Palestine Needs Only to Declare Itself

The decision by King Hussein of Jordan to sever legal and administrative ties to the West Bank provides an excellent opportunity for Palestinians to unilaterally declare independence and begin the hard work of realizing their long-cherished dream of statehood.

Now they can take the political initiative in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. After the labor pains of the last nine months, it is time for the birth of the Palestinian state, and, immediately after declaring independence, Palestinians in the occupied territories can begin the process of liberating their institutions. They have run them for years, but they were connected in one way or another with Jordan or Israel.

Talk about independence while the Israeli army is still firmly in control of the West Bank and Gaza may seem utopian. But the situation today actually is quite favorable to Palestinians. For the past nine months Palestinians running private and government institutions have shown commitment to their cause. They have been responding more to calls from the leaders of the intifada rather than to those from Israel or Jordan. Many have risked beatings or imprisonment rather than obey the Israeli military orders.

This sense of community reflects the work of many years. Palestinians have established their own universities, their own health facilities, cultural centers and agricultural cooperatives. After the break with Jordan, many of the organizations that had a symbolic relationship with the Hashemite kingdom can now openly declare their Palestinian allegiance. Israel will fight such a trend, as it has already done in closing Palestinian trade and professional unions, but it will not be able to stop the momentum.

Such a bold move by the Palestinians must include a clear and unambiguous recognition of Israel. That would test the international community’s willingness to support the national aspirations of the Palestinian people.

For years, as a prerequisite for any negotiations, the world community has called on Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular to recognize the state of Israel. But a Palestinian declaration of independence would turn this around, forcing Israel and every country that recognized it to carry out the second part of the U.N. participation plan--the recognition of the Arab state.

Palestinians are not calling for the boundaries outlined in the partition plan to be final. Instead, they are the starting point in negotiations to be held at an international conference under U.N. auspices. By pointing to the 1947 boundaries, however, Palestinians will be reminding Israel that it can’t aspire to keep parts of the West Bank and Gaza. Faisal Husseini, the Palestinian peace activist jailed three weeks ago, put it his way: “The Israelis must know that if they look to the east of the Green Line (the 1967 border dividing541684594partition plan border drawn in 1947).”

Husseini, who has publicly advocated the positions of Yasser Arafat adviser Bassam abu Sharif that there should be direct talks between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel, supports a proposal that would give Palestinians a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and also East Jerusalem.

Skeptics have come up with many a reason why a Palestinian declaration of independence would be fruitless, offering only false hopes. But the reality of the occupied territories and the lessons of history support the chances of success.

There is no doubt that Israel would fight such a declaration to the bitter end. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has threatened to use “an iron fist.” But that won’t be easy for him. Israel with all its military power has been unable to stop the nine-month-old intifada in which Palestinians have been using the only weapons available to them--stones. It would be even more difficult for Israel to attempt to destroy a purely political initiative unless it arrested almost all Palestinian intellectuals. This would be even more difficult if the newly declared state started getting recognition not only from Arab states and East Bloc countries but from European countries, Canada and Australia, too.

International recognition, especially in these days of improved East-West relations, would increase the pressure on Israel to deal with reality and to conduct negotiations with the Palestinians’ representatives--the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Should Israel try to halt this Palestinian campaign for independence, it would pay a big price. Unable even to collect taxes from much of the population, Israel would find it difficult to run most of the institutions in the occupied territories. To succeed, the Israelis would need to pump more money into the territories than they have in the past. By itself, this financial burden for Israel would be a major gain for Palestinians.

Until nine months ago the West Bank and Gaza were a profitable prize for Israel. But the higher the cost of occupation, the sooner Israel will one day realize that it is paying too high a price and will leave.