Armed Resistance with Leila Khaled

My latest video from Gaza is an exclusive interview with Palestinian resistance icon Leila Khaled, a former aircraft hijacker and member of Palestine’s PFLP faction. In the candid interview Khaled discusses the ‘why’ of Palestinan armed resistance:

“Resistance is always strategic… Resistance is something human… When there is occupation there is always resistance… The eighth item of the United Nations Charter says: people under oppression and under occupation have the right to resist, including [with] armed struggle… We are proud of the resistance…”

Leila Khaled has been involved in several aircraft hijacking missions. One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. No more clear is that truism relevant than with the case of Palestinan Leila Khaled. An icon of armed resistance for the Palestinians, Khaled is plainly a terrorist in the eyes of Israelis:

“[A] two-state solution means that in the West Bank we [would] have 12% of the land. This is not Palestine! Palestine is the historical Palestine. I’m from Haifa!”

This is A Complete Idiot’s Guide to Armed Resistance with Leila Khaled:

I’ve based the name on the popular English-language technical guide series, to stress that resistance is something normal and natural, and to make the video more memorable and eye-catching on the social networks.

Correction: None to date..

This is my first video report that will be systematically translated into over 20 languages by a team of volunteers.

This video will imminently be subtitled into English, Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Spanish, Urdu, Portuguese, Pashto, Bengali, Hebrew, Hindi, Gujarati, Russian, German, Italian, Malay, French, Turkish, Polish, Dutch, Tagalog, Swahili, Romanian, Indonesian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Bosnian and Slovenian. Subtitles’ fidelity cannot be guaranteed, however.

This report was recorded and produced in December 2012 and then edited in 2013.

Thanks to: Noor Harazeen, Mohanad Nabhan, Walid Al-Awad, Translators, Watania, Black Tar, Zvi Roger, Kevin Merkelz, Lina Makboul, the Inter Press Service.