Born out of a lecture on the ‘deal of the century’, Palestine: Matters of Truth and Justice offers a thought-provoking analysis of the Palestine-Israel conflict, settler colonialism, occupation, and the issue of Palestinian nationhood. In the book, prominent scholar Azmi Bishara advocates for a justice-based approach and makes the important distinction of approaching the issue at hand with objectivity rather than neutrality.

Palestine: Matters of Truth and Justice is composed of two parts; First is a historical account and reflections on history, and the second addresses the Trump-Netanyahu deal, the concepts of settler colonialism and apartheid, and the question as to what comes next in the future.

The book begins by emphasizing the significance of the Nakba (Palestinian Catastrophe), not merely as a historical context but a central element in understanding the ongoing issue. Bishara delves into the Nakba’s impact and its symbolic importance. The book highlights the core problem as settler colonialism, which involved occupation, expropriation, ethnic cleansing, and the displacement of the native population to establish a Jewish state.

When examining the Trump-Netanyahu deal, Bishara highlights the economic and political incentives and alliances that influenced it. He addresses the embrace of religious Zionism in the Trump administration and its role in the deal, and underscores how regional governments have sought to sideline the Palestinian cause and normalize relations with Israel.

The book concludes by discussing potential future strategies for the Palestinian struggle. Bishara indentifies that the task ahead is not ultimately theoretical and abstract but also practical and strategic- depending on a number of factors including political actors, the strength of resistance and the nature of international order.

In summary, the book provides a comprehensive analysis of the historical context, complexities, and possible paths forward in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, emphasizing the significance of justice as a fundamental aspect of resolution.

The book comes as a valuable source following the escalation on October 7 that developed into a humanitarian crisis with Israel’s heavy bombardment in Gaza. As an urgent path to longlasting peace is needed, Palestine: Matters of Justice and Truth may offer some answers.

Azmi Bishara, Palestine: Matters of Justice and Truth (Hurst Publishers, 2022) ISBN: 9781787387102, 360 pages

Ilan Pappe’s remarkable work, Ten Myths about Israel, takes a fearless approach to scrutinizing the contested ideas surrounding the origins and identity of the contemporary state of Israel while offering a critical examination of the past, the present, and the path ahead. In this insightful exploration, Pappe meticulously dismantles ten myths, etched into the collective consciousness, that have long perpetuated and shaped our understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Focusing on the fallacies of the past, Pappe confronts six enduring misconceptions. The first myth contends that Palestine was an empty land, a claim he systematically debunks by delving into the historical record. The second myth suggests that the Jews were a people without a land, a notion Pappe addresses with a nuanced perspective that challenges conventional wisdom.

Myth number three posits that Zionism is synonymous with Judaism, a misconception that Pappe dissects to reveal its fallacious underpinnings. He also tackles the assertion that Zionism is not colonialism. Pappe’s exploration examines the formation of Zionism and its instrumental role in the early phases of nation-building

The fifth myth claims that the Palestinian population voluntarily left their homeland in 1948, a narrative that Pappe refutes by drawing from historical accounts and testimonies. The sixth myth revolves around the belief that the June 1967 War was a conflict of “no choice,” an assumption he subjects to rigorous examination.

Pappe then shifts his focus to the fallacies of the present, highlighting three prevalent myths that continue to shape the discourse on Israel. Myth number seven proposes that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, a claim he scrutinizes through the lens of contemporary politics and policy.

T

hanks to the Iraqi army, the Palestinian city of Jenin was not captured in 1948 when Israel was created. The Iraqi army was able to retake the city, and the dozens of graves in the Iraqi Army Martyrs’ Cemeteries bear witness to the battle that took place there against armed Jewish militias, which eventually lost control of the city. But in 1967, Jenin was captured when Israel “finished the job” and occupied the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Sinai, and the Golan Heights in the Six-Day War.

Just outside the city of Jenin, a refugee camp was built in 1948 and became home to thousands of Palestinian refugees who were expelled at gunpoint when Israel was created. In 1967, more Palestinians were driven from Jenin into Jordan, becoming refugees for a second time. Mornings in Jenin is a novel by Palestinian writer Susan Abulhawa that tells the story of a Palestinian family from the village of Ein Hod, near Haifa, who became refugees in Jenin in 1948. The scenes of Palestinians leaving the refugee camp en masse on July 4 was a stark reminder of the Nakba.

Jenin is more than a Palestinian refugee camp. It is a symbol of the refugee issue and of the defiance in the face of Israel’s expansion; in 2005, Israel withdrew from the Hermesh settlement near Jenin when it also decided to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. The right-wing Israeli coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu decided to legalize the settlement as part of its drive to expand settlements and annex parts of the West Bank, namely Area C, which makes up 60% of the territory. In the eyes of Israel’s most right-wing government, the 2005 disengagement from Gaza and parts of the northern West Bank was a strategic mistake that needed to be reversed.

Area C and taming Jenin

For this reason, and to pave the way for Israel’s plans to annex Area C of the West Bank, the Israeli army has launched a campaign targeting the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. Over the past year, Israel has carried out repeated incursions into the refugee camp, killing dozens of Palestinians. For Israel, the crushing of any Palestinian resistance is a precondition for its annexation plan. For the first time since 2002, when Israel razed the Jenin refugee camp to the ground, the Israeli army used drones and helicopters to demolish dozens of Palestinian homes, calling the incursion “Operation Home and Garden.”

Ironically, Operation Home and Garden left many Palestinian homes and gardens in Jenin in ruins. Israeli bulldozers deliberately destroyed roads, targeted media and medical crews, and forced thousands of Palestinian refugees out of the camp after threatening to bomb their homes. In this manner, Israel announced the start of the second phase of the operation in which it plans to target every single house in the refugee camp and capture or kill Palestinian armed men inside the crowded refugee camp. So far, the Israeli operation in Jenin has killed 12 Palestinians and injured 100 others, 20 of whom are in critical condition.

