Betrayal, Shamelessly

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Qatar has come out with a map of Palestine drawn along its new borders — those drawn by the Palestinian agreements with Israel, or those drawn by the Palestinian National Council in 1988. No Arab had ever drawn this new map as an atlas document officially approved by the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Palestinian Authority, the Arab League, or any Arab state; only Qatar possessed the audacity and the courage to publish a map depicting the West Bank and Gaza Strip as the new Palestine. If Qatar differed from the others in this, it is only in being more daring than all of them, having drawn the map according to demands some of them made, and according to decisions others of them had already taken — decisions that overlap with one another. Only Qatar defied the sentiments of every Arab and Muslim who holds fast to Palestine’s Arab identity and its Islamic identity, and decided that brazenness and shamelessness are permissible so long as there exist Arab and Palestinian retreats and concessions that justify them. Here I point to the following:

First: Qatar recognizes Israel in practice, even though it does not recognize it officially and does not exchange ambassadors with it. It has maintained political and commercial relations with Israel for a long time, and there are rumors that Qatari Freemasons visit Masonic centers in Tel Aviv and other Jewish population centers. In addition, Qatar hosts the largest American military base in the region, and is bound to America by security treaties — and whoever is bound to America in security matters is bound to Israel as well. The whole of Qatar’s relations with America and Israel gave no indication that Qatar would raise the banner of Islam or Arab nationalism. It is true that Qatar has provided support to Gaza, and is expected to provide it further support, but this remains within the humanitarian dimension tied to the new map of Palestine, and does not serve the idea of resistance, or of supporting the resistance fighters and liberation.

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…to the point that the Palestinians themselves never even insisted on writing a clause obliging Israel to establish a Palestinian state into the agreements concluded with Israel, and left the matter to mere media statements instead. There is no agreement with Israel that stipulates a commitment to establishing a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Beyond that, the Palestinians accepted self-rule under the spears of occupation, and continue to carry out direct security coordination with Israel — a fact Qatar has perhaps not yet caught up with. Whoever listens to Palestinian media, whether it belongs to the Authority or to the opposition and the resistance, finds the expression “the Palestinian territories” repeated constantly, by which they mean the West Bank and Gaza Strip. All Palestinian media outlets use this term, an implicit admission that the land of 1948 is no longer considered Palestinian. Some Palestinians, wishing to sound more eloquent than necessary, speak of the West Bank and Gaza as “the two halves of the homeland.” There are Palestinian leaders of various stripes who use this expression to stir up an illusory patriotism — may God cleave their tongues and silence them.

Third: at the Arab level, the 2002 Arab Summit put forward the Beirut Initiative, which recognized Israel and called for establishing a Palestinian state on the June 4th borders — that is, on the West Bank and Gaza. Every Arab country approved this initiative, including Syria and the Palestinian Authority. In other words, it was the Arab Summit that drew the map of Palestine which Qatar then broadcast, in clear defiance of the feelings of every Arab and Muslim who refuses to relinquish the homeland and its sacred sites. Generally speaking, most Arab regimes recognize Israel in one way or another, and all are in agreement on betrayal, with nothing before them but betrayal as a way out for resolving the Palestinian cause. They want to be rid of the Palestinian cause, and their insistence on incapacity yields nothing but the abandonment of the homeland, dressed up in patriotic speeches.

In sum, we are in a tragedy. This is a tragedy that nothing will resolve except forces capable of deterring Israel. The world is changing, and it is my conviction that our region is in the process of changing as well.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “الخيانة بوقاحة” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.