Jamil Mizjer is one of the important revolutionary leaders of occupied Palestine and as such has been fighting against the invader for years under very difficult conditions. Currently, Mizjer serves as Deputy Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. In this interview, Mizjer takes stock of the PFLP’s struggle since its founding and addresses in depth the situation in Gaza and the occupied West Bank since the Battle of Al-Aqsa on October 7.
It’s been almost six decades since George Habash founded the PFLP. If you had to take stock of the path you have traveled between then and now, what has been the main contribution that your organization has made to the actions of the Palestinian Resistance?
We are a genuine integral part of the Palestinian National Movement and the Resistance Movements that were founded according to a vision and objectives related to fighting and resisting the Zionist project and wearing it down, especially through armed resistance. To this end, over the course of six decades, the Popular Front has offered much blood spilled from long lists of martyrs and detainees in defense of the most just and sacred cause of our time.
Throughout its glorious struggle, the Popular Front has underlined its commitment to be and remain true to its national, pan-Arab and international principles, ideas, values and goals embodied by the early leaders of our party, headed by the founding leader Dr. George Habash, the martyred emblem Abu Ali Mustafa and our imprisoned Secretary General, Leader and Commander Ahmed Saadat, who is paying the price for his resistance.
As part of the evaluation of the performance of our struggle over six decades, we say with high humility and credibility that the trajectory of struggle of the Popular Front has formed and marked a new and important turning point in the history of the Palestinian struggle, in such a way, through its resistance operations and especially those carried out abroad, it has brought about a reconsideration of the Palestinian cause and has drawn the world’s attention to the cause of an entire people suffering from occupation.
The presence of the Popular Front within the Palestinian, Arab and international resistance movements constituted a qualitative and quantitative contribution to the Palestinian national struggle.
The Popular Front, together with all the national forces, managed to preserve the National Liberation Movement and the existence of all that Palestine stands for, as well as to thwart the plans of the occupation aimed at destroying existence and striking at national identity and unity, in order to introduce defeat among its ranks.
The Popular Front succeeded in thwarting the Zionist project of the “Bonds/Leagues of Forces”, with which the occupation attempted to create an instrument as its agent inside Occupied Palestine. The Popular Front has also managed to transform the Palestinian Cause into an international cause par excellence, attracting all the Liberation and revolutionary Movements around the world, with the history of struggle, the name, the operations and the political program of the Popular Front, it has contributed to making the Palestinian cause known and revived in the world.
It is true that the Popular Front has not yet managed to achieve the objectives for which it was created and it is also true that its trajectory and its long experience of struggle has been accompanied by ups and downs and obstacles; however, today the Popular Front continues to work and fight towards the same goals, objectives and visions that were established since the foundation. It has not been broken, nor weakened, nor has it made or given concessions, nor has it yielded to blackmail or bargaining, in spite of all the sacrifices and persecutions. Therefore, the Popular Front will continue in its righteous struggle by all means of struggle and will continue the march of the Intifada and resistance, together with all the Revolutionary Forces to defeat the continuous Zionist-American projects that aim at the liquidation and elimination of Palestinian existence; therefore, we work to preserve and strengthen our national unity of struggle by all means.
The Battle of the Flood of Al-Aqsa, launched on October 7, had the support of the armed apparatus of the Popular Front from the beginning. What role did the Ali Mustafa Brigades play in the early days of the operation, both in Gaza and in the occupied West Bank?
Like other factions of the Palestinian resistance, the Abu Ali Mustafa Martyr Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Front, played an important role in the battle of the Al-Aqsa Flood, from the beginning of the battle to the present day, they have offered dozens of martyrs and wounded of their fighters who were martyred on the battlefield along with their comrades from other resistance factions. This role and participation of the comrades of the Brigades was done in an integral way between Gaza and the West Bank; while our fighters from various units were participating in the ongoing battle in the Gaza Strip, our comrades from the Brigades were working from the West Bank to carry out operations in support of the resistance in Gaza, with a series of military operations against the settlements and settlers, military positions and barracks of the occupation, in addition to the participation of our fighters in confronting and resisting the continued incursions of the occupation into the Gaza Strip. the cities, towns, and camps of the West Bank.
Presumably, an operation of such magnitude should have been prepared in advance and resorting to extreme security measures so that it would not be discovered. Did the Resistance organizations expect to surprise the “Israeli” military and intelligence apparatus, considered one of the most powerful in the world, in such a way? What lessons and consequences does this important initial victory leave for the future of the Palestinian struggle?
Operation Al-Aqsa Flood could not have been successful without the Palestinian resistance’s practice of the element of surprise at high levels to ensure it achieved its tactical and strategic objectives.
