Arranging Affairs After Arafat

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

It is wise to think about the post-Arafat phase and to work toward arranging the internal Palestinian situation as quickly as possible.

I see the following steps:

First: The Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council assumes the presidency of the Palestinian Authority for a period of sixty days.

Second: I strongly warn against handing the affairs of the country over to members of the current leadership, or to Mr. Arafat’s direct aides, given the great risks this poses to stability and to the unity of the people.

Third: The Speaker of the Legislative Council begins, in cooperation with Council members, preparations for general political elections, with a date to be set according to a clear timetable.

Fourth: The Legislative Council extends the transitional period of the Authority’s presidency for six months, to allow room for preparing the elections.

Fifth: If holding general political elections proves impossible because of the policies of the Zionist entity, the following temporary procedure is to be adopted:

a. Local elections are held under the supervision of the Legislative Council, including the appointment of a committee to conduct the elections;

b. The elected members of the local councils elect the members of the Legislative Council for the various electoral districts, in accordance with the applicable elections law;

c. The vote of each local council member is equal to the number of votes of the population cluster he represents. This is for the sake of fairness among the different population clusters;

d. The members of the Legislative Council elect the President of the Authority from among the candidates who have put themselves forward;

e. This is a temporary procedure, pending the emergence of a climate suitable for holding free, fair, and direct elections.

Sixth: The President of the Palestinian Authority becomes Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

(The original document is damaged at the start of this point.) …of the Palestinian people, based on a charter or constitution to be put forward through appropriate means, wherever the Palestinian people are present, for discussion and ratification.

Eighth: If all of this proves impossible, the factions and parties choose a temporary committee for the Palestinian Authority, whose task is to rearrange the internal affairs of the Palestinian people. This choice would be made as follows:

Fatah and Hamas each choose seven members;

Islamic Jihad chooses three members;

The Popular Front and the Democratic Front each choose two members.

Every Palestinian faction possessing a military force present inside the country or outside it chooses one member. Here I specify: the Popular Front–General Command, the Fatah–Intifada Movement, and Jund al-Sham.

This committee carries out the functions of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization, on condition that it paves the way toward two goals:

Holding elections in the territory occupied in [19]67;

Reconstituting the Palestine Liberation Organization in a manner that guarantees the representation of the various sectors of the Palestinian people.

The factions should observe independence when choosing individuals, so that the committee does not turn into a factional contest.

I warn against the following:

First: American and Israeli interference in the affairs of the Palestinian people. These two states interfere in order to elevate certain individuals, by the following means:

Showering them with money;

Enlisting the media in favor of this person or that;

Describing the person or persons concerned as extremist and hostile to Israel, in order to give him/them a national face.

Second: The security apparatuses, in that they never actually worked to stabilize conditions in the first place, and among them are those who aspire to power;

Third: The members of the leadership who frequent the Ramallah headquarters. Most of these are accused of corruption, and one must be wary of letting them seize the initiative.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “ترتيب الأوضاع بعد عرفات” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.