Afrasianet - Had it not been for some curiosity in Palestinian political and popular circles to know who would become a "second man" in the PLO, these circles would not have followed the proceedings of the current session of the PLO's Central Council, and had it not been for the words issued by the Palestinian president against Hamas, no one would have paid attention to his opening speech at the aforementioned session.
The image of the Palestinian organization and leadership, in the minds of the people, loaded with doubts, accusations, and lack of trust and certainty, is not our estimates, the summary of dozens of public opinion polls conducted before and after the "Al-Aqsa flood", especially after it.
In context
The call to activate the PLO, its revival, and its democratization, was issued in a clear tongue by every Palestinian who sensed the gravity of the stage and the gravity of the current challenges.
But these calls and initiatives, which were engaged by official Arab circles: (Doha, Algeria, Cairo), and influential international: (Moscow, Beijing), went unheeded, and shouts remained in a deep valley, which were met only by raising the walls of resistance and obstruction, by a leadership that continued exclusivity and exclusivity, and did not think for a single moment, to conduct the required revisions, and abandon the failed bets, even when the fire of settlements and settlers, and the barbarism of the fascist right controlling the decision-making in Tel Aviv, approached its clothes.
Therefore, the call for the convening of the council did not come in the context of responding to the necessities of "arranging the Palestinian house" and repairing the cracks and cracks that hit it, as the "propaganda machine" in Ramallah says, but in another context, completely different.
It was clear that the convening of the Central Council, which usurped the powers of the highest authority of the Palestinian people, the Palestinian National Council, and acted on its behalf, in terms of what it means and does not fall within the framework of its powers, has lacked its "political quorum", even if it has an ostensibly "legitimate" quorum.
The council was convened in the absence of the main resistance factions, to which Hamas was not invited, and it is not represented in it anyway, as is the case with the Islamic Jihad, and the council was convened with an official boycott announced by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the National Initiative. Although the council put at the top of its goals the arrangement of the internal house, the president, who described a main Palestinian faction in the most vile and vulgar descriptions, is the same one who claimed to have directed his executive committee to discuss ways to restore unity and arrange the internal house.
In any case, it is no longer a secret to anyone that the convening of the Council, nineteen months after the war of encirclement, cleansing and extermination, did not come in an internal Palestinian national context, concerned with facing challenges and rising to the level of disaster and heroism that the people of Gaza and its resistance, with their abundant blood, write its chapters and pages daily, but rather in the context of adapting to the dictates of the outside, aimed at readapting and rehabilitating the authority and the organization, to conform to the conditions and stages of the "next day".
Hence, it is possible to explain the feelings of suspicion and doubt that characterized the people's and factions' view of this event, which seemed meagre and unworthy of the Palestinian moment, and the great dangers and challenges it entails.
In politics
As for politics, it was unfortunate that this extravagance in the language of communication with the components and entities of the Palestinian people, which is unprecedented, or at least rare, in the Palestinian experience, provided that the extravagance in the word alone does not shorten the issue, nor does it reduce the significance of its messages.
Saying that the issue of the "hostages" is Israel's pretext for continuing the war of cleansing and extermination is completely counterproductive, as evidenced by what Bezalel Smotrich said just one day before the Central Council, when he declared that the liberation of these people is not one of the top priorities of the war on Gaza, but rather the destruction of Hamas, the displacement of the people of the Gaza Strip, the extension of Israeli sovereignty over the strip, and the construction of settlement cities that ensure the closure of this file, once and for all.
If the issue of hostages, or prisoners and detainees, and the need to "free them" is "Israel's pretext to continue its war of genocide, what is its pretext, when it abuses the West Bank, and abuses it in length and breadth?!
What is its pretext when it subjects the PA leadership, including the president personally, his prime minister and his ministers, to the most humiliating measures when moving inside the West Bank and Jerusalem, and from there abroad?
What is Israel's pretext when it is proceeding at full speed in its creeping nibbling of Palestinian land, rights and sanctities? What is its pretext when it steals clearance funds and imposes starvation even on employees of the PA's organs and departments?
