Confronting the Obvious Truth: Palestinian Authority vs. the People
18 November 2015By Ramzy Baroud
Saeb Erekat is an enigmatic character. Despite minimal popularity among
Palestinians, he is omnipresent, appears regularly on television and speaks
with the moral authority of an accomplished leader whose legacy is rife with
accolades and an astute, unwavering vision.
When Palestinians were polled by the Jerusalem Media and Communications
Center (JMCC) in August, just prior to the current Intifada, only 3 percent
approved of his leadership compared with the still meagre approval rating
of 16 percent of his boss, Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas.
Even those who are often cast as alternative leaders Fatah leader, Marwan
Barghouti, and former Gaza-based Hamas Government Prime Minister, Ismail
Haniyeh were nowhere near popular, achieving 10.5 and 9.8 percent of the
vote respectively.
It was as if Palestinians were telling us and their traditional leaderships,
in particular, that they are fed up with the old rhetoric, the constant
let-downs, the unabashed corruption and the very culture of defeat that has
permeated the Palestinian political elite for an entire generation.
Abbas has operated his political office on the assumption that, so long as
Palestinians received their monthly salaries and are content with his empty
promises and occasional threats of resigning, resisting against Israel,
lobbing bombshell speeches at the UN, etc. then no one is likely to
challenge his reign in Areas A and B tiny cantons within the
Israeli-occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.
Erekat has been the primary enabler of that PA charade, for he is the 'chief
negotiator', whose protracted term in that precarious post has negotiated
nothing of value for the Palestinians.
In 2002, I followed the Israeli invasion of the supposedly self-autonomous PA
areas in the West Bank, when Erekat made an appeal on Al-Jazeera Arabic
television to the Israeli Government to exercise sanity and common sense. The
entire display of the PA leadership was beyond tragic, proof that it had no
real authority of its own and no control over the events on the ground as
Palestinian fighters battled the re-invading Israeli army. He appealed to
Israel as if he felt genuinely betrayed by its military onslaught.
When Al Jazeera released thousands of secret documents in January 2011,
revealing discussions behind closed doors between Israeli and Palestinian
negotiators, Erekat held thelion's share of blame. With a clear mandate from
his superiors, he appeared uninterested in many Palestinian political
aspirations, including Palestinian sovereignty in occupied East Jerusalem
the spark behind the current and previous Intifadas. He offered Israel the
''biggest Yerushalaim in Jewish history, symbolic number of refugees return,
demilitarised state
what more can I give?'' he was quoted in the Palestine
Papers.
What is particularly interesting about Erekat, and equally applicable to most
PA leaders and officials, is that, no matter how devastating their roles
which they continue to play out, whether through political incompetence or
outright corruption they do not seem to go away. They may change position,
hover around the same circle of failed leadership, but they tend to resurface
and repeatedly regurgitate the same old language, clichιs, empty threats and
promises.
After retreating for a few weeks as Intifada youth took to the streets to
protest the Israeli occupation, PA spokespersons, including Erekat, are now
back on the scene, speaking of squandered opportunities for peace, two states
and the entire inept discourse, as if peace was ever, indeed, at hand, and if
the so-called 'two state solution' was ever a solution.
In a recent interview with Al-Jazeera's 'UpFront', Erekat warned that the PA
was on the verge of shutting down, as if the very existence of the PA was a
virtue in itself. Established in 1994 as a transitional political body that
would guide the process of Palestinian independence, the PA morphed to become
a security arm that served as a first line of defense for the Israeli army,
in addition to guarding its own interests. Billions of dollars later, and
after intensive military training provided by the US, the UK, Italy, and
other western and 'moderate' Arab countries, the PA security forces have done
a splendid job of cracking down on any dissent among Palestinians.
So why is Erekat warning of the PA collapse as if the sorry leadership in
Ramallah is the center of everything that Palestinians have ever aspired for?
''Soon enough Netanyahu will find himself the only [one] responsible between
the River Jordan and the Mediterranean because he is destroying the
Palestinian Authority,'' Erekat said. So what? According to the Geneva
Conventions which designate Israel as the Occupying Power, Netanyahu is,
indeed, responsible for the welfare, security and well-being of the occupied
Palestinians, until a just political solution is assured and enforced by the
international community.
Using the same tactic which, along with Abbas and other PA officials, was
utilized repeatedly in the past, he vowed that ''soon, very soon, you're
going to hear some decisions'' about disbanding the PA.
It matters little what Erekat and his Ramallah circle determine as the proper
course of action. Not only has his language become obsolete and his
references irrelevant, but the entire Oslo 'peace process' travesty which
delivered nothing but more illegal settlements and military torment was
dead a long time ago. In fact, it was the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000 that
killed Oslo and the ten years between the end of that uprising and the advent
of a new one were filled with mere haggling and desperate attempts at
breathing life into a 'process' that made some corrupt Palestinians a whole
lot richer.
The hope is that the current Intifada will cleanse the residue of that dead
process, and surpass the PA altogether, not through acts of violence and
vengeance, but rather through the establishment of a new leadership manned by
good women and men who are born in the heart of Palestinian Resistance, in
the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem. The new leadership cannot be imposed from
above, or achieved after deliberation with 'moderate' Arabs, but selected
through an organic, grassroots process that is blind to factional
allegiances, religion, gender and family lineage.
Palestinian Intifadas do not liberate land but liberate people who assume
their role in the struggle for national liberation. The 1936 Intifada
liberated the fellahin peasants from the confines of the dominant clans and
their allegiances to Arab regimes so that they could face up to the British
and the Zionists; the 1987 Stone Intifada liberated the people from the grip
of Tunisia-based factions, thus the establishment of the Unified National
Leadership of the Intifada along with Hamas; the 2000 Intifada was a thwarted
attempt at escaping the sins of Oslo and its empowered elite. For the current
Intifada to achieve a degree of initial success, it must find a way to
entirely dismiss those who took it upon themselves to negotiate Palestinian
rights and to enrich themselves at the expense of the impoverished and
oppressed Palestinian people.
If the Intifada is to be true to itself, it must seek to break not just the
hegemony over thePalestinian political discourse which is unfairly championed
by Erekat and his peers, but to break political boundaries as well, uniting
all Palestinians around a whole new political agenda.
There are many opportunists who are ready to pounce upon the current
mobilization in Palestine, to use the people's sacrifices as they see fit
and, ultimately, return to the status quo as if no blood has been shed and no
oppression still in place.
After reiterating his support for the two-state solution which is now but a
fading mirage, Erekat told Al-Jazeera, ''We are fully supporting our people
and their cry for freedom.''
I think not, Mr. Erekat. Twenty years is long enough to show that those who
have taken part in their people's oppression, cannot possibly be the
advocates of their people's freedom.
Dr. Ramzy Baroud has a PhD in Palestine Studies from the University of
Exeter. He has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 years. He is an
internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author of
several books and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His books include
'Searching Jenin', 'The Second Palestinian Intifada' and his latest 'My
Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story'. Visit his website:
www.ramzybaroud.net.
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