#Jordanian Armed Forces

[news4dzhozhar]

[suetravelblog]

Jordan Independence Day Amman

Jordanian Flag Independence Day – Edarabia May 25 is Jordan Independence Day, and the “most important event in the history of the country, marking its independence from the British government in 1946”. The 2023 celebration signifies 75 years since Jordan “officially gained full autonomy in 1948“. King Abdullah I bin Al-Hussein “Jordan’s independence took place during the reign of King Abdullah I…

[thenewgothictwice]

March 28. Taleed El-Sabawi, JD, PhD writes: "Jordan should be trending right now. Protests have been blocking traffic; men have flooded the streets in such large numbers that even the repressive military force in Jordan can’t beat them into submission (something they frequently do); Protesters are chanting for Jordan to open its borders so they can march to Al-Aqsa. The political unrest in Jordan has been at a boiling point for years now.

High rates of unemployment particularly among young men; significant inflation; high housing costs; low wages; skyrocketing gas prices, electricity, groceries…hardly any industry. Repressive import taxes.

And a monarchy that pockets millions of US government aid in exchange for US military access. The monarchy is now holding on by a thread.

Expect the Jordanian forces to increase their violence against protestors. Expect the U.S. to send in reinforcements in some shape or form—If the monarchy falls, it will not be a U.S. co-opted government that will organically take its place. It will not be an Israel friendly government. Expect the U.S. to meddle as they always have & to do everything they can to keep the monarchy in place.

Even a UN Ceasefire isn’t enough to make Israel ceasefire or the U.S. to call for Israel to ceasefire. The calculus has changed. The people are reminded yet again how the governments of the world have failed them. Expect more of this around the world.

Every time there are protests in Jordan, I call my family in Amman to get a sense of how serious it is, because my grandparents are in Amman. Since October, every time I call they have brushed it off as young men being young men. Skirmishes with the armed guard as usual. But today was different. They spoke about not being able to drive in the streets, of the chaos, of the sheer number of human bodies, of the determination to do something to help Gaza—something has changed. This time, it feels different.

Additional important context: Jordan was created in 1946. When Britain divided up the Arab World into nation states. Before that there was free movement & a greater degree of one-ness. So when Jordanians say they there is no difference between us and the Palestinian people or that we are the same people , it is because the British creation of nation states was a Western government forcing the Arab people into its Western constructs.

[about further protests in Jordan] There are already plans to start again —at Maghreb tomorrow (sunset)—at the Israeli embassy and doing a sit-in again until dawn, interspersed with prayers. Tomorrow will mark day 5 of protests in Amman."

[everythingroyalty]

Princess Salma bint Abdullah of Jordan, the first female jet pilot in the Jordanian Armed Forces, took part in the Royal Jordanian Air Force's fifth airdrop of critical medical supplies over Northern Gaza on 14 December 2023 🇯🇴🇵🇸

[zvaigzdelasas]

The IB affair (Swedish: IB-affären) was the exposure of illegal surveillance operations by the IB secret Swedish intelligence agency within the Swedish Armed Forces. The two main purposes of the agency were to handle liaison with foreign intelligence agencies and to gather information about communists and other individuals who were perceived to be a threat to the nation.[...]

The story was immediately picked up by many leading Swedish dailies.[3] Their revelations were that: •There was a secret intelligence agency in Sweden called IB, without official status. Its director Birger Elmér was reporting directly to select key persons at cabinet level, most likely defence minister Sven Andersson and Prime Minister Olof Palme. •The Riksdag was unaware of its activities. People with far-left views had been monitored and registered. •IB agents had infiltrated Swedish left-wing organisations and sometimes tried to induce them into criminal acts. •There were Swedish spies operating abroad. IB spies had broken into the Egyptian and Algerian embassies in Stockholm. •The IB co-operated extensively with the Central Intelligence Agency and Shin Bet, in contrast to the official Swedish foreign policy of neutrality.[...]

In the following issues of Folket i Bild/Kulturfront the two uncovered further activities of IB and interviewed a man who had infiltrated the Swedish movement supporting the FNL, Vietnamese National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam - at this time the FNL support network was a backbone of the radical opinion - and among other things, visited Palestinian guerilla camps in Jordan. The man worked for IB and had composed reports that, it was surmised, IB later passed on to the Israeli security services which resulted in the camps being bombed. [...]Swedish authorities claimed they were unable to locate him to stand trial. In 2009, he released an autobiography of his years in IB[...] He also confirmed that he had been transferred from IB to the Mossad, an Israeli intelligence agency, immediately prior to his exposure.[...]

