By Jenny Long and Sean Malloy
SYDNEY — Ali Kazak, Palestine Liberation Organisation representative in Australia, spoke at a Democratic Socialist Party forum on October 5.
"The declaration of principles we signed does not, of course, cover everything we would have liked to have", said Kazak, "but it is not the end of the whole process".
Kazak explained what had changed, and what hadn't, to make the agreement between Israel and the PLO possible.
"The recognition of Israel as far as the PLO is concerned is not really new. The PLO recognised the state of Israel in November 1988. In November 1988 the Palestine National Council [PNC] met, debated the Palestinian peace proposal and voted on the proposal. 83% voted for the recognition of Israel, something like 13% voted against and the rest abstained. In September 1991 the PNC was called and debated the American peace initiative and voted to participate in the peace talks.
"Accepting the Gaza and Jericho areas as a first step of withdrawal was in fact supported by the PNC as far back as 1974, when the PLO at that time supported the establishment of a Palestinian national entity on any land that Israel is forced to withdraw from, or withdraws from by peaceful means.
"The only thing new in the whole process is Israel's recognition of the PLO and its acceptance of principles of withdrawal from territories they have occupied, which is an extremely significant and important step."
Israeli recognition of the PLO "is recognition of the national rights of Palestinian people. Their acceptance to withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories is a defeat for Zionist ideas of greater Israel, and that's important.
"So for the first time Israelis and the Zionist movement have started to define the border of Israel, the new border of Israel."
Kazak emphasised that the agreement is not the end of the struggle but the beginning of a new form of struggle.
"We have turned a new chapter in our history and the history of the region. It is in fact the beginning of a new struggle. It will still be difficult to achieve the final goal of the right to self-determination.
"Within every Palestinian there are mixed feelings. A feeling of happiness, mixed with fear and worries and caution. Happiness that things are moving, that Israel has recognised the reality of the existence of Palestinian people and their national rights.
"But there is also great fear that Israel is not going to deliver, and that is something understandable since Palestinians have a long and painful experience with Israel.
"That's where you find opposition from Palestinians. I suppose that this applies to every Palestinian, but the fear within some Palestinians has taken over, and they see that Yasser Arafat has made huge compromises to the Israelis and yet he hasn't got anything is his hands. Of course, myself and others see it differently. The fact of PLO recognition, their acceptance of principles of withdrawal and the general situation in the Middle East mean we have to deal with the reality."
Democracy is an inherent part of the PLO, said Kazak.
"We have to achieve our people's rights and national rights; this is the objective of the leadership. Different groups have different opinions. We are proud of our democracy and in Palestinian democracy there is room for the opposition to express themselves and adopt whatever strategy and position they like. If they convince the majority, good luck to them. This democracy has to be played in full."
Kazak said that Israel needed to take the initiative now to implement the agreement.
"Israel has to start, and start immediately, on confidence-building measures, to give Palestinians assurances that Israel means business this time.
"The military siege is still on, and we have asked them to start confidence building, for example to release political prisoners. There are an estimated 15,000 to 18,000 political prisoners in Israel. Israel has the highest proportion of political prisoners anywhere in the world.
"Why don't they release them immediately to give hope to 18,000 families that this is working? What we are asking them to do is lift the military siege so people can have freedom of movement again, so that they can go to work, universities or schools. We are not asking much of them to start immediately doing this sort of thing.
"Obviously there won't be a just, comprehensive and lasting peace without the essential things being solved. That is the Palestinian right to self-determination, an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital and the right of Palestinian refugees to return."
Kazak made it clear there were no fundamental guarantees of any process succeeding but that democracy will be key in establishing a Palestinian state.
"We have started to build our state, and hopefully we are going to celebrate its establishment in the year 2000. What we will have is a Palestinian, non-sectarian, democratic state.
"This is the original proposal which we adopted in 1968 as a model: one state in the whole of the land of Palestine with Jews, Christians and Muslims living side by side in one democratic, secular and non-sectarian state. In November 1988 the PLO adopted a two-state solution in the historic land of Palestine. So our future state will also be a democratic, secular, non-sectarian state in Palestine.
"We have had enough experience to know that we can guarantee such a state. We owe a lot to our leaders, President Arafat and all the leadership in the PLO, who themselves taught us, and a Palestinian generation, to value democracy and to exercise this democracy. Even if Arafat turns out to be a dictator, we will overthrow him because we don't worship personalities. The guarantee of such a future Palestinian state will be the Palestinian people themselves."