The Palestinian Resistance has managed with its tactics practiced during the operation to overcome the means of the Zionist intelligence services, especially the apparatuses of the Zionist intelligence service “AMAN” and Unit 8200, which are considered to be the most advanced intelligence units in the world.
One of the most important lessons learned from the Al-Aqsa Flood operations is the ability of the Palestinian Resistance with little chance, in the face of the enormous Zionist potentialities to achieve a resounding defeat against the occupation, as well as the ability to destroy its deterrent force that the occupation has always “proudly praised”.
On October 8 and 9, Israel unleashed a colossal attack on the people of Gaza, generating a genocide of great proportions. Did the Resistance expect a reaction of this caliber from Zionism?
The Resistance knew this criminal enemy well and expected it to carry out all forms of massacres, assassinations and extermination; it is a constant feature of their criminal doctrine that was formed over the years of their occupation and has become an integral part of their current program. However, the Palestinian Resistance did not expect that the Zionist crimes and the war of annihilation would reach an unprecedented level of bombings, killings and destruction of all elements and sustenances of life in the Gaza Strip.
The Zionist crime has no comparison, they have surpassed the Nazi and fascist crimes, and even what the Tatars committed against humanity.
However, it is striking that, despite the criminal Zionist offensive, there was not a day without the Resistance as a whole ceasing to produce actions of response or open offensive. This action and the heroic attitude of the Palestinian people, practicing at all times disobedience in the face of the enemy, have been two important factors. Is there still a lot of support in the population for the Resistance, and if so, how does it manifest itself?
It is to the credit of the Palestinian Resistance that, despite all the forms and levels of destruction, slaughter, terrorism and the enormous military power backed by internationally banned US and Western weapons, it has been able to resist and even wage real battles of attrition against the occupation, waging a guerrilla war against it, from house to house, from alley to alley, in the destroyed neighborhoods and facing it at “zero distance”, from hand to hand, causing the enemy great losses in lives, vehicles and armor. It has also continued to fire rockets and missiles at occupation settlements, including from the heart of areas that the occupation claimed to have captured.
What the Resistance has achieved are qualitative achievements that have aroused the surprise and admiration of the whole world, the tactics of the resistance are studied in the most famous security and military schools.
The fact that the resistance factions armed with the simplest weapons maintain a high level of control over the battlefield and continue to carry out operations against thousands of Zionist military units in the Gaza Strip is an unprecedented military achievement for the Resistance factions.
In the same vein: in the statements made by different spokespersons of the Resistance, the freedom of Palestinian prisoners appears as one of the fundamental objectives of the October 7 Uprising. What do these hostages in Zionist prisons represent for the Palestinian revolutionary cause?
The cause of Palestinian prisoners has always been a central national cause and the goal of freeing them from occupation prisons has always been one of the priorities of the Resistance.
The use of all available means, including military means, to free militant prisoners reflects an important moral issue rather than a national issue; the reward for this prisoner who gave his life and his youth for the Homeland is to free him, to live freely and with dignity in his Homeland and among his children; that is why the resistance factions, led by the Popular Front, set the goal of freeing prisoners as one of the priorities of their struggles, before and during the years of struggle, the resistance factions have managed to free thousands of prisoners through a process of honorable exchanges; based on these experiences, we launched the assault with Operation Al-Aqsa Flood to free the prisoners, and we are determined to fulfill the promise and in loyalty to them, insisting on reaching an agreement of a swap for the release of all prisoners from the prisons of the occupation.
How do the Palestinian fighters experience the complicit silence of international organizations while the massacres continue to take place, the destruction of hospitals, schools, mosques?
– We have always felt that there is a clear partiality and total complicity of international organizations with the Zionist entity; this has always been a reward and encouragement for the occupation to continue its crimes and has given it the green light to implement its plans aimed at imposing faits accompli on the ground to reinforce its occupation, to practice the policy of settlement and Judaization, to empty the land of its population, to commit massacres, to expand arrests, demolishing houses and confiscating land. With their silence and complicity, international institutions have given “legitimacy” to the practices of the occupation, adopting a policy of double standards in dealing with any issue related to the Palestinian-Zionist confrontation.
Therefore, our people do not trust these institutions and consider them part of the tools of the occupation aimed at “approving and legitimizing” its occupation, as well as trying to embellish its murderous face.
