The latest op-ed from left-wing journalist Amira Hass describes the need to dismiss democracy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in order to secure the future of the peace process. She claims that the Palestinian Authority must first establish a sovereign state, accomplished partially by a strong government not weakened by small or extreme parties. The actualization of an independent state must take priority. She states:
“In their preoccupation with the elections and the makeup of a government whose powers are so limited, they are reinforcing the false image of an end to the occupation that has developed over the past 15 years and has been so beneficial to Israel. Israel renounces any obligation vis-a-vis the occupied people, and has gone to even greater extremes in its methods of oppression; it continues to treat that people’s land as its own, while, by the very act of formally participating in the negotiations, it satisfies the demands of the governments that count in the world.
If they really aspired to liberation, the two Palestinian leaderships would break a few rules in the Oslo game. They would give up the process of Western-style elections, which is essentially divisive. They would find other means of expressing differences and consensus, and also of encouraging public discourse concerning all the methods of liberation that have failed so far. “
