No Legitimacy for the Palestinian Prime Minister

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Despite the passage of nearly a hundred years of the Palestinian people’s struggle against the Zionist challenge, a mentality of improvisation and disregard for rules of conduct grounded in self-respect still governs how the Palestinian leadership deals with the masses. This leadership has persistently adopted policies as it sees fit, always trying to wrap them in the guise of popular concern and the interest of the Palestinian people, even though many of its positions and actions violate not only the will of the Palestinian people but also the covenants and councils of its own making. Nor did this leadership ever forget to bus in schoolchildren and certain people who benefited from it to chant in support.

For example, in 1985 Mr. Arafat issued a declaration renouncing terrorism, in violation of all the Palestinian covenants that had described the Palestinian fight against the Zionists as a national struggle for liberation. Arafat did not even turn to his Executive Committee to issue the declaration until after it had already been issued. Then in 1988, Arafat met the conditions imposed by America on the Palestine Liberation Organization through a declaration of his own in Europe, without consulting the councils of the Liberation Organization, in violation of the constitution of the very organization he headed. The same applies to the Oslo agreement, which was signed before the Palestinian National Charter was amended. This is how matters proceeded, without the slightest respect for the Palestinian people or for the covenants set down by those who then violated them.

This same pattern applies to the appointment of a Palestinian prime minister. To begin with, the Palestinian people do not need a president and a prime minister, given the unnecessary financial expenditures and the potential administrative chaos that come with it. The Americans and the Israelis decided that Arafat was no longer wanted, and so they set about searching for an alternative who would meet their demands, with Palestinian improvisation wrapping it in the guise of the supreme Palestinian interest. As for whether the Palestinians have an interest in reform, as some official Palestinian sources claim, Mr. Mahmoud Abbas is not the right person for it, because he is part of a Palestinian authority that has practiced corruption on a wide scale. I do not know the extent of his responsibility for what was going on, but I do know that he is an important pillar of this authority, whose pillars must be asked what they did to the Palestinian people over the preceding years.

As for the angle of legitimacy, the new prime minister does not enjoy it, because the Palestinian Legislative Council currently in existence is not legitimate, nor is the president of the Palestinian Authority. If we accept the validity of the Palestinian elections held in 1996, then the term of those elected ended in 1999, and new elections should have been held. Of course, those elections were not held, because America did not ask for them. As for the Palestinians who called for reform at the time, they were arrested. The same applies to the institutions of the Liberation Organization, which time has passed by. The Palestinian leadership has violated the rules for meetings, decision-making, and the election of representatives as stipulated in the Organization’s own internal bylaws and instructions. Neither the Legislative Council nor the councils of the Palestine Liberation Organization operate according to legitimate rules. This too completely negates the legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority and reduces it to a mere fait accompli.

The tragedy does not lie only in the leadership’s conduct — most members of the Legislative Council also accept participating in this legitimate chaos, and bend themselves to serve purposes the Palestinian people may not want. Even council members who specialize in law and political science have disowned what they were taught.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “لا شرعية لرئيس الوزراء الفلسطيني” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.