George Habas calls on Palestinians to step up attacks against Israel

George Habash calls on Palestinians to step up attacks against Israel Damascus \|Reuters \| Gulf News, 22-08-2002 In a rare public statement, the founder of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) yesterday called on Palestinians to step up attacks on Israel and wreck security deals to avenge a slain PFLP figure. Responding to Israel's killing of the brother of PLFP head Ahmed Saadat on Tuesday, PFLP founder George Habash said the killing proved the need to escalate armed struggle against the Jewish state and block Israeli-Palestinian security deals. "We call all the Palestinian forces ... to freeze out security cooperation with the Zionist enemy and boost armed and popular struggle against the army of occupation and its settlers in response to this crime," Habash said in a statement. "The submission of the Palestinian Authority to Zionist dictates and conditions is another factor encouraging the Israeli occupation to continue with its criminal practices against our people and the leaders of the resistance," he said. The remarks were a rare public statement from Habash, who brought the PLFP to international attention with a series of spectacular hijackings, but has kept himself out of the public eye in recent years due to failing health. The group has played a key military role in the Palestinian uprising against the Israel military occupation of Palestine that erupted in 2000, and claimed responsibility for assassinating an Israeli minister last year to avenge Israel's killing of a previous PFLP head. The PFLP's current chief Ahmad Saadat yesterday said the killing of his brother adds to the crimes of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "The assassination of my brother and comrade Mohammed is a continuation of the series of crimes carried out by Sharon against our people," Saadat told AFP on phone from his jail in Jericho. Saadat's 22 year-old brother was shot seven times Tuesday night by an Israeli special unit outside his home in Ramallah. The gun fight also left an unknown number of Israeli soldiers injured. "My brother had the right to defend himself," said Saadat. "While Israel carries out this and other crimes, the world and the international community are merely watching and listening, and no one tells Israel to stop." "Every Palestinian, children included, has become an assassination target, whether by bullets, planes or house demolitions."