Let Abbas ask for Palestine state

Sep 23, 2011

TODAY, Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian National Authority will be before the United Nations to ask that Palestine becomes a member state of the world body.

Dr Opiyo Oloya

TODAY, Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian National Authority will be before the United Nations to ask that Palestine becomes a member state of the world body.

There will be a lot of uproar among UN member nations lining up to either support the Palestinian bid for nationhood or oppose it. Those supporting it will argue that the people of Palestine deserve self-determination within a secure border now. Those opposing an independent Palestine will argue that Palestinian nationhood can only be negotiated through direct talks with Israel. Leading the charge in this latter category is the United States of America.

The problem with those arguing for Palestinians to talk it out with Israel is that they ignore the reality on the ground. Foremost, a free Palestine is not a priority for Israel which, very rightly so, is doing everything in its power to water down any notion of a Palestinian state to the point that it could never pose a threat to the citizens of Israel.

Though the idea of a negotiated settlement presumes equal partnership at the table, Israeli politicians abhor the very idea of being seen on equal footing with Palestinian leaders. Whatever deal Palestinians hope to gain from such talks will not come about as the results of negotiations, but rather because it only gets whatever Israel considers residual and inconsequential.

Secondly, even as diplomats scramble to get the Israeli-Palestinian peace-talks back on track, the physical land available for an independent Palestine dwindles by the day as Israeli settlers continue to whittle away at territories in the West Bank. It will take more than goodwill, for example, to physically reunite the Gaza enclave with the West Bank.

The two areas are separated by what is now Israel. More importantly, the West Bank itself is now peppered with Israeli settlers numbering over 250,000. Where will these Israeli citizens go in the event of a negotiated settlement? Would Israel abandon its own citizens to an independent Palestinian state? Not likely.

Thirdly, there is the problem of whether an independent Palestine could ever be opened to Palestinians who continue to wonder the world without a homeland.

Israel has a generous policy that allows all the Jews to find a home in Israel. This right is enshrined in the Hatikva, Israel’s national anthem which translates into “hope” of returning to the fatherland. European and American Jewry have all been welcome back in Israel.

However, Israel has made it clear that children of Palestinian refugees with roots in Gaza and West Bank could never return automatically. In essence, the same rights of return that have allowed Israel to become a modern, vibrant and developed democracy is denied to Palestinians hoping to return to Palestine.

The reality is that the negotiations the US is urging Palestinians to return to is nothing more than the coming to the table as two unequal parties, the mighty and powerful Israel and the weak and divided Palestine.

All these leave the idea of going to the UN to seek full membership, oddly, as a moral avenue to give Palestinians something they do not have now, hope. It will signal that even if it takes 100 years or just two, that there will one day be a Palestinian nation.

It is this concept of freedom being planted in the hearts of Palestinians everywhere that is causing concern in the hearts of Israeli leaders and their American supporters. Though nothing will actually change on the ground, given that Israel will have all the power, the notion of a free Palestine provides the impetus for the world to put more pressure on America and Israel to give and take.

This, of course, does not mean that Israel must simply give away for the sake of a Palestinian state its right to a secure border. The citizens of Israel have no less rights to freedom from terrorism than, say, the citizens of America or Canada. Israel has a moral obligation to secure its border and to do everything within its power to ensure that its citizens enjoy its developments as a nation.

However, the idea of a Palestinian state should not and does not mean Israelis giving up their rights for self preservation. It means the Palestinians will one day have opportunity to organise themselves without outside interferences from Israel or anyone else. Whether today or in 200 years, the fire will have been lit now.

Mahmoud Abbas should, therefore, go ahead with the bid for a Palestinian state membership in the United Nations not as a substitute to dialogue with Israel, but rather as a necessary precursor to a time when Palestinians will have a state with physical borders to call their own.


Writer is a New Vision columnist

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