[al-Musawwar] What made you change your mind and accept the
resumption of the inter-Palestinian dialogue, in your capacity
as Secretary General of the DFLP?
[Hawatmah] The DFLP has always adopted a policy aiming at uniting
Palestinians and achieving independence throughout its armed
struggle. When the Palestinian movement reached a crossroads and
was fragmented, the DFLP called for bridging the gaps and
overcoming the differences to rebuild Palestinian unity.
[al-Musawwar] How could that be when you are the most adamant
Palestinian opposition faction?
[Hawatmah] We organized the reunion in 1983 when the major
fragmentation of the Fatah movement started and Palestinian
factions fought against each other. At that time, we initiated a
dialogue with Fatah to rebuild national unity on the basis of
common organizational and political grounds. We also signed the
famous Yemen coalition agreement and suffered for five long
years from pressure by Palestinian opposition powers and the
conflicting Arab axes. We finally managed to rebuild our
coalition unity in April 1987 during the Palestinian national
unity conference in Algiers.
[al-Musawwar] Do you still take part in Palestinian opposition
conferences?
[Hawatmah] The Palestinian opposition organized
three conferences in December 1998, and the conferences held in
Gaza and the West Bank managed to unite us around the common
objective of fighting against occupation and Jewish settlers. We
also agreed on the need for a comprehensive national dialogue to
rebuild Palestinian unity.
[al-Musawwar] But the recent events that took place in Damascus
contradict this approach.
[Hawatmah] The third conference, which was held in Damascus for
Palestinian factions living in exile, was divided. The DFLP
insisted on adopting this approach towards unity. On the other
hand, nine other Palestinian organizations called for turning
the conference into a new Palestinian National Council for a new
PLO, and electing a new executive committee and a new president.
However, this would have meant the existence of two PLOs and the
waging of refugee camp wars, especially on Lebanese territories.
We vehemently rejected this attitude and aborted this attempted
coup. As a result, the political, malicious and bloody pressure
turned against us and our camps in North Lebanon were the target
of hostile attacks.
[al-Musawwar] Can you specify the opposition factions that
conducted hostile attacks against you?
[Hawatmah] They were the "Fatah al-Intifada", General Command,
Sa'iqah (thunderbolt), and the Palestine Liberation Group. They
also received support from their political allies; namely our
brothers in Hamas and the PFLP who formed an alliance on the
political basis of rejecting any dialogue with Yasir 'Arafat.
They said at the Damascus conference that 'Arafat had lost his
legitimacy and invited us to take part in the bilateral and
comprehensive dialogues since February 1997 to overcome the
unjust provisions of the Oslo Accords. In May 1998, they invited
us to initiate preparations for the provisions of the end of the
Oslo Accords, which culminated in the adoption of the "May 1999
Ceiling". This time, we are abandoning the step-by-step policy
to adopt a new one based on the decisions of international
legitimacy.
[al-Musawwar] We heard about this dialogue a long time ago. What
were the reasons behind its deferment?
[Hawatmah] The dialogue between the DFLP, Fatah and the
Palestinian Authority, under the leadership of 'Arafat, was
scheduled to take place during the first week of March 1999.
However, it was deferred when we found ourselves faced with a
war after aborting the coup attempt in Damascus. This war forced
us to resume our efforts to prevent the eruption of a camp war
and defend our camps. Therefore, the dialogue with brother
'Arafat was postponed from the original date of 8 February 1999
in Amman. We set more than four other dates for a meeting in
July, but they were all deferred as well.
[al-Musawwar] Were those last four dates deferred as a result of
the campaign launched against you by the opposition factions, or
were there other reasons?
[Hawatmah] The latest postponements were due to the fact that the
delegations representing Fatah/Palestinian Authority and the
DFLP could not reach common grounds during their talks in
Ramallah. Once the common grounds were reached and we agreed to
defer some issues to be discussed during the Cairo meeting, we
set the date for this week's talks, which we hope will lead to
resolving the standing issues.
[al-Musawwar] Fatah/Palestinian Authority and the DFLP have
already held several rounds of preparatory talks. What are the
most important issues and disputes that still need further
discussions?
[Hawatmah] we have reached a political framework for the new
comprehensive negotiations because we have entered a new phase
since 1995. The deadline for implementing the Oslo Accords has
expired and the Palestinian cause is going around in political
and legal circles. As a result, we should shift into the new
negotiation phase on the basis of international legitimacy; that
is to say the UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338 as
well as the land-for-peace principle. This way we can achieve
harmony with the PLO's joint national program, which we have all
been working in line with since 1974.
We also agreed to revive
the PLO institutions, which have not functioned since 1993. They
will be rebuilt on the basis of our concord until elections can
be held for the formation of a new Palestinian National Council,
because the current session has legally expired. We agreed on
the importance of organizing a comprehensive national dialogue
in a bid to find common grounds for a collective agreement.
[al-Musawwar] What about the issues you disagreed on?
[Hawatmah] There are some issues that have not been resolved yet,
foremost among which is the formation of the joint coalition
command, which will be entrusted with managing the whole
negotiation process. No single Palestinian faction should
monopolize the determination of the fate of the Palestinian
people and rights for the next twenty years.
