Palestinians must start civil disobedience

I certainly do not envy Palestinian National Authority (PNA) President Mahmoud Abbas for the position he currently finds himself in. The latest problem that confronts the president is the new Naqba (catastrophe) that has fallen upon us in Gaza. With Israel's unrelenting aggression on Gaza, Abbas finds himself in the most unenviable position as the president discharging the affairs of the PNA, especially as he endeavours to find a peaceful solution to the Palestinian problem.

The current schism in the Arab and Islamic worlds further compounds Abbas's predicament. Besides what are the options that are left with a Palestinian leader who is up against a powerful Zionist state and its even more powerful international backers? For that matter what option does any Arab leader have against such a despondent reality?

President Abbas had always pondered potentially viable alternatives in dealing with an intransigent Israeli polity. Foremost among them is his renowned, but rather controversial, "peaceful negotiations as the sole approach" to ending the Israeli occupation and bringing about an early birth of a Palestinian state.

Abbas adamantly adhered to protracted, but futile, negotiations as a means of achieving a peaceful solution to the Palestine problem. Now with a new US administration advocating "change" as one of its patented slogans, the Palestinians are seeking a "change" to the protracted pattern of "negotiations".

Had I been in Abbas's shoes, I would have served the Israeli negotiators with an ultimatum to start negotiating in good faith and that they have got only six months to engage in serious negotiations and on the basis of the "Arab Initiative" framework.

Otherwise, Abbas should resign his post as the President of the PNA and dissolve the organisation, bringing the situation back to what it had been before the Oslo Accords.

Israel, as the foreign occupier, will then have to assume direct charge of administering the Occupied Territories, much as before the signing of the accords that relieved Israel from the burden and onus of a very taxing administrative task.

For, when Israel does not stop its old/new policies as an occupier state and refuses to reach an "acceptable settlement," Abbas will have the right, then, to be absolved of all the obligations that have crippled him and set himself free from the accusations that have compromised his position as the representative of the Palestinian people.

Indeed, the continuing Israeli policies of expropriation of Palestinian land; the building and expansion of Jewish colonies, dismembering the West Bank into three Bantustans and carrying on with the killing and arresting of Palestinians, have challenged and seriously undermined the moderate political leadership of Abbas.

Abbas, to alleviate the pressures that come with the unenviable position he finds himself in as the President of the PNA, can still remain in office, and resort to an effective, non-violent method to achieve the national goals by rallying the Palestinian and Arab public behind him in calling for a general civil disobedience in all the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Following on this path, and consequent to Abbas' several initiatives for dialogue with Hamas, he would reach out to the Chairman of Hamas' politburo (Khalid Mesha'al) and invite him to join his call, in unison, to declare general civil disobedience.

Abbas, as the elected leader of all Palestinians should then seriously consider travelling to Gaza, in a symbolic gesture of both goodwill and as affirmation of Palestinian unity.

With such an initiative, Abbas will re-legitimise his position as the president and the leader of all the Palestinian people. This action, in case Abbas does not resort to dissolving the PNA, will pave the way to forming a "national unity government" that would bring the Palestinians out of the long dark tunnel that they have found themselves in for the past three years.

Understandably, things have so much deteriorated that the Palestinian people considering peaceful resolution of the Palestinian problem are left with one of three valid immediate choices: 1) a national unity government; 2) dismantling of the PNA, or, 3) a third uprising, Intifada, through the declaration of a general peaceful civil disobedience.

This Intifada, however, could not start except after the achievement of national reconciliation that will strengthen the stand of the Palestinian people in the face of Israeli aggression. In this case, it is imperative that the Ramallah government, together with the police and security forces in the West Bank, engage peacefully in the general non-violent civil disobedience.

The Palestinian Security forces of the Ramallah government should not be deployed as instruments of oppression conforming to the "orders and wishes" of the US and Israel, neither should Palestinians engaged in the civil disobedience movement (including Hamas and its forces) resort to the carrying or use of arms in any way. It should be a civilised peaceful uprising, albeit thorough and massive.

The time is now ripe for the launching of a serious all-out resistance that would bring an end to the Israeli occupation and bring to realisation the independent sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

As'ad Abdul Rahman is the chairman of the Palestinian encyclopedia