Palestine for a Dollar

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Let whoever among you is without sin cast the first stone. Whoever wants to use this article to defame Palestinians and accuse them should first look at himself, at the leadership of his own country, and at the tribes of his own people. Arab rulers — reactionary and revolutionary alike, tribal and progressive, backward and developed — along with the intellectuals, hypocrites, merchants, and brokers who trailed after them, all took part in selling the Arab homeland in the slave market, in houses of vice, and in gambling dens. The Palestinian condition is not unique on the Arab scene, and the Palestinian people are no different from other Arab peoples: among them are the broker, the collaborator, and the traitor, just as in every Arab country; and among them are the patriot, the genius, and the pure of heart, just as in every Arab country.

Palestinians erupt in anger whenever an Arab reproaches them or insults them by accusing them of selling their homeland, or selling part of their homeland to the Zionist Jews. Palestinians always respond to this accusation by listing Levantine (Bilad al-Sham) families and their vast properties sold to the Zionists, by listing the crimes of the Arab regimes against Palestine, and by pointing to the surrender of all of Palestine to the Zionists in the wars of 1948 and 1967. Palestinians repeat the accusation against the Lebanese Sursock and Tueni families, and against the Jordanian and Egyptian regimes under King Farouk, who supplied the Egyptian army with defective weapons. Recently, Palestinians launched an attack on the Mufti of Lebanon, Sheikh Muhammad Rashid Qabbani, because of his scathing criticism of the Palestinians’ performance toward their own homeland, and accused his family of having sold land it owned in Palestine to the Zionists. Palestinians heaped abuse and insults upon the Mufti.

So that no one outbids another in this, I say: Levantine families did sell land in Palestine to the Zionists — and so did Palestinian families. The transfer of land for money was not the exclusive preserve of one Levantine landed family or another. The historian Suleiman Bashir had already written a book titled The Roots of Jordanian Guardianship over Palestine, in which he provided abundant information about the cooperation of Jordanian families — including the Hijazi family that dominated Transjordan — with the Zionists. Levantine families sold land to the Zionists in what is now Lesser Syria, and in Damascus itself. We have a great deal of information about leading Palestinian landed families who sold vast tracts to the Zionists in various parts of Palestine, and we possess the sale prices in Palestinian pounds, the currency in circulation at the time. These leaders would promise the Palestinian people freedom and independence in their daytime speeches, and sell land to the Zionists at night.

Oslo and the economic agreements

If some Palestinian land was sold to the Zionists piecemeal before 1948, then it was sold wholesale at Oslo, in broad daylight and before the media. That land, for which thousands of Palestinians were martyred, for which tears poured forth, and around which the Palestinian people wrapped themselves in grief and pain, was recognized as Israel, and the Palestinian side committed itself to fighting and pursuing “terrorism,” and Palestine’s sons were thrown into prisons on mere suspicion of intending to act against the Zionists. What is tragically laughable is that this act was wrapped in the slogan of the “Palestinian national project,” and whoever rejected it came to be described as an extremist, a nihilist, a reckless fool who understands nothing of political matters.

The Oslo Accord is a political agreement liable to be annulled or set aside should the political conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip change, but the economic agreement signed in Paris in 1994 was designed to control the daily bread of the Palestinian people in the West Bank and the Strip, such that the Palestinian would find himself compelled to give up his homeland in exchange for a salary. Of course, the parties who signed the agreement never indicated that the money the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza would receive was the price of their homeland, but the days were enough to make this equation clear.

Under this agreement it was decided to finance the institutions of the Palestinian Authority and to provide funds to pay the salaries of civilian and military employees. In short, matters proceeded as follows: the number of government employees at the Palestinian Authority, who depend for their livelihood on their salary, was increased, while Palestinian producers were struck a blow through intensified imports from abroad. The Authority opened the door to employment, people rushed toward jobs, especially in the security services, and the Authority threw open the door to imports. Producers — farmers, carpenters, blacksmiths, cobblers, weavers, and craftsmen — were struck down, while a sense of prosperity was spread among employees. This meant that the Palestinian capacity for self-reliance began to collapse, while dependence on others began to rise. And the higher the level of dependence on others rose, the more the political will of the people withered away and vanished.

The rush toward jobs

Many Palestinian intellectuals and thinkers issued continuous warnings against the dangers of the Paris Economic Protocol, and their argument was as clear as the sun: they said the Palestinian people would find themselves stripped bare in the future, and that their political position would remain hostage to the salary, which comes partly from the donor states, and partly also from the tax revenues collected by the Authority, and from the tax revenues Israel collects on the Authority’s behalf on goods imported through Zionist ports. And since the larger sum comes from the donor states and from what Israel deducts, the larger part of the Palestinian employee’s salary remains in the hands of the enemies of the Palestinian people.

People, on the whole, did not heed the advice of their intellectuals, and preferred to chase after jobs. Mediation efforts flourished, and thousands of people worked to obtain cards proving their affiliation with Fatah in order to get a job. Here I note that about 97% of security-service positions belong to Fatah, and about 64% of civilian positions. Overall, Fatah holds about 83% of government jobs. As for the remaining 17%, they are marked by extreme political caution, so as not to anger Fatah and be expelled from their jobs. Here some will object, saying the jobs belong to the Authority, not to Fatah. Under current conditions, there is, in practical terms, no distinction between the Authority and Fatah.

…Israeli, because of the security coordination stipulated in the agreements with Israel.

