Publication
Omar Shaban Ismail · Sama News Agency · 2011
Omar Shaban reviews “The Politics of Change in Palestine: State-Building and Non-Violent Resistance” by Dr. Michael Bröning, director of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Palestine, published by Pluto Press in 250 pages and five chapters, which concludes that it is the Palestinians who can say there is no Israeli partner for peace and that the West should reconsider its position on Hamas. He outlines the chapters on Hamas's shift towards accepting a state on the 1967 borders and a truce, Fatah's “reinvention” at its sixth conference in Bethlehem in August 2009, the state-building programme under Abbas and Fayyad, and non-violent popular resistance. He criticises the author for adopting the Western view of Fayyad's policies and for omitting reports doubting the sustainability of growth concentrated in Ramallah and in real estate, and suspicions of corruption around some ministers, while judging the book well worth reading.
Omar Shaban, April 2011: a review of Michael Bröning’s book on change in Hamas, Fatah, the PA and non-violent resistance, faulting its view of Fayyad.
Palestinians have the right to say, “There is no Israeli partner for peace with us,” and the West must reconsider its position toward Hamas. It is the Palestinians who have the right to say, “There is no Israeli partner for peace with us.” The failure to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians is not due to the absence of a Palestinian partner, as successive Israeli governments claim, but rather to the fact that Israeli society as a whole, and its political elite in particular, have deliberately failed to notice the radical positive changes taking place in Palestinian society toward the peace process. “The West must reconsider its position toward Hamas in particular, and toward political Islam in general, and work to accommodate it and engage with it.”
These important conclusions were not issued by an Arab politician nor by a Palestinian politician, but rather are the summary of a book published this month by Pluto Press in Britain by its author Dr. Michael Bröning. In his 250-page pocket-sized book, consisting of five chapters and titled *The Politics of Change in Palestine, State Building and Non-Violent Resistance*, Dr. Michael Bröning traces the positive changes taking place in Palestinian society at various levels: Hamas, Fatah, the Palestinian Authority, and popular non-violent resistance, particularly with regard to the conflict with Israel and ways of ending the occupation. He believes that these Palestinian changes and trends are met, in stark contradiction, by what he calls “a policy of stagnation and an increasing shift to the right on the other side.”
The book documents that Hamas itself is undergoing a radical process of change and development toward peace, not very different from what has happened and is happening within Fatah, the Palestinian Authority, and the non-violent resistance movement of Palestinian society as a whole.
The book also concludes by saying that the positive developments in the Palestinian position, in its outlook and vision for resolving the conflict with Israel, are matched on the Israeli side by developments moving in the opposite direction, marked by increasing extremism and denial of the rights of others.
The importance of this book and the credibility of its conclusions lie in the fact that its author, Dr. Michael Bröning, is a German with a doctorate in political science and an activist in the Social Democratic Party, which gives him a high capacity to understand and analyze the role of political parties and how their performance evolves. He has also worked for years as director of the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Palestine, an institution affiliated with the German Social Democratic Party and one very active in the field of dialogue and political thinking. This has enabled Mr. Bröning to gain close and precise knowledge of the Palestinian situation in its daily details—checkpoints, the wall, the blockade. He also visits the Gaza Strip at close and varying intervals, and he participated in the sessions of Fatah’s Sixth Conference held in August 2009.
## Hamas
The change taking place in the Palestinian arena has not stopped at the political forces known for supporting the peace process, but has also extended to include Hamas. In the first chapter of the book, the researcher addresses the radical changes taking place within Hamas since its entry into the arena of political action through its participation in the legislative elections in January 2006. These radical changes have been reflected not only in the statements of its leaders, but also through the movement’s practical positions regarding the conflict with Israel and its handling of political proposals. The author documents dozens of statements by Hamas leaders, whether public or those conveyed to Western mediators, which can be summarized in the fact that Hamas would accept a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. Likewise, the movement’s acceptance of a truce and the cessation of bombing operations, as well as the serious efforts by Hamas and its government, which has fully ruled the Gaza Strip since June 2007, to preserve a state of stability and relative calm despite the violations that occur from time to time. Also, its serious attempts to combat the emergence of extremist forces in the Gaza Strip.
The author also documents these conclusions through numerous documented statements and positions by Hamas leaders, including Mr. Khaled Meshaal, head of the Political Bureau, as well as Mr. Mahmoud al-Ramahi, Secretary-General of the Legislative Council, both of whom affirmed that the movement’s Charter should not be viewed as the movement’s intellectual frame of reference. He cites Mr. Khaled Meshaal’s remarks to the BBC in 2010: “The world must read Hamas through its positions and actions, not through a Charter drafted twenty years ago.” The author therefore expresses astonishment at the duality of Western thinking, which usually relies on modern practical and scientific evidence in forming its research conclusions, yet does not apply this to the case of Hamas, saying: “At a time when Hamas has stopped referring to its Charter, drafted in 1988, which stipulates the establishment of an Islamic state over all Palestinian lands, research centers and policy kitchens in the West still insist on reading Hamas through this Charter, which has become nothing more than a document on the shelf.” The author concludes by saying: Hamas has not broken completely with the past; rather, it is a movement passing through a stage of change and transformation from a movement into a political force. It is true that this transformation is not yet complete, as it is still living through a state of conflict and debate between the legacy of the past and the requirements of the present and the future. However, we will soon witness “Hamas, version two,” as the author says.
## Fatah
The author reviews the life trajectory of Fatah from its founding in Kuwait in 1958 in a secret meeting that brought together three of its now-deceased leaders—Yasser Arafat, Khalil al-Wazir, and Salah Khalaf—up to the present day, passing through the fedayeen operations led by the late founder Yasser Arafat in 1967 from inside Palestine.
