THE FUTURE OF A CAUSE: "The future of the Palestinian cause is at stake, not just the future of the Gaza Strip," maintains Palestinian commentator Hani al-Masri on Tuesday's Qatari-owned, London-based, pan-Arab news portal www.alaraby.co.uk
What is being proposed is a renewed attempt to liquidate the Palestinian cause in all its dimensions, as seen in the genocidal war, displacement, apartheid, and collective punishment in Gaza, and the efforts to eliminate the resistance, disarm it, deport its leadership, or at the very least, remove it from power and significantly weaken it.
Similarly, in the West Bank, apartheid, annexation, displacement, land confiscation, and settlement expansion schemes are unfolding, along with attempts to alter the status of al-Aqsa Mosque in preparation for its demolition when the time is ripe. Efforts are also being made to dissolve the PA, or to subjugate it further and further, stripping it of its political role and replacing it with local authorities in both the West Bank and Gaza, or to 'rehabilitate' it in a way that erodes its national representative status and any capacity to evolve into a Palestinian state. At the same time, plans are being executed to liquidate the refugee cause by calling for the dissolution of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the destruction of refugee camps, and the displacement of their inhabitants in the West Bank and Gaza. This is because the camps symbolize the right of return and Palestinian national identity, while also serving as strongholds for national resistance.
Moreover, efforts continue to erase the Palestinian identity of the indigenous population within Israel by further marginalizing them through the enactment of racist laws and policies, fragmenting and dividing Palestinian communities by fostering violence, crime, prostitution, and drug abuse, and encouraging emigration to prevent any collective organization or role that could enable them to reclaim their individual and national rights and embody their national identity.
Efforts also persist to complete the Abraham Accords through the normalization of Saudi/Israeli relations, with the hope that the rest of the Arab and Muslim countries that have yet to normalize ties with Israel will follow suit. This would complete the transformation of the Middle East and position Israel as the region's dominant power, thereby allowing the U.S. to withdraw and focus on competing with China and other rising powers, particularly in the economic sphere, in fulfillment of Trump's 'America First' philosophy, a key pillar of his political doctrine.
Under the current (religious and political) right-wing and far-right Israeli government, which enjoys full backing from the Trump administration, Israeli policy is currently centered on decisively resolving the conflict by determining the fate of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It is no longer accurate (at least after Operation al-Aqsa Flood) to claim that Israeli aggression is solely focused on the West Bank. Gaza has also been incorporated into the plans proposed for execution, as evidenced by the renewed discussion of reoccupying, resettling, and maintaining security control over the Strip and the displacement proposals put forward by Netanyahu's government. This is the objective of utmost importance behind the genocidal war, and it has gained significant traction since Trump has broached the notion of displacing Gaza's residents and creating a Middle East Riviera.
In this context, ensuring the steadfastness and survival of the Palestinian people on their land is of paramount importance. Indeed, it is the central priority to which everything else, including resistance, should be subordinated, because steadfastness, keeping the cause alive, thwarting displacement and annexation schemes, preserving national identity and unity are the highest, most important, and most effective forms of resistance. Achieving this may require a long-term truce and a focus on forms of political, legal, media, and peaceful popular resistance and boycott, including efforts to isolate Israel, hold it accountable, impose sanctions on it, and advocate for its expulsion from the UN or at least the suspension of its membership. There should also be a push to reinstate the UN resolution that once recognized Zionism as the highest form of racism, which was passed in 1975 but later revoked with Arab approval in pursuit of the illusion of peace on the eve of the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference under the guise of creating favorable conditions for the peace process.
Thwarting U.S. and Israeli schemes is entirely possible, provided that the following requirements are met:
First: Formulating a new Palestinian vision that draws lessons and insight from past experiences and the policies that have brought us to the dire straits we are facing today. This vision should give rise to new strategies and a new leadership that understands the importance of unity as an imperative for the victory of any national liberation movement. The struggle is one in the West Bank, Gaza, the Israeli interior, and all Palestinian communities, and it requires a unified political banner that asserts it as a struggle for national liberation and the right of self-determination for the entire Palestinian people, rather than merely a humanitarian issue. The ongoing negotiations since Operation al-Aqsa Flood have been limited to humanitarian concerns, such as allowing a sack of flour here or removing a checkpoint there, whereas they should focus on (and revolve around) ending the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and achieving full independence for the State of Palestine, which is recognized by 150 countries. This must be the central objective at this stage, in conjunction with preserving natural, historical, legal, and political rights. If complete unity is not immediately achievable for various reasons beyond the scope of this article, it is still possible to advance forms of on-the-ground unity and expand existing ones, as well as coordinate struggles, efforts, and actions to thwart the hostile schemes that target everyone – the cause, people, land, and various forces – without differentiating between one Palestinian and another, between moderate and extremist, just as they target the unified representation embodied by the PLO, Hamas' ruling establishment, Mahmoud Abbas' PA. For any new coordination and consensus-building efforts to have an impact, they must be implemented regardless of the severity of disputes. They must also define clear objectives, address common threats, and agree on a single authority, a unified armed force, and a unified decision-making process regarding politics and warfare. This must be based on a program of national struggle with national consensus serving as the benchmark for decision-making until elections can be held at all levels and in all sectors, within a fixed timeline when conditions allow.
Second: Efforts must be made to ensure the Arab summit adopts a stance that reflects the minimum level of defense of Arab rights, goals, and interests, even if it may be highly unrealistic to expect the summit to rise to the occasion of this historic moment given its failure to stop the genocidal war throughout its duration or even impose heavy costs on Israel and its partners. The summit may not directly confront the U.S. and the raging bull that is Trump in the necessary way, but at the very least, it should refuse to surrender. Capitulating would aid in liquidating the Palestinian cause, erasing what remains of Arab rights, interests, and security, and eliminating any chance for the revival of an Arab project. At a bare minimum, the summit should take a stance of dissent – not outright confrontation, but also not submission – by linking the cessation of the genocidal war, Israel's complete withdrawal from Gaza, and the need to ensure full compliance with all stages and provisions of the ceasefire deal regarding reconstruction, supporting the formation of a national unity government, a commitment to launching a political process that begins with recognizing a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital, and a focus on ending the occupation rather than merely discussing a political pathway to a Palestinian state. Furthermore, the summit must reject normalization, especially without a full Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Palestinian, Lebanese, and Syrian territories. Anything short of this – such as focusing solely on changing the Palestinians, forcibly or voluntarily displacing them, disarming the resistance, exiling its leadership, rehabilitating the PA, or creating new governance models in Gaza that deepen and fuel divisions – would constitute capitulation in an attempt at appeasement that will likely not be accepted by the rulers in Washington and Tel Aviv. They would only be emboldened to demand even more Arab concessions, leading to full surrender.
Third: A broad Palestinian, Arab, Muslim , and humanitarian front must be established across the globe to save the world from the dangers posed by the U.S. and Israeli far-right, based not only on the recognition of the threats of U.S./Israeli colonial policies toward Palestinians but also on the recognition that these policies harm even the U.S.' own allies, tarnish its global image, and mar its history and future, in addition to threatening security, stability, peace, freedom, justice, equality, and democracy worldwide.
The Palestinian cause is a struggle for national liberation, and it is a just and morally superior cause and a humanitarian struggle for freedom. As such, it is capable of uniting individuals, communities, forces, and nations across the globe. It can become an axis for all forces advocating for liberation, progress, justice, democracy, and equality.
"In the wake of the moral and political decline of the U.S. and Israel, this cause will have the potential to change the world," concludes Masri.
End….
