By Montasser Marei, IOL Jordan correspondent

AMMAN, June 24 (IslamOnline) - Due to growing criticism of Palestinian resistance bombings against Israel, the Islamic Jihad movement and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) issued a statement which rejected stopping the bombings.

On Sunday, June 23, a declaration issued by Islamic Jihad movement said “We are in a critical stage facing a brutal aggression, and we recognize very well the will of the Palestinians to face this aggression to defend our nation’s honor.”

The declaration added that the Jihad movement as well as all the Palestinian resistance acts consider the Palestinian people’s benefit at the top of their agenda. “It is unbelievable to allow Israel murdering innocent women and children, occupying Palestinian cities and arresting thousands of the civilians, while the Palestinian are called not to react with these aggressions, so that these pressures should be forwarded to Israel to stop its actions,” the declaration added.

Ramadan Shalh, Islamic Jihad Secretary General, presented an initiative saying that if Israel stopped shooting and assassinating civilians, the movement would stop resistance operations.

Meanwhile, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the PFLP, said in its declaration that stopping these operations would work against the Palestinian resistance.

A survey by the Palestinian National Authority of Information confirmed that 60.2% supported resistance operations against Israelis inside the Palestinian lands, while 29.4% were against them and 10.4% did not declare their opinion.

Another survey in the West Bank and Gaza in the period between June 11 and 13, 2002 showed that 86% supported these operations against Israeli occupation’s forces and settlers ,while 8.8 % refused the whole idea.

The poll showed that 81% refused describing the resistance operations as terrorism, as it is called by the Palestinian Authority (PA). Whereas 9.3% agreed on this terminology. Meanwhile, 52% considered that international pressures on the Palestinian Authority that pushed it to describing the operations as “terrorism”.

At the same time, 69.9% of the participants in this survey thought that the aim of these operations is to defeat the occupation, while 13.4% thought that their aim is to stop the peace operation and 11.3% believed they aimed at weakening the PA. Whereas 61.3% confirmed that these operations do not damage the Palestinian people in their legal struggle for their land, 30% were against this opinion.

On the other side, an argument is taking place among several Palestinian and Jordanian intellectuals, and another group of Palestinian intellectuals about the resistance operations against Israeli military and civilian targets and their benefits for the Palestinians.

Palestinian activist Hanan Ashrawi, who headed a 55-member Palestinian group, and Palestinian Commissioner for Jerusalem Sari Nusseibeh, said that the indiscriminate killings of Israeli civilians “have hindered Palestinian aspirations to independence”. This group of outspoken Palestinians said that these attacks “do not achieve progress towards achieving our freedom and independence”. The Palestinian intellectuals also noted that such attacks have triggered Israeli military actions which have killed at least 1,400 Palestinians and effectively reoccupied Palestinian lands.

Meanwhile, about 30 Palestinian and Jordanian intellectuals forwarded severe criticism to the call of Ashrawi’s group to halt resistance operations against the Israeli occupation. In a declaration published on Sunday, they said that armed resistance is the only way now for the Palestinian nation against Israeli forces armed with American weapons.

The declaration that was published under the name of “Supporting Resistance With All its Faces”, said that those Ashrawi’s group, although they are a minority, aim at showing a false split among the Palestinians concerning the resistance operations to cover their giving up to the U.S. and Sharon’s government.

Mowafak Mohadeen, who signed this declaration, told IslamOnline that this declaration confirms the support of cultured Palestinians and Jordanians to the resistance operations and providing a cultural and political cover.

He added that the declaration confirmed the Palestinians right to use every means to defend their legal rights to refute the wrong ideas aiming to deform the Arab-Israeli conflict. It also accused the cultured Palestinians who called for ceasing resistance operations as covering the Palestinians calls for defeating occupation and building a nationalistic movement against the will of the Israeli and American administrations.

The declaration linked the timing of the anti-resistance operation call with the campaign launched by the American administration as well as the European Union’s consideration of the PFLP as well as the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades as terrorist organizations.