The Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement (Masar Badil) launched amid a series of conferences in Madrid, Spain; Beirut, Lebanon; and Sao Paulo, Brazil, between 30 October and 2 November 2021. The Masar Badil is a popular, mass movement of Palestinians, Arabs and internationalists struggling for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, in complete rejection of the so-called “peace process” of the Madrid Conference and the Oslo Accords, which have led to nothing but destruction for Palestinian rights and the Palestinian national liberation movement.
Organizations and activists based in many countries participated in the conferences. In Madrid, approximately 100 people gathered for the conference, held in Rivas-Vaciamadrid, including Samidoun members and affiliates based in Germany, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Canada, Spain, Belgium, and elsewhere. Participants also included members of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra (a Samidoun Network member organization), Alkarama Palestinian Women’s Mobilization, Al-Yudur Palestinian Youth Mobilization, Stuttgart Palestine Committee, the International League of People’s Struggles, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Palestinian Youth Movement, Revolutionary Youth Zurich, Secours Rouge, PARTIZAN, Hirak Haifa, the International Women’s Alliance, Al-Awda the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, Palestinian Social Fund and many other organizations, including student organizations advocating for Palestine and leftist and revolutionary political parties.
In Lebanon, the Beirut conference was led by a number of Palestinian and Lebanese community and political organizations, including the Palestinian Cultural Club, the Arab Palestinian Cultural Club, the Palestinian Chess Club, the Lebanese Campaign to Boycott Supporters of “Israel” in Lebanon, Harakat al-Shaab (People’s Movement), Democratic Popular Party, Al-Naqab Center for Youth Activities, Al-Aqsa Martyrrs Club and Aidoun Palestinian Refugee Rights Center, while Al-Akhbar newspaper was a media sponsor. In Sao Paulo, Brazil, Al Janiah cultural center hosted the conference along with Samidoun Brasil and Alkarama Palestinian Women’s Mobilization.
The Madrid conference was packed with an electrifying atmosphere, with Palestinian youth leading chants throughout the day and incisive discussions focusing on critical questions facing the movement today, including the need to build the international boycott and isolation of Israel and the Zionist project and the necessity of confronting the Palestinian Authority and the path of compromise and defeat that has led to the current Palestinian situation.
Conference participants were clear on the role of imperialism, Zionism and reactionary Arab regimes in attacking the Palestinian cause. The conference, held on the 30th anniversary of the Madrid so-called “Peace Conference,” highlighted the necessity of reviving Palestinian struggle and uniting the resistance to liberate Palestine from the river to the sea. The conference also emphasized that Palestinian prisoners and the prisoners’ movement as the leadership of the Palestinian struggle inside occupied Palestine and “the revolutionary school from which we derive all of the determination and will to continue on our path until freedom and a decisive victory are achieved.”
The conference not only discussed the politics of Palestinian organizing and resistance but also developed a five-year plan and numerous policy proposals that lay out a distinct plan for upcoming activities. Committees focusing on organizing Palestinian students, protecting and implementing the Palestinian right to return and advancing the boycott of Israel were launched, while the conference planned to develop a network of Palestine centers in cities around the world, focusing on the needs of Palestinian refugees alongside political organizing and education.
Participants were also encouraged to organize to liberate Palestinian prisoners and to build the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, as well as to advance Palestinian women’s organizing in their communities through the Alkarama Palestinian Women’s Mobilization.
Following the conference, the Masar Badil organized a cultural event in the Pilar Bardem auditorium in Rivas-Vaciamadrid, with performances including Gazelleband, Jafra Dabkeh, Rojo Cancionero, La O.N.U. and acrobatics and comedy by Pallasos en Rebeldia (Clowns in Rebellion), which has organized a number of solidarity activities with Palestine over the years.
On Sunday, 31 October, hundreds of people marched through central Madrid in the march for Palestine, celebrating the launch of the Masar Badil movement as well as the anniversary of the Algerian revolution while denouncing the Balfour Declaration and the alliance of imperialism and Zionism on its 104th anniversary. Palestinian flags and the banners of organizations like Samidoun Network and the Collectif Palestine Vaincra waved high above the marchers, while large banners demanded the release of Ahmad Sa’adat, Georges Abdallah and all Palestinian prisoners, calling for a free Palestine from the river to the sea.
The enthusiastic demonstration erupted in chants and cheers throughout Madrid, receiving support from many passers-by and city residents who emerged from their windows and balconies to show support for the mobilization and for Palestinian liberation.
The conference received messages of solidarity, including from the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and the International League of Peoples’ Struggles, while the Communist Party of Spain and Izquierda Unida (United Left) provided logistical support for the self-organized conference, for which all participants funded their own travel and accommodations.
