Posted on 6/26/2003, 1:41:39 AM by SJackson
The state of the Palestinian state Palestinians are ready to create a state. What examples do Palestinians have to look at? They have dictatorships, writes Micah Halpern, and one example they should follow but will probably avoid -- Israel.
HEY, I'VE GOT AN IDEA: Secretary of State Colin Powell, left, talks to Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, as they arrive for a joint news conference following their meeting in the West Bank town of Jericho last week.
The Palestinian people want their own state. They lobby for it. They implore any interested third party to politic for it. They are willing to kill for it. It is, right now, what some die for.
George Bush and the United States support their desire. So do Ariel Sharon and Israel.
But has anyone thought about how this state will work? What form of government will it have? What about infrastructure? How will services be administered? Is there funding for a national budget?
Palestinians have very few examples after which to model themselves when it comes to creating a state. The notion of a modern state is very new to them. Ironically, one of their best examples is a country they will be loathe to emulate -- Israel.
The countries in the region, with the lone exception of Israel, are all Muslim states. With the exceptions of Turkey and Lebanon they are all dictatorships, powerfully ruled by monarchs and totalitarians.
Leadership and hegemony have a long history in the Arab world. But most of it is family based and tribal based, certainly a far cry from a Western system of national government.
The tribal system of rule is based on honor and justice and pride and family and on blood vendettas. It is a hierarchy founded on concentric circles beginning with hamsa, or five in Arabic. The hamsa stands for five generations living together -- from grandfather to great grandson. The hamsa expands into the ashira, the extended family, which may include as many as 1,000 people and then, even further into the kabelah, the tribe, which probably includes tens of thousands of people. The kabelah is ruled by tribal leaders and judges who make decisions as issues arise, just as they have for centuries.
Each tribe also has diplomats who engage and interact officially with other tribes and forces from the outside. The tribal link is primary. After that there may be some loose affiliation with other families or tribes in the region and some distant Arabs and even with other Muslims around the world. External governments and influence were merely tolerated throughout the Arab world and worked best when local autonomy and tribal control was maintained.
The Western concept of government in this part of the world is only about 60 years old. It has failed miserably at replacing the tribe because it holds not one iota of importance in the hearts of locals and so has no power to influence other than the power of fear. Even the system of Pan Arabism advocated by the late Egyptian Prime Minister Gamal Abdul Nasser failed because there was very little loyalty in the hearts of Arabs to link them together.
That's the reason that almost all countries in the region are dictatorships.
That also explains how and why Yasser Arafat was so popular in the Palestinian Authority. He was the Palestinian dictator. Dictators are placed above tribal authorities. They rule through fear. Their power is ultimate. When there is a local -- tribal -- problem it is handled locally, but in clashes between dictators and tribes, the dictator's desires reign supreme.
The present leadership in the Palestinian Authority is different. Unlike Palestinian President Arafat and unlike most of the rest of the Arab world, Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Mazen does not want to create a dictatorship. Like them, he has an underlying distrust of anything Western and hatred towards Israel. But Abu Mazen understands that that's not the way to build a country or to build a future. He know she must use the West to accomplish his aims just as other successful Arab leaders have done for the past 50 years.
Whichever form the newly created State of Palestine takes it had better consider the issue of accountability.
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