By Rami G. Khouri
| The Daily Star |
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The collapse of the American-mediated Palestinian-Israeli negotiations last week ushers in a period of uncertainty that will most likely be dominated by many unilateral moves, combined with appropriate threats and warnings from all sides.
The Palestinians are in the most difficult position, given their relative weakness militarily, their fragmentation politically, and their vulnerability economically. Yet this moment is also one of opportunity for the Palestinians, on three important fronts: national unity, coordinated political resistance and the mobilization of international support.
The absolute requirement for Palestinians now is to reconstitute a minimum of national unity, which goes well beyond implementing the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement. The Fatah- Hamas agreement aims to form a technocratic national-unity government that will in turn supervise new elections in Palestinian Authority-controlled regions. This is an important first step, but full national unity requires more.
The critical need is to revitalize the institutions of the Palestine Liberation Organization which have been moribund since the Oslo agreements gave birth to the Palestinian Authority two decades ago. The PLO has always been the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people because it is the vehicle through which Palestinians engage the world diplomatically (including its nonmember observer state status at the United Nations) and the forum in which Palestinians express their views and seek to achieve national consensus.
A unified and coherent Palestinian people, represented by a single, democratic and consultative body such as the PLO, would be able to overcome the inherent weaknesses of being scattered around the world. In fact, Palestinians can turn their fragmentation into an asset, by using the PLO to adopt political strategies that fall into the category of national resistance to the continuing dangers posed by Zionism and the state of Israel – dangers that will be quickly and dramatically manifested in the months ahead by probable Israeli plans to unilaterally annex more occupied land in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
The Palestinians now need to agree over a division of responsibility among their people across the region and the world. This they must do in order to implement more diligently a range of coordinated political action and national resistance strategies that they have been using until now in an uncoordinated and episodic manner.
These options include, first, diplomatic negotiations, which have failed for many decades but cannot be dropped from the political toolkit, especially if a more credible mediator than the United States appears on the scene.
Second, state-building in areas under Palestinian control. This project was promoted by former Prime Minister Salam Fayyad without leading to any diplomatic advances. Yet it should be continued because state-building is good for the Palestinians in its own right.
Third, joining international organizations to give the PLO greater global diplomatic clout in its bid to gain more rights for the Palestinian people, whether under occupation or as refugees in Arab countries. This will also help Palestinians to use the available legal measures to stop or reduce ongoing Israeli actions such as colonization, assassination, annexation, imprisonment, siege of territories and others.
Fourth, mass nonviolent civil disobedience by Palestinians everywhere – inside Israel, in occupied lands, in Arab countries and around the world – could be used to simultaneously dramatize Israeli oppressive, inhuman and illegal measures, enhance a sense of common action by the scattered Palestinian community, and harness international support.
Fifth, promote the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement globally as the international arm of a nonviolent resistance movement. This movement is already drawing steady support from mainstream organizations around the world.
Sixth, initiate another uprising, or intifada, in occupied Palestinian lands. This is likely to have a limited impact in light of the first two uprisings in recent decades.
And seventh, consider armed resistance, which has been tried in many forms and has never achieved the desired goals of forcing Zionism and Israel to come to terms with the legitimacy of Palestinian national rights. That is why a massive nonviolent political resistance through a unified Palestinian national effort, backed by international support, is much more likely to succeed.
The requirement now is to utilize a combination of the above options to mobilize significant international support for the Palestinian national cause, which already enjoys widespread support around the world. That support, however, has never been effectively channeled into a clear diplomatic strategy. The growing momentum of the BDS movement around the world indicates the huge potential here, especially as unilateral Israeli measures increasingly invite comparisons between Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and South Africa’s Apartheid system.
This dangerous moment for the Palestinians presents new possibilities for productive advances in the peaceful achievement of national rights for the Palestinians, and peace, justice and legitimacy for all in the region, including Israel.