During the days leading up to the conference in Madrid, multiple events brought people together for Palestine. Samidoun Spain, along with the conference preparatory committee, organized a screening of “Fedayin: Georges Abdallah’s Fight” in a sold-out theater on 26 October, while Samidoun internationally kicked off its celebration of 10 years of struggle on 28 October, with an event bringing together Samidoun activists and friends from Spain and internationally.
The following articles highlight the views and experiences of various participants in the conference:
- Rima Najjar:Masar Badil: This movement is for you if you are sick of the “capitulation process
- Rima Najjar: Masar Badil and the elephant in the room
- Rima Najjar:Masar Badil: How to make an alternative revolutionary path a reality
- Rima Najjar: A Giant Leap for Palestine? Stay Tuned!
- Blake Alcott, Palestine Chronicle: Masar Badil Founded in Madrid, Sao Paolo and Beirut
- Louis Brehony, Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! Masar Badil: Fighting for an anti-imperialist trend and real Palestine solidarity
- Amanda de Sordi, Middle East Monitor: Masar Badil: o novo amanhecer para a resistência palestina
- Al-Mayadeen, “مؤتمر المسار الثوري البديل”: رفض تام لنهج أوسلو
- Wattan, الحركة الثورية في الفلبين تهنئ المسار الثوري البديل
- Al-Akhbar, مدريد: مسيرة حاشدة تُعلن انطلاقة «المسار الثوريّ
- Al-Akhbar, إطلاق «المسار الثوريّ الفلسطينيّ البديل
- Khaled Barakat, Al-Akhbar, 30 عاماً على مؤتمر مدريد التصفوي: الحصاد الفلسطيني المُرّ والمسار البديل
Below are the first documents released by the movement, with further documents to come in the coming days. For more information, please see the Movement’s website at https://masarbadil.org
Madrid – Beirut – Sao Paulo Declaration and Resolutions
Alternative Palestinian Revolutionary Path Conference
October 30 – November 2
Madrid – Spain
We, the participants in the Alternative Palestinian Path (Masar Badil) Conference, held under the auspices of the Palestinian people and their national flag in Beirut, Madrid and Sao Paulo, between 30 October and 2 November, 2021, and after saluting the souls of the martyrs, the sacrifices of the wounded and the struggles of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, we announce the following decisions and positions:
First: The conference announces the launch of the Alternative Palestinian Revolutionary Path Movement, a radical popular political movement established by Palestinian, Arab and international will on 1 November 2021 to be a framework and a popular resistance movement confronting Zionist colonialism and the project of liquidation and surrender.
It is a movement to defend the legitimate rights of the Palestinian Arab people against the forces of imperialism, Zionism and reactionary regimes, and to participate alongside the sons and daughters of our people in the process of the national and social liberation struggle for return and liberation.
Second: Acting to develop Palestinian student work and supporting it politically, socially, intellectually and financially. Accordingly, it was decided to organize the Palestinian student conference in 2022 in order to awaken the Palestinian student movement.
In this context, we call on the students of Palestine to cooperate and unite in order to liberate themselves from the influence of intellectual domination and material extortion, and we also call upon them to struggle to achieve the unity of our struggling student movement and to develop its central and leading role as one of the pillars of the Palestinian revolutionary struggle for liberation and an advanced popular base of the Palestinian, Arab and international liberation movement.
Third: Organizing annual youth camps dealing with struggle, educational, scientific and sports programs, and working to develop a new revolutionary discourse that stimulates the minds and addresses the issues of young people. In this context, we will also work to promote joint action between youth and student movements and the women’s movement throughout the diaspora. These annual summer camps will serve as nuclei for dialogue and a school for the revolutionary youth cadre.
Fourth: Organizing a national and popular campaign to bring down the so-called “Palestinian Authority” and work to liberate the institutions of our Palestinian people from the grip of the minority class sector that dominates Palestinian political decision-making.
Our conference considers the Palestine Liberation Organization to be a confiscated and hijacked Palestinian institution, whose decisions and institutions are dominated by a corrupt class sector, an agent of Zionist colonialism, and a weak leadership that lacks revolutionary, popular and legal legitimacy. On this basis, we consider that the PLO and its leadership, in their current form, do not represent us and cannot represent the struggles and rights of our people.
Accordingly, the conference calls on all forces, associations and popular organizations participating in the Palestinian Revolutionary Path movement to escalate the pace of mass struggle inside and outside occupied Palestine and work to confront the liquidationist project of “self-rule administration” on the road toward isolating and toppling it.
