My back and forth exchange with the Palestinian Authority-controlled "Palestine Network" continues. Ms. Fatima AbdelKarim, on behalf of the Palestine Network Secretariat in Israeli-occupied Ramallah, has answered a blog post I wrote yesterday entitled "Abbas-backed "Palestine Network" responds to my comments; here's my reaction and their unpublished 'concept paper.'"
In her latest response, Ms. AbdelKarim asserts that:
there are nearly 100 founders of the Palestine Network, who will all convene in Bethlehem less than 10 days from today! These founders are anonymous to you, but they are well known, respected, and well established in their professions and intellect and are living in over 20 countries. Those anonymous to you, have constructed the concept note of the Palestine Network that you posted again...
It is baffling why the Palestine Network continues to be so shy and embarrassed about its direct links with the Ramallah Palestinian Authority (PA) and the fact that is effectively conceived, controlled and financed by them. The Palestine Network's final draft concept paper which I published on this blog yesterday states, for example, "The Palestine Network is the idea of active Palestinians (locals and expatriates), friends of Palestine and members of the Palestinian leadership... ."
But earlier drafts reveal even more about the Palestinian Authority's direct control of this initiative. Draft 7 of the concept note (which I publish for the first time at the bottom of this blog post) reveals that -- in addition to close Abbas associates Rafiq al-Husseini, Ramzi Khoury and Issa Kassisieh -- Dr. Ghassan Khatib is one of the members of the "official committee to see the realization of this project." Khatib's current job is as head of the Ramallah Palestinian Authority's "Government Press Office" and he appears frequently in the media defending the PA.
Draft 7 also reveals that far from being a grassroots effort, the Palestine Network has been entirely controlled and organized by the "official committee" and its secretariat. The tasks they set themselves included:
Establishing a list of interested community leaders who want to build chapters of the network in their communities and who will be the founding members of the network.
Setting up MODEL CHAPTERS in several regions of the world that will play the role of founding members and help launch the network.
This completely belies the claim made by Ms. AbdelKarim in an earlier posting that the Palestine Network was organized "as a demand of many Palestinians abroad." It is also completely consistent with the reports I received from activists in several countries that they had never heard of the Palestine Network until they were contacted by PA surrogates. Draft 7 is also more revealing about the original purpose of the Palestine Network:
Yet, in this day and age of high technology and communications that turned the world into a global village, there lacks an effective communications system that allows Palestinians in the Diaspora the ability to voice their opinion to the leadership, listen to the leadership on current issues, work together at the level of their own communities, on the regional and international levels.
In other words it was very clear from the beginning that this initiative was a top-down effort to organize a loyal constituency for the "leadership" to use to legitimize itself and its unpopular policies. What the history of the Palestine Network demonstrates more than anything else is the hopelessly warped idea of "democracy" of the unelected "leadership" in Ramallah. They seem to imagine that a secretly-planned organization funded by foreign governments, where they hand pick the "founding" members and organize the chapters themselves is the same thing -- or can be passed off -- as something that is "Independent, representative and democratic, non-partisan, non-governmental and participatory."
If the Ramallah "leadership" were truly interested in reviving legitimate institutions of grassroots participation in decision-making, it would embrace instead of continuing to block real reform and revitalization of the completely dead body of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) -- which it still insists is the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people." Instead of monopolizing the moribund institutions and committees of the PLO, it would open them up. But because the PA can't and won't embrace actual democracy, it is trying to set up a front in the form of the "Palestine Network" that purports to be independent, democratic and grassroots but is nothing of the sort.
Here is "Draft 7" of the Palestine Network's concept paper: