By Jafar M Ramini

Sitting in the most tranquil of locations on the Swan River in Western Australia I contemplate what the world has to offer. Then it hit me. Destiny.


We, the Arabs, believe in destiny. Some of us sit there and wait for it to happen and some of us sit there thinking and hoping that it will happen. Some others of us believe that our destiny is in the hands of our creator.

I must say that I have always seen our destiny in clear and precise terms. It lies in our own hands. We are destined to achieve our aims and goals because they are just and we are able. Then I take a wistful glance at what is happening to us all over the Arab world and wake up from my contemplation to the harsh realities of the 21st century.

We, the Arabs, are more divided and fragmented than ever. We are busy going around in vicious circles in the so-called Arab Spring while our number one perceived enemy, Israel, is consolidating, expanding and fortifying itself.

It is at this stage that I ask myself a very simple question. What happened to Palestinian resolve? Whatever happened to our steadfast commitment to our legitimate rights? And then I realize that what has transpired in the last twenty years is the ill-conceived, ill-written and one-sided Oslo Accord and the birth of the lamented Palestinian Authority.

Two things brought this to the fore this morning. One, the passing of our dear, beloved brother, Ahmad Bin Bella, the father of the Algerian Revolution. And two a report that Abu Mazen is sending yet another letter to that war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu, setting out his terms and conditions for reviving the stalled, futile peace negotiations.

Ahmad Bin Bella took his destiny and that of Algeria into his own honest hands. He fought the French occupiers by any means available to him and the Algerian resistance and achieved the ultimate destiny he was fighting for: The independence and freedom of Algeria and the Algerians. That is how destiny is made and not wished or waited for.

I don’t have any first hand knowledge of Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, nor do I doubt his well-intentioned moves that he is trying to a Palestinian state as envisioned by UN Resolution 242. But doesn’t this wishful thinking fall into the category of sitting and hoping for destiny to play its hand?

What I am trying to say here is for destiny to be made into reality instead of just wishing for it to happen we must fight for it. But, how could we fight for it when we have no army, no air force, no navy and we are totally divided? The answer to all of this lies in the hands of Abu Mazen.

Yes, we are weak. Yes, we are fragmented and yes we are at each other’s throats so why continue on a path that we know will lead us to total oblivion?

It has been reported that one of the conditions in Abu Mazen’s letter to Mr. Netanyahu was that he, Abu Mazen, would dissolve the Palestinian Authority if he does not get satisfactory answers to what he sees as his legitimate demands from Israel. But the US has already pressurized him into omitting this threat. Furthermore, Abu Mazen was told, in no uncertain terms, that if he wasn’t happy with Mr. Netanyahu’s response and decided to go it alone to the UN the USA would veto it. Exactly as they threatened to do last September, when the PA went to the UN to try to declare a Palestinian State and they thwarted it.

As I mentioned above, when we have no army, no navy, no air force and we are plagued with division and infighting why do we agree to remove the one and only useful weapon in our armory, which is the dissolution of the PA? What is the point?

Another vital component of our armory is also removed from the equation. That is the aspirations of the Palestinian Nation. When is the Palestinian Authority going to realize that Palestine is not exclusively theirs and theirs alone, that we, the people of Palestine do exist and should be consulted? After all, it is our destiny they are playing with.

I, for one, do not offer my consent. On the contrary I, as a Palestinian, living in exile, demand that Abu Mazen and his colleagues dissolve the PA forthwith and put the burden of the occupation onto the shoulders of the occupiers not the occupied.

Please, Abu Mazen, remember that this is election year in America. You must know by now how powerful and effective is the ‘hasbara’ propaganda machine of our enemy. You should also know how cowardly American politicians become during election time, knowing full well that AIPAC is there watching and threatening. Finally, you must also know that Israel does not seek peace. Peace does not serve their purpose.

Enough time has been lost. Enough Palestinian blood has been spilled. Enough Palestinian land and natural resources have been stolen while the PA sits in Ramallah and pretends to govern. What they actually do is police our brothers and sisters in the occupied territories on behalf of our occupiers. The Israelis.

Our destiny, Abu Mazen, is teetering on the edge of a precipice. It is in your hands to make sure it does not fall into oblivion.


“Destiny is not a matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for – it is a thing to be achieved.”
William Jennings Byron, American lawyer, editor and politician 1860 – 1925.