Kennedy Muise
March 26, 2017
Blog Post 2: Problems with PLO
The
Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was involved in the Arab Israeli
Conflict by working towards a two-state solution to separate Palestine and
Israel into two sovereign states. While the PLO attempted to accomplish this
solution through negotiations, peace-building, cooperation with other Arab
states, and setting up a government, under the OSLO Accords, the PLO was rather
unsuccessful in creating a stable environment for Palestinians and Jews to
coexist. While there may be many issues with the PLO’s methods of stability,
the main reason why the PLO was unsuccessful is that it failed to recognize the
Muslim community in Palestine.
One
main goal of the PLO was to make Palestine a secular state. In their charter, The
PLO recognized the importance of Arab unity in Palestine, and they wanted to
protect this identity for every Palestinian, whether they were Muslim, Jewish,
Samaritan, etc.; if everyone was united as an Arab, they would not be divided
by religion (PLO Charter, Article 12). While this idea of unity seems well and
good, the problem is that by creating a secular and unified state, the PLO
ignored the customs of the large Muslim population living in Palestine. Muslim
communities are used to outwardly expressing their religion, i.e. through traditional hijabs and
burkas for women, prayer, chants, etc. While not all customs of Islam are
necessarily just at least by western standards, such as burkas, the Muslim
community at least deserves a chance to voice their opinions and thoughts in
how the new Palestinian government should be set up, seeing that Muslims make
up 93% of the population in Palestine (“Are All Palestinians Muslim?”).
By
not addressing the Muslim community directly, the PLO lost support from
Palestinian Muslims to Hamas, another organization involved in the conflict. Unlike
the PLO, Hamas recognized the values of the Muslim community such as “brotherhood”,
jihad, and the importance of Allah over Arab identity. While I agree that the
PLO’s idea of unity intended on creating equality amongst all Palestinians,
despite their religious affiliation, I think the PLO would have achieved more
success in fostering a stable government in Palestine if the PLO had thought of
the Muslim community’s values and how to incorporate them into the foundation
of the new government through negotiation and public policy.
In addition, the PLO also lost its success in its
attempt to cooperate with other Arab states. Another main goal of the PLO was
to mutually work with other Arab states (Class lecture). However, if the PLO
did not recognize the Muslim community in Palestine, who is to say they would
effectively recognize other Muslim communities in the Arab world? Furthermore,
if Palestine did not address the Muslim community, who will ensure that they
are acknowledged on a global level, i.e.
by the United Nations? In this way, the PLO’s ignorance turns from a domestic
issue to a regional issue and even to an international issue. Nonetheless, without
recognizing other Muslim communities and/or states, the PLO ran the risk of cooperating
ineffectively with other Arab states that have strong Muslim populations, such
as Iraq, which furthers the instability of the Palestinian government and ruins
its chances for regional and international cooperation.
The
PLO’s failure to create stability in Palestine due to its disregard for
Palestinian Muslims can be exemplified through the US involvement in the Middle
East, especially Iraq. In general, the US is known for getting involved in the
Middle East without acknowledging all the different customs, traditions, and
ways of life that are significant in a predominantly Muslim region. In Iraq’s
case, it is easy to realize that it is very difficult to create a democracy in
a Muslim country due to Muslim customs and Shari’ah law. It is even more
difficult for a western country, like the US, to instill the same democratic
system in Iraq because US officials have little knowledge about the issues
between ethnic and/or religious tensions between the Shias, the Sunnis, and the
Kurds living in Iraq. When the US got involved in Iraq, before 2003, it was
determined that “Iraq would become a ‘beacon of democracy’” even though the US “orchestrated
the invasion [of Iraq]…based on false intelligence” (Hussain). While the US’s
intensions may be to create a more democratic and westernized state in the
Middle East, it continuously fails to recognize the customs of the Muslim population
living in these regions, which causes destabilization and a vacuum for
terrorism. Terrorist groups, like ISIS “are born out of destabilization created
by Western military intervention” (Hussain). When the Muslim communities feel
that their right to religion to taken away, infringed upon, or ignored, they
are more likely to fight for their religion and their right to be heard, which
is often yet unfortunately expressed through terrorism.
The
example of US intervention in Iraq and its failure to stabilize Iraq is a good
example for why the PLO also had problems with stabilizing Palestine. Like the
US, the PLO ignored a large portion of its population, leading to the rise of a
more radical group, Hamas, which took support away from the PLO. If the PLO had
recognized the Muslim community in Palestine, it would have been a much
stronger and well-supported organization and could have potentially created a
stable two-state solution between Palestine and Israel.
Works Cited
“Are
All Palestinians Muslim?”. Institute for
Middle East Understanding. 5 Dec. 2005. Web. 26 Mar. 2017.
Hussain,
Dilly. “ISIS: The “unintended consequences” of the US-led war on Iraq”. Foreign Policy Journal. 23 Mar. 2015.
Web. 26 Mar. 2017.
PLO Charter