Getting Out of the Crisis in Palestine

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

The crisis, the impasse, or the predicament that the Palestinian people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are suffering from is very complicated, and getting out of it requires professional effort, long experience, and creative thinking. But as a partial treatment of the security and financial problems we are currently in, I believe the solution depends, first and before anything else, on the sacrifices we ourselves make, not on the aid others might offer us. The solution is an internal, national one, resting on Islamic ethics and focused on mutual support and solidarity, without forgetting that we are under occupation.

On the security front: in order to live in internal calm, I propose the following:

Considering every openly displayed weapon a treacherous weapon, regardless of its source or the person carrying it. A national weapon cannot be an openly displayed weapon.

Dissolving the Palestinian security apparatuses and dissolving the Executive Force, while retaining only the police force. Public security apparatuses under occupation cannot serve Palestinian security. This must go hand in hand with seeking economic solutions for the members of these apparatuses.

Separating administrative authority from the Palestinian resistance.

Forming a joint, secret operations room for the resistance factions, without its interfering in the administrative life of the Palestinian people.

On the financial front: there is no solution called begging or depending on the enemy for our daily bread; rather, there is a solution that relies on our own capacities first. I propose the following:

[Fragment illegible in the source document]

[Fragment illegible in the source document]

[Fragment illegible in the source document]

[Fragment illegible in the source document]

[Fragment illegible in the source document]

[Fragment illegible in the source document]

[Fragment illegible in the source document]

…borrowing from civil-society institutions, non-governmental organizations, private institutions, and many individuals affiliated with the rival factions. Government employees would accept 80 percent of their salary. The money would be repaid to everyone who contributed once the siege eases.

The government must adopt a new economic policy that encourages Palestinian production and bans the import of all competing goods and commodities we do not need, which are luxury consumer goods.

The government should open the files of corruption with the aim of recovering the Palestinian people’s money from the corrupt. The government should recover all the vehicles held by the Authority’s various bodies, including the vehicles of the presidency and the prime minister’s office, and sell them at public auction. Some vehicles may be kept for the trusted police, hospitals, and civil defense. All rented office buildings should be vacated, keeping only simple locations to serve as administrative centers.

The government should work to reform people’s consumer behavior and instill a determined productive ethic instead. Here it must adopt a policy of lowering the level of consumption, and of adjusting the fees and installments people pay for services. Our problem is that we consume more than we produce.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “الخروج من الأزمة في فلسطين” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.