In the face of the annexation project, on the way to expel the occupation 2/3

(2/3) In the face of the annexation project, on the way to expel the occupation

Written by Comrade Fahd Suleiman; deputy Secretary General of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestin

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The Palestinian response to the Authority's calculations

1- ■ Quickly, the official Palestinian response to the annexation decision taken by the new Israeli government at its first meeting (17/5/2020) came. On 19/5 the Palestinian leadership issued a statement, reflecting the following item, the most important of it: “In compliance with the decisions of the National and Central Councils for the PLO; the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. The Palestinian leadership today decides the following: First - The PLO, and the State of Palestine is now disengaged from all the agreements and understandings with the American and Israeli governments, and from all the obligations resulting from those understandings and agreements, including security”.

■ Resolution 19/5, we have no choice but to go back to the decision of the Palestinian leadership about a year ago (specifically on 25/7/2019), in which: “We have decided to stop the implementation of the agreements signed with the Israeli side, and to form a committee to implement this, in accordance with the Council’s decision Central ». It is known that this decision was not implemented, similar to the decisions of the Supreme National Institution, represented by the National Councils (23rd session), and the Central Council (in 4 successive sessions: 27 + 28 + 29 + 30); Accordingly, it becomes more natural for a broader question to be asked, with two-fold: will resolution 19/5 be implemented, and how?

2- ■ In the context of answering this question, we confirm that Resolution 19/5 (although without the decisions of the National Institution with its two councils, and its lack of specificity and concrete, which are required by the new situation), is an important step at the general national political level, because, in the case of the commencement of its implementation, it puts the Palestinian situation on the path of salvation from Oslo and its ramifications, but the lesson lies - as it has always been - in the implementation and the extent to which this implementation will take.

■ The transition to implementation puts the general national situation before many questions, the most important of which may be the extent of the ability of the Palestinian Authority, which is bound by agreements, pledges, understandings and obligations, as well as the realities of the field, to implement resolution 5/19 in all its implications, either in facing with Israeli reactions to stop coordination Security, or in the ability to advance on the issue of disengagement from the Paris Protocol, at a time when previous experiences are still visible, when the Authority was forced to retract steps it had taken in this context; It also happened with the experience of clearing money, when the PA refused to receive it in deficiency, and then - under pressure of financial circumstances - had to withdraw its decision; Or, as happened with the experience of importing calves, when the PA found itself forced to adopt Israeli approval, a mandatory passage for all imports and exports of all kinds.

3- ■ These questions, and others are legitimate, are not only - against the background of the decisions taken and not implemented, but also for two reasons:

• The first, that Resolution 19/5 was issued two and a half years from the official announcement of the first chapter of the “Deal of the Century” (6/12/2017), that is, after the deal had made an important way in completing its elements, it paved the way of the Israeli and American political theater to ascend to the height of the deal in adopting the annexation plans and mechanisms and setting the zero hour to start implementation.

The Palestinian Authority, in its behavior, has squandered the politics of running around, failed bets, and waiting policies in general, many opportunities to respond to the "Deal of the Century" and its practical steps; The Authority also wasted the state of societal revival in the West Bank, in the heart of which is Jerusalem, the acts of resistance that were expressed in various methods and forms of struggle, and the state of steadfastness in the Gaza Strip and its sacrifices in the marches of return and breaking the siege, and did not build on this steadfastness what should have been built, which means, as a result, that the societal political situation in the occupied territories in 67 preceded the authority in the field of confrontation, although it lacked the national political cover that the authority failed, and the factions failed to provide it to them.

• The second, that resolution 19/5 still lacks clear boundaries for its practical dimensions, especially since discussions in the national frameworks have kept it at its lowest levels, under great caution, not to lead to a clash with the occupation, or to constitute an element to explode the popular situation, what loses the PA is the ability to control the limits of the field confrontation with the occupation authorities. Perhaps some statements issued by well-known political authorities and circles have expressed this when they expressed their concern and fear over what they described as going to chaos in the face of the occupation; Likewise, official statements issued by the Executive Committee or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Authority did not hide the limits of its position when it added the adjective "peaceful", which we consider to be superfluous, to "popular resistance", because the only source of violence appearing on the surface of popular activities against the occupation is the occupation itself (With his army, security, and settlers), and nobody else.4- ■ Hamas stands together with the other Palestinian forces in opposing the annexation project. This is what its positions expressed, and the statements of its leadership that (and with Islamic Jihad) pledged to resume the resistance operations, which the enemy takes seriously, and is accountable to it, contrary to what exists for professionals to launch statements of "earth-shattering responses."

However, this position is not enough, and it will not be so, even after the word is associated with action, because Hamas's distinguished position in the national formation requires that it be the owner of a political initiative, especially in the separating national stations, which did not happen previously, nor is it visible in the present.

There are several considerations that explain this waiting situation in which Hamas shares with the PA, and that from the position of the other side, considerations may include among them may be anticipation, or waiting for an event to occur changes in the internal Palestinian situation that lead to strengthening the role of Hamas in the national decision; but what is certain is that among the most important of these considerations is its absence from the overarching national framework, which alone provides the conditions for the release of its role in the circle of joint national action.

5- ■ After resolution 19/5 obtained the approval of all the powers that it considered appropriate to unify the national effort in the face of the annexation plan, the question is presented to the forefront about the ability of the Palestinian situation, in its "current reality", to bear the burden of the consequences of this decision. Based on this, we answer with great blessings, but rather, with a commentary on the condition of ridding “our Palestinian reality” of structural defects and major weaknesses, and this is - on its difficulty - achievable, provided that the tasks derived from resolution 19/5 fall within the context of a national strategy, not it is limited to procedures and reactions based on scattered and intermittent activities, accompanied by statements that detract from the credibility of some of the decisions taken, as is the case - for example - with regard to a decision that constitutes the cornerstone of the confrontation program, which is the cessation of security coordination, which detracted from its value, and even questioned for its seriousness, statements such as: "We will not allow any military action, and we will prevent it and arrest the perpetrators." (!!) ■

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3 issues raised for national consensus

■ Facing the "Deal of the Century" in its Palestinian path, including what affects the annexation, comes in the context of continuing the struggle against the settlement colonial project that aims to seize land, and through this uprooting the people, liquidating the entity, and leading to political execution (politicide). Hence the tactical slogan that summarized the goals of the Zionist project from its inception: “A land without a people, for a people without a land.”

The State of Israel was founded in stages, on the ruins of Palestine, as a people and an entity: In the beginning, the Balfour Declaration - 1917 by the Britain it was followed by the “Mandate Deed” by the League of Nations: Declaration-1922, ratification-1922, and implementation-1923; then the “partition resolution” - 1947 by the United Nations, so the declaration of the State of Israel -1948, which was followed by the occupation of the rest of the land of Palestine -1967; currently, preparations are under way for the second establishment of the State of Israel, "Greater Israel.

■ The confrontation that opened a hundred years ago continues to separate between the Zionist colonialism on the one hand, and the Palestinian people and their national movement on the other, a confrontation that has been constantly governed by 3 equations: survival ≠ uprooting; national identity and rights ≠ political execution; the PLO ≠ Deletion of being. Our enemy wants an existential - null war; our people still see it with the horizon of its right to freely determine its destiny on its entire national territory within the framework of a united state based on equality between its citize

On a question: Why should we restore these known matters, which are an integral part of Palestinian memory? We answer: Because it is current, and most importantly, it is necessary, because of the policies , working assumptions, and orientation, drawn from it , which means that the error in derivation leads to a mistake in political appreciation, which is reflected - in turn - negatively on the business strategy, etc. ... resulting in - dealing with some issues outlined in the title: annexation - if it was "legally", or a matter of fact - putting the Palestinian-Israeli conflict into a new qualitative stage, The most important area to decide is the field:]

1-The annexation plan marks the beginning of a new stage, a higher stage of settlement colonialism, whether its maps are announced or not; Whether it results from negotiations, or is resolved by projections; Regardless of postponement, implementing in phases , or reduction of the application area, which we are consider it and other of it possible. The annexation is not an end in the settlement and the usual Judaization context, but an opening of a new context for a more brutal stage of settler colonialism than ever, recalling that many steps that serves the annexation process have been taken, implemented, and are now in the custody of the so-called “creeping annexation".

