Palestine on the verge of imploding… If not now, when?

The Palestinian struggle for statehood has always been at the heart of most conflicts between the Middle East and the west. The injustices that befell the Palestinian people as a result of the establishment of the state of Israel have been front and center for the past six decades with many failed attempts to resolve them fairly. From active diplomacy and non-violence, to secret negotiations, to Israeli military incursions and a heavily armed Palestinian resistance all the way to terrorism, both camps and their allies tried to resolve the issue to no avail thus far.

 Meantime, “Palestine” has become the cause of almost everyone and anyone over the years. People use it as a source of frustration against Israel or simply as an excuse to spew hate or pass their anti-western agenda. It is true that Israel’s establishment has led to uprooting of millions of Palestinians who have been scattered around the world since. While many have settled and established their lives in all corners of the world, a suffering majority remains in refugee camps, under the mercy of their “host” countries. Others suffer dearly as a result of a suffocating Israeli occupation and economic siege. Refugee camps are going into a fifth generation of stateless Palestinians in a world that keeps closing in on them. In the West Bank and Gaza, while Palestinians multiply, their occupied land keeps shrinking as a result of illegal settlements that even Israel’s High Court has ordered a halt of but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to defiantly and bluntly push through.

 If you listen to all voices, and they are many, it would be impossible not to be confused about what everyone wants for the Palestinians and what the Palestinians want for themselves.

 Is President Mahmoud Abbas the legitimate spokesperson for all Palestinians, or is it Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal? Who speaks for the Palestinians today and who truly represents them is a very serious question that needs an answer before anyone carries the Palestinian banner. Think of other prominent Palestinians such as Saeb Erekat, Hanan Ashrawi, Marwan Barghouti, or Azmi Bishara? Do they all call for the same “Palestine?” How about the more than 1300 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails currently on a hunger strike? What could possibly be their views of Palestine?

 In speeches across the Middle East, we hear excitement and support for Palestine. Politicians, clerics, poets and artists join in with young activists daily pledges to “free Palestine.” For the most part, they are heartfelt commendable efforts, but just for once in the history of this stateless people who ended up with the never desirable label of “refugee” can we ask the activists to tune themselves out and let the Palestinians speak for themselves? For once, let ordinary Palestinians living under occupation, surrounded by illegal settlements, subjected to the bullying of a state that does not respect their right to honorable living speak up. Not Hamas or Fatah on their behalf. Not Hezbollah or al Qaeda, not Lebanese or Jordanian or Egyptian activists, not Arab leaders either. The plain old Palestinians who are robbed of any opportunities to live a decent life because of the abuses they suffer at the hands of their own rulers need to speak up.

 The Palestinians are on the verge of an implosion. Continued leadership uncertainty and bickering will only lead to an explosion of catastrophic proportions. In this case the biggest loser will undoubtedly be “Palestine” in all its versions!