Faction Statements on the Trivialities of the Palestinian Scene

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

There is a continual manipulation of the Palestinian scene and the Palestinian people, at home and abroad, aimed at distracting the people and keeping them far from their vital, fundamental issues — namely, reclaiming their fixed national rights from between the fangs of the occupation and those among the people of the West and the Arabs who ally with it. Whenever a trivial idea or one of the leaderships’ nonsensical notions fails, a new idea, or another ornamented piece of nonsense, appears before us. The media, analysts, and factions busy themselves with the new item, having cast the old one behind their backs, while preachers and theorists are active in spreading false hopes in people’s hearts, only to dash them a few days later.

Recently the “September Bid” appeared before us, then reconciliation loomed over us once again, then the Amman negotiations, and now there is a “societal reconciliation” whose exact meaning I do not know. Perhaps there is a rising divorce rate among couples that the reconcilers are trying to curb somewhat. We move from political rashness to adolescence, and from adolescence to childishness and boyishness, and may God help the Palestinian people.

What matters is that the Palestinian factions busy themselves with whatever silly ideas come up, immerse themselves in them, and issue grave, important statements about them. The factions were very active in the days of the September Bid, and their pens — if they still had pens — sprang into action with endorsement, analysis, and optimism, and they filled the people with an abundance of promised good. After the sun of September set, the sun of reconciliation rose, and the factions sprang up to praise it, cheer it, glorify it, and promise the Palestinian people that relief was near. The false promise did not last long before the darkness of the Amman negotiations descended, and the factions became active in attacking and warning the Palestinian people of the dire consequences of these negotiations, heaping accusations on the leadership for having broken from the national consensus. And the scene is not now lacking in factional statements glorifying the “societal reconciliation.”

…Palestinian, that people do not read statements and have no trust in statements, and if there is someone who reads them, as I do, it is only to confirm the national decline the factions are suffering from, and the absence of any sense of national responsibility. The factions harm themselves with their statements, and it would be better for them to remain silent, since every time they speak, they go astray.

There is an unsound, ill-omened Palestinian situation that requires the mobilization of energies to change it, not statements recalling its merits and reminiscing about the days of Palestinian struggle. What has been has been, and thanks to those who sacrificed, but a curse falls upon those who sing the praises of those who sacrificed while not doing the work of those who sacrificed. We need a revolution, and the factions are required to contribute to a Palestinian youth revolution, wherever the Palestinian people are found, in order to overturn this tragic state of affairs on the Palestinian scene, which has reached the point of security coordination with the occupation. And if the factions are incapable of renewing themselves and their leaderships in order to uplift the people, then let them fall silent and take their financial dues without noise wrapped in what is called the “national interest.”

The call remains open to all the youth of Palestine to resolve their affairs, for the homeland demands sacrifices. We are lost and astray, and there is no escaping the need for the energies of the youth to change the Palestinian situation. We will not be able to confront the enemy if we are not able to confront ourselves with the truth, and to change our reality into one that matches the requirements of liberation and the recovery of rights.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “بيانات الفصائل حول تفاهات الساحة الفلسطينية” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.