The Palestinian ultimate act of resistance

[pieter]

The PA's ultimate act of resistance

The PA should disband, but only as part of a resistance strategy that starts with ending cooperation with Israel.


The Palestinian Authority (PA) is now perceived as facilitating the occupation [GALLO/GETTY]

In interviews and statements, as well as in private meetings, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has said that he is presiding over an authority without any authority and that the very existence of the Palestinian Authority (PA) has made Israel's occupation "the cheapest ever".


Mahmoud Abbas

Abbas is simply reaching the same conclusion that many Palestinians have long understood: negotiations, under the prevailing conditions, will not lead to the end of the Israeli occupation, let alone the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

In a recent interview with Palestinian state television, Abbas warned that if all efforts to establish a Palestinian state fail he will dissolve the PA and ask Israel to assume responsibility for the occupation. His threats are neither a manoeuvre nor a clearly planned strategy. They are rather an expression of despair and a reflection of the mood of the Palestinian people - who see the PA as merely facilitating the continuation of the Israeli occupation while removing the need for it to pay for its actions.

Disbanding the PA would mean a return to direct Israeli occupation and could be used by Israel as a pretext for escalating its aggression against the Palestinian people. But the Palestinians have reached breaking point. Seventeen years of talks have stopped neither Israeli land theft nor the displacement of Palestinians.

A battle of wills

The idea of dissolving the PA has many supporters - both inside the Palestinian territories and among the Palestinian diaspora. But this must not be a leap in the dark: the Palestinians must be prepared for the consequences of such a move and it must be undertaken as part of a clearly defined resistance strategy.

Neither Abbas nor his opponents, however, have indicated that they are developing any such strategy - for just as Abbas was expressing his despair, Hamas was indicating a greater degree of flexibility towards any possible outcome of, the currently stalled, Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. In a speech last week, Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister, said his movement was prepared to accept the results of a referendum if negotiations reach an historic compromise that includes the establishment of a Palestinian state on the territories occupied during the 1967 war.


Ismail Haniyeh

It is not the first time that Hamas has signalled its willingness to accept a two-state solution, but its timing - when the talks are effectively frozen and there is no prospect for progress should they resume - is surprising. Haniyeh's statement suggests that the two leaderships, in Ramallah and Gaza, have no idea how to recapture the initiative required to lead the Palestinian people out of the stagnant situation they are in.

Abbas has raised a couple of prospects. Firstly, he has suggested looking to the UN Security Council for recognition of a Palestinian state. This is mainly intended to affirm the 'occupied' status of the Palestinian territories and to thus block Israel from annexing Jewish settlements. Secondly, he has discussed handing responsibility for the Palestinian territories over to the UN. Both of these options would likely be obstructed by a US veto at the UN Security Council.

But any alternative option the Palestinians choose cannot succeed without first establishing national unity and mobilising popular resistance. A serious battle of wills will ensue, and the Palestinians must be prepared.

An international battle for recognition of a Palestinian state must be based on a clear vision and preparedness to confront Israeli actions. For international support alone will not lead to the creation of a Palestinian state. Regardless of whether Palestinians opt for a one- or two-state solution, they cannot avoid a battle to end the occupation under which they currently live.

Is the PA prepared?

The options Abbas speaks of would place the PA face-to-face with the Israeli occupation, so the question remains: is the PA ready for this? The answer would appear to be no.

The PA cannot be taken seriously as long as it accommodates Israeli terms and demands. Israel continues to prevent the movement of goods and people, to conduct raids and arrests in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and to strike at the Gaza Strip. Thus a prerequisite for any significant Palestinian move must be an immediate halt to security coordination between Israel and the PA.

Abbas' justification for such coordination is that if Palestinians "behave" Israel can make no case for postponing ending the occupation. But the only outcome thus far has been the weakening of Palestinian resistance, while Israel has had a free hand to launch military forays into the Palestinian territories, to confiscate more land and to kill more people.

