Para la versión en español: https://carlitoboricua.blog/?p=12277&preview=true&_thumbnail_id=12287
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“We must fight for one Arab nation, for unity, for freedom, for socialism. We must defeat enemy number one, America, the supplier of Hawk missiles to Israel, and we must seize our own oil resources. We must learn to emulate our Algerian brethren in order to liberate Palestine.” -Leila Khaled
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By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira
On April 9, 1944, in the Palestinian municipality of Haifa, Leila Khaled was born. She is a symbolic figure that represents the liberation struggle of the heroic Palestinian people, fighting the vicious U.S.-backed Israeli occupation.
Leila Khaled’s militancy developed due to horrors she as a child and her family endured because of Israeli abuses. These terrifying experiences occurred during the Nakba (catastrophe in Arabic) of 1947-1948, when all Palestinians were impacted by the blatant criminality of Zionists.
With all the suffering and death experienced by so many Palestinian families should explain why Leila Khaled grew up developing a strong desire to be part of the armed resistance. Eventually, she joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
Historically, most resistance movements amplify the skillful fighting prowess of a select few of male fighters. However, when women like Leila demonstrate the same fury and fiery conviction as her male comrades, it has powerful psychological effect on the opposition.
Oppressors everywhere are aware that their greatest vulnerability is unity among the oppressed, especially if it involves them exerting the right to use any means of struggle for liberation.
During the Nakba, a million Palestinians were forcibly displaced and dispossessed. The native people had their homes, property and land confiscate. About 600 villages were burned, destroyed or targeted with biological weapons to make way for the newly imposed Israeli state.
In addition, men, women, and children were beaten, murdered, and raped with impunity by cowardly Israeli armed thugs. The forced removal of Palestinians from their homeland by the combined endorsement of most imperialist powers is one of the greatest war crimes in history. The rulers of Great Britain, France and the United States were blatantly carrying out this plan out in the open for the world to witness.
The genocide committed by Israeli soldiers occurred while foreign imperialist powers manipulated a United Nations General Assembly vote on November 29, 1947, to approve the passing of Resolution 181. This document adopted the so-called Partition Plan of Palestine, which divided the territory into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. In other words, using the legitimacy of this international organization to carry out land theft.
As we know today, this partitioning was the initial step in a plan designed by Theodor Herzl, founder of modern-day Zionism. Herzl envisioned the gradual elimination of Arabs from land “promised to Jews by God.”
Although Herzl was not Jewish nor a religious leader, he was an admirer of rising imperialist powers in the second half of the 19th Century, when England, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States engaged in feverish competition to establish colonies throughout the globe.
However, British imperialism had colonized Palestinian lands since 1917. Throughout that time, British rulers courted Zionist leaders who lobbied the idea of creating a “Jewish state.” Numerous tyrannical figures supported this idea, including the notorious Adolf Hitler.
The campaign to create the “State of Israel” with the intention of eliminating the Palestinian population continued to gain momentum. In 1948, it was created at the expense of Palestinian suffering, needless to mention how it was done without their input or approval.
The same sadistic methods used to usher in the Israeli state during the Nakba continues to this day as seen in Gaza. The U.S. and its lacky states continue to supply the Zionist war criminals with weapons, logistical support, financial and political backing. Consequently, U.S. foreign policy is just as complicit as ever in the genocide and massive destruction of Gaza.
Leila Khaled became widely known for her role in the August 29, 1969, hijacking of TWA Flight 840 traveling from Rome to Tel Aviv. The plane was diverted to Damascus, mistakenly thought that Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Yitzhak Rabin, was on board. With her weapon at hand, Leila Khaled ordered the pilot to fly over the city of Haifa. She wanted to see the town that was once her birthplace and home to her beloved family before it was forcefully taken by Israeli occupiers.
On September 6, 1970, Khaled attempted but failed to commandeer an El Al flight 219, traveling from Amsterdam to Tel Aviv then New York City. In order to thwart attempts by the guerillas entering the cockpit, the pilot made a sudden nosedive in the air which caused a device to explode. At that point Leila’s comrade Patrick Arguello, a Nicaraguan activist, was fatally shot by an air marshal on the plane. Laila Khaled was then arrested.
After Khaled’s capture, she became the central focus of a crisis that began in September 1970 by PFLP’s seizure of five commercial airliners. Strenuous efforts were made by U.S. officials to have a prisoner swap. The concern was that American and British passengers were held in the multiple aircraft hijacking.
To demonstrate that they were serious and willing to die for their cause, as news media television cameras recorded, PFLP combatants blew up three of the five aircrafts on a Jordanian airstrip. 56 U.S., British and other European passengers held were used to bargain for the release of seven Palestinian prisoners including Khaled.
After being held prisoner by British authorities for three weeks and released in a prisoner swap, Leila Khaled moved on continuing to serve as a political representative for the Palestinian struggle, making speaking appearances throughout the world.
It is so inspiring to know that no matter what the U.S.-backed Israeli state has done to the Palestinian people they continue to resist despite deplorable circumstances. Their strong resilience assures us that as the occupation of Palestine continues to exist, the need for strong activism and global resistance to oppression remains.
FREE PALESTINE!
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