He traces its move to operate in Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia, and then its return to the homeland in 1994 once again with the signing of the Oslo peace agreement, which came after years of the First Intifada led by young Fatah activists in the field in Gaza, Ramallah, Jenin, and Nablus. The book reviews the historical stages through which Fatah passed since its founding, when it raised and practiced “armed struggle,” until its signing of the peace agreement with Israel in 1993 in Oslo, thereby transforming from a revolution that fights into a political party leading an authority.
This created a state of identity conflict within Fatah: is it a movement, an authority, or a party that administers the authority? It also created a conflict between the movement’s youth, who led the Intifada inside, and the old guard who founded Fatah and managed the armed struggle from abroad.
The author also traces the forms of conflict that have never ceased within the movement since its founding. One of the historical milestones of Fatah was the movement’s Sixth Congress, which was held in August 2009 in the city of Bethlehem after a delay of 16 years. It was the movement’s first congress held in the absence of its founder, Yasser Arafat, with the participation of more than 2,300 members and a heavy presence from the international community. The importance of the congress lies not only in those reasons, but also in the number and quality of the issues that were put forward for discussion. The book documents the moments of euphoria and victory that the movement experienced, as well as the moments of relapse and decline, which led some to believe that the movement was in a state of retreat and clinical death. The author concludes that Fatah’s Sixth Congress constituted a new birth for the movement, which he called the “reinvention of Fatah.”
## The Palestinian Authority
The author asks, “Can a state be built under occupation?” He answers this question by saying that the idea of establishing the Palestinian Authority indicates a strategic shift in the priorities of Palestinian struggle, which had focused on “liberation before construction,” toward building state institutions and achieving development while continuing the struggle to complete liberation.
The author traces the serious efforts undertaken by the Palestinian Authority in the field of building state institutions, combating corruption, enhancing transparency, and formulating the necessary set of laws and regulations. The author reviews in detail the state-building program adopted by President Mahmoud Abbas and his Prime Minister Salam Fayyad within the framework of the two-year plan for building state institutions, which ends next September, in the areas of reforming the security services, combating corruption, promoting the principles of transparency and accountability, developing infrastructure, strengthening the rule of law and justice, and reforming social support programs. This is being carried out with very substantial support from the international community, which sees Salam Fayyad as a new model in Palestinian politics and administration and as a model that must be backed and supported. The author also addresses the many problematic issues faced by Dr. Salam Fayyad, whether from Palestinian society, Fatah, or most Palestinian political forces, asking on behalf of the Palestinians: Is Salam Fayyad the awaited messiah for the Palestinians, or is he a leader betraying the principles of the Palestinian revolution and struggle!!
## Popular Resistance
The author devotes a special chapter to peaceful resistance, stressing that it is not new to Palestinian society, but has always been practiced throughout its long history of struggle against the occupation. Non-violent peaceful resistance has developed to include, in addition to resisting the occupation, new areas such as resisting the Wall and boycotting settlement products, stressing three basic facts in this regard:
First: peaceful resistance finds support and backing from the official Palestinian system and its political forces, including both Fatah and Hamas.
Second: the Israeli occupation confronts peaceful resistance with military repressive methods despite its peaceful nature.
Third: peaceful resistance represents a legal and military problem for the occupier, and it causes Israel severe embarrassment before Israeli society itself and the international community.
## Evaluation of the Study:
Moving toward peace must be undertaken by both sides in order for it to be achieved, and not by one side alone, as the book affirms... Just as the British and the French did in building the Channel Tunnel connecting Europe to the British Isles, where each side began digging from its own side until they met halfway, the Israelis must realize that they have to cover half the distance, if not more.
We may disagree with the author and the conclusions he reached, and the author may have adopted the Western position on Salam Fayyad’s policies, as he did not clearly point to some documented international reports that downplayed the significance and degree of sustainability of the economic upturn taking place in the West Bank, since it is occurring without Gaza, without Jerusalem, and without the Jordan Valley, and is clearly concentrated in the Ramallah area and to a large extent in real estate. The writer also did not point to the performance of Fayyad’s government, which is characterized by individualism, as the rest of his government does not operate at the same level of performance. Nor did he point to the presence of ministers in his government against whom there are suspicions of corruption, where their immunity should be lifted so that investigations can begin with them. The book also did not point to the failure of the Palestinian negotiator and Palestinian foreign policy to clarify the Palestinian position in international forums. Likewise, with regard to Fatah, which still suffers greatly from the legacy of the past, it has not yet been able to possess the tools to influence the performance of the Authority and the government, or to exert sufficient pressure to achieve reconciliation with Hamas. Likewise, the institutions of the Authority and the government have significantly failed to support the movement’s members in the Gaza Strip. And Hamas, whose positions still fluctuate between the legacy of the past and the requirements of the present and the future. Despite this, the book remains worthy of reading... not only by researchers and those interested in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but also by Israeli society itself, so that it may gain deep insight into the profound change taking place in Palestinian society in concepts, methods, and political discourse; and also by the Palestinian leadership and the Palestinian negotiator, so that they may acquire the ability to confront the Israeli discourse that always places the blame on the Palestinian side; and also by international mediators, especially the Americans, who support the Israeli position relentlessly.
The book is rich in information and deep analysis, as the author relies on dozens of references, political statements, and personal interviews, giving the book a high degree of credibility. The book can be summarized in a beautiful saying by the famous German writer and journalist Kurt Tucholsky, cited by the author in his book: “We have grown accustomed to saying ‘no,’ whether out of love, hatred, sympathy, or superiority... The time has come for us to say ‘yes.’”
So, will the Israelis say it?
Topic: Palestinian Politics — book review · Hamas · Fatah · non-violent resistance — Text © Sama News Agency — archived here with attribution to the source. — Original source