The Israeli army will extend its operations to other towns and refugee camps in the West Bank—Jenin is just the beginning. The Israeli government is determined to confiscate more Palestinian land, demolish more Palestinian homes, and give the green light to Israeli settlers to carry out more pogroms against Palestinian towns, as happened recently in the West Bank towns of Huwara and Turmus Ayya.

Jenin is the only the start

Palestinians on the ground know only too well that Israel will never leave the West Bank and will only expand there. They also knew back in 1993 when the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel agreed to establish a Palestinian state “within five years,” it was simply a trap and that Israel would never have allowed the Palestinians to have their own sovereign and independent state. All the Palestinians can aspire to is a couple of mayorships outside Area C of the West Bank, without any political representation or rights. The Israeli invasion of the Jenin refugee camp, and probably other West Bank towns, is proof of this.

In Israel’s eyes, Palestinians are merely cheap laborers that can build Israeli cities and settlements, and granting them full rights is out of the question. For Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, who make up 20% of Israel’s population, all that is in store for them is more violence and crime that will eventually force them to leave, without the Israeli police ever intervening to make any arrests. What is certain, sadly, is that there are worse days ahead for the Palestinian people and that their conditions will only get worse under Israel’s continuing military occupation: Jenin is only the beginning.

All facts on the ground in Palestine today speak of one reality: the Palestinian Authority (PA), which was created by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), has practically swallowed up its umbrella organization, making it increasingly insignificant despite claims by PA officials that the PLO is still the sole representatives of the Palestinian people.

The Central Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is headed by Mahmoud Abbas, 86, and consists of 141 members, who are supposed to represent all Palestinian parties and bodies in the organization, including grassroots groups. On February 8, 2022, the committee voted to appoint Rawhi Fattouh, 73, the former speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), as a member of the PLO’s Executive Committee and the new chairman of the Palestinian National Council (PNC), the legislative body of the PLO, replacing Salim Zanoun, 88, who had been serving as its chairman since 1993.

It also voted to appoint Hussein Al-Sheikh, the head of the General Authority of Civil Affairs of the Palestinian Authority (PA), as a new member of the Executive Committee, replacing the top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who was the secretary general of the PLO’s Executive Committee until his death by COVID19 in 2020.

New Appointments, Old Policy

The appointments of Fattouh and Al-Sheikh were met by protests from smaller PLO parties such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), two political parties with insignificant political representation in the Palestinian Legislative Council. The council’s most recent elections were held in 2006, and it was later dissolved by Abbas on December 22, 2018.

Other Palestinian political parties, which have a political representation similar or stronger than that of Fatah, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, are not part of the PLO. For years, talks to include them have failed to materialize into an agreement because, partially, they both refuse to recognize Israel – as opposed to the PLO which did so in 1993.

Fatah rejected the PFLP and DFLP’s criticisms of appointing Al-Sheikh and Fattouh, noting that it has the majority in the Central Committee. This is true but is only so because other parties did not join in the election yet. Hamas won 76 out of 120 seats in the PLC election in 2006 while Islamic Jihad refused to run as it considered the election part of the Oslo Accords between the PLO and Israel, which it refuses. In the Oslo Accords, the PLO recognized Israel as a state and Israel recognized the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinian people.

Later it was revealed that Abbas issued a decree that declared the institutions of the PLO, the umbrella organization of the PA, as institutions of the PA. This caused much outrage on Palestinian streets, pushing Abbas to reverse the decision, according to Wasil Abu Yousef, a member of the Executive Committee, who stressed the need to keep the PLO’s institutions independent of the PA.

Israel’s Army Minister Benny Gantz: “Palestinians in the future will have an entity not a state.”

Meanwhile, Israel’s Army Minister Benny Gantz told the Munich Security Conference on February 20, 2022, that Palestinians in the future will have an entity not a state, and this entity should respect what he called the “security needs of Israel.” He added, “Eventually we will find ourselves in a two-entity solution, in which we respect Palestinian sovereignty and governance, but we will be respected for our security needs.”

The majority of the world, all Palestinians, and many Israelis know that a Palestinian state, which the PLO created the PA to prepare Palestinians for, will not see the light anytime soon – if at all. What we have today on the ground is a Palestinian entity, which does not represent all Palestinians, both in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and which has practically swallowed up the PLO, its own umbrella organization.

The Way Out?

Palestinians today rarely hear of the PLO and its institutions, and the younger generation has little idea about its structures, roles, and bodies. In light of the PLO not including other major parties, for many Palestinians – although some still view the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people – it is an inactive body which is only brought and pushed to the agenda when the PA needs it for the sake of galvanizing legitimacy.

The PA gaining legitimacy from the PLO included inviting the PNC to be held in Gaza in 1996 after nearly five years (it had last been held in 1991), and after abrupt sessions over the 1970s and 1980s. The goal was to nullify important articles in the PNC’s charter to make it consistent with the Oslo Accords, such as recognizing Israel and denouncing violence. Since then, the PNA was held in 2009 and 2018, but was boycotted by the major Palestinian parties with the exception of Fatah.

The question is what is the point behind sticking to Oslo, which has made Palestinians more divided and has deprived Palestinians both in Palestine and the diaspora of representation? More so, this entity has failed to prepare Palestinians for statehood and has practically swallowed up the PLO, its own umbrella organization. This is especially true in light of repeated Israeli statements that there will be no Palestinian state.

The PA and the PLO, having a blurry relationship. to the extent that it not possible to distinguish the two bodies, might indirectly push other Palestinian parties, including critical voices within Fatah itself, to take actions to ‘reclaim’ representation, which will only leave the Palestinians move divided. The PLO, the sole representative of the Palestinian people, should take moves to reform the organization especially in light of Israel’s insistence not to grant the Palestinians a state of their own.

On the morning of May 10, 2021, I rolled out of bed and headed to Capital Mall, Gaza’s only shopping mall. My plan was to buy a gray hat for my son Ayman (4) and pink hair clips for my daughter Mariam (3) to complement their Eid clothes. I wanted to please my kids and avoid their temper tantrums.

On the evening of the same day, however, my concern shifted to whether I will die or live, whether I will leave my kids behind or we will all die together.

On that evening, Israel started a war on the Gaza Strip and used internationally prohibited weapons: a total of 1,500 strikes took place in the 11-day war, injuring 1,900 Palestinians, and killing at least 260. Gaza health authorities reported 39 women, 17 elderly, and 66 children among the dead, and 1,800 houses, 3 towers, 437 apartments, and 3 mosques destroyed.

When the Israeli warplanes hit Gaza again recently, my daughter, Mariam, woke up from her nap, crying because of the loud noise. This brought back memories of the May war seven months ago.

A day before the war, we were eagerly awaiting Eid al-Fitr. I remember the smiley little faces of my kids while they rummaged through the shopping bags to see what I had bought. Mariam loved her new hair clips; however, Ayman didn’t like his new hat and tossed it to the side. I promised him I will replace it with whatever he liked. My kids are everything to me.

When the Israeli warplanes hit Gaza again recently, my daughter, Mariam, woke up from her nap, crying because of the loud noise. This brought back memories of the May war seven months ago.

A day after the start of the May war, we heard the shocking news that Israel had threatened to destroy the Hanadi Tower using warplanes. My thoughts traveled, “Is it going to be destroyed? Are they going to start a war? Is it our turn to die? What would happen to my kids if I were no longer around?”

What should I answer? He hadn’t lived through such terrible events before, and he is too young to understand the horrible truth. So, I decided to lie. “They are fireworks to celebrate the coming Eid.”

He looked at me, unconvinced, and asked, “Why is this tower being destroyed on TV?”

I smiled sadly and said, “They destroyed it because it’s old and they didn’t want it anymore.” He was convinced.

The next day, Al-Shorouq Tower was also threatened to be leveled to the ground in ten minutes by Israeli warplanes. It hosted nothing but companies, businesses, and press offices and was located at the heart of Gaza City, opposite my family’s house. My parents didn’t have time to leave their home. I called my mother to beg them to come to my place, but she said, “There is not enough time and no vehicles to pick us up. If we go on foot, the shrapnel will kill us. And if the tower collapses on us, we will die.”

I couldn’t hold my tears, I hung up the phone, waited for their news, and sent my prayers to God. One of my eyes was on the TV and the other on the window waiting for an explosion to happen.

A few minutes later, the awaited explosion occurred and Al-Shorouq Tower was leveled to the ground by Israeli F-16s warplanes. I didn’t dare to call my parents. How would I live without them? I am still young and I needed them. Ayman interrupted my tears, “Mom, why are you crying? Don’t be sad, they don’t need this tower anymore; it is old,” he innocently comforted me.

I took a deep breath and played the strong mom’s role and lied again, “Yes, that is true. But I’m worried about your grandfather and grandmother.” I picked up my phone to call them. I received a message. My mother wrote to me: “Don’t worry. We are completely fine. The house was damaged badly, but it’s okay.”

I was confused whether to feel happy for my parents’ safety or to feel sad for the disaster and destruction.

Every night, my husband and I would take shifts. One stays awake, and the other sleeps until the next explosion. We slept on the floor to protect our children from any flying glass.

Despite the danger that surrounded my mother, she used to contact me every single hour to make sure that we were fine. There is nothing in this world like a mother.

The morning after the war, I was busy cleaning the house, when little Ayman asked me, “Mom, did the fireworks end? Is today finally Eid? Can we go out now?” I said that we could. When I looked at him, he was putting on his gray hat, the one he had disliked before the war.

I smiled and thanked God that we were somehow back to our normal life.

When Arabs arrived in Central and South America, they had nothing but the clothes they wore. They were called “Turcos” as they carried Ottoman passports. Today, they are wealthy and occupy important positions. Are they “sons who lost their mothers,” as a poet once put it? Do they maintain their ties to Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, the lands of their ancestors? Yousef M. Aljamal of Politics Today spoke with Simán Khoury, a Palestinian-Salvadorian, who serves as the president of the Palestinian Federations in Latin America, about the ethnically Arab populations in Latin America today.

Q. When people of the Levant arrived in Latin America in the late nineteenth century, they were called “Turcos.” Can you tell us about this? What does it mean and how do South Americans perceived the term?

The Arab immigration, especially from the Levant or Greater Syria, to Latin America was mostly in the late nineteenth century during the period of the Ottoman Empire. All those immigrants held Ottoman passports. So basically, people there did not distinguish between Arabs and Turks, and they called us all “Turcos” (Turks).

Q. What is the reason for this contempt of “Turcos”?

The majority of those who immigrated at that time were poor and ordinary people, mostly peasants. Ordinary Latin Americans, who lived and thought in feudal structures, considered them as inferior, lower-class people.

When our grandparents and our great-grandparents arrived there, four, five, or six generations back, they did it barefoot, which means that they were in a dire economic situation.

Q. What was the stereotype in the minds of immigrants about Latin America? I mean economically.

They were men of modest substance. Everyone wanted to go to America, meaning North America, and had no idea about possible differences between North, Central, and South America. They thought that they were going to North America. However, they arrived at Puerto Colombia, in Colombia, or in Cuba, where they split up. Some went to Chile, some went to El Salvador, and from there to other places, especially the places where they had relatives, if any.

Q. Why are Levant immigrants mainly concentrated in Chile, El Salvador, and Honduras?

There are about a million Palestinian immigrants in Latin America. The majority almost are from Palestine, especially from Bethlehem. In addition, the majority of those immigrants were Palestinian Christians from the city of Bethlehem. Chile has about half a million Palestinians, and there are maybe some 200,000 in Honduras, and 120,000 in El Salvador. Although there are people who say that these numbers are exaggerated, I am sure that they exist and we have statistics supporting that.

Chile has about half a million Palestinians, and there are maybe some 200,000 in Honduras, and 120,000 in El Salvador.

Q. There is a saying, which goes “In every town in Chile, there is a priest, a policeman, and a Palestinian.” Can you tell us more about Palestinians’ impact in Latin America today? What are their positions, their economic status, their cultural, political, and societal status?

When immigrants arrived, they were in a miserable economic situation and suffered from extreme poverty, but they managed to integrate. First, they worked as street vendors and this contributed to their marginalization by the feudal and wealthy classes. But they managed to set up shops and work in textile factories. Gradually, their financial situation improved, which led to an improvement in their social situation. These immigrants struggled for their children to live a better life. They sent their children to schools and universities, and were able to obtain a better social status.

Q. You have spoken about the relations that still link the Latin American Levantines with the Middle East. How do you see the new generation, especially with the Internet and easy access to information? Do they try to restore this relationship and the link between them and their countries of origin? If yes, how do they express this?

Although these migrations took place a long time ago, 80, 100, or 120 years ago – for example, I immigrated 41 years ago – the link between Palestinians and their homeland, despite the fact that they belong in the countries they are currently in, is excellent. They visit their homelands, whether Palestine, Syria or Lebanon – especially the Lebanese, who live in large numbers in Brazil, reaching 7 million.

They still send money and other kinds of aid, whether from Chile, Brazil, or El Salvador to their families there and continue to visit them. As an expression of our cultural identity, we participate in pro-Palestine political and cultural events on every possible occasion and follow the latest news. We have activities, including political ones, to support the Palestinian cause. We have many people in El Salvador who are politically active and support the cause.

Q. Historically, the relationship between South and Central America and the Middle East is strong, but recently, there has been a rise of the right wing in South and Central America. This, of course, also applies to the whole world. Do you observe any impact of this trend on South American interest in Middle Eastern affairs?

This has a great impact on our relationship. In 2017, with the presence of a left-wing government and the activism of the Palestinian community, we were able to close the Israeli embassy in El Salvador. However, the current situation is different due to the economic power of the Jewish lobby in South America.

In 2017, with the presence of a left-wing government and the activism of the Palestinian community, we were able to close the Israeli embassy in El Salvador.

At present, Palestinian embassies are not showing enough effort to influence these countries diplomatically and win their support. This is surprising because this cause is fundamental, it is about displaced people who are being expelled from their lands by brutal force. I personally blame Palestinian diplomacy because there are many countries, even when Chile was ruled by the right, which are still supportive of Palestine. For example, the President of the Republic of El Salvador Elías Antonio Saca González visited Palestine and he was a right-wing politician. He visited his family, the city of Bethlehem and Palestine, while currently, there are leftist countries that try to destroy these relations.

Two months ago, we published an article on the controversial issue of using models with the Palestinian keffiyeh in the training of the Panamanian police by the Israeli police. What are the reflections on this in local society?

Even though we have a large group of Palestinians in Panama, who have the upper hand in the country economically, the incident shows that the Israeli lobby is strong. I have personally been to the city of Cologne, where the greatest merchants in the Colon Free Zone are Palestinians. The community is doing what it can and we cannot blame them. What’s sad is that the Palestinian community has not had enough support from the Palestinian government or the PLO during the last three or four decades.

Is it possible to form a lobby that supports the rights and demands of the Arab Middle Eastern communities in Central and South America, similar to, for example, the Jewish lobby in the U.S. so that it presses, for example, for the recognition of the Palestinian state? In entire South America, Mexico and Panama are the two states, which haven’t yet recognized Palestine.

There is a lobby in Chile. For example, we have around 12 parliamentarians of Palestinian origin, and there is a league of these parliamentarians to support the Palestinian cause.

There is a lobby in Chile. For example, we have around 12 parliamentarians of Palestinian origin, and there is a league of these parliamentarians to support the Palestinian cause. Similarly, although this lobby is currently less effective in El Salvador, they nurture considerable support in Latin America in general.

Following the United Nations Resolution 181, also known as the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, on November 29, 1947, which called for establishing two states in Palestine, an Arab and a Jewish one, the only fact that has materialized on the ground today is a Jewish state for Israeli Jews. The Palestinian people are still struggling to build their own state 73 years down the road, living today as a diaspora, in refugee camps in neighboring countries, or in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with almost no rights.

Palestinians rejected the UN Partition Plan in 1947 because it gave Jews, most of whom were migrants and who made 33% of the population and owned nearly 6% of the land, 55% of Mandatory Palestine, while it gave Palestinians, who made 77% of the native population and owned 94% of the land, 45% of it. Jerusalem was designed as an international zone.

According to this UN plan, the rights of the native population, including their cultural and political rights, should not be harmed. Yet, what happened was the exact opposite: the majority of Palestinians became refugees and the newly established Jewish state took over 78% of the land.

Palestinians who remained in the Gaza Strip fell under Egyptian control and those who remained in the West Bank fell under Jordanian control. The Palestinian state was never established in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank because Palestinians, many of whom were refugees from what became Israel, never believed that Palestine is only the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The discourse of major Palestinian political parties and later, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), following the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, throughout the 1950s and 1960s, was about establishing a democratic state in Mandatory Palestine where Muslims, Christians, and Jews would live in peace. This is still the official program of some leftist Palestinian parties such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

The Palestinian state was never established in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank because Palestinians, many of whom were refugees from what became Israel, never believed that Palestine is only the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The failure to materialize a one-state solution in Palestine meant that the PLO would adopt a stance that is more willing to accept a two-state solution. This is especially true with the Palestinian Declaration of Independence proclaimed in Algiers in 1988, which called for establishing a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, namely the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

With a Palestinian population of five million in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and nearly 1.8 million in Israel, Palestinians have become the majority between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. All attempts to erase the existence and identity of Palestinians have failed, and Israel today, considering its refusal of the two-state solution – which was born dead anyway – is faced with one reality: apartheid, where the minority governs the majority.

