The sweeping reforms in the Palestinian Authority which President Yasser Arafat has called for should remove one more pretext that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has used to drag his feet on a return to the Middle East peace negotiations.
Provided Sharon’s sudden interest in seeing reforms within the PA stems out of any concern for Palestinians. No, it doesn’t. Sharon’s will be the last Israeli heart to beat for Palestinians. Actually, all this talk of PA reform is Ramallah siege by other means — to strip the democratically elected leader of the Palestinian people of any real authority.
It is hard to see how talk of the right of the Palestinians to a sovereign state can be reconciled with the open talk of the right of a foreign party, and an occupier at that, to meddle in their internal affairs, indeed, to violate the essential prerogatives of sovereignty by nullifying the authority of its president, not only in his capacity as head of the Palestinian liberation movement, but also as the democratically elected leader of the Palestinian people. Even the unabashedly pro-Sharon Bush administration believes Arafat should not be sidelined, at least not in the present circumstances.
Thus, Sharon’s new-found interest in reforming the Palestinian leadership is aimed at making it more compliant to his vision of a settlement. Which is why the reforms are not being made the way Sharon would like but to address Palestinian needs. Acknowledging that mistakes have been made, Arafat said the time for change had come and promised the Palestinian Legislative Council that the leadership would re-evaluate the performance of the PA at its political, security and administrative levels.
Arafat unveiled his initiative none too soon for the Palestinians need a renewed sense of direction and for national objectives and the methods of achieving them to be restored. But Palestinian reform is incompatible with the old military order Sharon is setting up in the West Bank and, perhaps soon, in Gaza. The invasions have allowed Sharon to re-establish Israeli military rule throughout the West Bank, enabling incursions at will into Palestinian towns, villages and refugee camps on a routine basis and a permanent siege everywhere else. In essence, the re-occupation has emptied the West Bank of its Area A havens and returned Palestinians to the direct military occupation that existed prior to Oslo.
Israel’s ruling Likud party, deciding to reject Palestinian statehood, is further proof that Israeli society and its representative institutions are drifting ever closer to the past, to a more authoritarian and extremist posture — just as the Palestinians are opening a new chapter.
Sources close to Arafat say he has already mapped out a timetable for reforms in the PA and that there will be fundamental changes in the authority’s political and security apparatus. While the theme is reform, the direction the reform should take is still unclear. The discussions have not yet coalesced into a national debate that would have the potential to guide the various national liberation movements. However, what is clear is that, as Arafat stated, there can be no free Palestinian elections — legislative, municipal or presidential — until the Israeli military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza ends. Any balloting under Israeli guns cannot be completely free. Free elections in an occupied state is incongruous and an incomplete enterprise.
For a long time Israeli leadership — whether Likud or Labor — was looking for Palestinians who would disown if not betray the PLO. Then they thought the PLO would disown or betray Palestinians. Sharon’s insistence on a PA without Arafat is a variation on a theme. When will the Israeli leadership realize that there can be no hamlet without Prince of Denmark?