The magazine had information from a previous employee of IB, Håkan Isacson, who claimed that IB had broken into the offices of two political organizations: the FNL Groups, a pro-North Vietnamese organization, and the Communist Party of Sweden, a Maoist political party. This concerned a Jordanian citizen and a stateless citizen. A wiretap was installed in the latter case. After this uncovering, the defense minister did admit that IB engaged in espionage outside of Sweden and infiltrated organizations within Sweden, including wiretaps. Evidence was put forth in 1974 that IB had built up a large network of agents in Finland, which included the Finnish foreign minister Väinö Leskinen. This network's main mission was to gather information regarding the Soviet Union.[...]

In November 1973, Prime Minister Olof Palme denied any link between IB and the Social Democrats. However, according to the memoir of ex-security service chief P.G. Vinge, Birger Elmér had regular contact with Palme and made his reports regularly to the Social Democratic Party secretary, Sven Andersson.[...]

Jan Guillou, Peter Bratt, Håkan Isacson and the photographer Ove Holmqvist were arrested 22 October 1973[2] by the Swedish Security Service on suspicion of espionage. On 4 January 1974 each was sentenced to 1 year in prison. Bratt and Guillou were both convicted of espionage; Isacson was convicted of espionage and accessory to espionage. After an appeal, Guillou's sentence was commuted to 10 months. The Swedish Supreme Court would not consider the case.[4][...]

In 2002 an extensive public report, named Rikets säkerhet och den personliga integriteten (Security of the Realm and personal integrity), was published on the operations of IB. This report clarified the details of the case, but it did not have any legal impact. To date, no member of IB has ever been indicted, nor has any politician or government official, despite the revelation of widespread extra-constitutional and criminal activity.

[jordanianroyals]

King Abdullah II, Queen Rania and Crown Prince Hussein of Jordan attended the national event marking the Silver Jubilee, held on the 25th Accession to the Throne Day on 9 June 2024.

Upon Their Majesties’ arrival to the event venue surrounded by the Red Motorcade, the national anthem was played and Royal Jordanian Air Force fighter jets conducted a fly-past.

Around 9,000 Jordanians attended the event, including members of the Royal family, senior officials and officers, and diplomats from Arab and foreign countries.

The event highlighted Jordan’s achievements throughout a quarter of a century, through a military parade by the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army and security agencies, showcasing the latest developments in these national institutions, reflecting the high professionalism and commitment of its personnel.

Around 3,200 personnel from all military and security formations and units marched before the stands.

The military parade also showcased various JAF vehicles, including tanks, cannons, and other weapons recently introduced to service, as well as defence machinery manufactured by the Jordan Design and Development Bureau, along with air shows by the Royal Jordanian Air Force, and free falling paratroopers.

The JAF musical band also performed at the event.

During the event, His Majesty and the attendees saluted border guards and anti-terrorism troops, as well as cadres who participated in airdrops to Gaza and worked at the field hospitals in the strip, in recognition of their efforts, and their role in safeguarding Jordan’s stability.

The event also featured cultural and folklore segments representing all governorates performed by over 1000 young men and women, with 12 floats representing each governorate.

A group of young Jordanians performed the Silver Jubilee anthem and another national song composed for the occasion.

[carsonjonesfiance]

The tiniest bit of good news for the Palestinian cause: the US has decided to go forward with its airdrop similar to the ones France did earlier this year.

The US response to the Israel-Gaza war has been a mess of contradictions as US urges caution humanitarian aid while continuing to supply the arms that Israel uses to flaunt those same suggestions, so it is nice to see the US putting more action towards seeing the people of Gaza are not starved to death in addition to the brutal campaign of indiscriminate attacks that have made this war’s death toll largely civilian casualties.

[magz]

Lets Talk Palestine, summary. March 31 to April 5, 2024. Quote:

March 31. Day 177 - Easter

✝️ Israel denied Palestinian Christians — the oldest in the world — access to the old city in Jerusalem

🇫🇷 France to prosecute its citizens serving in IOF for implicated war crimes after video showed French citizen assaulting Palestinian hostages

• 77 Palestinians killed, 108 injured in last 24 hours

🇮🇶 Iraqi group’s drone strikes & damages Israeli naval base in Eilat in southern Palestine, bypassing Jordanian & Israeli air defense to do so (📸 above)

• Another massacre of aid seekers at Kuwaiti roundabout killed 17 & wounded 30. This major aid distribution point now dubbed a “deathtrap”

🏥 Israeli bombing of tents housing displaced Palestinians at al-Aqsa Hospital kills 4, wounds 17 incl. journalist

• IOF abducts 14 in overnight raids in West Bank

🏥 26 patients killed in Israel’s siege of Shifa Hospital. The remaining 107 patients face mass disease spread

