Palestinians don’t need a Mandela. We need a Ben-Gurion. For too long, the world has romanticized the Palestinian cause through the lens of victimhood and symbolic resistance, calling for a Mandela, a figure of moral clarity and reconciliation. But Palestinians don’t need another symbol. We need a single-minded state-builder. In 1948, Israel’s founding PM David Ben-Gurion ordered the shelling of the Altalena, a ship carrying weapons for a rival Jewish militia, the Irgun. His message was clear: there can be no parallel armies, no divided authority. If you want a state, you need one government, one chain of command – or nothing at all. Palestinians are long past due for that kind of reckoning. Our struggle isn’t only against occupation. It’s against the chaos within: armed factions operating without oversight, foreign-backed militias like Hamas holding millions hostage, and a Palestinian Authority too weak to govern. Our dream of liberation has been hijacked by those who treat resistance as a brand and governance as an afterthought. I repeat: what we need now is a builder. Someone who will take the painful, unpopular steps to unify our people under one legitimate, accountable leadership. Someone with the resolve to restore the rule of law, and the courage to confront our internal failures. Someone who understands that statehood is not declared. It is constructed. Until then, we remain a movement. Not a nation.