After a year of battling for justice for her husband, Jihan Banat and her four children have found neither justice nor solace, and the Palestinian public has been left without answers.
Hamada Jaber writes that the Palestinian left needs to realize that the Hamas-Fatah rapprochement reflects a crisis and not the alleged unity needed to face Palestinians’ challenges. Given that, the upcoming legislative elections present an opportunity but the left needs to decide its goal — to become an effective force in the Palestinian political system, or merely to survive.
Dr. Hanan Ashrawi resigned from the PLO, calling for reform within the Palestinian political system. Nada Elia says her call is already being met by the next generation of vibrant Palestinian leaders, but they are far outside the system Ashrawi is looking to revive.
Yara Hawari outlines the strategies and challenges of building a collective vision for a Palestinian future.
The Palestinian Authority has announced it will seek a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution calling for an end of the Israeli occupation within a specific time period. The draft legislation gives Israel two years to remove its forces from lands occupied in June 1967 and reaffirms per-existing agreements for a framework of negotiations, said Ashraf Khatib a spokesperson for the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Negotiations Affairs Department via telephone to Mondoweiss. While the resolution makes no explicit mention of land swamps, it does support previous accords where the PLO granted Israel the possibility of territorial exchanges where up to 60% of settlers could remain in the West Bank.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has called on the United Nations Security Council to pass a resolution to end Israel’s occupation of the June 1967 territories, by ordering the immediate resumption of negotiations with a set time limit to demarcate the boundaries of a Palestinian state. He has put on hold the Palestinian accession to the International Criminal Court.