From: Sid Shniad
Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2011 8:57 PM
Subject: [R-G] Palestinians seek to redefine national struggle
http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE75E2LU20110615?sp=true
Palestinians seek to redefine national struggle
By Tom Perry
Reuters: June 15, 2011
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Freedom, justice, dignity and equality are
the demands of a new generation of Palestinians seeking to redefine their
national struggle in a way that could threaten both
leadership.
They are neither Fatah or Hamas and care as little for the Palestinians'
factional politics as they do for the "two-state solution" which President
Mahmoud Abbas has long presented as the only workable resolution to the
conflict with
"As far as we are concerned, our issue is one of rights," said Hazem Abu
Hilal, an activist in a human rights-focussed movement which he says is
gaining followers thanks to Arab uprisings across the region.
"It's not that important if there is a state or not. What matters is
securing these four demands," he said, speaking as he recovered from the
effects of a foul-smelling liquid sprayed by Israeli forces during a West
Bank protest he helped organise.
"We suffer from racial discrimination, we suffer from restrictions, we don't
have the freedom to move," Abu Hilal, 28, said. "We are talking about a
human rights movement."
His brand of activism opposes violence, even the stone-throwing that has
characterised Palestinian protest since the first Intifada, or uprising, in
1987. However, attempts to stop it do not always succeed, if tear gas is
flying.
The activists' numbers are limited: only around 200 took part at one recent
protest. However some observers believe their rights-based agenda could play
a major role in shaping a new chapter in the Palestinian struggle, as the
strategies of existing leaders appear to have failed.
TRANSITION PHASE
Two decades since it began, the "peace process" is widely discredited. Its
critics argue that the expansion of Jewish settlement on the land where the
Palestinians aim to found a state has rendered the "two-state solution"
obsolete.
Negotiations have produced limited self government but no independence for
the Palestinians living on land occupied by
crossing between
or air space.
The search for new ideas is under way.
"We are in a very serious transition phase," said Sam Bahour, a Palestinian
businessman and blogger who once supported the two-state solution but doubts
it is still possible.
"My kids are asking: 'if my access and movement, my freedoms as an
individual are going to remain hostage to some kind of political process
that refuses to end, I'd rather drop the political process for statehood and
focus on my rights today'.
"That is exactly what this younger generation is doing and it is fully in
tune with the Arab Spring."
The approach naturally edges the Palestinians closer towards an idea
rejected by
Palestinians: that they seek full civil rights from
same political entity.
That implies abandoning the two-state approach in favour of one that would
lead to a very different outcome: a single, binational state stretching from
the Mediterranean Sea to the
Supporters of the idea say it could take decades to bring about, if at all.
To
millions of Palestinians would undermine the Jewish character of
end the Zionist dream.
The idea is also at odds with two decades of U.S.-led
and the strategy of the Palestine Liberation Organisation which is built
around the idea of establishing a state in the
But Palestinians who once advocated two states say there is now no
alternative to a major strategy shift, towards a struggle for rights similar
to that waged by South Africans against the apartheid system.
"There is no other way," said Jammal Hammad, an official in Abbas's Fatah
movement who no longer believes a Palestinian state next to
achieved.
Ghassan Khatib, spokesman for the Palestinian Authority which was set up
under the
show a majority of Palestinians still support the two-state solution.
"However, this might be changing, as a result of the fact that Israeli
practices are making the possibility of two states less and less," he said.
"A LONG WAY TO GO"
That is a challenge to the path taken by the PLO, which began negotiating
with
Bank and
With talks now at a standstill, Abbas plans to seek full U.N. membership for
a state of
is destined to fail due to opposition from major world powers including the
Critics see it as another sign that Abbas is out of options.
The Islamist group Hamas, blockaded in its Gaza Strip enclave, faces similar
criticism. Its strategy based on military confrontation with
failed to produce results against a far more powerful adversary.
A new path will offer no quick way to realising Palestinian aspirations, but
more and more Palestinians are asking what alternative they have.
"We've tried everything else. We certainly gave
doubt," said Ahmad Aweidah, the chief executive officer of the Palestinian
stock exchange.
"It's not just the radical movement that is thinking in terms of the
two-state solution being dead, that we need to focus on a one-state
solution, civil rights, a South African-style liberation struggle. It's
people like me, the CEO of the stock exchange," he said.
"But we don't have a Nelson Mandela. We don't even have a Desmond Tutu, so
we have a long way to go."
(Editing by Samia Nakhoul)
© Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved
Joanna Zilsel
Gibsons, BC
604-886-3570
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