AS searing images of the brutality currently being inflicted on Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories flash daily across our TV screens, I find myself wondering how the late Eqbal Ahmad, activist, intellectual, distinguished columnist and a much-missed friend, would have reacted to this latest bout of bloodletting.

As a man of deeply felt convictions and a passion for justice, Eqbal's interests and involvement spanned the globe. But the trials and tribulations of Palestinians engaged his passion, intellect and skills of oratory in a way that no other single issue did. He met Yasser Arafat and other members of the PLO on a number of occasions and tried to advise them to change their tactics; unfortunately, and to the continued suffering of the Palestinian people, his advice fell on deaf ears.

In a recent book comprising interviews with David Barsamian ("Eqbal Ahmad: Confronting Empire"; published by Pluto Press and distributed by Vanguard Books), Edward Said, the brilliant Palestinian writer and thinker whose column graces these pages, says in his moving foreword:

"...Something about Eqbal that touched and helped me more deeply than almost anything he did or wrote was his heroic defence, his unstinting sense of solidarity with my people, the Palestinians. For many refugees, camp dwellers and wretched of the earth who have been forgotten by their own leaders and their fellow Arabs and Muslims, Eqbal was one of their guiding lights. And for that, no Palestinian can ever thank him enough...

"...But what also needs to be mentioned is that to struggle for Palestine as Eqbal did was to have none of the material or even intellectual awards of the struggle. Palestine is a thankless cause... Palestine is the cruelest, most difficult cause to uphold, not because it is unjust, but because it is just and yet dangerous to speak about as honestly and concretely as Eqbal did..."

Said goes on to discuss the specific suggestions Eqbal made, including the proposal that Palestinians in countries neighbouring Israel should form unarmed processions and march on the borders of Israel, announcing their intention "to go home." In one of his interviews with Barsamian, Eqbal puts a more ingenious twist to this idea: he suggested to the PLO that large numbers of Palestinians should board ships in nearby countries and sail for Israel, again announcing that they wanted to return to their homes. How many ships full of unarmed civilians would the Israelis sink before the cameras of the assembled world media?

Basically, Eqbal argued forcefully that the PLO's notions of "armed struggle" were counterproductive as this surrendered the moral high ground to Israel, at least in the eyes of the American public. And gaining the support of the American people, media and politicians was crucial to the cause. In this context, he urged Palestinians to collect information on every congressional district and important civil institution in the United States with a view to influencing legislators. But the PLO leadership was too unsophisticated to grasp the impeccable logic of this approach, preferring the path of terrorism ("a weapon of the weak", according to Eqbal). In effect, Eqbal advocated "aggressive non-violence" (Edward Said's words).

Elaborating this theme at a conference in the United States where he was the keynote speaker, Eqbal said in one interview with Barsamian: "...I argued that armed struggle was supremely unsuitable to the Palestinian condition, that it was a mistake to put so much emphasis on it. I argued that armed struggle is less about arms and more about organization, that a successful armed struggle proceeds to out-administer the adversary and not out-fight him... Finally I argued that this out-administration occurs when you identify the primary contradiction of your adversary and expose that contradiction not only to yourselves... but to the world at large, and more important, to the people of the adversarial country itself...

"I argued that Israel's fundamental contradiction was that it was founded as a symbol of the suffering of humanity... at the expense of another people innocent of guilt. It's this contradiction that you have to bring out. And you don't bring it out by armed struggle. In fact, you suppress this contradiction by armed struggle. The Israeli Zionist organizations portray the Jews as victims of Arab violence..."

These brilliant insights may seem obvious when put in words, but they are the products of an incisive and logical mind. As a militant pacifist, Eqbal was always against the crude mindset that seeks to settle every problem with arms. Although he had fought in the Algerian war of independence, Eqbal was convinced that legitimacy and organization were the keys to success. Unfortunately, a corrupt and inept Palestinian leadership was incapable of understanding and applying Eqbal's theories.

The Oslo accords represent what Eqbal called "the peace of the weak." In fact, Yasser Arafat threw away many of the gains made by courageous young Palestinians during the intifada. By agreeing to many ambiguous declarations of intent rather than pinning down the Israelis to specific dates and locations in their haste to return to the occupied territories and grab some form of power, the PLO has effectively signed away any chance of normal statehood and sovereignty. The Palestinian Authority has been reduced to what Eqbal used to call the role of "policeman and municipal official."

The last time Eqbal met Arafat was in Tunisia after the PLO had been driven out of Lebanon by the invading Israeli army. Arafat was understandably depressed and barely followed Eqbal when he urged the PLO to recognize Israel, but then insist on asking which Israel it should recognise: "Is it the Israel of 1948? Is it the Israel of the 1947 partition plan? Is it the Israel of 1948 that expanded three times more? Is it the Israel of the 1967 war? Is it the Israel of the Israeli imagination? Because Israel is the only country today... that has refused to announce its boundaries."

Eqbal went on to argue passionately as only he could that Arafat should "develop a viable, acceptable peace proposal that die-hard Zionists may not accept, but the world, as well as decent Israeli opinion, could not afford to reject. One that would offer Israel the security that it publicly claims to want, but which insists on justice for the Palestinians in ways that no one could find unreasonable."

I can do no better than close this column with Said's conclusion to his foreword where he discusses the need to collect Eqbal's scattered writings into several volumes so that "those who didn't have the privilege of knowing him would know what a truly remarkable, gifted man he was. Because, to paraphrase the words of Wordsworth, writing about Milton, 'the world has need of thee'."