Peace and Justice

by Jonathan Kuttab

The "peace process" has settled into a familiar pattern of pulls and tugs, within a fixed framework: Israel doles out pitiful crumbs to the Palestinian National Authority, constantly complaining of internal local pressures against giving unilateral "concessions," while the Palestinian Authority pleads for greater U.S. involvement in the hope it would pressure Israel into granting larger crumbs. Within the present constellation of forces, Israeli leaders have little incentive to provide the minimum necessary requirements of justice to Palestinians.

While it is axiomatic that peace and stability will never prevail in the region until a just peace is found to the Palestinian problem, a certain lethargy has set in. Governments conduct their affairs as if the problem has been solved, since the prevailing balance of power does not threaten any major eruption soon, and the Oslo Process is viewed as the only game in town. The almost predictable course of the negotiations continues, and even the frequent crises within it seem to be a well-managed part of the structure. The only true dissenters are seen to be the fanatic fringe of settlers, or the Hamas terrorists.

Yet beneath that beatific surface, problems abound. One is the little noticed but growing gap between the Palestinian leadership and its own people. In part, it is because of the failure of the peace process to deliver genuine gains that touch the lives of the Palestinian people. Instead, it appears that the leadership has been trapped into a process whose ultimate result, even if it is labeled a state, will be only a confirmation and legitimization of the occupation and settlements. It is seen as ultimately providing a mantle of Palestinian legality to continued domination of all of Palestine. A number of incidents recently, including the stoning of French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin at Bir Zeit, and the disturbances in Kalendia, seem to confirm that the leadership has little idea of what is going on at the grass roots level, even within its own Fatah party.

The other element that is rarely acknowledged is that this frustration and a deep sense of injustice is felt not only within the Palestinian community, but throughout the wider Arab and Muslim worlds. It is true that Hamas and the secular Palestinian opposition have not offered any program, party, slogan or leader who presents a genuine alternative to the current leadership and its pursuit of the Oslo process. Yet the frustration is there and will eventually reveal itself in developments that will again surprise most observers just as the Intifada did. Like the Intifada and the fall of the Shah, these events are fully understandable in retrospect, but at the time, surprised all experts. The reason is that they drew on a deep well of heartfelt frustrations that were ignored by those whose analysis is limited to traditional concepts regarding power relations and centers of influence.

The sad part is that the ingredients of a just peace do exist, and the majority of Palestinians have made a strategic commitment to peace, yet the present process dramatically fails to address their needs. As long as we believe the Oslo Process is the only game in town, we are destined to be surprised by its inevitable breakdown.

Jonathan Kuttab is a lawyer in Jerusalem.