This is an important and timely collection of ten essays
contributed by an interdisciplinary team consisting of scholars, a
journalist and an Arab scholar who is a member of the Knesset
(Israeli parliament). The volume is the product of a cooperative
venture between the Chr Michelson Institute of Bergen, Norway, and
Muwatin, the Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy,
Ramallah, Palestine. It is clear from a very careful reading of the
volume, that the authors were either briefed very carefully or did
actually engage in a dialogue that contributed considerably to the
coherence and the integration of the diverse essays.
The authors represent an interesting mix: five Palestinians, one
Israeli, two Norwegians, one British and one Dutch. All have made
important scholarly contributions on the subject, are quite
familiar with the scene and, thus, their assessment of the
post-Oslo reality of Palestine is well grounded. The emphasis and
the raison d'être of the volume are clearly on the Palestinian
reality (and the Israeli one as it impinges on Palestine) as it has
been shaped by four years of the writ and functioning of
"Osloizing" Palestine. What the authors intended to accomplish is
to describe, analyze and assess the new Palestinian politics
insofar as these are the outcome of the process of Oslo -
euphemistically referred to as the "peace process" by the principal
actors - Americans, Palestinians, Arabs, and the Norwegian broker.
This reviewer finds the omission of any discussion of Norway's role
and expectations from the process and reaction to the unfolding
reality significant. After all, the major assistance - financial,
political and moral - extended to the Palestinian Authority that
enables it to implement so faithfully and energetically, with
disastrous consequences, the politics of subordination to Israel,
so well annotated in the various essays, could not have been
conceived had it not been for the successful intervention of
Norway, probably on behalf of both the United States and Israel.
And, therefore, the sponsors of the volume should have facilitated
a serious discussion of Norway's sustained intervention and, thus,
its contribution to what George Giacaman identified as "the defeat"
of the Palestinians.
Palestinian Defeat
Essentially, the thrust of the volume deals with the politics of
Palestinian defeat and Israel's success as a colonial settler
state. The Palestinian acquiescence in the Israeli policies of
conquest, epitomized by the Oslo agreements, enabled the two
parties to pursue, in the process of implementation of the accords,
policies and structures that would simultaneously protect the
accords and enhance the possibilities of entrenchment. On the one
hand, it enabled Israel to consolidate its previous gains and to
proceed to actualize its agenda of conquest. On the other hand, the
Palestinian Authority managed to institutionalize the authoritarian
(benign or otherwise) system of politics with all its structures,
policies, institutions and control. Such an institutionalized
system made it inevitable that democratic principles, structures,
instruments and policies are trivialized.
This is evident in the chapters by George Giacaman commenting on
the potential emergence of a civil society; by Jamil Hilal
assessing the emerging political system - party control, decline
and irrelevance of political, social and organized opposition; by
Graham Usher dealing with the increasingly arbitrary administrative
and repressive instruments of the Authority; and by Lena Jayyusi,
presenting a keen and reasoned analysis of thought control,
illustrated by her clear portrayal of the Palestinian electronic
media's performance (even though it is in its infancy), and its
controlled and manipulative (on behalf of the Authority and the
so-called peace process) messages to the population.
But Israel's incredible success (and correspondingly Palestinian
defeat) is made abundantly clear in Nils Butenschّn's
narrative of the transformation of Palestinian objectives as they
confronted Israel. The Palestinians clearly lost their initial
battle for independence and statehood against the British colonial
administration and the nascent Zionist movement in 1948. But they
lost their second battle, this time national liberation, much
earlier than 1993. For, while they espoused national liberation as
a motto, in fact, by 1974, they were willing to settle for the
United Nations' endorsed goal of independence and sovereignty in
the West Bank and Gaza.
Even this internationally supported and sanctioned modest goal,
which made the Palestinian movement a typical Third-World
independence movement (similar to Sri Lanka, or Syria, etc., and
very much unlike Algeria, Vietnam, Mozambique and South Africa),
national liberation got transformed when the Palestinian leadership
accepted the Oslo terms, signifying their assent to a severely
restricted form of autonomy in a truncated "homeland." The many
essays of the volume address the consequences of this truncated
"homeland" and Israel's ability and determination to pursue its
policies of conquest to fulfill its objective of a Jewish state in
as much of Palestine as it can obtain, while upholding the "peace
process."
