28 January 2011 By Khalid Amayreh Palestinian Authority (PA)
officials have lashed out at the Al-Jazeera pan-Arab
network for disclosing previously secret documents
showing that PA negotiators had agreed to compromise
over some cardinal issues of the Arab-Israeli
conflict; these include the status of Jerusalem and
the right of return for millions of refugees, uprooted
from their homes when and since Israel was created in
1948. In an impromptu press conference
held in Ramallah on 24 January, Yasser Abed Rabbo,
Secretary-General of the PLO, accused the Qatar-based
network of waging a relentless war on the PA and
besmirching its leadership's image for the benefit of
Israel and the enemies of the Palestinian struggle. He
said Al-Jazeera was fabricating evidence to discredit
PA President Mahmoud Abbas and his aides, adding that
this campaign wouldn't have been launched without the
personal approval of the Qatari Amir, Hamad bin
Khalifa Al-Thani. However, a close and objective
examination of the documents shows that Al-Jazeera
didn't exceed its bounds and that regardless of how
the network acquired the leaked documents, elements of
concoction, fabrication and doctoring didn't play any
role in the process. Unfortunately, PA officials and
negotiators, including chief negotiator Saeb Erekat,
didn't stick to the facts when trying to defend the
negotiators' behaviour. Instead, they resorted to name
-calling, abusive language, unfounded accusations and
brash mendacity. It is not uncommon for PA apologists
and spokespersons to resort to diversionary tactics
and red herrings, even unnecessary jokes, to evade the
hard issues at hand. In this case, the examination of
the issue does show that the PA was willing to abandon
and betray inalienable Palestinian rights. The issue of Jerusalem stands out
among other issues over which the PA was obviously
willing to compromise. The documents show that the PA
was prepared to cede to Israel nearly all of the
illegal colonies that the Zionist state has built east
of the 1967 armistice line in and around occupied East
Jerusalem. It is true that these settlements are not
located within the boundaries of the traditional area
of al-Quds al-Sharif (Noble Jerusalem) which Israel
occupied in 1967. Nevertheless, they remain
administratively and territorially an integral part of
metropolitan East Jerusalem. More to the point, it is crystal
clear that PA negotiators swallowed the misleading
Israeli concept of a "Jewish Quarter" in the Old City
of Jerusalem, even though almost all of occupied
Palestine was an Arab quarter. Fewer than 20% of the
houses in the so-called "Jewish Quarter" were lived in
by Jews in 1968. One is prompted to ask why PA
negotiators failed utterly to demand the restoration
of such Jerusalem villages such as Lifta, Ayn Karem,
Bayt Mahsir, Bayt umm al Mays, Dir Aban, Dayr Rafat,
Deir Yasin and Al-Malha, to mention a few. Indeed, why
do the Israelis have the right to insist on
"restoring" Jewish property in the Armenian Quarter
and the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, while
Palestinians who still have the keys to their former
homes are denied the right to reclaim their homes and
property? Are the Palestinians children of a lesser
God? This is not only wantonly unfair and unjust, but
also stupid, especially on the part of the Palestinian
negotiators. I know that the negotiating
position of the Palestinians is unenviable, to say the
least, given the hard realities of the balance of
power on the ground. However, the PA shouldn't just
concede historical rights which it can't obtain by
negotiations. The same applies to the right of
return for millions of Palestinian refugees. The right
of return, or repatriation, along with the right to
compensation, was well-established by UN resolution
194. According to the documents leaked to Al-Jazeera,
PA officials agreed to deprive the vast majority
refugees of this right to return to their homes in
what is now Israel. They agreed in principle to accept
the repatriation of 100,000 refugees over 10 years,
and no more. So what will happen to this historic and
legal right for those who have been languishing in
miserable exile for more than sixty years? Should they
just kiss that right goodbye? Moreover, it is perhaps more
pertinent to ask Ahmed Qurei, Saeb Erekat and Mahmoud
Abbas exactly who it was who authorized them to make
such compromises. In the final analysis, the right of
return is the heart and soul of the Palestinian
question. It is also an individual right which no one
except that individual has the right to waive. Hence,
any agreement by PA officials to cede this sacred
right of the refugees is null and void according to
all international and moral laws, man-made or
Divinely-inspired. Some PA apologists have sought to
justify their faulty negotiating, which amounts to
criminal activity in a way, by suggesting that certain
Palestinian positions in the negotiations were
coordinated with "brotherly Arab rulers". This beggars
belief; since when have these despots been entrusted
with the defence of Muslim and national interests in
Palestine? Indeed, if these dictators were capable of
doing any good at all, they would surely be doing good
for the benefit of their own people. The ongoing
events in Tunisia are an example of what I mean. In
agreeing, even tacitly or implicitly, to accept the de
facto liquidation of the right of return, the PA is
abandoning a long-held Palestinian national constant,
including the resolution of the right of return
pursuant to UN resolution 194, which stipulates both
repatriation and compensation. We certainly don't expect
Palestinian Authority officials and negotiators to
emulate the great Salahuddin Al-Ayyoubi in returning
Jerusalem. They are too corrupt and too un-Islamic to
deserve such an honour. However, we do expect them to
keep the promises they have made consistently to the
Palestinian people, including the rejection of the
illegal Jewish colonies established in the West Bank
since 1967. These settlements are acts of rape against
the land of Palestine that should never be
legitimized. The scandal triggered by Al-Jazeera's
revelations has underscored the problem of entrusting
the entire Palestinian problem, with all its Islamic
and historical dimensions, to mediocre Palestinian
negotiators who are left alone at the mercy of Israeli
arrogance which springs out of being the occupying
power. Hence, this issue should serve as
a wake-up call to all of us, however late it may be,
to make sure that these negotiators, indeed the entire
PA regime, are not left alone to deal on our
collective behalf. After all, Palestine and Jerusalem
are Islamic issues. Omar ibn Al-Khattab and Salahuddin
Al-Ayyoubi never thought of Arab, let alone
Palestinian nationalism, when they liberated the Holy
City. The holy Qur'an reminds us that we might dislike
something in which there is much good for us. As such,
Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims must stop mutual
recriminations and make sure that the Palestinian
Authority is never put in a position where it can
repeat these potentially fatal mistakes. Khalid Amayreh is a journalist living
in Palestine. He obtained his MA in journalism from
the University of Southern Illinois in 1983. Since the
1990s, Mr. Amayreh has been working and writing for
several news outlets among which is Aljazeera.net, Al-Ahram
Weekly, Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), and
Middle East International. This articles and several
writings of Mr. Amayreh available at The Palestinian
Information Center via
https://english.palinfo.com
Comments 💬 التعليقات |
Add Comments