By Nojoud Al-Qassem
RAMALLAH, March 29 (KUNA) -- Over seven years since the eruption of the Arab revolutions, the Palestinian cause has taken a back seat as Arab governments have become preoccupied with internal affairs and countering the so-called Islamic State (IS) group.
The new reality has given Israel a free rein to accelerate its plans to usurp Palestinian land to build new illegal settlements.
"Political crises in some Arab countries have distracted Arab attention away from the core cause of the conflict in the region and the Zionist scheme which targets all Arab countries and people," Omar Shahada, member of the central committee of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, told KUNA.
"The Palestinian cause is always affected by the developments in Arab countries, thus it has been lagging (in the past years)," he regretted.
Ramzi Rabah, member of the political bureau of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, viewed that the unrest in Arab countries and the emergency of sectarianism have served the Israeli scheme to recognize Israel as a Jewish State.
"The conspicuous sectarian atmosphere in the Arab world and the talks about the creation of sectarian entities have played into the hands of Israel," Rabah told KUNA.
He added that the current situation is drifting Arab attention away from the Palestinian cause. Political Analyst Omar Al-Ghoul begged to differ.
"Despite the new situation, Palestinian and Arab leaderships are doing their utmost to defend Palestinian rights on the global arena through available political, diplomatic, popular, etc tools," he told KUNA.
He cited the recent UNSC resolution No. 2334, which condemned the Israeli settlement activities and called for halting it as well as the UNESCO resolutions, which affirmed the Arab character of the occupied Jerusalem as examples of the successful Palestinian and Arab efforts in international organizations.
However, Mohammad Al-Sayyed, a Palestinian journalist specialized in Israeli affairs, argued that the developments in the Arab world have given a reprieve to Israel.
"The huge budgets which Israel used to allocate to security sector, have been redirected to infrastructure sector over the past two years," Al-Sayyed told KUNA.
"The Arab countries are not expected to even think of any war against Israel in the foreseeable future and even armed groups such as the Lebanese Hezbollah group is now preoccupied with the conflict in Syria and the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas has been hit hardly by Israel in the past years," he said.
Over the last seven years, Israel has accelerated implementation of its plans to construct more settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Israeli moves reached a new height last month when Knesset passed a law that allows the Israeli government to expropriate private Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem to build settlements.
For his part, Jamal Jumaa, coordinator of the Popular Campaign Against the Israeli Wall and Settlements, said Israel seeks to force Palestinians to live in besieged cantons and surrounded by the Israeli settlements, Separation Wall, checkpoints and apartheid network.
"Since 2011, and in coincidence with the Arab revolutions, Israel's plans for annexing the West Bank have been implemented rapidly," Jumaa told KUNA.
He stated that Israel has accelerated the confiscation of Palestinian land and announced mega construction projects to increase settlements in the West Bank, especially in and around the occupied Jerusalem.
Israel, moreover, had unveiled infrastructure projects worth about USD 5 billion, including a train project to link illegal settlements in the occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank with Tel Aviv, he pointed out.
Jumaa emphasized that Israel appeared to be racing against time to judaize Jerusalem and even to extend its control over Muslim religious sites in the city including the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Muslims world's third holiest place of worship.
These Israeli provocative actions have triggered a popular Palestinian angry reaction that lasted for several months, but faced with harsh Israeli measures that led to the killing of 290 Palestinians, he said.
On the official level, the Palestinian Authority has beefed up its diplomatic endeavors to maintain the centrality of the Palestinian cause.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued on March 19 that "in light of the changes that have taken place in the US administration and the difficult circumstances in the region, the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the foreign minister have intensified contacts in recent months with Arab officials to bring back the Palestinian cause to the top of Arab agenda".
On how to re-attract global attention to the Palestinian cause, Rabah suggested working on two levels: first boosting Palestinian diaspora efforts to raise awareness and influence public opinion, especially influential parties and politicians worldwide, especially in the European countries.
On the official level, Rabah stressed the need to take other serious moves at the UN Security Council to put into effect the latest resolution on illegal settlements.
Rabah also underlined the need to achieve national reconciliation to reunite the Palestinian ranks and popular resistance to face the occupation and its measures and to bring back world attention to the Palestinian issue.
For his part, Jumaa stressed the necessity of adopting a strategic and firm Palestinian stance against the Israeli practices.
In this regard, he proposed stopping all Palestinian contacts with Israel and working hard to promote an international boycott to the occupying state of Israel.
He also urged the Palestinian Authority to stop security coordination with Israel, and take a series of legal actions in international courts against the Israeli crimes and violations against Palestinians. (end) nq.ibi