Carlos Aznarez

Jamil Mizjer is one of the important revolutionary leaders of occupied Palestine and as such has been fighting against the invader for years under very difficult conditions. Currently, Mizjer is the head of the branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the Gaza Strip. In an interview with the Director of Resumen Latinoamericano, Jamil Mizjer pays tribute to all the Palestinian fighters who for a year have been leading the Return Marches in Gaza. In addition, he expressed his opinion on the need to continue uniting the different forces of the Resistance in action.

In March, the Palestinian people and their Resistance organizations will remember not only Earth Day but also the first anniversary of the emblematic Return March, where women and men of all ages have been denouncing Friday after Friday the occupation and demanding the liberation of their lands. The peaceful march was always answered with Zionist bullets, dead and hundreds of wounded. Could you reflect on the significance of this March for the Palestinian people and what are the results obtained in the face of the advance of the Resistance?

These Marches of Return have been for more than 50 weeks the basis of unity and consensus, both national and popular. They involve all political and social spectrums of youth, women, children and the elderly, and include all national, Islamic and civil society institutions, as well as heads and dignitaries of villages, groupings and large families, all united. All agree that the Marches of Return are an important stage of struggle in the long road of our people to claim their rights, and that they are an integral part of the Palestinian popular resistance against the occupation, the Zionist liquidation plans and against all forms of siege. Despite the enormous sacrifices and Zionist assassination, a consensus exists and persists to continue sending messages not only to the occupation, but to the international community and the Arab nation that there exists a people who resist and are determined to obtain their rights by adhering to principles and dignity.

As for your question about the achievements of the Marches of Return and their consequences and effects on the resistance, we can refer to a group of important results/achievements: to take up again the consideration of unified and popular action in a unity of all the national branches and components under only the Palestinian flag and against sectarianism, demonstrating the vitality and potential of our people. It placed the Palestinian cause at the top of the agenda of international institutions and in the area of human rights, broadening the activities of international solidarity with our cause and our people.

The broad participation of the people in this resistance constitutes the integration of the forms of struggle between this popular resistance and the armed resistance, opening the door to the formation of the Joint Operations Center, which was an important result of the Marches of Return. In this Center, the Palestinian rifles of the Armed Resistance Detachments are united under a single flag and in a single Center that decides and determines the nature of the unified response to the enemy. The Marches of Return drew the attention of the international community to the reality of Zionist crimes against our people, and to the tragic situation in the Gaza Strip due to the blockade and continued Zionist aggression.

As for the repercussions and effects of the Return Marches on the Zionist occupation: they have completely confounded the calculations of the occupation and revealed their horrendous face to the world during their attacks on unarmed civilians, they also demoralized the soldiers of the occupation, as well as caused wear and tear in the Palestinian areas occupied by the Zionist colonies near the Gaza Strip.

As the first anniversary of the Marches of Return approaches, the National Organization for the March of Return is conducting extensive discussions and debates to evaluate the experience, address many of the negative aspects that have emerged during this important stage of struggle, to create together new forms and means of popular struggle, and undertake efforts to fully minimize our losses. Furthermore, the most important thing: transmit and transfer the experience of the March of Return to all the Palestinian territories, especially to the West Bank, and translate it into a People’s Uprising, into a generalized Intifada under unified national leadership where the National Organization for Peace and Security (NPO) will be the main protagonist.

What is the scenario that your Organization is experiencing regarding what is happening both in Gaza and the West Bank, in the face of the increase in the Zionist-US imperialist offensive since Donald Trump took office? How is the Resistance responding to that offensive?

At this moment, the Palestinian cause is going through the most dangerous stage, due to the continued U.S. aggression to liquidate our struggle through the deal of the century. This is in light of the general Zionist aggression against our people and their rights, due to the submission of some Arab regimes for the normalization of relations with the Zionist entity, and in the presence of a Palestinian division that led to a deep crisis in the Palestinian political order, multiplying and exacerbating the suffering of the Palestinian people.

Therefore, in the light of this cruel and unjust reality, the options of our people seem daunting to face these challenges, but the people have accumulated an extended experience of more than 70 years; they are the same people who confronted and continue to confront these present challenges despite obstacles or setbacks in different areas. However, the people have always surpassed and amazed everyone by their Intifada, defeating all the conspiracies and manoeuvres that threaten our cause. Frankly, in the presence of the political and geographical division between the West Bank and Gaza and its catastrophic consequences for our people, we have seen nothing but challenges and grave dangers that we are facing today. This requires above all the restoration, concretization and achievement of unity, as an introductory step to develop a strategy of resistance struggle capable of utilizing and guiding the potentialities of our people and creating all forms of resistance struggle, led by armed resistance and popular resistance, and not negotiating to replace any form of struggle with another.

So, therefore, we can lay the cornerstone for the path of the resistance’s response against any escalation, whether by occupation or to defeat the enemy’s liquidation plans, and especially the US ” deal of the century”.

How is work being carried out, according to the point of view of your organization, with regard to consolidating the unity of the different detachments of the Resistance?

The recovery of Palestinian unity requires first of all to realize concrete reconciliation that is built on the grassroots according to the principles of participation and national association. That is to say, the construction of the universal national institutionality that includes everyone and to agree to have a national program of resistance that replaces the devastating and catastrophic Oslo agenda.

According to our vision in the Popular Front to achieve national unity and face all dangers, we emphasize that we do not need new initiatives, ideas or dialogues on reconciliation and the realization of unity. We already have many national resolutions, from those that emerged in the Cairo dialogues in 2005 or 2011 or those issued from the preparatory committee in Beirut 2017, that must be implemented, with the possibility of paving the way for the restoration of unity and recovery.

The failure of recent rounds of dialogue and Abu Mazen’s punitive measures and his intention to form a government of some detachments have deepened the crisis and have made our people and their national institutions hostages to partisan and sectoral interests. We in the Popular Front have confirmed our refusal to participate in a detachment government because it will deepen the division. We have also rejected any countermeasure by Hamas that exacerbates the situation of the population. The position of the Popular Front is that the alternative to fractional government is the formation of a unity government according to the Cairo 2011 agreement. They all agree with that agreement and that it assumes the functions of the National Authority in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem as a single geographical and political unit, whose task is limited to preparing for the legislative and presidential elections within a period not exceeding six months. It is also necessary to take a series of emergency measures to help our population in the Gaza Strip, and to alleviate the problems they suffer on a daily basis. Guarantee the political, collective and individual freedoms that help and facilitate transparent elections in all trade unions, institutions, universities and municipalities. And with this, establish a process of rebuilding the new political order that opens the way to a new Unified National Council, with elections based on the principle of full proportional representation.

Translation by Internationalist 360°