A revived PLO likely to embrace non-violent action and an Islamist faction
For this discussion, see also ‘Democratization of the PLO is a long overdue, essential political reform’
Analysis: The return of the PLO
By Daoud Kuttab, Ma’an news
June 21, 2012
The past 25 years witnessed the slow death of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
The PLO, established in June 1964 by the Arab League and then taken over internally by the various resistance movements, led by Fatah, is credited with the unification of the Palestinians in the diaspora. It is also seen as the main factor that reignited Palestinian identity in pursuit of national liberation.
The PLO’s importance faded in 1993 when its leader and chairman of its executive committee, Yasser Arafat, signed a memorandum of understanding with the state of Israel. And while the Palestinian Authority became the focal point of Palestinian political activity, few people noted that the PA is subservient to the PLO.
Every single official document of the PA confirms that the Oslo accords and all its ministries and institutions are part and parcel of the PLO.
Having control over land, people, money and guns, albeit small weapons, made the PA a much more important organization than the scattered PLO. After Beirut and Tunisia, the PLO was but a few offices, usually at Palestinian embassies. And with money drying up, it was mostly Ramallah that was keeping the PLO alive.
But the PLO’s problem was not just that its attention was turned inside Palestine, albeit in the small enclaves named by Israel and the US as Palestinian Authority areas. It had a bigger problem in terms of legitimacy.
Yes, the PLO continues to call itself the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and its national council, the PNC, continues to be referred to as the Palestinian parliament in exile. But the rise of the Islamist movements, especially Hamas, and this latter’s refusal to join the PLO rendered the term “sole and legitimate” representative rather empty.
While the PLO was fighting for legitimacy, its embrace became a joke after candidates affiliated with the Islamic movement won the majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council. And while the Palestine National Council automatically considered all elected parliamentarians de facto members of this parliament in exile, the legitimacy of the PLO continued to be questioned as long as Hamas refused to join.
A number of factors, not least of which the failure to reach a Fatah-Hamas reconciliation, have revived the ailing movement.
The reconciliation agreement between Palestinian nationalists and Islamists included a clause calling for the re-invigoration or the PLO in a way to be truly more representative of all Palestinians.
Hamas, which has for years opposed the PLO, agreed to join the efforts to reform the PLO. Talks behind the scenes, mostly in Amman and led by the PNC secretariat, produced positive results. A new PLO will soon see the light, provided that reconciliation continues and that elections take place in Palestine.
To be sure, the Gaza-West Bank split is not an obstacle. Negotiators agree that Palestine, i.e. the West Bank including East Jerusalem and Gaza, is to be treated as one single territory. Representation in the next PNC will therefore be based on elections inside and outside of Palestine, with one exception. Jordan, where Palestinians, including refugees, are given citizenship, will not see elections but its representatives will be agreed based on an unannounced system of internal agreement.
Whatever the process for choosing the next PNC, and therefore its executive committee and its chairman — a position that has been monopolized by Fatah’s Arafat and President Mahmoud Abbas — the return of the PLO will have much wider political ramifications.
The new PLO will most likely be based outside Palestine for the time being. Rumors that Abbas, who announced he would not run for PA presidency but did not exclude running for the chairmanship of the PLO, is looking for a family house in Amman tend to confirm that the PLO’s headquarters are not likely to be in Ramallah.
Furthermore, the return of the PLO will certainly add strength to the Palestinian demand of the right of return even though this demand was never taken off the negotiating table.
A new PLO with a strong Islamic factor in it will also mean that it can better communicate with the new Islamist leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and possibly other Arab countries.
Whatever the composition of the new PLO, one does not expect it to be the same as the PLO of the 1970s and 1980s. One should expect much more stress, inside Palestine and outside it, on nonviolent activities, popular resistance, boycotts, divestment and sanctions.
The international community and the world solidarity movement are ready for a new and reformed PLO that will engage with them based on a clear political agenda. Regionally, the return of the PLO as a political, not a military, power will also mean that Palestinians will want to use the new found people power in the Arab world to strengthen Palestinian aspirations.
Internationally, the new PLO will use its local, regional and international popular support to demand real changes of policy, thus paving the way for serious negotiations, away from photo opportunities and lip service.
Such a change will no doubt improve the negotiating position of whoever will be responsible for that feat, hopefully a different group than the ones that so far have had no impact.
Daoud Kuttab is a Palestinian journalist, director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al Quds University, and former professor of journalism at Princeton University.
PLO members
From Wikipedia, June 21, 2012
Fatah – Largest faction, Left-wing Nationalism.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) – Second largest, radically far-left militant and communist
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) – Third largest, communist
The Palestinian People’s Party (PPP) – Ex-communist, Social Democratic, non-militant
The Palestine Liberation Front (PLF, Abu Abbas faction) – Minor left-wing faction
The Arab Liberation Front (ALF) – Minor faction, aligned to the Iraqi Ba’ath Party
As-Sa’iqa – Syrian-controlled Ba’athist faction
The Palestine Democratic Union (Fida) – Minor democratic socialist, 2 state solution, non militant faction
The Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF, Samir Ghawsha faction) – minor socialist faction
The Palestinian Arab Front (PAF) – minor pro-Fatah Iraqi Ba’athists faction