Abbas perfects his capitulation to Israeli demands

Reports in the Jerusalem Post about Mahmoud Abbas’s latest discourse portrays his capitulation to Israeli demands, even as the PA President reiterates his remote threat to resort to international organisations for recognition of a Palestinian state. The perfunctory statements are countered by Abbas’s own open mockery of the Palestinian right of return, imprisoning Palestinian unity within the ramifications of Israel’s settler-colonial occupation.

Abbas declared that in order to agree upon an extension of the current negotiations, Israel’s prime minister should agree upon the release of more Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails and the freezing of settlement construction. Having bargained with the dignity of Palestinian political prisoners at the start of the negotiations, it seems as if Abbas is willing to replicate such conditional freedom by utilising the prisoners’ plight cynically in order to avoid a thorough insistence upon the legitimate right of return. This coincides with the reluctance to move beyond a discussion of the 1967 borders to challenge the legitimacy of Israel’s settler-colonial state and its creation in 1948.

The right of return for 5 million Palestinians is “a joke”, according to Abbas. Ensuring the continuation of the trauma of exile takes precedence as far as he is concerned, in order to safeguard Israel’s alleged right to exist. “I do not want to destroy Israel and no refugee will return to Israel without Israel’s consent,” he said. “I expect Israel to set quotas for the numbers of refugees it will absorb each year.”

The statement is indicative of the historical complicity already endorsed by the United Nations, when it recognised the existence of Israel provided that the illegal settler-colonial state upheld its presumed “obligations” towards the Palestinians. The resolution may be interpreted as proof of Palestinians’ legitimate rights although Israel was also, hypocritically, absolved of responsibility for their plight through the undeserved recognition bestowed by the imperialist international organisation.

Abbas’s statements uphold the illegal recognition and support of the settler-colonial state. Discourse pertaining to the right of return for Palestinians is flawed within the mismanaged framework articulated by Abbas, primarily because any discussion of the right to return is associated with living in Israel, which is tantamount to denying the historical memory of the Nakba. Israel will deny the Palestinian right of return permanently in order to safeguard its fabricated history. In assimilating to Zionist discourse, Abbas is aiding the dominant narrative to obscure the essence of Palestinian resistance, which includes a legitimate return to a future decolonised land.

If Abbas is willing to humiliate Palestinians with regard to the reclamation of their land and history, any attempt to garner international recognition will remain compromised by his insistence on protecting Israel’s expansionist policies at the expense of Palestinian rights to history and memory. International recognition of a fragmented Palestinian state will not ensure protection, since allegiance has already been assigned to Israel. The Palestinian right of return should be discussed within the context of the dismantling of the settler-colonial state, an unlikely scenario given the complicity which the PA insists upon elaborating to Palestinians in repeated attempts to demean decades of struggle.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.