By Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
".....The Wall Street Journal had an article from the Israeli official explaining how removing checkpoints in the west bank made the economy booming (RELATIVE to Gaza!). We are told that behaving Palestinians are better off than those who cling to hopes and dreams that do not fit with colonial designs......
..... By the end of this year, the two-state scenario will be buried for good (the settlements Israel has been building in the past two years finish cutting off the West Bank and the population growth exceeding 500,000 colonial settlers ensures the impossibility of a sovereign Palestinian state). This fulfils the refined and updated Alon plan of 1968 which the strengthened and empowered Zionist state has pursued relentlessly. It is articulated well in the statement "When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do is run around like drugged roaches in a bottle."
Palestinians in leading positions will have to decide if they accept this characterization or if they will begin the very hard process of mobilizing the population for the needed struggle of liberation to roll back the colonial project. The words liberation and revolution should not be just a slogan. And if indeed our elected (and unelected) leadership supports popular struggles like in Bilin and Alma'sara (here in Bethlehem), then they are invited to join and bring all their entourage, relatives and friends......
. My recommendation is that Palestinians who support two states (I am not one of them) should insist on the borders of the partition resolution 181 as their opening negotiating positions not the 1967 artificial border that leaves the natives with 22% of their original lands. But negotiations can't be done with an imbalance of power. I believe Palestinians can build their power if/when: a) their factions work together (resolve the petty differences on nonexistent "authorities"), b) we mobilize and unleash the tremendous energy among our people (instead of frustrating the population with negative talk), and c) we mobilize the international community for boycotts, divestments, and sanctions and other acts of solidarity (including media work). The choice is liberation or oblivion (there are no guarantees that native people succeed in defeating colonial schemes). It is that stark a choice. Those elites who believe their positions ultimately protect them would do well to remember the fates of people from Saddam Hussain to officers of the South Lebanon Army. And the people on the street who think they are powerless would do well to remember that no liberation comes from above and that you "can't be neutral on a moving train"."
".....The Wall Street Journal had an article from the Israeli official explaining how removing checkpoints in the west bank made the economy booming (RELATIVE to Gaza!). We are told that behaving Palestinians are better off than those who cling to hopes and dreams that do not fit with colonial designs......
..... By the end of this year, the two-state scenario will be buried for good (the settlements Israel has been building in the past two years finish cutting off the West Bank and the population growth exceeding 500,000 colonial settlers ensures the impossibility of a sovereign Palestinian state). This fulfils the refined and updated Alon plan of 1968 which the strengthened and empowered Zionist state has pursued relentlessly. It is articulated well in the statement "When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do is run around like drugged roaches in a bottle."
Palestinians in leading positions will have to decide if they accept this characterization or if they will begin the very hard process of mobilizing the population for the needed struggle of liberation to roll back the colonial project. The words liberation and revolution should not be just a slogan. And if indeed our elected (and unelected) leadership supports popular struggles like in Bilin and Alma'sara (here in Bethlehem), then they are invited to join and bring all their entourage, relatives and friends......
. My recommendation is that Palestinians who support two states (I am not one of them) should insist on the borders of the partition resolution 181 as their opening negotiating positions not the 1967 artificial border that leaves the natives with 22% of their original lands. But negotiations can't be done with an imbalance of power. I believe Palestinians can build their power if/when: a) their factions work together (resolve the petty differences on nonexistent "authorities"), b) we mobilize and unleash the tremendous energy among our people (instead of frustrating the population with negative talk), and c) we mobilize the international community for boycotts, divestments, and sanctions and other acts of solidarity (including media work). The choice is liberation or oblivion (there are no guarantees that native people succeed in defeating colonial schemes). It is that stark a choice. Those elites who believe their positions ultimately protect them would do well to remember the fates of people from Saddam Hussain to officers of the South Lebanon Army. And the people on the street who think they are powerless would do well to remember that no liberation comes from above and that you "can't be neutral on a moving train"."
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