In defiance of the crackdown on protest in the West Bank for the visit of US President George Bush, a coalition of national groups have organised a sit-in at the Orthodox Club in Ramallah to voice their opposition to the visit.
The organisers, The National and Islamic Forces, the Palestinian Grassroots Anti Apartheid Wall Campaign, the Prisoners Association, the National Committee to Commemorate the Nakba, released the following statement:
To our heroic people:
The visit of the war criminal George Bush to this area comes as an attempt to continue and assure the unlimited support for the Zionist colonial regime against our people. It is another attempt to pressure Arab countries and the Palestinian Authority to accept the American-Israeli conditions concerning the concession over the right of return, a fundamental right as stated in UN Resolution 194.
George Bush is the one who calls for the Jewish Israeli state. Bush is the one who supports the expansion of the colonies on the Palestinian land. Bush is the one who supports the Israeli policy of Judaizing Jerusalem. Bush is the one who was strongly behind the sanctions on our people. He is the one who is constantly providing the international coverage for the Israeli criminal acts: assassination of our people, the destruction of our houses, the arrests. This is all done with done with the support of American money and weapons.
Bushâs visit today is an integral part of the American plans to control the area. It is an attempt to rescue the American policy that has failed in Iraq through the heroic resistance of the Iraqi people in spite of all their losses. Bush aims to escape from the political crisis of the American leadership, in which they start to become isolated; and to enable the Israeli government to escape from its crisis and isolation and promote it as a government of peace.
We in the Higher National Committee to Commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Nakba, declare together with our people that the criminal George Bush is not welcome in Palestine or the Arab region. We call upon the Arab people to unite their forces and strengthen their resistance against American-Zionist aggression and colonialism using all means until the departure of the last American soldier from the region.
This is the main way to save the life of the people in the area, to protect our resources for the people and to ensure that they are not stolen from us, and to end the violation of our fundamental rights of freedom and self-determination.
At the same time, we declare to Bush and to all who support American policies in the area that the right of return for our people to their homeland and their properties is not up for negotiation. We will be ready to confront and defeat any attempts to annul this right or to undermine it.
George Bush: you are a war criminal. You are absolutely not welcome. Go home. We call for victory for peopleâs struggle and defeat for you, the enemy of the people.
10 January 2008
The Higher National Committee for the Commemoration of the Nakba is a national-level committee representing national movements and networks, including the National and Islamic forces, the Anti Apartheid Wall Campaign, the Popular Committees and youth centres of the refugee camps all over Palestine.