The PA Dissolution Discourse

Caelum Moffatt for MIFTAH, 24.3.08. Under the stipulations of the roadmap, which was supposedly reactivated at Annapolis, Israel is obliged to cease settlement expansion. However, in the last four months Israel has expropriated thousands of dunums of Palestinian land and granted permission for over 1,500 housing units in the settlements of Pisgat Zeev, Givat Zeev and Har Homa, some 7,000 in Ein Yayul near Walaja and a proposed 3,500 between east Jerusalem and the Ma’aleh Adumim settlement. Although Israel claims that these settlements [illegal under international law] lie in the district of Jerusalem and therefore should not be included in their roadmap commitments, east Jerusalem is where Palestinians want to establish their capital. Furthermore, Israel persists on approving construction plans on settlement blocs in the West Bank and this does not include the outposts erected at the whim of Israeli settlers.
Although the Palestinian presidency has now deemed this as speculation, there are those who have gone further, such as Dr. Ali Jarbawi, who advocate the PA being dismantled completely.

If the two-state solution is ostensibly suffering by preserving the PA, what are the alternatives? Would it not be perceived as admitting defeat? Faced with these questions, advocates of dissolution believe that for a defeat to be incurred there has to be a battle preceding it and as Israel presides over everything, the belief that such a conflict exists is a naive misconception. Under this paradigm, the PA would officially present the “keys” of the West Bank to Israel and the UN, absolving them of responsibility and accepting their occupied status.

Israel would be forced to address their responsibilities as an occupying power under the international legal guidelines set by the Geneva Conventions without having the luxury of exploiting the PA as a “administrative contractor or security sub-agent” [a phrase used by this organization in a 2004 paper on this topic].

At this juncture, the dissolution theory should be seriously contemplated as an alternative to a stagnant peace process.