A statement to public opinion: are we the problem?

The fifteenth of March was a memorable day in the life of the Palestinian people and of the region. It is true that it did not receive sufficient media attention from the international and regional media networks, but it did receive distinctive media coverage locally. People went out into the streets, most of them young, to call for an end to the division, and that is a fine thing, and the flags of Palestine fluttered to shade the protesters from the sun. It was a national day par excellence in Gaza, Ramallah, Tulkarm and Nablus, and that is a wonderful thing. The presence of young people, women, officials and some children was wonderful, the slogans too were wonderful and the ways of expression even more so, and for us all to meet around one aim gladdens the soul after long sorrow. And as usual, we Palestinians are sometimes distinctive. All the protests and popular uprisings in the Arab region, from revolutionary to reformist, have taken a particular direction, namely that the people as a whole, or broad sections of them, rise up to bring down despotic regimes or to reform corrupt ones: it is an equation with two sides, the people facing the authorities. Except in our distinctive case, where we found the Ramallah government, its television and the Fatah movement calling for an end to the division and even covering the cost of the demonstrations financially, and the Gaza government, its television and the Hamas movement calling for an end to the division and covering the cost of the demonstrations. Apart, that is, from some groups of independent young people or other political or social organisations whose voice was not loud, since they have no loudspeakers and no grand, huge banners and flags at the heart of the event, and found no place in the crowd except at the side of the road. So we are faced with a different shape of things: the authorities and their followers in Ramallah and Gaza want to end the division, and the irony is that they are the ones who are divided. If the two divided sides, Fatah and Hamas, are demonstrating to end the division, then where is the problem? Is it a case of split personality and estrangement from reality, or a case of deception and manoeuvring? Or is someone the problem and responsible for the problem? Or is the rest of the people, the independents, the silent, civil society, the poor, the needy and the forgotten, the problem? Mr. Mahmoud Abbas came out saying he wants to end the division and offered a dinner to the protesters, and Mr. Ismail Haniyeh came out to invite Mr. Mahmoud Abbas to an immediate meeting to resolve the division. So why do they not meet? Let Mr. Abbas come to Gaza, or let the two of them go together to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia (never mind Mecca) to solve the problem. What is stopping them? Let them just tell the people who it is that is stopping them, so that we may take them to task. We do not want to accuse anyone without evidence, so let us adopt the most likely possibility, namely that we are the problem (the people at large, outside the framework of the two sides). If we are the problem, then why have the two sides not offered us a solution? We have called for years for the need to end the division and they did not respect us, did not listen to us and did not take part with us. It is good that this time they joined all the advocates of unity among the people. We must put forward a solution that includes practical mechanisms and requirements (how do we end the division?), more than just a fine slogan, because we are the problem and they must respect us and listen to us this time. So, urgently and before anything else, and so that we may believe them: let Hamas stop pursuing the demonstrators in Gaza, let Fatah release the political detainees in the West Bank, and let media incitement stop on both satellite channels. And there is more to come on the practical mechanisms and demands for ending the division.