I’ve been trying to avoid discussing Israeli/Palestinian issues directly on this blog if for no other reason than that everyone in the world already seems to have a firmly set opinion on that subject and sees anyone else’s opinion as absolutely invalid (more so even than abortion in the USA … and as the sage says about ‘opinions are like a*sh*les; everybody’s got one and they all stink’). So I’ve avoided that minefield if only to avoid those mines.
But, today, the news impinges directly on them: as I write this, the number of Palestinians killed in apparently largely unarmed confrontations with Israeli soldiers on several borders is going up. I heard 8, then 10, then 12, now 15 (and by the time I finish, likely higher). And one of those borders is in Syria.
So … I enter the sharkpool.
I’m as pro-Palestinian as the next Syrian and as reflexively anti-Zionist as they come. Here, that’s obviously no big deal; when I lived in the US, of course, it was rather more problematic. We used to sit around and cogitate and ruminate on how we could get ‘our’ message better across to the wider population there. From our point of view, who were the ‘white hats’ and who were the ‘black hats’ was a no brainer. Yet, we had observed that, for too many Americans, the reflexive equation waas quite different: Palestinians, they seemed to think, were ‘bad’, were all ‘terrorists’ and the big bad wicked Arab wolves were always out o get poor little, plucky little Israel, a country too busy making deserts bloom, birds sing, and lions to lie down with lambs to ever even think about aggressing.
We knew that that was BS … but we also saw that, no matter how hard we worked to get the really story out, some numbskull in the Bilad would go and do something moronic … and the whole cause would appear to be discredited. We’d wonder why ‘our side’ kept doing counterproductive things and we imagined how things might be done better …
In a conversation – this must have been almost twenty years ago! – I remember that we talked about what would be a clear and strong way of getting the message across that, when it came down to it, the core issue from the Arab point of view was the right of the Palestinian Arabs to live in their own homes, the ones that had been the homes of their forefathers and so on … and that idea was dreadfully simple:
The Palestinian refugees gather from all directions and just go home; a peaceful surge of humanity, seeking to return home. No violence, no real need even for slogans. Just a river of humanity pouring in from all directions, crossing the Jordan, coming up from Egypt, from Lebanon and over the Jaulan, pouring out of every camp and every neighborhood and just going …
Millions of people on the move in a reverse of the exodus of 1948 and an undoing of the Nakba …
The Israelis could shoot, they could stand in the way but to do so they would need to tell the world the truth. The world would see that what it was all about was going home, going home to Jaffa and Haifa and Sumail and Dar-e-shu …
And I remember when it was suggested wiser heads pointing out why it wouldn’t work. Forget the practicalities of moving millions of people, forget the fact that the Zionists would just kill them … but the brave Arab leaders would not want that and would work to stop it. Far more than the Israelis themselves, they, after all, watch the borders to make sure no one gets it in their heads to try and ‘create difficulties’. Stability is what they have wanted.
The Arab people, we thought, do not make their own history but are the victims of history.
And then it all changed.
If 2011 is remembered for one thing it will be as the year when the people of our nation stopped seeing themselves as victims and began to make their own history. If they could do it in Tunisia or in Egypt, we could do it in the streets of Damascus … and Homs and everywhere else. We have awakened.
And if Syrians and Yemenis and Bahrainis and Egyptians and Tunisians can seize their rights for themselves, so can Palestinians.
And Palestinians were talking about doing such a thing this year, on the day of the Nakba, the anniversary of the catastrophe … from Gaza and Egypt and Lebanon … and even in Syria. Palestinians, ordinary refugees, went to the borders and tried to go home.
Not all of them this time, but some … and the Israelis reacted in the only language they know, with bullets … and claimed that this was all cooked up by the Lion’s Cub of Damascus to distract from his domestic problems.
No, Ben Netay, no. You have it exactly backwards. This is not a way to distract the Syrian people but a sign of the future. Mubarak is gone, Assad is going … all your old confidences are failing. The police states that held Palestinians back from going home are heading to the ash-heap and the people are coming in to their own
This year, they won’t win … but what do you think happens next year? They will finally make their own history; all of we, the Arabs, will.
15 comments:
If only middle east realities were so simple.
