CONDEMN ZIONIST DISTORTIONS

The Israeli propaganda machine continues spewing lies and distortions about the Palestinian struggle.

Having failed to subdue the Palestinian spirit of resistance through torture,  assassination, destruction of houses and infrastructure, the Israeli Zionists are now trying to defame the new Intifada by linking it to outside forces. The most recent Zionist "leak" to the New York Times claims that an Iran-Arafat alliance has been arranged in a clandestine meeting in Moscow last May between Arafat aides and Iranian government officials while Arafat was visiting Russia. The falsification was so blatant that even the Bush administration had to deny any knowledge. Russia's U.N envoy, Sergei Lavrov also refuted the allegations.

The fact of the matter is that five decades of struggle for social justice have earned Palestinians international support and recognition. The Palestinian issue, however, has been used by the United States and regional governments to further their own interests.

Arab leaders, for the most part, have used the Palestinian issue as a bargaining chip in dealing with other Arab nations as well as the US. And the United States government's sole interest in the region has been the control of its vast oil resources and support for its proxy state, Israel.

Iran's Islamic Republic, although claiming support in words, has never accepted the Palestinian leadership or any of the secular Palestinian organizations. The Iranian regime has time and again expressed condemnation for Arafat and his efforts towards a negotiated settlement of the conflict. Instead, it has tried to influence the process through its support of Labanon's religious Hezbollah group.

Although the US mass media and the powerful Israeli lobbyist have made the claim that the recent shipment of weapons that was "intercepted" was of Iranian origin, it is yet to be documented. Given the history of animosity between the Islamic Republic and Yasser Arafat's forces, such claims are  bizarre, and they come from a government whose very existence depends on foreign aid from the US to the tune of $5.5 billion annually.

While condemning such efforts to discredit the Palestinian struggle by Zionist forces and the US corporate media, we declare that it is the right of the Palestinian resistance to seek whatever help they can get in order to protect themselves as well as the lives of their women and children.

Bay Area Iranians for Peace and Social Justice - March 2002