In Order for the President's Decrees to Respond to the Existential Challenge

In light of the existential danger faced by the national authority and the entire Palestinian cause, the "democracy offensive" announced by President Abu Mazen through the decrees to conduct elections for the National Council, to draft a constitution for the State of Palestine, and to hold the eighth conference of Fatah movement might seem like a leap forward and a gamble on a future that is not guaranteed to work in favor of the national cause unless there is a current strategy to confront what is happening on the ground.

In principle, no one opposes holding general elections as long as they are committed to the philosophy and objectives of the electoral process, which is the circulation of power and the renewal of the ruling elite. The Palestinian situation requires this renewal, even if it is currently limited to the National Council, from which the Central Council and the Executive Committee will emerge, culminating in the President of the Palestine Liberation Organization; the moral home that encompasses all Palestinians and their legitimate and sole representative.

According to the charter of the Palestine Liberation Organization, every Palestinian – regardless of their political affiliation, religion, or place of residence inside or outside Palestine – is a member of the organization. Therefore, the organization has exclusively monopolized the representation of all Palestinian people, and thus its specialized circles and its executive tool in the territories of 1967 (the authority) provide their services to all the people.

This does not contradict the right of any individual or Palestinian party to oppose the organization’s policies and leadership, or to not participate in its official institutions, and the same applies to the authority.
On this basis, the failure of all attempts to form an alternative political framework to the PLO can be understood and explained, as well as why there is a return to the organization after the failure of parties and even the Palestinian authority to replace it; as the focus is now on reactivating the organization by issuing a decree from President Abu Mazen to hold elections for the National Council in November of this year, and in the same context, setting a date to hold the eighth general conference of Fatah, the backbone of the organization.

Strangely, opponents of the legitimacy of the PLO and its comprehensive representation and its executive tool within Palestine (the Palestinian National Authority) contradict themselves when they refuse to recognize the organization and its authority while simultaneously using passports issued by the authority, carrying identities emblazoned with its emblem, educating their children in schools under its jurisdiction with curricula set by its Ministry of Education, receiving treatment in hospitals run by its Ministry of Health, and not proposing a realistic national alternative to the organization and its authority.

Since the PLO embodies all of the above, it must always affirm that it is at the level of the aspirations of the people even in the worst conditions, as is happening now; thus, the following is required:

1- Elections should be a means for renewing the elite and opening up to everyone, not elections aimed at granting a formal legitimacy to an aging ruling political class that has exhausted its energy after having given all it can, and it must be replaced or supplemented by young elements.

2- Consider relocating the headquarters of the PLO from Ramallah to another Arab state to be more free in moving and making decisions; the enemy that seeks to eliminate the authority or change its national function will not allow the organization (which he accuses of terrorism) to operate freely within the occupied territories or even to raise the Palestinian flag over its headquarters.

3- Although the presidential decree assigned the election committee to oversee the task, the grip of the executive committee of the organization and the Central Committee of Fatah on the electoral process at all its stages should be loosened, especially in membership control and the "electoral machinery," particularly in the Fatah conference. There are members of the executive committee and the Central Committee who are not welcoming towards the elections and may exert their authority and financial influence to manipulate the results to ensure their continuous presence in their positions; we have previous examples from Fatah conferences and the Central Council.

4- The issue of the national charter as a constitution for all Palestinians (unlike the state constitution project for the West Bank and Gaza) raises a fundamental question: will the 1968 charter be adopted? Or the charter after the Gaza amendments of 1996? Or will the new National Council be the one to formulate a new charter? This requires an accurate arrangement and specification of the relationship between the organization’s charter, the future constitution of the State of Palestine, and the political program of Fatah.

5- There is an urgent and pressing need to address the relationship between the organization and the parties outside of it, especially since some leaders of the organization and Fatah movement consider Hamas and Islamic Jihad as part of the national fabric; if that is the case, will they be part of the new National Council or will they remain outside of it? And what if they refuse to participate in the elections for the National Council?