🐀 Palestinian Authority President Abbas swears in new unelected gov’t

April 1. Day 178

🏥 IOF withdraws from Shifa Hospital after 2-week siege that completely destroyed the hospital as they set fire to buildings (📸 above). 400+ bodies of Palestinians executed by IOF found, many missing body parts, showing signs of torture

•⁠ 63 killed, 94 injured in Gaza in last 24 hours

•⁠ ⁠Israeli army report admits that IOF executed Palestinians for crossing arbitrary invisible “kill zones” determined by IOF

🇸🇾🇮🇷 Israel strikes & destroys Iranian consulate in Syria, killing 7 in a dangerous regional escalation

•⁠ ⁠4 foreign @ wckitchen aid workers (incl. Australian, British & Polish) & their Palestinian translator killed by Israeli targeted bombing of their car while distributing food

•⁠ Hamas says the Palestinian Authority & Egyptian officials coordinated w/ Israel to infiltrate Gaza via Rafah crossing as an "intelligence plan" disguised as "distributing aid". PA denies the accusation; 6 PA officers were arrested by Hamas. The PA seeks to administer Gaza post-genocide

April 2. Day 179

• 71 Palestinians killed, 102 injured in Gaza in last 24 hours

•⁠ ⁠Netanyahu claims yesterday’s attack killing 7 foreign aid workers (🇦🇺, 🇨🇦, 🇬🇧, 🇺🇸, 🇵🇱) was “unintended”. But the workers were in a deconflicted zone, coordinated movement w/ Israel, & were in clearly marked @ wckitchen cars

👆UK & Australia summon Israeli ambassadors, demanding accountability; but US & Canada accept Israel’s excuse that the killing was unintended

🇺🇸⁠ Alarming level of US intelligence sharing w/ Israel since Oct 7 from Gaza surveillance. US unsure of its intel’s contribution to civilian deaths

• Knesset (Israel Parliament) pass bill paving way to ban Al Jazeera, claims it poses threat to international media & freedom of the press

• Multiple aid orgs incl. @ aneraorg & @ wckitchen halt Gaza operations after yesterday’s attack + aid shipment returns to Cyprus w/ 240 tons of undelivered aid. Due to Israel targeting humanitarian workers

• World Bank: Gaza infrastructure damage estimated at $18.5bn

April 3. Day 180

• After 6 months of genocide, Israel has killed 32,975 Palestinians, not including thousands buried under rubble; incl. 14,500 kids, 140 journalists & 484 medical staff. Starvation & disease are expected to kill even more as Israel prevents aid

🇺🇳 UN Human Rights Council to consider draft motion for arms embargo on Israel to halt arms sales

• 30% of children under 2 in Gaza are ‘acutely malnourished’

🇺🇳 UN suspends night aid deliveries in last 48 hours after Israel’s killing of 7 @ wckitchen aid workers

⚖️ The PA attempted to arrest a Palestinian resistance fighter in Tulkarem (West Bank), and later PA forces killed Motassim Al-Arif of Tulkarem Brigades (local resistance group), making him the 7th Palestinian resistance fighter killed by the PA since Oct 7. This sparked Tulkarem brigades to initiate a state of “civil disobedience” in Tulkarem. The attempted arrest of the Hamas leader occurred in Jenin (West Bank) and is another escalation of clashes between the PA and Palestinian resistance groups in the West Bank

🇬🇧 YouGov Poll: 56% UK voters support ban of arms export to Israel

April 4. Day 181

‼️ Gaza death toll surpasses 33,000 not including thousands under rubble

•⁠ ⁠Israel’s bombing of Gaza is driven by flawed AI software with little human review of the thousands of Palestinians placed on its ‘kill list’. The AI accounts for 5-10 ‘acceptable civilian deaths’ per targeted resistance fighter

[Magz note: This is a part of Israel's various efforts to kill Palestinians / "Hamas" with more efficiency and ease for the IOF. Other examples being robot dogs and high-tech missile launchers and dropping specialized bombs on highly-concentrated "concentration camp" of Gaza. In this case, the machine-learning database is called "Lavender", and 'identifies' targets that 'might' have any connection to Hamas at all, so the IOF directs "dumb bombs" on the targets. The unspoken implications is that the targets' identifications would include potential family members and friends - thus having as many as 37000 target list total for "Hamas", as the dehumanization of Palestinians is to idenitfy them all as inherently "terrorist". ("‘The machine did it coldly’: Israel used AI to identify 37,000 Hamas targets", The Gaurdian article. Article date: April 4, 2024)]

