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PFLP Marks Anniversary of Assassinated Leader, Israel Arrests More Leaders
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Carrying the picture of Abu Ali Mustafa, Palestinians mark the anniversary of his assassination.
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BETHLEHEM, West Bank, Aug 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Some 200 supporters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) staged a demonstration in a refugee camp in the West Bank town of Bethlehem Tuesday, August 27, 2002, to mark the first anniversary of Israel's assassination of the group's leader.
Carrying posters of Abu Ali Mustafa, slain in a helicopter raid in the West Bank exactly a year ago, the small procession marched through the streets of Deheishe camp, in the heart of Bethlehem, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The crowd also waved posters of George Habash, Mustafa's predecessor and the founder of the Palestinian resistance leftist group, as well as of Ahmed Saadat, the jailed current leader of the movement, one of the three main component factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
The PFLP retaliated for Mustafa's assassination by slaying Israel's ultra-nationalist Tourism Minister in October 2001, and Saadat was arrested in February by the Palestinian Authority.
He is now jailed in the West Bank town of Jericho under British and U.S. supervision, despite a Palestinian court ruling that he should be released. The Palestinian Authority refused to do so, citing fears that Israel would kill him.
Saadat started a hunger strike Sunday, August 25, 2002, to protest against his detention.
The protestors fired shots in the air and torched U.S. and Israeli flags during the demonstration, held under the supervision of Palestinian police, who took control of the city on August 19 after Israeli troops completed the first step, (and only so far), of a joint security plan for a phased withdrawal from reoccupied areas.
On Tuesday, however, Israel continued its crackdown on the PFLP, arresting three of its officials in Ramallah, including two members of the movement's politburo, according to Palestinian security sources.
Israeli troops arrested Beshir al-Khiri, 50, and the group's spokesman Ali Jaradad, 46, the sources said.
A third, lower-ranking PFLP member was also arrested at the same time, they added.
A senior member of the PFLP, which opposed the 1993 Oslo peace accords establishing limited Palestinian self-rule, said the arrests were designed to send a message to the group.
"This means Israel is continuing its policy of assassination and arrests to weaken the PFLP, because it is the second most important faction in the PLO and because it is a faction which will prevent Israel from implementing its vision of a political and security solution," Kaid al-Ghul told AFP.
"It is no coincidence that this happened on the anniversary of the assassination of Abu Ali Mustapha," said the Gaza-based leader.
"But this will not weaken the PFLP in its struggle against the occupation," he insisted.
Israel has also jailed Saadat's deputy, Abdel Rahim Maluh, and killed the jailed leader's brother last week when he allegedly resisted undercover Israeli troops sent to Ramallah to arrest him. Palestinian witnesses, however, said the Israeli troops shot him directly in the head upon seeing him coming out of his house.
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