Dr. Salam Fayyad

Tales of corruption in the days of Arafat filled the West Bank and Gaza, and it appears the Americans and the Zionists could no longer remain silent and refrain from addressing matters. But this does not mean they were against corruption. On the contrary, the West and the Zionists encouraged corruption, because patriotic Palestinians could never carry out the agreements with Israel, and it was necessary to encourage corruption and the corrupt, because the corrupt person is base and vile and prepared to bargain away even his own mother, let alone his homeland, and because the corrupt person is compromised and cannot rebel against whoever exposes and documents his corruption. They encouraged the corrupt, granted them high ranks, positions of influence, and generous salaries, and discouraged whoever tried to be a patriot, in the belief that he would be smarter than his enemies. They sidelined the patriots into minor positions, or long leaves of absence, or early retirement, or simply expelled them.

Corruption was an important mechanism for the Israelis and Americans in cementing the agreements with Israel, but the foul smell hurts them in the end, and so they take care to keep the corruption concealed. So the Americans decided to push forward Dr. Salam Fayyad, on the grounds that he was a brilliant mind, a skilled administrator, and a consummate professional, and they imposed him on Arafat. Arafat felt resentment, but had no choice but to accept.

Palestinians had already pointed out and explained that whoever earns American approval cannot possibly be good for Palestine. But the increase in salaries proved stronger than all national, logical, and political arguments. Civilian employees’ salaries were raised under Dr. Salam Fayyad, and the salaries of those enrolled in the security services were raised by even higher percentages. Dr. Salam’s popularity soared, especially among those who now curse him and accuse him of treason. And here lies the meaning of this article’s title. Dr. Salam Fayyad was professional and brilliant when salaries went up, and he became, in their eyes, an agent of the Americans and the Zionists when he spoke of the salary crisis and of the Authority’s mounting debt.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians tied their evaluation of Dr. Salam to financial values, not national values. They did not care about American pressure or American preference, did not care about Zionist praise, did not care about the future of Palestine and the refugees — they cared only about the salary. And if Dr. Fayyad were to secure the salary tomorrow and raise it by twenty dollars, the accusations of treason and collaboration against him would stop, and his former glory would return to him. This is the tragedy. Palestine is not the axis around which positions revolve, and national values are worthless before the dollar.

Where do we eat from?

If you confront these tens of thousands with the truth, they rush to ask, indignantly: where do we eat from, if we are to give up Western money? This question of theirs means that bread is more important than the homeland — or, as Mr. Mahmoud Abbas once said, “Bread is more important than democracy.” What he meant was that submitting to Western demands is more important than recognizing the results of the 2006 Palestinian elections. And in truth, a hungry person cares about his daily bread before he cares about his homeland — but does he prefer the morsel to the homeland? On the Palestinian side, the signatories of Oslo and Paris long raised the slogan “We will go hungry, but we will not bow.” It seems that slogan was meant only for domestic consumption, and was never intended to mobilize the nation.

People in the West Bank and Gaza Strip used to eat before Oslo and Paris, and their necks were not laid upon the altar of salaries. The situation is different now, because the leaderships of the Palestinian people directly contributed to backing people into a corner, forcing them to choose between money and homeland. This is why one Western ambassador, asked about the solution to the Palestinian question, answered by rubbing his thumb and forefinger together, indicating that the solution lies in money. Give the Palestinians money, and they will forget their national rights.

People were advised not to abandon their trades and their work, and to hold fast to their own production, and were told that free will defeats the great economic powers. But it seems that greed and easy gain enslave whoever holds them. I was among those who faced many difficulties over this issue. I have written more than a hundred articles about the tragedy of the salaries and about placing the people’s daily bread in the hands of their enemies, I have lectured more than two hundred times, and I have not let a single opportunity in the media pass without speaking about the subject. The response was nothing but accusations, abuse, and insults. The dollar proved stronger than all the words of Arab and Palestinian intellectuals and thinkers combined.

Reassurance

The salaries will be paid; there is no need for panic, because the salaries have not yet exhausted their purpose. The West, and those aligned with it, will stop paying salaries once they are certain that the people of the West Bank have withdrawn entirely into their own private interests, and that national causes no longer matter to them in the least. We have not yet reached that stage, and salary payments will continue. For now, the matter is simply an arm-twisting exercise, a reminder that the people’s political will sits in the pocket of this one or that one.

But it is important that those who recognize Israel, who coordinate security and civilian matters with it, and who carry weapons under license from it, not be the ones accusing others of treason.

The Palestinian people are greater

We cannot generalize what has been said in this article to the Palestinian people as a whole; we confine it only to those who accepted Oslo and Paris and achieved personal gains at the expense of the Palestinian cause. The majority of the Palestinian people are now aware of the equation set out in this article, and understand the dialectic of subjugation and submission that the people of the West and the Zionists have pursued, with the compliance of Palestinian leaderships — but conditions are not yet ripe for change. Change is coming, and the Palestinian people are not incapable of making history.

The Palestinian people are the people most subjected to displacement, killing, demolition, pursuit, torture, arrest, and persecution — whether at the hands of the Zionists, the Arab regimes, or the world’s states in general — in modern history, yet they have remained patient and steadfast. And if they are afflicted with despair now, or if some of their steps have faltered, the future is still promising. The majority of the Palestinian people hold fast to their rights, are not prepared to bargain, trade away, or make concessions, and remain firm in their national positions, and will not give up their rights. History is in a state of constant change, and if this moment is a moment of decline for the Palestinian people, the time of ascent is not far off. We had nearly lost hope in the Arab peoples, but history does not betray its own logic.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “فلسطين بدولار” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.