Palestinians never stop conceding, for nothing in return [Book Review]

Unilateral action by all may be the only way forward.

Jerome M. Segal’s book has one main goal, which is to highlight the 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence as a lost inflection point: a rare, pivotal moment that the US, Israel, and even the Palestinian leadership who issued it, could have seized (but did not) to advance Palestinian statehood and peace between Palestinians and Israelis.

In the book I review here, Dr. Segal shares the English-language text of a highly quotable comment he made at the end of an essay he published on April 27, 1988, in the leading Arabic newspaper in Palestine, Al-Quds. This personal note is a perfect place to start:

“If it seems odd that a Jew should offer his thoughts on how Palestinians can be successful in their struggle, let me only add that the struggle for an independent Palestinian state is also the struggle for a humane and safe Israel, and that there can be no Judaism without a commitment to Justice.”

[…]

Mixed feelings

I took away from reading the book three distinct feelings.

First, I felt informed. Dr. Segal reveals some of the behind-the-scenes dynamics of how our Palestinian leadership operated and how the US and Israel reacted. That alone made reading his book a worthwhile investment of time. Second, I was angered but not surprised by his portrayal of how the PLO leadership then (as now) behaved with total disdain for the people’s will and little respect for institutional capacity….

Finally, I also felt insulted. Dr. Segal, being the scholar he is, analyzes affairs as if Palestinians were in a laboratory, in a controlled experiment, yet free to act at will. Without historical context, one could imagine from Dr. Segal’s account that the Palestinian leadership emerged from the halls of Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, rather than from a people shocked into dispersion and forced to mobilize themselves for survival purposes, operating during a relentless and ongoing Israeli and US military campaign to destroy their very existence… 

Read Sam’s full review on Medium.

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Tagged with: Abu Iyad • Al-Quds newspaper • Dr. Nasser al-Qudwa • Jerome M. Segal • Mahmoud Darwish • Noam Chomsky • Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) • Palestinian Declaration of Independence (1988) • Palestinian Statehood • Sabri Jiryis • The Olive Branch from Palestine: The Palestinian Declaration of Independence and the Path Out of the Current Impasse (book) • Two State Solution • UN General Assembly Resolution 181 (1947) • United States of America (USA) • University of Maryland • Yasser Arafat

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