SOIL UU LAL TIAL J} oi} | There can be no peace, no stabil- ity and no settlements without the Palestinian people and _ without realizing this people’s inalienable national rights, including their right to return, to self-determination and to establish their independent state over their national soil. By JAMES LEECH Support for the right of the Palestinian Arab people to retum to their homeland, free of repres- sion, holding in their own hands the right to’ self-determination is sweeping over ever greater areas of the globe. This support was again stirred by the Nov. 2-6 Con- ference in Solidarity with the Arab People and Their Central Cause: Palestine, held in Lisbon. The Portuguese capital wel- comed Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Or- ganization, who expressed the es- : sence of the Middle East danger, in a speech opening the confer- ence: “‘T have come to you from the steadfast land in which the fires of Israeli aggression and terror are buming and in which U.S. im- perialist intrigues are active to break the unity of the Arab stand, and to strike at the Palestinian Revolution in order to extend the Camp David alliance all over the Arab world. U.S. imperialism re- fuses to admit the failure of its policy of military pacts in the Middle East and tries to solve its present crisis by following the same path that led to its crisis. But U.S. policy will inevitably fall into the same snare, and will face the same results as it did in Viet- nam and Iran.” The conference — its 750 dele- gates from 325 organizations and more than 100 countnes — con- demned the policies Arafat had referred to, and rejected the’ so- called *‘self-rule’’ plan for Pales- tine. It reaffirmed ‘the right of the Arab Palestinian people to con- duct all forms of struggle, includ- ing armed struggle, to regain their national inalienable rights as en- dorsed by the United Nations re- — Yasser Arafat solutions, and the principles of in- ternational law, applicable to all national liberation movements.” Legitimate Struggles One contribution to the discus- sions pointed out: ‘‘The authority practiced by occupation forces is based on the fait accompli and not sovereignty ** the occupation authorities resorting to ‘‘punishment, mal- treatment and torture in an at- tempt to control the occupied people who, therefore, have only one choice: resistance.’’ Such legitimate struggles ‘‘cannot pos- sibly be described as terrorist,” the document points out. As an example of the unconscionable treatment of Palestinian Arabs it refers to Jerusalem, where Israeli occupation authority dictates the curricula of all school levels for Arab children, destroys houses of those to be punished, expells hundreds, desecrates Arab holy places, and jails and tortures many. Said Yasser Arafat at the open- ing session of the Lisbon confer- ence: **/.. you agree with us, I am sure, brothers and comrades, that it is impossible to establish peace between a fascist, terrorist, racist movement and a people defend- ing their right to exist and to live; and that Camp David means slav- ery and occupation. We call for a just peace whose bases and di- mensions were set forth by the UN General Assembly resolu- tions, particularly resolution YS) ens 23 Mayors Resign Less than two weeks after Arafat uttered those words the Is- raeli regime offered massive ver- ification by its own misdeeds. The occupationists arrested and an- nounced the expulsion of West jo be PACIFIC TRI BUNE— NOVEMBER 30, 1979—Page 6 Hil Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (centre), Portuguese General Costa Gomes at right and Omar Al-Hamidi president of the organizing committee for the World Conference in Solidarity with the Arab People and Its Central Cause: Palestine held in Lisbon, Nov. 2-6. Bank Mayor Bassam Shakaa of Nablus for allegedly voicing sup- port of ‘‘terrorists’’, Zionist jar- gon for the backing Palestinian self-determination. The Israeli decision caused a justified wave of anger among Arabs and among many Israelis. It caused the resignation of 23 mayors in the West Bank (of the Jordan River) and in the Gaza Strip. This happened on Arab ter- ritory, under Israeli jackboots! To emphasize its utter disre- gard for the human rights of the Arabs and in particular the Pales- tinians, the expansionist Israeli regime announced plans to triple the number of army-guarded squatters on stolen Arab land — West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights. : -- Not without reason did the Lis- bon Declaration of the solidarity conference declare that, while support for the Palestinian cause grows, as do demands for Israeli’ withdrawal from occupied lands: ‘tan explosive situation has been created as a result of Israel’s per- sistent policy of continued occu- pation, annexation of territories, suppression and expulsion of Arabs from their homelands, and the conspiracies of U.S. im- perialism, violating the sovereignty of Arab states, creat- ing a situation that threatens not only the security of the Arab reg- ion but also international peace and security. This situation is further aggravated by the escala- tion of brutal Israeli aggression on southern Lebanon and the provo- cation against Syria, with the ob- ject of pushing her into a war of attrition, thus creating the most critical situation in this region.”’ U.N. Mission Barred : In similar vein, Major Melo An- tunes, former foreign minister, and a member of Portugal’s Council of the Revolution, said the Israeli authorities ‘‘arrogantly refuse to permit international supervision in the occupied ter- ritories, as recently happened with a U.N. mission, headed by Portugal, and authorized to study, the area by the U.N. Security Council.”’ - Major Antunes, at the Lisbon conference opening, told Arafat that while he could not speak for the Portuguese Government, (which faces an election, Dec. 2) ‘I don’t hesitate to say that your visit to Portugal will not only give a new impulse to the diplomatic struggle which the PLO has launched for recognition of the legitimate rights of the people which it represents, but will obvi- ously put my country in a betfer position . . . to struggle for the just cause of the Palestinians. Arafat had talks at various times during his stay with Presi- dent. Antonio Ramalho Eanes, Premier Maria de Lourdes Pen- tasilgo, and Foreign Minister Car- los Freitas Cruz; as well as with political leaders, Alvaro Cunhal of the Communist Party, Mario Soares, Socialist Party, members of the Council of the Revolution, and others. Arafat declined at a press conference to say whether the talks would result in recogni- tion or whether the PLO would be opening an office in Lisbon. But he said the PLO was “‘pleasantly surprised’’ by the talks and that ‘‘events will take a new course.” An excerpt from Arafat’s ad- dress to the international gather- ing at Lisbon University perhaps capsulized the meaning of the conference, and as well the world situation as it relates to the Pales- tinian cause. Year of Recognition The year 1979, he said, ‘which | U.S. imperialism and the Israelt) enemy wanted to be the year of the liquidation of the PLO, be came — thanks to your support and the backing of all brothers; friends, allies and all honest mef — the year of consolidation of it ternational recognition of the Palestinian people’s rights. 4 ‘‘There are, today, an increas” ing number of countries that havé understood that the so-called Camp David peace is but an ag” gressive alliance meant to impos?” a new form of slavery on thé Palestinian people and the Arab Nation. ‘In fact, the international stands and resolutions: the Ara? Summit resolutions, the Not Aligned States’ resolutions, th principled and firm stand of thé socialist countries, headed by ouf friend, the Soviet Union, as W® as the increasing recognition of the PLO in Europe and Latif America, all this confirms the 1) substantial nature of the falsé Camp David peace, and calls fo! the collapse of the destructive f liance and for the recognition © the fact that no peace can be & tablished in the Middle East with" out the Palestinian people. “Thereby declare, in the name of the Palestinian people and i revolutionaries, that there caf no peace, no stability and no sel’ tlements in this region without ' Palestinian people and withov realizing this people’s inalienable national rights, including the right to return, to ch determination, and to establis their independent state over thé national soil.”’ Those who suffer most: Child victims of Israeli bombing in Lebanon, July 1979. Survivors of the raid a the Tal al-Zaatar refugee camp in 1976.