THE OTHER FIFA SCANDAL

Could anything more clearly sum up the constitutional incapacity of existing Palestinian institutions to liberate Palestine than the 30 minutes that passed between 4.20pm and 4.50pm on 29 May?:

  
Forget ending the occupation: Palestine’s purported representatives can’t muster the will and diplomatic acumen to submit a motion to evict Israeli settlements from a football organisation. 

The Palestinian Authority, no less than the Palestinian Football Association, is structurally invested in the hope that some external power – the US, FIFA, the International Criminal Court, the Security Council (recall last year’s fiasco) – will deliver Israel. External actors must indeed play a role in exacting a price for Israel’s occupation, and international opinion is therefore an important determinant of what is politically possible in Palestine. But to expect outside actors to exert significant pressure on Israel apropos of nothing – without a Palestinian movement forcing the issue on the ground – is a proven fantasy. 

Contemptuous and afraid of the masses, the Palestinian Authority will never mobilise Palestine’s strongest resource. Yet without a mass movement, the resistance, resolve and resilience of the people will continue to be squandered and, in the absence of genuine political victories, leveraged by petty thugs and torturers for private gain. 

Where and in whom does hope for Palestine reside? Here?  

 

Or here?

  

Does the question even need asking?