🇮🇷 Israel evacuated several of its embassies abroad, halted deploying combat units & called reservists in response to Iran’s threats of retaliation after Israel killed 7 Iranian personnel in strike on its consulate in Syria. Israel taking Iran’s threat seriously

• Israeli doctor reveals catastrophic conditions for Palestinian captives incl. requiring amputations from being shackled for 24 hours, regularly blindfolded, denied toilet access & surgeries without proper medical care

• IOF strikes homes in ‘safe zone’ Rafah, killing 8+ Palestinians

🇱🇧 2000 acres of Lebanese farmland destroyed by Israeli bombardment

• IOF shot & killed 28-year-old Asad Amr in Jenin in West Bank

April 5. Day 182

•⁠ ⁠On Palestinian Children’s Day, Israel has killed 14,000+ children in Gaza, 117 in West Bank since Oct 7. 31 kids killed by starvation while 50,000+ are acutely malnourished, 200 kids held captive by Israel & 17,000+ unaccompanied or separated from immediate family

⚖️ Colombia follows Nicaragua in requesting to join South Africa in ICJ genocide case against Israel

🇺🇳 UN Human Rights Council passes non-binding motion urging states to halt arms sales to Israel, citing ICJ ruling; US voted against. First time UNHRC takes a position since Oct 7

•⁠ Israel to open Beit Hanoon crossing to north Gaza & Ashdod port temporarily; analysts say it’s inadequate as Gaza subject to ‘catastrophic starvation’ by Israel’s blockade

•⁠ After international outrage, Israel dismisses 2 officers & reprimands 3 for attack killing 6 foreign aid workers, but no criminal trials or real accountability

•⁠ Israeli sniper kills Palestinian while filming an Israeli raid from his rooftop in West Bank

[girlactionfigure]

*ISRAEL REALTIME* - "Connecting the World to Israel in Realtime"

▪️Kerem Shalom - A huge traffic jam of aid trucks that will not enter Gaza today thanks to the blockade.. ‘the blockade’ is hostage families and fighter families (the Order 9 movement) who are protesting against aid entry with no return of hostages and ongoing attacks against the fighters.  "No aid passes until the last of the hostages returns.”

▪️Hezbollah announces that at 11:20 it launched two suicide drones towards the Iron Dome batteries near Kfar Blum.  IDF confirms falls in open areas.

▪️Israel is considering not extending the current water flow agreement with Jordan in the background of the harsh statements of senior officials against it following the war in Gaza, led by Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safdi.

▪️China's Ministry of Defense: "We have never supplied arms and weapons to the conflict in Gaza. We always adopt a responsible approach to arms exports.”

▪️The Gazans report that they received an instruction (from the IDF) to evacuate the area of ​​UNWRA's Sana'a center in western Khan Younis by tomorrow at 5:00 AM. There are about ten thousand displaced persons there.

▪️In light of the spread of rumors about the establishment of a Palestinian state and the end of the war with a surrender agreement that removes the IDF from the Strip, the members of the ‘military camp’ movement (reservists) decided to intensify the struggle and embark on a number of projects across the length and breadth of the country in front of the government systems in order to convey their demand 'This war cannot be ended without exacting a heavy territorial price from the enemy and a 180 degree change of the reality that was here before October 7.’

The members of the movement decided at this stage to turn the encampment in Jerusalem into a march of reserve fighters leaving the northern Gaza Strip towards the government offices in Jerusalem. 

On Sunday, February 4, the reservists who were released from reserve service in Gaza will begin a march from the entrance to the northern Gaza Strip to Jerusalem, a five-day journey that will end with a rally in front of the Prime Minister's Office. The reservists call on the public to join them in the journey or segments of it and at the end of the victory rally that will be held on February 8 in Jerusalem.

🔶 JUDEA-SAMARIA Front 

▪️Terrorist who attacked IDF forces in Jenin and was killed this morning, was imprisoned in Israel for 16 years… released 2 months ago as part of the hostage releases.

▪️Bethlehem: confrontation between IDF forces and Palestinian police by police station that included the throwing of a stun grenade by IDF soldiers. The Palestinian policemen went back into their police station.

▪️IDF forces are currently doing counter-terror operations in the town of Kablan near Shechem.

▪️Shechem: Shin Bet arrests two wanted persons and a 3D printer used to manufacture weapons was confiscated.

[charlotte-of-wales]

Happy 62nd birthday to King Abdullah II of Jordan!

Born 30 January 1962, Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein is King of Jordan, having ascended the throne on 7 February 1999.

