How can the Palestinian citizens in Israel be integrated to the Palestinian body politic? The Palestinian minority has not been historically represented in the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s institutions. Instead, they have been represented in the Israeli parliament. In recent years there are growing concerns regarding the efficacy of this political representation in Israeli parliament and less members of the minority vote in the elections than before. Nevertheless, Palestinians – whether within or without the minority – have rarely contemplated integrating Palestinian citizens within the PLO. One reason is the fear that such a step would complicate and even endanger their fragile status inside Israel. The increasing talk about reforming PLO institutions has also evaded this issue. Would the collapse of the Oslo process, in which the Palestinian citizens became a purely Israeli domestic issue, bring a change in this issue? What benefit, if at all, would this inclusion bring? Should supporters of one-state include these citizens in the debate over representation? Is representation within the Palestinian body politic achieved only through voting for and being elected in PLO institutions? Is the body politic reduced to these institutions or can be imagined in different complimentary ways? This presentation aims to grapple with these questions against the backdrop of moral and political-prudential considerations.

For over four decades the Palestinian National Movement has been embodied by the institutions and leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the internationally recognized “sole, legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.” Yet, since 1994 the PLO has existed in name only, which begs the question: who represents the Palestinian people? Drawing on English and Arabic archival and secondary sources, this paper will examine the history of the PLO with a particular focus on its bureaucratic institutions. I argue that the institutions developed by the PLO were suited for a national liberation movement within the context of the Cold War. As such, their organizational structure and by-laws were deliberately designed to limit broad-based representation until victory was achieved. In the absence of victory, I contend, the same institutional structures have been used to hinder potential reforms and have served to further distance the Palestinian leadership from the population it purports to represent. Moreover, I assert that in the United States, the relationship between official and semi-official organizations associated with the PLO and grassroots Palestinian groups reflects this dynamic.

Inspired by revolutionary protests in Tunisia and Egypt and the first Palestinian intifada at the end of 1987, Palestinian youth had begun to organize themselves based on the belief in the ability to play a key role in making a critical change that makes the Palestinian people closer to achieve their national goals. The May 15 youth protests started with a call for internal reconciliation as the first of several demands, but the revolutionary changes in north Africa’s Arab regimes through the popular will and the May 15 protests by refugees in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, turned the attention of Palestinian youth to core demands such as the right of return of all Palestinians around the world and the need to rehabilitate the Palestinian national body by holding Palestinian National Council elections that include all Palestinians regardless of geographic location and circumstances. The crisis of representation and accountability emerged as an issue of concern among all Palestinians, including WB/GS, and the call for holding Palestinian National Council elections was the main motivation behind the youth movement activities since March 2011. The ultimate goal for these activities is to reconstruct a Palestinian national program based upon a directly elected democratic PNC as the most effective means of progress towards the achievement of Palestinian rights, end internal division, restore the national liberation movement, and reform the PLO on a democratic basis so that it can represent the will of the entire Palestinian people. Still, much more work among youth groups is needed. Can the current debate leads toward the emergence of a unified youth body in the WB/GS and the Palestinian communities in the “shatat”? Can the youth groups develop a comprehensive vision to end marginalizing the popular will in the process of decision making and national struggle? What is the nature of the relationship between the PA and the PLO under Occupation and without political horizon leading to the establishment of an independent state? What is the fate of the controversy about the validity of the elections as the only source of legitimacy under occupation away from the popular will in the case of national liberation struggle? What are the mechanisms of communication between Palestinian youth at home and abroad?