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<span class="post_date" title="2015-09-04">September 4, 2015</span>
<h1 class="headline" itemprop="name"><a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/09/04/palestines-crisis-of-leadership-did-abbas-destroy-palestinian-democracy/"
rel="bookmark">Palestine’s Crisis of Leadership: Did Abbas
Destroy Palestinian Democracy?</a></h1>
<p class="post_meta"> <span class="post_author_intro">by</span> <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/author/ramzy-baroud/"
rel="nofollow">Ramzy Baroud</a></span> </p>
<b><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/09/04/palestines-crisis-of-leadership-did-abbas-destroy-palestinian-democracy/">http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/09/04/palestines-crisis-of-leadership-did-abbas-destroy-palestinian-democracy/</a></small></small></small></b>
<div class="post_content" itemprop="articleBody">
<p>The crisis of leadership throughout Palestinian history did not
start with Mahmoud Abbas and will, regrettably, be unlikely to
end with his departure. Although Abbas has, perhaps, done more
damage to the credibility of the Palestinian leadership than any
other leader in the past, he is also a by-product of a process
of political fraud that started much earlier than his expired
Presidency.</p>
<p>Abbas’ unforeseen announcement on August 27 that he, along with
a few others, will resign from the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) Executive Committee and his call for an
emergency session of the Palestine National Council (PNC) is a
testament to his poor management. More, it shows his utter
disregard for the minimally-required threshold of responsible
leadership.</p>
<p>Abbas, like his predecessor Yasser Arafat, has used and
discarded the PLO and its various, now near-defunct,
institutions as his personal political playground: summoning PNC
members to vote on pre-determined and decided agendas and to
cast and re-cast roles within the PLO’s Executive Committee as a
way to punish and reward.</p>
<p>Now, at the age of 80, Abbas is obviously concerned about his
legacy, the fate of the PLO and his Palestinian Authority (PA),
once he is gone. Whatever political maneuvering he has planned
for the future (including the selection of new Executive
Committee members, which will be overseen by him and by his
allies) is hardly encouraging. According to the Unity deal
signed between Abbas’ faction, Fatah and Hamas, the
restructuring of the PLO as a pre-requisite to include both
Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in one unifying and relatively
representative Palestinian body was a top priority.</p>
<p>Well, not anymore. Hamas is furious with Abbas’ call for
reconvening the PNC, a two-day session scheduled to be held in
Ramallah, West Bank next month. The Gaza-headquartered Movement
is calling on Palestinian factions not to participate. Either
way, further Palestinian disunity is assured.</p>
<p>Now that unity remains elusive, Hamas is seeking its own
alternatives to breaking the Gaza siege by conducting what is
being described as ‘indirect talks’ with Israel, via the
notorious former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair. The latter
has reportedly met Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal, on more than
one occasion. The discussions included a long-term ceasefire
between Hamas and Israel in exchange for the permission of a
safe sea passage where Palestinians in Gaza can enjoy a degree
of freedom, bypassing Israeli and Egyptian siege and
restrictions.</p>
<p>Needless to say, if the reports regarding Blair’s role in the
indirect negotiations and Hamas’ intentions are accurate, it
would indeed be a great folly. On the one hand, Blair’s
pro-Israel record disqualifies him from the role of any honest
mediation. On the other, Resistance or truce is not a political
decision to be determined by a single faction, no matter how
great its sacrifices or how trustworthy its intentions.</p>
<p>In addition, Abbas is in no position to criticize Hamas for its
talks with Blair. It is particularly disingenuous that Abbas and
his party are accusing Hamas of flouting Palestinian Unity and
consensus, while both – Abbas and Fatah – have contributed to
Palestine’s political afflictions more than any other leader or
faction in the past. In fact, while Gaza subsisted and suffered
terribly under a protracted Israeli siege and successive wars,
Abbas operated his PA outfit in Ramallah with the full consent
of the Israeli Government. The so-called ‘security
coordination’, chiefly aimed at crushing Palestinian Resistance
in the West Bank, continued unabated.</p>
<p>This is what Israeli political commentator, Raviv Drucker,
wrote in Haaretz in an article that reprimanded Israeli Prime
Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for failing to appreciate the
value of Abbas:</p>
<p>“Our greatest high-tech geniuses working in the most
sophisticated laboratories could not invent a more comfortable
Palestinian partner. A leader with no one to the left of him in
the Palestinian political arena and one who, when his enemy,
Israel, bombs his people in Gaza, comes out with a statement
criticizing those who kidnap Israeli soldiers.”</p>
<p>Abbas has shown little compassion for Gaza. Neither has he
demonstrated any respect for the Palestinian people nor has he
invested sincere efforts aimed at making Palestinian unity his
top priority. It is rather telling that he is activating the
PNC, summoning its nearly 700 members, not to discuss the
intensifying Palestinian crises – from Gaza to Jerusalem to
Yarmouk – but rather to concoct another cozy arrangement for him
and his cronies.</p>
<p>Yet, this crisis of leadership precedes Abbas.</p>
<p>The PNC’s first meeting was held in Jerusalem in 1964. Since
then and for years now, despite the Parliament’s many flaws, it
serves an important mission. It was a platform for Palestinian
political dialogue; and, over the years, it helped define
Palestinian national identity and priorities. But gradually,
starting with Arafat’s elections as the head of the PLO in
February 1969, the PNC ceased being a Parliament, and became,
more or less, a political rubber stamp that validated all
decisions made by Arafat’s PLO and, specifically, his Fatah
faction.</p>
<p>This has been highlighted repeatedly throughout history with
several prominent examples:</p>
<p>On November 12, 1988 the PNC convened in Algiers to approve of
a political strategy based on UN Resolutions 242 and 338, the
habitual US condition for engaging the PLO. At the end of
deliberation and, based on that approval, Arafat announced an
independent Palestinian State, to be established in the Occupied
Territories, with East Jerusalem as its capital.</p>
<p>Despite this, the US still argued that the PNC statement did
not qualify for an ‘unconditional’ acceptance of Resolution 242,
hence pressing Arafat for more concessions. Arafat flew to
Geneva and addressed the UN General Assembly on December 13,
1988, since the US refused to grant him an entry visa to speak
at the UN Headquarters in New York. He labored to be even more
specific.</p>
<p>However, the US maintained its position, compelling Arafat, on
the next day, to reiterate the same previous statements, this
time, explicitly renouncing “all forms of terrorism, including
individual, group or state terrorism.”</p>
<p>This was not the only time the PNC and its respected members
were dragged into the political gambles of Palestinian leaders.
In 1991, they voted in favor of direct negotiations in Madrid
between Palestinians and Israel, only to be hoodwinked by
Arafat, who negotiated a secret agreement in Oslo that paid
little heed to Palestinian consensus. PNC was once more summoned
to Gaza in 1996 to omit parts of the Palestinian Charter deemed
unacceptable by Netanyahu and the then US President, Bill
Clinton. As PNC members voted, Clinton, present at the meeting,
nodded in agreement.</p>
<p>But unlike Arafat’s misuse of democracy and manipulation of the
PNC – which is no longer representative or, with its current
factional makeup is, frankly, irrelevant – Abbas’ game is even
more dangerous.</p>
<p>Arafat used the Council to ratify or push his own agenda, which
he mistakenly deemed suitable for Palestinian interests. Abbas’
agenda, however, is entirely personal, entirely elitist and
entirely corrupt. Worse, it comes at a time when Palestinian
unity is not just a matter of smart strategy, but is critical in
the face of the conceivable collapse of the entire Palestinian
national project.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that the moment when Abbas exits the scene
has arrived. That could either become a transition into yet
another sorry legacy of an undemocratic Palestinian leadership
or it could serve as an opportunity for Palestinians, fed up
with the endemic corruption, political tribalism and
across-the-board failure, to step forward and challenge the
moral collapse of the Palestinian Authority and the charade of
self-serving ‘democracy’ of factions and individuals.</p>
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<p class="author_description"> <em><strong>Dr. Ramzy Baroud</strong>
has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 years. He
is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media
consultant, an author of several books and the founder of
PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a
Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (Pluto Press, London).
His website is: ramzybaroud.net</em> </p>
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