With a Palestinian population of five million in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and nearly 1.8 million in Israel, Palestinians have become the majority between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, whose presidency term ended in 2009, warned Israel during the 76^th UN General Assembly that an apartheid one-state reality is emerging in Palestine/Israel, and that if the latter does not end its military occupation of the Palestinian territories in one year, the PLO will withdraw its recognition of Israel.

“Circumstances on the ground will inevitably impose equal and full political rights for all on the land of historical Palestine, within one state,” he said. Neither Israel nor the majority of Palestinians take Abbas’s declarations seriously, and polls suggest his popularity is at its lowest levels.

The truth is that engaging with Israel in peace talks by counting on its goodwill gestures alone was a strategic mistake by the PLO in the first place. Israel has only utilized these negotiations and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority to advance its expansion plans, and to claim before the whole world that it is not an occupying power and that the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are “disputed territories.” Not only this, the PLO’s entry into peace talks with Israel has created a serious Palestinian political rift that Palestinians are yet to recover from.

The PLO should correct its strategic mistake of 1993 and call on all Palestinians, regardless of their location, to adopt a struggle on the premises of achieving equal rights. In practical terms, this includes Palestinians in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian diaspora, and those living in today’s Israel.

This struggle by definition includes the demand that all Palestinian refugees be allowed to return back – including to what is today Israel. This approach also means that Palestinians should be treated and act based on the notion that they are a unified collective that see their shared future together regardless of the divisions imposed on them, be they geographic or political.

Without a shadow of a doubt, calling for equal rights in Palestine means establishing one state that includes Israeli Jews who wish to live in peace. As time has proven, any other solution that ignores the historical injustices against the Palestinians and the question of Palestinian refugees is doomed to fail.

Today, Gaza’s population has hit the 2.25 million milestone, and in the third quarter of this year alone, 15,216 Palestinian babies were born in the Gaza Strip. The situation in Palestine is unsustainable and it is only a matter of time before things run out of hand. Then, it might be too late for Israel to keep Palestinians under control, because investing in apartheid is not a winning strategy.

Young Palestinians should take the initiative to give life to the aging political parties and leadership, and make sure that their voices are heard. Once they have embraced the younger generations, these aging Palestinian political parties and leaders should adopt a unified strategy based on calling for the granting of full rights to Palestinians and allowing refugees to return back to their homes and towns, based on UN Resolution 194.

This means that a one-state reality in Palestine, completely free of apartheid, is the only way out. Given that this is materializing anyway on the ground thanks to Israeli policies which are replete with apartheid, it seems a matter of time before Palestinians adopt a one-state solution approach with equal rights as the way forward.

In late June 2006, and soon after Palestinian factions captured the Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit in an attack against an Israeli military outpost southeast of Gaza, Israel started a destructive military operation in the coastal enclave to bring its solider back. One of the main infrastructures destroyed by Israel’s military operation in Gaza at the time was Gaza’s only power plant, located in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp where I grew up.

Israel’s F-16s destroyed the power plant with a dozen missiles as my family gathered in the middle of the night to seek some sort of protection. I remember that night vividly as my mother brought us together while Israeli warplanes fired their missiles at the power plant a mile away from my family’s house. The house would shake and the screams of children at night would be heard even clearer, breaking the relative silence of the night which was violated by the sonic sounds of the Israeli warplanes.

In the same year, my youngest brother Omar was born. Today, he is 15 years old – the number of years of Israel’s siege on Gaza – and he has probably not enjoyed a single full day of electricity in his entire life in Gaza. The year 2006 saw the start of the power outages crisis in the coastal enclave, which has only got worse over the years. At the start of the crisis, electricity was cu off for four hours a day. As the demand for more electricity increased with Gaza’s population doubling by some 70,000 a year, and as fewer people were able to pay electricity bills due to the lack of jobs, the crisis has only got worse.

For years, Israel has prevented the entry of materials needed to fix the damaged power engines and the oil tanks destroyed by its warplanes. In many instances, Israel would link allowing shipments of manufactured fuel to run the Gaza Power Plant to ceasing hostilities. Meanwhile Gaza’s power plant, which produces 140 MW of Gaza’s total need of 450 MW, has rarely been able to function at full capacity. Gaza depends on other sources to cover the rest of its needs including two Egyptian and Israeli supply lines. In many instances, these two lines have gone down, and Israel has used the pretext of the security situation in the Gaza Strip to postpone fixing the Israeli supply line.

The electricity crisis has impacted all aspects of life in Gaza. From 2006 to this day, dozens of patients have passed away due to the lack of electricity in the intensive care units (ICUs).

As forest fires continue unabated in many parts of the world due to the recent heat wave, one can only imagine what this heat wave means for the people of Gaza. In a place like Gaza, where green areas are limited, and where thousands of people live in tin houses in ever-crowded refugee camps, the heat is even worse. The only place people can escape to is the Mediterranean Sea, much of which is polluted by untreated sewage water that is pumped into the sea because the only desalination treatment in the Gaza Stirp was also destroyed by Israel in 2008/9.

The electricity crisis has impacted all aspects of life in Gaza. From 2006 to this day, dozens of patients have passed away due to the lack of electricity in the intensive care units (ICUs). It has become nearly impossible for students to sit their exams or study due to the lack of electricity. Many factories and industries have stopped working due to the lack of electricity which is crucial to their functioning. All the people living in Gaza have had to change their lifestyle including when to cook, use the washing machines, or sleep, based on the power outage schedule.

So far, the international community has failed to provide tangible solutions to Gaza’s ongoing electricity crisis. First, it has failed to make Israel accountable and ensure it does not target Gaza’s already fragile electricity infrastructure. The international community has also failed to pressure Israel to allow the implementation of long-term projects in the Gaza Stirp that would solve the issue of power outages in the coastal enclave such as the proposal by Turkey to send a floating power plant; the proposal by Qatar to convert the power plant so that it operates on gas and to establish a gas line to provide Gaza’s power plant with the needed gas; or Algeria’s proposal to send fuel to operate the power plant.

The Palestinian division between Hamas and Fatah has added fuel to the fire in this regard. In many instances, the Palestinian governments of Gaza and the West Bank would exchange accusations over who is responsible for the crisis. Meanwhile, Israel, the occupying power, which should provide Palestinians with all needed services according to international law, acts with impunity.

The international community should hold Israel responsible and make sure that it provides Palestinians, who live under its tight siege in Gaza, with electricity.

The people of Gaza, who have experienced four major Israel offensives – the latest of which was in May 2021 and which resulted in the destruction of more infrastructure in the Gaza Stirp – deserve to live in dignity and to enjoy full, basic services. The international community should hold Israel responsible and make sure that it provides Palestinians, who live under its tight siege in Gaza, with electricity.

The denial of basic rights to the Palestinians has created a Palestinian generation that sees no hope in achieving a just solution to their plight. Meanwhile, the continuing electricity crisis in Gaza means that it is only a matter of time before another Palestinian family dies in a fire caused by candles.

Israel and the international community should fear the reaction of people like my youngest brother Omar. The situation in the Gaza Strip is unsustainable, and if the dignity and freedom of Palestinians there are not respected, regional security will always be at stake, and it will be a matter of time before another conflict breaks out, bringing even more destruction to Gaza’s infrastructure.

Most young Palestinians were born after the signing between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel of the Oslo Accords in the White House in 1993. The agreement was based on the two-state solution paradigm and promised Palestinians peace and a sovereign state; however, the agreement has never materialized. Palestinian intellectuals such as Edward Said, Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, and Walid Khalidi, foresaw that the Oslo Accords were a trap for the PLO, with Said calling it a “second Nakba.”

Long ago young Palestinians lost any hope in the so-called peace process, which served only to marginalize the PLO’s role by creating a Palestinian Authority (PA) that has a limited sovereignty and power, and that would serve as a barrier between them and the Israeli occupation. The Oslo Accords have turned the West Bank and the Gaza Strip from occupied territories to disputed territories. Israel has not stopped building new settlements in the Palestinian territories and the land of the future Palestinian state has shrunk over time, while the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank has jumped to over half a million.

Young Palestinians have grown up under this reality of Israeli military occupation. Many are stopped at checkpoints, not allowed to travel, detained and tortured, and displaced to make space for new Israeli settlers. They have completely lost hope in the peace process that was meant to lead to the creation of their own state on 22% of British Mandate Palestine.

Palestinians in Israel are treated as second-class citizens and Israel’s systematic targeting of their presence continues unabated. Palestinians in the West Bank feel that their lands are shrinking and fear for their lives as they are increasingly attacked by Israeli settlers under the protection of Israeli forces.

Moreover, Palestinians in Jerusalem feel strangers in their own city, with Israeli plans underway to displace them in the neighborhoods of Silwan, Sheikh Jarrah, and Batin Al-Hawa. If they are “lucky,” as dozens of instances show, they choose to destroy their houses to avoid paying the high costs imposed by the Israeli municipality to cover the costs of demolition.

Palestinians feel completely lost in this equation, and are losing hope of being able to choose their own leadership and make it more representative of their will.

Today, the PLO, which is meant to represent all Palestinians, rarely has any presence except for some meetings every now and then. The PA, born out of the PLO and which, according to the Oslo Accords, was meant to represent Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in preparation for statehood, has replaced the PLO and currently is the most visible Palestinian entity internationally.

Palestinians feel completely lost in this equation, and are losing hope of being able to choose their own leadership and make it more representative of their will. Many Palestinians today feel that the PA falls short of adopting a discourse that reflects their visions under Israeli military occupation and apartheid.

Mass protests broke out across the West Bank in anger over the murder of Banat. Palestinians, who suffer from Israel’s occupation and fight for their freedom in every possible way, condemned his killing. They took to the streets of Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Hebron calling for accountability. The young Palestinians who took to the streets feel that today the PA is becoming more like an obstacle that separates them from the Israeli occupation.

They believe that there is no need for any Palestinian government that lacks any sovereignty under occupation, and that the situation is no different than handing over the keys to the PA institutions to Israel, the actual sovereign and occupying power. These young Palestinians believe that where there is an occupation, the plan should be liberation rather than statehood.

In the Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, and Batni Al-Hawa neighborhoods of Jerusalem, Palestinians started organizing themselves to protect their houses from imminent Israeli demolition and their families from being displaced (again).

In light of this reality, the younger generation of Palestinians started defending their homes and towns, and taking matters into their own hands. In the Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, and Batni Al-Hawa neighborhoods of Jerusalem, Palestinians started organizing themselves to protect their houses from imminent Israeli demolition and their families from being displaced (again). They felt that if there were to wait for the PA and other international parties to intervene, they would likely be displaced before the PA even intervened – as has happened countless times before.

This new approach of facing the occupation forces and using social media to create an international uproar seems to be effective. Recently, Jerusalem was able to present to the world a number of young faces such as Muhammad and Muna Al-Kurd, who made their case clear before the entire world, exposing an Israeli settler named Yaacob Fauci, who took over half of their house and told them on camera, “If I don’t steal it, someone else is gonna steal it.” With pro-Palestinian advocates turning this into an Israeli proverb, his so-called logic describes the life of Palestinians under Israeli military occupation.