At the same time, we are very proud of the widespread level of solidarity of different peoples of the world with our cause, which has increased dramatically and unprecedentedly following the genocidal Zionist war against the Gaza Strip. We consider that this overwhelming popular mood was an important reason for some Western countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Australia to tactically modify their hostile positions in support of the occupation and its crimes; it also contributed to a real change of state within Western parties, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom; through this broad solidarity with the cause of Palestine, the Palestinian narrative managed to break the unbreakable fortress built by the Zionist lobby in the countries of the world, so that, the Palestinian cause and the truth about what is happening in Palestine entered every home in the world, in contrast to the exposure and unmasking of the Zionist narrative based on lies and aggressive myths – Talmudic criminals, in an attempt to put the aggressor occupant as the victim and vice versa.
In the Axis of Resistance, Islamic, nationalist and, as in the case of the PFLP, Marxist expressions coexist. Has this ideological arc been an impediment to generating, as in the present, a unified command in the struggle?
On the contrary, the goal of liberating human beings from colonialism, occupation and dependency has always been a goal that transcends ideologies and parties; what distinguished the PFLP from its foundation until today is its definition from the beginning of what is the camp of friends and what is the camp of enemies; it placed in the camp of friends all the forces that coincided with it in the resistance to the occupation, regardless of their ideology or religion. Although in many aspects of these common goals there are tactical alliances, in light of the differences in some visions in intellectual, religious and social aspects, they remain minor differences that do not affect the common goal of resisting the occupation; the presence and participation of the Popular Front within the Axis of Resistance that includes Islamist forces has been a success for the PFLP’s vision.
In several communiqués of the Front and also in that of other organizations of the Resistance, the Palestinian Authority is harshly criticized for its positions with respect to the “Israeli” government. In this case, can we speak of a total break with the Authority? I ask you this because, on the other hand, at the level of international contacts, Mahmoud Abbas always appears as the Palestinian representative.
In fact, there is a total estrangement between the Popular Front and the Palestinian Authority; we must distinguish here between our communication with Fatah and our communication with the Authority, despite the fact that the movement controls the reins of the Authority; however, in the context of trying to unify the entire Palestinian national aspect and draw Fatah into the national square and field after its leadership made catastrophic mistakes for which our people continue to pay the bill to this day, especially the signing of the Oslo Accords and their political behavior on the ground: we consider the Fatah Movement to be an integral part of the political map and the Palestinian national movement; we have worked over the past few years to try to put political pressure on the Fatah Movement to carry out a political review of its program and behaviour and the policy of hegemony and exclusion, as well as to make changes in the Authority’s doctrine and national vision, so that they are at the service and in the interest of the national program and not as a tool to protect the occupation and the settlers or to exercise the tools of political persecution against Resistance fighters and political activists.
Unfortunately, we encounter a set of obstacles, the most important of which is Fatah’s own insistence on not separating itself from the Authority and its practices, or the constant attempt to obstruct the implementation of national decisions that were agreed in the presence of all national parties, even though political legitimacy is in the hands of the Authority’s leadership. Its weakness, its preoccupation with its internal conflicts and its corruption have limited its influence and impact and its ability to lead or represent the Palestinian people.
Therefore, as part of the results of the important battle of the Al-Aqsa Flood, we in the PFLP seek and strive to renew Palestinian legitimacy and reactivate the inclusive national institution in the presence of the entire national community, with the representation of all our people in the Homeland and the Diaspora, in accordance with a national strategy based on adherence to national principles and rights, based on the concept of the National Partnership of Participation in Decision-Making.
What consideration do you have for the allies of the Palestinian struggle, such as Hezbollah, Yemen, the Iraqi resistance, Syria and Iran?
The recent events since the outbreak of the battle of the Al-Aqsa Flood and the entry of these parties into this battle, opening a front of attrition against the Zionist occupation and its Western allies, have demonstrated the credibility, positions and program of this alliance, its insistence on supporting the Palestinian resistance, offering large prices of losses for the continuation of this support and backing constitutes the highest levels of sacrifice and credibility, strengthening the capacity of the Palestinian resistance to continue to resist and stand firm with a strong ally capable of making significant impacts on the course of the battle and contributing to the cessation of aggression.
Is it conceivable that the U.S. will begin to let go of the Zionist government’s hand, or will the fact that it is part of the same body to try to subjugate the Palestinian people carry weight?
What is happening now is an exchange of roles between the US administration and the Zionist entity; there is no difference on the substance of the objectives of the continued aggression between the US administration and the “Israeli” occupation, but the difference is in some secondary tactics, for the US administration to try to relieve the pressure it is exposed to by the pressure on the American streets and even by progressive members within the Democratic Party. We do not imagine that there is going to be a real shift or change in the American position, which regards the Zionist entity as an advanced tool for it, its continued support and backing with money and weapons and giving it political legitimacy is part and parcel of the constant American doctrine; therefore, the clear truth before us is that the US administration is a key partner in the aggression and is fully involved in this aggression.