Abdullah was born in Amman as the first child of King Hussein and his second wife, Princess Muna. As the king's eldest son, Abdullah was heir apparent until Hussein transferred the title to Abdullah's uncle Prince Hassan in 1965. Abdullah began his schooling in Amman, continuing his education abroad. He began his military career in 1980 as a training officer in the Jordanian Armed Forces, later assuming command of the country's Special Forces in 1994, eventually becoming a major general in 1998. In 1993, Abdullah married Rania Al-Yassin, with whom he has four children: Crown Prince Hussein, Princess Iman, Princess Salma and Prince Hashem. A few weeks before his death in 1999, King Hussein named Abdullah his heir, and Abdullah succeeded his father.

[thegalievthought]

Statement by the Lebanese Communist Party On a Joint Meeting Between 9 Other Parties on the issue of Israeli Apartheid and Palestinian Genocide☭

The communist parties in the Arab countries (the Jordanian Communist Party, the Iraqi Communist Party, the Lebanese Communist Party, the Palestinian People’s Party, the Egyptian Communist Party, the Unified Syrian Communist Party, the Sudanese Communist Party, the Kuwaiti Progressive Movement, the Moroccan Progress and Socialism Party, and the Bahraini Progressive Platform) held a meeting Exceptionally on Wednesday, December 20, 2023.

The meeting discussed the continuation of the bloody and comprehensive Zionist aggression against the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territories, especially the crimes of genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip, and the goals of this aggression, including plans to displace the Palestinians and efforts to liquidate their national cause, and defining the joint work tasks of these parties, in order to continue confronting the risks.

The current seriousness of liquidating the Palestinian issue, the threat to the security and safety of the region and our Arab peoples, and the great challenges that exist as a result of that.

The meeting of the Communist Parties in the Arab countries paid high tribute and appreciation to the heroic resistance in all the occupied Palestinian territories, and to the legendary steadfastness of the Gaza Strip in the face of aggression and the unprecedented war of extermination to which the Palestinian people have been exposed since the seventh of last October, and to which they have been victims until now. More than (20) thousand martyrs, male and female, most of them children and women.

The meeting reaffirmed the legitimate right of the Palestinian people and their national forces to resist the occupation and settler gangs, and to resort to all forms of struggle, including popular and armed resistance, to curb aggression, end the occupation, and extract full national and human rights, first and foremost, the right to liberate their homeland. Return, self-determination, and the establishment of an independent national state with Jerusalem as its capital.

The meeting also saluted the massive Arab and international protest movements and activities, the overwhelming popular anger at the heinous aggression and crimes of the Zionist occupation, and the unprecedented solidarity around the world with the struggle of the Palestinian people and their legitimate and just human and national rights. He also saluted the role of the communist, leftist and progressive forces in these protest and solidarity movements.

After an extensive and in-depth discussion, the communist parties in the Arab countries participating in this meeting agreed to reaffirm the following:

The state of silence of the international community regarding the Zionist-American aggression against the Palestinian people, and the genocide and various other war crimes it has committed and is still committing, and its complete inability to bear its responsibilities and take practical and tangible measures to curb this aggression and its practices, which constitute a gross and flagrant violation of all international laws and conventions, The failure to assist and rescue Palestinian civilians has always been and continues to be a factor encouraging America and its ally, the Zionist occupation - the colonial and racist settler - to continue their aggression and horrific crimes, and even constitutes a cover for all of that.

This is in addition to the continued state of official Arab impotence (and complicity), which has prevented a unified Arab position that rises to the level of supposed dealing with the extent of the aggression and massacres to which the Palestinian people are exposed and the dangers to their national cause, and to the security and sovereignty of the Arab countries, even within the limits of providing humanitarian aid. Sufficient supplies for the victims of the aggression in the Gaza Strip and ensuring its delivery to them.

In this context, the meeting expressed its condemnation of some political regimes’ identification with the forces of Zionist-American aggression and cooperation with their military allies in the region.

The continuation of the Zionist occupation, and the continuation of its crimes against the Palestinian people, with the support of American imperialism, NATO, and Arab reactionary forces, is the root of the suffering and problems of the Palestinian people and the peoples of the region, and the source of their lack of security and stability. As a result, conflicts will continue, people will be deprived of living in peace, and they will remain in danger of falling into a spiral of all-out war.

The international community (represented by the UN Security Council, the United Nations, and its organizations and agencies) must bear its actual responsibilities in a concrete way to bind the Zionist occupation to international laws and conventions, foremost among which is the “Fourth Geneva Conventions for the Protection of Civilians in the Occupied Territories and in Times of War and Armed Conflict,” as well as guaranteeing the rights of the Palestinian people. .