The next step for Hamas and the PA must be genuine unification - without this, disbanding the PA could result in a highly destructive power struggle - based on a joint agreement over an alternative to the now defunct talks. Dissolving the PA should be a significant consideration within this plan, but only once a political and economic strategy has been formulated.

The PA currently pays the salaries of 150,000 people, so disbanding it would have a huge impact on the economy. Before the PA was created, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) contributed funds to help Palestinians stay steadfast in the face of the economic strains of occupation. A similar plan, involving all Palestinians, must now be devised - assuming that Arab states, as should be expected, will fail to offer the Palestinians financial support.

It is, of course, easy for those Palestinians in exile, with comfortable jobs, to call for an immediate dissolution of the PA - it is also very understandable as Israel will be under no pressure to end its occupation as long as it pays little or no cost for it. But, should the Palestinian leadership formulate a new resistance strategy, all Palestinians must be prepared to shoulder the responsibility for it. The onus is now on the PA to start this process and the only way to do that is to end all coordination and cooperation with Israel.

Lamis Andoni is an analyst and commentator on Middle Eastern and Palestinian affairs.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

[pieter]

A Palestinian state born in South America

The real reason for insisting on the two-state solution is that we want this state to have a Jewish character. And by Jewish we don't mean that it should be a theocracy, or that it should give Jews more rights than Arabs.

It was only a matter of time, the writing has been on the wall. The Palestinians have warned repeatedly that if negotiations did not move forward, they would resort to one of two strategies: to dismantle the Palestinian Authority and hand Israel responsibility for administering the West Bank; or, to ask the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.



Argentinian President Cristina Kirchner has now joined her Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in recognizing the Palestinian state. They have probably set a precedent that will draw in more South American countries, along with many developing nations. The Palestinians will certainly have a majority in the UN General Assembly soon and will ask for recognition - taking a page from the Zionist movement, which achieved the same on November 29, 1947.

Is this bad for the Jews? I don't think so, even though it would be vastly preferable for Israel to strive actively toward the implementation of the two-state solution, rather than being dragged into it kicking, screaming and haggling for more gifts from Uncle Sam in return for a 90-day settlement freeze.

"But," the self-appointed defenders of Israel's interest from the right will argue, "this is naive! Benjamin Netanyahu has been vindicated by the last installment of WikiLeaks; we all now know that the Palestinian problem is not the real issue in the Middle East! The real problem is Iran! Now we can finally convince the world that they should stop pressuring us on Palestine!"

Well, it's time to clarify something. Those of us who have, for years, argued that Israel needs to stop ruling the Palestinians, have in more recent years reverted to arguing that this is also in Israel's interest and have warned that Israel is maneuvering itself into unprecedented international isolation. But this was basically a rhetorical ploy. The real reason Israel needs the two-state solution is not because we want to please the gentiles; we just thought that, at this point, Israel's right wing would only listen to narrowly pragmatic arguments.

The real reason for insisting on the two-state solution is that we want this state to have a Jewish character. And by Jewish we don't mean that it should be a theocracy, or that it should give Jews more rights than Arabs. We mean that the State of Israel must finally learn the lesson of the history of persecution Jews have endured for two millennia.

This persecution was due to one, unpalatable characteristic of human nature: to think and feel in tribal terms. Jews were persecuted because they had a different religion; because they behaved differently, and because they insisted on their right to determine their own identity. First we were persecuted on religious grounds, then on spurious racial conceptions of purity.

It has taken humanity most of history, including the Holocaust, to come to realize that we need an understanding of human rights that transcends the boundaries of all nation states. The overwhelming majority of Jews around the world have enthusiastically embraced this idea. If only the world had reacted to the Nazis the way they, belatedly, reacted in Bosnia and, just in time, in Kosovo! If only it had been clear then that all human beings, regardless of their color or creed, have the same rights!

