Strategy for the Liberation of Palestine by PFLP | Review

Seven months into the war on Gaza, I find myself clinging to any miniscule string of hope that exists. How else do you make sense of the reality that America is not coming to save the day with their freshly inaugurated naval outpost in Gaza or that the ICC would only arrest and criminalise Israelis if Palestinians were arrested and criminalised first? Luckily, Palestinians have a history of writing and screaming their predicament and visions of liberation with a revolutionary fervour and steadfastness (sumud) that transcends the limits of our sad, neo-colonial existence.

So I turned to the infamous Strategy for the Liberation of Palestine by the PFLP or Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (el-Jabha el-Shaabeya le Tahreer Filistin). The text is considered essential reading for activists and those involved in the Palestinian liberation movement and has become an emblem of the struggle which, as the book underlines, demands underlying and directional “political thought” that is “(1) scientific, … (2) within the reach of the masses, and (3) (goes) beyond generalities and penetrate(s) as deeply as possible into the strategy and tactics of the battle to guide the combatants in facing their problems.” (p. 26)

The Front, which has consistently held its post as the second largest party in the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation) until today, was founded in December 1967 by George Habash. The idea with the creation of the Front had been to integrate various groups which at the time existed independently, such as the Heroes of the Return and various Palestinian Liberation Front squads, to solidify and homogenise their positions, and ultimately to organise and prepare Palestinians for their liberation struggle against the Zionist and imperialist entities occupying their land. The Front adopts a Marxist-Leninist analysis in confronting the issue of the occupation and seeks to address the internal and external dynamics afflicting Palestine by addressing the material conditions at play.

Therefore, it is important to highlight that this text cannot be read as a piece of literature, not even as non-fiction. There is no room for romanticising, historicising, or exaggerating the intended meaning of this text — that is the setting of a political and organisational vision for the PFLP and, more broadly, for the liberation of Palestine.

“… resistance should not be confined to the militants, but also embrace all parts and sectors of the Palestinian resistance against the enemy at every level, dealing with the enemy militarily, but also a total boycott of all economic, civil and political institutions of the enemy and a rejection of all ties.’’ (p.17)

By adopting a socialist and materialist analysis of the conditions of subjugation and occupation faced by Palestinians in Palestine, the PFLP lays out an all-encompassing view of the playing field and directly answers strategic questions around organisation and struggle.

In the first half of the document, we are introduced to the playing field through an analysis of who the enemies and allies of Palestinian liberation are. As a somewhat distinctive take, this text captures something beyond the scope of most mainstream literature on Palestine — that the internal Palestinian class dynamics, result in great part of the occupation, have been bought over and co-opted by the hands of imperialism and Zionism. The chapters titled ‘Who are our enemies?’ demonstrate how, beyond the clear enemy of Israel and Western hegemony, the Arab reactionary regimes and the Palestinian bourgeois or comprador classes lent themselves to oppress the Palestinian population in exchange for the promise of capital and security under a Western world order. Using the same analysis, however, we uncover how the ‘petit bourgeoisie’ or middle-to-low classes as well as the workers and proletariat will inevitably form part of the revolutionary struggle as their labour is owned not by them (the Palestinian masses) but by the same hands that kill and oppress them and their families. To quote, “the masses are the authority, the guide, and the resistance from which victory will be achieved in the end.” (p.15)

Along the same vein, the Arab reactionary regimes are exposed for compromising Palestine’s safety and sovereignty through their collaboration with the Zionist entity and Western imperialism. This is significant as the text considers the ‘’Palestinian fighting masses (to be) actors of the (wider) Arab revolutionary march against imperialism and its proxy forces.’’ (p. 18)

All these elements make up less than half of the analysis that is comprised in the text. The text, however, while holding a clear claim as an authority in the subject, makes no attempt to exaggerate or single out its role in carrying the struggle. Littered throughout the text, we find references to other national liberation struggles, including that of Vietnam, and quotes from Mao Tse-tung and Vo Nguyen Giap to frame, but also expand on, the case of Palestine. The aim is not to own the struggle but to call it and take it for what it is by proving and underlining the internationalism that is central to the Palestinian cause.

The level of detail, introspection, and self-criticism are not just for flashy purposes but they are discussed as being the only “guarantee” that victory will come. In essence, the PFLP acknowledges that without this level of internal critique, the same errors will continue to emerge and the repeated derailment of the revolutionary path will be inevitable.

The Strategy for the Liberation of Palestine reads like a breath of fresh air. Being written by Palestinians for Palestinians, we omit all the non-sensical jargon of trying to prove that the dispossession of 1948 was wrong or that the Palestinian cause is not anti-semitic, as we often find in mainstream discourse. Rather, the focus is on deconstructing the issues at hand and focusing all the energy of these 156 pages into concrete action.

I have never read such surgically precise, beautifully analytical, and desperately hopeful poetry on Palestinian history and the Palestinian cause, besides in the writings of Ghassan Kanafani who was the spokesperson of the PFLP and the likely mastermind behind this text. Despite the pain and struggle that informs this text, we are forced to reckon with the straight-forwardness and clarity of their analysis on the conditions that afflict Palestine. I highly recommend this text to anyone who cares deeply about Palestinian liberation and is tired of mainstream discourse. If Palestinians told us in the 1960s how they felt about the occupation and the need for tactical action, there is no reason for us to deviate from their revolutionary path.