9 - 15 May 2002
Issue No.585
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 9 - 15 May 2002 Issue No.585 |
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Only one choice
Before the flare-up of the Intifada some 20 months ago there had been repeated calls among Palestinians for new legislative elections. The belief was growing that the failure of negotiations and the ineffectiveness of the policies adopted by Arafat's old guard had reached the stage where a new mandate was required from the populace. Only after securing popular support, it was thought, could Palestinian institutions be rebuilt and political reform undertaken. Corruption had to be eradicated, political participation broadened, mechanisms ensuring transparency and accountability put in place: without this happening Palestinians would remain unable to manage any confrontation with Israel.
At the time Arafat failed to respond to the demands being made, generally citing as the reason for his evasion a reluctance to cause any split in Palestinian ranks. Acts of resistance, in the meantime, were increasing, fuelled entirely by despair. Such violence was a reaction to Israel's brutal oppression. Then the incursions took place, reimposing occupation on almost all Palestinian lands. Palestinian generations, the old guard and their younger critics, joined together to face Israel's machinery of war with courage and an unprecedented capacity for sacrifice. Sadly, those who paid the highest price were the young freedom fighters of the vanguard.
It has to be faced: Sharon's military plans have found plenty of support in Washington's predetermined and absolute bias; they have been perpetrated because of European opportunism and international indifference. This, when combined with the Arab states' national and political failure, has resulted in a series of terrible blows for the Palestinian resistance, causing it to incur immense losses.
The ability of the Palestinians to stand with their backs against the wall and yet continue with their struggle will perhaps make up, at least in part, for some of these losses. And the spirit of Palestinian resistance, which cannot afford to wait for outside support, will be resurrected long before the Arab World awakens to its responsibilities.
Several thousand Palestinian cadres have been detained and imprisoned. The Palestinian infrastructure has already been effectively destroyed. Civilians are subject to hunger, siege, and constant humiliation and no power, regardless of whether it is Arab or not, can put a stop to this.
Equally disturbing is that many leaders of the resistance have been physically liquidated and such operations continue despite American efforts and European mediation. Despite Bush's cynically fabricated orders to Sharon to withdraw from Palestinian lands the black farce, the developments of which the world is still following, continues to unroll, with Israeli forces invading Palestinian towns and villages, searching, destroying and arresting with complete impunity. While Arabs continue to wait for an American solution -- and Washington can think of nothing except Sharon's goal to get rid of Arafat, Condoleeza Rice having asserted the necessity to have in place a Palestinian Authority leader other than Arafat -- Israel assumes the right to reoccupy land at will.
Today's scenario could easily abnegate all Palestinian rights, and nobody knows for sure what nefarious schemes are being cooked up behind closed doors. Arabs are excluded, receiving only shreds of news. Talks undertaken by Arab leaders in Washington have not imbued the scene with any more clarity; rather, they have served to make the picture even more obscure. The Palestinians have no choice but to mobilise independently for struggle in the hope of transcending the crisis. It is outrageous that it should be President Bush, or Sharon the assassin, who has the final say in appointing the Palestinian leadership that might end up heading a new Palestinian state.
There is only one route open to Palestinians. Those cadres and national forces that led the battles of liberation against Israel -- their houses and farms have now been destroyed, their brothers and children have been killed -- comprise the only party from which Arafat can derive legitimacy. He can no longer rely on the old guard, whose members are secretly competing against each other for the favours of Washington. Elections may result in a representative government, thus creating an opening that may help transcend the current crisis.
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