At the same time, however, recent events have revealed the beginning of a weakness in the US administration’s ability to deter or strengthen its hegemony in the region and even in the world in the face of the rise of other great powers such as China, Russia and others. The escalation of support for the Palestinian cause inside the country and the anger against the continued US support for the “Israeli” occupation may be the preamble for the United States to abandon its support for the Zionist entity, after realizing that continuing to protect this entity, which is incapable of protecting itself, has lost its deterrent power and is surrounded by a strong front of enemies, has become a burden to the United States and constitutes a point of weakness for it.
What has the Islamic Republic of Iran’s response to the attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus shown in terms of military and solidarity? “Israel” and friendly media downplayed the response, saying Iranian drones and missiles were intercepted. What’s the truth about it?
Militarily, the Islamic Republic of Iran possesses significant military capabilities and has demonstrated that it is an important balancing force in the region, that it must be counted on and its power well calculated, that it is capable of drawing new rules of engagement in the region.
In terms of solidarity, the strong Iranian presence and its recent response strengthen the Palestinian position and reinforce the resistance’s resolve to continue its confrontation with aggression.
The recent Iranian attacks against the Zionist entity reflect that, despite the accelerated measures and practices of the United States and other Western powers to put all their military capacity into protecting the entity’s airspace to prevent the arrival of missiles, these attacks, the number of missiles launched at the Zionist entity and even the courageous decision to hit the entity is a strategic and qualitative change in the battle that is attributed to Iran. In addition, it strengthens their presence and deterrence, and constitutes new rules of engagement.
The attempts by the occupation and its allies to minimize the results of these attacks are an attempt to absorb the state of anger and fear within the Zionists and to flee by leaping forward to try to avoid next time any more powerful Iranian military response.
Everything seems to indicate that, given the strength of the Resistance and the time that has elapsed without obtaining results, except for the increase in massacres, Netanyahu has no choice but to continue “fleeing forward”, unleashing more horror on the civilian population, or to leave office. If the latter were to happen, do you think there could be any fundamental change in terms of Zionism’s territorial occupation?
Netanyahu has no choice but to acknowledge the facts on the ground and acknowledge his utter failure to achieve any of his imaginary goals of destroying the resistance and freeing the hostages. The criminal Netanyahu and his gang must prepare for a political storm within the Zionist entity and he must prepare for a fate similar to that of all murderers and war criminals throughout history; his fate is inevitably the dustbin of history as a war criminal and the dirtiest and most cowardly politician.
The Zionist entity must prepare to declare a strategic defeat, which will have repercussions on the future of the entity, on its existence and on the future of the confrontation in favor of the Palestinian people. The results of the Al-Aqsa Flood are the first nail in the coffin of this criminal Zionist entity.
In view of this new anniversary of the Naqba, can this Holocaust in Gaza and its derivatives in the occupied territories be considered as a continuation of the same policy that seeks to make the Palestinian people disappear?
The Zionist holocaust and the genocidal war in Gaza is an extension of the Zionist crimes committed by the Zionist entity against the Palestinian people, which did not begin on the date of the Naqba, but many years before and is an extension of the massacres committed by the Zionist gangs before and after the establishment of the entity. It is an expression of the constant Zionist doctrine and the criminal mentality that occupies the Zionists. But what distinguishes this ongoing holocaust in Gaza is that the levels of destruction, slaughter and massacres are unprecedented and far greater than those of previous Zionist criminality, or even in previous conflicts and wars.
The Resistance expresses in its declarations that this struggle is “one of martyrdom or victory.” Are they any closer, as a people, to a definitive triumph?
The ongoing events on the ground, whether in the Gaza Strip or in the West Bank, the legendary state of steadfastness embodied by our people and their heroic Resistance, the exposure of the Zionist project to world opinion, the prominence of the Palestinian question on the stage of world events, and the expansion and dissemination of mass demonstrations in favor of Palestine and in denunciation of the occupation and Western support for the Zionist Revolution. They are forerunners and predecessors who confirm that the cause of Palestine will triumph and that the defeat of the Zionist project in Palestine is closer than ever.
Just as the internal Zionist conflict also reflects the basis for strengthening the existential crisis within a Zionist society fueled by racism and fascism. There is no future or existence for such an artificial society that was built on the ruins of another people and has no civilization or history.
We have full confidence in victory, we are seeing it in the eyes of our children, women and in the weapons of our revolutionary rebels.
Clarification: This interview was conducted for the dossier on Palestine of the “Counter-Hegemony” portal, on the occasion of the new anniversary of the Nakba.