Lebanese Journalist: Palestinians Lost Credibility in Arab World By Staying Silent on Syria

By failing to take a stand against the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, Palestinian leaders have “lost the Arab depth, their credibility and their narrative,” Hanin Ghaddar, the editor of the Lebanese news site NOW, wrote in a commentary Thursday.
Ghaddar observed that Assad and Hezbollah, both of which are backed by Iran, have”relentlessly using ‘Palestine’ to justify their massacres and interference in Syria.”  But Ghaddar noted that “we have rarely heard a word of sympathy toward the Syrian people from Palestinian political and public figures.” Even when the Palestinian refugee camp in Yarmouk came under siege, “no Palestinian figure came out to denounce the siege and destruction of the camp.”
She added:

Hezbollah has woven the cause of Palestine so assiduously into its propaganda, and because of that, the “Resistance” and “Palestine” have lost credibility among the people in the region. In addition to the severe internal divisions among the Palestinian leadership and factions, the Palestinians’ silence in the face of human rights violations and crimes in Syria has drastically changed the way people see Palestine.

When Hezbollah used the slogan “Road to Jerusalem” to justify its actions in Syria, Ghaddar wrote, “many expected a statement or a ‘Not in Our Name’ campaign by some Palestinian political or human rights group. Instead, silence ensued.”
Assad and Hezbollah’s references to Palestinians as a means of justifying their brutality is a continuation of a trend that has been going on for decades, Ghaddar observed. The Palestinian cause has become a global issue “because Arab dictators realized long ago that it would serve as a perfect excuse to oppress the opposition and all voices of change and democracy in their countries,” she wrote.

Palestine became the sacred word to justify oppression, political agendas and conflicts. Corrupt regional leaders and dictators couldn’t have dreamt of something better. Everyone jumped on the Palestinian cause and used it to hijack people’s aspirations for freedom. It became the backbone of every totalitarian regime’s rhetoric. …
In Syria, the Palestinian issue reached ridiculous proportions. If you are in the opposition, you are required – mostly by leftwing Arab and Western intellectuals – to start with vocalizing your support for Palestine before criticizing Assad or his regime and supporters. If you don’t do that, you will be considered a suspicious element and could also be labeled a traitor. Allegiance for Palestine is more significant than your allegiance to your own cause: freedom for the Syrian people.
 

Ironically, Ghaddar noted, even as Syrians are required to express their support for the Palestinians, “the Palestinians are not required to support the Syrian people.” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has even expressed support for Russia’s intervention on behalf of Assad.
Ghaddar warned that the Palestinian silence won’t necessarily be “forgiven and forgotten,” because Syria has now become “the central regional issue” in the Arab world.

Today, [the Palestinians] are hypocrites who demand everything and want to give nothing. Meanwhile their leadership and narrative are being used by Islamists, dictators and terrorists to launch the most atrocious wars. The Palestinians will not be forgiven.

Last week, Ghaddar profiled a number of Hezbollah fighters who are becoming increasingly disillusioned with the terrorist organization.
In Yarmouk and the Failure of Palestine Solidarity, which was published in the May 2015 issue of The Tower Magazine, senior editor Ben Cohen examined the silence of Palestinian leaders and pro-Palestinian activists in the wake of the siege of Yarmouk.

George Galloway, the former British parliamentarian who famously saluted Saddam Hussein’s “courage, strength and indefatigability,” has warned that the “people who are trying to bring down Bashar are the same people who helped bring down [Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Morsi,] the elected president of Egypt.” Sharmaine Narwani, one of The Huffington Post’s more unhinged commentators on Middle Eastern politics, took to the website of Vladimir Putin’s mouthpiece RT with an article—partly eyewitness, entirely apologia—exonerating Assad’s regime for the situation faced by Palestinians in Syria. With individuals like these setting the tone of what passes for debate in the Palestine solidarity movement, small wonder that the devastation of Yarmouk has been largely met with bemusement, indifference, and the wholesale revision of recent history.
Finally, there is the PLO itself, whose response to Yarmouk has pitifully exposed its own fragility. In the days that followed the IS takeover, the PLO was leaning towards a military operation, coordinated with the very same Syrian regime that caused the crisis in the first place, against the IS forces in Yarmouk. Then, on April 9, the PLO—which is regarded, as the Ramallah-based journalist Ahmad Melhem pointed out, as “the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people,” whose “Department of Refugee Affairs, headed by PLO Executive Committee member Zakaria al-Agha, is responsible for Palestinian refugees across the world”—publicly came out against a military operation. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas faced strong criticism from his more radical opponents for allegedly caving to Saudi and Qatari distaste for military action specifically carried out by the Palestinian factions. “The main issue is that the camp is located on Syrian territory and is therefore the responsibility of the Syrian government,” confessed Ahmad Majdalani, a PLO Executive Committee member who had earlier argued in favor of intervention. “It is this government that decides on the way it deems appropriate to maintain the security of the Palestinian and Syrian citizens. It is the Syrian government that decides on the security solution, not us.”
If the story of Yarmouk tells us anything, it is that the Palestinian national movement and its supporters profoundly lack both intellectual imagination and moral integrity. Yarmouk might have been an opportunity for the Palestinian solidarity movement to re-examine its entire world view, now that an Arab regime is turning the descendants of the original Palestinian refugees into refugees themselves. Such a process would not necessarily lead to a meaningful transformation of the Palestinian view of Israel. But it could trigger a more honest appraisal of the role of Arab regimes in delaying a final resolution of the Palestinian issue, as well as recognition that the successive generations of Syrian-born Palestinians genuinely belonged to a country now ravaged by the worst humanitarian crisis since the Second World War.

