What the rebel leader told Der Spiegel

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Sat-Sun 18-19 June 11am-5.30pm Programme Sat Palestine Solidarity and Women for Palestine. €1 (50p unwaged) Sun frer Youth CND conterence: July 2-3. Manchester Uni versity Students Union, Oxford Rd. Open to YCND members only. Delegates from YCND groups: 1 delegate per 4 members. Visitors must notify YCND office belore conterence. Kegıstra- • tion fee £1.50 for visitors and delegates. Abu Mussa, why split from Fatah?

We are neither separatists, nor dissidents nor rebels - or whatever else we are called. We see ourselves as part of the Fatah movement that is still the spearhead of the Palestinian liberation struggle. Disagreements are nothing new. We have been at loggerheads for seven years now.

Why has Yassir Arafat excluded your and four of your officers from the Fatah Central Committee?

No individual can decide that. Only the majority of the Committee can decide who fights for the sacred rights of the Palestinian people and who does not.

What sparked off your clash with Arafat?

We are opposed to the "good life" being led by the leadership. They are corrupt and politically moribund.

Is that true of the whole Fatah establishment or only of Arafat and his circle?

It is true above all of people like Haj Ismail (one of the two commanders appointed by Arafat), who when the enemy marched on Tyre fled from the Israelis like a frightened rabbit. Are we supposed to accept someone like that as commander of the forces in the Beka'a valley and in North Lebanon?

Arafat did propose a compromise in relation to Haj Ismail.

It's not just a matter of personalities. For us the issue is the very dangerous line Arafat adopted following our withdrawal from Beirut.

Arafat has not really given up any of the old positions.

We are against these negotiations in our name - over the Fahd plan and the so-called Reagan Peace Plan.

You don't want any negotiations with King Hussein or the Saudis either?

No. We are not prepared to deliver ourselves into the hands of the Arab potentates, for them to tell us what to do; although they can't even handle their own problems.

You are referring to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States?

Above all I mean Hussein. The very fact of there being negotiations about a Palestinian-Jordan confederation is itself in complete contradiction with our idea of sovereignty. The Jordanians managed to get Arafat to a point where he was ready to agree to a federation under the leadership of Hussein. Arafat returned from Amman and tried to get us to approve the plan. That's when the alarm bells really started to ring.

May we assume that you also reject the idea of contact with progressive and dovish circles in Israel?

These are deviations that are innananao… incompatible with Palestinian self-determination. If I talk to them, then how can I condemn Egypt or the people that support the Camp David agreement? How can we blame Gemayel for his pact with the Israelis, il Arafat himself has dealings with Israeli politicians?

Your quarrel with Arafat comes at a convenient moment for the government in Damascus. Aren't you afraid that, should Fatah break apart, you will be totally dependent on Syria?

No. As long as Syria rejects the Reagan initiative and Syrian tanks support us against the Israelis and as long as we have the same aim, we will be comrades in arms.

Further information and membership detaiis from LMCfP. /o 28, Carlton Mansions.

Holmleigh Road, London N16 Speakers: Avishai Erlich (the Zionist State); Moshe Speakers: Avishai Erlich (the Zionist State); Moshe Speakers School: how to present the case tor the workshop for women only. workshop for women only.

at County Hall, London SE1 =+ County Hall, London § affiliated organisations will be allowed to vote in the conference • delegates from Creche

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The Great Depression: US dole queue in the 1930s P AY the eve of the New Deal, a protest march

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