After Abdullah Ocalan, head of the PKK, called upon his supporters to disarm and dismantle the PKK, columnists from the PA and Lebanon call upon Hamas and Hezbollah to do likewise.
By Rachel Avraham
MEMRI recently reported, “On February 27, 2025, after 40 years of armed struggle against Turkey in which tens of thousands have been killed, Abdullah Ocalan, head of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), who is imprisoned in Turkey, called on his supporters to disarm and dismantle the party.”
MEMRI added: “Responding to his announcement, which essentially acknowledges the futility of the Kurds’ armed struggle against Turkey, voices in the Arab world called on Hamas and Hizballah to do the same and recognize the failure of their war against Israel, which yields only countless losses and immense destruction. These organizations, they argued, should disarm and integrate in the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Lebanese state.”
Muhammad Abd Al-Hamid, a columnist for the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam, wrote: “Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned in Turkey for 26 years, has called to lay down arms and dismantle the PKK… Having reached the conclusion, after 40 years of struggle, that weapons have failed to achieve the goals of the Kurdish people, Abdullah Ocalan and his party have called to disarm and replace the means [of struggle] …”
According to him, “”Our current situation as Palestinians is the result of ideological blindness that conceals the reality and bans all dissenting opinions. [Certain people] monopolize [the right to] assess the war’s outcomes, just as they monopolized the decision to start the war and the decision to stop it. Hamas insists that it is winning the war, and at the same time speaks of genocide, destruction and the shattering of all aspects of life in the Gaza Strip.”
Al Hamid stressed, “Nothing supports [its claims] of victory: not the number of casualties, not the images of destruction, not the dire situation of the victims of this tragedy, not the tragedy [itself] – either the one it acknowledges or the one it conceals – and not the ongoing Israeli control of the delivery of medicines, food, fuel and tents, or its control of the water and power supply, communications and traffic.”
According to him, “”Hamas ignores the fact that the strategy of resistance has been defeated in Gaza, in the [West] Bank, in Lebanon and in the rest of the resistance-axis countries led by Iran. It ignores the defeat and does not even think of preventing the devastating political consequences of this defeat. Worse, it ignores the fact that the word is entering the Trump era.”
He proclaimed: “The failure to recognize [reality] – the mistake of the Al-Aqsa [Flood] escapade, the fact that the open resistance in the West Bank is a gamble, and the tragic and severe consequences [of the war] – has caused the escapades to continue, which could result in outcomes that threaten the Palestinians’ very existence and their fate…
In Conclusion, Al Hamid declared: “We need [to adopt] positions and policies that will prevent further deterioration, losses and suffering by means of a Palestinian announcement, similar to that of Ocalan, that the resistance organizations will put a complete stop to their armed resistance. [At the same time] the Palestinian political movement and civil society must assess the experience and the outcomes of the Palestinian struggle over the years and demand that Hamas join the legitimate Palestinian institutions, join the PLO apparatuses, commit to the PLO’s platform and rules without preconditions, and agree that it is [the only one] authorized to make decisions on matters of war and peace…”
Similarly, in Lebanon, Charles Jabbour, a journalist and the spokesman of the Lebanese Forces party, proclaimed: “It’s impossible to speak of a historic arrangement in Lebanon before Hizballah emulates Mr. Abdullah Ocalan and announces its willingness to disarm, dismantle its military and security wing and transition to political activity…”
He continued: “Ocalan’s declaration reflected courage but also political realism, which caused [him] to recognize that his military plan cannot achieve its objectives. This is what motivated him to call on his party ‘to dismantle and lay down its arms.’”
According to Jabbour, “Hizballah must follow his example… because the regional conditions that facilitated its plan no longer pertain. In the future, Israel will not allow it to [even] throw a stone at its communities, and the U.S. will show no tolerance toward Iran’s destructive role in the region. Hizballah’s land route for delivering weapons through Syria has been blocked, and the same goes for its aerial route for the delivery of funds from Iran. As for its military infrastructure, it has either been destroyed, or has agreed to dismantle [as part of the ceasefire agreement]. So what is the point of this futile insistence to keep weapons it can no longer use?
He concluded: “At the moment, Hizballah clearly has no intention of disarming as Ocalan has done… which means that it is still betting that regional circumstances will allow it to revive its plan. That is the [only way] to explain why it insists on repeating the same rhetoric, as if it has not been defeated, has not surrendered, and its plan is not done for. On the contrary, it says with complete confidence that it is giving the government a chance to engage in diplomacy before it renews its so-called resistance. As if this option [can] produce brilliant results, when [in fact the results] range from innumerable disasters to humiliations that revealed the truth about [Hizballah’s] false claims regarding its strength and capabilities. It’s impossible to speak of a historic internal arrangement in Lebanon before Hizballah declares irrevocably that it is laying down its arms and joining the Lebanese project.”
