[News] Our Shame is Complete - Abbas and the Goldstone Report

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/baroud10152009.html

October 15, 2009


Our Shame is Complete


Abbas and the Goldstone Report

By Ramzy Baroud

As Israeli bombs fell on the Gaza Strip during 
its one-sided war between December 27, 2008 and 
January 18, 2009, millions around the world took 
to the streets in complete and uncompromising 
outrage. The level of barbarity in that war, 
especially as it was conducted against a poor, 
defenseless and physically trapped nation, united 
people of every color, race and religion. But 
among those who seemed utterly unmoved, 
unreservedly cold were some Palestinian officials in the West Bank.

Mahmoud Habbash, the PA Minister of Social 
Affairs is but one of those individuals. His 
appearances on Aljazeera, during those fateful 
days were many. On one half of the screen would 
be screaming, disfigured children, mutilated 
women, and search parties digging in the dark for 
dead bodies, at times entire families. On the 
other, was Habbash, spewing political insults at 
his Hamas rivals in Gaza, repeating the same 
message so tirelessly parroted by his Israeli 
colleagues. Every time his face appeared on the 
screen, I cringed. Every unruly shriek of his, 
reinforced my sense of shame. Shame, perhaps, but 
never confusion. Those who understand how the 
Oslo agreement of September 1993 morphed into a 
culture that destroyed the very fabric of 
Palestinian society can fully appreciate the 
behavior of the Palestinian Authority in the West 
Bank during the Gaza war, before it and today.

But especially today.

Those who hoped that the Israeli atrocities in 
Gaza would rekindled a sense of remorse among the 
egotistical elites in Ramallah, were surely 
disappointed when the PA withdrew its draft 
resolution supporting recommendations made by 
South African Judge Richard Goldstone. The 
Goldstone report is the most comprehensive, and 
transparent investigation as of yet into what 
happened in Gaza during the 23-day war. It 
decried Israeli terror, and chastised 
Palestinians as well. But the focus on Israel 
undoubtedly and deservingly occupied much of the 
nearly 600-page report. The next step was for the 
Human Rights Council to send the report for 
consideration to the United Nations Security 
Council, which was to study the findings for a 
possible referral of the case to the 
International Criminal Court e in the Hague. Such 
a move would have been historic. Knowing the full 
implications of such a possibility, Hamas 
accepted the report’s recommendations in full. 
Israel, backed by its traditional US ally, 
rejected it, leveling all sorts of accusations 
and insults on the world-renowned Jewish judge.

The draft resolution – condemning Israel and 
calling for the transfer of the report to the 
UNSC - was due for a vote at the Council on 
October 2. Alas, it was withdrawn at the behest 
of the Palestinian Authority and its president 
Mahmoud Abbas himself. Palestinian friends and 
allies at UNHRC were shocked, but obliged. They 
were equally disappointed when they watched PA 
envoys discussing the matter, not with the Asian, 
African or other traditional allies at the 
Council, but with US and European diplomats, who 
seemed to have a greater sway over Palestinian 
political action than those who have for decades 
supported Palestinian rights at every turn.

Something went horribly wrong. How could a leader 
of an occupied and suffering nation commit such a 
‘mistake’, deferring an urgent vote and 
discussion on a report pertaining to the death of 
over 1,400 people, the maiming and wounding of 
thousands more, to a later date, six months from today?

Theories flared. Israeli and other media argued 
that US pressure on PA president Mahmoud Abbas 
was the main reason behind the supposedly 
unanticipated move. A positive vote on the 
resolution would jeopardize the ‘peace process’, 
therefore any action must be stifled for the sake 
of giving the ‘peace process’ a chance, was the rationale.

Amira Hass of Haaretz opined, “The chronic 
submissiveness is always explained by a desire to 
‘make progress.’ But for the PLO and Fatah, 
progress is the very continued existence of the 
Palestinian Authority, which is now functioning 
more than ever before as a subcontractor for the 
IDF, the Shin Bet security service and the Civil Administration.”

Jonathan Cook, however, offered another view: 
“Israel warned it would renege on a commitment to 
allot radio frequencies to allow Wataniya, a 
mobile phone provider, to begin operations this 
month in the West Bank. The telecommunications 
industry is the bedrock of the Palestinian 
economy, with the current monopoly company, 
PalTel, accounting for half the worth of the Palestinian stock exchange.”

“No blood for mobile phones,” should perhaps be 
the new chant in Palestine. But it’s that sad 
fact that held the Palestinian will hostage for 
too many years. However, it’s not just mobile 
companies whose interests triumph over Gaza’s 
agony. Indeed, the post-Oslo culture has espoused 
a class of contractors. These are businessmen who 
are either high-ranking officials in the PA and 
the Fatah party, or both, or closely affiliated 
with them. Much of the billions of dollars of 
international aid that poured into Palestine 
following the signing of Oslo found its way into 
private bank accounts. Wealth generated more 
wealth and “export and import” companies sprung 
up like poison ivy amidst the poor dwelling of 
refugees throughout the occupied territories. The 
class of businessmen, still posing as 
revolutionaries, encroached over every aspect of 
Palestinian society, used it, controlled it, and 
eventually suffocated it. It espoused untold 
corruption, and, naturally, found an ally in 
Israel, whose reign in the occupied territories never ceased.

The PA became submissive not out of fear of 
Israeli wrath per se, but out of fear that such 
wrath would disrupt business, the flow of aid 
thus contracts. And since corruption is not 
confined by geographical borders, PA officials 
abroad took Palestinian shame to international 
levels. Millions marched in the US, in Europe, in 
Asia, South America and the rest of the world, 
chanting for Gaza and its victims, while some PA 
ambassadors failed to even turn out to 
participate. When some of these diplomats made it 
to public forums, it was for the very purpose of 
brazenly attacking fellow Palestinians in Hamas, 
not to garner international solidarity with their own people.

Readily blaming ‘American pressure’ to explain 
Abbas’ decision at the UNHRC no longer suffices. 
Even the call on the 74-year-old Palestinian 
leader to quit is equally hollow. Abbas 
represents a culture, and that culture is 
self-seeking, self-serving and utterly corrupt. 
If Abbas exits, and considering his age, he soon 
will, Mohammed Dahlan could be the next leader, 
or even Mahmoud Habbash, who called on Gaza to 
rebel against Hamas as Israel was blowing up 
Palestinian homes and schools left and right.

Palestinians who are now calling for change 
following the UN episode, must consider the Oslo 
culture in its entirety, its ‘revolutionary’ 
millionaires, its elites and contractors. A 
practical alternative to those corrupt must be 
quickly devised. The Israeli wall is encroaching 
on Palestinian towns and villages in the West 
Bank, and a new war might be awaiting besieged 
Gaza. Time is running out, and our collective shame is nearly complete.

Ramzy Baroud is an author and editor of 
<http://www.PalestineChronicle.com>PalestineChronicle.com. 
His work has been published in many newspapers 
and journals worldwide. His latest book is 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0745325475/counterpunchmaga>The 
Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a 
People's Struggle (Pluto Press, London).




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