Is there a way to save our people and their national destiny?

No one can argue that what the resistance forces, led by Hamas, seek to establish in any truce agreement, whether temporary or permanent, does not represent issues that are superfluous to national needs or are not unnational issues based on abstract factional considerations. The resistance's demands, in theory, enjoy both national and popular consensus, foremost among which is an end to the crimes of genocide to which our people in the Gaza Strip are subjected in all their forms. These crimes are not limited to military extermination by fire, but perhaps even more dangerous is the transformation of the siege into a genocidal starvation that affects all segments of the population, especially the most vulnerable among them: children, women, and the elderly, who have begun to fall one by one daily, in numbers estimated to number in the thousands, if not tens or even hundreds of thousands.

It has become clear that the strategic objective of this genocide lies in a plan for gradual ethnic cleansing. In times of war and genocide, there is no such thing as "voluntary displacement," as Netanyahu claims. Perhaps this explains the nature of the comprehensive structural destruction, not only of homes, livelihoods, and life, but of all sectors of the infrastructure necessary for a minimum level of survival. Furthermore, Israel's insistence on controlling the Philadelphi Crossing, its refusal to withdraw from key areas in the Gaza Strip, and its insistence on what it calls "humanitarian cities," which are in reality concentration camps for genocide and ethnic cleansing, all come within the context of consolidating its direct field capability to implement the mass displacement of our people. Perhaps the term "cleansing" used by Trump was no coincidence; it goes beyond a tactical threat to reveal long-term intentions being prepared against the Palestinian people and their national cause.

The real question now goes beyond the justice of these demands, which, as mentioned, enjoy popular consensus, and does not stop solely at the nature of the premeditated intentions of Washington and Tel Aviv. Rather, in light of precise knowledge of the nature of the massacre targeting the people and their national destiny, it is what can be done to prevent the realization of what the Tel Aviv rulers aspire to, even if this requires making some tactical concessions that do not affect the existence and national destiny. If these are truly the positions of the Palestinian factions, what is preventing a collective agreement on them so that everyone, each from their position, can assume their national and moral responsibilities to achieve these goals, according to a unified vision, a clear plan, and an official instrument charged with this?

In this context, the saying "Let whoever put the donkey up the minaret take it down," referring to responsibility for October 7, cannot be an acceptable pretext for continuing to distance themselves and evade responsibility. The disagreement over the calculations of October 7 may be legitimate, and it warrants serious debate, criticism, and an objective national review to draw lessons, the most important of which is that national consensus on the means of struggle is a source of strength and legitimacy for all forms of resistance. Just as the failure of the settlement process, and the disasters it has led to, and the insistence on entrenching themselves behind flawed policies, including exclusivity and exclusion to the point of threatening the Palestinian entity and its institutions, also calls for a serious review and concrete responses. All of this is not for the sake of setting up gallows for anyone, but rather for the sake of protecting the national ship from sinking.

Trump and his envoy, Witkoff, who are swapping roles with Netanyahu and Dermer, are throwing down the gauntlet in the face of any looming hope for our people, especially in Gaza. Their goal is to deepen the wound and tear apart our social fabric, which has unfortunately remained hostage to the absurd state of division. Some of us are exonerating the rulers of Tel Aviv without examining the seriousness of this, as if the resistance is the cause of the genocide, or responsible for obstructing the achievement of a new agreement, after the January agreement was violated. The falsity of the saying "follow the bullet to the door of the house" has been proven not only ineffective in removing pretexts, but also because it has fueled the occupation's expansionist appetite, to the point of openly declaring our existence illegitimate, as if we are a superfluous people, and the only way to achieve stability in the region is by uprooting us, liquidating our rights, and finally destroying our national destiny in this country.

It has become clear that the fascist aggression of the Tel Aviv rulers is escalating without limits, as much as the Palestinian position suffers from weakness. This weakness does not lie in the inability of our people, who have been struggling for more than a century, to persevere, nor in the injustice of their cause, which has become a symbol of human justice, nor in the absence of popular solidarity across continents, nor even in the differences in the general political objectives of the various factions, which agree on rejecting occupation and settlements and adhering to freedom, the right of return, self-determination, and complete national independence in a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, within the borders of June 4, 1967.

The essence of our internal weakness lies in division, the struggle over fading legitimacy, and the accompanying duplicity of discourse, which undermines the unity of the social fabric and the overall national capacity to curb aggressive fascism. The continuation of this weakness threatens the ability to preserve the enormous sacrifices made by our people and squanders the possibility of transforming them into political achievements that serve our supreme national goals and interests. This necessitates that everyone rise to the level of this decisive moment and submit to the broad popular will to address this dilemma, which has become a cancerous scourge threatening our lives and the future of our cause.

For some, discussing this issue has become like idle chatter, or as if the division has become an irreversible epidemic, without those who advocate this discourse offering an alternative or a new and serious path to salvation. If the goal is to restore national unity within the context of respecting and preserving pluralism and the democratic foundations upon which the political system is based, through elected national institutions, then this is a lofty goal. However, realistically, it requires agreement on a comprehensive transitional plan and frameworks, based on urgent priorities that brook no room for maneuver. The absence of national unity has become a pretext for the continued shedding of blood and lives in Gaza.

Perhaps agreeing on national tools and frameworks based on the Beijing Declaration and the national parameters of a deal to stop the genocidal war can no longer tolerate delay or procrastination. Both, delay and procrastination, will place everyone at the center of the ongoing bloodshed, without absolving the real criminal. However, failure to reach a common understanding will enable the criminal to attempt to distribute the victims' blood among the tribes.

Finally, although the fate of a possible transitional deal is no longer clear, the main dilemma that Tel Aviv's rulers will continue to invoke is what they call "the day after." This question was answered by all Palestinian factions in Beijing more than a year ago, but it has remained locked away in the drawers of miscalculations.

Have these calculations succeeded in halting the genocide? Does Hamas's political leadership realize that the key to a solution now hangs in the balance, with the courage to urgently hand over the negotiations file and the entire situation to a national unity government that will bear responsibility for the Gaza file and be able to link it to the national file with a mandate from all Palestinians? Does the Authority realize that this is the only option available to save the people and the national destiny together? Now that everyone has come to realize that we are all in the same train of genocide, displacement, and liquidation?

Is it time for a united response to the gravity of this moment?

Otherwise, we will continue to bleed and lose our rights.

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