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Last update - 09:32 13/03/2008
The PA's hollow protests
By Amira Hass

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The evacuation of the settlements in the Gaza Strip, it should be said again, was a brilliant move by Israel to speed up the political separation between the West Bank and Gaza; it all the while masqueraded as "the beginning of the pullout."

The condemnations heard from the PA camp are for internal purposes only. It is a way of telling the Palestinian public that its representatives are in the same boat as the weak population that suffers under occupation, just as the armed struggle is intended to show the Palestinian public which organization really knows how to exact revenge. The PA's condemnations prove how ridiculous and impotent they truly are. They signal to both Israel and the Palestinians that it does not matter how many new settlement homes will be erected, a Palestinian partner will always take his place at the "peace process" show.

Negotiations and armed struggle are not the only means of fighting the occupation. The question of why the Palestinians have not adopted Mahatma Gandhi's nonviolent resistance should be addressed to PA leaders - not the millions of Palestinians who every day wage an unarmed struggle against the sophisticated and advanced methods of oppression.

The protests would sound completely different if the protesters were to organize a calculated public revolt against Israel's tactics of annexation.

There is no lack of opportunities.

There are hundreds of concrete barriers blocking exits to villages. The PA could send a bulldozer to remove one of them every day. Senior officials could come along: Mahmoud Abbas or someone from his bureau, heads of security organizations, members of the PLO central committee, senior Fatah representatives, ministers and directors general.

There are roads that are forbidden to Palestinian cars. PA officials and West Bank residents could form a long convoy of cars and drive on these roads. Many Israelis would be happy to join them.

Building and development are banned in Area C. The Palestinian planning office could order the appropriate Palestinian ministries to put up electricity lines, to prepare the infrastructure to connect villages to the water carrier, to dig cisterns to collect rainwater, to build schools, clinics and houses. Maybe even dig wells. All of the things that the Israeli occupation authorities forbid to do on 60 percent of the West Bank. Here, too, there will be no small number of Israelis opposed to the occupation who will join up.

The Civil Administration will come and destroy it all. Then build it again.

The senior officials accompanying the work will be arrested. Even better. Should only the residents of Bil'in be arrested for their unarmed struggle against the occupation?

It is possible to come up with hundreds of other measures of this kind, which could replace the official Palestinian governmental plan, and force the leadership away from their "make-believe state," and bring them back to battle for liberation. True, these measures alone cannot end the colonization, but they have the potential to end the status quo that is so convenient for Israel: expanding settlements, endless negotiations, protests and shootings. There is a potential here to change the alienated relations between the people and their representatives, to create a new type of Palestinian diplomacy.