Before I reply to you, let me say I am a supporter of Palestinian rights to statehood without reservation. Israel is not perfect by any means. There is much to critical of and she has erred in many areas, repeatedly.
That said, being critical of Israel is a far cry from supporting the various Palestinian cause under their current leadership. If supporting the Palestinians means supporting blatant racism, bigotry and hate, I'm afraid I cannot- and will not- go down that road.
Presenting one side of the narrative. The Palestinians are not simply noble victims. They have also authored their own destiny. They are not to blame of course. They have been fed a steady diet of hate bigotry and the justification of violence for decades. They have been used in the same way the Arab populations have been used by the tyrants in their midst.
Sami al-Gundi, one of the founding leaders of the Syrian Ba’th-Party described the athmosphere of the thirties like that: “We were all racists, we admired National Socialism, read its books and the sources of its ideas. [...] Who lived in Damascus at that time can understand the inclination of the Arab people towards Nazism, because it was the power who could become the pioneer of our Arab cause. And who is defeated loves the victorious…”
How can anyone justify the Palestinian causer when in Syria Hitler got so popular that you could hear the call “bala misyu bala mister, fi s-sama’Allah al-’ard Hitler” (…God in heaven, Hitler on earth).
To deny that kind of thinking no longer exists or has not left a tangible legacy flies in the face of reality.
Hamas and Hizbollah are legitimate representatives of the people because they came to power via free elections, you say?
So what? Hitler came to power by manipulating the free electoral system. That did not make Nazism any more palatable to the civilized world. In fact, the Nazis denied the charges against them and attempted to hide their agenda. Neither Hamas of HIzbollah could be bothered. The Palestinians and Lebanese in the case of Hizbollah knew exactly who they were voting for.
Had the Allies forcibly removed the Nazis from power, up to 50 million lives would have been spared. Assuming some of your readers do not believe any Jews were killed, that leaves 44 million souls.
All of a sudden and in the sober light of day, 'God in heaven, Hitler on earth' is not the same catchy phrase it once was.
Like the Nazi regime that preceded them, the Palestinian regimes will never be considered as equals by us as as long as hate dominates their political agenda, culture and society. The problem is not that the Arabs have failed in making their case to the western world. The problem is that that have made their agenda crystal clear. Just today, Hamas reiterated their stand that they will never recognize Israel.
There is no technology that has not been employed in the dissemination of hate. Before every child graduates primary, middle or high school, he or she is inculcated with not only hate, but the notion that hate is not sufficient. The message that Jews must be violently exterminated is universal in the Arab world.
To be sure, not every Arab buys into that kind of hate. That said, whether the message is overt or sublime, that message gets passed on.
More later.
Allow me to question an assumption if I may...
When Arabs discuss ways of dealing with the Israeli occupation, the discussion frequently strays into "and then some moron does something counterproductive". Consider this, in discussions involving opposing groups it seems as if we assume the composition of a group is heterogeneous. Why then do we stray into the previous pitfall? Arabs are a quite diverse group. We have our share of all segments as all groups. The fact that someone misb
ehaves does not dilute the premise of a cause, don't you think?
Amina, you should ignore this troll ("micah") as he is trying to distract people from your message of hope with this "Arabs=Nazis" junk. The Judaeo-supremacists always do this when they feel they have no other action to beat down the Arab people. It is called Godwin's Law. It is what they always do.
Ignore the Troll.
Peaceout,
JJ
Sounds like Gog and Magog.
Any thoughts on a way out?
Marwa, does dealing with reality make me a troll?
I have been a supporter of Palestinian rights for a very long time. Does disagreement with some of the narrative somehow make me a traitor?
Further, why on earth would you refer to me as a Judeo-supremacist? I fall into neither of those categories and in fact, many of my positions were influenced by progressive Arab/Muslim thinkers. What I have referred to are ideas that have long been circulating in the region.
I have no issue with anyone disagreeing with my beliefs. In fact, I welcome discourse and exchange. However, to reject me wholesale simply because of a divergent point of view is absurd.
Amina,
I would be interested in your thoughts about Micha's assertion that: 'The message that Jews must be violently exterminated is universal in the Arab world' This is not a superficial issue.
"The message that Jews must be violently exterminated is universal in the Arab world."
