Democracy, resistance, sole path for free, democratic Palestine, hawatmeh says
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 5/30/2002

Democracy and resistance are the sole path for the Palestinian people to follow for the construction of a free and democratic state, said Nayef Hawatmeh, Secretary General of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).

The Palestinian leader, who was interviewed by a Moroccan daily, said Palestinian factions adopt diverging positions regarding the restructuring of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).

He slammed, in this connection what he called the Israeli-U.S. project to restructure the PNA. The project, which boasts to plead for transparency, merely seeks to maintain the Authority under control. This project is a conspiracy against the Palestinian people and will allow Israel to soak more Palestinian land through settlements to such a point that the Palestinians will have nothing to negotiate, warned Hawatmeh, who attended the meetings of a political party in Morocco.

The DFLP leader said his front and other factions like the Popular Front presented to President Arafat and to the Palestinian legislative council a complete dossier containing proposals related to political reforms.

At a press conference Wednesday in Rabat, Hawatmeh pleaded for dialogue among all Palestinian factions to come up with a unified political program.

"It is necessary to endeavour for joining all Palestinian factions in a large front," said the leader, deploring that the unified Palestinian National Program has been frozen since the starting of the Oslo process.

The Palestinian people, who have a unified leadership on the ground, need a political unity with a program geared mainly towards the restructuring of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) through democratic elections, he said.

Hawatmeh disclosed that he had proposed to Morocco's Premier, Abderrahmane Youssoufi, that Morocco hosts a conference on global Palestinian dialogue in view of Morocco's experience in fighting colonialism and of the Kingdom's democratic progress.

He renewed his rejection to a regional peace conference, as proposed by Israeli premier Ariel Sharon. But he said that he rather backs an international conference, sponsored by the United Nations, the European Union, Russia and the USA and wherein the Palestinian people will be represented by the PLO.

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