link
By Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban (ARAB ANGLE)
On the eve of the sixty-first anniversary of Nakbah in Palestine, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman took a new leap by drafting a law to prevent the Palestinians even from remembering their historic tragedy that had befallen them in 1948.
The draft law punishes anyone who does not obey this law by three years imprisonment. This came on the heel of preventing the Palestinians from having their own media center to cover the visit of the Pope to the holy land. It was preceded few weeks ago by taking horrid measures and preventing the Palestinians from celebrating Jerusalem as the capital of Arab culture for 2009.
An Israeli minister stressed, then, that Palestinian culture is more dangerous, than, rockets. I have no doubt Lieberman believes that memory is the most dangerous thing that the Palestinians can hold on to as their culture defy the big lie Zionism has marketed to occupy Palestine and uproot its indigenous people.
Five million Palestinians are now in Diaspora and over four millions in Palestine, all holding to the keys of their homes from which they were expelled by force. When Zionists started their terrorist attacks, and perpetrated crimes in Qebia, Deir Yassin, Kfar Qasim and elsewhere, they thought that once the first generation of Palestinians withers away the next generation born in exile would never mention Palestine.
But 61 years on, they must acknowledge that every new generation of Palestinians is more committed to the restoration of their homeland than the previous one.
Had there been an international law, or legitimacy, or even truly free press, Israel would not have been able to perpetrate hundreds of massacres against women and children.
In the last few years, Western officials have started equating the killers with the victims by urging “both sides” to end conflict and start dialogue.
Even Pope Benedict XVI, when he stood next to the apartheid wall built by Israelis as a crime against the Palestinians, said “over our head is a great reminder of the deadlock between Palestinians and Israelis, which is the wall. We pray for the hostility that was the cause of building this wall to come to an end. There is a pressing need on both sides of this wall for courage, if we want the circle of fear and lack of trust to be broken and the desire for vengeance to be resisted. Both sides should express the desire to have brave and creative initiative for reconciliation”.
The usage of the term “both sides” equates between the victim and the criminal, and puts equal blame on those who are uprooted, and others who are uprooting and transferring them!
Neither the West nor the Israelis are good readers of history because if they were they would know that there are no people on earth who gave up their rights to their own land. The red Indians and the Aborigine were wiped out. It is certain today that no one can wipe the Palestinians out or uproot Palestine from the heart and mind of every Palestinian.
Slowly but steadily, the cause of Palestine is transferred from being an Arab issue to being an issue of international justice.
In no time the cause of Palestinians will be adopted by all those in the world who enjoy free minds and free conscience, and who will certainly take a strong stand against the latest and ugliest form of racism, occupation and settlement in the lands of others. Dr Bouthaina Shaaban is Syria’s Minister of Political and Media Affairs
Dr Bouthaina Shaaban is Syria’s Minister of Political and Media Affairs
May 25, 2009 Posted by Elias
No comments:
Post a Comment