Palestine in the News
Palestinian People Will Decide Next Steps for Themselves
The U.S., Israel and others keep declaring their conditions for the formation of a Palestinian state. No matter what they do or say, without Palestinians deciding the aim of their state and its modalities and democratic process, nothing is going to be resolved. To succumb to the pressure of the U.S. to decide who can and cannot form a government of a Palestinian state would be a repeat of the Oslo Accords, with their fundamental premise that the Palestinian Authority could operate only on the basis of permitting the Israeli occupation. Ending the Israeli occupation is the sine qua non of the resistance -- an absolutely necessary essential condition.
The occupation
has to be ended and the Palestinians will decide the
next steps for themselves. The pressure on them is to permit
their
national interest to be defined by the U.S. and Israel. They are
not
permitted to question U.S. and Israeli authority in this matter
because
to do so is to be
labelled a terrorist, unreasonable and undemocratic. The truth
of the
matter is that if the Palestinian people in their conditions of
life
were to accept this form of authority and say that it wields
legitimate
power, it would again impede their just struggle for
self-determination. This is what the
current impunity reveals -- the Palestinian people's lack
of
political power. The U.S., Canada and all the discourse they are
generating on the future of the Palestinian people is intent on
disinforming the resistance and world public opinion. In this
regard,
the peoples of the world are
duty-bound to reject foreign interference in the internal
affairs of
the Palestinian people. They are duty-bound to respect the right
of the
Palestinians to decide.
In related news, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Mohammad Shtayyeh said on February 26 that he has officially submitted his government's resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas. "I submitted the government's resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas on February 20, 2024, and today I submit it in writing," Shtayyeh said in a statement. This development comes in the context of U.S. demands and threats to impose its own alternative on Palestine, by a government of U.S. choosing for the West Bank and Gaza, and to put an end to the popular resistance movements to Israeli occupation and genocide. Shtayyeh said: "I see that the next stage and its challenges require new governmental and political arrangements that take into account the emerging reality in the Gaza Strip, the national unity talks, and the urgent need for an inter-Palestinian consensus based on a national basis, broad participation, unity of ranks, and the extension of the Palestinian Authority's sovereignty over the entire land of Palestine."
Shtayyeh's statement reportedly came as U.S. pressure grows on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to submit to restructuring the PA and creating the conditions to govern a future Palestinian state following the war.
A new government in Palestine should take "full responsibility
and
action" both in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Palestinian
Foreign
Minister Riyad Al-Maliki said on February 28, Anadolu
Agency
reports. Al-Maliki said the time now is "not for the government
where
Hamas would be part
of it because, in this case, then it will be boycotted by a
number of
countries as it happened before." "We don't want to be in a
situation
like that. We want to be accepted and engaging fully with the
international community. We want to get contributions that help
in
order for us to be able to
provide, first of all, the necessary services to our people,
emergency
services, then to talk about how we can reconstruct Gaza after
such
devastating destruction." Later, he said, when the situation is
right,
we can contemplate that option. The Foreign Minister said he
believes
that the idea is to establish today "a technocratic government"
that is
based on experts, individuals who are completely permitted to
take up
the reins and responsibility for this period. Elections he said
could
be considered "after the war."
Regarding
the resignation of the Shtayyeh government, Senior Hamas
official Osama
Hamdan said, "I believe that this resignation may have come at
an
inappropriate time, because it came in light of the talks about
a
renewed authority, and I hope it does not come in response to
U.S.
demands. I stress that the Palestinian demand is to form a
consensus
government by the Palestinian factions whose duty is to deal
with Gaza
relief and reconstruction and to arrange general Palestinian
national
elections."
Is the position expressed by the
Shtayyeh government
which resigned and by the PA Foreign Minister which denies
the
nature of the beast supposed to be a "realistic," "pragmatic,"
"doable"
position? When, one might ask, did Israel or the U.S. ever
recognize
the right to be of the Palestinian people or their right of
return?
Israel puts forward the "extreme" of a military occupation of Gaza, the U.S. then appears "reasonable" by agreeing to governance by the PA over Gaza, and the resistance is deemed "unreasonable." The claim of being "realistic" appears to be what lies behind all kinds of proposals about what the Palestinian people and their resistance organizations should and should not do at this time. All sorts of manoeuvres to stall a ceasefire, not permit the free flow of humanitarian aid and demolish the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the Palestinian territories and neighbouring countries go beyond causing the starvation of the people and permitting the crimes of genocide Israel is committing with U.S., Canadian and other backing. These manoeuvres are for purposes of establishing a Palestinian state premised on the acceptance of the Israeli occupation, negotiating away the rights of the Palestinian people and stopping the resistance and worldwide support for it.
It will not pass! The U.S., Israel and their appeasers such as Canada will have to reckon with the crimes they are committing in the name of democracy and human rights, and the imperialist conceptions of the "responsibility to protect" and a "rules-based international order," which are nothing if not impunity and authoritarianism.
All Out for the National March in Ottawa on March 9. We call for a Ceasefire Now! We call for the occupation to be ended and no foreign interference in internal Palestinian affairs.
This article was published in
Volume 54
Number 16 - March 5, 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS54161.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca