Afrasianet - Oraib Rantawi - Not all our thoughts and questions necessarily fall "out of the box". Some from inside and others from outside, this is not important, more importantly, the state of "intractability" controlling the current internal Palestinian scene, which extends for nearly two decades, has become dictated by the adoption of different approaches, it is not wise for the active Palestinian forces, factions, personalities, groups and institutions, to go on betting on "extracting butter from water", and not from discernment, to take the same road over and over again, and wait for arrival. to different ends.
Putting an end to the absurd cycle in the same vicious circle has become a condition and a requirement to efficiently address the entitlements of the new strategic phase, which it seems that the Palestinians, as a people, cause, resistance and rights, are about to enter.
There are countless topics and titles to think about, and rethink. In this article, we will select two of them, which we believe are the "most important" among them, and in a format that it is hoped will provoke a discussion about their contents, away from prejudices, canned accusations, and "the spirit of the tribe and its deadly nervousness."
Reconciliation or "trade illusion"?
We begin with the issue of tireless calls for dialogue and reconciliation between the divided parties, and the "arrangement of the internal Palestinian home", which stresses the necessity of dialogue and the urgency of reconciliation, the wider the gap between the disputants.
More than 12 projects and initiatives, issued in nearly 12 cities and capitals, have all gone unheeded. "Reconciliation Tourism" and the images of the intertwined hands of the Knights of Dialogue at the end of their meetings, have become boring Palestinians, let alone the statements full of lies that are not worth the ink with which they were written, and quickly disappear, before sunrise the next day.
The most serious developments in the Palestinian cause over the past two decades have not been a sufficient and convincing reason to end the division. Neither the successive wars on Gaza, nor the creeping annexation of the West Bank, nor the persistent violations of the sanctity of sanctities and Al-Aqsa. Neither the deal of the century and the American recognition of Israel's sovereignty over it, nor the war of encirclement, cleansing and extermination waged against the Palestinian people, was a convincing reason to renounce division or even raise the slogan of "unity in the field."
No Arab or friendly country remained but made its replacements in the "war effort" aimed at convincing the parties to put aside their differences and meet on a "common word", after these parties recognized the inability of the popular and factional "local momentum force" to accomplish this task. Even the superpowers, which were not known for their role as honest brokers, got on the line, such as the Moscow dialogues and the Beijing Declaration. Time and again, the division remained, reconciliation was absent, and the mediators were disappointed.
Today, after more than fifteen months of the "flood" and the "war of extermination", the old means and tools in dealing with the file of division are no longer appropriate at all. Today and tomorrow, after what has happened and is taking place in Jenin and its camp, it is no longer permissible or palatable to continue to ruminate on the same slogans and appeals, especially in light of the clear parameters of the road to adapting to the outcomes of the Israeli solution to the Palestinian issue, the frantic quest to present "credentials" to the Trump administration, and the attempt to pass the merit test to qualify for the next day in Gaza, starting from the Jenin camp.
Today, the talk of reconciliation and its dialogues seem akin to "selling illusions", an act of misinformation and obscuring the seriousness of what has happened and is taking place, sometimes intentionally, and often unintentionally.
Today, it is no longer permissible to "distribute the blood of reconciliation to the Palestinian tribes", as the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah bears the burden of the division, its continuation and deepening, especially after the resistance factions showed "desperation" in calling for and responding to calls for unity and national accord, within the framework of the organization, and under the umbrella of the PA. Today, those responsible for perpetuating the division must be named by their names.
Otherwise, we have fallen into the taboo, out of good faith or out of extreme opportunism, or perhaps, for safety, it makes no difference.
It is true that Hamas in previous stages, especially at the height of the Arab Spring, bore a share of the burden of division, when its bets were directed to favorable regional developments and transformations, often within an approach to political Islam movements that does not give serious weight to the idea of participation. But it is also true that the influential leadership of the PLO, the PA and Fatah tightly blocked the ways of partnership and closed its doors to Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PLO factions, and even to weighty Fatah leaders, whose only fault is that they consider themselves, their legacy and their destinations. Her consideration.
Today, more than ever, the intransigence of the "boycott" is fueled by the recent rapid developments in the region, and the decline of the status of what was known as the axis of resistance, which the Palestinian resistance considered a central link in its chain that extended from Caspian to the eastern Mediterranean.
Despite good (or bad) intentions, spinning in the vicious circle of bets on reconciliation has led to two harmful consequences:
• First: The departure of the individual and collective national effort, which was misplaced, from the goal of establishing a new, alternative and emerging Palestinian national and popular movement, after the impact of reconciliation and its effects have been amplified, and even dealt with with it with a superior romanticism, which does not tolerate the voices that deceive the general conciliatory taste.