Some countries, among our historical friends, are required to make more effective use of their regional and international standing to intervene and exert the maximum types of international pressure to curb the practices of the Zionist occupation and support the legitimate national and human rights of the Palestinian people.

Accordingly, the extraordinary meeting of the communist parties in the Arab countries calls on the United Nations Security Council, all United Nations bodies and international organizations, as well as all countries that are friends of our peoples and supporters of international peace and security, to intervene urgently and begin using their regional and international standing and all their capabilities, in order to quickly move and put pressure on... The fascist Zionist aggression against the Palestinian people, a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire, a complete lifting of the siege on the Gaza Strip, and ensuring that supplies, needs and relief aid reach it. As well as putting a final end to the terrorist and racist practices of the Zionist occupation against the Palestinian people, its expansionist ambitions and its continuing threats to the security, capabilities and national sovereignty of the peoples and countries of the Arab region, including the repeated military attacks on Syria and Lebanon.

The meeting also addresses all communist and leftist parties, progressive and democratic forces, the peoples, solidarity movements and supporters of national liberation, and all those who believe in the values of freedom, justice and free people in the entire world, calling for the necessity of continuing to take to the streets and squares and expanding and escalating protest movements through all possible means, to put pressure on governments. Their countries and the international community, and organizing popular mobilization for the struggle against the occupation because of Zionist aggression.

Based on all of this, the communist parties in the Arab countries participating in the meeting stressed the urgent tasks of their work and joint struggle, in accordance with the following current priorities:

First: Working to expand and intensify the political and combat movement, officially and popularly, and by all possible means and forms, to put pressure at all levels - in the region and in every country in the world - in order to quickly:

A) Confronting and curbing the Zionist-American military aggression against the Palestinian people and the genocide campaign to which it is being subjected and thwarting its goals, and obliging the Zionist occupation to a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire.

B) Breaking the siege imposed on the Palestinian people, especially the Gaza Strip, and ensuring the entry of all humanitarian supplies, aid, and basic needs to the Strip and all its institutions, and to all the besieged Palestinians.

C) Move globally to expose the crimes of the Zionist occupation, which rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity, end its impunity, and demand that the International Criminal Court open an immediate investigation into these crimes, and prosecute and prosecute the leaders of the Zionist occupation and the leaders of the countries that support its crimes.

Second: Providing all types of tangible support to the Palestinian people and their valiant resistance, politically, morally, materially, media, culturally, and other possible types of support, and strengthening the Palestinian national narrative in the face of the Zionist narrative and the media disinformation machine - of the American-Zionist-Western alliance - throughout the world... etc. In addition to penetrating misleading or ambiguous political circles, especially in Western Europe and America.

Third: Expanding and escalating all forms of official, popular and institutional solidarity with the Palestinian people in every Arab country, at the regional and global levels, and constantly striving to place the Palestinian issue and the attainment of national and human rights for the Palestinian people at the top of the agenda of coordination meetings and meetings of communist, leftist and progressive parties on all sides. levels in the world.

Fourth: Make every effort to exert tireless pressure to support the achievement and strengthening of Palestinian national unity, on the basis of the unity, steadfastness and resistance of the Palestinian people to the occupation, and a commitment to defending their full national and human rights.

Fifth: Emphasizing the right of the Palestinian people to resist, liberate their homeland, and obtain all their national rights, foremost of which is their right to self-determination and the establishment of their independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and the return of all Palestinian refugees in accordance with United Nations Resolution 194 issued in 1948.

Sixth: Begin organizing various pressure activities and events to expand and strengthen the comprehensive boycott of the Zionist occupation entity and all its products, institutions and media at all levels, withdraw investments from it and impose sanctions on it, as an occupation, settlement and terrorist entity.

Seventh: Resisting normalization with the Zionist occupation entity, and demanding the cancellation of the humiliating normalization agreements with it, permanently and not only in connection with the issue of aggression and ceasefire.

Eighth: The meeting condemns the expansion of the Zionist aggression against Lebanon and Syria and the targeting of their lands, and affirms their right to liberate the occupied territories in northern and eastern Syria, the Golan, the Shebaa Farms, and the Kafr Shuba Hills in Lebanon. The meeting also condemns the continuation of economic sanctions and the unjust siege imposed on the Syrian people. It also condemns all attempts to displace the Palestinian people to Egypt and Jordan, and calls for confronting this dangerous criminal project.

Ninth: The meeting stressed the need to follow up on its outcomes, put them into practice, continue coordination between its parties, and follow up on urgent work tasks at the level of the common priority issues mentioned in this statement.

