I just returned to Palestine after a productive but tiring short
tour of European cities (Paris, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Geneva) to rejoin the growing
uprising against the occupation/colonization (a change) and to witness the PA
and Israel still engaged in “security coordination” with our own tax money used
as “leverage” (a no change). Today was a
day of anger as we buried Arafat Jaradat, a 32 year old father of two (and a
third on the way) whose autopsy clearly showed he was tortured to death in
Israeli jails (over 200 Palestinians lost their lives in Israeli prisons).*
The tour featuring me and Jeff Halper to discuss the one-state
solution was organized by the European branch of “Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian
Peace”. The organizers are mostly young students (though some of them are in
graduate programs). They did a tremendous amount of work. They had
invited me and Jeff to speak on the issue knowing that we hold somewhat
different views (he is for a binational state within a confederation of Middle
Eastern states while I am for one democratic secular state). We both
agree though that any dreams about the mirage of a two-state solution must be
abandoned. The discussions both during and between presentations were
rather useful to all concerned including me.
I had written a book on the subject called “Sharing the Land
of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle”. As it is
out of (second) print now, I went ahead and put it on my website (http://qumsiyeh.org/sharingthelandofcanaan/
). Briefly I argued then (nearly 10
years ago) that a just peace can be achieved and that it can be durable and a
win-win situation for all involved. I suggested that instead of wasting
time and energy talking about fictional solutions (like that of two-states) or
less workable ones (vague binational state), we should insist on human rights
as a basis for our activism. Human rights are well enunciated in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). These basic rights include
the right not to be removed from one’s own lands and thus the rights of
refugees to return to their homes and lands. They include the rights to
equality regardless of religion (thus Israel’s basic laws favoring Jews and
discriminating against the native Christians and Muslims are against human
rights).
The various provisions of the UDHR clearly present us with
only one way forward: one country for its entire people. This happens to
be also the main demand made by the native Palestinians from their first
encounter with the harmful effects of political Zionism in 1880 (the colony of
Petah Tikveh). It remained our demands
despite the Nakba of 1948, the Naksa of 1967, and the political setback of the
Oslo “process”. The latter was like a second Nakba: devastating to the
psyche of the people. This year will mark the 20th anniversary of these
disastrous “Declarations of Principles” and the agreements emanating from
them. They were supposed to be for a five-year (1993-1998) interim period
while Palestinians and Israelis “negotiated” the final status issues. But
as most people realized then and all people realize now, no peace can be
achieved by negotiating between a weak, imprisoned population and a strong
colonial power that has no incentive to give up any stolen lands/resources.
After all, the occupation of the 1967 areas is the most profitable occupation
in history (>$10 billion in direct profit annually to the state of Israel). And this is not taking into account the
benefit Israel gets from continued use of the land it occupied in 1948 by continuing
to deny the refugees the right to return to their homes and lands. It is
also not taking into account the hundreds of billions Israel got over the past
65 years from Western Government and individual “donors” by playing the victim
card while it was the most repressive regime engaged in massive war crimes and
crimes against humanity.
These kinds of facts are slowly being recognized by civil
societies around the world. Many of
those people finding these facts are also acting on them. The
Israel-Palestine question remains the most pressing issue in the world agenda
since the collapse of apartheid in South Africa. This is because, like
that situation, the racism and apartheid in Palestine presents a severe
challenge to the “world order” created after WWII. After all, what value
is all this talk about democracy, human rights, international law, and peace if
the western governments continue to support a racist apartheid regime that
ethnically cleansed 530 villages and towns and imprisons the remaining Palestinians
in open air prisons (ghettos, Bantustans, cantons, people warehouses)?
Add to that this is the Holy Land where members of one religion now determine
everything that happens with a set of discriminatory laws against members of
other religions.
My humble recommendations for going forward (not in any
order):
-Palestinians should rise-up against the system created in
Oslo and rejuvenate the Palestine Liberation Organization to be representative
of all 12 million Palestinians. This must be based on a clear strategy
advocating for one democratic state.
-Palestinians continue and intensify resisting the
occupation and colonization schemes of the Israeli government and settlers including
pushing for a new wave of resistance (the 14th or 15th uprising)
-The international community intensifies its efforts at
Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions (BDS) in the same manner as we did with
apartheid South Africa. We encourage all to act by visiting Palestine and
see for themselves the horrors of apartheid and then to act by many methods (see
http://qumsiyeh.org/whatyoucando/
for 64 ways to act)
-We intensify the use of the internet (social networking, Tweets,
Facebook etc.) to bring millions more to join the global struggle against
Zionist apartheid and colonization.
-We should increase outreach among Israeli Jews who were isolated
and brainwashed by their own government, so that they can see reality and the
writing on the wall that there is no future for the programs of racism and
ethnic cleansing done grotesquely in the name of “Jewish nationalism” (a false
messiah).
“Our food is our curse” was a title of an article in an
Egyptian newspaper I read on the way back home. The author argued that Egyptians
have become so focused on making their daily living as individuals that
interest in issues, knowledge, and societal improvement have diminished or disappeared.
I agreed somewhat especially after being tricked to pay more on three occasions
just in the last day of my travels. But I would think he was a bit
too pessimistic. I think there is still a lot of good in Egypt, in Palestine,
and in the Arab world. The fact that he can write and critique is in
itself a good indication. I am also optimistic because the growth of the
internet made change inevitable. There is now hundreds of millions of
people logging in and socially networking and learning from each other.
Ideas spread like viruses and power, previously concentrated in the hands of
the few, is slowly diffusing to the hands of the many. While we have no
illusions about the obstacles we face (greed, institutionalized racism, western
politicians beholden to Zionist lobbies, apathy etc.), we are 100% confident in
the inevitability of democracy, justice and peace. Much of our work will
only help speed up the arrival of that inevitable future. This acceleration will save lives and reduce
other forms of suffering. I see the change happening all around our
shared blue planet.
Action: Please work for the release of all prisoners:
Israel continued to kidnap Palestinians including several people we know or are
friends of friends. For example they
arrested our activist colleague Mohammad Shabaaneh was kidnapped by the Israeli
occupation authorities and has been isolated without seeing a lawyer and
without charges. He is a
cartoonist. He is added to the thousands
of Palestinians imprisoned in the apartheid jails. http://mondoweiss.net/2013/02/palestinian-cartoonist-international.html
See also this report about other human rights violations
including the arrest of 27 year old Yazan Mohammad Sawalha who was imprisoned years
before and returned to university and was about to graduate