But it is also true that such a vision has no chance. The present PA and PLO leadership has grown accustomed to living as a nomenclature. They are confusing the interests of their own people with their relatively comfortable ceremonial status; a status that is their reward for being willing to participate in a spectacle of respectability scripted by the Americans and Europeans for the benefit of Israel
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  1.   Indeed indeed! Not wait for gov`ts, people rise up 09:50  |  just a jew 13/03/08
  2.   Have we ever seen a better Amira Hass article....???? 09:59  |  Swiss (Dino) 13/03/08
  3.   CHAPEAU AMIRA HASS !.... EXCELLENT ARTICLE 10:31  |  Eric 13/03/08
  4.   BLINDED BY PROUD AND DEFIANT 10:32  |  indrajaya 13/03/08
  5.   How badly you have Ghandi mixed up 11:18  |  stork 13/03/08
  6.   Protest and protesters 11:22  |  Gabe 13/03/08
  7.   Incredible as it is, this time I agree with Hass 11:30  |  Fabio 13/03/08
  8.   An unarmed struggle would have caused Israel to be boycotted 11:31  |  Danny 13/03/08
  9.   settlement construction unacceptable for jews, "diaspora jews" 11:35  |  Daniel 13/03/08
  10.   # 5, STORK 11:39  |  indrajaya 13/03/08
  11.   More nonesence from Amira Hass 11:59  |  Proud Israeli 13/03/08
  12.   A DEAD Palestinian is A Good Palestinian 12:06  |  Shabat 13/03/08
  13.   If Ghandi had been a Palestinian 12:08  |  Natallie Durson 13/03/08
  14.   HASS IS A TRAITOR TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE 12:20  |  Ben 13/03/08
  15.   PA KAPOS 12:21  |  CHOSEN WORLD 13/03/08
  16.   The Gazan Litmus 12:38  |  Proud Israeli 13/03/08
  17.   Right on Amira 12:41  |  peacelover 13/03/08
  18.   Which is why Israel want them 12:52  |  Marilyn 13/03/08
  19.   Haas should be an advisor to Fatah`s Abu Mazen 13:05  |  ARA 13/03/08
  20.   Gandhi once asked Martin Buber the jewish theologian why the jews 13:05  |  lakshmi 13/03/08
  21.   My only wonder is: why did`nt you write all that in... Arabic? 13:06  |  AA 13/03/08
  22.   amira misses the solution freedom in jordan for arabs 13:17  |  v ictor hardman 13/03/08
  23.   Kudos Amira! 13:22  |  Sal 13/03/08
  24.   Hass calls for a Palestinian revolt against Israel 13:33  |  Zev 13/03/08
  25.   More Blah blah blah from Amira 13:38  |  Mark Hamil 13/03/08
  26.   The usual Honest assessment of Amira. 13:43  |  harrison 13/03/08
  27.   The PA 14:06  |  John 13/03/08
  28.   PA--Rich Snobs 14:08  |  DB 13/03/08
  29.   The Trappings of A State When There Is None 14:21  |  Yaakov Sullivan 13/03/08
  30.   More BS from the Chief Judenratess 14:45  |  Yoni 13/03/08
  31.   To the lakshmis and Jayas and dhimwits 15:08  |  stork 13/03/08
  32.   Yoni from Haifa on the "Judenrattess" 15:08  |  Yaakov Sullivan 13/03/08
  33.   Amira Hass and the P A 15:16  |  Tania 13/03/08
  34.   Amira the Political Adviser to the PA 15:28  |  Mansour M 13/03/08
  35.   Wow, it`s amazing that in Amira`s whole article, there wasn`t a 15:47  |  Jacob Blues 13/03/08
  36.   Yaacov Sullivan asks an important question 15:51  |  Jacob Blues 13/03/08
  37.   Gandhi Irrelevant Here! They Should Behave More Like Jesus! 15:51  |  Yosemite 13/03/08
  38.   Why preach to Haaretz readers? Write this for Al-Quds! 16:14  |  Helen 13/03/08
  39.   Do Hamas and the PA read Haaretz ? 16:43  |  Avrum 13/03/08
  40.   The Palestinians` big mistake 16:50  |  Ibrahim 13/03/08
  41.   To lovely Amira...what to do with all our hatred ? 17:12  |  pour gazan 13/03/08
  42.   The PA Leadership should seek advice from Ghandhijee`s SON. 17:21  |  Dev Anand 13/03/08
  43.   Precedent Was Set Long Ago 17:21  |  Knott Bushman 13/03/08
  44.   Natallie you are right and wrong 17:27  |  judith 13/03/08
  45.   Ghandi in Palestine 17:38  |  bruce gowdy 13/03/08
  46.   Amen, and amen 17:41  |  Aaron Levitt 13/03/08
  47.   Do you read newspapers, Amira Hass? 17:43  |  Peter 13/03/08
  48.   First time Amira gives a good advise , but 18:00  |  TOMY 13/03/08
  49.   Non-Violence Incompatible with Aims of Pal. "Leadership" 18:24  |  Tom 13/03/08
  50.   If Ghandi had been natallie Dursone or Indrajaya, India would... 18:37  |  Tom 13/03/08
  51.   Democracy 18:56  |  Ralph 13/03/08
  52.   No more "Israeli gestures" - stop Pal terror first 19:06  |  Free Gilad Shalit 13/03/08
  53.   Has any body noticed the massive expansion 19:07  |  Umm Danny 13/03/08
  54.   Right facts, wrong conclusion 19:17  |  Boris S. 13/03/08
  55.   It`s Not In My Nature 19:41  |  RickD 13/03/08
  56.   non-violence only works when jailing/killing is seen as abhorent 19:41  |  Pablo B 13/03/08
  57.   All the PA had to do was say yes in 2000 19:58  |  Dr Eric 13/03/08
  58.   Amira, you are blessed 19:58  |  Mudracker 13/03/08
  59.   Irony is that Hass is a traitor, calling PA leaders traitor 21:00  |  McQueen 13/03/08
  60.   Indrayaja - why IS there a Pakistan? 21:03  |  William 13/03/08
  61.   Hass, see how the only ones agree want Israel destroyed 21:08  |  McQueen 13/03/08
  62.   #30 Yoni, More Israeli BS from you 21:57  |  Dutch 13/03/08
  63.   Ignorant Pablo, Take 1 21:18  |  Boris S. 13/03/08
  64.   These Palestinian Quislings are handpicked by the Israel-US 21:19  |  Chanalau, Tova 13/03/08
  65.   Ignorant Pablo, Take 2 21:22  |  Boris S. 13/03/08
  66.   Nice article Amira. Left me dreaming a bit...! 21:36  |  Stephen. 13/03/08
  67.   Boris - artillery, live ammunition is Israel`s plan for protests 22:21  |  Pablo B 13/03/08
  68.   to Ibrahim#31 Palestinian nonviolence 22:25  |  nina 13/03/08
  69.   Amira`s a laughingstock over here 22:27  |  Aaron Tobin 13/03/08
  70.   60 years too late 22:32  |  Realist 13/03/08
  71.   Boris` BS 22:39  |  Tom 13/03/08
  72.   Pablo