Visiting Jerusalem, which is the intellectual, social, economic, and spiritual center of Palestinian life, is next to impossible. Trying to get a permit to travel to Jerusalem or to go to Tel Aviv Airport to fly overseas becomes a major hurdle. Palestine has turned into the land of permits, of barbed wire fences, of checkpoints, and of strict bounderies that keep shifting at the expense of the Palestinians. Before I returned to Palestine, I thought that perhaps the people who carried out the Intifada, once they had the opportunity, would affirm their desire to live democratically. I remain firmly convinced that a truly democratic system is the best and the most beneficial system of governance for the Palestinians.
Palestinian society is pluralistic, mostly secular, highly politicized, and quite sophisticated.
Yet, the institutions now being put in place, and the practices being used, are far from democratic. Few people realize the extent of disorientation that resulted from the quick events that led to the first Oslo agreement. A new reality was established, based on an international consensus that the Palestine problem must be settled. Criticism of Oslo was marginalized and quickly superseded by events. For a while, people were led to believe that the opposition comprised only extremist and fundamentalist religious groups.