Palestine Lacks Leaders With Shame

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

If you feel no shame, then do as you please. This is the motto of many Palestinian leaderships in this dark, bleak historical phase now prevailing. Palestinian and factional leaderships have dragged the Palestinian people into a furnace of rancor, hatred and enmity, into a bath of flowing blood, and into deadly, childish acts that tear apart, weaken, and push the people toward exhaustion and surrender. Palestinian leaderships that fear neither God nor human or national values, and possess no moral standards to govern their conduct. If even a fraction of what is happening in Palestine happened in a society that respected itself, every leadership would have resigned and departed.

Palestinian blood is flowing, mutual arrests are in full swing, accusations and slander rage on, and the leaderships boast on television screens, filling the world with lies, deception, and forgery. Leaderships that not only lack shame, but feel not the slightest embarrassment or hesitation as they lie and sell people empty slogans whose opposite alone gets implemented.

You uninspiring leaders, you harm this people every single day, inflicting on it humiliation, disgrace, shame, pain and grief. You surpass the hateful Zionist occupation in your own vile deeds; you tear apart, and you cause it bitterness of life, hardship, and dark nights. The Zionist occupation tried to tear the people apart and failed; it tried to shatter their moral and social fabric and failed; it tried to set brother against brother and failed; it tried by every means to pressure the people into selling the homeland and failed — but you succeeded at all of this, brilliantly. You are more efficient than the occupation at destroying the Palestinian people, and more capable than America and Israel at killing the national spirit, the spirit of belonging, and the spirit of sacrifice.

You, gentlemen, toy with the fate of this grieving people, and you play games with the blood of martyrs, the moans of widows, the cries of orphans, and the tears of bereaved mothers. You have left us nothing sacred: you have defiled the soil, sullied the children, disfigured the hopes of Palestine’s young women and men, traded in the suffering of refugees, and abandoned Jerusalem and the Noble Sanctuary.

Is it conceivable that we erect checkpoints manned by the sons of Palestine to arrest the youth of Palestine? Who among the reasonable people of this holy land carries out random, vengeful, retaliatory arrests merely to satisfy a grudge against the other side? You told the people that Palestinian blood was a red line — and it turned out to be a line whiter than white. You said your political disputes would never override the civil life of the people — and now you see for yourselves how you have filled people’s souls and homes with panic, fear, bewilderment and loss. Do you know what you are doing? You are wrecking things, and reason does not seem to be finding its way to you.

You have brought disgrace upon us, buried our heads in the mud, let down our friends, and handed the enemy celebrations of victory. Where do we turn our faces before the world, before friend before enemy? Where do we hide, in what jar do we bury our noses to escape the curses of others? You have made us a laughingstock before people, and you have created images of the Palestinian people that turn souls with revulsion.

An explosion occurred in Gaza that killed a number of people, and it would be normal for there to be an investigation and a pursuit of the perpetrators — but why the random arrests? Why does the Ramallah authority carry out counter-arrests? And why does the authority in Gaza then arrest Fatah leaders in retaliation? You, gentlemen, are racing each other to commit errors. An error is not corrected by another error.

O Palestinian people —

…except us, and no one will restore the Palestinian condition to health except the people themselves. So do not be afraid, and do not grieve, for you are the ones who shall prevail. Fear God, O people, and let every one of us raise his voice against this depravity now raging across the Palestinian arena, and let every one of us raise his hand for the sake of God and the homeland. Rise up, O people, and you will find many nations coming to your aid.

O people —

We need a solution, and I do not see a solution possible under the agreements with the Zionist side. We must recognize that our agreement among ourselves takes priority over any agreement with any other party whatsoever. The tragedy began in 1988, when the Palestinian National Council recognized the Zionist entity; it deepened after Madrid, and it licensed internal fighting after Oslo. For us to become free and have a free word of our own, we must free our daily bread from the hands of America and Israel. America and Israel pay salaries in order to control our political decision-making — so shall we humble and bow ourselves for the sake of salaries, or shall we search for alternative financial and economic solutions for employees’ wages? Do not believe those who tell you we have no choice but to beg at the gates of the White House. There are many options, and they exist. It is true that we must toil and grow weary, but a loaf of bread dipped in dignity is loftier and greater than every meal dipped in humiliation. I have proposed many ideas before, but those fighting each other on the Palestinian scene paid them no heed.

Given the present situation, I have the following solution, which I have already put before you all:

First: form an administrative council of independent, nationally-minded Palestinian experts, specialists and academics to manage the civil and daily life of the Palestinian people. The Palestinian people do not need a government or a presidency, and we are deceiving ourselves when we burden ourselves with titles that do not match our painful reality.

I define “independent” as someone known for his national commitment but who is not affiliated with any Palestinian faction or with any Arab or non-Arab state.

Second: the council’s task is purely administrative, not political, and it has the authority to impose civil order — that is, it oversees a police force with authority over internal security.

Third: this council has no connection to national security; the task of national security remains in the hands of the resistance factions, which operate in secret and without any interference whatsoever in the course of Palestinian civil and daily life.

Fourth: all Palestinian factions must support the administration of this council if support is requested, without having the right to object. Whichever faction wishes to fight, the enemy stands before it; whichever does not wish to fight has social activity to engage in.

Fifth: once Palestinian civil conditions have stabilized, the council shall prepare to hold administrative elections.

Sixth: the only security apparatus permitted to exist is the police force directly subordinate to the administrative council. We have no need for security agencies or an executive force.

Seventh: the council shall work actively with the various forces of the Palestinian people, inside Palestine and outside it, to reorganize the Palestine Liberation Organization in a way that represents everyone under a charter agreed upon by the various forces, which shall then take over supervision of the affairs of the Palestinian people at home and abroad, including political affairs.

How the council is to be formed

Factions not participating in the internal fighting shall be entrusted with forming this council, and to save effort and reduce clamor, I propose that one Islamic faction and one nationalist faction take on this task, with explicit and public agreement from the various factions, foremost among them Hamas and Fatah.

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