PLO: Protection Before Reform

On the eve of the 32nd session, "No to displacement, no to annexation, steadfastness in the homeland, saving our people in Gaza, stopping the war, protecting Jerusalem and the West Bank, yes to comprehensive national unity," scheduled for April 23 and 24, preparations are underway in Ramallah, and numerous meetings and dialogues will begin, which will continue intensively over the remaining few days, with the President of the National Council extending an invitation to the members and the specialized teams starting work on completing the technical and logistical preparations, and completing the preparations for an emergency session held under extremely dangerous circumstances and challenges that have begun to threaten the national cause, in light of the occupation's efforts to eliminate it, whether through the decisive plan or the termination of the agency, the Relief Agency, or what is happening in Jerusalem, and not the least of these measures is what is also being witnessed in the prisons. The Central Council is convening amid an acceleration in the pace of urgent questions that haunt the vast majority of the sons and daughters of the Palestinian people everywhere after the ongoing war of extermination on Gaza, the violation of the West Bank, and attempts to consolidate the reality of colonial settlement and forced displacement plans. Difficult and weighty questions about what is required and what can be done in a bitter reality characterized by an unprecedented situation in the history of the Palestinian people and the stages of their struggle in the past, i.e. a state of internal fragmentation, so to speak. And what is meant is not only the state of political division, but the situation in all its manifestations and details, from successive crises and structures, frameworks and bodies whose role is gradually weakening. A situation that not only delights the occupation, but also provides it with complete comfort to implement what it wants without difficulty!! These questions intersect with the current debate that occupies wide circles around what President Mahmoud Abbas announced in his speech at the Arab Summit of March 4th regarding the creation of a vice president position. Is the intention a vice president of the Authority or a vice president of the PLO? Or the election of a vice president for both?! And what this issue leaves behind in terms of interaction, widespread discussion and expectations raised in public places, political salons and the media amid reluctance to provide clear and definitive answers about it.

The issue is undoubtedly important and relates to the top of the political pyramid and what the PLO represents, beyond the revolving door and the conundrum. The more important question remains: How can the current situation be overcome by preserving the PLO, the unifying home and moral entity, and protecting it before reforming it? In other words, what is required is to row side by side on a clearly defined path with measured steps toward both protection and reform, but protection must come first, and everyone must agree on this. It is not permissible to expose the organization to attempts to overthrow or overthrow it, because any threat to the organization’s position and role would further harm the situation as a whole, despite the importance of reform, which no one can deny, if it aims to develop and improve the performance of the organization’s institutions and activate them. However, the most important thing in this regard is to protect the component, because the organization is not a faction or a party among the parties, and the rule that says that disagreement with it is acceptable, but not against it, remains correct and existing. It is the moral political expression of the goals of the Palestinian people and the broad front framework for achieving national liberation, which enjoys undisputed world recognition as the sole and only representative of the Palestinian people, which grants it the legitimacy of the title and the legitimacy of work for national convergence and addressing differences, whatever they may be, and the ability to move with political discourse around the world. Protection is also a mandate and means preserving the capabilities of the Palestinian people, and it is the guardian of its interests and goals, that is, more clearly, protecting the national program represented by the PLO, which, by the way, has become the program of national consensus since the nineteenth session of the National Council, the “Intifada session,” held in Algeria in 1988, as there is no political disagreement today about the independent state with full sovereignty over all The territories occupied in 1967 and the right to self-determination and return in accordance with Resolution 194. This national program of the PLO is unanimously agreed upon and supported by everyone, far from the turmoil of emotions, academic analyses and exaggerated dazzle, as is the custom with political rhetoric with a "revolutionary flavor." Strengthening this program is the basic advanced step for protection and not accepting any formulas to change it or diminish its ceiling, far from phrases decorated with reform and recording positions, nothing more!! Except to serve the supreme national interest of the Palestinian people, no one is allowed to exceed the agreement and national custom that has been strengthened by long years of joint work despite the differences and disagreements that remained under the ceiling of preserving unity and its continuity.

The broad national workshop that the Central Council session must open must not accept hesitation, stammering, or half-answers. Its foundations are agreement to protect the PLO from dissolution, internalization, or regional axes and alignments, restoring the prestige of its institutions and their role, regularity and periodicity of meetings, resolving the overlap between the PLO and the PA, and establishing a broad, solid foundation for everyone’s involvement. It is clearly and without ambiguity required to stop the PLO’s seizure by the PA, which is one of the institutions established by its decision on December 10, 1993, shortly after the signing of the Oslo Accords. So that no one is deceived by the talk and continued regurgitation about reforming the PLO, it is likely that there is no disagreement about reform and its importance, but an PLO without protecting its program, institutions, representative capacity, and the essence of its work will inevitably be exposed to further erosion and instability and at the mercy of the wind. This is what the enemies of the Palestinian people want, and we must work to seize the opportunity, prevent it from happening, and block the road to all attempts aimed at this.

Today, in this session and the preparations underway for its convening, the most difficult task is not electing or agreeing on a vice president, which can be postponed or postponed, as it is not a sword hanging over the necks of the Palestinian leadership. What is more important is initiating an in-depth and comprehensive political discussion about the means to confront challenges, including urgent ones that cannot be postponed. These include the so-called day after the war of extermination on Gaza, or the annexation plans and the status quo in the West Bank. Linking this to the future of the Palestinian national struggle and the forms of struggle practiced with the least expected losses? How can we prevent a major deterioration in the internal situation, given the tremendous changes taking place in the region, which is teeming with developments whose future directions and imminent dangers to the Palestinian cause can be predicted, as well as the imposition of conditions on the Palestinian people, given the golden opportunity currently available to the extreme right-wing camp in Israel? All of this may lead to an important question: What is the best formula that suits the current reality, capable of maintaining adherence to the right to national struggle, while at the same time being able to overcome the major dangers facing the fate of the national cause? Especially if everyone realizes that we are engaged in an existential war aimed at uprooting the Palestinian people and liquidating the national cause, what are the most realistic ways to build approaches that minimize losses while simultaneously restoring confidence among the expectant public, who want to see something that reinforces a culture of steadfastness and survival on this land in the face of hostile policies, including forced displacement and deportation?

A very important session begins in the next few days, and a glimmer of hope looms on the horizon, carrying within it the possibility of restoring unity and strengthening the unified popular stance in the face of the occupation’s aggression on Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, the interior, and everywhere. An unrelenting war on UNRWA on the land, borders, and Jerusalem, and with it, of course, there is no room for discussion for the sake of discussion. The state of heated debate is over the superficial and leaving the core. The margins are no longer the basis, as the challenges relate to the continuation of existence. Rising to the level of blood spilled in an ongoing holocaust requires courage, not only in decisions, but also in the extent of the ability and potential to implement them and derive what is possible from what exists. The decisions taken in previous sessions of the Central and National Councils, as a reminder, were correct and realistic. Ending the relationship with the occupation and dissolving the agreements was met with broad popular and national consensus, but they have not been implemented today. The occupation has restored the “Civil Administration” and no agreements remain to govern the relationship with it. The confiscation of the clearance revenues, the attack on prisoners, the daily plundering of land, and the ongoing war of extermination are evidence of what the occupation wants, and it does not hide its ambitions. Publicly and officially, while we must not enter into the game of distraction in the labyrinths of getting out of the current impasse in a state of debate over the basic details, laying the foundations for confrontation, the path to salvation is to end the occupation, even if we are facing a moment of making fateful decisions and surgical treatment of reality, we must go for it without hesitation.

The lesson is what the coming days hold, whether they will be a starting point for construction and establish a new phase of joint action and unification of efforts and energies, including protecting the PLO before reforming it, considering it a national achievement and a legacy of struggle far from glorifying the past, but also for the future, as the PLO is the identity of the Palestinian people, of which we are all members. Or will the situation continue and stagnate in the same place, perhaps with more erosion and perhaps withdrawal? In the midst of all this debate and struggle for influence and interests, we must not forget that there is an enemy lurking around us, targeting everyone without exception. Therefore, the capabilities should be put in place for a national program of popular steadfastness and confrontation, and a state of political steadfastness and struggle that establishes the protection of the PLO, because protecting the homeland protects the PLO, and vice versa. This is the measure of success for the session of the PLO Central Council and one of the most important indicators for reading the near future in order to overcome the situation riddled with wounds, so that it may carry a touch of healing and the revival of hope and life.