<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<div class="moz-text-html" lang="x-western">
<div
style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; color: black; text-align: left;"><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/12/2012122165114321474.html">http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/12/2012122165114321474.html</a></small></small></small></div>
<a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/12/2012122165114321474.html"></a>
<div
style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; color: black; text-align: left;"><br
class="webkit-block-placeholder">
</div>
<div apple-content-edited="true"><small><small><small><small><small><span
class="Apple-style-span"
style="orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; widows: 2;">
<div style="word-wrap: break-word;">
<div>
<div
style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: 24px;"><b
style="font-size: 24px;">Mahmoud Abbas' real "accomplishment" was not
the UN vote on Palestine</b></div>
</div>
</div>
</span></small></small></small></small></small><br
class="Apple-interchange-newline" style="font-size: 24px;">
</div>
<table
style="font-family: Arial; position: static; font-size: 19px; z-index: auto;"
border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr id="articleMedia">
<td>
<div id="mediaContainer">
<div id="ctl00_cphBody_ArticleMedia1_mediaView"><br>
<div class="articleMediaCaption">Early last month, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas seemingly renounced any claim to a right of
return [AP]</div>
</div>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="DetailedSummary" id="tdTextContent"
style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none;">
<p><br>
A
day after the UN voted to admit "Palestine" as a non-member state, US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly praised the Palestinian
Authority (PA) led by Mahmoud Abbas for its collaboration with the
Israeli occupation army.</p>
<p>Speaking at a Zionist think tank in
Washington on Friday, Clinton defended the PA from criticism by Israeli
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. According to <em>Ha'aretz</em> <a
class="internallink"
href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/clinton-calls-on-israel-to-embrace-moderate-palestinians-negotiations.premium-1.481733"
target="_blank"
style="color: rgb(16, 54, 125); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px;">Clinton
said</a>,
"With very little money, and no natural resources, they [the PA] have
accomplished quite a bit, building a security force that works every
single day with the IDF (Israel Defence Forces). They have
entrepreneurial successes. They are nationalistic - but largely
secular. Israel should support them."</p>
<p>This is the same "IDF" that just a few days ago was <a
class="internallink"
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/11/2012111965527583514.html"
target="_blank"
style="color: rgb(16, 54, 125); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px;">massacring
entire Palestinian families</a> in Gaza and <a class="internallink"
href="http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/11/assault-provokes-support-for-hamas-in-west-bank/"
target="_blank"
style="color: rgb(16, 54, 125); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px;">shooting
dead</a> West Bank Palestinians who dared to protest those crimes.</p>
<p>And during and after its latest attack on Gaza, the same
Israeli army embarked on a rampage of arrests in the West Bank, <a
class="internallink"
href="http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=537" target="_blank"
style="color: rgb(16, 54, 125); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px;">detaining
hundreds of people</a> for
expressing their views. In light of Clinton's comments, it is
legitimate to ask how much the PA participated in these acts of rage
and vengeance by Israel for its failure in Gaza.</p>
<p>Clinton could
have added that daily collaboration with the occupation was not the
only notable "accomplishment" of the Abbas-led US-backed PA. For years,
the PA has been equipped and trained <a class="internallink"
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/palestinepapers/2011/01/2011125145732219555.html"
target="_blank"
style="color: rgb(16, 54, 125); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px;">under
US supervision</a> to act as an auxiliary for Israeli occupation forces
to suppress any and all forms of Palestinian resistance, <a
class="internallink"
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/ei-blogger-who-witnessed-palestinian-authority-police-beating-protestor-forced"
target="_blank"
style="color: rgb(16, 54, 125); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px;">to
beat and suppress Palestinians expressing their views</a> and to <a
class="internallink"
href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinian-forces-increasingly-join-israel-repression-journalists/11949"
target="_blank"
style="color: rgb(16, 54, 125); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px;">arrest
and harrass journalists</a> who dare to criticise it. </p>
<p>This
is exactly the kind of repressive client regime the United States has
always supported in Arab countries, and why Clinton commended the PA to
her Israeli partner.</p>
<p><strong>A shameful record</strong></p>
<p>The
Abbas PA's record of collaboration with Israel, against the interests
of the Palestinian people is long, shameful and well documented. It
includes <a class="internallink"
href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/palestine-papers-and-gaza-coup/9200"
target="_blank"
style="color: rgb(16, 54, 125); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px;">plotting
secretly with Israel</a>, the US and the former Mubarak regime in Egypt
to overthrow the elected Hamas-led Palestinian Authority after 2006, <a
class="internallink"
href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/abbas-helps-israel-bury-its-crimes-gaza/8472"
target="_blank"
style="color: rgb(16, 54, 125); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px;">colluding
with Israel to bury the Goldstone report</a> into Israel's war crimes
in Gaza in 2008-2009, <a class="internallink"
