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Why Are the Palestinians Opposed to Ending the Occupation?

(Global Law Forum) Jonathan D. Halevi - The dual-headed Palestinian regime in Ramallah (Fatah) and in Gaza (Hamas) has totally rejected Israeli Foreign Minister Lieberman's proposal to recruit the European Union to build power stations to supply electricity, desalination stations, and sewage treatment plants for Gaza. Sami Abu Zuheiri, a Hamas spokesperson, explained that "although Gaza was liberated in practice from the military and settlement presence, it is still from a legal and practical standpoint under occupation." He argued that Israel, "the occupying country," must continue to provide for Gaza's needs. The Hamas position exemplifies one of the major absurdities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hamas, which took pride in liberating Gaza from the Israeli occupation via Jihad, is struggling with all its might to preserve the "Israeli occupation" and obligate Israel to continue transferring supplies to an entity that avowedly declares that it will liberate all of Palestine, liquidate the State of Israel, and kill and expel its Jewish inhabitants. Why are the Palestinians still adamant in their opposition to receiving total independence on at least part of Palestinian territory? Because the Palestinian leadership has not renounced the idea of liberating Palestine in its entirety. The objective of both the PA and the Hamas government is identical, namely, keeping the lava of the refugee problem at full boil, as this constitutes the key to the ultimate objective of the historic Palestinian odyssey - the liquidation of the State of Israel as a Jewish state. Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi is a senior researcher of the Middle East and radical Islam at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
2010-07-22 08:12:41
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