The Goldstone Report and the PA - An Open Letter

Dear Dr Hassassian,

The wounds of our people in Gaza have not healed since the Israeli onslaught of last December-January on the Gaza Strip. Their healers have not arrived due to the worst blockade imposed on any piece of land on this planet.

As is the case with our Palestine tragedy, help seems to come mostly from outside quarters. Firstly, it was the July 2004 ICJ advisory opinion finding Israel's Apartheid Wall and its colonies as totally illegal. Then came the latest and most devastating report of the Gaza massacres by Israel through no less prestigious source that the Mission headed by Judge Richard Goldstone. This report was presented to the world and in particular to the PA on a silver platter with no strings attached.

Israel and the US condemned the Report because it suited them to do so. But that was expected, we guessed.

However, for the PA to stand shoulder to shoulder with that position can only be seen as the most shameful decision ever taken by the PA since its inception. Not only did the Palestinian representative in Geneva give the green light for the Clause within The Report dealing with Palestinian rights to be dropped, but all efforts by the non-aligned nations (together with former UN General Assembly president M d'Escoto Brockmann) to push for a UN resolution condemning Israel for its war crimes in Gaza, were thwarted by the Palestinian ambassador to the UN. Why?

Naturally, the Palestinian people (including some prominent members of the Palestinian leadership) saw the PA position as nothing but a betrayal of their goals, their hopes, their sacrifices and their just cause. We consider the PA position now as a collusion with the enemy and a slap in the face of all those mothers and fathers whose children were massacred by the zionist enemy. Decent people around the world have been working hard to achieve a boycott of the Israeli enemy. This PA betrayal has let them down and left them vulnerable.

We call for accountability and transparency from the Palestinian leadership if it is to be considered 'a leadership'. It must dissolve itself now, and general elections must be called to elect a representative body that can truly speak for our people and not for outside interests.

News report today indicate that the recent uproar from our occupied land has forced the PA to consider a reversal of their shameful decision vis-a-vis the Goldstone Report. It comes too late and surely tainted with shame.

We have seen you and heard you eloquently defend the Palestinian cause on many occasions. We are deeply disappointed that you have not spoken out for the Report either in the press or the general media. We are asking why?

Respectfully,

1948: LEST WE FORGET