Revitalizing Palestinian Unity

BEIRUT -- As if they needed another reason to wage political battle, the two leading Palestinian political groups of Fateh and Hamas are, as I write, locked in an absurd tug-of-war around whether Hamas will allow Fateh members in Gaza to travel to Bethlehem to attend their party’s sixth congress that convenes Tuesday. Hamas accuses Fateh of imprisoning Hamas members unjustly, and wants them released before it allows Fateh members to go to Bethlehem. The dominant Palestinian political movements, having hit a momentary brick wall in their struggle to regain their lands and rights, now seem to be engaged instead in a disgraceful game of intra-Palestinian hostage-taking.

This pitiful state of affairs illustrates quite accurately the depths of incompetence, mediocrity and irresponsibility to which the Palestinian national movement has plunged in recent years. This is a far cry from its heyday in the 1970s and 80s, when the Palestinian resistance movement resonated loudly with many people throughout the region, while also triggering the anger and opposition of many others, including Arab governments. Palestinian progress to regain lands and national rights, culminating in a sovereign state and a fair resolution of their refugeehood, absolutely requires national political unity, which seems very distant nowadays.

The sixth Fateh congress taking place next week is an apt reminder of much of what ails the Palestinian national movement. For starters, this is the first congress since 1989, meaning that political doctrine and leadership remain structurally immune from popular accountability -- very much as is the case with political leadership throughout the rest of the Arab world. Any political movement that meets once every 20 years cannot be taken very seriously by its members, friends or adversaries -- which is exactly Fateh’s situation today.

Fateh achieved significant gains for the Palestinian cause in the first 20 years of its existence after the mid-1960s, basically keeping the Palestinian cause alive and channeling Palestinian political energy towards the goal of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. In the last two decades, however, Fateh has used its dominance of Palestinian national politics irresponsibly, generating opposition from assorted Arab governments, and dealing incompetently with the challenges of making war or peace with Israel.

Part of the problem is that Fateh is still led by some men who were there at its founding in the mid-1950s, and Fateh’s calcification has seeped into the organs of other Palestinian national institutions. The challenge facing the Palestinian people today -- the total revalidation and revitalization of their national political structures and leadership -- is at least five-fold:

1. Fateh must modernize and democratize itself to regain its central role and mission as the movement that appeals to the plurality or even the majority of Palestinians. Its blend of resistance and political realism and accommodation clearly appeals to a majority of Palestinians who are prepared to make a reasonable compromise with the state of Israel.

2. The Fateh-Hamas stand-off must end with the formation of a national unity government of some sort -- either technocrats or partisan politicians -- that allows the Palestinians living under Israeli occupation or siege to regain control of their basic services and life activities, and with that to enjoy again a sense of hope for a better future.

3. The fundamental coherence and validity of the institutions of the Palestinian Authority (PA) need to be re-established through new elections for parliament and president. The PA has failed as a stepping stone to statehood, but remains as a purveyor of local government services.

4. The wider spectrum of Palestinian political movements must be rejuvenated by reviving the institutions of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), thereby ensuring that all political and social forces among the Palestinian people have a role to play in national decision-making. The PA tried and failed to assume the PLO’s role as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinians in negotiations with Israel.

5. The Palestinian refugee community of over five million people that is dispersed throughout the Middle East and the world -- most of them not in refugee camps, but living middle class lives -- must regain its voice and role in national political strategizing and decision-making. They and their rights are the heart of the Palestinian issue, and they alone give ultimate legitimacy to the decisions of their national leadership.

The severe political fissures within the Palestinian community are due to many causes, including Israeli and Arab manipulation and foreign intervention, but the primary cause is the behavior of the Palestinians themselves. Their crisis is mainly made in Palestine, and it must be resolved in-house by more responsible leaders and activist citizens who together can reconstitute and re-legitimize political institutions that genuinely reflect the nationalist consensus that exists among the Palestinians -- but that has been largely muffled by decades of increasingly incompetent leadership and marginalized citizens.

Rami G. Khouri is Editor-at-large of The Daily Star, and Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, in Beirut, Lebanon.