By Nicola Nasser
When allowed to turn freely, the metaphorical Palestinian compass points in one direction--struggle, Palestinian. But for the most part a person disturbs this compass rigging it to other directions, as in the context of the ongoing lack of the peace process.
Now, how much of the Arab world up in arms against its autocratic rulers Palestinian compass is given another nudge, also in the wrong direction. The Palestinian public organization type, and even Palestine Liberation organisation (PLO) officials tell us, the only way forward is through negotiations more. "The peace process", we want to know, is the only one worth saving from the current sea of Arab dissatisfaction.
It is all reverse in soil of dissatisfaction. A day of dignity has been called probably restore unity in the Palestinian ranks. This will probably lead to further fragmentation. Allow me to elaborate.
Dignity day, held on 11 February, it was not meant to end the occupation, but to lift Gaza's spirit of civilian defiance. "Say no to the division and occupation and in favour of the Government of national unity" is the slogan a second group of organizers have chosen for planned protests on 15 March. The day the PLO plans to call for new presidential elections, legislative and local elections in the hope of regaining enough credibility to pursue its preferred goal to negotiate peace. Organizers tell us that they want a Palestinian State by next September. How many times have we heard this before?
WAFA News Agency, the PLO-Run try to give the impression that this is the only way to the nation. We are either will negotiate peace, or we protest and then negotiate for peace. If there is a point to this argument, I don't see it.
All remember why the current split in Palestinian rows happened? It all began when PLO officials, the endemic trønde in peace, refused to respect the outcome of democratic elections held in 2006. So much of the current dilemma is caused by the PLO simple inability to reconcile peace with democracy.
So far, we have had a peace process, was not so much about ending the conflict, as it was about managing it.
Kind of debates we have had as Rashid Khalidi, the prominent Columbia University professor said was never on self-determination or whether the occupation ends, but to allow Israel to impose its point of view with us blessing every step of the way. This has been the case since the Madrid Conference in 1991. Only practical application of the peace process was to give Israel time to build more settlements, with U.S. approval. The U.S. veto should only a few days ago, on 18 February, put to rest doubts hanging in this respect.
But US officials still leads "quiet" talks with both sides, as Dennis Ross told 2011 J Street Conference. Abbas believes this is the only way forward, but some isrælere is not so sure.
URI Avnery, a long time peace activist and founder of peace movement Gush Shalom (peace bloc), said that the Palestinians have other options. "What will happen if hundreds of thousands of Palestinians started walking to the separation wall and dragged it? What would happen if a quarter of a million Palestinian refugees in Lebanon to gather about our northern borders? What will happen if protesters gathered in numbers on the Al-Manara Square in Ramallah and Al-Baladiya Square in Nablus challenge the occupation? "He asked.
Isrælske peace activist does not say that this can happen today or tomorrow. But the assessment of the way it goes, it cannot be ruled out. Perhaps this is why Obama Senior Middle East Adviser, Dennis Ross admitted that the current situation was "untenable".
And yet the PLO negotiators is to help prolong the situation isrælerne, which gives the false impression that something will happen when everyone else know that things will remain the same. The PLO appears to be holding for the day when the United States or the EUROPEAN UNION made their foot and disseminate a just peace. It will not happen.
In the meantime the PLO continues to suppress they could turn things only two forces: national resistance and a citizen-led Uprising. The PLO is blocking any chance of forward movement, at the same time, give all the impression that it is doing something for people. All it does is to help isrælerne perpetuate a basic untenable situation.
The newspaper Haaretz reported on 2 March, Prime minister Binyamin region Netanyahu worked on a plan for the creation of a Palestinian State with provisional borders as part of interim peace arrangements. We have heard it all before.
Netanyahu plan is nothing new. It is a reproduction of the earlier plans, all with the aim to give the Palestinians a reduced version of the West Bank. Former defence minister, Shaul Mofaz, who is now President of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, came up with a similar idea, which would have given the Palestinians back about half of the West Bank.
An earlier version of Netanyahu strategy was tried of labour when Ehud Barak was Prime minister. Barak, not complete a promised three-phase withdrawal from the West Bank, pulled the PLO negotiators to a Summit at Camp David in 2000, and then ensured that the Summit would lead to something.
Kadima tried the same, when Ariel Sharon was Prime minister. Arafat snubbed him and was subjected to a cruel siege, which ended in his death. Grab the Netanyahu was Abbas, can he get a similar fate. But Abbas does not seem too eager to take a position.
Arafat stood firm, even when he ran out of options. He told his people the truth. He told them that he cannot give up their rights, froze PLOS participation in negotiations and told the Palestinians that they would have to live and die for their rights. "Millions of martyrs will go to Jerusalem," was his famous last words.
You cannot have a national unity Government, without the need to have credibility. The most Abbas and Prime minister Fayyad has so far suggested is a Government of technocrats. How can the technocrats resolve an issue that is so politically Central? Reconciliation is a political quest and the concessions, it requires no "technocratic" in nature.
The PLO does not partner with Hamas before reconciliation is achieved, told the Fatah Central Committee member Jamal Moheisen Golf news on 28 February. This makes good sense, but reconciliation comes at a price. And so far I do not believe that the PLO is willing to pay that price. The way I see it, the PLO worries more for the peace negotiations than for national unity.
You can not negotiations without resistance, just as you might have democracy without fighting for it, we have always known it, and we have to prove the Intifada. We cannot be United until we are willing to fight against occupation. And we cannot be democratic, until we have learned how to share. So far, neither the sharing or fighting the PLO, and its quest for peace is doomed.
-Nicola Nasser is a veteran Arab journalist based in Birzeit, in the West Bank of the isrælsk-occupied Palestinian territories. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. (This article was translated from Arabic and published by Al-Ahram Weekly 10-16 March 2011.)
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