The Palestinian case for dissolving the P.A.
- Author: Ami Eden
- Filed under: Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Mar 12,2008
Ali Jarbawi, a political science professor at Bir Zeit University, argues in the Lebanon Daily Star that the best thing for Palestinians would be to dissolve the Palestinian Authority and press for a one-state solution:
Dissolving the PA would be the most serious step taken by the Palestinians to end the prolonged Israeli occupation. However, it should not be seen as an end in itself, but rather as a means to achieve an end. It should be viewed as part of a strategic option, a necessary step needed to achieve the one-state solution. …
Israel has been using negotiations as a cover to enhance its presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The ongoing land confiscation policy along with the expansion of the settlement policy and the building of the separation wall are rendering a two-state solution obsolete. Israel wants to have its cake and eat it too: It wants to retain as much land as possible while getting rid of as many Palestinians as possible through the creation of a Palestinian state of leftovers. It will then claim that a two-state solution has been achieved and that therefore the book should be closed on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict forever.
Israel should not be allowed to achieve its goal. It is clear from the experience of past negotiations that Israel is simply not interested in a proper two-state solution, only one that leads to imprisoning Palestinians into separate cantons that can then be called a state.
The only way Israel might become serious about a two-state solution is if its existence as a Jewish state is threatened. Such a threat cannot come through an open-ended negotiating process, or by launching handmade rockets at Israel’s borders. A serious threat would only be posed to Israel if Palestinians announce to the Israelis and the world that they will pursue a two-state solution through negotiations until the end of 2008 (as US President George W. Bush proposed). If no tangible results are forthcoming, then Palestinians should absorb this lesson, close the door on this option, and refocus their efforts toward achieving a one-state option. This would require dissolving the PA, thus forcing Israel to face up to the real challenge of maintaining its existence as a Jewish state.
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7 Responses for "The Palestinian case for dissolving the P.A."
Am I the only one in the world who refuse to believe a big lie (invented by Joseph Goebbels). There is positive proof that its arabs (who has chosen to be called “palestinians”___itself a big lie) that they are the one occupying the land that rightfully and historically belongs to Israel. These arabs should return to their motherland and stop this big lie……
I agree with Ernie P., above. The “Palestinians” are no differnet from the Syrian or Jordanian Arabs; the entire area (including Iraq) used to be called “Greater Syria,” and there was no nation called “Palestinians.” Furthermore, before the Jews started returning in large numbers to their homeland, there were relatively few Arabs living in the area now called Israel and the West Bank because it was mainly desert and swamp. Whatever good land there was had been overgrazed by generations of tenant-herdsmen; and even the absentee landlords who were living in what is now Syria and Egypt didn’t want to come and live on their land because it was in such bad shape.
In the nineteenth century, the returning Jews started buying back the land from the absentee landlords; they were very careful in regard to ensuring that they got clear title. When they had improved the land to the extent that it was once more habitable and fertile, the Arabs started moving in in large numbers. At that point, there were both Jewish and Arab Palestinians.
Then, early in the 20th century (the Balfour Declaration), and again in 1948, when the Arabs were offered a state of their own, next to a Jewish state, their reaction was rejection and violence. Mr. Jarbawi’s screed is just another instance of this.
You’re right, Ernie! The Jews pre-date the Arabs by some thousands of years in some areas of the Middle East. It’s sheer chutzpah that they claim domain in this area when Mohammed only arose in the 700s. The Arab claim is based on the belief that only Muslims are entitled to full rights anywhere and anyone else, Jew or Christian, is subservient and entitled to nothing.
Well, most of us did leave and the Arabs did stay. But modern day Jews have a right to Israel because of the UN resolution and so it doesn’t really matter.
Maybe Jarbawi is hoping to shock Israel into some kind of response with his idea of a one-state solution but I think it just ensures that Palestine will continue to be occupied. Israelis are more afraid of Palestinians moving into Israel and outnumbering them than they are of continued armed conflict with them.
I think if Palestinians dropped their “right of return” provision these countries could be at peace right now.
How about a one-state solution with Jews, some Christians and Druse, a few Baha’is, plus the few True Muslims who can accept that the existence of Israel is God’s Own Manifest Will? Those other followers of Muhammad are welcome to leave, either to go back to where they came from, or to make up for the many Jews who were practically expelled from their homes in other Arab countries.
By the way, when Mark Twain visited the Holy Land, he noted how empty it was.
Jews claim Judea as their ancestral homeland. By the same token
Arabs are from Arabia from which they erupted with fire and sword
1400 years ago. By contrast Jews left their homeland mostly as slaves
after the Roman empire crushed Judea 2000 years ago. The Jews have
reclaimed their ancestral homeland, now it is the turn of the Arabs to
return to Arabia and stop occupying Jewish land. Arabia is empty of
people and has the world’s largest oil and gas supplies. Let all the Arabs share those riches instead of just the kings and emirs, stop
claiming the whole world as their’s and leave the Jews alone.
Jews claim Judea as their ancestral homeland. By the same token
Arabs are from Arabia from which they erupted with fire and sword
1400 years ago. By contrast Jews left their homeland mostly as slaves
after the Roman empire crushed Judea 2000 years ago. The Jews have
reclaimed their ancestral homeland, now it is the turn of the Arabs to
return to Arabia and stop occupying Jewish land. Arabia is empty of
people and has the world’s largest oil and gas supplies. Let all the Arabs share those riches instead of just the kings and emirs, stop
claiming the whole world as their’s and leave the Jews alone. Arabs have no right to a one or two State solution in the territory of Israel/
Jordan and should be moved like Germans were moved from the
Sudetenland to Germany by Czechoslovakia after WWII.
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