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http://www.dissidentvoice.org/
In the 80s, we gave up 78% of our homeland to try to pick up the
pieces of our lives on the remaining 22% of Palestine. This was, and remains,
the only true (brave or otherwise) concession ever made in the so-called
"Middle East Conflict". Next came Camp David, then Madrid, then Oslo, then
another Camp David, Taba, Wye, (deep breath) Sharm el Sheikh, the
Disengagement, the Road Map. Through it all, Israel continued to divide, carve
out, confiscate and settle that 22%. They scattered us into a diaspora, shut
down our schools, bombed damn near every inch of the West Bank and Gaza,
herded us into ghettos, set up checkpoints all around us and employed every
tool of imperialism, times ten, to get rid of or subjugate us as a cheap labor
force.
Now we arrive at yet another surreal meeting in the clouds: Annapolis.
Everyone is invited except the PLO — the sole and only legitimate
representative of the Palestinian people — and the democratically elected
members of the Palestinian Authority (that would be Hamas). At this meeting,
Israel will throw us a few bones, like releasing some prisoners (who will most
likely get rounded up again when the hype dies down) while it is intentionally
starving 1.4 million human beings in Gaza, cutting off fuel, electricity and
clean drinking water. Annapolis will serve only to move Israel a little closer
to stamping out the “refugee problem,” those Palestinians and their
descendants whose homes, farms, property and history Israel stole.
Palestinians are the natives of the land that was called Palestine for the
last several thousand years until 1948 when Jewish foreigners changed its name
to Israel. We are the natives in every sense of that word: historically,
legally, culturally, ethnically, and even genetically! True there were Jewish
tribes in that land some 3,000 years ago. There were also Canaanites,
Babylonians, Sumerians, Philistines, Assyrians, Persians, Romans, Byzantines,
and Brits. Palestinians are the natural descendants of all of these peoples
who passed through that land, intermarried and converted between religions.
When you understand this, it becomes clear why Palestine has always been a
multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious society. In other words, the
idea of “tolerance” and co-existence that the West fought to attain and claims
to cherish and hold dear, was already a reality in Palestine. Israel has taken
that ideal, turned it on its head, and beat it to a pulp so every Jew in the
world can have a place where he or she can go and see none but fellow Jews.
Remarkably, the world sees nothing wrong or out of the ordinary with this and
would like us to simply live with it, negotiate with a juggernaut military
power that has made no secret of its desire and intent to take all of
Palestine and get rid of as many of us Gentiles as it possibly can.
Never in history has the world so cruelly called on an oppressed, robbed, and
battered native people to sit down with their oppressors to “negotiate” for
their freedom. Even worse, what we are expected to negotiate away are our
basic human rights, in order to have a few checkpoints removed so we can call
those ghettos — surrounded by a 20 foot concrete wall with guard towers — a
“state”.
We are being asked to give up our natural right to return to the homes from
which we were forcibly removed because, and only because, we are not Jewish.
We are asked, as native Muslims and Christians, to give up our natural right
to live and thrive in Jerusalem as we have for all of time. We are told that
we should not expect to have the right to control our own water, economy,
airspace, or borders. Why? Why should we accept such an inferior status and
inferior fate? We are not children of a lesser god that we should be expected
to relinquish God-given, self-evident rights accorded and upheld for the rest
of humanity. We are not animals to be disposed of so that Jewish individuals
around the globe can have dual citizenship, a sort of summer country in the
Hamptons.
Would anyone have thought to support the desire of White South Africans to
live as separate and superior humans and expect Black South Africans to
“negotiate” with the Apartheid government for their basic human rights? Of
course not! Anyone with a mind and conscience took for granted that Blacks
have equal rights as Whites. That is self-evident and non-negotiable. So is
our right as non-Jews in Palestine to be accorded the same rights and
privileges as Jews in our ancestral homeland. Human dignity and equality
simply should not be topics of negotiation in the 21st century.
Even more vulgar is Israel’s insistence that we recognize its right to be a
state of the Jewish people. This country that stole everything from us – our
homes, our holy places, our trees and farms, our institutions, our history and
heritage, the cemeteries where our grandparents and forefathers are buried –
because we are not the right kind of human in their eyes. They want us not
only to attest that such an affront to humanity is legitimate and appropriate,
but that it is somehow a right!
Let me, as one dispossessed and disinherited Palestinian, say with all the
force of my love and anguish for my country, my family, and my countrymen,
that I do NOT recognize such right. A right is something inherently and
unquestionably just. Jewish exclusivity and entitlement at the expense of
non-Jews is not a right, for God’s sake, it is racism!
Susan Abulhawa is the author of The Scar of David, a work of historical
fiction recently published by Journey Press. She is also the founder of
Playgrounds for Palestine, www.PlaygroundsforPalestine.org .
She can be reached
at: sjabulhawa@yahoo.com .
Read other articles by Susan,
or visit
Susan's website. |
