The PA and the Security Council

Following in the footsteps of the Arab regimes, the Palestinian Authority continuously rushes to the United Nations in the hope of finding a light that would lead to the settlement of the Palestinian issue. However, just like the other Arab regimes, the PA is disappointed and frustrated either because the UN does not make the desired decisions or because it is unable to implement the decisions even if it makes one in favour of the Palestinians.

According to the whispers in the United Nations’ circles, the Arabs and the Palestinian Authority (PA) have made themselves the subject of mockery and ridicule because the Arabs account for millions of people and are spread over a wide geographical area, but are still unable to confront Israel by any other way than to complain, cry and wail.

The Arab complaints, as well as the Arab affairs in general, make up a large percentage of the United Nations’ operation, and if it weren’t for their continuous complaints, many of the United Nations staff would find themselves on the streets without jobs. The most recent complaint was in the form of the Palestinian Authority’s proposal to the UN Security Council to set a date to end the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but the proposal failed to receive the necessary votes to present to the council.

The improvisational Palestinian step

The Palestinian Authority faced three obstacles that needed to be overcome in order to achieve what they desired. They were:

1. The first obstacle was the need to secure the nine votes necessary to present the Palestinian proposal to the Security Council. It was a well-known fact that these votes were unsure, especially since the United States is on guard and is resorting to pressuring the members of the council to dissuade them from voting in favour of the project, and it succeeded in doing so.
2. The second obstacle was the American veto in the event that the proposal was presented to the council. The United States has informed the Palestinian Authority on more than one occasion that it will veto the proposal, but the US avoided using its veto by pressuring the concerned countries to withhold their votes.
3. Israel posed the third obstacle because it is not expected to commit to the proposal if a decision was made in favour of the PA and because there is no international executive reference that compels Israel to implement the proposal. It is also likely that the international superpowers would encourage Israel not to comply.

The Palestinian Authority was fully aware of these things, but it did not explain to the Palestinian people why it went to the United Nations while it saw the failure right before its eyes.

Security Council as a cover for the PA’s defectiveness

Over the past 20 years or so, the Palestinian Authority has failed on various social, political, educational, economic, ethical and security levels, and completely failed to preserve the unity of the Palestinian people. The PA also ruined the social and moral make-up and kept the Palestinians’ livelihood in the hands of the enemies who robbed the Palestinian people of their free will and turned them into tools in the hands of others.

It seems that those leading the PA do not understand how much damage they have done to the body of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause. They do not realise that they have to bend the horse’s neck to change its direction to a new vision to address the internal Palestinian downfalls. It is clear that those who call themselves the leaders of this nation do not have the knowledge necessary to understand how much they have setback the people of Palestine, and they cannot handle things despite the fact that they persist and continue to paint a rosy picture of the ugly situation.

Due to the inability of the PA leadership and the PLO to move the Palestinian people forward, the PA resorts to fleeing outside the territories occupied in 1967 to address Palestinian concerns that can only be treated within the Palestinian circles.

The PA is fleeing because it is not interested in, and unable to find, the appropriate solutions for internal concerns. By doing so, it is trying to the tell the people that it is touring the world and going from one airport to the other in search of support and countries able and willing to pressure Israel, hoping that it brings about a solution to the issue. However, the PA comes back time and time again empty-handed and having failed. The PA has distracted the people for over two years by seeking to obtain the status of non-member state and was able to do so, but then failed to translate the decision in the service of the Palestinian people, so they did not feel a difference after the decision.

The international institutions are colonial institutions

The major colonial powers led by the United States, France and Britain are the ones who established the international institutions, including the United Nations, which exists to serve the interests of these countries. Countries such as Russia and China have participated in the formulation of these institutions’ goals and programmes, but they are not very influential in the international arena. In addition to this, when the colonial powers speak in the name of the international community, they are referring to themselves, not including Russia, China and India, which remain outside the framework of the international community they are referring to.

Therefore, the Arabs, especially the Palestinians, must be careful when dealing with such institutions. I am not saying that we must refuse to deal with international institutions, we must remain involved with these institutions in order for them not to become a hotbed for Israel, but we must also not rely too much on them, as they will definitely not liberate Palestine for us.

It is a well-known fact that the United Nations is the cause of the Palestinian disaster because it is merely a tool in the hands of Britain and America, which established Israel and displaced the Palestinian people. In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly voted in favour of the return of Palestinian refugees, but it has done nothing since then to facilitate the return refugees to their homeland. There are many resolutions issued by the United Nations General Assembly in favour of the Palestinians, but nothing has been implemented and no one is pushing for implementation.

Since the international institutions were born from the efforts of colonial powers, which until now have the greatest influence in the arena, they are basically tools for colonisation. If these institutions were to make decisions that are not in favour of these countries, the possibility of implementation is very slim. The colonial powers usually stall, procrastinate and use pressure in order to avoid a resolution being issued that would cause a scandal and embarrassment. This is what America did by pressuring the members of the Security Council in order to avoid using its veto power.

Being active in international institutions is important, but we must not limit ourselves to this. In order for the Arabs to build on such activity, they must work to accumulate and gather their power so that they can have a say in the international arena. The international arena is a playground for the strong – while the weak stand by and watch – if they are even allowed to do so. The problem is that the Arabs are determined to remain weak and are not looking for power as they prefer to remain a quiet lamb in a forest dominated by wolves.

Palestinian strategic errors

The Palestinians went to the United Nations with serious strategic errors which prevented them from getting what they wanted. I would like to refer to the following points:

The PA conceded the right to return despite the fact that it is difficult for any country – including the colonial countries – to dispute this right because they have been involved in a number of international charters and covenants that explicitly provide for the right of refugees to return to their homeland. The refugee issue is the core of the Palestinian cause, not the issue of Palestinian statehood, the establishment of a state is the second step after the right of return and is a part of the right to self-determination, which is recognised by most countries in the world.

The PA’s crime, and the PLO before it, is that they are seeking a Palestinian state without the Palestinian people, and this seeking is useless and will not lead to the resolution of the Palestinian issue. They should first find the Palestinian people who want to establish a state. The Palestinian people are mostly found in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, but it would be intellectually and politically fruitless to seek a state without its people being present within its borders.

The PA left the core issue, which can be used to activate the international popular bases and went for the idea of a state of colonial origin which was established in order to dissolve the Palestinian cause. The PLO, followed by the PA, sacrificed two Palestinian symbols: the right of return and the refusal to recognise Israel, in exchange for the Palestinians becoming servants of the Israeli security.

The PA addresses the world and the Palestinian people while they are divided within themselves, unable to achieve national unity, and internally full of bickering, grudges and hatred. The state of Palestine’s internal affairs does not give the outside world a good impression and when countries realise this, they are very hesitant in responding to Palestinian demands.

In addition to this, the leaders of the PA and PLO are illegitimate, so the Palestinians have lost the respect of the world. The Palestinian Authority president is illegitimate because he was elected to serve until 2009 but he is still clinging on to his position and imposing his rule on the Palestinian people. As for the PLO leaders, they are illegitimate because all of the organisation’s committees are violating their internal regulations. The loss of the world’s respect does not attract sympathy and solidarity, but instead leads to the mockery of the Palestinian people and its leaders, and does not encourage the countries of the world to support failures.

The PA leadership is tyrannical and oppressive and only involves a few of its posse in decision-making. As for the Palestinian factions and the masses, they are not given the opportunity to participate in this and have to wait for the decisions made by the PA president to strike them like lightning bolts. The decision to head to the UN was made by four individuals out of a population of about 12 million Palestinians. The oppressive leadership is a failure and is unable to mobilise the people so they insist on disregarding them. If the leadership is failing internally then it is certainly failing externally.

The PA went to the UN to spite and challenge the hand that feeds them and provides them with their loaves of bread. For over 20 years, the PA did not arrange the West Bank and Gaza’s economy in a manner that would lead to the liberation of the Palestinian people, albeit partially, from the foodstuff enslavement of Israel and America, and instead preferred to remain dependent on others and beg.

How can the PA succeed in challenging those who provide it with sustenance? It chose not to go through with the economic development process and instead programme the people according to consumer culture. It kept itself within the circle of Western and Israeli nutritional oppression and then fought those who pushed to look for means of self-dependence.

With such strategic errors, how can any negotiator or diplomat succeed? The Palestinian Authority, and the negotiators speaking on its behalf, has collected a number of means to fail and constantly worked to weaken itself compared to Israel and the entire world. Was this a coincidence or ill fate? Certainly not.

The PA’s internal policies were and still are keen on weakening the people, fragmenting the community, affecting the moral system, maintaining a low level of education in schools and universities, and remaining poor and ignorant. As long as the situation remains the same, the Palestinians have double responsibilities; internal liberation from the circle of tyranny, injustice and oppression, and liberation from the Zionist occupation.

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