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Message of Condolences
on the Death of Dr. Ahmad Maslamani
For the International League of Peoples' Struggle
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson, International Coordinating Committee
January 8, 2008
The International Coordinating Committee (ICC) and all the member-organizations
of the International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS) express deep sorrow over
the passing away of ICC member Dr. Ahmad Maslamani and convey sincerest
condolences to his family, his comrades in the Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine (PFLP),
his colleagues in the Union of Health Work Committees and in the Anti-Apartheid
Wall Campaign, all his friends and the entire Palestinian people whom he served
with complete dedication and with utmost competence.
We salute him and honor him as a hero of the Palestinian people, an exemplary
fighter for freedom and justice and an outstanding exponent of international
revolutionary solidarity. He was a well-grounded national leader in the struggle
against the Occupation, living and working closely with the people and sharing
their weal and woe. He was a founding member of the Union of Health Work
Committees in 1985 and became the director from 1992 onwards. He became
a member of the steering committee of the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign in
2004. He was a member of the Central Committee of the PFLP.
We are proud of his participation in the Second International Assembly of the
ILPS and his election as a member of the ICC in 2004. He has accorded honor
to the ILPS by joining it and linking it to the just struggle of the Palestinian people.
We were deeply moved when he was arrested and imprisoned by the Israeli
Occupation in the Ashkelon prison from 2005 to 2006. We participated in the
international campaign for his release. We admired him for having been detained
as many as four times for extended periods and for always rejoining the struggle
of his people and remaining steadfast.
We commend Comrade Maslamani for having been a militant in the Palestinian
struggle for national liberation throughout his life. He was a pillar of the Palestinian
mass movement during the second Intifada. He fought for the Palestinian homeland
and the return of the refugees. He campaigned for the rights of his people in
Jerusalem and for the dignity of establishing the Palestinian capital in this sacred
city of his birth. He stood for the Palestinian people against the drive of the Palestinian
Authority to sideline them.
In the remaining months of his life, he was active in the struggle. He was a leading
figure in the popular demonstration for Palestinian rights against the Annapolis
conference in November. He also played a prominent role in defending the Madrid
Forum for a Just Peace in December and in preventing the Spanish government
from high jacking the forum and turning it into an event for "normalization" and
submission to the Occupation. He was deeply pleased by the demonstration and
resistance of the participants outside of the conference hall.
The death of Comrade Ahmad Maslamani is a great loss to all of us. But we are
consoled by the fact that he lived a meaningful and fruitful life of struggle for
the Palestinian people and the entire humankind. He leaves with us significant
contributions to the struggle. He bequeaths to us a brilliant legacy. He remains
an outstanding revolutionary model whom we can and must emulate. Thus, he
continues to live in our hearts and minds and in the revolutionary movement.###
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