time launch war after war in Gaza—especially in Gaza—and in the West Bank. They were launching wars against us in the diaspora. They destroyed our camps in Lebanon. That was until 1982. 

And I have to remind you that the Zionist approach to occupying Palestinians was by force, by terrorist acts, by massacres. They made many massacres in Palestine in 1948. And this is their way of dealing with other people. They came up with a lie that the world accepted it or believed in it; they called that a land without people to a people without a land, and they occupied Palestinians. They kicked us by force from our homes and our properties in Palestine. Now, they are continuing the same way to deal with our people. Now, they are asking people to leave Gaza. But I tell you, no one in Gaza now, under attack and fire, will accept to leave the land because this is our land. It’s our right to defend it by all means, including armed struggle. So, they cannot [intimidate us] when they call us terrorists, then [show a glimpse of a real terrorist]. 

Who is the terrorist? It’s the imperialist. It’s the occupant.

It’s the Zionist. It’s all those together. They are the terrorists. They launch wars everywhere, everywhere in the world. And they prevent the people [from having] their dignity and their independence. We have learned in history that people of the world [have gotten] rid of their occupants by force because force should be met by force. And nothing else can prevent us from reaching this point. I tell you that every one of us is seeing what’s happening in the whole world now. [Millions of people march] in the streets, calling for a free Palestine. It wasn’t like that before. Now, it is, and this is a victory for us. Now, the Palestinian narrative has beaten the Zionist narrative that was done by the Zionists 100 years ago. We are a people on our land. And they discovered that afterward when they began to attack us. 

Comrades and friends. If I say I’m happy, I will be lying. I’m not happy because of all the wars and the crimes that are done against our people, [but I get] the power and the strength [whenever] I see you speaking to us, expressing your solidarity to us. There are many means of solidarity to a people under attack now. And every day, we hear more and more martyrs are in Gaza. And the wounded. They are attacking the hospitals, which should be [illegal] according to International Human Rights Law.

But Israel always acted as a state above the international law.

And until now, Israel has not been punished even by condemnation and the security council of the United Nations. Why? It’s because of this camp of enemies against peoples of the world, not only against the Palestinians but when we are speaking these days about the Palestinians because they are under attack. Look [at] how they dealt with the Ukraine crisis. They have double standards [as] always, in dealing with things. It’s according to their interests in our countries, to prevent us from our resources, to prevent us [from being] free in our countries, on our land. And to have self-determination. These are the rights of the Palestinians. Every year, we hear about initiatives, coming from once from Bush, once from Sharon, but always from these circles. They offer us the initiative to see what we want. But they don’t know our needs. They know only their needs. Look this time: Israel asked for protection. And a state that cannot protect itself. It means that it’s a failure for it. So, they asked the Americans. Biden directly sent the ammunition, arms, counselors, and ships to the Mediterranean to support Israel. But Israel now is living in a crisis. I tell you that this crisis is from the society itself. From the way they control their state. This [Israel] is an apartheid state, and [yet we thought] that apartheid has ended since 1994. Another state is adopting an apartheid policy to face our people and their people. The Ashkinaz in Israel are ruling the state of Israel. But they deal with the Jews who came from the East as citizens number two or three. Because they don’t deal with us as citizens, they deal with us as number ten. But we have in our history, all the time, defending ourselves, defending our humanity, defending our ID, because they want to hear that there are people with an ID called Palestinian. But now we have it. We have it even if we don’t have a passport, even if so, but I’m sure that you will have many suggestions to help us. 

And I’m sure that by the end of this year, we will be victorious. It’s not because we are defending ourselves but because you are with us, and millions of people are with us. This will give us more strength to face those criminal war criminals in Tel Aviv.

And at the end of the day, when people revolt, when they decide to defend their humanity and achieve dignity for the people, then they will be victorious. I will tell you a sentence by the end of my introduction that if injustice is the system, then the revolution is a duty. And we are doing our duty. You are doing your duty because you are facing the same enemies we are facing. Thank you very much. 

Leila Khaled on the following questions:

There is a growing call across the world for a ceasefire. Where do you stand on this? Would a sustainable ceasefire mean a two-state solution, which many Arab leaders and some other countries have been repeatedly calling for?

For sure, we are also calling for a ceasefire. But we know that Israel does not accept it [despite] all the peoples of the world calling for it. Because the fire from the imperialists and their allies in our areas like Israel and other Arab Countries, Arab governments—they just called for a ceasefire in their summit, [but in reality], to whom are they calling? Israel is not listening to them. Why not make action? First, boycott Israel on all bases: diplomatic, political, educational, [and] social boycott to Israel. These are the first things [and yet] they are not doing it. Others are doing it. For the workers, [we call them] to stop helping the products to come through seas and to the harbors. [They have to] evacuate their products in our Arab countries but also everywhere. We have an experience among the workers in Morocco where they didn’t allow the ships [containing] products of Israel.

