Palestinian Parliamentarian On Statehood Issue

Lisa Mullins talks with Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, leader of the Palestinian National Initiative and a member of the Palestinian Parliament, about Palestinian plans to ask the UN to recognize an independent Palestine state this week.

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Lisa Mullins: Dr. Mustafa Barghouti says 20 years of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians have gone nowhere.  Barghouti is a member of the Palestinian parliament.  He hopes that the US will not veto the bid for Palestinian statehood.

Dr. Mustafa Barghouti: 85% of the population of the world lives in countries that already recognize Palestine.  If the United States vetoes us they would be using it against not the Palestinians only, but the largest population of the world and that would be a mistake. On the other hand, we know that even if we get an acceptance in the UN this will not remove the occupation on the ground, but it will strengthen our struggle to get our liberty and our freedom. We all know that any negotiations in the world depend on the balance of power.  Our goal is to change the balance of power.  The United Nations bid will help us.  It is already exposing the reality on the ground.  It is already reminding the whole world that the promise that was made at the UN in 1947 that a Palestinian state will be established beside Israel has not been fulfilled, and time has come for our freedom.

Mullins: We spoke with Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren on Friday.  He described your bid, Palestinian’s bid at the United Nations for statehood as “just the opposite of peace” because he said that Israel is committed to sitting with the Palestinians directly and discussing all the issues that will reach the two-state solution.  So what he’s saying is direct negotiations are what’s going to bring peace, not a unilaterally declared Palestinian state.  What do you say to that?

Barghouti: I say it is misleading and the side that is taking unilateral acts is the side that is occupying us with military force, the side that is taking away our land everyday, the side that has imposed annexation of Jerusalem illegally in 1968, and the side that is expanding settlements every day.  We are not the ones who are doing, we cannot do unilateral actions because we are the weaker part.  We are the occupied, we are the oppressed.  They are the ones who are creating [inaudible 2:00] every day on the ground, and negotiations could have resumed immediately if Israel agreed with one thing, to freeze and stop all settlement activity.  But they want to continue settlements, why do we sit and negotiate?  This is like having two people negotiate over a piece of cheese.  One side, the Palestinians, is just watching and talking; and the other side, the Israelis, is talking and eating the piece of cheese.

Mullins: Let me ask you this, Hamas said yesterday that it would not back a United Nations membership bid and it warned that no Palestinian leader had a mandate to sacrifice fundamental Palestinian rights.  What is your reaction to that?

Barghouti: Of course, Hamas is worried because it was not consulted in this process and we think there should be some kind of unified platform where everybody can have their say.  That’s why we mediated the reconciliation agreement which would provide establishment of a unified Palestinian leadership on the basis of democratic representation.  That’s our goal and we want to proceed with that immediately after this bid.

Mullins: Yeah, but of course the problem is if you’re asking for a Palestinian state, the Palestinians themselves are very much divided.  You said Hamas wasn’t even talked to when it came to this move before the United Nations.  So what kind of unity is there behind the bid at all?

Barghouti: We have no unity because when we established the unified government and the unified structure after very good democratic elections that were placed by the whole world, the United States and Israel did everything they could to break down the unity government.  So we want to bring back this unity government on the basis of democracy. We have differences, that’s normal, that’s what democracy is about.  We have pluralism, that’s how things should be.  I belong to a party, the Palestinian National Initiative, which is not Fatah, and not Hamas, and we want to have democratic, pluralistic system.  And that’s why the world should encourage and support the reconciliation between Palestinians and the establishment of unity because this is the main guarantee that a future Palestinian state will be a democratic one.

Mullins: Dr. Barghouti, thank you.

Barghouti: Thank you so much.

Mullins: In Ramallah, Mustafa Barghouti is the leader of the Palestinian National Initiative party and a member of the Palestinian parliament.

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