http://www.thetower.org/3236-lebanese-journalist-palestinians-lost-credibility-in-arab-world-by-staying-silent-on-syria/


It does make me laugh how Arabic support for the Palestinians is dwindling, but to be fair, to have places like Lebanon. Maintain refugees camps, instead of providing citizenship for Palestinian refugees, which would never lose them this refugee classification. Its abhorrent for decades the refugees have been used as pawns, by Fatah, Hamas and the Arab nations. To only keep them in camps, solely to instill hate, resentment and most of all a weapon to destroy Israel. There is no way Israel is going to allow millions of people to flood in, when many fled themselves, based off Palestinian aggression in the 1947 civil war they started. Yes Israel also deported some but did in fact in places ask to remain. Propaganda by the Palestinian authorities through fear worked to see many flee the conflict. All Israel will do is accept some and compensate the rest. which I might add none of the 800,00 Jewish refugees and their descendants have received any compensation from being ethnically cleansed from Arab lands. 

It seems the Palestinians best hope is going to have to come from the West, if they continue to lose support from the Arab nations, as they are doing. This is why the whole claim to a two state solution is a sham, from the Palestinian side. They have always held out until a time, that would leave Israel without support or where their hand was forced. Peace treaties are a two way street and on many occasions the Palestinians have thrown the chance to become a nation, because their hate of Israel and Jews exceeds that of having a better future for themselves as a people and more so their children. That is the worst part about all of this, they would rather continue to be in conflict, seeking aid. Where Israel needs to protect its citizens, of which it has every right to do.

The point is there is nothing stopping the Palestinians coming to signing a treaty with Israel, except one thing itself.
The existence of Israel. They want the destruction of Israel more than they care for building their own and having their own State. There was the biggest Palestinian offer of land to the formation of a State for them in 1937, they refused. In 1947, it was slightly less offered and they still refused. Israel declared Independence and after the Arab/Israeli conflict, started by the Palestinians. Israel had gained further land through a defensive conflict for its very survival. The Palestinians on the other hand at the end of the conflict went from being under occupation of the British to be under the occupation of the Jordanians and Egyptians. To then see further chances of spurned. Now maybe someone can tell me otherwise, but if you started the conflict, because you refused to accept the existence of Israel, attacked Israel constantly. Seen Israel withdraw from lands won, in conflicts to bring about peace. To then see when Israel did withdraw from Gaza, them continue to attack Israel. How can you claim the Palestinians as victims when they continually start conflicts with Israel? How many more times are people going to continue to make excuses for the Palestinian authorities who have continuously failed the Palestinian people and constantly denied them a nation, when they have had the chance many times,  because their hate of Israel is more important than having peace and a nation.

As the the long-suffering Palestinian inhabitants of the Yarmouk camp near Damascus are caught in yet another round of fighting and another brutal siege, a heart-rending Facebook post has appeared:

Statement by the besieged people of Yarmouk:
Humanitarian situation in Yarmouk:
With the continuation of clashes between ISIS and Al-Nusra Front on the one hand and the renewed shelling by the Assad regime and Palestinian loyalist groups on the other, the suffering of the people of Yarmouk reaches a whole new level. The attacks have resulted in disintegration of the camp neighborhoods, where many families are unable to reallocate to safer parts of the camp. Those families and the rest of the people in Yarmouk were banned from access to drinking water from the artisanal wells first because of the ongoing siege by the regime for more than 500 days and now with the battles between ISIS and Al Nusra.
Since last Thursday, only two water tanks were able to move in the camp to fill in wells in three or four areas of the camp. The intensity of the situation in areas where there are wells made it impossible to distribute wanter in the camp.
We, the civilians besieged in Yarmouk, demand:
• Demand ISIS and Al Nusra stop its fight for six hours to allow trapped families to relocate and get their basic livelihood needs.
• We demand the Assad regime and the loyalist Palestinian factions not use water as a means of pressure or a weapon against innocent people, and we also demand they allow water into the camp, as this policy has not affected ISIS or Nusra, as they are well-equipped and have no lack in weapons or supplies. This policy has only affected us as civilians.
• We demand the PLO and its parties and the UNRWA act upon their responsibilities and not bury their heads in the ground. As of now we have not heard any response from those sides about the current tragedy of the camp.
• We demand the Palestinian and Syrian media and media activists be our voice, as thirst has exhausted our voice and that of our children.
• Finally, we emphasize that the Syrian regime’s policy which created this dependency of our people on the minimal aid supplies provided by the humanitarian situation has made the general conditions vulnerable and fragile, risking a new catastrophe in case of any political developments.
Return water to Yarmouk!
People of Yarmouk – Monday, April 11, 2016

Nearly five years ago we began reporting on the awful conditions– repression, bombing, starvation– faced by the people in Yarmouk. A year ago the Palestine Solidarity Campaign got around to recognizing the Yarmouk catastrophe while managing to avoid blaming anyone except you-know-who.
Sorry, folks. That doesn’t get you off the hook. Do you have a good answer to the above plea? If not, the evidence is overwhelming: You hate Israelis more than you love Palestininans. And you know it.


http://hurryupharry.org/2016/04/16/people-of-yarmouk-ask-wheres-the-solidarity/