Let us hope that the Palestinian leadership behaves more intelligently and responsibly than it has in similar historical junctures in the recent past. It must embark on a nationally coordinated political resistance strategy that would be widely supported by Palestinians, Arabs and people of good will around the world.
The Palestinians are in the most difficult position, given their relative weakness militarily, their fragmentation politically, and their vulnerability economically. Yet this moment is also one of opportunity for the Palestinians, on three important fronts: national unity, coordinated political resistance and the mobilization of international support.
The absolute requirement for Palestinians now is to reconstitute a minimum of national unity, which goes well beyond implementing the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement. The Fatah- Hamas agreement aims to form a technocratic national-unity government that will in turn supervise new elections in Palestinian Authority-controlled regions. This is an important first step, but full national unity requires more.
The critical need is to revitalize the institutions of the Palestine Liberation Organization which have been moribund since the Oslo agreements gave birth to the Palestinian Authority two decades ago. The PLO has always been the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people because it is the vehicle through which Palestinians engage the world diplomatically (including its nonmember observer state status at the United Nations) and the forum in which Palestinians express their views and seek to achieve national consensus.
A unified and coherent Palestinian people, represented by a single, democratic and consultative body such as the PLO, would be able to overcome the inherent weaknesses of being scattered around the world. In fact, Palestinians can turn their fragmentation into an asset, by using the PLO to adopt political strategies that fall into the category of national resistance to the continuing dangers posed by Zionism and the state of Israel – dangers that will be quickly and dramatically manifested in the months ahead by probable Israeli plans to unilaterally annex more occupied land in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
The Palestinians now need to agree over a division of responsibility among their people across the region and the world. This they must do in order to implement more diligently a range of coordinated political action and national resistance strategies that they have been using until now in an uncoordinated and episodic manner.
These options include, first, diplomatic negotiations, which have failed for many decades but cannot be dropped from the political toolkit, especially if a more credible mediator than the United States appears on the scene.
Second, state-building in areas under Palestinian control. This project was promoted by former Prime Minister Salam Fayyad without leading to any diplomatic advances. Yet it should be continued because state-building is good for the Palestinians in its own right.
Third, joining international organizations to give the PLO greater global diplomatic clout in its bid to gain more rights for the Palestinian people, whether under occupation or as refugees in Arab countries. This will also help Palestinians to use the available legal measures to stop or reduce ongoing Israeli actions such as colonization, assassination, annexation, imprisonment, siege of territories and others.
Fourth, mass nonviolent civil disobedience by Palestinians everywhere – inside Israel, in occupied lands, in Arab countries and around the world – could be used to simultaneously dramatize Israeli oppressive, inhuman and illegal measures, enhance a sense of common action by the scattered Palestinian community, and harness international support.
Fifth, promote the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement globally as the international arm of a nonviolent resistance movement. This movement is already drawing steady support from mainstream organizations around the world.
Sixth, initiate another uprising, or intifada, in occupied Palestinian lands. This is likely to have a limited impact in light of the first two uprisings in recent decades.
And seventh, consider armed resistance, which has been tried in many forms and has never achieved the desired goals of forcing Zionism and Israel to come to terms with the legitimacy of Palestinian national rights. That is why a massive nonviolent political resistance through a unified Palestinian national effort, backed by international support, is much more likely to succeed.
The requirement now is to utilize a combination of the above options to mobilize significant international support for the Palestinian national cause, which already enjoys widespread support around the world. That support, however, has never been effectively channeled into a clear diplomatic strategy. The growing momentum of the BDS movement around the world indicates the huge potential here, especially as unilateral Israeli measures increasingly invite comparisons between Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and South Africa’s Apartheid system.
This dangerous moment for the Palestinians presents new possibilities for productive advances in the peaceful achievement of national rights for the Palestinians, and peace, justice and legitimacy for all in the region, including Israel.
Let us hope that the Palestinian leadership behaves more intelligently and responsibly than it has in similar historical junctures in the recent past. It must embark on a nationally coordinated political resistance strategy that would be widely supported by Palestinians, Arabs and people of good will around the world.
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