Opinion | Columnists
Third Mideast front need of hour
The present Palestinian crisis is a historical chance for this front - the backbone of which needs to be secular and left-oriented - to correct the direction of the Palestinian nation's compass
- By As'ad Abdul Rahman, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 23:42 September 19, 2008
- Image Credit: Illustration: Guillermo Munro/Gulf News
Since 1964 when the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) was established and the year 1965 when the popular Palestinian revolution broke out, the leadership has been keen on building the Palestinian national identity.
This identity was seen as the 'political cement' that would reunite the Palestinian societies/ society which had been nearly pulverised by both Israel and the developments in the Arab-Zionist struggle.
This is not to deny other factors that have caused this state of pulverisation; the most prominent of which have been the geographic, ethnic, religious loyalties and class cleavages.
Although the various Palestinian political and armed factions have played a positive role in unifying the Palestinian societies, this unification, in general, has been political only. For they have also played the opposite role of heightening the allegiance of their members and supporters to the faction they belong to, rather than the common Palestinian cause.
Besides, each faction has suffered from internal schisms as a result of external interference (Arab states), other competing Palestinian factions, as well as the absence of democracy within the concerned faction.
Having said that, one cannot hold the Palestinian National Authority and its ministries solely responsible for all the sins committed against democracy and against the proper development of a Palestinian civic society. For these drawbacks are already there in the society, either apparent or hidden.
Consciously or otherwise, both the radical nationalist factions and the militant religious movements, have played (through their rigid organisations and militant political stances) an obvious role in thwarting the civilian drive towards democracy. These 'radicals' have always scoffed at activities in favour of liberal democracy and disparaged them as promoting imperialist ideas!
Their totalitarian ideologies were behind waging war against whatever is liberal, democratic, none-governmental, etc. So many times we have heard religious voices considering democracy as the 'imperialists' religion' while parliaments were labelled as the western institutions of atheism rather than secularism!
The Leftist parties have also lost their compass. Overtaken by the totalitarian logic, it turned a mere theoriser for the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe), consequently becoming a mere decoration with a tinge of left-wing colours for the national cause.
That is why it was not surprising in January of 2006 that the Palestinian people punished the left-wing candidates to the extent that they could not harvest more than 100,000 votes, representing about one-fifth of the votes won by either Fatah or by Hamas alone. There is no doubt that the various Palestinian organisations and parties have grown weaker and weaker as a result of the Israeli persecution.
National goals
Together with this, the societal built-in drawbacks mentioned above, enforced within the various Palestinian factions, the narrow-minded solidarity is based on familial or geographical relations.
As a natural result of the Fatah-Hamas mutual altercation in which each held the other party responsible for the Palestinian misery, a 'Third Current' (politician organisation or front) has a real chance to be born. Thus, a new chance for an initiative for reorganising the struggle and bringing an end to the policy of allotment that has ruined the Palestinian national project.
This front (especially after the political downfall that has culminated in the separation of the Gaza Strip from the rest of Palestine) has become a vital necessity to reconfirm and activate the 'Document on National Reconciliation' to bear the task of achieving minimal national Palestinian goals.
Public opinion surveys in the occupied territories have shown a silent majority forming about 40% of the population who neither takes part in the elections nor supports any of the two main Palestinian factions/ movements.
A good part of this majority is so frustrated that it has grown apathetic to public interests, caring only for its private life and strongly believing that what is taking place at the political scene is but absurd. These people, together with thousands of Palestinians disgusted with the Fatah-Hamas fight, can be easily attracted to the third front if convinced that it is a suitable alternative.
Indeed, it is important for this front to specify a flexible political programme to tackle the major Palestinian issues and build on them without going back to square one. This kind of front is actually a strategic necessity for Palestine. It should represent the interests of people; not those of certain political groups and factions.
Needless to say that any new front should be ideologically different from the present two poles (Fatah and Hamas). It must adopt modernising views along the same path as that of the New Left in Latin America. It may not gain popularity unless it is open to all Palestinian groups, with a right understanding of international developments.
It is a front that faithfully declares that the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people's fate are not the property of any person or any political party. It should follow a democratic, social and national path that shuns chaos and political elimination and stands immune against impetuousness and adventurous decisions.
Verily, the present crisis is a historical chance for this front (the backbone of which needs to be secular and left-oriented) to correct the direction of the Palestinian nation's compass. Here, one must not forget the sin committed by the old Palestinian left-wing forces when it so often went out of breath trying to fit facts into 'ready theories' imported from international communist parties and blindly adopted; or, according to the Chinese saying, "trimming the foot to fit the shoe".
Professor As'ad Abdul Rahman is the Chairman of the Palestinian Encyclopedia.
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