The Failed Palestinian Resistance

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Statements and criticisms flare up against the Palestinian self-rule authority every time it makes a concession, or shows further capitulation, submission, and baseness; and many Palestinian parties — chief among them the Palestinian resistance movements — beat the drums of lamentation and weeping over Palestine and the fate of the Palestinian people. Matters end with the shouting, waiting for the next round of shouting. The self-rule authority moves from disgrace to disgrace, and the rejectionist factions run from one bout of lamentation to the next. Worse still, some of those who shout and lament shed their tears by day, only to take refuge in the Authority’s embrace by night.

The matter is exceedingly simple, and we have no need to expend repeated effort denouncing and cursing the Authority’s actions, for this is an authority that was created to serve as a security and administrative agent, and it has no say in its own affairs except in some small, marginal matters that do not concern the occupation. It is an authority that amounts to nothing more than cliques conspiring against one another at the expense of the Palestinian people, and it can never rise to the level of defending the rights of the people of Palestine, because had it been capable of rising to that level, the Zionist occupation would never have allowed it to exist in the first place. The pillars of the Authority speak, in the media, of their commitment to national rights and to the fixed Palestinian principles, but in practice they demolish everything Palestinian and carry out policies that hand the Zionists control over our necks and our land. They pursue policies that destroy morals and tear society apart, that entrench dependency, and that open doors to the violation of people’s honor, particularly in certain places in Ramallah.

…in the Palestinian resistance factions, which produce nothing and make no attempt to steer Palestinian policy. These are factions that possess the capacity for a reaction of no value whatsoever, consisting of condemnation and denunciation, but which, in the end, only entrench the rule of the Ramallah authority over the Palestinian people, and entrench the dominance of Israel and the United States over Palestinian decision-making. Ask them, and they say they have no freedom of action in the West Bank. I have searched through the books of history to find a resistance that needed permission or authorization from its enemies to carry out its duty, and I found none.

Even some of the resistance’s own media outlets give wide space to the Authority’s men to explain their views, and often even flatter them.

It seems the resistance factions are entirely comfortable with what the Authority is doing, because it spares them a great deal of effort and exertion. As long as there is someone who surrenders and is cursed by a portion of the people, why should I trouble myself with the burden of resistance?

This is clear when it comes to the settlements. We curse the settlements in the media, but we support them in practice. We do absolutely nothing to confront the settlements, and we pursue any Palestinian who throws a stone at a settler and send him off to prison. Our own sons build the settlements, and thousands of them work in the settlements’ agricultural and industrial facilities. There are Europeans who boycott the settlements and the settlers, while some among us spend their nights in the settlements’ embrace. The Authority supports the settlements in practice, and the resistance and opposition factions do not differ from it in their conduct.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “المقاومة الفلسطينية الفاشلة” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.