Palestinians have finally started to act in a different way. Instead of cursing the occupation, the new strategy is aimed at building up the desired Palestinian state. The idea is to force the Israeli to the negotiating table rather than beg them to come. The way to do that is to work for a state as if there were negotiations.

This idea has been brilliantly developed by the Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad who has called for the de facto creation of a Palestinian state within two years. It is hard to ignore or oppose this idea if he persists in working on it.

Fayyad’s blueprint includes plans to end the Palestinian economy’s dependence on Israel, unify the legal system and downsize the government. The idea, submitted by him after weeks of meetings with his ministers and staff, also involves building infrastructure, harnessing natural energy sources and water, and improving housing, education and agriculture.

An airport in the Jordan Valley, the reclaiming of the Qalandia airport and the creation of an oil refinery are some of the strategic ideas that are included in the Fayyad plan.

Talking to the press, the minister said that wanted the American president arriving in Palestine with Airforce One on an international airport, and not just on a small airstrip.

Fayyad told the Times of London that he made the plan public in order to “end the occupation, despite the occupation”. The former World Bank official kept his positive and determined attitude in his talk with the British paper.

“We have decided to be proactive, to expedite the end of the occupation by working very hard to build positive facts on the ground, consistent with having our state emerge as a fact that cannot be ignored. This is our agenda, and we want to pursue it doggedly,” he told the Times.
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Americans and Ramallah youth

By Daoud Kuttab

I had to rub my eyes a few times to be sure that what I was seeing was real. The setting was downtown Ramallah. The event, International Youth Day. The participants were wearing white T-shirts with logos on the front and back and blood red hats.

The International Youth Day, in which these Palestinians from all over the West Bank were participating, was organised by a network of youth NGOs called “ We are Palestine”. The theme of this year was “We will be as much as we can dream”.
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By Daoud Kuttab

Fatah, the key Palestinian guerilla movement within the Palestine Liberation Organisation, moved one step closer to becoming a political party.

Having held its sixth congress for the first time in the occupied territories, it would be hard to continue pretending to be a liberation movement. Officially, however, the over 2,000 delegates, representing former Fatah fedayyin (guerillas) and Intifada activists, voted to continue the resistance and the struggle for the liberation of Palestine. Resistance, however, was explained in a much wider perspective than the military struggle.
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It has taken 20 years, but the Palestinian Liberation Movement (Fateh) has finally held its sixth general conference allowing for a much-needed influx of new blood into the movement. The conference, which opened in Bethlehem on August 4, registers many historic firsts. It is the first conference of a liberation movement to be held within an area it is hoping to liberate from a foreign occupying force. It is also the first time that Fateh holds a conference on Palestinian territory. In addition, it is the first time that Fateh holds a conference in the absence of its founder and long-time leader Yasser Arafat.
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The announcement has been long awaited. The Israeli Airport Authority announced that starting August 4, the King Hussein Bridge (sometimes referred to as Allenby Bridge) will be open daily till midnight on a 60-day experimental basis.

Ever since the outbreak of Al Aqsa Intifada, the Palestinian police that were stationed at the bridge as part of the Oslo Accords, were sent packing to Jericho and bridge hours were reduced to 8:00am till 4:00pm for most passengers, while diplomats were allowed to use the crossing till 8:00pm.

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Following appeared in the Jordan Times today

Status of Jerusalem

By Daoud Kuttab

The standoff between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government remind many of a similar standoff between the US and Israel in the 90s when Bill Clinton was president. At the time Netanyahu insisted on Israel’s right to build Har Homa settlement on the Palestinian Jabal Abu Ghneim on the edge of Bethlehem. Today, Har Homa is a thriving settlement with thousands of Jewish Israelis residing in the complex built on expropriated Palestinian land. While the US president seems determined to stop the Israelis from their illegal activities, many are worried that the issue might be pushed aside or resolved as part of a larger agreement.

Jerusalem remains as the single biggest obstacle in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Palestinians consider the eastern sector as the future capital of an independent Palestinian state, while the Israelis insist that the entire city remains as their capital.
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following appeared in Jordan Times today July 9

By Daoud Kuttab

The gavel-to-gavel broadcast of the Jordanian Parliament was back on the air on June 7. Radio Al Balad (formerly AmmanNet), an independent community radio, succeeded in providing the public with an unfiltered version of the House of Representatives meeting. The return of live broadcasting is, however, nothing but natural.
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Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Opinion
NY Times Room for Debate

June 23, 2009, 3:22 PM

Weakening Hawkish Elements

Daoud Kuttab is a Palestinian journalist and a former professor of journalism at Princeton University.

No matter how the standoff in Iran ends up, two things have become clear. The power of digital technology can override analog government efforts of suppression, and the shakeup in Iran has weakened a host of hawkish elements in the region.
The Iranian people, a majority of whom are young, have discovered, developed and perfected every possible available means of communications. All the attempts by a brutal regime, like the one currently in power in Iran, have proved incapable of totally and completely gag ging their own population from being heard.
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Jun. 21, 2009
Daoud Kuttab , THE JERUSALEM POST
The suffering of Palestinians crossing the King Hussein Bridge, the only exit and entry point between the West Bank and Jordan, continues without any serious attempt at relief. While there is no doubt that the real remedy is the end of the occupation, genuine efforts should be exerted now to ease passage for individuals and families.
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By Daoud Kuttab

In private talks held in Oslo and other places, Palestinians were promised an independent state, but were told by the Israelis that they couldn’t actually use these words in the agreement. They were told that the five-year transitional period, which began in 1994, was meant to convince the Israeli public to accept this eventuality.

The person promising a sovereign state, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated by his own people and Palestinians had to start all over again with a right-wing leader who had no interest in talking to them. Continue Reading »