So, after 10 days, the Israelis lifted the siege on Yasser Arafat’s Ramallah headquarters because, as reported in Washington, President Bush was concerned about the effect it was having on Arab opinion just when he needed to rally support for action against Iraq. Whatever, the reaction of certain Palestinian officials to the pullout is baffling. To call the withdrawal a victory defies logic. Their relief at being able to emerge from the rubble of the headquarters is thoroughly understandable, as is the need to put some heart back into the traumatized and exhausted Palestinian people. Likewise, it is true that Arafat’s refusal to bow to pressure and leave his offices scotched some of Ariel Sharon’s plans.
Nonetheless, talk of victory is way over the top. The Israelis have only moved their tanks a matter of meters; they are ready to roll back the minute Sharon says so, and the town remains under curfew. Instead of putting an artificial spin on what is a catastrophe, Palestinian officials need to ask some fundamental questions about where they are on the road to freedom. The siege of Arafat and his Palestinian National Authority may be a symbol for the greater siege that they all continue to endure. But what needs to be addressed is the reality behind the images and symbols, which in any event are being manipulated: Washington’s reputed pressure on Sharon to pull back in Ramallah and his willingness to do so are proof of that.
The question that now has to be asked is: what are the guiding principles of a National Authority? It is not a state. So why should the Palestinian fight and die for it? Why sustain all these attacks for an entity that cannot be protected?
The Palestinians are under occupation whether they have a National Authority or not. It is as much a prison as official occupation was. Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayad never spoke a truer word than he did this week after the siege was lifted that he had “left a small prison for a big prison”. At least, when the West Bank and Gaza Strip were under Israeli occupation, Palestinians could claim the protection of Geneva Convention. Under today’s supposed liberation, they are attacked more than ever before. The existence of the Palestine National Authority means that the Israelis can exercise all the atrocities of occupation whenever they want without having to pay for the upkeep of occupation. They move in and attack, and then they leave. And every time they leave, they are cheered by a thankful international community for having respected international will.
It is a charade. But no one wants to admit it. Instead, there is a concerted pretence, joined in by the Israelis and Americans, that the National Authority is a stepping stone to Palestinian statehood and freedom. But, in Sharon’s mind, this is as far as it goes: a Palestinian non-state which his tanks move in and out of at will, killing, bombarding, destroying; a non-state where the Palestinians themselves have been turned into little more than their own prison wardens.
The situation has to change. Otherwise, the Israelis will be back with another blitzkrieg tomorrow, the day after, next week, next month — whenever they want. The Palestinians have to have their own state — a real state that, if invaded, triggers an international response — not this phony freedom and global inaction.
