Void of leadership, Palestinian movement loses momentum

The second of two parts.

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Just across the street from the gleaming white mausoleum of Yasser Arafat on the grounds of the Palestinian Authority headquarters stands a tent village depicting towns destroyed during the 1948 Israeli-Arab war.

But save for an occasional group of local students or adventure-minded tourists, the tent city — sponsored by the Palestine Liberation Organization — is typically empty and ignored by passing traffic.

Sixty years after Israel’s birth, Palestinians continue to press unfulfilled demands for statehood, land reparation and compensation for refugees. But more than any other time since it placed the cause of Palestinian sovereignty at the top of the world agenda, the Palestinian national movement finds itself in a deteriorating state of paralysis.

There’s almost no Palestinian leadership, said Kadoura Fares, a former Palestinian Cabinet minister and member of President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party.

The national movement as a locomotive is weak. When [the Palestinians] shoot rockets, it’s not a sign of strengthening. It”s a sign of weakness. When you can bring thousands of people into the streets and include them in a nonviolent struggle, it”s a sign of strengthening.

Two years after Fatah was trounced by Islamic militant politicians from Hamas in legislative elections and nearly a year after Fatah militias were defeated in the Gaza Strip, there are few, if any, hints of a revival.

Fatah, the political party founded by Mr. Arafat as the core of the PLO, remains paralyzed by internal fighting.

It has been unable to shake the image of corruption rooted in years of cronyism and patronage that became the hallmark of the Palestinian Authority.

Although negotiations have resumed with Israel for the first time in seven years, Palestinians see the peace process as an exercise in virtual diplomacy with little, if any, bearing on their everyday lives.

In short, we had a very just cause, and we had very bad lawyers, said Eyad Sarraj, the director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program.

Mr. Arafat’s biggest achievement was his appearance at the United Nations in 1974, for the first time asserting a Palestinian national identity independent of the surrounding Arab regimes, Dr. Sarraj said.

Aside from that, the doctor ticked off a string of Mr. Arafat’s failures and miscalculations: a 1970 coup attempt in Jordan known as Black September, setting up a militia headquarters in Beirut and incurring spite from the Lebanese, siding with Saddam Hussein during the 1991 Iraq war, and the 1993 Oslo peace accords, which failed to bring Palestinian statehood.

Dr. Sarraj also pointed to what he considers a more chronic issue.

We have a serious structural problem in the national movement. The control all the time was by the gun, and militants, who are largely uneducated and ignorant, caused most of the disasters we are in today, he said.

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