❶ Tayseer Khaled: The Declaration of Independence Still The Guiding Standard of Our National Struggle

• Background: Palestinian Statehood: Trapped between Rhetoric and Realpolitik.” International & Comparative Law Quarterly

❷ FM Malki says Palestine will not accept blackmail on PLO mission in US
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) European medical delegation conducts surgeries in Gaza
❸ Opinion/Analysis: The international community should prioritize Palestine’s security
❹ POETRY by Samih Al-Qasim
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ TAYSEER  KHALED:  THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  STILL  THE  GUIDING  STANDARD  OF  OUR  NATIONAL  STRUGGLE
Palestine News Network – PNN
Nov. 18, 2017 ― In commemorating the 29th anniversary of the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, member of the PLO’s Executive Committee, Head of the Palestinian Expatriate Affairs Department , Tayseer Khaled, said that the Declaration adopted by the Palestinian National Council at its 19th session held in Algiers on Nov. 1988, remains a compass for our national struggle as well as the right to self-determination, the right of return and the right to establish a Palestinian State on all the occupied Palestinian territories of the 1967 aggression, on top of which Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the people and State of Palestine.
___Adding, the Palestinian people’s rights as specified in the Declaration of Independence are inalienable and will not be a negotiating issue.
___The American administration shall not waste time in promoting solutions that deny these rights. . .  the administration intends to provide what it named an “Deal of the Century” [which] has nothing to do with the international legitimacy’s resolutions, and it will be rejected by the Palestinians, stressing the need to return to the Palestinian Central Council and the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s resolutions, and to rebuild the relationship with Israel being an occupying colonial and apartheid state.   MORE . . .

Eden, Paul.
“II.  PALESTINIAN  STATEHOOD:  TRAPPED  BETWEEN  RHETORIC  AND  REALPOLITIK.”
INTERNATIONAL  &  COMPARATIVE  LAW  QUARTERLY, vol. 62, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 225-239.
[. . . .] On 22 November 1974, UNGA Resolution 3237 (XXIX) granted the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) observer status in its capacity as a national liberation movement. Resolution 3237 included the right of the PLO ‘to participate as an observer in the sessions and the work of all international conferences convened under the auspices of other organs of the United Nations’. . . .  On 15 December 1988, the UNGA adopted Resolution 43/177 that acknowledged the proclamation of the State of Palestine by the Palestine National Council on 15 November 1988, affirmed the sovereignty of the Palestinian people over their territory occupied since 1967, and decided that effective as of 15 November 1988, the designation of ‘Palestine’ should be used in place of the designation ‘Palestine Liberation Organization’ in the United Nations system. . .
[. . . .] On 7 July 1998, the UNGA adopted Resolution 52/250, conferring additional rights and privileges on Palestine regarding participation in the work of the UN that had previously been reserved for Member States. . .  [. . . .] One of the key problems with the assertion that the entity under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA) is a State for the purposes of international law is the fact that both the 1993 Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements (‘DOP’) and the 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (‘Interim Agreement’) clearly indicate that the Palestinian Authority lacks the capacity to conduct foreign relations.
[. . . .] There can be little doubt that the Palestinians have a right of self-determination but the powers currently possessed by the Palestinian Authority fall short of the independence necessary for Palestine (as currently constituted) to be regarded as a sovereign State. The fact that over two-thirds of the Member States of the United Nations currently recognize the existence of the State of Palestine is more indicative of a rhetorical commitment to the realization of Palestinian self-determination than anything else. As James Crawford notes, ‘[s]elf-determination, while it may and often does lead to statehood, is not the same thing as statehood.’ [. . . .]    FULL ARTICLE . . .

❷ FM  MALKI  SAYS  PALESTINE  WILL  NOT  ACCEPT  BLACKMAIL  ON  PLO  MISSION  IN  US     
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA 
Nov. 18, 2017 ― The Palestinian leadership will not accept any blackmail or pressure regarding the operation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) delegation in Washington or negotiations, Foreign Minister Riyad Malki said on Saturday.
___He told Voice of Palestine Radio that his US counterpart, Rex Tillerson, had not yet signed the memorandum that is issued every six months and which allows the PLO mission’s office in Washington to remain open despite the expiration of the previous memorandum two days ago.
___He said that the US Secretary of State signs this memorandum based on his conviction that the PLO has not done anything that would affect the situation that exists on the ground.
___Malki said that failure to sign the memorandum so far may be part of US measures aimed at pressuring the leadership or create confusion in relation to several political topics.   MORE . . .
RELATED . . .   ..  US  THREATENS  TO  CLOSE  PLO  OFFICE  IN  WASHINGTON
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) EUROPEAN  MEDICAL  DELEGATION  CONDUCTS  SURGERIES  IN  GAZA
The Palestinian Information Center 
Nov. 18, 2017 ― A delegation from the Palestinian Doctors Union in Europe, France branch, on Saturday performed a series of qualitative surgeries in a number of hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
___The PIC reporter said that the medical crew conducted surgeries in al-Shifa, Nasser and Indonesian hospitals in Gaza in coordination with the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.
___Director of the Gaza office of the Palestinian Doctors Union, Dr. Ahmad Abu Nada, said that the delegation, composed of two doctors named Nizar Badran and Raouf Salati, participated in the seventh conference organized by the faculty of medicine at the Islamic University of Gaza under the title “Health Crisis and Disaster Management in the Gaza Strip”.   MORE . . .
❸ OPINION/ANALYSIS:  THE  INTERNATIONAL  COMMUNITY  SHOULD  PRIORITIZE  PALESTINE’S  SECURITY 
The Palestinian Information Center
Nov. 17, 2017  The reconciliation agreement between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas increasingly resembles other political miscalculations which the international community still upholds as significant reference points . . . .
___Upon Hamas returning control of Gaza’s border crossings to the PA, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, issued a statement that is flawed on many counts. Not only does it marginalise Hamas’s major political role in Palestine . . .   by completely failing to mention the movement, but it also insinuates that the reconciliation agreement constitutes “positive momentum”. . . .
___“I take this opportunity,” said Mladenov, “to remind all factions in Gaza of the importance of maintaining security and ending militant activities that undermine peace and security for both Palestinians and Israelis alike.” There was no mention of militant Israeli activities which underpin the occupation and siege of the coastal territory.
___According to Hamas, the UN official’s comments provided “cover for more Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.”  [. . . .] there are elements missing from Hamas’s criticism which would shed more light upon the dismissive attitude of the international community towards Palestinians in Gaza.    MORE . . .

“I  MAY  LOSE  MY  DAILY  BREAD,”  BY  SAMIH  AL-QASIM
I may lose my daily bread, if you wish
I may hawk my clothes and bed
I may become a stonecutter, or a porter
Or a street sweeper
I may search in animal dung for food
I may collapse, naked and starved
Enemy of light
I will not compromise
And to the end
I shall fight.
You may rob me of the last span of my land
You may ditch my youth in prison holes
Steel what my grandfather left me behind:
Some furniture or clothes and jars,
You may burn my poems and books
You may feed your dog on my flesh
You may impose a nightmare of your terror
On my village
Enemy of light
I shall not compromise
And to the end
I shall fight.

“Poems of Resistance: 7 Poems for Palestine.” SCOOP  WORLD  INDEPENDENT  NEWS. January 2011. Web. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1101/S00522/poems-of-resistance-7-poems-for-palestine.htm
About Samih Al-Qasim