The Bottom of the Palestinian Decline

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

The Palestinian Authority recently arrested the fighter Rajab Awni Tawfiq al-Sharif of Nablus, who had been wanted by Zionist forces for several years, and who had previously been declared a martyr in an attempt to mislead Israeli security. But it seems the Palestinian security services, ever vigilant for “the homeland’s security,” obtained information enabling them to capture this steadfast fighter. This is not an isolated event, but part of a daily series in which the Palestinian security apparatuses monopolize the starring role, all in defense of the Palestinian national project. So to what depth is the Palestinian people descending, and is there a certain bottom it can reach, so that we might say we have reached the finish line together with it? If only the Authority would tell us whether there is a bottom, and tell us its limits, if one exists.

A Palestinian once asked an American official: “Do you want the Palestinian Authority to be a new Lahd?” The American replied: “We want it to be a Lahd-plus.” (“We want it Lahd plus.”)

Twenty-nine years ago, specifically in 1979, I wrote that the PLO would recognize Israel. Many people rose up against me at the time, and I heard many accusations and insults, especially from PLO factions. Then in 1982, I told students at An-Najah University, in a public lecture, that the PLO’s opposition to the Village Leagues was not a matter of principle, that the disagreement was only over who would lead the surrender, and that the PLO would end up accepting what was on offer to the Village Leagues. The PLO disappointed my expectation and accepted even less. The Village Leagues project was better than the Oslo Accords in that it froze settlement construction and established self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza all at once, with Bethlehem as its capital. At the time, a fierce campaign began against me, full of accusations of treason, doubt-mongering, and collaborating with the enemy, and so on. Someone mobilized an army of skeptics and slanderers who said many different things about me. The PLO leadership at that time waged a strong propaganda campaign against anyone who criticized it, easily accusing them of treason and collaboration with the enemy, and there were those who believed it. Of course, this same leadership now wages a fierce campaign against anyone who tries to accuse others of treason.

In 1988, I told the brothers in the Fatah movement, during a political discussion in the Negev detention camp, that the occupation would rent out some of its prisons to them so they could imprison Palestinian strugglers. They turned on me at the time, saying I could not grasp the intelligence of the Palestinian leadership.

In 1993, I wrote that the Oslo Accords were an excellent recipe for Palestinian infighting, and they said this distorted the national achievements. That same year, they said the Oslo Accords would bring the refugees back to their homeland, so I wrote that the agreement would not bring the refugees back, and would instead become a fundamental pillar in expelling the Palestinians who remained inside occupied Palestine of ‘48.

This is because the flaw within the PLO and the Palestinian factions is structural, not incidental, and predicting outcomes under such a structural flaw does not require much intelligence.

We are now at the end of 2008, and I try to read toward which bottom we, the Palestinian people, are heading, and I see:

1. The brothers in the Fatah movement must choose between the disappearance of Fatah and falling in line with the American caravan, which accepts no one who still holds an ounce of struggle in their heart, or searching for work to cover some of their living expenses. Whoever wants to keep his salary must be worse than the Lebanese Antoine Lahd, or else he will be placed under the microscope. There are Arab writers now who describe Palestinians as “Fayyadists,” in parallel to the Lebanese “Lahdists.”

2. Accepting the Village Leagues project was treason, but now the Oslo Accords are considered a national project. Tomorrow, holding onto the land will be a form of extremism, and the sincere patriot will have to sell his land or bless its confiscation, because the enemy will build factories and farms where Palestinians can work and earn their daily bread. Holding onto the land will become a crime against the Palestinian people, who are searching for a loaf of bread for their children.

3. Today, the “good” Palestinian is the beggar Palestinian who provides a service to the enemy in exchange for a salary. Tomorrow, the “good” Palestinian will be the one who searches for work outside the homeland in order to transfer money to his hungry family back home. Tomorrow they will tell the Palestinian he must be “productive,” and will push him toward working outside the homeland with patriotic pretexts and justifications.

4. Today, bread is more important than freedom; tomorrow, bread will be more important than the homeland. Israel wants to establish the state of the Jews in Palestine, and there is no place for Palestinians in Palestine — they must establish a state in Jordan. They will say that Palestinians in Jordan outnumber Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and that it is a national duty for the minority to join the majority.

Certainly what I say paints a bleak picture, but I truly see the Palestinian picture as bleak, just as I have seen it as bleak for decades. It is important for a person to be clear and not contribute to deceiving this people, but the more important thing is how we work to overturn the balances, in order to create the conditions suited to a brighter picture. I have many proposals I have offered to people over time, but it seems people are more interested in bickering than in searching for solutions. You barely find anyone engaging with you when you offer solutions, but you find the pages full of reactions when it comes to factional squabbling.

Will we reach this point? My conviction is that we will, if the current Palestinian Authority remains in place, holding the reins of affairs through donor states’ money. But my conviction is also that the balances of power have shifted, and nothing remains as it is forever.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “قاع الانحدار الفلسطيني” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.