Jamie Stern-Weiner: Will Palestinian statehood bring self-determination?

[Mufaddal]

I have written in support of a two-state settlement for many years. Still, when I imagine a “free and independent Palestine” under the thumb of factional authoritarians and billionaire creeps; economically in thrall to Israel and the Gulf dictatorships, and no longer visible on the international agenda (with continuing and new abuses now reclassified “internal”), I must admit, the prospect does not inspire.

One might respond that the achievement of Palestinian statehood presupposes a broader-based, more legitimate leadership than this. But the history of post-colonial states and post-apartheid South Africa shows that even such leaderships can quickly corrupt, while populations that have mobilised against an outsider enemy do not therefore also mobilise against an enemy within. On the contrary: at the point of liberation people are often emotionally invested in the leadership that has secured it, and eager to resume civil life.

So, is the struggle for Palestinian statehood misguided? I don’t think so. Even if ending the occupation turned out in the short-term not to improve or even in certain respects to worsen material conditions, still, the fight to improve those conditions must tackle the occupation – the cause of so much distortion of Palestinian society, the witting and unwitting ally of the most repressive elements within it, and almost inevitably the overriding target and principal enemy of progressive Palestinian forces for as long as it exists – as a priority. If ending the occupation won’t automatically produce a more democratic and egalitarian society, it is nonetheless a prerequisite to this. And at present, the only politically viable alternative to the occupation is a Palestinian state.

Even if Palestinian sovereignty would in substance be highly circumscribed, being rid of the IDF, Shin Bet, settlers and border police; the Wall, roadblocks, curfews and “firing zones”; the house demolitions, torture and beatings; the tax theft, trade restrictions and suffocating Gaza siege; and, to sustain all this, the periodic massacres and wholesale devastation of infrastructure – deliverance from all this would truly be a liberation worth the name. If a State of Palestine accomplished nothing else but to free Palestinians from the daily terror of occupation, it would represent a step – one of many required, but not the least of them – towards justice and normalcy.

Link: http://normanfinkelstein.com/2016/03/04/will-palestinian-statehood-bring-self-determination/

[6chars]

1. self determination is already occuring in Gaza

it is a thing of beauty, is it not?

[Little Tich]

2. I see no possibility of a Palestinian state whatsoever.

It's time to thank Netanyahu for his intrepid efforts that made the bi-national state the only option.