And, also we are calling for unions to do their work on how to help the Palestinians and how to expose the brutality and the fascist face of Israel. This is Israel. Don’t forget, it’s not [only] against Palestinians, but also against humanity, by all its policies that are experienced on our land, but they are against all peoples of the world. We need to have a program for that. Universities can do their work. They cut ties with the Israeli universities. It will help a lot. Workers everywhere at harbors, at airports [should] not allow the products of Israel to come to their countries. This is also another way of boycotting.

But the main thing is to put sanctions on Israel.

Until what time Israel be dealt with as a state above international law? They are violating every international law. Every human [rights] law. The human rights of people are always violated by them. Why not [have] sanctions? We go back to the governments. Pressure your governments. This is a time to pressure your governments and to link the atrocities of those governments against their people with the atrocities of what is happening in Palestine. Then the struggle will be globalized. I call upon you that it’s also the imperialist who wanted to globalize the whole world under their control. We, on the other side, call upon peoples of the world and upon the progressive and democratic forces in every country to globalize our struggle. We have to globalize our struggle. And we have steps for that. ILPS is one of the institutions established to connect all the struggles of the world and by experiences that we have in every country. And I think that this will help a lot also to face those war criminals in Tel Aviv and in the United States in the White House.

What is the role of Hamas in the Palestinian people’s struggle for liberation? How do we respond to those who qualify their solidarity with a condemnation of Hamas?

Hamas is a part and component of our society whether inside Palestine or outside Palestine. It has its own ideology. But in the stage of liberation movements, we don’t look upon ideologies. We look at how to liberate Palestine, and Hamas is a part of those who are holding arms to defend their people [Palestinians]. So whatever they say about Hamas, they cannot control our minds and how we think about the components of the society.

Vietnam is a good example. Nuns used to burn themselves [in retaliation to] the American invasion. But the communists looked upon that [they] have to have a front—a national front. And they did it; from the one [who merely burns their body] to a communist who is fighting. And between them, there were 50 parties in Vietnam. They were on a strong front for the liberation of Vietnam and they succeeded in spite of all the atrocities they faced [and were inflicted with]. Anyhow, in Algiers also, there were religious people and leftist people. In between them were the nationalists. They built a front based on a program of resistance. And all of that ended up with the independence and the victorious revolution in Algiers. In South Africa, for 360 years, they were under apartheid regime.

They were always colonized. How did they liberate themselves? When they were united. Now, we are all united. To face the attack against our people. We are always united. Although [there are] some differences, these are below the main contradiction. The main contradiction to us is occupation. And the imperialists who support them. So, this front has been done and [was] established before 1967. It was PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization). And PLO contained all the factions, all the parties on the Palestinian level.

What happened after the Second and the First Intifada, which marked history for our people in resistance? Everyone was calling “Intifada” in their own languages, which means “the resistance of the people.” Then the leadership of PLO went to another line—they went to negotiations. [At one point], we and the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) [were against]  other parties because we cannot go on negotiations with the balance of forces to our enemies but not to us. On the global, on the international level, and on the Arab level, it was not the way to end an intifada that all the components of the people inside and outside Palestine were involved in. We have the Oslo Accords signed by the leadership of Yasser Arafat of the PLO leadership. This brought us a catastrophe. [The accord] wasn’t to liberate our land. To liberate the land and to liberate people [means going] a long way, and to use all tools that we can have including solidarity of people around the world.  So now, we are united in the front. This means that we have supported the resistance and we are part of it. Talking to you is a part of resistance. [The way you’re] listening to us, and [the way] you extend your solidarity to us in many ways to our people mean that the front is now on the ground.

[In contrast, there are] a few who think that negotiations will bring us liberation or freedom. Even now, they are calling for negotiations. Before negotiations, this [Apartheid state’s] attack should stop killing us. You can’t say “Who is the victim?” now, [because] we are the victims of this attack. Don’t ask the victim how to defend himself. It can do it, but we can’t put the sword in front of the neck. As Ghassan Kanafani said, “The sword and the neck can give up and be together because the swords are against us.” And you know what symbolizes the sword in history and until now.

Thank you.

What is your reaction on the recent Arab Islamic Summit, which condemned Israel’s aggression on Gaza? Is it enough?

It’s less than enough, my dear. I talked about this in the summit: these governments don’t represent their people, [but rather] their interests. That’s why they did not even dare to say any practical action [for] ceasefire. They could use oil [to stop the imperialists and Zionists attacking Palestine], and yet they didn’t use it. They could use their relations with other countries, [and yet] they didn’t. They did not allow the people [in some countries, i.e. the Arab region] to speak up.

[Had they talked about halting the provision of oil even for one day], the whole world [would have gone] against all the governments of the imperialists. They [would have stopped] it in support of the Palestinians, but they didn’t do that. They didn’t dare do it. They are [at best] protecting their thrones and authorities.

What are the immediate and long-term calls or demands of the PFLP in the course of the Palestinian struggle for national liberation?

