· The popular uprising is not a mere reaction vis-a-vis a certain fact, and all that has been achieved to the present validates this and proves the need to upgrade its tone up to the point of transforming it into a Global Popular Intifada.

· There are social sectors and strata that are hesitant due to their fear of losing their narrow interests.

· The Palestinian National Authority has not placed itself at the same level of the uprising; rather, it attempts to slow it down and to prevent it from strengthening.

· The uprising has focused on the true policy of the PNA as a reflection of its social structure and an expression of its narrow interests.

· The uprising opened up a new horizon for a double struggle: against occupation and colonization on the one hand, and against the policies of the official leadership and the PNA in the West Bank as well as in the Gaza Strip.

· The terrific extension of the uprising to the territories of 1948 confirmed the unity of the rights of the Palestinian people and its destiny, and the reconsideration of the Unified Palestinian National Program (Step-by-Step Program).

· The main task of the patriotic forces consists in the mobilization of every potential in order to take part in the uprising and widening the participation in it.

· The transformation of the uprising into an Intifada requires, as a previous condition, that an end be put on division as well as the constitution of a Unified National Leadership that would be the epicenter of the leadership, together with the adoption of a new policy in compliance with the decisions taken at the most recent session of the Central Council.

In the latter half of November, 2015, the VIII Session of the Central Committee of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) took place. In this session, the circuits of the West Bank –including Jerusalem—, the Gaza Strip, the exiled community and the countries of exile took place. They discussed the topics of the agenda that was adopted, as well as the Draft Political Report that the Political Bureau submitted, entitled “For Upgrading the Popular Uprising to a Global Intifada – Assessment of the Situation and Courses.” This report was ratified, after the introduction of the pertinent and necessary modifications and changes.

In the Political Report, the CC of the DFLP arrived at the conclusion that the popular uprising “is not a mere reaction to a passing fact, but the result of the accumulation of a series of factors and crises within the context of the growing dangers that threaten the Palestinian cause, due to the exacerbation of colonization, the renewed aggressiveness of the settlers and the occupation army against the Palestinian people, and the lack of a horizon in sight of a solution pollution that would satisfy the minimum demands of Palestinian national rights, and in the midst of a destructive political division and the progressive deterioration of socio-economic and day-to-day conditions.

The report considers that “the first fruits of the popular uprising can be seen in its success in forcing Israel to abandon –albeit temporarily— its plan to divide villages and chronologically of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and to relatively convey again the Palestinian cause to retake its position in regional and international agendas, after having relinquished its position vis-à-vis other regional priorities.”

The report added that such an achievement “reinforces the conviction in the fact that the popular uprising is feasible, and in the importance of continuing and developing it until transforming it into a comprehensive popular Intifada as the materialization of the option of popular resistance, which is the main axis of an alternative national strategy, capable of producing a new reformulation of the correlation of forces that would render the possibility of putting an end to the occupation through a serious political process, based on the referent of the resolutions of International Law and Israel’s compliance to their requirements, and firstly that it would put a stop to colonization, and in the midst of an international conference that would assure a collective international sponsorship, instead of the formula of useless bilateral negotiations with the unilateral sponsorship of the USA and its bias in favor of Israel.”

After reiterating “the importance of the distinguished role of young people in unleashing the uprising, it observed that the popular sympathy that this movement enjoys "has not yet transformed into a direct participation” by “wide popular sectors,” bearing in mind that such an incorporation is the one that “guarantees the continuity of the thrust and the intensity of the movement, while constituting the major factor in order to go into the phase of the popular Intifada. It also observed that “certain social strata –albeit limited— do exist that continue to show reticence and hesitation vis-à-vis the continuation of the uprising staged by the youth, and, beyond, display their fear that it might turn into a comprehensive Intifada, because of fear for their narrow interests and privileges in case that confrontation would persist, since coexistence with occupation is the best assurance for those interests.” The report clearly stated that “the position of those strata, composed of capitalists and short term in mind, the popular behavior, with a view to improve its negotiating positions, within the framework of vainly placing its bets on the role of the USA in inducing a more flexible attitude in the intransigent Israeli position and to soften up its grasp of the political process.”

