Preparatory committee of the Alternative Palestinian Path Conference urges boycott of Zionist colonial elections and the Oslo Palestinian Authority
The liberation struggle does not include the legitimization of Oslo or Zionist colonialism
The Preparatory Committee of the Alternative Palestinian Path conference issued a position statement on January 13, 2021, calling upon the masses of the Palestinian people in occupied and colonized Palestine to reject and boycott the so-called “presidential and legislative elections” called by the Oslo Palestinian Authority for its subservient self-rule entity, calling at the same time upon the Palestinian people in occupied Palestine 1948 to boycott the elections for the Zionist colonial parliament, the Knesset.
In the statement, the Preparatory Committee affirmed that any claims to democracy under the bayonets of colonialism, as in the case of the Palestinian Authority, is nothing more than a grand deception that aims to legitimize the disastrous Oslo project, and that what some call the “parliamentary struggle through participation in the Knesset” is nothing but legitimization of the colonizer that provides cover for the reality of the settler colonial system and the nature of the Zionist project of displacement, oppression and racism.
The committee added that Palestinians, everywhere they are, are aware of the actions of the official Palestinian leadership that have produced additional fragmentation atop the displacement, exile and fragmentation imposed by colonialism. Holding elections under the guns of the colonizer will only result in further fragmentation, subservience and deviation from the path of liberation. Simply following behind a corrupt political class aligned with the economic mediators of colonialism and its security agents is no longer acceptable, either to achieve Palestinian goals of liberation and return or even in the immediate sense of achieving national unity or reconciliation.
The purpose of elections for the Oslo Palestinian Authority is to claim a renewal of national legitimacy for an illegitimate leadership, buying time and marketing illusions for the reproduction of the project of liquidation and settlement along the path of Madrid and Oslo. Attempts by this political class to portray such elections as a gateway to national unity is nothing but a deception aimed to compel the Palestinian people to once again go down a path of quotas and renewals of pledges of loyalty and support to a leadership that has led only to surrender and defeat.
Claims of an alleged consensus indicate, in reality, nothing more than an agreement to present credentials to the new American president, Joe Biden, in order to seek a return to the failed path of Oslo and negotiations under the eyes of all forces and factions. The committee noted that it is clear that a message must be sent to these leaders that national unity cannot exclude more than half of the Palestinian people in exile and diaspora, by narrow exclusivity in national decision-making, nor by splitting up the small privileges and spoils of Oslo granted to the defeated. National unity only comes in the fields of work, struggle and confrontation of the colonizer.
The statement further emphasized that any elections taking place under the guns of colonialism and within the framework of Oslo and the devastation and defeats it wrought inevitably result in leaders and programs whose ceiling is determined by Zionist colonialism and the imperialist Western powers, and the Palestinian experience bears witness to this reality.
Any elections that are controlled by the political forces embedded in Oslo and their regional and international alliances are inherently in contradiction with the needs and aims of the people’s liberation movement and are incapable of producing a program of liberation. Therefore, such elections will not be in the interests of the Palestinian people who are most in need of a national strategy to restore their national program in a framework of dignity that upholds the values of liberation and willingness to sacrifice.
In addition, the Preparatory Committee also affirmed that participation in the parliament of the Zionist colonial enemy, even if justified as a means of opposition, contributes only to the perpetuation and legitimization of the colonial system and, at minimum, provides a cover for the crimes of the Zionist project. From a principled and strategic point of view, participating in the Zionist parliamentary elections not only legitimizes colonialism and endorses its false claims to “democracy” and “respect for human rights”, but also undermines the national and international movements calling for resistance to racist Zionist colonialism. Furthermore, it is a recognition of the legitimacy of an entity that is founded on the colonizer’s “right to self-determination” over the land of Palestine from the river to the sea, not to mention its ongoing and ever-escalating crimes against the Palestinian people.
In conclusion, the committee affirmed that the liberation struggle may not be advanced by legitimizing Oslo nor by legitimizing Zionist colonialism, but rather by organizing the Palestinian people, working with the masses, and adopting effective revolutionary forms of struggle to achieve liberation and return and build a democratic, liberated Palestine from the river to the sea. The committee called on all Palestinian resistance factions not to reproduce the cycle of failure once again and end the pursuit of illusions, mirages and absurd false promises. The exit for the Palestinian internal crisis cannot be found through such so-called elections under the guns of colonialism. Instead, the priority is to develop a national Palestinian strategy that restores the cause to its rightful place and upholds the dignity and rights of the Palestinian people, their right to return, liberation and self-determination. This requires building a unified Palestinian national front in all fields and areas of struggle and building effective national institutions, away from the path of Madrid and Oslo, and rejecting all collaboration with Zionist political institutions and their colonial system.