enshrined in all international covenants and supposedly guaranteed in the Israel-Jordan peace treaty.
Perhaps the one place with the greatest cause for hopelessness is the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian population feels abandoned by the world. Even Gaza’s southern Arab neighbour, Egypt, is denying Palestinians in Gaza the right of movement under the guise of its fight against violent extremists in the Sinai Peninsula. The flooding of the borders after the destruction of some 3,500 homes on the Egyptian side of Rafah has further frustrated Gazans, who are now left totally at the mercy of the Israeli occupiers.
The Israeli occupiers and Arab and Muslim countries aren’t the only ones to blame for the sense of hopelessness among Palestinians today. Palestinians need to own up to part of the responsibility for what has happened to the once-shining example of a liberation struggle.
Deeply divided at all levels (Gaza and West Bank, PLO and Hamas and within Fatah itself) Palestinians must realise that there is a lot that they can do to improve their plight. It is unacceptable that Palestinians are unable to meet and agree on a national strategy that can provide a badly needed ray of hope. The Palestinian cause is a just one that can easily garner worldwide support, but this requires Palestinians to be united with a clear and reasonable national goal and a feasible action plan.
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) is not going to succeed if Palestinians in the diaspora and in Palestine do not work together with the same spirit, goal and direction.
The zenith of the Palestinian national movement was when all Palestinians, both inside and outside the occupied territories, were united in purpose under the auspices of the PLO. The Palestinian parliament in exile provided a useful forum for all Palestinians to meet, plan and implement a strategy for liberation. Now the deep divisions have made the act of holding a regular session of the Palestinian National Council an impossible task.
A line from a famous poem by Mu’ayyad al-Din Al-Tughari goes something like this: “How limited life is without a window of hope.”
Palestinians today are in dire need of a window of hope that will make them believe in a better tomorrow.
Everyone interested in de-escalating the current level of violence in Palestine must think about how to provide this beam of hope rather than search for more repressive actions or further the disunity of a proud people yearning for freedom and liberation.
Courtesy: Aljazeera.com