Freedom from occupation first

The Manama workshop on the economic dimension of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict ended without making much news!

The boycott of the meeting by the Palestinians took a toll on the meeting, as it left it without the participation of the key party in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which is the main concern of the entire meeting.

From the Palestinian point of view, taking up the economic side of the conflict first was tantamount to putting the cart before the horse. The Palestinians have been yearning for a political solution for so long, and offering them economic reconstruction plans now, and before they are free, was frustrating to say the least.

As important as economic funding of any eventual political solution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that can emerge at the end of the tunnel, what the Palestinians want first, and rightly so, is liberation and freedom from occupation, especially when their subjugation lasted for more than half a century.

Granted that under normal conditions the economic factor is critical and may be given priority, but in the case of the Palestinians, having endured such a long occupation their minds and hearts are fixated on a political solution first and foremost.

The Manama meeting could be now viewed as having failed to deliver what it had hoped for. Worse still, it turned out to be an uneventful event. The much-talked-about $50-billion fund that is intended for investment in the West Bank, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon is not even there and available yet. It is envisaged that the money will be made eventually available by donor countries, something that has yet to happen. Given the boycott of the Palestinians, it is now doubtful that any donor conference for this purpose will ever take place.

Now, the US may wish to start all over again its bid to offer the so-called "deal of the century" to the parties, by starting with first things first, namely the political resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the basis of the one and only solution, the two-state formula with East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state.