Resurrecting the PLO from the Dead

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Let no one imagine that this is a defense of Hamas; it is a defense of the homeland and the citizens. Hamas has wronged me in a way more appalling than the repeated harm Fatah has inflicted on me, and I have no reason to be biased toward one or the other.

The Palestinian people need someone to represent them, at home and abroad, and the establishment of the PLO served the people, despite the flaws that accompanied its founding. The Palestinian people fought so that the organization would endure, and martyrs and wounded fell for its sake, and pain and grief afflicted the people. But it was the organization’s leadership that let things slacken, and then let them fall apart.

There was once a national-Arab charter for the organization, and the leadership worked to narrow it down to the Palestinian National Charter, a step toward “Palestinianizing” the cause. Then the leadership put forward the initiative of a secular democratic state, which contradicted the Palestinian National Charter, since it recognized the Jews’ right to Palestine. Then came the Ten-Point Program, which likewise fragmented the process of liberation. Then, in clear violation of the Charter, the leadership accepted America’s conditions for recognizing Israel and Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, and renouncing terrorism, on condition that America recognize the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. The leadership dealt a powerful blow to the PLO when Arafat met with the president of Egypt — which was then under boycott for having signed a peace treaty with Israel — in Ismailia in 1983. An even more powerful blow followed when Arafat announced, in Cairo, the renunciation of terrorism in 1985. The blows intensified at the Algiers conference, with the Palestinian National Council’s recognition of Israel and the Security Council resolutions, and with the declaration of the Independence Document, which recognizes Israel.

The leader of the PLO repeatedly violated the organization’s charter, and so did the Palestinian National Council. It was a dishonorable thing that the very guardian of the Charter — the National Council — should violate the Charter without a single advocate standing up to defend it and demand that the violators be tried. As for the head of the organization, he was never held accountable for his repeated breaches of the Charter.

Oslo dealt a fatal blow to the organization and its Charter. The agreement was signed before the Charter was amended, which turned the Palestinian people into a laughingstock before the world, since the people did not respect their own covenants and the words they had written. What was even more shameful was the Council’s convening in 1996 to abolish the Charter.

As for the organization’s councils, it is well known that the organization’s leadership always took care to include the Palestinian factions, but only within a secondary margin that did not affect decision-making. Arafat was careful to keep the majority in the Executive Committee, the National Council, and the Central Council for Fatah, to ensure the decisions he wanted were taken. All the talk now circulating about the PLO’s democracy is nothing but a falsification of the facts and factional one-upmanship.

The PLO’s leadership buried the organization long ago. It is true that there are organizational structures and titles, but the organization does not go beyond that. The leadership that took over the Palestinian Authority left it on the shelf, inactive, and stripped it completely of its covenants. And despite that, we did not hear any jealous concern for the organization from those who defend it now.

The talk now about the role of the PLO and its sovereignty over the Palestinian Authority is nothing but factional spitefulness that does not serve the Palestinian people. Fatah can hardly believe it is out of power, and it is working hard to obstruct the Hamas government, using the organization as a tool. This is not permissible; indeed, it is shameful. What Mr. Mahmoud Abbas did in referring the government’s file to the organization is an act of spite and pettiness, and one would have expected him to rise above such responses, which express factional zeal.

It is important to reformulate the Palestine Liberation Organization. It is necessary to revive the organization, but on new foundations that take into account the representation of the Palestinian people wherever they are found, and that safeguard the Palestinian rights in its covenants without the slightest concession. This is the right course of action; as for attempts to resurrect the dead from their graves, they will bring the Palestinian people nothing but further pain.

We hope Abu Mazen will not heed internal pressures, and we hope the brothers in Fatah will accept their electoral defeat. Let us look to the future with eyes that rise above factional zeal.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “بعث منظمة التحرير من الأموات” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.