The Palestinian Authority must confine itself to Civil Affairs
By Adel Samara
Kana’an eBulletin – Volume IX – Issue 1775
If we do not grasp the moment and terminate all channels of recognizing and normalizing with Zionist Ashkenazi Regime – Israel (ZAR), then we will face a catastrophe more devastating than that of 1948, when the Zionist regime was established in our midst.
We must understand the Arabic Qutri States’ (regimes)[1] betrayal of the Arab people, in general, and Palestine, in particular. This betrayal manifests itself in the recognition of the Zionist regime and the establishment of relationships with it.
This is the only way to stop the recognition of official Arab regimes of the ZAR and their plan to add it as a new member in the Arab League (of the Arab Regimes).
Military actions are taken to effect political victories, and political victory is always more decisive than military one, more so now.
In WW II, Japan, then a superpower, surrendered because of the nuclear attack, while Gaza did not. And while Gaza continues to resist, Arab Qutri regimes have surrendered to the Zionist entity-Israel.
The current political victory in Gaza is built on the heroic resistance of the people, on the support of Arab popular classes from the ocean to the Gulf; and the support of all popular classes worldwide.
That is why we must be cautious and defeat the imperialist plan that attempts to build the so-called: “The New Middle East”, the dirty US imperialist project. This is what I referred to a previous article, “Between one massacre and another…what is to be done”?[2]
Even though the brutal aggression in Gaza has been “temporarily suspended” and replaced by Zionist occupation, the political battle has already started. The Arab nation is clearly divided into two fronts: one is the popular front, representing the prevailing sentiment of the Arab People, and the other is of the official regimes.
This division highlights the irreconcilable contradiction between the Arab People and their rulers. The comprador Arab regimes have been ordered by the masters: US and ZAR, not to hold the Arab Summit.
Arab Qutri states, which had contributed to the creation of the Zionist entity, are fighting on its behalf. Actually, Arab comprador is preparing for a new summit to ‘welcome” the Zionist entity as an equal, sister state in Arab Homeland.
On 25 March 1988, during the fourth month of first Intifada, a journalist of Jerusalem Post asked Yitzhak Rabin (then the ZAR Minister of war and later the winner of the shameful Noble Peace Prize),
– What is the solution you are thinking of?
– To evict 600,000 Palestinians from the West Bank to Jordan, Rabin replied.
– The journalist then added: But this will prolong the conflict another 50 years.
– That will be the problem of the Israeli leadership to deal with.
Who Must Take the Initiative Now?
In an interview on al-Manar Channel a few days ago, I suggested that the West Bank follow in the footsteps of Gaza’s resistance, not for Gaza to follow in the footsteps of the West Bank.
In several articles, in recent years, I wrote, and others did the same, that the Palestinian Authority (PA) must change its role from a political entity conducting political affairs to a civil administration, i.e. to limit its role to governing and administering civil affairs of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza (WBG).
There is no chance for a Palestinian unity, under any banner, except that of struggle and resistance. We must grasp this moment of resistance, steadfastness, deterioration of Arab regimes, heated nationalist spirit and patriotic sentiment of Arab popular classes and the entire world, and capitalize on it by using it for our advantage to insist on:
□ Rejecting the recognition of the Zionist entity.
□ That disintegration of the Arab Qutri states as an imperative task.
□ The change on world scale where peoples are standing with us, while the official regimes stand with the ZAR
Today, the Palestinian elections under occupation are baseless; authority is not possible under occupation, and the division of power among Palestinians under occupation should be dismantled and thrown away. In other words, the Oslo Accords (signed between the ZAR government and the PLO in September 1993) must go. If there will be an authority, it must be on any liberated inch of Gaza, or wherever there is resistance.
The Palestinian Right of Return (RoR) is jumping back to the forefront .There should be no recognition of a regime that kills our children, evicts our people and follows them to be killed around the world.
The massacre in Gaza brought the discussion back to square one: the implementation of Right of Return and the disintegration and defeat of the Zionist regime. And despite the brutality of the Zionist regime’s and its thirst for blood, we should dismantle it without massacres and killing of a single citizen.
The present moment teaches us that the struggle is taking two approaches:
First: Resistance until liberation, which may take another 60 years, and that it will.
