Palestinians have finally started to act in a different way. Instead of cursing the occupation, the new strategy is aimed at building up the desired Palestinian state. The idea is to force the Israeli to the negotiating table rather than beg them to come. The way to do that is to work for a state as if there were negotiations.

This idea has been brilliantly developed by the Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad who has called for the de facto creation of a Palestinian state within two years. It is hard to ignore or oppose this idea if he persists in working on it.

Fayyad’s blueprint includes plans to end the Palestinian economy’s dependence on Israel, unify the legal system and downsize the government. The idea, submitted by him after weeks of meetings with his ministers and staff, also involves building infrastructure, harnessing natural energy sources and water, and improving housing, education and agriculture.

An airport in the Jordan Valley, the reclaiming of the Qalandia airport and the creation of an oil refinery are some of the strategic ideas that are included in the Fayyad plan.

Talking to the press, the minister said that wanted the American president arriving in Palestine with Airforce One on an international airport, and not just on a small airstrip.

Fayyad told the Times of London that he made the plan public in order to “end the occupation, despite the occupation”. The former World Bank official kept his positive and determined attitude in his talk with the British paper.

“We have decided to be proactive, to expedite the end of the occupation by working very hard to build positive facts on the ground, consistent with having our state emerge as a fact that cannot be ignored. This is our agenda, and we want to pursue it doggedly,” he told the Times.
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Americans and Ramallah youth

By Daoud Kuttab

I had to rub my eyes a few times to be sure that what I was seeing was real. The setting was downtown Ramallah. The event, International Youth Day. The participants were wearing white T-shirts with logos on the front and back and blood red hats.

The International Youth Day, in which these Palestinians from all over the West Bank were participating, was organised by a network of youth NGOs called “ We are Palestine”. The theme of this year was “We will be as much as we can dream”.
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By Daoud Kuttab

Fatah, the key Palestinian guerilla movement within the Palestine Liberation Organisation, moved one step closer to becoming a political party.

Having held its sixth congress for the first time in the occupied territories, it would be hard to continue pretending to be a liberation movement. Officially, however, the over 2,000 delegates, representing former Fatah fedayyin (guerillas) and Intifada activists, voted to continue the resistance and the struggle for the liberation of Palestine. Resistance, however, was explained in a much wider perspective than the military struggle.
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It has taken 20 years, but the Palestinian Liberation Movement (Fateh) has finally held its sixth general conference allowing for a much-needed influx of new blood into the movement. The conference, which opened in Bethlehem on August 4, registers many historic firsts. It is the first conference of a liberation movement to be held within an area it is hoping to liberate from a foreign occupying force. It is also the first time that Fateh holds a conference on Palestinian territory. In addition, it is the first time that Fateh holds a conference in the absence of its founder and long-time leader Yasser Arafat.
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