Gaining a Foothold or Losing our Brains?!

Many mainstream journalists and officials of the PNA are now peddling,
under the banner of the something-is-better-than-nothing adage, the
fallacy that Oslo, in spite of all its shortcomings, has at least given
us a foothold INSIDE Palestine!!! The implication there is that a
foothold can somehow become a base for a Palestinian statehood and
identity.

Here we are entitled to ask the question: foothold for whom and for
what? If the foothold is for the defunct and corrupt bureaucracy
of the PLO, then sure: Oslo provided them with a foothold.

But if what is meant by a foothold is a base for the future liberation
of Palestine, then nothing can be farther from the truth than the claim
that Oslo has provided us a foothold.

Oslo has not, and was not intended to, solve the problem of Palestinian
exile.

The conditions created by Oslo, starting from the concessions that
violated our inalienable rights, make building a base not only hard
but almost impossible. In Oslo, some Palestinians claiming to represent
us, not only conceded to "Israel's" right to exist, but, after condemning
"terrorism", undertook the active role of defending the security of the
invaders in exchange for becoming the contracted oppressors of the
Palestinian people.

If you add to that the corruption and the ineptness of the Palestinian
leadership in negotiations and its aversion to confrontation with
Zionists, we find that any talk about having won a base is a bunch of
crap.

The Intifada started the real base from which liberation could have
been carried on, but one of the doings of Arafat and Oslo was precisely
to kill that base. Instead, we have thugs ruling the streets and Arafat
cronies charging percentages from private businesses.

There can't be a base under occupation, and Palestine is still under
occupation. More importantly, there can’t be democracy under occupation,
if we’re still defining democracy as the rule of the people, as opposed
to the rule of the tools of the occupation.

Furthermore, building a base requires an independent economic base
expressing Palestinian interests. That can't happen under occupation,
and it can't happen under the legal framework of the PNA either (read
the Palestinian-Israeli economic agreement). Legally, Oslo set the PNA
as an extension of the occupation.

Moreover, supporting the development of our independent character and
economic progress presupposes a cultural and a scientific renaissance.
That can neither happen under the occupation nor the PNA.

And lest you accuse me of being negative and nihilistic, I would like
to make a suggestion: let’s look at how other peoples who were under
occupation successfully built their bases for liberation, then let’s
take notes. Let's emulate good examples from Algeria to Vietnam to
South Africa. What Arafat is doing is turn into the equivalent of the
Vichi government in occupied France in WWII ruling it for the benefit
of the Nazis. That was a Nazi base in France, as much as the PNA is a
Zionist base in Palestine. WE NEED TO TREAT IT AS SUCH.

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