Who will lead the Palestinians? This is a question they must be allowed to debate and answer themselves. The current leadership is seen as either absent or illegitimate. A postwar plan must not simply repackage it
[ Dana El Kurd is a researcher of Palestinian and Arab politics and a senior nonresident fellow at the Arab Center Washington Tue 28 Jan 2025 Guardian Media ]
Since the announcement of a ceasefire in Gaza, much of the world has focused on the immediate impacts of destruction in the strip. The discussion has been focused on which bodies will administer aid, how reconstruction might start, the role of international actors and the terms of the fragile ceasefire. These are all important issues. But something is missing from this discussion, and from the ceasefire agreement: the Palestinians themselves and their political agency.
The following questions also need to be asked. What will happen to the Palestinian national movement in the aftermath of this war? Who will speak for the Palestinians, and negotiate the terms of possible agreements with Israel moving forward? Are the previous frameworks for negotiation even relevant any more?
Palestinians are, of course, relieved that the ceasefire has finally been announced, after 15 months of unimaginable devastation that many experts characterise as genocide. The war surpassed, in scale, the 1948 Nakba, in which approximately 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes.
There are serious concerns about the ceasefire terms. As one scholar notes, the agreement may in fact be a “strangle contract”, designed to pause fighting while changing realities on the ground. The fact that it has coincided with Israel launching Operation Iron Wall, the crackdown on the West Bank, is particularly alarming.
The agreement does not cover the question of Palestinian governance. [ Hamas of course, looks to the last comprehensive round of PA elections in January 2006 – when they gained a modest ‘in-majority vote’. ]
Israel’s leaders committed genocide in Gaza and must pay for it. Their political and media allies must too.
Nonetheless, many Palestinians view the current moment as, on some level, a victory. The people of Gaza were displaced en masse but were not expelled. Palestinians insisted on, and won, their demand to begin returning to whatever remains of their homes in the north of the strip. Moreover, Palestinian identity and nationalism are alive and well, with the movement in support of Palestinian rights globally expanding in scope and recognition over the past year of war. These are all noteworthy developments.