Why do Palestinians volunteer in positions of responsibility, and here we are talking about the head of the PA, to market and justify the Israeli narrative, at a time when Israeli leaders, from the security and political levels, escape to reveal the "fabricated pretexts" that Netanyahu and the pillars of his government "fabricated" to continue this war, to obstruct reaching agreements to end them, and to justify repudiating agreements once they are concluded.
Have you not forgotten to Ramallah Yoav Galant's recent confessions about the so-called "Philadelphia tunnels", Ronen Barr's testimonies about what the government was doing to prolong the war and destroy every opportunity to end it, and behind the two men, including Rahat of senior officials, former prime ministers, and opposition leaders, who have blamed Netanyahu and the fascist right-wing government for the continuation of the war.
Hence, the Palestinians have the right to look with suspicion and suspicion at this meeting, the results of which are predetermined, as it was not held in the first place, except in the context of the "next day's engineering", to turn the page on the resistance, and open the page of consistency with the outcomes of the Israeli-backed solution supported by the United States: Didn't Trump say only two days ago, that he and Netanyahu are reading from the same page?
As for the story of reforming the organization, renewing its blood, changing the leaders of its organs and electing a "vice-president", there are merchandise that can no longer be bought, neither by the Palestinians, nor by their friends and those familiar with the corridors of their internal structures.
Not a single Palestinian remained without calling on the PA and the presidency to choose a "vice president", especially as the president persisted in his arrogance, and the results of these demands have always been a disservice to those who demand them.
Today, the presidency is waking up to the need to demarcate the position of "second man", a need (and more correctly: dictate) that comes as an external requirement conditional on occupying this position, who is more consistent with the unbridled Israeli-American hegemony, and always to ensure that there is a Palestinian "seal" on any deal or settlement, whether tactical in the context of the post-war war on Gaza, or a strategy related to the future of the Palestinian national cause and project.
This is not what the Palestinians have demanded for many years, following the dictates of international capitals, which are engaged in the project of reshaping and "engineering" the Middle East, with Palestine at its core.
A step back. A step forward
Instead of convening the Council after a long absence as a reason for optimism about the possibility of restoring the health of the Palestinian political system and unifying it after its reform and resurrection, the convening of the Council came to deepen the division and increase the severity and seriousness of the rift, especially in light of the positions that exude all feelings of hostility to a significant section of the National Action factions, which have balanced influence and popularity.
It has become clear to every blind and visionary that we are taking a step backwards, that the reconciliation file has been completely closed, and that the stakes on the return of awareness and the awakening of the national conscience have been disappointed and their arrows have vanished.
The Central Council is no longer the embodiment of Palestinian political, social, geographical, and cultural pluralism, but rather a pliant tool of an influential group, summoned "upon request", often to pass and legislate decisions and policies fraught with ambiguities and suspicions.
The Council lost its representative and inclusive character, and turned into a cover for the "troika" of the decision in Ramallah, in isolation from the rest of the factions of the National Action, and from a large part of Fatah itself, let alone the living forces of the Palestinian people, from outside its factions and organized forces.
For all these reasons, Palestinians have come to anticipate its meetings and fear the motives for convening it, rather than rushing its regular or emergency convening.
These developments leave the door open for a single option, which, if implemented, would constitute a step forward: moving forward on the path of forming the broadest Palestinian national coalition, within the framework of a united national front, which includes resistance factions and thousands of national figures, youth movements and community initiatives, in defense of the PLO, and with the aim of recovering it and liberating it from the hands of its captors.
The available option remains to stop knocking on tightly closed doors, and to work to open the doors and channels of communication and interaction between the living and active forces in the Palestinian people, in order to prevent further collapses in the walls of the Palestinian national position, save what can be saved from the system of the "sole legitimate representative", and rehabilitate the Palestinian national project, which has never faced the dangers of liquidation, as it is facing now, and with the direct and indirect involvement of some Palestinians and their compatriots.