Erekat Hopes To Reach 100 Resignation Threats By End Of Year

“I can resign as many times as necessary to achieve Palestinian national aspirations.”

Ramallah, January 8 – The Chief Palestinian negotiator aims to issue his one hundredth career threat this year to resign from the position, and voiced confidence this morning that with Donald Trump taking office this month, the situations that might warrant such threats will proliferate to the point that he will have no problem reaching the milestone.

Saeb Erekat, one of the most prominent spokesmen for the Palestinian political leadership, has invoked the prospect of tendering his resignation dozens of times in the last 15 years, by some counts more than thirty. On only one or two occasions has he made good on the threat, afterwards agreeing to assume the title once again within weeks or months. Each of the threatened resignations resulted from Erekat’s need to perform some dramatic act to attract attention to the Palestinian cause, which has been relegated to lower priority in recent years in the international community.

“If Trump begins the process of moving the US Embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, I will resign,” declared Erekat. “If Israel does not cease defending itself from the murderers our society and government glorify and incite, I will resign. If Hamas does not reinstate Fatah functionaries in the Gaza Strip, I will resign. I can resign as many times as necessary to achieve Palestinian national aspirations.”

Observers remain unconvinced of the efficacy of such a move, but agree its importance lies more in the declaration of intent than in its implementation. “Announcing a resignation amid pomp and fanfare always resonates more broadly than simply stepping down,” explained Khalil Shikaki, a Palestinian public opinion researcher. “Of course in the case of Erekat the effect has long been close to nil, but he still feels the need to do things that might make headlines on page fifteen of some obscure foreign paper.” The Fatah-controlled Palestinian media, on the other hand, consistently print such pronouncements on the front page, because that makes the faction appear to be doing something, anything, beyond cronyism, corruption, and repression of dissent.

The effect of Erekat’s threats has diminished to some degree over time, given their frequency. Last year he raised the specter of his resignation eight times in protest over the decisions of judges on Palestine’s Got Talent alone, diluting the dramatic power his pronouncements to that effect might otherwise have.

A similar process took place involving Hamas’s warnings to Israel that any military action in the Gaza Strip would “open the gates of hell.”

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