"But," the standard right-wing interlocutor will say, "this whole conception of human rights is a sham! Look at Iran; look at Saudi Arabia; look at Egypt; look at Hamas; they keep using the argument of human rights, while trampling these rights in their own countries. Why should we be the ones to take the idea of universal human rights seriously?" The answer is simple: because it is based on universal justice. We Jews pride ourselves on upholding notions of justice as non-negotiable; on our unswerving belief that ethics is not a matter of power, but of objective goodness. That is why Jews played a central role in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States; that is why Jews fight against racism and other forms of discrimination all over the world. The argument "but others don't behave as they should" has never been part of the Jewish way of thinking.

It is therefore a pity if Israel will have to be dragged into the two-state solution by international pressure, rather than on its own initiative. The Jewish people has survived because it has never believed that might is right; because it has insisted that there is no compromise on issues of principle. I firmly believe that the current wave of nationalism sweeping Israel is but a brief historical episode, that the majority of Israelis have been swept into it by panic, manipulated by professional fearmongers.

Once we return to the Jewish tradition of tikkun olam, of sticking to principle rather than being guided by fear, we will reconnect to our historical source of strength. ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikkun_olam )

[pieter]

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www.uspalestinianpartnership.org/about

[pieter]

Palestinian leader says he can no longer accept status quo

Abbas says he may dissolve PA over settlements
Saturday, 04 December 2010

RAMALLAH (Agencies)

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas threatened to dissolve the Palestinian Authority if Israel does not stop building settlements on occupied land.

"If Israel does not stop settlement building and if U.S. support for the negotiations collapses, I will strive to end Palestinian self-rule in the occupied territories," Abbas told Palestinian television late on Friday.

Pressed by his questioner if he meant he would dissolve the Palestinian Authority, he replied: "I am telling them so. I say to them welcome ... you are occupiers. You are here, stay here, I cannot accept the situation will remain as is."

The Palestinian Authority was established after an interim peace deal with Israel in 1993 gave Palestinians limited autonomy in the West Bank, territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and where Palestinians want to establish a state.

Palestinian officials have express increasing frustration with the stalemate in the Washington-sponsored talks with Israel, which reached an impasse shortly after they resumed in September over the issue of Jewish settlements.
Settlements issue

Abbas reiterated a Palestinian demand to halt Jewish settlement building, which Palestinians say deprives them of land for a viable state.

Israel's pro-settler coalition government has refused to stop the construction, saying the borders of a state must be negotiated alongside security issues, and sees the demand as an attempt to set preconditions for peace talks.

By suggesting he might seek to dissolve the self-rule arrangement if settlement building didn't stop, Abbas seemed to be trying to press for world recognition of a state, to bypass the negotiating process.

He said that, if Israel would not freeze settlements for three months, as Washington had proposed, he would ask the United States and the United Nations to recognize Palestinian statehood.

If such recognition were not forthcoming, Abbas said he would consider dissolving the Palestinian Authority.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dismissed talk that Israeli-Palestinian talks were near collapse, as a senior Palestinian official said this week, and said Washington was working intensively to relaunch negotiations.

In a television interview during a visit to Bahrain, Clinton said Washington planned to make new announcements as early as next week on the next steps in the peace process.

"We're going to have some additional consultations with both the Israelis and the Palestinians. But there are a number of ways that we're going to move forward," Clinton told Al Hurra television.

[Jaga]

Hi Pieter,

thanks for posting. I read the article in associated press that Palestinians make effort to be recognized internationally. This might be a good way to go!!!

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested in a speech on Friday that the United States will step up pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to move toward establishing a Palestinian state.

Also, in an unusual move, Clinton held an hour-long meeting in Washington with the head of the opposition, Tzipi Livni. Clinton made it clear that the prime minister must begin mapping out the borders of a Palestinian state in the coming weeks, even without direct negotiations with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/clinton-to-israel-time-to-deal-with-the-core-issues-1.330102

The Obama administration's dissatisfaction with Netanyahu's delaying tactics was evident in Clinton's speech. Contrary to the compliments she offered to Abbas and his prime minister, Salam Fayyad, she had nothing good to say about the Israeli prime minister.