{"id":74900,"date":"2025-09-25T16:14:34","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T14:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libmod.de\/?p=74900"},"modified":"2025-09-26T09:58:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T07:58:22","slug":"macrons-empty-applause-for-abbas-betrays-palestinian-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libmod.de\/en\/macrons-empty-applause-for-abbas-betrays-palestinian-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Macron\u2019s Empty Applause for Abbas Betrays Pales\u00adtinian Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When President Emmanuel Macron sat down with Israel\u2019s Channel 12, he declared that appointing a vice president to the Pales\u00adtinian Authority was a suffi\u00adcient reform step to justify France\u2019s recog\u00adnition of a Pales\u00adtinian state. With those words, Macron handed Mahmoud Abbas a free pass\u2014applauding a cosmetic gesture while ignoring the single reform Pales\u00adtinians have been demanding for nearly two decades: the right to vote in free presi\u00addential and legislative elections.<\/h3>\n

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Gaza is in ruins. Pales\u00adtinians are mourning the dead, demanding account\u00adability, and searching for hope. Yet the leader of France, instead of pressing for meaningful change, congrat\u00adu\u00adlates Abbas for adding a new title to his stagnant admin\u00adis\u00adtration. A vice president will not restore legit\u00adimacy to a leadership that has lost touch with its people. Only elections can do that.<\/p>\n

The failures of the Pales\u00adtinian Authority are not abstract. For nearly 20 years, no Pales\u00adtinian has been allowed to cast a vote for president or parliament. Insti\u00adtu\u00adtions have withered into patronage networks where loyalty is rewarded and dissent is punished. Corruption is rife. Security forces are deployed more often to silence critics than to protect citizens. Instead of devising a strategy to end occupation or unify Pales\u00adtinians, the Authority clings to power and survives on foreign aid and inter\u00adna\u00adtional indulgence.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Abbas\u2019s diplomacy has grown irrel\u00adevant. His annual speeches at the UN, once moments of antic\u00adi\u00adpation, now amount to little more than ritual. They win applause in New York but leave no impact in Ramallah, Nablus, or Rafah.<\/p>\n

And yet Abbas himself once admitted what Macron refuses to say: that elections are essential. In a June 9, 2025 letter to the Saudi Crown Prince and the President of France, he promised to hold them within a year, describing the vote as a national and consti\u00adtu\u00adtional entitlement. Macron knows this. Every European leader knows this. But rather than insist on account\u00adability, the French president chose to pretend that appointing a deputy amounts to reform. It is not reform. It is evasion.<\/p>\n

Pales\u00adtinians are exhausted\u2014tired of political stagnation, tired of leaders who speak for them but never with them, tired of hearing inter\u00adna\u00adtional leaders applaud symbolism while ignoring the democ\u00adratic void at home. They do not need another round of hollow recog\u00adnition from govern\u00adments thousands of miles away. France, the UK, and Canada may soon line up to \u201crecognize\u201d Palestine, but recog\u00adnition without renewal is theater. None of these capitals control Pales\u00adtinian sover\u00adeignty. The only state that can make it real is Israel.<\/p>\n

That reality requires strategy, not ceremony. It means engaging Israelis directly, not just the G7. It means building trust, leverage, and shared interests with the only people who can turn two states into more than an idea. Macron\u2019s applause for Abbas advances none of this. Worse, it signals to Pales\u00adtinians that the inter\u00adna\u00adtional community is comfortable with cosmetic reforms while democracy is indef\u00adi\u00adnitely postponed.<\/p>\n

Macron had an oppor\u00adtunity to side with the Pales\u00adtinian people in their demand for genuine repre\u00adsen\u00adtation. He could have used his platform to call for elections, to demand that Abbas honor his own commit\u00adments, to insist that legit\u00adimacy comes from the ballot box, not foreign applause. Instead, he stood with Abbas, reinforcing a stagnant status quo that serves diplomacy in Paris but leaves Pales\u00adtinians trapped in paralysis.<\/p>\n

Pales\u00adtinians deserve better. They deserve leaders who reflect their will, insti\u00adtu\u00adtions that uphold their dignity, and inter\u00adna\u00adtional partners who support\u2014not betray\u2014their democ\u00adratic aspira\u00adtions. Until that happens, no new titles in Ramallah and no applause from Paris will change the truth: Pales\u00adtinian democracy remains hostage to the refusal of its own leaders, and the indif\u00adference of those abroad who find symbolism easier than substance.<\/p>\n

Samer Sinijlawi<\/strong>
\nis chairman of the Jerusalem Devel\u00adopment Fund and a Fatah political activist from Jerusalem. He belongs to a young gener\u00adation of Pales\u00adtinian leaders who believe that intensive dialogue and bridge-building with the people on the other side, the Israelis, are necessary. Samer is a passionate advocate of the Olmert-Al-Kidwa peace proposal, which offers a shared vision for the transition from the current conflict to peaceful coexis\u00adtence between Pales\u00adtinians and Israelis. He is also part of the Middle East Network Programme at the Centre for Liberal Modernity.<\/p>\n

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