The Future of Resistance

On the 5th of November, a day famous in Britain for the failed attempt to destroy parliament by gunpowder, the Palestinians officially recognise the futility of their parliament and national authority in dealing with the occupation and begin to consider the only option available. Resistance. On a televised interview, Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas formally announces his decision not to run again in the next election. The president reiterated, almost half-heartedly, that peace was still possible but explicitly blamed Israel on the stagnation of the current peace process. According to Haaretz, Abbas reminded Israelis that he has always been offering the peace branch to a reluctant adversary:
“If [Israeli and U.S.] intentions are sincere, then I am still here and have been here for years - they could have reached a deal with me already,"
Indeed, it seems Abbas has finally lost faith in the possibility of peace with the current right-wing, Netanyahu led government. Since Netanyahu’s success in the Israeli elections in 2008, he has come to the negotiation tables with his counterpart on several occasions, with Obama as a mediator. The process has, however, been something of a joke, with Israel’s refusal to halt construction, never mind removing its illegal settlements which till this day expand deep into Palestinian land. Netanyahu simply outmanoeuvred both Obama and Abbas by avoiding preconditions and whipping up international support by presenting original plans of the death camps in order to shame the west into accepting the legitimacy of Israeli settlements. In order to appear as a “fair” mediator, Obama has instead turned to Abbas, demanding Palestinians put an end to violent resistance and do all they can to convince Israel to stop the construction of settlements. This is a humiliating a ridiculous proposal as both the Palestinian authority, and Hamas (which Abbas has no influence over whatsoever) haven’t retaliated in violence since Israel’s savage attack on Gaza in January. Israel, on the other hand, continues its crippling siege of Gaza which is effectively starving the population and making reparations practically impossible. It continues to decimate Palestinian shipping on the shores, partly due to the newly discovered fresh gas reserves as well as expanding it’s illegal settlements on the west bank and slowly ethnically cleansing Palestinian residents from Jerusalem.
The accumulation of these humiliating political defeats seems to have pushed the leader (often criticised as a “sell out”) over the edge. Indeed, many blame Abbas for his willingness to betray Palestinian interests for the sake of Israeli and American approval. In 2005, he accepted 50 million dollars from the then U.S president, George W. Bush in order to “crack down on terrorists” . These funds have largely been diverted to the accounts of leading Fatah officials who are becoming increasingly wealthy while the rest of the population suffers. The west bank under the P.A has also been turned into a virtual police state with opposition being monitored and placed under tight control while unauthorised protests are often broken up violently. Abbas also repeatedly breached his constitutional powers by calling for elections in times of political upheaval in order to undermine his main rivals, Hamas. Under pressure from the U.S, Abbas declared a state of emergency in 2007 and dissolved the unity government replacing the Prime minister to his advantage. In fact, he isn’t legally the president anymore, the official term ended on the 9th January 2009. Perhaps the biggest controversy surrounding Abbas was his decision to go along with the U.S and delay the draft endorsing the recommendations made from the Goldstone report which founded that Israel was guilty of serious war crimes during the Gaza war.
Despite these numerous betrayals, I’m glad everything happened the way it did. Abbas proved, just like Arafat (to a lesser extent) before him that no matter how many concessions Palestinians make, Israel simply won’t accept peace. All those who temporarily placed their faith in the process have become disillusioned and finally realise the only road to liberation is by a mass, grass roots resistance.
Fatah has told Hadith Ana, a Nazareth based newspaper that the P.A is seriously considering a third Intifada. What is strange is that the P.A seems to recognise it will have little influence in the direction this rebellion will take. It acknowledges that it will be a grass-roots movement and largely peaceful, making comparisons with the first intifada. The decision will probably be mentioned during the 6th convention of the P.A . The Palestinian people, however, must break from their dependency of their leaders in both the west bank and Gaza. If this movement is to be successful at all, it must force Israel to make concessions, which it nearly did during the second intifada until Arafat agreed to the disastrous road map to peace. The Palestinian people have already taken positive steps towards a non-violent resistance by issuing a boycott on all Israeli goods. Many supermarkets within the west bank sell products produced in the illegal settlements which are now being targeted, not only in Palestine, but worldwide. Academic boycotts have been proposed in several universities in the UK, but have largely been rejected due to Zionist propaganda carefully intertwining any criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism.
The Palestinian people are yet again opposing the brutality of the occupation using peaceful and non violent methods. If the world chooses to ignore this effort and look for any twisted reason to blame the Palestinians, then there will inevitably be a violent uprising. Either way, the Palestinian people have acknowledged that resistance is the only path to peace and justice.