The report criticized the policy of the official leadership “continues to maintain a delaying posture with respect to the popular uprising, thereby adopting a double attitude,” by means of a new political discourse, “as if it were a new discourse, in line with the popular anger (…) without its being translated into practical steps and policies related to the popular upheaval” and in a way that it would “commit itself to respecting the resolutions of the 27th Session of the Central Council, among them the cessation of the collaboration and coordination with the occupying forces in the field of security.” The report strongly criticized the attempts by the NPA to “exploit in a political way, and in the short run, this movement, to bolster the efforts made by the USA pretending to create adequate spheres with a view to pursue the negotiations of the vicious circle.” It pointed out that the official leadership treats the movement reluctantly while doing everything possible to stop it and to avoid its intensification,” since it might place it vis-à-vis difficult dilemmas that are contrary to its political vision and its narrow bureaucratic interests and class alliances with capitalists and businessmen, as well as its Arab alliances.” It concluded that the popular movement “shed more light on the hesitation of the officials as a reflection of the social structure and an expression of its narrow interests.”

The report affirms that the DFLP “has based its policy for quite some time on the belief that the uprising is inevitable, basing itself on a realistic reading of the Palestinian situation and the nature of the double confrontation: major confrontation against occupation and colonization on a first degree, and on a second degree a confrontation with official policies and authorities established in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, whose authoritarian features have become visible with a greater force, with a total absence of the legislating authority that is responsible of putting a stop to, and limiting, transgressions that result from totalitarianism and absolutism in the exercise of power¨.

On the other hand, the Report points out the quick transfer of the popular movement to the areas of 1948, displaying many of the positive features, and arriving a series of strategic and tactical conclusions among which outstands “the failure of the Oslo Agreements (…) in their aspiration to separate the destiny of one people, dividing those of the territories of 1948 and the rest, and the unity of the Palestinian case vis-à-vis the Zionist project in the various fronts of struggle irrespective of the peculiarities of each front and its methods of struggle. The territories occupied in 1948 and those of 1967 constitute, each of them, in the framework of historic Palestine, a strategic depth, one for the other, in their struggles against occupation and the Zionist project. It also highlighted that the cause of Jerusalem is another one among the tokens of the unity of the people and that the Palestinian popular movement, within the Zionist entity, represents an enormous force due to the position and support granted to the defense of Jerusalem, and that all those lessons require the development of plans, programs and of the Palestinian National Movement, including the action of retaking the Unified National Palestinian Program (Step-by-Step Program) where realities demonstrated and confirmed the validity and applicability to respond to the concerns and rights of the Palestinian people in each of its places of existence (Territories of 1948, of 1967 and banishment).

The DFLP considers that the main task of the national forces in the present stage is to mobilize the forces and to incorporate them to the uprising, to achieve the widest possible participation and to strengthen its impetus as a decisive condition in order to turn it into a global Intifada. And, in the second place, to work towards materializing in practice its calls to put an end to division, to continue the course of conciliation, to form a Unified National Leadership that would be the center of the leadership of the uprising and to convene the High Commissioner to revitalize and develop the PLO and to form a government of national unity, to hold a National Council with a unifying nature and to undertake general and global elections with a view to renew and rejuvenate in a democratic way the institutions of the PLO, recurring to popular will as a judge and arbitrator. All this requires the most comprehensive debates around the way to develop the popular uprising and to turn it into an Intifada, in which the stress is put on ceasing security coordination with the occupying authorities, on freezing the implementation of the Paris Protocol, to go ahead with the diplomatic offensive against Israel through the reactivation of the Palestinian denunciation in the International Criminal Court, and to formulate in an official way the request for international protection for the Palestinian people, and to again demand the application of the UN resolution referring to the elimination of the wall of racial segregation, to retake and demand the implementation of the Goldstone Report, to officially announce the end of the Oslo Agreements and its annexes, to turn the page of the useless negotiations and to call, instead, for the holding of an International Conference under the auspices of the Security Council and the Secretary-General of the UN, and by virtue of its binding resolutions, and to restart the request to obtain a full membership to the UN, to be presented to the UN Security Council.

In this context, the DFLP proposed a wide national dialogue and the development of mechanisms of coordination among the forces of the Palestinian left. The Report closes with a call to mobilize the combat capacities of our people, wherever it is, in order to strengthen the uprising and to create viable conditions for its progress and continuity, keeping in mind the peculiarities of the struggle of each community, those of 1948, the West Bank and Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the countries of banishment and of exile.

Lastly, the report reiterates that the popular uprising is a historic landmark in the framework of the Palestinian national struggle, and it furnishes an exceptional opportunity to defeat the expansionist policies of the occupying forces, through colonization and judaization, as well as to exit the Oslo tunnel and the useless negotiations. The development of the uprising and its transformation into an Intifada open true horizons vis-à-vis the solutions of international law, the end to occupation. It is here that lies the national interest of our people, and all that derives from this in the way of responsibility and tasks to be assumed and accomplished by the DFLP in order to head the ranks, with the deepest confidence, together with the other Palestinian detachments.

Bureau of Central Information

Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine

November 24, 2015