August 3, 2009
By Salim Nazzal
Countercurrents.org
2 August 2009
Since the eruption of the inter-Palestinian conflict in the black June of 2007 Palestinians cannot conceal their anger and frustration over the current situation in Palestine. The enemy is not only the apartheid Zionist state – its brutality is known worldwide. There is an enemy from within which is divisive, and erodes the image of Palestinians worldwide.
In the recent past the Palestinian revolution has inspired much of the liberation and social change movements around the world and the reason was evident – national unity. Clear goals and firm leadership led the Palestinian struggle in the darkest times.
Today the calls for unity raised by various Palestinian intellectuals have fallen on deaf ears. Inter-Palestinian reconciliation meetings in Cairo ended with nothing expect mutual accusations and mutual arrests to Fatah activitists in Gaza and Hamas activitists in the west bank.
The tragic thing, which everybody knows, is that the hateful occupation is benefiting from the Palestinian divisions. Yet there seems to be no serious effort to form a bridge between the two parties, at the very least, efforts that are being made fall way short of bringing the two parties to an agreement. The situation goes beyond merely preaching – that is the job of priests in mosques and churches.
The question is rather related to socio-political laws, which resemble natural laws. If water is the outcome of the H20 formula the victory over occupation is the outcome of several factors. No national has ever achieved its goals while divided. Divisions weaken and destroy us. Palestine cannot achieve its goals as a country divided. National unity is mandatory to succeed.
One of the consequences is the immigration of more than 40,000 educated young Palestinians in 2008. This resulted in a gain to the occupation which does its best to pressurize Palestinians to leave the land of Palestine. This time, sadly, Palestinian divisions are aiding the occupation to stay longer in Palestine. This should alarm Palestinian politicians, opinion leaders and civil society activities, that need to rethink their positions and end these quarrels.
My allegiance is with no party. My loyalty is to Palestine. Yasser Arafat believed in the combinations of all forms of resistance. He knew that negotiations without forms of force would bring nothing and that force alone is an adventure void of political perspective. Roosevelt illuminates this question by saying, speak calm and lay the stick aside.
Today the world is witnessing a significant change. There is an awakening to the plight of Palestinians who are being denied basic human rights that people in the west consider a minimum in their societies. This awakening opens the door to the possibility of fair balanced solutions. The Obama administration has expressed good intentions towards Palestine. This has never been witnessed from previous American administrations. In Europe Solana has proposed that the Security Council recognizes Palestine as an independent state.
What is missing is the effort from Palestinian politicians to build on these situations, which if realized, would propel the struggle for independence towards a new perspective. It would empower Palestine to be able to demand that the international community exert pressure that would compel Israel to withdraw.
Palestine – we are taught from one generation to the next, is above all ideologies, parties, persons and politicians. Yet too often Palestinian politicians put their personal and party interests above the interests of Palestine.
The love of Palestine and the struggle against the brutal Zionist occupation has shaped the thinking of many Palestinian generations. The dream of an independent Palestine, free of the horrors of Zionism, dominates our lives. Seared onto our memory are images of the Zionist fascist murdering our families, neighbors and friends. We have seen the destruction of our homes and villages that has caused our families to be fractured and scattered all over the world. We have endured humiliation that was intended to degrade, dehumanize and destroy hope.
This generation grew up listening to the Palestinian songs like (my gun is my identity) and (my arms emerged from our wounds) and (we die but Palestine lives) and (we will cut the hand which attack us)
The Palestinian revolution is not the construct of philosophers or university professors. It is a revolution which has its genesis in the anguish of ordinary Palestinians whose families were murdered before their eyes, by Palestinian, Zionist Jewish terrorists, expelled them from their homes. The flames of this revolution have been fanned by the daily humiliation at the Zionist check points and Israeli prisons which are overpopulated with innocent Palestine’s taken from their beds at gunpoint.
The Palestinian revolution is the expression of the loss of trust in the justice of international community – which has been unwilling or unable to enforce one single UN resolutions against Israel. Powerful nations continue to lecture us about the human rights provided arms to the Zionist apartheid state and turn a blind eye to the occupation and theft of Palestinian land, and to the oppression and humiliation of Palestinians. The Palestinians will never accept being slaves in their country.
Tens of thousands have died, and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced in the Zionist campaigns of ethnic cleaning. Palestinians continue to languish in Zionists jails because they have resisted the occupation and we are indebted to their bravery and sacrifice and yet Palestinian politicians must be reminded every day, every hour, and every minute that this sacrifice was to achieve the goal dearest to every Palestinian. These sacrifices must be the guiding principles for the Palestinian movement. Everything for Palestine – must be the guidelines for the Palestinian political parties if we do not want to see these sacrifices amount to nothing.
The Palestinian politicians who stand alongside Zionist murderers, smiling for the camera, need to remember these sacrifices. They need to talk to their brothers to resolve the differences that will bring unity and strength and not feed into the divide and conquer principle.
Palestinian politicians need to remember every minute that Palestinians are being oppressed by one of the most ruthless ideologies in modern history which, from its inception, has engaged in a policy to physically remove Palestinians from the land of Palestine by whatever means necessary. Lately Zionists have removed the Palestinian names from the map and more horribly to teach, by force, the 1948 Palestinians the hateful Hatikva, the Zionist anthem, which is chanted to celebrate the massacres in Palestine.
Not even decades of unrelenting pain and suffering at the hands of the longest, most brutal military occupation in modern history can kill the hope of Palestinians for a future free from the Zionist culture of death and destruction. Whilst Israel is more powerful in terms of military force, it has no weapon that will defeat the Palestinian hopes and dreams. Palestinians have a will to live in a free Palestine – for which Israel has no defense.
Palestinian leaders need to translate the Palestinian will and the Palestinian dream of freedom into deeds on the ground; national unity must be given the highest priority.
Dr. Salim Nazzal is a Palestinian-Norwegian historian in the Middle East, who has written extensively on social and political issues in the region. – snazzal@ymail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment