If she is to have any future at all, the children of Palestinian
must have better representation that they have now!
By
Stuart Littlewood
Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas was in London recently.
Did anyone know? Did
western media care?
No. Not until reports
appeared that Jewish community leaders cancelled a meeting with him after
intervention by Israeli PM Netanyahu’s office and Israel’s embassy in London
and Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi condemned the move as “seeking to
suppress and manipulate Jewish public opinion”.
It was also typical of
Netanyahu’s “persistent efforts” to prevent dialogue, she said, according to Ma’an
News.
Even then, western media
were much interested.
I put it to the
Palestinian ambassador in London, Prof Manuel Hassassian, that such a blunder
by Israel was a gift to any alert PR/Public Affairs team. Why didn’t the
Palestinian Authority seize it?
Hassassian denied the
Palestinians asked to meet with the Jewish community.
It seems odd that
Ashrawi, a shrewd, well respected politician and close colleague of Prime
Minister Salam Fayyad, could have got it wrong. Or indeed the normally reliable
Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, which reported that Hassassian himself,
together with British diplomats, had pushed for Jewish leaders to meet with
Abbas
Confused?
Me too.
Whatever the truth, the
Palestinian administration is in the habit of missing open goals. It has dumbed
right down. The London embassy’s smart new palestinianmissionuk.com
website carries a selection of items from news agencies but nothing journalists
can get their teeth into. It doesn’t introduce us to Palestinian chiefs and
their ‘team’. It offers no strategic briefing material on current events. And,
crucially, there is no attempt to set the news agenda.
Information the embassy
sends direct to people like me is mostly notification of social events and
similar ‘froth’.
After all these years,
and with momentous opportunities and threats looming, Ramallah still fails to
give a good account of itself. Is that by accident or design?
If it was never Abbas’s
intention to meet Jewish community leaders, what exactly did he come to the UK
for?
WHAT
PASSES FOR ‘SUCCESS’
The embassy says his
“successful visit” included meetings with Prime Minister David Cameron, Foreign
Secretary William Hague and Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister. President Abbas
also met with opposition leader Ed Miliband and other parliamentarians. In
addition, he met the Archbishop of Canterbury and other church leaders to brief
them on the ongoing violations of places of worship and the Judaization taking
place in East Jerusalem.
Cameron told him:
“Obviously, as a friend of Israel and a friend of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people, we want to see a strong, democratic, peaceful Israel alongside a strong, democratic and peaceful Palestine. We believe that is achievable, but we can’t achieve it without the two parties coming together and talking and discussing. In the end, this two-state solution can only come about from the two parties talking to each other. We cannot want it more than you want it.
“So, we wish you well… and we say that as a friend of Israel but also a very strong friend of the Palestinian people…”
To which I understand
Abbas replied:
“Of course, nothing can be achieved without negotiations… we hope that there will be something tangible as a result of these negotiations.“Of course, time is of the essence; there must be speed, we must be fast in achieving those things because the settlements and the whole thing will go on ~ seeing the settlements going on, is going to help everything; it’s what stands in the face of everything at the same time.“So, settlements have to stop. Settlements have to stop in order for us to be able to continue our negotiations; to come to some sort of solution and a solution which will encompass the vision of the Palestinian state to come in the future.“I personally know very well that you have a very balanced relationship, be that towards Israel or the Palestinian Authority. This at the same time is of great importance because you could play a political role, so to speak, so that we can find the balance that we all want to seek. We always need your help, sir.”
Good grief, is that the
best Ramallah’s speech-writers can do? And what was that about Britain’s
Israel-firster government having “a very balanced relationship”…?
Where was Abbas’s concern
for Gaza, or isn’t Gaza part of Palestine anymore?
Doesn’t the blockade of
Gaza have to end before Palestinians even think about getting once again
embroiled in futile negotiations?
The idea, voiced by
Zionist Cameron and repeated by Abbas, that nothing can be achieved without
negotiation is of course utterly false.
There’s no mention ~ on
either side ~ of international law enforcement and the essential role it must
play before any negotiations can be considered fair or honourable.
Hague said after his
meeting with Abbas:
“I stressed the importance Britain attaches to a secure and universally recognized Israel living alongside a sovereign and viable Palestinian state, based on the borders of 1967, with Jerusalem the future capital of both states, and a fair settlement for refugees.”
Only weeks earlier Hague,
a fanatical Israel flag-waver, was preparing to betray the Palestinians by
abstaining if their quest for statehood was pushed to a vote at the UN.
More pretty words devoid
of meaning were paraded in the Archbishop of Canterbury’s press release:
“We continue to share the hopes of the Palestinian leadership for a lasting and just peace in the Holy Land, and we pray for the courage on all sides to break the current deadlock. Young people in Israel and in the Palestinian territories long for justice and stability and they must not be let down. We were deeply grateful to President Abbas for taking time to share with us his concerns and aspirations.”
The only genuine boost he
received was a remark by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, referring to
Israel’s illegal settlements:
“Once you place physical facts on the ground which make it impossible to deliver what everyone has for years agreed is the ultimate destination, then you do immense damage.“It’s an act of deliberate vandalism to the basic premise upon which negotiations have taken place for years and that is why we have expressed our concerns as a government in increasingly forceful terms.”
He prefaced his comments
by saying there was “no stronger supporter of Israel than myself as a beacon of
democracy in the region”. It’s a sad reflection on the Westminster scene when
Clegg, a Liberal Democrat and supposedly possessed of certain principles, feels
obliged to say such a silly thing when it’s tantamount to defending the
indefensible.
Didn’t Abbas remind him
about Israel’s abduction and imprisonment without trial of the 26 elected
members of the Palestinian Legislative Council including its head, Dr Aziz
Dweik? Dweik is reported to have been arrested by Israel three times since 2002
and twice held without formal charges. This wholesale kidnapping of
democratically elected officials underlines yet again Israel’s disregard for
international law and the absurdity of its claim to be the only beacon of
democracy in the Middle East.
So, does Abbas seriously
believe his visit was “successful”?
This dreary ‘grey suit’
of a man might have done better to just meet ordinary people… people like the
40,000 or so displaced Palestinians living in the UK and longing to return, and
the numerous activist organizations that devote much time and energy putting
across the Palestinian case, slapping down Israel’s propaganda lies and
generally doing the job that Abbas and his lacklustre Fatah outfit have failed
to do.
That’s if he wanted their
ongoing support. Maybe he’s not bothered.
UNDER
ORDERS NOT TO ROCK THE ISRAELI BOAT?
Some time ago Hamas
complained that the Palestinian Authority was not getting its message across
thanks to
“poorly qualified or unqualified spokespersons with inadequate political and linguistic abilities”.
Diplomacy had failed and
Palestinians needed
“professional spokespersons with excellent knowledge of the world and mastery of foreign languages, especially English, to tell the world in a straightforward manner that Israel is a murderer, liar and land thief…”
Israel’s ambassador to
the UN, Ron Prosor, who ran rings round the Palestinians whilst ambassador in
London, recently addressed the Security Council on the situation in the Middle
East. He said:
“And how many times have members of this Council ~ and many others ~ repeated: ‘settlements are the primary obstacle to peace’? The primary obstacle to peace is not settlements. The primary obstacle to peace is the so-called ‘claim of return’. Let me repeat that: the major hurdle to peace is the Palestinian’s insistence on the so-called ‘claim of return’ [he means the ‘right of return’].”
Any press team worth its
salt could make mincemeat of Prosor. A competent Palestinian administration
would have had a news release in every activist’s inbox and on every mainstream
editor’s desk within hours and made spokespersons (speaking perfect English)
available to follow through with additional briefings and further comment. It
would have gone worldwide via all embassies and missions.
But Prosor broadcasts his
toxic nonsense non-stop, knowing there will be no effective rebuke from the
Palestinians.
It is six years since the
Palestinian Authority/PLO was urged to have all their key people professionally
trained in media skills. They haven’t done so. Consequently for the last six
critical years the Palestinian people have continued to lose ground.
The Palestinian High
Command behaves as if under strict orders not to rock the boat and not to make
waves or even the slightest ripple. They continue to squander their chances and
make little impact even though truth and justice are on their side. So Israel
has been the undeserving winner in the propaganda war.
Will the Palestinians
ever seize the opportunity and gear up properly for the communications struggle
to win justice?
If it’s left to the likes
of Abbas the answer is no and the outcome will be disastrous.
As campaigner Robert
Stiver commented a few days ago, we need
“ideas and commitments on how we can finally get serious, via a mass uprising, to ‘out’ Zionism beyond the choir and bring an end to the Palestinians’ unbearable torment”.
But hopes of mobilizing
the necessary numbers are thwarted by the continuing presence of Mahmoud Abbas.
His presidential term ran out long ago and he’s clinging to power unlawfully.
He needs to step down or be removed.
Someone with
unquestionable legitimacy and true leadership qualities must fill the void and
deploy skilled resources.
On Abbas’s watch disunity
has triumphed.
He rides roughshod over
the Basic Law and has a crime sheet as long as your arm.
He’ll be remembered
mostly for doing the Israeli Occupation Force’s dirty work.
Another problem is chief
negotiator Saeb Erekat who has occupied that vitally important position for
nearly 20 years and achieved… well, what? He must be the most unsuccessful
negotiator on the planet. Why is he still there?
If Palestinians are to
retain worldwide sympathy and support, build additional strength and galvanize
the whole movement into action against the corrupt political class, they will
have to find leaders of a much higher calibre. And fast.
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