Fifth: Supporting independent national institutions and enabling them to combat conditional and suspicious funding, and establishing a network of Palestine Centers in a number of Arab and international cities, camps and capitals, specifically in regions and countries where there are no centers and clubs for participants within the framework of the Masar Badil.
These new centers will be announced successively, and their achievement will be done gradually within the period of the first five-year plan (2022-2027) approved by our conference. The “Palestine Center” in each country shall be a headquarters for popular action and democratic revolutionary unions and organizations, and a legal umbrella for institutions and associations affiliated with the Alternative Palestinian Revolutionary Path Movement.
Sixth: Considering 15 May of each year as a day to escalate the national, Arab and international struggle for return and liberation. The establishment of the Zionist entity in Palestine is a major crime involving international colonial powers that have not yet paid the price for their crime. Britain refuses until this moment to even apologize to our people for the ominous Balfour Declaration, whose anniversary falls today, 2 November 2021, and still refuses to assume its historical, political and moral responsibility or recognize the documented and bloody crimes it committed that began in 1917 and established the ongoing catastrophe of our Palestinian people since 1948.
15 May is a day of Palestinian, Arab and international struggle to mobilize global solidarity with the legitimate and inalienable rights of our people and with our continuing revolution to achieve our people’s project of liberation and return.
Seventh: Considering 1 November of each year as a day to renew the launch of our alternative revolutionary path, an annual occasion for evaluation, criticism, development and correction, and an opportunity to draw lessons gained through practical experience and militant practice on the streets.
The launch of the Alternative Revolutionary Path movement coincides with the anniversary of the launch of the Algerian liberation revolution that defeated French colonialism after 132 years of fighting and steadfastness. This glorious, immortal revolution that started on 1 November 1954 is for us a model and a guide in confronting the Zionist colonial project until the achievement of all of the goals and national aspirations of our people.
Eighth: The immediate launch of organizing open and continuous tours for direct communication with all the sites and locations of our people throughout the homeland and in the five continents through national visits and events that enhance the strength of the Palestinian presence at the Arab and international levels.
Ninth: Developing the political, social, economic and cultural boycott of the Zionist entity, combatting normalization and those calling for it, and exercising all forms of popular pressure on the embassies of complicit regimes and countries around the world.
We call for a comprehensive boycott and are committed to confronting the approach of normalization with the institutions and entity of the enemy, and at the same time seek to strengthen our relationships of struggle and our human bonds with various anti-Zionist, anti-racist and anti-colonial forces and personalities of all ethnic and religious and affiliations, that support the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, first and foremost the right of return and the right to self-determination over the entire Palestinian national territory, in order to establish a just and democratic society free of Zionism, racism and class exploitation.
Tenth: The permanent affirmation of the right of return for Palestinian refugees as the core of our people’s cause and the right of the Palestinian people, and working to establish it as a priority of struggle in the program of the Arab and international boycott movements and the forces of solidarity with the Palestinian people. In this context, we also call for putting pressure on UNRWA to not respond or adapt to the policies and positions of funders that contradict or undermine the fundamental national rights of the Palestinian people.
On the day of our launch, we salute the whole struggle of our Palestinian people in all their places of residence, and all the resistance forces in Palestine. We also salute the struggle of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, the leadership of our people’s struggle in the occupied land, and the revolutionary school from which we derive all the determination and will to continue on the path until freedom and decisive victory are reached.
Long live the struggle of our Palestinian people everywhere!
No voice is louder than the voice of the Palestinian people!
Glory to the martyrs, freedom to the prisoners!
We shall return and be victorious!
The Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement
November 2, 2021
***
Madrid Declaration
Issued by the Conference on the Alternative Palestinian Revolutionary Path in Madrid, Spain
Over the course of four days, the Alternative Palestinian Path Conference (Masar Badil Conference) was convened in the Spanish capital, Madrid. This coincided with the 30th anniversary of the infamous Madrid liquidation conference in 1991 and as a practical and popular response to the catastrophic path of Oslo and its consequences, in order to confront the policies of Zionist colonialism and regimes of surrender and normalization.
The participants in the conference adopted the following political positions:
Our Palestinian people, who have been fighting the national liberation battle for 104 years confronting Zionist settler colonialism, are aware, through their long experience of struggle of the importance of Palestinian popular unity in the fields of struggle, fighting, and resistance, and the need for consensus on direct goals and general strategy that protects its struggle, preserves its achievements, and preserves its identity, unity, dignity, and national rights.
