(MENAFN - Jordan Times) I have been searching for the right word to describe the state of the Palestinian case and could find nothing better than "doldrums".
Doldrums is a colloquial word to describe a state of despondency, bafflement, quandary, archaic, sluggish, inactivity, stagnation and slump. Obviously the Palestinian case is all the above!
All these adjectives fit the Palestinian problem and paint a fair picture of where it stands.
To add to this confusion, former Palestinian prime minister Ahmad Qureia added his own contribution to the solution of the Palestinian conflict, proposing going back to the old one-state solution.
There is really nothing novel in this idea, since it has been floated off and on only to crash land in the middle of nowhere. With the reintroduction of this old-new proposal, the Palestinians are being asked to make a choice between the one-state solution, two-state solution or no state whatsoever.
The last appears to be the most probable chance, unless the Palestinians succeed in extricating their problem from the "doldrums".
But what does it take to do that? If the Palestinians go back to basics, they will discover that their problem now is the same they inflicted on themselves ever since the genesis of their plight and the loss of their homeland.
As far back as one can reasonably go, the Palestinians were denied the right to self determination not only by colonial powers of the early 20th century but also by their leaders.
The Palestinians were voiceless all along and were denied the possibility to make the right choice for salvation from one form of tyranny or another.
To be sure, in the heyday of the colonial era, the British denied them their basic rights to determine their future by promising their country to another people.
What followed is the Jordanian era which provided the Palestinians, in what was left of their country, a high degree of self-expression that culminated in their choice to join forces with Jordan.
Ever since the occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967, Israel the occupying power, made sure that the Palestinians are denied even the semblance of self-rule and self-determination.
The Palestinian Authority made repeated efforts to introduce democratic rule to its people, but it was rebuffed not only by Israel, which effectively continued to rule the West Bank and East Jerusalem, but also by factions within the Palestinian body politic. The end result was a divided Palestinian house and the frustration of all sincere efforts to allow the people to exercise their right to self determination.
The moral of the story is that there is urgent need to go back to basics. Let the Palestinians decide their fate, whatever it is, by allowing them to exercise freely their fundamental right to self determination, which they have been denied for such a long time.