Communist parties in Arab countries

December 20, 2023

[gazanarchive]

This interview was conducted by Richard Carleton in Beirut in 1970

Ghassan Kanafani was affiliated with Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He was also the author of many books, such as, Men in the sun, All that is left to you and several others.

He was assassinated on 8th July 1972 in Beirut at the age of 36.

He was Beirut based spokesperson of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The initial conflict was fought between the Palestine Liberation Organization under the leadership of Yasser Arafat and the Jordanian Armed Forces under the leadership of king Hussein. PFLF however got involved into the conflict with a more progressive ideology, with secular, Marxist–Leninist and with revolutionary motives.

The Interviewer: The Beirut leader of the Popular Front (PFLP, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) is Ghassan Kanafani. He was born in Palestine but fled in 1948, as he puts it, from Zionist terror. Since then he has been plotting the destruction of both; the Zionists and the reactionary Arabs.

G. Kanafani: What I really know is, the history of the world is always the history of the weak people fighting the strong people. Of weak people who have a correct case, fighting the strong people who use their strength to exploit the weak.

The Interviewer: Turn to the fighting that has been going on in Jordan in the recent weeks. It is your organization that has been one side of the fight. What has it achieved?

G. Kanafani: One thing. That we have a case to fight for. That is too much. The Palestinian people prefer to die standing then to loose their case. What we achieved! We achieved proving that the king is wrong. We achieved proving that this nation is going to continue fighting till victory. We achieved that our people could never be defeated. We achieved teaching every single person of this world that we are a small brave nation who are going to fight till the last drop of their blood. To put justice to ourselves after the world failed in giving it to us. This is what we have achieved.

The Interviewer: It does seem that the war, the civil war has been quite fruitless……

G. Kanafani: (He cuts the talk and interrupts angrily) It is not a civil war. It is a people struggle, defending themselves against a fascist government, which you are defending just because king Hussain has an Arab passport. It is not a civil war.

The Interviewer: Or a conflict?

G. Kanafani: It is not a conflict either. It is a liberation movement fighting for justice.

The Interviewer: Well, whatever it is, but……

G. Kanafani: (Interrupts again angrily) It is not whatever. Because this is where the problem starts. This is what you keep in mind while asking me all the questions. This is exactly where the problem starts. This is the people who are discriminated, who are fighting for their rights. This is historic. If you say, it is a civil war then your questions will be justified. If you say it is a conflict then of course it will be a surprise to know what is happening.

The Interviewer: Why won’t your organization engage in peace talks with Israelis?

G. Kanafani: You do not exactly mean peace talks, you mean capitulation, you mean surrendering.

The Interviewer: Why not just talk?

G. Kanafani: Talk to whome?

The Interviewer: Talk to the Israeli leaders.

G. Kanafani: That is kind of a conversation between the sword and the neck you mean!

The Interviewer: When there is no sword and no guns in the room, you could still talk.

G. Kanafani: No. I have never seen conversation between the colonialist case and a national liberation movement.

The Interviewer: But despite this why not talk?

G. Kanafani: Talk about what?

The Interviewer: Talk about the possibility of not fighting.

G. Kanafani: Not fighting for what?

The Interviewer: Not fighting at all, no matter what for.

G. Kanafani: People usually fight for something and they stop fighting for something. So you cannot tell me even why should we speak and about what. Or talk about stop fighting. And why should we?

The Interviewer: Talk to stop fighting to stop the death and the misery, the destruction, the pain.

G. Kanafani: The misery, the destruction, the pain and the death of whome?

The Interviewer: Of Palestinians, of Israelis, of Arabs.

G. Kanafani: Of the Palestinian people who are uprooted, thrown in the camps, living in starvation, killed for twenty years and forbidden to use even the name Palestinian?

The Interviewer: Then better to stop the war to stop the death.

G. Kanafani: Maybe to you, not to us. To us, to liberate our country, to have dignity, to have respect, to have our mere human rights; these are something as essential as life itself.

The Interviewer: You called king Hussain a fascist. Who else amongst the Arab leaders are you totally opposed to?

G. Kanafani: We consider the Arab governments of two kinds. Something we call the reactionaries, who are completely connected with the imperialists, like king Hussain, like Saudi Arabian government, Moroccan government and Tunisian government. And then we have some other Arab governments which we called the military petty bourgeois governments like, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Algeria and so on.

The Interviewer: Just to end with, let me get back to the hijacking of the aircraft. On reflection, do you think that is now a mistake?

G. Kanafani: We did not make a mistake in hijacking them. They contest us. We did one of the most correct things we have ever done.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

Naturally, the subservient Palestinians would be their useful stooges to undertake the overthrow of both regimes. Yasser Arafat and his duplicitous cohorts were overjoyed at their backer’s belief in their military capabilities and were only too willing firstly to overthrow their Jordanian brothers who had not only housed them but contributed financially and politically supported them since their creation in the 1960’s. Egypt would soon follow.

