[News] The PA doesn’t represent me; why should I trust its statehood bid?

[Anti-Imperialist News]

The PA doesn't represent me; why should I trust its statehood bid?

<http://electronicintifada.net/people/sameeha-elwan>Sameeha Elwan

http://electronicintifada.net/content/pa-doesnt-represent-me-why-should-i-trust-its-statehood-bid/10359

8 September 2011

Here comes September. The long-awaited month has finally arrived and 
brought with it controversy over the ramifications of the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/palestinian-authority>Palestinian 
Authority's proposal for 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/international-recognition-palestinian-state>statehood 
at the United Nations.

The following is just a simple attempt from an average Palestinian to 
reason the justifications behind the PA's unreasonable step.

To claim that an average Palestinian would take the time to think 
through the political and legal implications of such a move would be 
misleading. An average Palestinian might in fact be the least 
interested in whether a state would be declared in September. Yet he 
or she will be the one will be the one whose life will be most 
profoundly impacted by any hasty act of folly by the PA. This has 
been demonstrated by a long history of disappointing actions by the PA.

This is not to dismiss Palestinian public political awareness. 
Palestinians are the ones who live with the consequences of any step 
or measure suggested or implemented by the PA. Therefore, they would 
definitely have more pressing priorities than to think of the 
consequences. They would instead be preoccupied with the struggle to 
survive the consequences of yet another foolish action by their wise 
government.

I will not claim to be objective. I oppose the PA's statehood 
initiative. But despite the debate over the UN bid and despite the 
PA's embarrassing record, it dawned on me that maybe this time I was 
being unjust to the PA, and maybe there's a shadow of a chance that 
the PA would do something in the interest of the Palestinians. After 
all, how unjust and foolish could they be?

I am a refugee. Who will represent me?

Among the debates among the public about whether this bid would 
endanger the Palestinians was the discussion over representation. Who 
would represent the Palestinians? And who exactly would this state represent?

Less than half the Palestinian population live in the occupied Gaza 
Strip and the West Bank, the territories to be declared as the 
Palestinian state. What will happen to the other millions who live 
outside this terrotiory?

If the <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/plo>Palestine Liberation 
Organization, the sole legitimate representative of Palestinians both 
in historic Palestine and in the diaspora, would be replaced with the 
Palestinian state contained within the borders of 1967, then what is 
the destiny of millions of Palestinian refugees living outside those 
borders? Would they be also part of the State of Palestine? Would 
this declaration affect their inalienable right of return?

The PLO has been representing the Palestinian people, internationally 
and within the United Nations since 1965, acting in the name of all 
Palestinians, whether in Palestine or displaced. The PLO is already 
recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian 
people at the UN. Why is there a need to replace the PLO with another 
authority which is not representative of more than half the 
Palestinian population?

Half of Palestinians "disenfranchised"

According to a recent analysis by 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/guy-goodwin-gill>Guy 
Goodwin-Gill, professor of law at Oxford University, the Palestinian 
refugees "constitute more than half of the people of Palestine and if 
they are 'disenfranchised' and lose their representation in the UN, 
it will not only prejudice their entitlement to equal representation, 
contrary to the will of the General Assembly, but also their ability 
to vocalize their views, to participate in matters of national 
governance, including the formation and political identity of the 
state, and to exercise the right of return."

Let's assume that the statehood bid would not lead to such a deadlock 
as Francis Boyle, a former legal advisor to the PLO, predicted in his 
response to Goodwin's memorandum.

What would be the destiny of the refugees of 1948 living within the 
borders of the coming Palestinian state, particularly in the more 
than twenty refugee camps in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank?

Going back home would not be a legitimate option considering that 
what lies beyond the 1967 boundary line would be recognized as a 
sovereign Jewish state upon which they have no claims of land or 
ownership. A return to their homes within the Jewish state would be 
impossible. Their right of return would consequently be dropped.

For those refugees, would the September state offer any compensation? 
Would it grant them full citizenship? The result of the quest for a 
new state could be that their "temporary" camps turn into 
neighborhoods of a new state. They would also have to endure 
worsening poverty after the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/unrwa>UN agency for Palestine 
refugees (UNRWA) reduces or even cuts off the aid upon which 
thousands of refugee families survive.

Who will represent me? I did not vote for the PA

For almost two decades, the PA has been assuming that it represents 
the Palestinian people based on the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/oslo-accords>Oslo accords.

The PA, however, falls short on the questions of genuine democratic 
representation.

The last democratic elections for the PA took place more than five 
years ago. The refusal by the US and Europe to respect the results of 
that election has led to the severe fragmentation of both Gaza and 
the West Bank, leaving Palestinians with two governments, neither of 
which is representative of the total interests and will of the 
Palestinian people. It is no wonder that young Palestinians, unable 
to practice their fundamental democratic right to vote, and all too 
aware of the follies of the PA, are shouting very fiercely against 
the PA or even calling for its dissolution.

This of course delegitimizes any further step the PA takes on behalf 
of the Palestinian people, for it is not the real representative of 
the Palestinian people living in Gaza and the West Bank, let alone 
the already disenfranchised population of Palestinians outside those 
territories.

The prospective consequences of the statehood bid are not promising 
but instead rather risky. Palestinians, of course, are not to blame 
for distrusting their fragmented leadership after a series of 
shocking revelations about how the Palestinian cause is being dealt 
with in negotiation rooms and how much this leadership is ready to 
offer or concede.

The fact that the new state is offering no reform of the Palestinian 
leadership tells how unpromising such a move is. One cannot but 
imagine the forthcoming state as offering nothing more to the 
Palestinians than further fragmentation. A state that offers no 
relief from the current situation on the ground, that is led by the 
same leadership, that fails to uphold the rights of the Palestinians, 
sounds like the very definition of insanity.

Sameeha Elwan is a 23-year-old Palestinian blogger and an English 
literature graduate from the Islamic University of Gaza. She will be 
pursuing my MA in Cultural and Post-colonial studies at Durham 
University in October and blogs at 
<http://sameeha88.wordpress.com/>www.sameeha88.wordpress.com and 
tweets from <https://twitter.com/#%21/Sameeha88>Sameeha88.




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