WHAT PRICE TREASON? - Salem-News.Com

(LONDON) - I am not in the character assassination business. Nor am I prone to use emotive words and headlines to score a point, but when one’s country and the future of generations of Palestinians are at stake -- one should not be bashful.

I shall lay before you the facts, not the myriad of betrayals of our people and just cause for the last 100 years, but merely the last 20 years or so that you can see and judge for yourselves whether the accusation of treason that I am throwing at the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah is justified. The Palestinian Authority, as I am sure you know, was born as a result of the misguided Oslo Accord in 1993, the first near fatal stab to the heart of the Palestinian struggle by the PLO.

It was done in the belief that we must establish a foothold in our land to be able to continue the struggle to regain our rights. Yet none of this got the Palestinians even recognition by Israel of a Palestinian state. What it got them instead were more settlements, more check points and the separation wall.

When the late Yasser Arafat’s plane crashed in 1992 in the Libyan desert, Muammar Gaddaffi advised him even if he was offered a tent on the land of Palestine to take it. Take it he did and by doing so he legitimized the theft and occupation of our land.

As if gifting 78% of the historical land of Palestine and overall control of the remaining 22% to the Zionists was not enough, the Palestinian Authority went one further by signing what is known as the Paris Protocol in the following year, 1994.

This protocol regulated the economic relationship between the Zionist entity and the Palestinian Authority, effectively putting our economy and our finances in the hands, not to say the pockets, of our occupiers.

We had the elections of 2006, which Hamas won hands down, not because the Palestinian constituency was enamored of Hamas but because the people were fed up with the corrupt ineptitude at the heart of The Palestinian Authority.

The leaders of Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in Ramallah must have been under the influence of the potent drug called ‘self destruct’ when they embarked on a bloody war of supremacy, dividing the nation and gifting the Zionist entity yet another prize of a fragmented and easily manageable Palestinian nation.

Both administrations, one the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and the other, the Gaza-based Hamas leadership went on to behave like two separate Palestines, with two separate governing bodies.

Over almost a decade, Hamas forged allegiances with centres of power in the region with Islamist leanings and the Palestinian Authority sought support from western powers and their regional satellites.

The wound was getting deeper. For the last seven years Gaza has been besieged, isolated and strangled to near death while the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah has looked on from afar.

Not only did the Palestinian Authority do nothing to help our family in Gaza, they went out of their way to cement the so-called security collaboration with the Zionist entity, which the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mr. Abbas referred to on more than one occasion as ‘sacred’.

They went even further by blaming Hamas for the carnage and destruction of Gaza. They then accused Hamas of running a parallel government and plotting to overthrow Abbas and his so-called Authority in Ramallah.

All these accusations were entirely based on information from the Head of the Shabak, the Israeli Security Service.

Mr. Abbas and the Palestinian Authority have thrown in the towel and have declared to the world that armed resistance to the occupation is out of the question, effectively pitting Palestinian against Palestinian. In doing so, it handed Israel yet another victory. All of this has pushed the dagger in even further.

Every man has a final weapon. His life. And if he’s afraid of losing it he throws that weapon away.

The Palestinian Authority, without consultation or even a by your leave went to the United Nations and applied for Palestine to be a member in September 2011. Another step towards legitimizing the theft of more than 80% of Palestine. All for the sake of having a state.

Having a state is not a bad idea, but the state must be defined and the citizens of the said state must be consulted. But we were told that this would give us more ammunition to use against the occupation. Nothing could be further from the truth. What the Palestinian Authority has got is a balkanized entity with no authority whatsoever. No, this is not entirely true, the authority they have is being used to stop any effort to challenge the occupation.

This was glaringly displayed in 2009 when Mr. Abbas abandoned a resolution calling on the Human Rights Council to forward Judge Richard Goldstone’s monumental report on war crimes that were committed in Gaza to the UN Security Council for further action.