What utter bullshit. Zionists have to believe this nonsense, it helps them feel better about Israel's slaughter of Arabs. Palestinians want to attain their national rights and return to their homes, not to destroy the Jewish people. Enough with the dehumanizing propaganda.
Hussam, that idea did not emanate from an Israeli or a Jewish person. Your characterization is absurd. It has no basis in reality
In fact, that idea was widely promulgated by a Saudi blogger, 'The Religious Policeman'.
In a nutshell, he says as follows:
Imagine a school that gave each student a glass of alcohol every day. Each day, beginning at tender nursery school age, the child was encouraged to drink the beverage that would come to poison his spirit, soul and mind.
Suppose that beverage was from the well aged bottle of anti Semitism.
Suppose also that once that child downed that alcoholic beverage, the teacher refilled that glass with more alcohol. This time, the flavor is religious bigotry directed at non Jews.
Imagine once that glass of alcohol was consumed by young dutiful children, the glass was immediately refilled with the beverage from the bottle of anti western and anti democratic values.
After decades those children, now adults, go home every day, turn on the television and read the newspapers and they are fed more alcohol. They get yet more when their kids come home from school, and share the same familiar poisoned ‘fire water.’ They poison they are fed gets the God’s seal of approval when fed to them from the pulpit- or so they desperately need to believe.
Of course, to keep a drunk or a junkie hooked, it takes an ever increasing amount of poison to induce the same stupor that blinds the drunk or the junkie to his own surroundings and dysfunction. The supply of poison never ends.
After years of such ‘education,’ it would be reasonable to expect that there would be a lot of alcoholics in the Arab world deliberately poisoned by the hate and ideologies of dysfunctional and corrupt leaders. Like alcoholics and substance abusers, they will tell you they ‘have it under control‘ and that they ‘can quit anytime they want.‘ In the Arab world, that translates into, “We really are civilized, it’s only the injustices of others that causes us to behave the way we do. We seek justice.” They are blind to their own dysfunction, they are blind to their own deceit and remain so by embracing hate.
The recipients of such 'education' are as much victims of hate as the targets of their obsessions.
The clouded message of far too many is clear:
‘Rid us of Israel,‘ they say and there will be no more need to hate.
‘It is the Jews- rid us of them and we will show you we are just like you,‘ they assure us.
‘Democracy conflicts with out values and culture,‘ they lecture us, as we try to empower them.
‘We are a proud people, too proud to take your help. We would rather wallow in the filth.’
‘If you accord our faith special status, we will have no reason to hate you or hurt you.’
These aren't fanciful expressions- these are real expressions, reliably documented.
These are the illogical and alcoholic-like induced arguments that emanate from much of the Arab world, every day. Like addicts everywhere, much of that Arab world are unaware of their own stumbling and off balance dysfunction. Like addicts everywhere, the whole world is to blame for their failures, never themselves. It is families suffering and imploding under the weight of the dysfunction and that ‘do not understand‘ them. It is their employer that is being unfair in demanding sobriety at work. ‘I have it under control,‘ is the mantra. Generations have been lost and families and even communities lie in ruin because of ‘I have it under control.‘
The denial of reality is important to every substance abuser. In much of the Arab world and by design, the unconscious trigger that unleashes reflexive hate, is the word, ‘Jew.‘ That is the educational and cultural legacy of the poison they have been fed for decades by the pathological society created by self serving tyrants.
I want to reiterate- I do not blame Arab populations for this sad state of affairs. They have been victimized by tyrannies and despots that have exploited their own for decades.
I was wondering when this topic was going to come up.
As a Jewish person myself growing up in a predominantly white city, whenever I saw a Muslim person I felt closer to them than my fellow white people, as if we shared some undeniable association. To my horror and extreme sadness I saw what the Israeli POLITCAL powers that be commit crimes of atrocity.
However, that said, part of my family survived the holocaust and others did not, I do not see the return to Israel, where we are FROM, our home, as a catastrophe. I see it as our people rejoining our brothers and sisters we so long ago left. And brothers and sisters unite. We would not push you out of your home, and you would, welcome us with open arms after the loss we endured.
