What is the Secret of Hostility towards the Palestinian Communities
In the Palestinian case, there are two schools regarding the mass movement:
• The tyranny school views society as a threat to the ruling bureaucracies if the awareness spreads between its people and if they become aware of the concepts and values of freedom and democracy. Which requires the control of society in various security media and culture forms, building a network of clientelist relations and buying silence and loyalty, and building a partisan interests of groups that see their benefit linked to the authority in power, praising its grace and false victories, including to turn its loses, which are many to claimed victory, presenting articles in praising its wisdom, and presenting it as a sole alternative leader of the institution and society, it is alone behind the gains and achievements, and the mass movement has only to be ready to go to the street when asked, raises the slogans that are drawn to it, and go according to the plan, made for it. In return, it must return to be frozen when it is no longer needed, and it remains as spare in the pouch of tyranny and corruption.
If the mass movement disobeys orders and instructions and goes out to the streets without be asked by the regime of tyranny, and dares to raise its own slogans, even if they are modest social demands, then it would be received by suppression , indiscriminate detention, dismissal and displacement in the streets, as punishment for its rebellion against the owner of grace.
It is no secret that under such a policy, some the shaky minds go after the partisan interests, changing their positions, denigrating their past, joining the common path, turning into the worst types of hypocrites and plaintiffs, and falsely turning into spokesmen for the "masses of our people."
• The second school views society as diverse social groups with tendencies, orientations, visions and opinions, think and discuss and have the right to determine their fate and the fate of their homeland, express themselves by building their own community frameworks, based on their own convictions, with democratic means, that let them to express themselves without pressure, encouragement, or intimidation. The law preserves their right to live in national dignity. They exercise their democratic right to choose their representatives, and criticize their views and the performance of the executive power. They have the right to express their views freely, by word and by all forms of peaceful collective action. They draw their political choices and trends with conviction that provide them with opportunities to contribute to the development of awareness and political life, and work to develop their civil society and organize it with institutions, clubs and social, cultural, educational, trade and other union.
This school believes that the democracy is the basis for building and developing the mass movement, to become the representative of its segments and trends instead of opportunistic claims that try to monopolize the right to speak and declare "in the name of the masses of our people" even in their police battles against our own "masses".
What took place in San Salvador on 14 and 15/6/2019 was a serious and significant indication.
As from eleven countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, representatives of institutions, as well as significant national figures, which their role are appreciated among the Palestinian communities, held a meeting.
These consultative meetings were participated by more than 16 existing and active institutions, which have their role, activities and programs, which are officially recognized by local authorities. As well as national figures who do not need a definition of their history or national present, in the service of their communities, homeland and cause.
After lengthy consultations, the participants agreed to establish a special union to organize and coordinate the work of their institutions, in a manner that serves the interests of the communities in their countries and the interests of the Palestinian people and their national cause.
In accordance with the legal procedures, the foundational conference of the Palestinian Federation in Latin America (APAL) was held and attended by representatives of the communities, a group of the host country and its local parties and a representative of the Embassy of the State of Palestine. Its views appeared clearly in the statements of the conference and it received congratulations, the most important of them was from Bishop Atallah Hanna. The conference discussed the issues on its agenda. Democratically elected its administrative body, which is required to work towards the completion of the plan of action, in order for the conference to do its function.
The members of the conference were surprised by two separate statements, different in form, but they meet in content. The first is from the Department of Expatriate Affairs, which has been taken, by a presidential decree, from the Executive Committee and is run by one of the president's advisers, accusing the conference of being a breakaway step, because the Expatriate Department gave itself the power and right to legitimize this or that party. The legitimacy here has its clear conditions, subordination and submission to the Department's instructions, and turning the (conference) into a mere tool that works according to a specific instructions devoid of any democratic right, and does not exceed the limits of the political ceiling drawn up by the Department, all under the false pretext of "national unity". The Department of Expatriates, by its unusual form has ignored dozens of individual steps and decisions taken by the highest positions in the Palestinian Authority, which have deeply damaged the body of national unity.
The Department of Expatriates has put the conference of El Salvador before two options:
• Either to submit and integrate into institutions, fabricated by the Department, or the accusations of dissent, breaking out of national unity and class are ready at any moment.
The Department of expatriates may have lost sight of the fact that the Palestinian communities in Latin America and in Europe are stable and experienced, so the power of tyranny does not have the tools to control them, neither by buying votes nor by following policies and clientelism.
Perhaps the Department of Expatriates has missed the fact that the time of exclusion, marginalization, imposition of dependence on others and dissolving them in fabricated frameworks in the name of national unity, has passed.
Perhaps the Department of Expatriates has missed the fact that we are at a time where the ballot box, according to the system of full proportional representation, has no longer existent what is permanent and eternal. The Department should only review the experiences of the peoples, including the experience of the Palestinian people in its legislative elections in 2006.
The accusation of split from the PLO, has become ridiculous, as the position of the Palestinian communities of the PLO is well known and clear and they distinguish between the PLO as a coalition of the Palestinian people and its political forces and between those who regard the Organization as a means and an instrument of hegemony.
What was issued by the PA Ministry of Foreign Affairs only reflects that the ministry is separated from time and space, living in its illusions and suspicions, having lost its role, and turned into an institution, that is only good in political gossip. ■
Moatasem Hamada : member of the Political Bureau of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.