Self-Critique Even If It's Harsh

For over a hundred years, the Palestinian people have been struggling through every means to defend their land against the Zionist movement and Western colonial powers, starting with Britain and ending with the United States, amidst the complacency of Arab regimes and the complicity of some with the occupation. It can be said that the Palestinian national liberation movement is the longest national liberation struggle in history. It is true that the Palestinians have not managed to liberate their homeland either through armed resistance or political settlement. It is also true that political divisions continue to negatively affect the unity of the people and the political system. We do not overlook the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Gaza nor the undeclared war in the West Bank, which is no less severe than what is happening in Gaza. However, despite all of this, the Palestinian people have not surrendered nor raised the white flag; rather, the legitimacy of their cause continues to gain presence in the world, and Israel’s crisis in its international relations increases as the falsehood of its narrative, which has deceived the world for a hundred years, is revealed.

This presence and the legendary steadfastness of the Palestinian people, even if saturated with pain, suffering, displacement, hunger, and destruction as it is happening in Gaza—which applies to the saying of the late President Yasser Arafat (the Palestinian people is like the phoenix, always rising from the ashes)—is primarily due to the justice of the Palestinian cause and the world’s conviction of it. It is also due to the world’s rejection of the Zionist practices that have exceeded what the Nazis did to the Jews. Additionally, the people’s insistence on their land and the support of the world’s free people at the levels of Arab, Islamic, and foreign governments contribute to this presence.

Honestly, the main weakness in the current Palestinian situation is the state of division, the weakness of the political system, incapacity, and sometimes corruption within the political class and the parties. Up till now, this class and these parties have not been able to capitalize on the transformations in global public opinion, which did not come as a result of their political efforts or armed resistance but rather as a result of the images of death, hunger, disease, and destruction of civilians in Gaza, especially among children and women. This is also due to the unmasking of the false Zionist narrative, especially among the new generation in the West, who are shocked by the terrorism and Israeli crimes, the rejection of Israel of international legitimacy and law, and everything they have learned about human rights, humanitarian justice, and democracy.

For all this, and to counteract what is being planned by America and Israel in attempts to liquidate the cause through Trump’s initiative, the political class and the Palestinian political system must change, and the entry point for change is to practice the most rigorous self-criticism without flattery or personal considerations.

Nearly the entire world has agreed to condemn the Zionist entity and consider it a rogue state committing war crimes and occupying the lands of the Palestinian people. Many countries have criticized the Hamas movement, and we have criticized it and continue to stand by every word we have written. Our criticism of it was not because it is a resistance movement; for resistance is a legitimate right of every people subjected to occupation. The Palestinian people and all of Palestine are under occupation, and even recognitions of a state of Palestine are recognitions of a state under occupation. There will come a day when we will need a strategy to resist the occupation, which has been ongoing for a hundred years. Thus, our criticism of Hamas relates to its ideology, its Muslim Brotherhood background, its external alliances, its coup against authority, its methods of practicing resistance, its ambiguous turbulence, and its persistent obstinacy despite the disasters suffered by the Palestinians in Gaza. We have also called for declaring it an illegal group according to Palestinian law.

But what about the official national party that is supposed to be the legitimate and sole representative of the people, and on which we should rely to salvage what can be salvaged and redirect the national path?

It seems that this (national) party has rested on the international positions opposed to Israel and its crimes and the international recognitions of the State of Palestine while it is under occupation. It has relied on the crisis of the Hamas movement and the roadblock in its path of armed resistance, alongside the increasing criticism of Hamas, especially in Gaza, and the official Arab and international critiques demanding its removal from the scene. They believed that this retreat of their adversaries means they are right and need not reconsider their approach and policies. Even to the point that they do not listen to the members of Fatah, whose voices have gone hoarse and whose pens have dried as they demand a correction of the course of Fatah and the Organization, which has pushed many members to leave it, and even to exit political life in general, in addition to those who were dismissed or forced into early retirement.

As time passes, it becomes clearer to me what I have previously sensed and written about repeatedly; that the flaw in the political system does not just lie in the division between Fatah and Hamas, nor in the factions and parties in general, nor even in the enemy's plots and the conspiracies of regional states, but also in the political class within the PLO and the Authority.

This political class consists of the majority of members of the executive and central committees, senior officials in the Authority, and those in quasi-public institutions, especially economic and media institutions, and the president's advisors.

Each one of them considers themselves a leader and a significant figure, not listening to or respecting anyone except themselves. There is no authority higher than their own, and they barely accept the supremacy of President Abbas’s authority, not out of belief in the validity of his approach and political project but out of fear for their interests.

The national link and concern for the general national interest are the least present in what brings them together. What unites them more is the preservation of their personal interests and the privileges they enjoy, and they only unite in facing anyone who threatens their personal interests, other than the occupation.