Fayad: Empowering Palestinians is the best response to the occupation

By ELANA KIRSH
Empowering the Palestinian people is the most effective response to Israeli occupation, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad told the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) at a Sunday evening gala. "You cannot end the occupation if you are dominated by a 'can do nothing,' defeatist kind of attitude. Nor will belligerence get you there, with what may come with it by way of violence and isolationist tendencies," he said. "When viewed this way, it becomes clear that the greatest obstacle that has prevented us Palestinians from achieving our national goals was not occupation per se or factionalism, not poverty or separation, but that deadly erosion of self-esteem and consequent loss of faith in our capacity to get things done," he went on.