The trenchant essays by Professor Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin and Jan de
Jong portray clearly Israel's ideological commitment, not only to
its Jewish constituents, but also to its Palestinian subjects. It
is difficult to imagine how a Palestinian leadership can grasp the
meaning of Raz-Krakotzkin's thoughtfully honest discussion of
Zionism and Israel's policies and continue to uphold the Oslo
process. De Jong demonstrates the material evidence for Israel's
continuing policies of conquest of the land, now carried out on a
grand scale under the gazing eyes of a Palestinian population that
can protest, but is unable to confront and alter the inevitable
outcome of landlessness. The various schemes for "final-status"
negotiations that Israel is likely to submit to the Palestinian
leadership are all detailed, documented and illustrated with clear
maps, and their implication for the survival of the Palestinians
and their national economy realistically exposed. If there is a
relationship between knowledge and policy-making, certainly
Palestinians need not read much beyond Raz-Krakotzkin's analysis
and that of De Jong to resolve and pursue a policy of national
survival that is totally at variance with their present politically
subordinate stance.
Dependence on the US
Is there much hope? Professor Fuad Moughrabi, surveying in general
terms the position and conditions of the Arabs, concludes that
they, too, have accepted their subordinate position, affiliation
with and dependence on the United States. Not much countervailing
power can emanate from that source. Dr. Azmi Bishara demonstrates
clearly how bifurcated Palestinian society has become. Israel's
policy of co-optation and of supporting a certain class of
Palestinians, who develop a vested interest in working with Israel
to sustain the Oslo system, has been quite successful. It is the
political class that now stands in the forefront of the defenders
of Oslo and in defusing Palestinian general opposition.
Clearly, the economic, social and political benefits of the
political class, whose members are classified by Israel as VIP's
and thus have considerable freedom of movement, of economic
participation, etc., contribute significantly to the basic division
of Palestinian society. Even an antagonistic collaborative
relationship between such a class and Israel does not detract from
the possibility of benefiting from the Israeli-developed control
system and, thus, perpetuate the Oslo process in situ. Bishara
cautions us about the prospects of an Intifada of the old type;
systematic opposition to Israel by the now-demobilized but
mobilizable population may discover the solid connection between
the political class and Israel. As the economic and social
situation of the Palestinians deteriorates further - growth in
unemployment, corruption, sustained confiscation of land, etc. - a
mobilized population will react correctly.
Alternatives
Can the Palestinians devise a strategy for a future which, quite
evidently, Israel is pursuing relentlessly on the ground, with the
open assistance of the United States and implicit acquiescence of
the regional and world system? A future that is so clearly
projected in this book dominated by Bantustanization/cantonization
in an apartheid system? Dag Jّrund Lّnning raises the
possible alternatives that individual Palestinians face. In the
past, Palestinians were sustained by a vision and a possibility
and, consequently, had considerable hope and resilience. The Oslo
process reversed these and brought about at best disappointment,
but certainly disempowerment and, hence, hopelessness.
Where do we go from here? If we follow the logic of the serious
discussion evident in this book of essays, one is likely to
conclude what one of Lّnning's informants concluded, "I
cannot do anything."
Well, does this mean that settler colonial regimes will succeed in
the twenty-first century while they failed in the twentieth, viz.,
France in Algeria; Portugal in Mozambique, Angola, Guinea Bissau;
Britain in Zimbabwe and, of course, the apartheid regime in South
Africa? Will Israel be an exception to the rule governing settler
colonial states, as Palestine was an exception in 1948 when it
failed to achieve its independence?
If we are to conclude that settler regimes succeed only when they
excise the indigenous people - Australia, the United States and
much of Latin America, etc., does this mean that Palestinians need
to be excised from their national patrimony? Or is there a
possibility of a different kind, perhaps another exceptional
resolution to an enduring conflict between a native and his
colonizer?
A critical reading of this well-documented and relevant volume will
undoubtedly contribute to a more profound understanding of the
Palestinian reality after Oslo.