Second: The approach of the Arab Qutri state which had compromised since Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916[3]: Arab regimes have contributed to the building of Israel – ZAR in 1948 (allowing and sending Arab Jews to Palestine in 1948 and thereafter), through the Oslo Agreement (1993), and now these regimes are supporting the ZAR against Gaza’s resistance. The West Bank and Gaza shouldn’t be another Qutri Arab state.
In the 15th of January 2009, the head of al-Jihad Ramadan Shallah declared from Damascus that the PA must dissolve itself and become an authority of resistance. His position is also supported by PFLP, Hamas, PFLP-General command and others in Damascus.
Palestinian “Presidential” and Legislative Elections
Before the Gaza massacre erupted, I was preparing a series of articles in preparation for a campaign against conducting political elections in the West Band and Gaza. But I had to put this temporarily on hold due to the massacre: I think that all Palestinians who support having elections under Israeli occupation and consider participating in them, must re-think the value of such elections. A Palestinian Authority under the occupation has been rendered meaningless.
The activities of such a campaign against Palestinian elections under occupation may be divided as follows:
□ There is an authority of resistance in Gaza.
□ Resistance in the West Bank must continue as it is.
□ Ramallah PA authority must confine itself to a self-rule: governing and providing social, civil, healthcare, education, civil law enforcement services and similar duties of Palestinian life. It should not deal with politics and negotiations with Israelis, a task that must be left for PLO outside the occupied territories. No one should perform the two leading positions that of the PLO and the PA, at the same time, as long as he/she is under occupation. The PA forces must be converted to law enforcement to protect civilian life and not to repress their resistance.
This is the sole approach to challenge the terrible occupation in the WBG, one that is multi-faced:
– There is first the Zionist occupation and its settlers;
– Then the occupation of NGO’s, embassies and “cultural centers” (I call them cultural colonies) of all countries which support the ZAR;
– And lastly, the US and British intelligence services whose underground activities permeate all aspects of our daily life.
This will be a test for all official regimes to see if they are assisting Palestinians as a people whose country has been occupied, and accordingly deserves assistance until their right of return is achieved, or that the assistance provided to the Palestinians is truly a ‘rent’ that is paid to them for a political compromise, for ‘donating’ Palestinian land to ZAR, cease their resistance against occupation, and accept the integration of the Zionist entity into Arab Home land.[4]
A civil, not political, PA will continue to take care of the Palestinians who are depending on it. The main issue is that the PA shouldn’t negotiate with Israel and that these negotiations should be delegated to the PLO and its leadership abroad.
The Zionist entity is killing, not negotiating. Why is it that some Palestinians and Arabs never listen?
[1] Qutri in Arabic is an adjective of qutr which refers to a large part of a country. In Arabic political life and discourse, it signifies an area that was artificially severed from the rest of Arab countries and refers to the fragmentation of the Arab Homeland. This term is used by the nationalist Arab discourse that believes in a united Arab Homeland. It is also used by Arab political parties, regimes, and individuals who oppose Arab unity and support maintaining the current Arab Qutri states and perpetuate their division that was designed by the British and French colonialists.
[2] Kana’an Online: https://kanaanonline.org/en/2009/01/07/gaza-between-this-massacre-and-the-next-one-what-is-to-be-done/
[3] The Sykes-Picot agreement is a secret agreement that was concluded in May 1916, during World War I, between Great Britain and France, with the assent of Russia, for the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. The agreement led to the division of Great Syria and Iraq. Great Syria, as a result, was fragmented into various French and British-occupied areas: Syria of today, Lebanon, Palestine and Transjordania. The agreement essentially prepared the grounds for the material implementation of the British Balfour Declaration promising the Zionists a “national home” for the Jews in Palestine and, for the Zionist colonization of Palestine and eventual creation of the Zionist entity in May 1948.
[4] Integration through Domination (ITD) refers to Israeli attempts and efforts to forcefully integrate itself into the Arab Homeland, but on its own terms and conditions. It means that the Arab nation will accept Israel as a “normal” state in the region. Israeli products will be marketed freely and Israel will be the industrial and financial center of the region. It will have the upper hand in the military power as well. In other words, Israel will be accepted as a “center” for an “Arab periphery”.