Getting Rid of Western Support

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Perhaps the Palestinians now realize, after Hamas’s victory, that depending on Western money to run daily life is not a wise course of action. The Americans and Europeans threaten us over our daily bread, wanting to punish the Palestinian people for their choice — as though the Palestinians were expected to behave themselves and bow down, kissing the hands that feed them. In this, the people of the West are not violating the logic of history, even though they are violating the logic of humanity. In human logic, assistance is offered purely for humanitarian reasons, free of any social or political aims; but according to the logic of history, assistance serves the purposes of the one who offers it, who usually sets his conditions or demands in advance, so that the hand remains extended only for as long as those conditions continue to be met.

The West did not give us financial and material aid for our own sake, nor because it wanted to be blessed by us, but as a reward for our positions toward Israel. With the signing of the Oslo Accord and the arrival of the Palestinian Authority, responsibility for financially supporting the Palestinians shifted to the people of the West, so that money would serve as a safety valve guaranteeing Palestinian submission to the Western-Israeli will. It was important to the people of the West that the Palestinians know that Western money alone would enable them to buy milk for their children, and that rebellion would bring them nothing but hunger and hardship. Palestinians have long written about this subject, including the author of this article, but many people wanted quick relief and paid no heed to what we were saying.

The people of the West were keen to increase the number of people receiving salaries and benefits from their financial support, in order to control the decisions of the largest possible number of Palestinian families. They opened the way for the Palestinian Authority to employ large numbers of people who had no work. Tens of thousands were appointed to the security services, and the workforce swelled in various institutions in a way that contributed greatly to manufacturing corruption. The West, fully aware of the corrupting nature of such a policy, had no objection to allocating the necessary funds, so long as the employee’s will would dissolve under the weight of his salary. The Americans and Europeans spoke of reform, but they were always lying, because they knew that corruption was precisely the right path leading to the success of Oslo. They were certain that a virtuous woman, or a virtuous man, could never shake hands with Israelis or bargain away the people’s rights, and that there was no escaping the need to corrupt people and search out the corrupt.

… and turning people against it. Indeed, many people began to wonder about the fate of their daily bread.

Confident though I am that Hamas will manage the matter, and will not fail to secure the necessary funds — I believe Arabs and Muslims will offer generous support — the more important thing is for people to realize that dependence on others is a disaster and a looming danger that inflicts great harm upon us and subjugates our will and our decisions to others. The more important thing is for me to be independent in my own decision-making, and not to be exposed to pressure should I decide to disagree with others or depart from their opinion. As for our daily bread, free people are never incapable of securing it. Many nations have extended their hand to others, preferring to remain the party in the weaker position, but in return they lost their ability to make decisions that suited their own interests and visions.

We are among the peoples most in need of freeing our will from the dominance of others, because we are the holders of a cause that is subjected to conspiracy, plotting, and hostile policies. We must take great care, diligently and honestly, to be masters of ourselves without severing the bonds of cooperation with all those who support us in our quest to liberate our homeland and reclaim our rights. The Palestinian leadership raised the banner of independent Palestinian national decision-making, particularly after the war of 1982, but nothing of it was realized beyond the chants that conceal the truth.

This is a blessed land, one that has never been stingy toward its citizens with its beans, lentils, cucumbers, oil, and livestock. The land is generous, and we are in urgent need of the working hands that will harvest the fruits of this generosity. We must roll up our sleeves to plow the earth, dig into the rock, and plant the trees. What is required is that we chart a new economic policy that enshrines the principle of self-reliance. It is true that we are under occupation and will face difficulties and obstacles, but let us try — for we certainly do not want to fail before even attempting. We must return to the land, to crafts, and to small workshops, so that we might achieve steps toward self-sufficiency. It is very difficult to achieve full self-sufficiency, for many reasons, foremost among them the existence of the occupation — but submissiveness is more dangerous than the occupation itself.

Let us not forget that there are Arabs and Muslims who want to extend a helping hand to us. Palestine is an Arab and Islamic country, and al-Aqsa is not a Palestinian holy site alone. We remember how some Arab women donated their jewelry in support of the Palestinians, and how many men left little behind for their own households. That piece of silver that once encircled the neck of an Arab woman carries within it far more dignity and blessing than anything Western money could ever promise.

Our sustenance is with God, and we must neither retreat nor hesitate. If we manage our financial policy well — and I believe we will — then we will share the loaf and share the pain together. It is important that we possess the will to build a single family and a mutually supportive, solidary society; and justice with poverty remains far better than injustice with wealth.

When we rely on ourselves and our capacities develop, the West will pay us money — not as a reward for our concessions, but as compensation for the harm it has inflicted upon us.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “التخلص من الدعم الغربي” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.