Fatah

Palestinian youth burn tires during clashes with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Ramallah, October 4, 2015.AFP

Isra Almodallal, the first woman to be nominated as spokeswoman for Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas, is seen in her office in
Gaza City, on November 4, 2013. Almodallal, a 23-year-old journalist, told AFP last week her goal was “to change the image of Palestinians and that of the government in Gaza,”. AFP PHOTO/MOHAMMED ABED -Courtesy Veterans today

Start communicating or forget dreams of freedom

“What is the Palestinian strategy?” is a question that I have been asked all too often, including on 15 May, the day that millions of Palestinians around the world commemorated the 67th anniversary of the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians by Zionist militias in 1947-48.
The question itself doesn’t require much elaboration, as in, “What is the Palestinian strategy to combat Israeli military occupation, siege violence, apartheid and racial discrimination?” The painful reality is well known to many, although few take on the moral responsibility to confront it.

The Palestinian Embassy in London recently released a statement by President Mahmoud Abbas telling the world ‘It’s Time for Palestine’.
He starts by saying:

View of the entrance of Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, on the edge of Damascus (Photo: Carole Alfarah Agence France-Presse)

if Hamas and Fatah were to put aside their political differences, even just long enough to help their fellow refugees in Lebanon achieve dignity and elementary civil rights this mutual reconciliation effort would likely soon lead to wider Hamas-Fatah unity and intensify solidarity among the Palestinian refugee community and accelerate return to their homeland, Palestine.

When news reports alleged that the two cousins behind the Jerusalem synagogue attack on 18 November were affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a level of confusion reigned. Why the PFLP? Why now?

Tense situation: An Israeli soldier watches as protesters avoid a tear gas fired by the Israeli army during a protest over tension in Jerusalem, near the West Bank village of Hizma, south-east of Ramallah, last week (Image credit DailyMail -Reuters)
 
 

 The fifth column that benefits from Palestinian division and that feels threatened by its end is still searching for opportunities to sabotage Palestinian national reconciliation. It must have seen the Gaza bombings as a perfect opportunity to fan the flames of discord, offering a service free of charge to the occupation (presuming the best possible intentions under that situation), or not free of charge (presuming the worst).

Is this not the ultimate betrayal?

My compatriots, Mr. Abbas has just withdrawn the dagger from deep in the heart of Palestine and placed it firmly unsheathed and ready to cross the jugular. Please don’t allow him to administer the final and fatal cut to our hopes and aspirations.

The taste of betrayal is most bitter because it never comes from your enemies.

 

Treason: The betraying of one’s country… Oxford English Dictionary
 

Israel has never renounced violence. It repeatedly wages war and unleashes its instruments of state terrorism against the Palestinians under occupation. It has flagrantly and repeatedly violated every agreement signed with the PLO. It has not even reciprocated the PLO’s recognition of Israel, nor has it officially acknowledged the Palestinians’ right to establish a Palestinian state.