The last time I was in Israel I was staying at hotel in the Golan Heights. I would rise early for breakfast, (it was provided at this hotel and I love food) and sit with a Palestinian man who worked at the hotel. Older than I, he would make me my coffee, "How do you take it?" he'd ask? We would sit and talk for long periods of time. I wish I could articulate what I felt. I wanted so much for peace. He invited me to his village to see that in places we do all live together in peace. (Christians, Jews, Arabs, Druze)
I pray one day we will see each other as one. We will not be controlled by the powers that be that separate us to gain power. We will once again see each other as brothers and sisters.
I suppose the best way to do this, as it appears to be an impossible feat, is love. Love as if that is the emotion we can feel. Replace the fear. Love.
I'm American and I grew up with blinkers on until my father told me about a friend's experience being forced from his home with his elderly father in tears by Israeli forces. Your post is eloquent and heartfelt. I hope that the future does indeed hold a better future and the Palestinians can indeed go home at long, long last.
Micah..
I am a firm supporter of Israel's right to exist but lets get real here….
Whether you or I or anyone else likes it Hezbollah and Hamas were elected by the people and Ill tell you know why- desperation…
In the case of Hamas,Fatah were so corrupt and useless-what would you do…you have no work,you cannot feed your family,your water and electricity is at the whim of Israel who seem to think punishing the regular Palestinians is the answer…meantime you are corralled like an animal into a miserable strip of land,not permitted to go into Israel proper and Hamas comes along and says 'we have the answer'..
The fact that an Islamic organization gained such a foot hold in traditionally secular palestinian society speaks for itself…
As regards the West Bank-it is a complete insult to put it mildly that religious jewish immigrants believe they have the biblical right to settle 'Judea and Samaria' in the settlements and deny the palestinian farmers rights to their land-I disagree... no they don't and when I see Israel demolishing a palestinian home because it was built 'illegally' it infuriates me but more than that-how exactly is this supposed to win hearts and minds and stop the hatred?
As regards Hezbollah-when South lebanon was flattened by the Israeli's-who was there with medical treatment and rebuilding?Hezbollah…. In fact who is there with help,schools,hospitals when theres no disaster...its Hezbollah….
Yes, the same old blame the zionists crap is beyond tedious but the vast majority of arabs are just trying to exist and could care less…
It is so refreshing to have someone say /blog things what the real people are thinking in Syria and the middle east.
Ignore kifa7 we need to recognize that there are different facets to our society
please amina keep writing.if you were a guy i'd marry you.
laila
Humans in general are influenced by their old animal instincts much more than we are comfortable thinking about. It's one reason we have trouble making rational decisions and acting in our own best interest. You can see it in every level of human interaction.
So when I see both sides making the problem worse, clinging to their fears, reacting with violence and pushing each other to more and more desperate acts, I understand a little of why that is. It's part of our nature as human beings and that instinctive fear is very difficult to overcome.
I think it highlights the challenge we have in working towards a world where we can all live in peace. It's going to be a long road.
Hussam - your reply to Micha's post does not actually address his fear, and that of a vast majority of Israeli Jews, of the Arab world's intenion to 'throw the Jews into the sea'. To deny that this has been a common theme by rejectionists (mostly based in Damascus) over the last 50 years will do nothing to change this perception. While I disagree with Micha's use of the 'Nazi' card, something which Israeli politicians never cease to cynically exploit, until the existential threat is addressed nothing will change. I am excited to at last be able to hear, through blogs such as this, the 'new voice' of the Arab world. I hope it will not just be a repeat of the old cliches and slogans.
As a Zionist and a supporter of the Palestinian state (they are not mutually exclusive,) I have to point out that there are red lines in the conflict.
Israel simply must allow the Palestinians to have their capital in East Jerusalem, evacuate most settlements in the West Bank, and arrange one-to-one land swaps for all other settlements. That is non-negotiable, whatever Netanyahu says.
Equally non-negotiable is the fact that the issue of Palestinian refugees will be resolved in the Palestinian state. There simply will not be any "right of return" to Israel, beyond a symbolic number of refugees, on the order of a few thousand.
This is a conflict between two competing mutually exclusive national narratives. We cannot expect to turn Palestinians into Zionists, any more than we can expect Israelis to abandon their Jewish democratic state. However, there is a way to preserve the narratives and national dignity of both peoples through the two-state solution, and neither the "right of return" people nor the "greater Israel" people are helping.
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