In Beita village near Nablus, Israeli settlers built a new settler outpost on the top of Mount Sibeh. Palestinians in the area formed their own guard units, known as Hurras Al-Jabal (Guards of the Mount), in the knowledge that nobody will protect their lands from confiscation. They have imitated a Gaza experience known as Erbak Al-Layli, or the night confusion, where Palestinians use loudspeakers, lights, and fire to pressure Israeli settlers.

Their non-stop 65-day protest every night near Mount Sibeh has proven to be successful. Although they have paid dearly for what they describe as a victory, with five Palestinians killed and hundreds of others from the village injured at the hands of Israeli forces and settlers, they reached an agreement with the Israeli army which entails the settler evacuation from the outpost.

It seems that popular Palestinian resistance against attempts to silence Palestinians is on the rise. What is happening today in Palestine reveals that Palestinians, especially the younger generation, have decided to take initiative without waiting for any other party to act on their behalf.

Palestinians feel that they are suffering more losses on the ground and that the way the Oslo Accords were conceived was intended to keep them strangled and for Israel to have the final say and upper hand. Young Palestinians firmly believe that the only way out is to take things into their own hands and to adopt a discourse that exposes Israel as a settler-colonial country that practices the crime of apartheid against them.

Mahmoud Hijazi was the first Palestinian political prisoner to be freed from an Israeli jail on April 17, 1971. On March 22, 2021, he passed away in the West Bank city of Ramallah aged 85. Since his release and deportation to Lebanon at the time, April 17 has been marked as the Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. Despite its immense importance to Palestinians and the fact that more than a million Palestinians have been arrested by Israel since 1967, the issue of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails has not won enough global publicity, and is not adequately reflected in Palestinian politics.

While researching the issue, I was shocked by the immense suffering and torment prisoners and their families have been subjected to throughout the years. Today, many in the West know Bobby Sands, the Irish prisoner who passed away in 1981 while on hunger strike, but few know Marwan Barghouti, a veteran Palestinian prisoner and political leader. Palestinian political prisoners have many stories that the world needs to hear. They might hold the key today to many problems that will impact the course of events in Palestine for years to come.

A few years ago, I had the chance to interview former Palestinian political prisoner Muhammad Abushawish, a neighbor, novelist, and avid cat lover. Abushawish passed away in April 2020 due to illness and health complications resulting from his incarceration in Israeli prisons that lasted a total of 14 years. Abushawish was arrested seven times by the Israeli military; at his first arrest, he was only six years old.

Abushawish’s wish was to bring his jailers and interrogators to account before it was too late. He wrote a novel in Arabic documenting his torture in Israeli prisons titled Before My Tormentor Is Dead. However, he passed away before he could confront his and other Palestinian political prisoners’ tormentors – the least of his tortures involved lighting a match under his genitals.

The story of Abushawish is not different from that of Ahmad Alhaaj, now 87 years old, who was arrested in 1967 by the Israeli military and imprisoned for nearly three years.

The story of Abushawish is not different from that of Ahmad Alhaaj, now 87 years old, who was arrested in 1967 by the Israeli military and imprisoned for nearly three years. While in jail, he was subjected to hanging and torture that made him lose his consciousness. Jokingly, his jailers used to offer him a pair of left socks to use because he was a leftist. Today, Alhaaj is as determined as when he first left to return to his village of Al-Sawafir in what is today Israel – imprisonment has not made him change his mind.

As of March 2021, according to Addameer, a Palestinian prisoner support and human rights association, there are 4,450 Palestinian political prisoners detained by Israel. Of these prisoners, 33 have spent more than 25 years in jail, 543 are serving life sentences, 300 are from Jerusalem, 250 are from the Gaza Strip, 70 hold Israeli citizenship, 140 are child prisoners, 37 are women, and 440 are administrative detainees.

Al-Jabis was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to 11 years in jail. She suffers from third degree burns and is the victim of medical negligence according to her family. Nearly 60% of her body is covered in burns and she has lost two of her fingers. Israel accuses her of attempting to carry out a vehicle-ramming attack.

However, al-Jabis denies the accusation, stating that her car caught fire and when she attempted to get out, Israeli forces at a nearby checkpoint locked the door and prevented her from doing so, causing her serious burns. Along with the issue of female prisoners, administrative detention is one of the most challenging forms of arrest for Palestinians.

Administrative detention is one of the most unjust systems used by Israel against Palestinian prisoners.

Administrative detention is one of the most unjust systems used by Israel against Palestinian prisoners. Having its legal roots in the practices of British colonial rule in Palestine, the Israeli authorities use this law to detain Palestinians without charge or trial for indefinite periods of time. Their detention can be renewed every six months, they are never charged or convicted, and are detained based on “secret evidence.” Some Palestinians have been held in administrative detention for up to 15 years without a single charge.

Palestinian children have not been spared Israeli detention either. The torment of Palestinian children in Israeli jails might sound shocking to many. Malak al-Khatib was only 14 years old when she was arrested in 2015 by Israeli forces as she unknowingly entered a closed Israeli military zone while attempting to pick a wildflower on her way back from school. She served two months in prison before being released.

According to Israeli law, which does not apply to Israelis who live in the West Bank, Palestinians under the age of 16 are considered children. Palestinian children are tried before a kind of military court where they are handed down harsher sentences. These children, just like adults, are detained outside the Palestinian Territories in violation of the Geneva Conventions. Some of them are placed under house arrest by Israeli courts, where their families become their own jailers, fearing having to pay fines if their children leave the house.

In 2015, Ayman Abbasi, a former Palestinian child prisoner, was shot dead in Jerusalem during a peaceful protest against Israeli policies. The Israeli army tried to kidnap his body to use it in future swap deals with the Palestinians. This policy, which has been in place for years, amounts to collective punishment. Mourners tried to smuggle Abbasi’s body, jumping from one wall to another, and managed to bury him before the Israeli forces were able to succeed in their plans. Yet, this meant that his family was not able to bid him a final farewell.

