Suspending the Palestinian Legislative Council

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

The media of the failed Palestinian regime mobilized the day I opened the files of Palestinian revolutionary law and the Palestinian Authority’s Basic Law, the election law especially.

A Palestinian television anchor, a daughter of the Ayyad family from Bethlehem, mobilized, hurling accusations at me left and right, saying that the so-called Abdul-Sattar Kassem calls for the killing of the president of the Palestinian Authority. She behaved with arrogance and ignorance, and so did her two guests: the sheikh who appointed himself a divine commissioner, and the university professor who accepted, for himself, a betrayal of scholarly integrity, both steered by the anchor in the direction they had been ordered to follow.

Now you must mobilize once again, because the crime of suspending the Palestinian Legislative Council is no less than the crime of overstepping Palestinian law, and the Palestinian people must put on trial those who suspended the Legislative Council, just as it must put on trial those who overstepped Palestinian law and the Palestinian National Charter.

By my own conviction, the Palestinian Legislative Council elected in 2006 is no longer legitimate, since its term has ended — but if there is anyone who believes the president of the Authority is legitimate, he must also acknowledge the Legislative Council’s legitimacy, on the principle that the same twisted logic applies to everyone equally. My own position remains that failing to respect laws, systems, and regulations drives us toward chaos and collapse before every challenge, the challenge of the occupation foremost among them.

The question raised is: is there any state, or political or societal authority, anywhere on earth, that has deliberately suspended its own legislative council and had its powers seized by the executive authority? The legislative authority is the foremost authority in a state, and respecting it expresses a state’s respect for itself, for its people, and for the public that went to the ballot box to choose.

The legislative authority is the most sensitive gauge of a society’s need for laws and their regulation, to prevent chaos and internal strife. The legislative authority is reinforced by an independent judicial authority that bends to neither pressure nor the interests of the influential.

The Palestinian people elected a Legislative Council in 2006, and the Hamas movement won a majority of seats. The Legislative Council held a few sessions, but was prevented from convening after Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip. What happened in Gaza was a conflict between the Fatah and Hamas movements, and this conflict has nothing to do with the choice the Palestinian people made through the ballot box. If two organizations quarrel with each other, it is unreasonable for that quarrel to be dumped on the Palestinian people.

The Palestinian people is not convinced this quarrel arose from the interests of the Palestinian people — the people is convinced, rather, that factional and partisan interests are what usually override the people’s interests.

The executive authority in the West Bank suspended the Legislative Council, preventing it from convening, in parallel with sessions held by Legislative Council members in the Gaza Strip. The Legislative Council has not functioned for years now, and the power to issue laws has been entrusted to the president of the Palestinian Authority.

This is a great breach of the people’s will and interests, a destructive act producing a great deal of political and societal chaos, and instead of correcting the Palestinian people’s condition and moving toward achieving Palestinian national unity, the executive authority has contributed to tearing the people apart, scattering its efforts, and spreading feelings of hatred and animosity among people.

The Palestinian people now lives under a terrifying despotism and tyranny, and some do not hesitate to say that Palestinian democracy has no equal in the world. If only they — the Authority’s prime minister specifically, who has praised Palestinian democracy — would explain to us how we can be democratic while deliberately suspending the Legislative Council.

The odious occupation suspended the Legislative Council when it arrested its members, but the occupation has an interest in this matter, since it considers Hamas a fighting terrorist organization. The occupation, as usual, cast democratic principles aside, and the Western colonial states stood with it, disavowing the very democratic principles they have long promoted.

Since the occupation stood against the Legislative Council, our national duty required all of us to stand with this Council and ease its work, so that it might pose a great, genuine challenge to the occupation.

But when we ourselves decided to suspend the Council, it appeared before the world that the Palestinian Authority and the occupation were dividing up the roles between them, gravely damaging the image of the Palestinian people, which is supposed to struggle for its freedom if it wants to be liberated from the occupation. Whom does suspending the Legislative Council serve? If only the president of the Palestinian Authority would give us a lecture explaining the democracy of this suspension, his commitment to Palestinian law, and the benefits that accrue to the people because of it.

We know that legislative councils in most Arab countries do not legislate, mere tools in the hands of the executive authority, and we understand full well how easy it is to buy off members of these councils to support the corrupt policies of Arab rulers.

We know a king or a president can dissolve a legislative council whenever he pleases, calling for new elections subject to manipulation and fraud. But these states are not our example, nor the ideal we should emulate.

The Palestinians have exceeded even Arab despotism in despotism, having closed the Legislative Council and prevented it from convening.

The Arab rulers felt some shame in closing their legislative councils, but Palestine’s leaders, living under occupation, felt no shame in trampling the Palestinian people’s electoral will beneath their boots.

In short, suspending the Legislative Council is a great crime against the Palestinian people, and the party or parties responsible for this suspension must be identified and brought in for investigation and trial. This is a great betrayal, stabbing the Palestinian people and its free political will. The members of the Legislative Council must speak openly about what happened, pointing their fingers clearly at everyone who worked to suspend the Council, and, God willing, the investigation is coming, and punishment must fall on those who committed this crime.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “تعطيل المجلس التشريعي الفلسطيني” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.