What Justice Demands by Elan Journo

Author:Elan Journo [Journo, Elan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Posthill Press
Published: 2018-05-16T16:00:00+00:00

What Palestinian Statehood Actually Looks Like

When Yasser Arafat gave his landmark speech at the United Nations in 1974, he stated that the Palestinian movement seeks a secular, “democratic” state, one that would embody progressive values. This, he claimed, was the political end for the sake of which all of the romanticized “revolutionary” “armed struggle” was the means. Arafat received thunderous applause, and many people today demur at the movement’s violent attacks, but support the idea of Palestinian statehood. So much so that, it is not only the leaders, but also the surrogates and supporters of the Palestinian movement who rail against Israel for (allegedly) thwarting their national aspirations. We encountered this claim in the last chapter; it’s part of the grievance about the denial of Palestinian rights, specifically their desire for a homeland.

But if one cares about justice and the rights of individual, living human beings, here is a crucial question that is too seldom asked. What would such a Palestinian state actually look like?

No need to speculate; there have been four Palestinian quasi-states that furnish ample data. The first was in Jordan (1968–1970); the second, in Lebanon (1970–1982); the third, the Palestinian Authority in parts of the West Bank and Gaza (1994–present); and the fourth, the Hamas regime in Gaza (2007–present). Each of these mini-states was celebrated at the time as a leap forward on the path to realizing the movement’s national aspirations.

When the Palestinian movement achieved its declared goal of a self-governing homeland, even to a limited degree, it subjugated the people under its dominion and waged war against Israel. Reflecting the horrific political-cultural norms of the region, the Palestinian cause embodies the same lust for power, the lust to dominate people, that we have observed in the monarchies, dictatorships, and theocracies of the Middle East. The Palestinian movement is a roving dictatorship in search of territory to dominate.

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