Despite the existence of many tragic stories, some Palestinian prisoners were able to turn their prison cells into schools. There are several examples of Palestinian prisoners who were able to finish their bachelor and master’s degrees while incarcerated. However, several years after its launching, the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) suspended all access to education for Palestinian prisoners. Palestinian prisoner Hilal Jaradat from the West Bank city of Jenin, who was deported to Gaza upon release in 2011, managed to learn 16 different languages while in prison.

In what seemed a surprising move, the Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree on January 15, announcing that general elections will take place in Palestine this year. The elections, which are the first of their kind in 15 years, will be held on three phases: Palestinian Legislative Elections (PLC) on May 22, 2021; presidential elections on July 31, 2021; and Palestinian National Council (PNC) elections on August 31, 2021.

The move was welcomed by Hamas, Abbas’s main rival. It was a surprise for many Palestinians who have witnessed Palestinian reconciliation talks taking place over the last 14 years in several capitals, including most recently in Istanbul and Cairo, with no tangible results.

The election decree by the PA president raised many questions in terms of its timing and practicality. Is it possible to hold elections in a Palestine under occupation, including Jerusalem, without ending the Palestinian national rift? The answer is “yes” according to the decree, but this plan will likely face many challenges on the ground.

Will Israel Allow Elections in Jerusalem?

Israel, which won a long-awaited U.S. recognition of its sovereignty over Jerusalem, will most likely decline the PA’s request to hold the election there. Israel approved the Palestinian elections in Jerusalem in 2006 under U.S. pressure, which will not be the case this time. In 2006, the U.S. plan was to include Hamas in the political process in an attempt to tame it, which proved unsuccessful – to the contrary, Hamas has grown more stubborn over the years.

The Palestinian elections this year, unlike 2006, will be held according to the list proportional representation system, where voters will choose whole lists of political parties rather than individual candidates in specific electoral districts.

In 2006, the voting system was 50% candidate-based and 50% proportional representation. The reason why both Hamas and Fatah agreed to this system is because it reinforces partisan politics, where the electorate votes for a specific political party, rather than candidates, who might be independent or from the other party.

Hamas is worried it might lose many of the votes it won in 2006 in Gaza, and Fatah is equally worried it might lose many of the votes it won in 2006 in the West Bank.

This system was in favor of Hamas in 2006, where Hamas won nearly 45.4% of the party list votes, and 69.7% of the candidate lists. Hamas is worried it might lose many of the votes it won in 2006 in Gaza, and Fatah is equally worried it might lose many of the votes it won in 2006 in the West Bank. The full proportional representation system is the way out for both groups.

Irony and Obstacles

There have been speculations that both parties, Hamas and Fatah, might run for the election in a single united list. Although it sounds ironic, considering the division and the history of hostility between the two parties, this reveals how they view this election: it is all about managing the division rather than ending it.

Another challenge to these Palestinian elections is how both parties, and other smaller parties, will ensure that the losing party accepts the results of the election. In fact, there is no guarantee that the elections will not be forged considering the environment of security repression which has resulted from 15 years of rift politics where security forces have always had the final say and the upper hand in domestic politics.

The proportional representation system also aims to crush smaller political parties and groups that will not be able to get enough votes to pass the election threshold easily. This translates into reproducing the division and reinforcing Hamas and Fatah as the only political parties in charge of Palestinian politics.

Other smaller political parties, both from the left and right, along with many Palestinians, especially the younger generation, will choose not to vote. Today, many Palestinians no longer believe that their votes in an election under occupation and without solving the political split will matter.

What is the value of an election under occupation? Elections are meant to choose representatives of a system that is supposed to have sovereignty over a territory.

They know too well that their votes will not improve their living conditions and that major political parties have long decided to adapt to division rather than solve it.

Elections or Liberation?

In the first place, what is the value of an election under occupation? Elections are meant to choose representatives of a system that is supposed to have sovereignty over a territory. Palestinians don’t have any sovereignty over their land and resources, and without an Israeli permit, the head of the Palestinian Authority can’t move in and out of the West Bank.

In other words, Palestinians need to focus on liberation and independence rather than having a pseudo-state under occupation that only serves as an excuse for Israel, the occupying power according to international law, to abandon its responsibilities towards the Palestinians. The titles of presidents and members of parliament in the Palestinian context do not count, nor do they make any sense under occupation.

The Abbas decree noted that the Palestinian National Council (PNC) elections, which matter the most, will be held “where possible.” This vaguely worded statement means that the PNC elections, which are supposed to include Palestinians of the diaspora, could be held in a limited number of countries, depending on whether the host countries will allow the elections or not.

An election that does not fully include the Palestinian diaspora is a vote over self-autonomy under occupation. Wasting too much time thinking about statehood under occupation will not serve the Palestinians, and today, what Palestinians need the most is a unified approach to end the Israeli military occupation and a call for full equality.

What Palestinians Need to Do

In fact, calling for equal votes with Jewish-Israelis under the system Israel established between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River would be more pragmatic for the Palestinians than holding elections most probably without Jerusalem and some areas of the West Bank.

This is especially true in light of the current reality of military occupation, which Israeli human rights group B’Tselem described recently as apartheid (whisper: Palestinians have been saying this for a long time). In other words, Palestinians need to address the roots of their reality today, rather than looking for elections that will only serve to reinforce division and give the false impression that they have a sort of statehood and sovereignty under occupation.

The Palestinian elections might take place as planned in May 2021, but a large number of Palestinians will boycott them and a larger number will not be represented in them. Elections that do not include Jerusalem and much of the Palestinian diaspora sound more like municipal elections of self-autonomy under occupation.

Such elections will only deepen the divide among the Palestinians and falsely proclaim before the world that Palestinians have a state and can hold free and fair elections. The only thing that Palestinians have today is Israeli military occupation and any attempt to bypass this truth is misleading.