President Mahmoud Abbas’ decision to call on the Palestinian people to have their say on the prisoners’ (Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails) national reconciliation document is very risky. A national vote in favor of this document means a coalition government in Palestine, recognition of UN resolutions and King Abdullah’s peace initiative presented at the Beirut Summit in 2002, a Palestinian consensus reaffirming the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinian people everywhere, and consequently the empowerment of the PLO chairman to conduct negotiations with Israel. If, however, the document fails to carry the Palestinian public vote (and there are many reasons why it may not), this will almost certainly signal the end of President Mahmoud Abbas’ tenure in office. This should not be an option for anyone.
Recently conducted public opinion polls in the occupied territories indicate wide support for the document. However, such polls may be misleading, as no one should in any way underestimate the degree of rage the Palestinian public feels against the Israeli occupation and its daily atrocities in the occupied territories. Should the Israeli political leadership decide to continue sanctioning military operations, such as the one in Ramallah on May 24 in which four young Palestinian men were killed and more than fifty injured, or the attacks that occurred Tuesday morning (May 30), Israel may well succeed in turning the Palestinian mood against any desire for reconciliation with Israel. Irrationality may overcome sanity, and the desire for revenge will override good judgment.
Those who are unfamiliar with Israel’s collective punishment experienced daily by Palestinian school children, teachers, and laborers on their way to schools and work may underestimate the frustration and anger felt by those sitting for hours at blockades and checkpoints on Palestinian streets. This may lead such people to vote against a document calling for peace with the Jewish state. Finally, Palestinians may also feel that even if they vote for the document, Israel will not accept such overtures or give up anything in return.
In his decision to submit the document to a public referendum, the president is taking a major risk, but this is what any responsible leader would do. President Abbas is placing everything on the line, and is confident the Palestinian public will back him up in his mission of peace and reconciliation, and that other world leaders — the United States, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Quartet — will stand by him, provide any assistance needed, and facilitate the creation of a political environment conducive to peace.
For its part, the Israeli leadership must stop its destructive policies of raids and incursions, and demonstrate an explicit willingness to return immediately to the negotiating table. President Bush and the Quartet are asked to do what must be done to end the financial boycott of the Palestinian Authority so that Palestinian government employees can be paid.
Put plainly, the situation is very grave. The future of our region, and the prospects for a just durable peace, are in our hands. President Abbas is standing the course and will persist in his mission of peace, to create an independent Palestinian state on the lands occupied by Israel since June 6, 1967, with Arab East Jerusalem its capital, living side by side in peace with Israel.
— Walid M. Awad is director of Foreign Press Department, the Press Office at the Office of the President in Ramallah.
