Al-Qalam 
[Photo source - Middle East Monitor]
In late July, the charade of PA-initiated unity reconvened in Cairo to map the way forward towards unity of purpose amongst the various factions.
The meeting already began on the wrong foot after Palestine Islamic Jihad boycotted the talks because of the failure to release its members arrested by the PA’s security forces in the West Bank.
Whilst the United Nations recognises the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) as the official representative of the Palestinian people, the PA is under the illusion that it represents Palestinian aspirations as a result of signing the discredited Oslo Accords with the Zionist occupier in 1994.
In Cairo, PA leader and occupation collaborator, Mahmood Abbas referred to Palestinian unity in what can only be described as authoritarian terms.
As head of the PLO, FATAH, and the PA, thereby consolidating his illegitimate rule, Abbas stated that “It is not acceptable for any Palestinian to have reservations about the PLO and its national and political program”, in effect stating it is all Palestinian factions must follow its lead in terms of the national liberation project.
The PLO, for its part, was rendered a Zionist proxy after it negotiated away any semblance of sovereignty in any future ‘peace deal’ with the Zionist occupier and of course the right of return for millions of refugees displaced during the Nakba and the Six Day War.
The PA’s idea of unity is for all Palestinian factions abandoning the armed struggle and uniting behind its complete subjugation and subordination to the settler colonial entity and its Western allies. Unity, to Abbas’ PA, does not entail total liberation from Zionist settler colonialism.
The PLO, Fatah, and the PA are all obstacles to Palestinian unity. In fact, their almost daily raids against its own people make it an obstructionist tool, as the people of occupied Palestine have experienced only too well.
The objective of the Cairo talks was to “study ways to achieve national unity”, according to the PA’s official news agency, WAFA. However, he was hellbent on pushing the narrative that only peaceful popular resistance is the way forward for Palestinians.
“We have practiced different forms of struggle at different stages in our national march, and we see today that peaceful popular resistance, at this stage, is the best way to continue our struggle and achieve our national goals”.
In effect, Abbas attempted to persuade factions away from enhancing armed resistance that has so far managed to unite adherents of the different factions for a new phase in the struggle against Zionist settler-colonialism in Palestine.
What Abbas is wilfully attempting to destroy is the unity that already exists, that is, an integrated Palestinian approach to liberation that combines all internationally accepted means of resistance in the anti-colonial struggle, including armed resistance.
Abbas’ PA desires to force all Palestinian resistance efforts to remain under its auspices thereby satisfying what his international and Zionist handlers deem acceptable and not upsetting in any way to the Greater Israel project of the occupying entity.
Popular resistance is a convenient political tool for the PA to pacify its remaining supporters that something is being done to achieve freedom and independence from the occupier. However, what it in fact achieves is solidifying the PA’s role as the greatest ally of Zionist settler-colonial enterprise.
As occupation collaborators, the PA can continue masquerading as a liberation organisation whilst continuing to be beneficiaries of any largesse offered by the occupying entity.
But given that the Palestinians daily face the full might of the Zionist state and settler terrorism, as well as the ruthlessness of the PA’s own security establishment when they engage in peaceful forms of popular resistance, Abbas’ rejection of armed resistance speaks to his desire to weaken any attempt that could displace the PA and strengthen the Palestinian people.
The ultimate outcome of the Cairo ‘unity’ talks is that the PLO, Fatah, and the PA are the greatest obstacle to Palestinian unity. Palestinian national liberation will be better off without its obstructing presence.
In a liberated Palestine, there will be no place for them in way, shape, or form.
Dr. Ahmed Haroon Jazbhay
Executive Member: Media Review Network
Johannesburg