We have a program—a political program—with a goal to liberate Palestine. But [in order] to establish on that land (Palestine), a system must be democratic for all who exist on that land. But the main step: the return of Palestinian refugees to Palestine. And there we can—with the Israelis who want to still exist on that land—have equal duties and rights. We have the right to return and there is a resolution—Razan spoke about it—in the United Nations. It wasn’t implemented until now [for] 75 years. And still, we are calling to implement international Resolution 194, which calls [on] Israel to accept the Palestinians to go back to their homelands and properties.  Then, how to solve this paradox. How can we solve it? I’m from Haifa. I’m not allowed to go [to] Haifa. And there are 12 million Palestinians outside Palestine [who] are not allowed to go to their villages and to their [homes]. This is very, the violation, that Israel is always doing against all the international laws dealing with the rights of people. Now, if they accept that, we can go together and discuss every bit of what will happen afterward. We are saying that this goal that we are calling for, is a democratic one—it’s a human one. Those who do not want to accept us as owners of the land before them [could] go back to the countries that they came from. Every Israeli has two nationalities. They have a European one where they came from or from the other countries and they have the Israeli one. So, they have to choose either to accept or leave the land that [they] stole.

As allies, are there strategies after a ceasefire that we should all power through for complete land back, complete return of the land? How do we advocate against the land invasion while our countries don’t listen to us?

I tell you, after the ceasefire, we to bring Gaza with us, just like what happened many years [wherein] people came by ships to break the siege against Gaza. And when we say we want to come to visit Gaza, we don’t want to see an Israeli on the borders. We have to go free, [just like how we go] from one country to another. And there, we have to have a big campaign to help the people restart their lives. Can you imagine what a child has been through [after] being saved from the rubbles of their [bombarded] house, and lost all his family—how could he live? I don’t know. I don’t know, really. It’s a big trauma for [not only] for the people [in Gaza], [but also] for the children whom I adore. They have nothing to do except [acceptance of] what’s happening, although they always ask the question, “Why? Why [don’t we] have the same way of living that other children in the world are living?”

I tell you about an incident in Fukushima, Japan [that had been struck] by the tsunami. The children of Gaza stood by the shore of the sea [with balloons] to send them to the children of Fukushima who lost their land. Our children are educated to speak to the whole world. And to say, we are like you, we love others, we love other people who [have expressed] their solidarity with us so for many years. So, it’s a responsibility to educate the children that after all the trauma, sadness, and grief of [losing] their parents, [of losing] everything. We have to prepare for them. We have to carry the water for them. We have to carry the medicine, the clothes, the covers, and [especially now that] the winter is on the doors. We have to bring them what makes life less brutal for them in their minds and in their hearts. I think from now [on], we have to do that to prepare what they need. Don’t forget the books, the stories, the pencils to use. We will not forget the toys for them to play with and to restore their ordinary life like other children in the world.

This question concerns a hesitancy being detected from Arab communities in the West and Muslim communities in supporting the resistance. Is it the correct approach to be silent about the resistance and to drag one’s feet in its support and just point out the genocidal aspects and death, or should the diasporas in the West take a stronger stance in being vocal about supporting the resistance, including Hamas, since it is the target of propaganda?

Resistance is lawful and legal for any people under oppression. We can depend on the United Nations, by all means, because our people did not only hold arms but also made an intifada [which was] a peaceful means. Boycott is a peaceful means also. So we can speak about resistance as a right for the people. It doesn’t need any evidence. We have to go back to history. We are not inventing a new way for liberation. All people in this world reached their freedom by revolution, not by a gift from others, [not especially] from their enemies. It [has always been] like that. We have to remind the people in our countries of this history. History is full of evidence that resistance is a right. This is a human right. We are not afraid of saying the truth, so people can understand. And I think, with social media [that made] the world like a village, we could [actually] reach everyone. We can make conversations [and hold] workshops about this. We can make workshops about terrorism—who are the terrorists? Thus, we should speak loudly about it. Now there is a combination of resistance as a terrorist act, while occupation is not a peaceful means to occupy another people and another land. And by the way, we can give many many examples of the massacres that happened to the Palestinians. I will remind you of Sabra and Shatila, [the] camps that faced a very rough way [of resistance]. It was [a place where] people were killed [while] they were sleeping. [Just] because they were Palestinians. We have to remind people [of these realities].

At this moment, how is the PLO, the Palestinian Liberation Organization as a national front leading the liberation movement in Palestine so far? And what kind of support is needed to strengthen this national front itself?

You know, PLO should be to rebuild it again on the basis of our charter and our program with the goals of struggle. Because when Oslo was accorded, PLO was marginalized. Now we are trying our best to reach a meeting in PLO and rebuild it on new values and a new vision for how to liberate our land. This is the role of the Palestinians. Whether parties or civil communities or whatever inside Palestine and outside Palestine so that people can support this action. By supporting the [comprehensive] program, the last goal is reaching liberation and establishing a state where all of us live together on a democratic and human basis. Without that, this war would always continue from generation to generation. I think it’s hard to think that the Israelis will give up the Zionist ideology. If they quit it, they will be human beings who deserve to live with us in Palestine.