[al-Musawwar] What is your vision about this joint coalition
command?
[Hawatmah] It should comprise representatives of all
the PLO branches and other Palestinian factions willing to
accept the resolutions of international legitimacy and work for
the achievement of a political settlement based on relevant
international resolutions.
[al-Musawwar] How did the brothers in Fatah and the Palestinian
Authority respond to the proposal of forming this coalition
command?
[Hawatmah] They agreed in principle, but we have not reached a
specific understanding about it yet. I hope we can reach a
concrete formula for this coalition command. We can see an
outstanding example for it in the Jewish State.
Israel is a
regional superpower and Baraq won the majority of votes and
formed a coalition government from both the hawks and the doves
that enjoys a majority in the knesset. Although the Baraq
government includes representatives of all political trends in
Israel; from the rightwing to the center to the leftwing, he
formed a command authority responsible for managing the
negotiations on the Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese tracks. He
also formed a mini-cabinet comprising the leaders of the parties
participating in the coalition to supervise and rectify the work
of the command authority within the negotiation process.
We are a small scattered people. Half the Palestinians live in the
homeland under occupation, while the other half has been living
in exile for fifty years. We need a coalition command authority
to run the negotiations more than Israel. We also need a
mini-cabinet comprising the leaders of the various factions and
other efficient personalities to run and approve the negotiation
process on the basis of the resolutions of international
legitimacy and supervise the work of the executive command
authority that manages the negotiations.
[al-Musawwar] What about your request to activate the PLO
institutions? [Hawatmah] We have already agreed to reactivate
the PLO institutions, but we have not reached an agreement on
the mechanisms of implementing this principle yet...
[al-Musawwar] How do you envisage the requirements of this phase?
[Hawatmah] There is an available opportunity at the present time
to conduct democratic elections in the occupied Palestinian
territories and the refugee camps.
The leaders who conducted
elections for a legislative Palestinian council on the basis of
the Oslo Accords, should also agree with us on the necessity of
conducting elections for the formation of a new Palestinian
National Council in the occupied territories and in exile. This
new Council would provide the legislative platform for the PLO,
which in turn would elect the ad-hoc and executive committees. We
also hope that this issue could be resolved during the Cairo
meeting.
[al-Musawwar] What about the other issues that you still disagree
on?
[Hawatmah] We do not want to hold a dialogue for the sake of
talks or for the sake of the media. We want a positive and
fruitful dialogue to restore the cohesion to Palestinian ranks
and regain Arab and international support for the Palestinian
cause. This can only be achieved by reaching an agreement on a
program that includes at least the minimum core issues.
[al-Musawwar] You are calling for the election of a new
Palestinian National Council, but the Palestinian Minister for
Parliamentary Affairs, Nabil 'Amr, has told al-Musawwar that it
would be difficult to achieve this goal, although he did not
rule it out, because it is not a council of factions. How do you
comment on that?
[Hawatmah] No agreement has been reached yet on a mechanism for
electing a new Palestinian National Council during the talks
held by DFLP and Fatah in Ramallah. We hope the Cairo meetings
will resolve this problem.
[al-Musawwar] How do you envisage the possibility of holding
elections for the Palestinian National Council?
[Hawatmah] The election could be organized in all the occupied
territories, the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza Strip. We can
also conduct an election at the refugee camps in Lebanon and
Syria and collect the votes in some Arab and European countries.
It may be difficult to hold an election in Jordan, for instance,
because Amman deals with the Palestinians who have lived there
since 1948 as Jordanian citizens. Therefore, we declare that the
mechanism of rebuilding the PLO institutions must be democratic
and comprise all members of the coalition in order to save time.
If possible, this process could be conducted on the basis of
proportional representation, which is the system adopted in the
Jewish State...
[al-Musawwar] How do you envisage the Syrian role in the coming
stage after Damascus' latest position on the peace-rejecting
factions?
[Hawatmah] I believe that once the Syrian-Israeli negotiations
are resumed from the point reached during the talks with the
Rabin government, as both sides have announced already, and the
current differences about exactly what point has been reached
are resolved, the political climate in the Middle East will open
new horizons for bridging the gaps between Syria and the
Palestinian Authority and among Arab countries in general.
Furthermore, the Palestinian factions affected by the Syrian
policies will take another step towards joining a national
dialogue. For instance, it is well known that the Sa'iqah
Organization is the ideological and organizational extension of
the Syrian Ba'ath Party, and the Arab Liberation Front is the
ideological and organizational extension of the Iraqi Ba'ath
Party.
It is also known that the brothers in the General
Command, the PFLP, and Fatah al-Intifada, which has played a
purely security rather than political role since 1983, are
affected by the Syrian policy.
[al-Musawwar]What about the differences with the PFLP on
separating Fatah from the Palestinian Authority?
[Hawatmah] To claim that Fatah can be separated from the
Authority is just playing with words. It is a useless maneuver
because many of the leaders of Fatah are also high-ranking
officials in the Authority. This would be an arbitrary
separation that can only be explained as a sort of a sudden
political coup."
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