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/palestinepapers/2011/01/2011126132936232554.html"
target="_blank"
style="color: rgb(16, 54, 125); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px;">begging
Israel not to release Palestinian prisoners</a> so as not to give
credit to Hamas, and more recently <a class="internallink"
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/11/2012113141235546948.html"
target="_blank"
style="color: rgb(16, 54, 125); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px;">Abbas'
public renunciation of the Palestinian right of return</a>, a
reflection of his longstanding position in negotiations.</p>
<p>These harsh realities should bring into focus the misguided
celebrations over the UN vote, which <a class="internallink"
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKwgZqAAz18&feature=youtu.be"
target="_blank"
style="color: rgb(16, 54, 125); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px;">as
I explained on Al Jazeera</a> is at best no more significant than
winning an international football match, and at worst, as <a
class="internallink"
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/profile/joseph-massad.html"
target="_blank"
style="color: rgb(16, 54, 125); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px;">Joseph
Massad</a> argued in <em>The Guardian</em>, <a class="internallink"
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/30/un-vote-palestine-legitimises-racist-status-quo"
target="_blank"
style="color: rgb(16, 54, 125); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px;">ratifies
a racist status quo</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Bait and switch</strong></p>
<p>Quite
a few people nonetheless tried to market the UN vote as a great
victory, answering scepticism about it by saying it would give
Palestinians access to the International Criminal Court (ICC), to hold
Israeli war criminals accountable. Can anyone seriously believe that
the Abbas-led PA that has done all this, and which Clinton praises for
its close collaboration with the the occupation army, will do anything
to bring Israeli war criminals to justice?</p>
<p>Already, the
bait-and-switch has happened. Just a day after the UN vote, Abbas
poured cold water on any such hope. "We now have the right to appeal
the ICC, but we are not going to do it now and will not do it except in
the case of Israeli aggression," <a class="internallink"
href="http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=294144"
target="_blank"
style="color: rgb(16, 54, 125); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px;">Abbas
told reporters</a>.
While Palestinians in Gaza still mourn, and those in the West Bank
struggle to retain their land as Israel and its settlers steal it, the
ostensible Palestinian leader sees no Israeli "aggression".</p>
<p><strong>A hollow strategy</strong></p>
<p>The emptiness of the UN vote could not have been more clearly
illustrated than by what has happened - or not happened - since.</p>
<p>On
Thursday, the UN General Assembly voted to admit "Palestine" as a
non-member state. On Friday, Israel announced its intention to build
thousands more settler housing units on the territory of this supposed
state. What now will be the international response in the wake of the
UN vote?</p>
<p>Other than ritual condemnations, will there be real,
specific action - including sanctions - by the 138 countries that voted
for "Palestine" to force Israel to halt, and begin to reverse its
illegal colonisation of the 1967 occupied territories? Sadly, that is
unlikely, an indication that the UN vote was nothing more than a hollow
gesture and a substitute for effective action to halt Israel's crimes.</p>
<p>It
is also a reminder that there is no "two-state solution". There is one
geopolitical entity in historic Palestine. Israel must not be allowed
to continue to entrench its apartheid, racist and colonial rule
throughout that land.</p>
<p>What ought to give us hope are not more
empty gestures at the UN, but the growing Palestinian-led grassroots
solidarity movement, pushing to hold Israel accountable. This movement
scored a significant milestone this week when international music
legend Stevie Wonder <a class="internallink"
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/stevie-wonder-cancels-concert-for-group-that-raises-funds-to-support-israeli-military/2012/11/30/2c6edfca-3b41-11e2-9258-ac7c78d5c680_story.html"
target="_blank"
style="color: rgb(16, 54, 125); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px;">pulled
out of a benefit gig for the Israeli army</a> after an activist
campaign.</p>
<p>Actions
like this by prominent cultural figures indicate that the
Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement,
modelled on the one that helped end apartheid in South Africa, is
gaining strength and legitimacy. It is a movement based not on trading
Palestinian rights for a West Bank mini-state under a dictatorial
US-backed regime, but on <a class="internallink"
href="http://www.bdsmovement.net/call" target="_blank"
style="color: rgb(16, 54, 125); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px;">restoring
the rights of all Palestinians</a> everywhere.</p>
<p><em><strong>Ali Abunimah is author of </strong></em><strong>One
Country, A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse</strong><em><strong>.
He is a co-founder of the online publication <a class="InternalLink"
href="http://electronicintifada.net/" target="_blank"
style="color: rgb(16, 54, 125); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px;">The
Electronic Intifada</a> and a policy adviser with <a
class="InternalLink" href="http://al-shabaka.org/" target="_blank"
style="color: rgb(16, 54, 125); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px;">Al-Shabaka</a>.</strong></em></p>
<p><em><strong>Follow on Twitter him at: <a class="InternalLink"
href="http://www.twitter.com/AliAbunimah" target="_blank"
style="color: rgb(16, 54, 125); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; font-size: 18px;">@AliAbunimah</a></strong></em></p>
<span id="ctl00_cphBody_lblCountBody"></span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div id="dvAuthorImage" class="AuthorProfileImageBox"
style="float: left; padding-right: 15px; font-size: 19px;"><br>
</div>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>