How to keep the Palestinian cause alive
As I write I find myself wondering how the government of Israel would respond to such demonstrations on, say, a weekly basis. Quite possibly it would pass a law declaring that any gathering of Palestinians anywhere on the West Bank for a political purpose would be illegal without a permit. They, permits, would not be granted and, in theory, that would free up the IDF to take whatever action it deemed to be necessary – tear gas, rubber bullets and even live ammunition – to disperse the silent protest gatherings. I say “in theory” because IDF violence to disperse silent and peaceful protest gatherings of Palestinians on their own land (what’s left of it) would help to swell the rising global tide of anti-Israelism and add substance to the perception of Israel as a pariah state. Surely no government of Israel would be that stupid…..?
As I have stated in previous articles, the occupied and oppressed Palestinians would themselves be stupid if they resorted to violent protest because that would play into Israel’s hands and save its leaders from creating a pretext for a final ethnic cleansing. (It really is the case, as noted recently by Bassem Khoury, a former PA minister, that “Israel hasn’t changed.” He added, “It is the same old colonial entity pursuing the same ethnic cleansing policies it did for decades.” But unlike what happened in 1948, I add, today’s ethnic cleansing is happening slowly and by stealth).
As I indicated above, the dissolution of the PA would be only the beginning of a strategy for preventing the Palestinian cause from becoming a lost one. The other essential element of it has to be the Palestinian diaspora becoming engaged and putting its act together to bring the Palestine National Council (PNC) back to life.
Once upon a time the PNC, a parliament-in-exile with its members elected or at least nominated by diaspora communities throughout the world, was the highest decision-making body on the Palestinian side. (The Arab regimes loathed it because more often than not it was a manifestation of democracy in action). Bringing the PNC back to life would require fresh elections to it throughout the Palestinian diaspora and, Israel permitting, the occupied West Bank and the blockaded Gaza Strip.
The composition of the Palestinian diaspora by countries and numbers of Palestinians resident in them is roughly the following. Jordan – 2,900,000; Israel – 1,600,000; Syria – 800,000 Chile – 500,000; Lebanon – 490,000; Saudi Arabia – 280,245; Egypt – 270,245; United States – 270,000; Honduras -250,000; Venezuela – 245,120; United Arab Emirates – 170,000; Germany -159,000; Mexico – 158,000; Qatar – 100,000; Kuwait – 70,000; El Salvador – 70,000 Brazil – 59,000; Iraq – 57,000; Yemen – 55,000; Canada – 50,975; Australia – 45,000; Libya – 44,000; Denmark – 32,152; United Kingdom – 30,000; Sweden – 25,500; Peru – 20,000; Columbia – 20,000; Spain – 12,000; Pakistan – 10,500; Netherlands – 9,000; Greece – 7,500; Norway – 7,000; France – 5,000; Guatemala – 3,500; Austria – 3,000; Switzerland – 2,000; Turkey – 1,000; and India – 300.
The number of Palestinians resident in each country would determine how many representatives in each country were to be elected to the PNC.
The role of the PNC brought back to life would be to debate and determine Palestinian policy and then to represent it by speaking to power, on behalf of all Palestinians everywhere, with one credible voice.
If the Palestinian diaspora is unwilling to play its necessary part in keeping the cause alive, the judgement of history one day will most likely be that it was complicit by default in Zionism’s final ethnic cleansing and the closing, never for re-opening, of the Palestine file.
My question for the Palestinian diaspora is this. Can you not hear the alarm?
Footnote
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