Al-Masarat, Ramallah, Originally posted in Arabic on April 5
During the negotiations leading up to the signing of the Oslo Accords between the Israelis and the Palestinians in the early 90’s, King Hussein of Jordan gave a candid interview to an Egyptian newspaper. In the interview, the King claimed that Israel is not interested in giving up any of the territories it occupied, including the West Bank. “If Israel were interested,” he claimed, “Jordan would have been the most natural partner; but since Israel did not agree to hand over the West Bank to the Jordanians, it is highly unlikely that it would agree to do so to a hostile Palestinian entity like the PLO.”
Today, almost two decades later, the belated King’s remarks could not be truer. With no viable political solution in the horizon, and given the continued brutal Israeli occupation, it is evident that the Israelis were never genuinely interested in relinquishing control over the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israel’s strategy is to waste time. It is waiting for the perfect opportunity to get rid of the Palestinian population, which would allow it to complete the task of annexing their lands.
In the meantime, the Occupation continues to deny equal rights to Arabs, while ignoring the existence of a Palestinian populous. In the wake of this despair, some Palestinian commentators have recently raised the drastic idea of handing over the West Bank to the Jordanians and Gaza to the Egyptians. This is a destructive idea. This idea itself is dangerous and in any event, neither Jordan nor Egypt would agree to it.
However, our criticism of the Palestinian leadership, no matter how dysfunctional we think it is, must not make us loose hope for a just solution to the Palestinian problem. We must not throw away dozens of years of sacrifice and suffering because of internal political debates. This will not lead us anywhere. – Hani al-Masry