The Current PLO Does Not Represent Us

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

It is true that one is, in principle, supposed to distinguish between an institution and the individuals running it, but the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization has left no room for such a distinction. The Organization’s leadership has, for decades, dominated, monopolized, and entrenched itself, using every manner of maneuvering, cleverness, deception, and the buying of loyalties in order to remain firmly seated on Palestine’s throne. And if it has permitted Palestinian factions to take part, that has only ever been to the extent that denies these factions any real participation in decision-making, especially strategic decision-making.

The Organization’s leadership has always been careful to form the PLO’s councils and committees in a manner that keeps itself dominant, and the same goes for its Executive Committee; the membership of the Palestinian National Council has long been determined on arbitrary grounds, according to the leadership’s own interests, and by appointment rather than election. And the chairman of the Executive Committee has long taken unilateral decisions, then brought in the Executive Committee afterward merely to serve as the stamp of Palestinian democracy. Let us recall here only the 1985 declaration renouncing terrorism, the 1988 declaration accepting the American conditions, and the signing of the Oslo Accord in 1993.

The Palestinian National Council has not been faithful in the performance of its duties, issuing a number of resolutions entirely at odds with the articles of the Palestinian National Charter, among them the 1974 Ten Point Program, the resolutions of the 1988 Algiers Conference, and the issuing of a declaration of independence that recognizes “Israel.” And instead of dismissing the Chairman in 1993 for his grave violation of the Palestinian National Charter in signing the Oslo Accord, its members rushed off to Gaza in 1996 in an acrobatic spectacle, staged with a declaration from “Israel,” in order to annul the Charter. A council like this respects nothing it has ever put in writing, and leaves Palestine without any covenant or charter that actually represents Palestine.

…-the Palestinian people — but not this organization that has bargained, and continues to bargain, over the rights of the people of Palestine, but rather the one we must build on new foundations, with everyone taking part. And for it to be the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, it must:

Affirm its adherence to the fixed and legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, foremost among them the right of return to the original homes and properties — a right that is not subject to negotiation, bargaining, or forfeiture;

Rescind all previous decisions that forfeited rights and fixed national principles, particularly with regard to the annulment of the articles of the National Charter, and agree on a new, clear charter;

Hold free and fair elections in every place where Palestinians are found, at home and in the diaspora, to choose genuine, trustworthy representatives;

Reform the institutions and activate them in a manner that restores their intended national role, and purge them of the interference of those who tamper with them;

Accommodate all Palestinian forces, across their various political tendencies, without monopolization or exclusion.

Without implementing the above, the Palestine Liberation Organization, in its current form, does not represent us and does not speak in our name, and no one, whatever his title, has the right to confiscate our rights or bargain over them.

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Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية الحالية لا تمثلنا” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.