Consensus is a mandatory approach to saving the national destiny

If there is a lesson in the changes taking place in the region, especially those related to the Syrian situation, for us as Palestinians, it is the danger of the erosion of the legitimacy of the political system and the possibility of its collapse. It is known that legitimacy in the Palestinian case was previously limited to the revolutionary legitimacy led by the Palestine Liberation Organization until the establishment of the first Palestinian Authority in 1994, without achieving national liberation, as the organization and with it the National Authority entered a phase in which it was not possible to legitimize the role of its institutions except through the legitimacy of elections.

The political division over the settlement has reinforced the conflict over representation between the factions of the Palestinian scene regarding the legitimacy of the resistance that has been adopted by the forces of rejection and opposition to Oslo, the legitimacy of the unity of the Authority and behind it the PLO that imposed its regional and international presence based on the legacy of revolutionary legitimacy, and the legitimacy of the Legislative Council elections, albeit partial, as they were limited to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, especially after the status of the Authority grew at the expense of the status of the PLO, which greatly affected the legitimacy of its representation. The failure of the settlement process also caused a major shock to the legitimacy of the PLO, not to mention the mismanagement and rampant corruption that befell it, which contributed to further shrinking the social base of the Authority and its status and behind it the PLO.

The Palestinian leadership's attempts to maintain this status did not succeed, despite its return to some forms of military action during the Second Intifada, which in fact led to changing the internal balance of power against the organization and the authority, without being able to bring about any change in the balance of power with the occupation. This is due to internal reasons, the essence of which is the confusion of the Palestinian leadership's strategy between the two options of improving the terms of the settlement, and the tools of national liberation in the current situation, as it is organically linked to the ability to strengthen the people's steadfastness through the democratic construction of institutions capable of carrying out this central mission. This is in addition to the international variables that characterized the phase of the global war on terror, and Sharon's success in presenting the occupation's policies as a main component of that war.

There are many other reasons, which this article does not contain, that have had a strategic impact on the erosion of legitimacy and its extension to the PLO itself, especially after the success of the Hamas movement in the second legislative elections in 2006, and the return to using the legitimacy of the organization to confront the legitimacy of the elections and the government that resulted from them, and what they led to in terms of a chronic political division that still casts its consequences on the future and Palestinian destiny.

The war of extermination on the Gaza Strip came after the October 7 explosion in the context of the aggressiveness of the liquidation and annexation project, without excluding the fact that the explosion itself carried within it the continuation of the struggle over legitimacy, in an attempt to resolve it in favor of the legitimacy of the resistance. This was clearly evident in the position of the Authority regarding the repercussions of this explosion, and its insistence on rejecting the position of the popular consensus expressed by the consensus of the factions in the Beijing Declaration regarding resolving this struggle over legitimacy, by returning to the legitimacy of consensus and unity through a transitional consensus government until the elections are held, as well as strengthening the legitimacy of achievement by working to restore hope to our people, especially by the government assuming its responsibility in contributing to stopping the war of extermination, devoting itself to relief and beginning the reconstruction of the Strip that was completely destroyed, of course in addition to providing everything that would enhance the steadfastness of our people in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, which is being subjected to an unprecedented settlement war to liquidate the Palestinian cause.

In this context, what is happening in the cities of the northern West Bank cannot be viewed in isolation from the escalating settlement war, nor from the ongoing war of extermination in the Gaza Strip, nor certainly from the reality of the Palestinian Authority and the decline of its social base, its inability to defend the interests of the Palestinian citizen, and its ability to survive in the face of the Zionist project and its expansionist ambitions that have come to exceed Palestinian geography.

The Palestinian experience since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority until today, and due to the insistence on panting towards a settlement without serious action to change the balance of power that would enable the end of the occupation. From this perspective, it can be said that not benefiting from the October explosion itself wasted the opportunity to adjust this balance, especially with regard to what accompanied it of a global uprising that branded Israel as a state of genocide against the Palestinian people.

This same experience confirms that the state of resistance cannot be controlled by labeling it as “chaos, lawlessness, or working for foreign parties.” This is nothing but an expression of complete bankruptcy and insistence on continuing with the state of individualism and monopolization of national decision-making, without returning to the requirements of national consensus and jointly assuming the responsibility of preserving the national destiny from the existential challenges that the Palestinian people and the destiny of their national cause are facing.

Security solutions and insistence on pursuing a policy of appeasing the occupation and the US administration will only result in further isolation of the Palestinian Authority and the dissipation of what remains of its legitimacy. More dangerously, it will contribute to further tearing apart the social and national fabric and push towards the risk of slipping into a civil war fueled by Israel, whether to get rid of the Authority or to reoccupy the West Bank to facilitate the processes of annexation and displacement, as the Tel Aviv government seeks.

What is happening in Jenin portends the worst dangers to the national destiny, unless attempts to decide by security force are stopped immediately. The matter requires, first and foremost, a return to the popular will, through a responsible review by all parties. This will not be achieved except by returning to the legitimacy of the transitional consensus to bear collective responsibility for preserving the national destiny through the comprehensive national institutions that include everyone within the framework of the Palestine Liberation Organization, in implementation of the consensus of the Palestinian factions that was included in the text and spirit of the Beijing Declaration.