Your Choice in Oslo Is Your Choice in Cairo

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

It was not surprising that the Palestinian delegation heading to Cairo to discuss the ceasefire was led by the people of Oslo. It was clear from the very start that all the Palestinian forces opposing Oslo went along, in one way or another, with Oslo. Some sought jobs for their own group within the Oslo authority, others held meetings with the Oslo team, justifying this by claiming the meetings concerned the PLO and not just the Palestinian Authority. Among the opposition forces are some who receive a monthly salary to cover office costs and the petty expenses of armed prestige, unable to continue their lives without money obtained from the Authority.

This means principle was always absent before interests — indeed, trampled underfoot. We certainly have a genuine educational problem in belittling principles and overlooking them whenever interest requires it. This applies to the value system, constantly disregarded because of interests, and if interest rises above principle, then society is not well, and cannot achieve progress in various fields of life, and in our case, cannot confront the occupation.

This is why it was not strange for the resistance to turn to the people of Oslo to arrange a ceasefire — the people of Oslo have standing with Israel, the United States, and several Arab states, and what they can do on the diplomatic stage, the Palestinian liberation forces cannot do. The fighters, resistance members, theorists, and supporters of the resistance receded to raise banners of reassurance for those pursuing them, and this act aligns entirely with the opposition forces’ continuous courtship of the pro-Oslo forces.

Palestinian history lacks no examples of principles being set aside in favor of interests. For example, the Oslo Accords contradict the Palestinian National Charter, and we found no shame in trampling on the Charter. There is a hidden law called the PLO’s revolutionary code, and we find no shame in entirely ignoring it, because the interests of the power-holders contradict it.

As for the matter of “the good ones,” it was clear that those who sold land to the Zionists and cooperated with the British Mandate found favor with the Jordanian regime and the Arab regimes, and when the standing of the PLO rose, these same people found the same favor with it, and their children find the same favor now. Our “choice” under the British Mandate remained our “choice” under the Jordanian era and the PLO era. And now, under the era of the Authority, those descended from their loins still hold favor, and they are our “choice” not only with the Authority but with the Palestinian resistance as well.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “خياركم في أوسلو خياركم في القاهرة” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.