Opinion

Before Peace, Give Us Something To Lose

Adnan Mjalli Executive Chairman, MIG Holdings
Font Size:

Democracy, hope, and stability are not the first three words one usually associates with the state of Palestine.  But with the adoption of some hard truths by Palestinian leadership, the Palestinian people will be free, finally, to take command of our own destiny, construct lasting civil institutions, and revitalize our perilous economy.  Only from this position of newfound strength will enduring peace with Israel ever be realized.  Let us hope this week’s initial meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will lay the foundation for this transformational policy reversal.

First, it must be acknowledged that 70 years of policy that ties the fate of our people to the outcome of negotiations with Israel has been a mistake.  We can no longer deny that this was a strategic blunder of enormous proportion.  And no longer should we tolerate our position as passive spectators of our own decline.

That decline has accelerated in the 24 years since the much-heralded Oslo Peace Accords, primarily because the international community has prioritized the final status of negotiations with Israel to the detriment of our societal development.  During that generational interim, our economic growth has ground to a halt, but so, too, have the educational, social and institutional drivers that propel every other modern democratic society to success.
As a result, the Palestinian Authority delayed the establishment and development of a modern and civil Palestinian democratic society, especially in refugee camps in the neighboring countries of Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon.  They clung to false hope, and wielded the tired excuse that claimed negotiations would “soon” yield results.  Instead, they should have been fashioning a healthy, sustainable Palestinian state.  It can still be done.

Today, ravaged by economic turmoil, awash in a perception of corruption, war-torn Palestine faces a grim reality steeped in terror and instability.  We lament, and we despair – as we should – not least because the current role model for most young Palestinians is anything but success.  But we have the power to reverse these trends, to build and then to steer, our own ship of state towards the calm waters of self-reliance, earned stability, and economic prosperity.

To accomplish this, it’s imperative that Palestinians delink ongoing peace negotiations from the development of our own internal institutions and the cultivation of our own civil society.  Those concerns must be paramount, independent of the Israeli question; when the time does come to render a decision on the final resolution of conflict with Israel, it will derive on our part from a need to preserve what we have earned, in our own right.  Only then can Palestinians engage in long-lasting peace with the Israelis.

Do we, as Palestinians, have what it takes?  For certain.  Every individual possesses the ability to overcome even the most difficult of circumstances to achieve remarkable feats.  And Palestine has no dearth of smart, hard-working, creative individuals just yearning to achieve success.  For ourselves, for our families, for our homeland.

We need to provide the stable infrastructure necessary to cultivate success, and we need to acknowledge the power of the “American Dream”.  It’s not a dream that is confined solely to the West.  It is omnipotent and omnipresent, the desire in human nature to better one’s circumstance.  It is capable of inspiring wounded nations like ours to heal.  We just need to learn how to harness it, and to reward those who seek it.  It is the key to revitalizing Palestine’s economy, to investing in good people, creating jobs, restoring both hope and stability. Both in Palestine and in the diaspora.

Israel is by no means blameless.  It should not repeat with Palestine the same mistake it made in peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan, where peace agreements were merely signed, but never realized.  Peace, of course, is achieved between people and not just governments.

In parallel with a one- or two-state solution moving forward, Palestine needs to rebuild its economy and its institutions.  A Palestine illuminated by economic sovereignty and hope will have every interest in achieving peace with Israel.  And that should be the focus of all forces wanting to create a lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis.

Dr. Adnan Mjalli, Executive Chairman of MIG holdings, is a member of the World Economic Forum.  He’s also an internationally recognized entrepreneur in healthcare, lives in Ramallah, and holds over 700 patents in the biotechnology field.