Mofaz's Visit and Palestinian Degradation

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

The Palestinian Authority never misses an opportunity to condemn itself and expose the falseness of its rhetoric to the people, whether in domestic or in external affairs. On the domestic front, the Authority did not take the matter of armed men who fought the people and looted their money seriously until their activities began to directly touch the Authority itself, and it became clear to everyone that all the talk about providing security had merely described a phenomenon whose intensity had eased, while its fuse remained lit. It even let the farmers down and failed to provide them with the 600,000 watermelon seedlings it had promised them this year, while flooding the Palestinian market with Zionist watermelons instead.

On the external front, the Authority continued negotiations with the Zionist entity under various headings, despite its constant insistence that it would not negotiate as long as the settlements kept expanding, in housing units and in population. From time to time, visits and meetings occur here and there, and the Palestinian official stands up to say these are not negotiations — they are “inflation, not a rope.” Negotiations took place in Jerusalem and in Jordan, and Israel’s Mofaz is expected to visit Ramallah soon, among other things. Worse still, officials take part in the annual Herzliya Conference, which discusses strengthening Israel at the strategic level.

Day after day, it has been repeatedly affirmed in the media that negotiations with the Zionist side have never actually stopped — that they simply take forms other than the negotiating table announced to the media — and that the Palestinian Authority does not control its own affairs and cannot stop the negotiations. It has also been repeated that stopping the negotiations, even if it happened, would not matter much, because Israel is not really interested in negotiations but in security coordination; and if the Palestinian side wanted to be serious in its position on settlement construction, it would have to cancel security coordination completely and finally. Israel was interested in negotiations only up until the Taba agreement, in order to achieve its two goals declared since 1968: handing over civil affairs for the population of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to an Arab or Palestinian authority, and ensuring that this authority remains committed to Israeli security.

…and working to turn it into nothing more than individuals searching for their own private interests, into slaves to a salary controlled by the people of the West and the Zionist entity. This is why we do not see Israel and America taking Palestinian statements about halting negotiations very seriously. But we would see a Western and Zionist uproar if the Authority ever decided to cancel security coordination and return to the Palestinian people.

Perhaps Mofaz will come to Ramallah, and perhaps he will cancel his visit. Either way, we will read statements issued by the various national and Islamic factions condemning the visit and attacking the Authority — but we will see the leaders of these very factions at the doorsteps of Authority officials the next day, asking them for a few favors, or exchanging kisses with them. As for Palestine’s youth, they do not seem to care much, nor do the intellectuals and thinkers. A terrifying degradation is unfolding on the Palestinian scene, alongside a great disregard for the Palestinian people, while we lie sunk in profound cowardice. The young are preoccupied either with defending their factional loyalties or with the enticements of life, and most intellectuals see defending the interests of the homeland as a sacrifice of their social, economic, and political standing.

Are Palestine’s youth less courageous than the youth of Tunisia? Did they not carry the burdens of the homeland on their shoulders for long years? Are they now incapable of contributing to correcting the course?

This homeland is our homeland, these lands are our lands, this country is our country, and it is a trust upon our necks until the Day of Judgment — the day the earth will be changed into another earth, and people will rise to face their reckoning. Each of us bears responsibility, even if to varying degrees, and we must raise our voices against betrayal, disregard, falsehood, procrastination, and forgery. The politician who compromises, or conciliates, or squanders rights, is not what endures — the land endures, and our remaining in its embrace depends on our will. Whoever has no will has no homeland; and liberation is achieved only by the hands of those who have decided to be masters of themselves.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “زيارة موفاز والتهتك الفلسطيني” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.