After Abbas Dissolves Parliament, Legislators Vow To Continue Doing Nothing

“Bombastic denunciations of Israel are always welcome, but that doesn’t put suicide bomber vests on the working Palestinian’s table.”

Credit: Lockesdonkey via Wikimedia Commons

Ramallah, January 7 – Palestinian lawmakers reacted with anger and frustration to President Mahmoud Abbas’s announcement last week disbanding the legislature, but promised despite the setback to continue their efforts not to accomplish a thing for their constituents.

President Abbas announced the dissolution last week in a bid to forestall Hamas political maneuvers aimed at undermining his authority and asserting greater sway in the West Bank, beyond their Gaza Strip stronghold. Hamas representatives hold a majority in the 132-seat body, which Abbas has not permitted to conduct any sessions, with the convenient pretext that Israeli restrictions are to blame for members’ inability to attend. Elected representatives expressed defiance in the face of Abbas’s announcement, declaring their intention not to submit to such antidemocratic machinations and not to stop doing bugger-all for the electorate in the territories.

“This is a scandalous development that only hurts the Palestinian cause,” pronounced Itbah al-Yahud, a Hamas delegate. “But ‘Brother’ Abbas cannot conceal the true malicious intent of this travesty, and more importantly, cannot thwart the will of the Palestinian people, whom we will continue to faithfully represent by continuing to accomplish the same things we have accomplished in the parliament so far.”

The Palestine Legislative Council, which acts as the elected lawmaking apparatus of the Palestinian Authority governing Areas A and B of the Palestinian Territories, last convened in 2007 before a rift and brief civil war between its main constituent factions. Abbas’s Fatah faction enjoys de facto hegemony in the West Bank, but faces a legitimacy crisis after extending his four-year presidential term by ten years so far and refusing to allow the majority of Palestinian governmental institutions to function, instead ruling by executive decree, lest any semblance of democracy threaten his hold on power and increase Hamas’s control.

Experts remain divided on how much nothing the disbanded PLC can accomplish. “I’ll leave the political theory to other theorists, but there’s limited room for action,” warned Professor of Political Science Basta Reimz of Bir Zeit University. “More bombastic denunciations of Israel are always welcome, of course, but that doesn’t help put suicide bomber vests on the working Palestinian’s table.”

Analyst Jibril Weel disagreed. “There’s actually an unlimited amount of nothing they can still do,” he insisted. “The beauty of the Palestinian ethos of futility is the freedom to accomplish diddly-squat and suffer none of the public image consequences, since we can just blame everything on the Jews. It’s an unlimited supply.”

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