On the basis of this firm understanding, we call upon the Palestinian resistance forces, the various national and popular bodies, the youth, student and feminist movements, the boycott and anti-normalization committees and all the masses of our struggling people in the occupied homeland and throughout the Diaspora to unite nationally to establish a united Palestinian national front to resist racist Zionist settler colonialism in all of Palestine, to confront the Zionist movement and its allies in the world, and to work to break all the cycles of siege by developing the ability of our Palestinian people to restore and liberate their institutions, and to strengthen the position and role of the Palestinian liberation movement and its active presence in the Arab and international arenas.
Our conference considers the Palestine Liberation Organization to be a confiscated and hijacked institution, whose decision-making is dominated by a corrupt class sector, acting as agents of Zionist colonialism, and a weak leadership lacking revolutionary, popular or legal legitimacy. On this basis, we consider that the Organization and its leadership, in their current form, do not represent us and cannot represent the struggles and rights of our people.
The conference therefore calls on all popular forces, associations and organizations affiliated with the Alternative Palestinian Revolutionary Path Movement to escalate the pace of mass struggle inside and outside occupied Palestine and to confront the “self-rule administration” liquidation project on the road to isolating and overthrowing it.
The Alternative Palestinian Revolutionary Path Movement is committed to working to escalate the political and public struggle, and the struggle in the fields of confrontation, against the approach of liquidation and surrender, which began with and was embodied in the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1978 between the Sadat regime and the Zionist entity under American auspices, and to confront the results of the Madrid-Oslo stage, the 1994 Wadi Araba agreement, and all the economic and security agreements signed between reactionary poles in the official Arab regimes with the Zionist entity, the latest of which is the so-called “Abraham Agreements”. We consider them invalid and illegitimate agreements and treaties.
The Alternative Palestinian Revolutionary Path Movement emphasizes the need to strengthen the unity of the resistance camp in Palestine, the Arab region, and the world, which includes multiple political and intellectual movements and embraces the various colors of the Arab and Islamic spectrum from the ocean to the Gulf. Only this popular camp is capable of confronting the forces of colonialism, imperialism, racism and exploitation, accomplishing the project of return, liberating the Palestinian and Arab lands, and overthrowing the approach of surrender and normalization led by the United States and the reactionary regimes and their agents in the region.
At the same time, we affirm that the task of developing the capacity of the resistance camp and the cohesion of our internal front requires frank internal dialogue between its various national and social currents and poles in a way that serves the liberation of our peoples from the tyranny of external domination and from regimes of oppression and tyranny at home, and to achieve complete national independence. This enhances the ability of peoples to protect their national wealth and capabilities and to safeguard civil peace in our great Arab homeland, from the ocean to the Gulf.
We reaffirm our firm and fundamental position on the necessity of respecting the struggle of Palestinian women and the active participation of Palestinian women, and respecting their central leadership role in the Palestinian struggle and in the Palestinian national movement, on the path to achieving full participation and equality within the framework of our national and social liberation project.
The holding of our popular conference in Beirut, Madrid and Sao Paulo, under the banner of Palestine and under the auspices of our struggling people, 30 years after the 1991 Madrid liquidation conference and 28 years after the disastrous, treacherous Oslo Agreement of 1993, and the organization of our popular and international march that was launched under the slogan “All Palestine from the river to the sea,” our documented, declared positions, and the culture of self-reliance, are all evidences that confirm the correctness of the clear compass of struggle of our new revolutionary path in confronting the forces of Zionist colonialism and the project of surrender.
We are committed to confronting the approach of normalization with the institutions and the enemy entity. At the same time, we affirm the strengthening of relations of struggle with the various militant Jewish forces and personalities, anti-Zionist and anti-racist, and supportive of the rights of our people and their valiant resistance to liberate all of Palestine and the establishment of a democratic society in all of Palestine based on justice and equality: A society free from class exploitation, racism and Zionism.
The Palestinian revolutionary approach with Arab and international dimensions, whose features were drawn by thousands of Palestinian, Arab and international martyrs over decades of struggle, is the path of radical change that interprets reality in order to change it, understands the challenges and national and local specificities in every Palestinian community and sees them as a source of strength and pluralism. We adhere to our rights and roots while looking to the future and keeping pace with the times. This revolutionary approach is rising today to walk confidently and with steady steps toward liberated Palestine…towards a new Arab and human dawn.
On the day of our launch, we salute the whole struggle of our Palestinian people in all their places of residence, and all the resistance forces in Palestine. We also salute the struggle of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, the leadership of our people’s struggle in the occupied land, and the revolutionary school from which we derive all the determination and will to continue on the path until we obtain our freedom and reach our decisive victory.
Long live the struggle of our Palestinian people everywhere!
No voice is louder than the voice of the Palestinian people!
Glory to the martyrs, freedom to the prisoners!
We shall return and be victorious!
The Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement
Madrid – Spain
November 2, 2021