September 1970, known as Black September was the chosen date for the Palestinians to achieve their treacherous agenda which they naively considered to be an easy task. The Jordanians however were sensible enough to call on the assistance of their ally Pakistan and an ambitious Pakistani army officer, Brigadier Muhammad Zia-al-Haq who with elite Pakistani troops and the 2nd Division of the Jordanian army annihilated Arafat’s militias resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and the expulsion of thousands of Yasser Arafat’s followers and their families to Lebanon.

To this day those Palestinians and their heirs were stripped and still barred from obtaining Jordanian citizenship. Treachery has a price. The exact death toll has never been quantified as media support for the Palestinians disallowed coverage let alone expose a humiliating defeat at the hands of Jordan (and Pakistan) their former supporter. Research suggests that up to 25,000 of Arafat’s army were killed and over 100,000 ‘ethnically cleansed’ to Lebanon.

As a comparison the 75-year conflict with Israel has resulted in half that number of deaths.

The Lebanese did not want but had no option than to accept the defeated Arab Palestinian presence in their country and did their best to accommodate.

Typically, as is befitting of the Palestinians, Lebanese goodwill was met with treachery. On January 20th 1976, during the very start of what was going to be a fifteen-year civil war, the Palestinians siding with Islamists, attacked a sleepy Maronite Christian town, Damour, on the main highway south of Beirut.

Armed Palestinian militants committed barbarity after barbarity, atrocity after atrocity on old men, women and children. They made mothers watch the slaughter of their children before the mothers themselves were raped and beheaded. Young men were lined up against a wall and sprayed with machine guns whilst their parents were made to watch.

The Palestinian Charter of 1968 not only commands Jew extermination but also subservience to Islam or death of all other races and religions. They certainly attempted to achieve their latter objective at Damour.

That’s how the Palestinians repaid Lebanese generosity when they were forced out of Jordan. Yet again mainstream media chose to ignore this episode given the bad light that would have been shone on Israel’s enemy. Again, the number of deaths and casualties is unknown but even the most pro-Palestinian journalists such as the late Robert Fisk, who were later allowed access to the village estimated the numbers between 300 and 500 deaths. Others suggested 1000 plus. To this very day the Lebanese naturally detest the Palestinians and impose a a system of apartheid against them. And who can blame them.

[andiatas]

queenrania: سلمى مع إخوانها رفاق سلاح الجو الملكي خلال إنزال جوي خامس لمواد طبية عاجلة في شمال غزة… الله يقويكم ويحميكم

Salma with her brothers in arms of the Royal Jordanian Air Force during the fifth airdrop of urgent medical supplies to northern Gaza. God bless you all

[catdotjpeg]

The U.S. was the latest country to carry out an airdrop of humanitarian aid along the Gaza coastline on Saturday, dropping 38,000 meals in a joint mission with its junior ally, the Jordanian Air Force. Critics decried the move as an illustration of U.S. hypocrisy in handing Israel some of the most advanced bombs in the world while dropping aid from the sky at a trickle to the same people who are on the receiving end of those weapons. Charlie Herbert, a major-general in the British Army, described the airdrop on X as “total performative BS.” “With one hand US airdrops 38,000 meal packs…while the other hand continues to provide Israel with the arms, munitions and funds required to sustain this conflict. Performative BS. It fools no one,” he added.

Critics of the U.S. also pointed out that delivering aid by air is cumbersome and inefficient and that the Biden administration must force Israel to allow aid trucks to enter Gaza through its land crossings.  Last week, Jordan airdropped seven tons of food to people in Gaza, but a single truck can transport 20-25 tons of food and essential aid.

“Airdrops are the worst or close to the worst possible way to deliver aid,” Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, told Al-Jazeera. “They are very expensive, they are dangerous because there is a lot that can go wrong when those things drop and they deliver very small volumes of aid,” he added. Some of the aid dropped by Jordan last week ended up in the sea, pushing Palestinians to enter the cold water to fish it out. 

Tamara Nassar and Ali Abunimah described these airdrops in the Electronic Intifada as “humanitarian aid theatre” that does nothing to end Israeli bombardment and starvation of people in the Gaza Strip. They added that countries taking part in these operations, such as Egypt and the UAE, “but especially Jordan whose air force is carrying them out, are providing public relations cover for countries directly involved in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza,” namely the U.S.

-- From "‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 149" by Mustafa Abu Sneineh for Mondoweiss, 3 Mar 2024