More recently, the Palestinian Authority pretended to one and all that they were going to sign the Rome Statute and ascend to membership of the ICC with the aim of taking Israel to court to answer yet again for genocide and crimes against humanity, as have been perpetrated over Gaza in the last couple of months. Mr. Abbas explained his reluctance to join the ICC as being because it might incriminate the Hamas leadership.

The Hamas leadership has publicly demanded that Mr. Abbas sign the Rome Statute and join the ICC. In a display of utter cowardice, his foreign minister, Mr. Riad Al-Maliki went to Rome, not to sign the treaty or even to lodge an application. He went to stop it, as disclosed by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Mrs. Fatou Bensouda.

“To date” she said, “the statute is not one of the treaties that Palestine has decided to accede to, nor has it lodged a new declaration following the November 2012 UN general assembly resolution” (which afforded Palestine Observer Entity Status).

“It is a matter of public record that Palestinian leaders are in the process of consulting internally on whether to do so; the decision is theirs alone and as ICC prosecutor, I cannot make it for them.”

Here and now, I declare that this will not happen no matter what Mr. Abbas and his cohorts in the Palestinian Authority tell us. All the indications are that Mr. Abbas and the Palestinian Authority will continue to adhere to instructions from Tel Aviv via Washington.

As we all know, Mr. Abbas is currently on one of his many travels around the world. He has just spent three days in Paris, meeting with Mr. Hollande and the procrastination continues. The latest gambit to come to light is that the Palestinian Authority will lodge a resolution to the UN that calls for the gradual withdrawal of Israel from the occupied Palestinian territories over a time frame of three years.

“We will have a resolution, to be presented to the Security Council, that will say very clearly what we expect from the (peace) process and what the solution to the conflict must be.”

He went on to say that stop-start negotiations had gone on “too long” and “there is a perception that there will never be a solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, even though we know the outlines” of a possible deal.”

How right you are, M. Hollande. We do know the outlines of what Israel will deem acceptable in a so-called peaceful settlement. A balkanized Palestine, with the Palestinian Authority running the municipal affairs of a few towns and cities in the West Bank.

Meanwhile, the bulk of the Palestinian inhabitants of Gaza will be shifted to concentration camps in the Sinai Desert, as advocated by none other than Mr. Moshe Feiglin, a deputy speaker of the Knesset and recommended to Mr. Abbas by President Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi of Egypt. The same fate that is now being administered to the Palestinian Bedouins of the Negev Desert, who are being corralled into two proposed new towns in the Jordan Valley. Never mind that they are a nomadic people who have roamed the desert for hundreds of years. They must be controlled and, of course, presided over by Israel.

As I am writing these words Mr. Abbas is on his way to the UN and about to address the General Assembly to float the idea of this so-called final solution.

My compatriots, Mr. Abbas has just withdrawn the dagger from deep in the heart of Palestine and placed it firmly unsheathed and ready to cross the jugular. Please don’t allow him to administer the final and fatal cut to our hopes and aspirations.

Jafar M Ramini is a Palestinian writer, commentator and analyst on Middle Eastern affairs living in London.

He was born in Jenin, northern Palestine, was educated in England and spent the early years of his working life in the Arabian Gulf and Saudi Arabia. He has traveled far and wide, searching for the answer to a question that still eludes him.

Why does the United States of America support the Zionist line in such a blind folded way while ignoring the legitimate rights of the indigenous Palestinian people? Particularly as the Palestinian people harbour no ill feelings towards America and its people nor has ever caused them any harm. It is, Jafar says, a conundrum.

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Ibrahim September 24, 2014 6:12 pm (Pacific time)

