The left-wing resistance organisation, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), has condemned the Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich for his statement that called for the resettlement of the Gaza population for the total annexation of the besieged Strip.
The PFLP said on Tuesday, July 29th, that the response to Mr Smotrich’s statements “will be increased steadfastness, adherence to the land, and escalation of resistance”.
Earlier, Mr Smotrich commented that the Gaza Strip belongs to the “land of Israel” and promoted the idea of rebuilding settler colonies in the war-torn territory.
“The aggressive and racist statements made by the fascist and racist criminal Zionist Minister Bezalel Smotrich, in which he explicitly called for resettlement in the Gaza Strip and for it to be considered part of the so-called ‘Land of Israel’, reflect the growing fascist and Judaisation tendencies within the occupation government,” the PFLP said. “They confirm that the occupation is proceeding with its expansionist colonial plans, not only in the occupied West Bank, but also in the Gaza Strip,” the left-wing organisation warned.
Highlighting the obnoxious agenda behind Mr Smotrich’s statement on Gaza, which follows similar plans by Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump, the PFLP accused the Israelis of running an ethnic cleansing operation.
“These statements express the essence of the occupation government’s criminal programme and its ongoing war against our people, their existence, and their land. They are a desperate attempt to legitimise ethnic cleansing and impose occupation sovereignty over the Gaza Strip,” the organisation said.
“They are also part of a comprehensive plan to perpetuate the occupation through genocide, starvation, control, and settlement expansion, with the US’s participation and blatant international complicity,” it stressed.
The US’s complicity in the war crimes against Gaza is acutely visible since October 2023. Mr Trump, a realtor, has indicated that he wants to take over Gaza, evict its people, and build hotels and resorts there. However, the PFLP emphasises that the Palestinian people will defend their land despite the attempts by the US and the Israelis to evict them using genocide and starvation.
“Our Palestinian people, who have sacrificed thousands of martyrs, wounded, and prisoners for their national liberation, will continue to resist these settlement projects with all forms of resistance and will vigorously defend every inch of Palestinian land, considering it an inalienable right, despite the crimes, massacres, and plots,” the Marxist-Leninist organisation claimed.
“We call on the masses of our people, and all factions of national and societal action, to establish solid field and political unity to confront these colonial schemes. We affirm that the response to Smotrich’s statements will be greater steadfastness and adherence to the land, and escalating resistance in all areas where the occupation is present, until it is defeated and completely eliminated from our land,” it added.
Appealing to the international community, the PFLP said, “We call on the international community to assume its responsibilities, end the policy of double standards, and take a clear and explicit stance against these dangerous plans that encourage the occupation to continue its Judaization and settlement projects, and commit further crimes of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and starvation against the Palestinian people.”
Meanwhile, countries like the Netherlands and Slovenia have joined the list of countries that have barred Mr Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir from entering their territories for their remarks on the Gaza genocide.
In total, seven countries—Australia, Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Slovenia—have banned the duo, crucial allies of Mr Netanyahu, as persona non grata.
Mr Smotrich, who remains unapologetic about his stance on Gaza’s ethnic cleansing, has slammed the Dutch government for its step against him.
PFLP calls for ‘mass uprising against genocide’
“Our blood is one, and a mass uprising against genocide is a national duty,” the organisation said while highlighting the need for mass participation in the activities announced by the national liberation forces across the Palestinian territories.
“The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine calls on our people in the occupied West Bank and in our land occupied in 1948 to participate broadly in all mass activities announced by national forces and institutions, in defence of our people and their just cause, and within the framework of solidarity with our people in the Gaza Strip, who are subjected to the harshest war of genocide and starvation known to history,” it said on Tuesday.
The PFLP has affirmed that “the duty of every Palestinian individual and freedom fighter is to work, mobilise, and participate in the mass activities announced by the national forces. It emphasises its call for the broadest mass mobilisation and participation, in light of the existential threat to our people as a result of the ongoing aggression and the raging war of genocide.”
Also the emphasising the need for popular activities across Palestine, the PFLP called upon the people across the “occupied homeland to further unite, coordinate, and organise jointly, to escalate popular activities, and to participate in all forms of resistance to the brutal war of extermination and ethnic cleansing waged by the enemy against our people in Gaza and the West Bank.”
“This should coincide with massive popular activities to be held in the diaspora and in various capitals and cities around the world,” the left-wing organisation said.
Stressing the need for unity across organisational affiliations, the PFLP emphasised “that the duty of the factions, institutions, and national and societal structures is to overcome any differences, work to escalate action in confronting the war of extermination, and truly contribute to popular action and all forms of resistance to the occupation.”
“The Front commends the Palestinian youth movements and the night marches they organise in various areas of the occupied West Bank. It calls on Palestinian youth from all factions and sectors to overcome the advocates of impotence and frustration, and to march unified into the arenas of national action, reclaiming their role in the streets in defence of existence, the homeland, and the just cause of our people,” it concluded.
