From Challenge # 62
July - August 2000

"We must change our Palestinian government"

Asma Agbarieh interviews Hisham Sharabi

Hisham Sharabi is Professor Emeritus of European Intellectual History and Omar al-Mukhtar Professor of Arab Culture at Georgetown University. He is editor of the English language quarterly, Journal of Palestine Studies. Among his books are the following: Governments and Politics of the Middle East, Nationalism and Revolution in the Arab World, Arab Intellectuals and the West, Introduction to the Study of Arab Society, Neopatriarchy, and most recently, in Arabic, Images of the Past, an intellectual autobiography. Professor Sharabi is Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine, located in Washington DC.

Professor Sharabi, you visited Jaffa, where you were born, after an enforced absence of 46 years. How did you find it?

Sharabi: I left Jaffa in 1947, just before the outbreak of war. I returned in 1993 to take part in a documentary film for the BBC together with Israeli writer Amos Oz. Our house still stands in Tilat Elarktanji, but a Jewish family lives there, and that's why I refused to enter it. The city has remained as it was, except that its people speak no Arabic. They are not the same Jaffans I knew. What can I say? When I remember what Jaffa was in the past, the present incarnation seems like a nightmare.

And now we are six years into the Oslo agreement. Does it end the bad dream?

Sharabi: We heard about the agreement while the Palestinian delegates from the Territories, including Heidar Abed al-Shafi, Hanan Ashrawi and others, were here in Washington. We read the text, and for all of us it came as a grave shock. Everyone was frightened and sad. At the same time, there was a feeling that we might be facing the start of a solution. My reading, which proved to be wrong, was that the moderate Zionist representatives of the Labor party had reached a historic decision. I believed they understood at last that if Israel wants to live in the region, it must reach a solution with the Palestinians. By "solution" I mean conciliation. I mean respecting us as an equal people and not merely reaching an agreement.

Amos Oz took me to visit Shimon Peres. I met him in his small apartment, and his wife served us personally. I was touched. We talked for four hours. Yet I must admit that my reading of Peres was also wrong: he spoke words of honey, but they had nothing to do with his politics.

After an initial period of shaky optimism, it became quite clear that the Israelis were not interested in a solution. Furthermore, from our side, Oslo represents a surrender that verges on betrayal. I do not think I am going too far if I speak of it within the context of treason. Any agreement which is derived from Oslo cannot be defined as an agreement of peace. Regardless of whether a final accord is signed, we are facing a new stage. I foresee conflict - perhaps even war - with Lebanon or Syria.

What brought you to view Oslo as a surrender?

Sharabi: I judge it by its results. At this stage we are talking about facts on the ground, not estimations. The two-state solution is finished. Israel's behavior toward the Arabs has not changed. It understands only the language of oppression and force. It strives for absolute superiority, no matter if it bandies words like "Palestinian state" or "recognition". If anyone claims to see a true Palestinian state coming out of this, that person is blind - or else is motivated by extraneous private interests.

What will be the fate of the Palestinian Authority?

Sharabi: We must change our Palestinian government soon or else we shall be caught in a labyrinth. The question of the sulta (PA) is crucial, yet extremely complex in the present conditions. A few days ago, here in Washington, I met three of members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. All had signed the Manifesto of the Twenty. They told me they have no influence whatsoever. They were extremely disappointed with the political parties, saying all initiatives come from the independent members of the council. As long as Arafat is around, they said, the impasse will continue, along with corruption and the absence of the rule of law. 

You were among the signers of a petition that led to the Conference on the Right of Return in Boston on April 8. The petition didn't mention the Oslo Accords or the Israeli proposals for a final agreement, which disregard the refugees completely. 

Sharabi: The priority today should be confronting Arafat and his cronies, or in other words, developing an opposition like that which appeared in the Manifesto of the Twenty. Another crucial task will be to organize our people in a kind of pan-Palestinian organization that will link us again - those who are abroad with those inside. The Boston petition on the right of return was the fifth in a series, all attempting to warn against the grave consequences of Oslo. I think that here we have reached a consensus. The need today is to create an institution that will embody this consensus, say, a General Palestinian Conference. Inscribed on its banner should be the right of self-determination and the right of return. For the past three and a half years I have been devoting most of my time to it. I've met Palestinians, here, in Europe, in Lebanon and Jordan. I find that there is a constant attempt to dilute the message. If that happens, I fear the result will not be attained. So far I cannot say that we have succeeded. We have not been able to agree on the mechanism to implement such an idea. More time is needed.

Are you driving toward the creation of a new PLO?

Sharabi: An alternative PLO is not acceptable. We want to re-build the PLO. We want to reconstruct the Palestinian National Council (PNC) so that it speaks in the name of the people. We want to create an institution that will support our compatriots inside in their forthcoming battles for survival.