Creating A New Palestine
By: Dave Olsen
Tags: Politics, World, Democracy, Israel, Peace

Creating A New Palestine

Separate from their toxic, undemocratic, uncooperative Palestinian Authority and leader, Mahmoud Abbas.

Photo by Haley Black from Pexels

In 2009, a fault line emerged in Palestine.

Mahmoud Abbas, elected President of the Palestinian National Authority in 2005 to serve a four-year term, announced that he would be extending his term indefinitely, citing the constitution of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Hamas, the main opposition of Abbas’ Fatah party, denounced the PLO, establishing a rival authority of the state of Palestine.

While Abbas and the PNA are still internationally recognised as the legitimate leadership of Palestine, and while they remain the negotiators for Palestine in peace talks, this created a pernicious divide in the representation of Palestinians.

And, over time, as Abbas became more undemocratic, extending his term by almost 11 years so far, and as the PLO became less and less willing to engage in serious negotiations, a divide has emerged between the two competing authorities, one of which is a terrorist organisation and the other of which is undemocratic and illegitimate, and the views of the Palestinian people.

As relations between Arab states and Israel normalise, with Saudi Arabia and other preferring to leave infighting behind to singularly oppose Iran to prevent its regional dominance, the need for a peace deal which gives the Palestinian people what they need and deserve becomes ever greater. There is, moreover, the issue of Arab and Christian minorities in Israel, who are the subject of great concern from Palestine.

In order to achieve Palestine’s objectives of territorial integrity in the Gaza strip, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank — as well as many ambitions to claim a full, joined strip of land in the south of modern-day Israel to provide some geopolitical stability, a deal has to be agreed soon.

And neither the Palestinian Authority nor Hamas can claim any legitimacy in representing the Palestinian people in peace talks. Leaving behind any considerations of how Trump is dealing with the process, recognising the true will of Palestine is crucial to a successful, sustainable conclusion to these talks.

Therefore, in the absence of a truly democratic and legitimate authority to conduct these talks with, the best solution is a good-faith, fair deal imposed onto Palestine (with Israel’s consent), that guarantees the nation statehood and sovereignty over their desired and rightful territory.

Along with the economic portion of the President’s deal, which pledges $50bn for Palestine, there should be a democratisation promise. After the deal is imposed, there must be a bottom-up process of citizens’ assemblies to create the democratic institutions that the Palestinians want and deserve.

Only through deliberative, consensual democracy can such a controversial and conflict-ridden situation be resolved.

However, while I have abstained from criticising Trump thus far in this article, any imposed, “fill in the blanks” sort of deal absolutely demands an honest, fair broker, operating in good faith.

Either, this should be a new President (if the election produces one), or, failing that, a different leader, such as Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron, or Angela Merkel. The latter of this trio seems best-placed to conduct a deal, with so many years of experience and so much experience in compromise, but either of the other two is a good candidate for the job.

Abbas and Hamas do not represent the people they claim to; they are narrow, extreme sects of Palestinian society, and they do not deserve a seat at the table. That does not mean, however, that we can leave Palestine behind in the peace deal.

The only way out of this situation is to create a new Palestine, one conducive to international relations and one governed by guaranteed human rights and the will of its own people.

This would be the greatest test yet for deliberative democracy, but it could represent a huge success for its proponents if it works.