The Political Value Of Lives In Israel And Palestine

The reports allegedly said the PNA, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party, feared that such swap would increase Hamas’ popularity.

An Israeli radio reported that the U.S. administration hinted to the West Bank-based PNA that the prisoner exchange will weaken it.

The PNA, with all its officials, supports the swap and calls for completing it as soon as possible,” Abu Ein added.

I do not intend to pass without comment over the unquantifiable suffering of all Palestinians, whether it be politically, physically, and/or psychologically (nor the equally though differentially unquantifiable suffering of Israeli victims of freedom-associated or other violence) but here take it as a given.  Beyond that, there exists a non-nationalized body of Palestinian people living in different parts of Israel and the Arab world, and the United States, etc.  However, that the PNA would seek to sabotage the release of over 1,000 captives just to harm its political rival speaks to an unsettling commodification of Palestinian bodies within Palestinian systems of political representation.  It is not that these prisoners do not matter; rather, they have become (for the PNA) objects representing something specific: namely, the triumph of the PNA.  Instead of unconditionally seeking their release, the PNA has distorted the physical presence of those people in prisons and has made prisonerhood itself directly related to PNA support in its own eyes.  Rather than working for the people, the PNA is working to create a people (or a representation of that people) that may serve itself in political infighting with Hamas.

The complexity of Palestinian politics is far beyond me, but it seems that the structures available for conversation, interaction with Israel, and planning for the future may, at least occasionally, miss what really matters.

Unfortunately, what passes prima facie for political infighting among opposition groups is symptomatic of the greater political phenomenon of Palestinian mobilization.  What may emerge as laudable efforts to relate to a “stone-cold” Israeli regime are also coupled with unpredictable violent outbursts against Israeli civilians (see: Hamas’s record).  Our Editor-in-Chief, having read my post last week, commented (e.g.) on the body parts that Israeli trades with freedom fighters who resort to rockets and bombs.  What the comparatively reserved PNA offers may be a more politically-savvy and less confrontational approach, but the fact that PNA officials refuse to accept Palestinians being held in captivity indicates a particular (political) conception of the Palestinian people by the authorities that claim to represent them.

Under the swap, Israel would free about 1,000 Palestinian and Arab prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier Hamas has been holding since June 2006.

–Gabe Tourek