I agree 100% I will only add that a viable alternative should be offered. First, one can state what the borders of Palestine should be. These political lines should comport with the historic territorial markings of the people of Palestine. In other words, the territorial lines would, at a minimum, extend from the Sinai Dessert to the Lebanon and Syria. It would also encroach into some aspects of Egypt, but not farther West than Port Said. The eastern boundaries would to Jordan. Thus, the state of Palestine would not include any aspects of the Zionist occupation, nor lands it has declared within Palestine. Notwithstanding the above, I would allow for a presence of religiously observant Jews in a To Be Determined enclave of Jerusalem. That place may be established for Jewish pilgrimages, and for the establishment of an international Jewish temple that represents a modern interpretation of the Temple of David. Other Jews, indigenous to the area, would be granted full right of citizenship in the newly formed Palestinian state. The new Palestinian state would nationalize properties and expel foreign Jews from the land. The representative government of Palestine would take possession of all Jewish properties, assets,security interests, and land stolen during wars of aggression, through settlements, and resulting from previous settlement agreements between representatives of Palestine and the Zionist state. The repossessed properties may be sold or repurposed for use by Palestinians. Except those imprisoned for war crimes, murder and other grievous crimes, all foreign Jews would be subject to immediate expulsion from Palestine, but certain exceptions could be made to certain classes of Jews. The exception would extend not longer than three years. Those imprisoned would, after serving a long prison term, would be allow exit visas. Within the new nation, one would establish tariff free trade zones. Rafah and Gaza would be among those places designated as a free trade zone. The new state would be established with provisions that allow persecuted persons a safe haven. This pseudo-asylum would be temporary, and fixed to certain events outside the country that caused persons to flee to Palestine. Fear of persecution, war, and poverty are among the chief basis for granting asylum. The new state would re-adapt agricultural practices that existed in Palestine during times before the imposition of Zionism. Other aspects of the state would feature permanent land preserves. These preserves would contain rare species of plants, fruit bearing trees, birds, and other examples of the natural environment. Aspects would allow for herding and migratory movements among Beduins. To the extent possible this preserve will abut areas of the Mediterranean Sea and extend into the Jordan Valley.

Yochannan September 24, 2014 1:38 pm (Pacific time)

It appears to me that the movement toward a unified Palestinian State is running out of steam, and the will to resolve the two State solution is loosing out. Call it the feeling of hopeless that has set in. Also, I believe that Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in Ramallah, the Palestinian liberation movement and the Palestine solidarity movement have not been able to meet their goals because Gaza and the West bank have been divided for so long, they really have not yet developed unity or a common plan of action. The only unifying cause for the Palestinians is the shared hatred for the Jew occupiers. This is something we can all understand, but it has not proven to be the road to achieve the objective of forcing the Jews to return stolen lands, or provide the Palestinians with an acceptable un-divided land for a viable unified Palestinian State. Time is running out, and very soon Palestinian land will be forever lost. A plan must be developed that can be supported by both factions and presented to the UN.

Plan I, The Plan for a Two State solution is found here: http://expressmailer.org/

Plan2, The plan for a united Palestinian/Jew State: For a viable “One State” solution, Israel must first become a “Constitutional Republic” a State where the law of the land is a Constitution that guarantees equal rights for all its citizens, both Jews, Palestinians and others, with no religious or political restrictions. to include equal voting rights, equal land ownership right, and repatriation of stolen Palestinian lands.

The Israel of today says it is a Democracy, but a Democracy cannot exist unless it is also an Apartheid State, that is why Israel is an Apartheid State. As an Apartheid State Israel can maintain an acceptable Jew majority, and limit its non-Jew citizenship. This requires restricting the non-Jew population within the State or regulating and reducing the rights of minorities to protect the Jew majority. To become a unified viable State for Palestine/Israel, the current Jewish State can no longer remain a “Democratic” State. If it were to remain a so-called Democracy, the State would eventually result in being either a majority Jew controlled State or a majority Palestinian controlled State all depending upon the mix of the majority population. The result would be continual internal conflict, or it will continue to remain an Apartheid state under constant internal attacks by the rightful Palestinian owners of the land.

Anonymous September 24, 2014 7:29 am (Pacific time)

Please see "Why Our (the U.S.) Government Supports Israel's Government, and Why it Shouldn't" at http://www.newdemocracyworld.org/old/War/Why_Our_Government-Aug-9-07.pdf for the answer to the "conundrum". This is why, in order to defeat Zionism, we must have egalitarian revolution, as discussed at www.PDRBoston.org (which I and other authors of the linked pdf file are now working towards.)

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