The Surplus of Sacrifice and the Failure of Achievement: The Crisis of the Palestinian Political Mind

Through extended conflict stations over more than seven decades, the occupiers succeeded in luring us into the arena where they achieve decisive and guaranteed superiority. Since the popular uprising of 1987 was aborted before it bore fruit, the occupiers set traps for us into which we all fell: factions, movements, forces, activities, public opinion, media, theorists, and educational, religious, cultural, and social institutions, by dragging us into armed violence, at the time chosen by the occupation, and in the arena it desired.The Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, during which the occupiers managed to drag us all into their square capable of achieving decisive political gains and solidifying their sacred principle: "more land and fewer Arabs." During the Al-Aqsa Intifada, the occupiers succeeded in injecting Palestinian public opinion with all the elements of militarization, through a populist discourse that glorifies a singular form of resistance and excludes any call for review, performance criticism, and rationalization, thereby transferring the conflict to an open military arena, at a time and context carefully chosen by the occupiers, which enabled them to achieve deep political and strategic gains.In this context, the militarization of the Intifada was not merely a field option, but transformed into a general state of mind, through which Palestinian collective consciousness was reshaped. A populist discourse prevailed, glorifying armed action as the only option, and excluding any call for review or rationalization as an expression of weakness or retreat. This discourse integrated with media, movement, and official performance that contributed, to varying degrees, to entrenching a unilateral vision of resistance, which narrowed the scope for any real critical discussion about the utility and outcomes of the tools used.The results of this phase did not require complex analysis to understand their effects; the Al-Aqsa Intifada led to profound transformations in the structure of the conflict, manifested in the construction of the separation wall, accelerated settlement, deepened the Judaization of Jerusalem, and reshaped the security and political environment to serve the occupiers' project and agenda. It also contributed to the rise of the extreme religious right within Israel, in contrast to an unprecedented decline of left-wing forces, and the shrinking of any progressive political horizon within Israeli society. Indeed, the bloody division that began in 2007 is one of the outcomes of the state of militarization that prevailed since the Intifada; that division, which was called "military decisive action," confirmed that the priorities of influential parties in Palestinian society are not the priorities of the people, but rather the glorification of the militarization of society, even if it comes at the expense of the homeland, the people, and the cause.Then came the events of October 7th as a pivotal moment in contemporary Palestinian history, which some argue brought the Palestinian issue back to the center of international attention and broke the illusion of "stability" that prevailed in the preceding years. However, a reading of the outcomes of this operation, away from emotion, theorizing, and partisan polarization, shows that it opened the door to a harsher phase for the Palestinian people, and for a number of Arab peoples.In contrast, Palestine, our people, our generations, especially the Gaza Strip, witnessed an unprecedented escalation in levels of violence, reaching the point of genocide of people, stone, water, institutions, and all elements of life in the Strip. And here the occupation is re-occupying more than half of the Gaza Strip, controlling everything that enters the Strip, including medicine, food, and air.The assertion that resistance is a right and a duty should not be reduced to adopting a single path, or to immunizing it against criticism and review. Conscious resistance is that which is constantly subject to follow-up, monitoring, and rational evaluation, and reconsiders its tools according to criteria of effectiveness, cost, and outcomes.We are at a real crossroads, not between multiple options, but between two paths: a path that leads to strengthening survival and steadfastness, and another that opens the door to erosion and disintegration. In such moments, hesitation is not an option, but conscious decision-making becomes a historical responsibility.