The annexation is not a stand-alone political-field step, which can be undone by a decision, and the rule: as it came, it leaves; does not apply to it. it is a component part of the "Deal of the Century" with its regional and Palestinian paths, governed by a political philosophy (with the possibility to be accompanied with a vision of faith), a strategic vision, and supreme security and economic interests to arrange and reorganize the region's affairs for the coming decades. Dropping the project of annexation and defeating it is definitely possible, but it comes in the context of starting to regress the stage to which it belongs, until its inevitable decline.

2-The stage that the Palestinian national struggle is passing through is a stage of national liberation, and it is not - as prevailed in the field of national action among influential quarters, and its supporters in that, even for a while - a transitional or intermediate stage, separating it from the realization of the independent state, Completing the negotiating path, in parallel with institution-building, with the standards of a successful country, and supported by what is called “internationalization of the issue” (i.e. expanding the recognition range of the independent state on its borders and its capital + gaining membership in international institutions + recognition of international legitimate institutions of the independent state and other national rights + benefit from international justice tools to punish the Occupying Power, Israel for its sustainable violations+…).

The restoration of the national consensus on the definition of the nature of the stage, and its essential character, with the resulting priorities and tasks, is one of the most important entry points for any project, - conditioned to be supported by national components - to confront, to thwart the "deal of the century", to resist the annexation project, and to continue the national path, what means that the Palestinian national cause is still in the stage of national liberation (by definition), under occupation and colonial colonialism, that refuses to recognize the truth of the Palestinian people and their legitimate national rights, as mandated by international legitimacy resolutions, and under the American project of the solution, leading To liquidate the Palestinian national cause, and to support the Zionist narrative of the conflict, which would cancel the existence of Palestine and its people, in exchange for claiming that it is the land of Israel, the homeland of the Jewish people, and the homeland of the Jews in the world, as stipulated in the racist "national law" (also known as "Judaism of the state"

3-The "Deal of the Century" opened a new stage in the confrontation in Palestine, and on the range of the region, between two projects, each of which has its own strategy: The project to renew American hegemony by relying on Israel and those who align with it (coincide, alliance, or succession), on the one hand; In exchange for the national liberation project, and the rebuilding of the national state, on the other hand.

Confronting this project with its main path represented by the "Deal of the Century", put on the Palestinian people and its national movement in general, enormous tasks in the context of the stage of national liberation, demanded for the priority of intensive return to the field, to resist in all available ways and forms. The political process, even if it stops after the American effort stopped in (April 2014), it was - in fact - stopped, politically and practically, since July 2000, and the International Quartet" certainly would not save it

As for betting on discouraging Israel from its decision to continue with the legal and practical measures required by the annexation stage, through international pressure (considering seeking to evoke Arab pressure is in vain), if it succeeds, will not affect the core of the issue. The stage of annexation, and the continuation of progress in its path, has become an essential part of political life inside Israel, and has settled at the center of the internal balances in the Jewish community, and the first title on the agenda of settlement councils And right-wing parties in its different directions, even some formations of the filed, and so far have not been considered as a serious opposition to it (with the exception of the forces of the "joint list") but rather - in the best cases – it makes observations on some of its aspects (its range, timing, stage, proportionality between the legal side and the practical side in it, etc…).

It is the heavy return to the field, that returns to the internationalization process the gracious that without it will practically transformed into a limited-benefit public relations field. To internationalization, we add - at the top of the list - the BDS campaign, which the official authorities did not give it the attention it deserves, it is the weapon that, due to not being activated properly, Israel has not yet felt the extent of the harm it can do to it, even if it started a while ago to be careful of it. Through the formation of bodies concerned with following up the BDS file, to confront it, as a stand-alone issue, with providing the necessary budgets, as well as intensifying its contacts externally, to stimulate the issuance of laws criminalizing activities which serve the BDS project, achieving tangible results in this regard, , because of our embassies neglecting, the limited role of our communities, along with the harmony of influential political circles in the West in general with the Israeli policy.