• The second is to enable the influential leadership in the PA, Fatah, and the organization to have an extended "grace period", during which everyone is wary of blaming it for division, breaking with it, or searching for alternatives to it, from within or outside it.
• This leadership would not have been able to go far in the path of lowering the ceiling of Palestinian expectations, the path of security coordination with the occupation, and curbing the "anger of the West Bank", starting with the war on Jenin and its camp, had it not been for continuing to spread the illusion of a national salvation reconciliation that will one day, with which Palestinian history will be divided into what was before and after.
"Holy cow"
The second issue, which has become the "sacred cow of the Palestinians," is reflected in the story of the "sole legitimate representative" and the PLO, which was said to be "the homeland of the Palestinians until their homeland is liberated."
That issue that as soon as you start talking about it or about it, you will be bombarded with accusations of squandering the unity of the people, the struggle, the cause and the representation, even though the far before the proximate realizes that the organization has only its "seal", after it has turned into a circle of power, or say: its least important circles, and that it is in a rupture with its people in various places of presence, before Oslo, and especially after the establishment of the authority, amid the complicity of leading parties in the organization, Arab governments and international centers, The story of replacing the PLO with the PA, reducing the Palestinian people to the residents of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and dropping the diaspora and the original owners of the land behind the Green Line from the political, militant and legal quorum of the Palestinian people continued.
We need not be reminded that the Organization, as the sole legitimate representative, was a remarkable asset for the Palestinian people, nor that dozens of States recognized it as such, not as the embodiment of the unity of the people, the land and the cause.
We have always fought and fought in defense of the gain, which those in charge of it have not left an occasion for the past twenty years, or more, to empty it of its militant and representative content, until we reached a situation in which the Organization is called upon only to sign the most dangerous and harmful decisions and agreements on the land, the people and the cause. He took "the most important gain for the Palestinian people, by turning into a burden on them and a source of threat to their national project", this result that Unmistakable, if what can be remedied is not remedied.
There is no need to enter into a "conflict" with the organization over the unity and legitimacy of representation, as it is a battle outside the battle, but this does not prevent, but rather must, go steadfastly and resolutely, to dispute the organization over what was once popular and social rules and organizations, which were the pillar, incubator and lever, for the "only legitimate representative".
There is no need to crowd out the Organization in international and regional forums, as much as there is a need to prove that the Authority and the Organization, in their current status, do not represent the people of Palestine, their longings and aspirations, and that "legitimacy" is in one valley and its people are in another.
There is no need to submit requests for recognition of any new Palestinian body, but rather to create a center of attraction and representation that forces the world not to be satisfied with visiting the "boycott" when talking about Palestinian affairs.
Ramallah is almost outside of it, and Doha is a witness to this, as it has turned into a destination for visitors who want to talk to the resistance, directly or through a third party, in the full conviction that the center of gravity of the Palestinian decision, now and around Gaza, is not in Ramallah or in its boycott.
Such a situation may have the character of "exception" and "timing", and may become permanent. In both cases, it is necessary to work to develop a Palestinian national center of gravity, not limited to resistance, nor to Gaza and the controversy of war and calm in and against it.
A broad Palestinian national front must emerge, consisting of factions, organizations, personalities, groups and associations, that constitute a second, if not first, center for Palestinian national decision-making. And to start crowding out the influential leadership for attendance and representation, realistically, until the time comes to "liberate the PLO" from the hands of its captors, and to breathe new life and blood into its stiff veins.
"Not in our name" is a slogan that must be raised by a weighty Palestinian bloc, every time a decision or action is issued by Ramallah, positions or policies, smelling of negligence or concession. "Rough exposure" of the authority and the organization must be exercised, without blood or weapons, every time it is understood that they are playing roles on behalf of the occupation, in Jenin or elsewhere, or in preparation for adapting to humiliating paths, or qualifying for suspicious roles that are not in the interest of the people, their cause and their just and legitimate national struggle.
The vanguard of the Palestinian people, both patriotic and militant, must confront the swords of blackmail that are defamed and directed at them, every time they decide to unite ranks and gather forces, to save their national project, organize and frame their people, or crowd out "unpopular legitimacy", and seek, without hesitation or timidity, to "legitimize" their popular weight, which is fortified by the bills of martyrdom and sacrifices.
These forces and vanguards must emerge from the cocoon of the old tools in dealing with "hijacked legitimacy", because their liberation and recovery have become a necessary prelude to general national liberation.