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Palestinian hero Leila Khaled says launching of Philippines-Palestine Friendship Association a step forward

By staff

Manila – Palestinian icon Leila Khaled visited the Philippines for the first time this November to attend the Fifth General Assembly of the International League of Peoples' Struggle and the launch of the Philippines-Palestine Friendship Association. She was the keynote speaker of the International Women's Alliance and she spoke before the Filipino people in Manila during the protest actions against the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation. She also visited the temporary encampment of lumads (indigenous peoples) at a church ground.

Leila Khaled catapulted into global prominence in the 1960s after she hijacked two airliners and led her people's struggle to liberate their homeland from Israeli occupation. Many decades later, she remains a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and is now a member of the Palestinian National Council.

In an interview by Kodao Production, she talked about what she thinks of her trip. Below are highlights of her statement and a link to the interview.

On the Philippines-Palestine Friendship Association, Khaled said, “It is a step forward for the relations of our two people and the peoples' struggle.” She said the formation of the BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanction) committee as a common project will help isolate Israel to end its apartheid occupation of Palestine.

She added that the Fifth ILPS General Assembly that drew representatives from peoples' organizations in 37 countries is an important venue to discuss issues and common concerns comprehensively. It was here that she learned that there is a genocide being wage by the U.S.-backed Philippine puppet government and multinational mining corporations against the lumads and indigenous peoples in the Philippines who were fighting to save their ancestral lands from imperialist plunders.

She said that the genocide against the lumad is very much the same as the genocide wage by Israel and the Zionists against the Palestinian people.

Khaled also stated, “Now through internet and social media it is easier to get information about the national democratic revolution in the Philippines. It is important that our people are educated with the struggle of other people, especially the struggle of the Filipino people, because we believe that we are part of the international movement for liberation and freedom against oppression and intervention of imperialist powers.”

To view the interview with Leila Khaled

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