On sisters and personal reflection

 This message now reaches over 60,000 individuals directly and many more by forwards. They are mostly activists (perhaps 75-80%), 15-20% spectators and “neutral” people (journalists etc), and perhaps 400 Zionists (which is OK with me as in some cases they may see the light). I usually try to relay situations on the ground that are missing from the manipulated/controlled western “mainstream” media. I also sometimes quote articles for example today I could put links to articles about the extermination in Jabalia and Beit Hannoun.  Craig Murray wrote from Scotland: "A deliberate and complete extermination of the population of Jabalia and Beit Hanoun is happening this very second, so that Israel can annex this piece of Northern Gaza. The world does nothing. Sorry, that is not true. The western world supplies the weapons." And Francesca Albanese wrote: "You can be a celebrity or an ordinary person. If you stay SILENT, PASSIVE, INACTIVE while Palestinians trapped in Gaza - human beings who breathe, feel and dream exactly like you - get slaughtered by an unchecked army, you are no different from those who continued to go by their lives during past genocides who erased millions from the earth." And John Gutterman Tranen wrote: "The IOF observed Yom Kippur by turning Jabalia into an extermination zone. May they never be forgiven and may their names be removed from the book of life." and John Lyons, ABC Sydney correspondent, wrote from Beirut: "Israel has bombed one of the main water channels from Litani River. Thousands of hectares now without irrigation. This will cause huge food shortages. On top of heavy shelling and “widespread” (HRW) use of chemical weapons by Israel (white phosphorus) on south Lebanon. This is devastating."

On some (rather rare) occasions I state my own fears, hopes, and thoughts. This message is one to do so more poignantly. What prompted me to do this is a message from Hiam in Gaza (displaced now a fourth time and living with her surviving family in a tent). Hiam lost an eye to an Israeli bullet in 2001 (she was 7 years old then) and we had hosted her then in our home in the US as we got her a prosthetic eye (which she has since outgrown and now merely puts a batch on her eye. Hiam, now 30 years old, has a 10-year-old son Mohannad whose school was bombed. She still calls me Baba (dad) and calls Jessie Mama (Mom) and our son Akhoya (my brother). Her daily description of the horrors she is witnessing around her and her feelings keeps me awake at night. Islam whose son Mohammad on a whee chair was partly burned with his sister from the Israeli shelling of their tent. But the two families of Hiam and Islam are two of many I am in touch with in Gaza and they are ones still alive (awaiting the machine of extermination to reach them). I dread the coming winter for them all (1.9 million people). Sometimes they tell me they envy the dead (>200,000 dead in Gaza in the last 12 months) as they are starving and since most of them are highly religious they believe in an afterlife which has no suffering and pain.

Hiam  and her son Muhannad in 2023 (before the horrors) 

Mohammad Abulkhair in early 2023 (before that home was demolished and he was burned with his sister) and his sister Layan being treated

Here in Bethlehem, I talk daily to people who were beaten by Israeli soldiers and settlers or who were denied access to tend to their lands. Just last week we lost Ziad Abuhleil (a person I knew who, in his 60s was my age) beaten to death by Israeli soldiers. And yesterday were were informed of the death in Israeli prison of a Bethlehemite 37 year old (he would be 58th tortured to death this past year). This past week, our friend Dr. Ramzy Baroud lost his sister. Ramzi, a renouned author co-edited with Dr. Ilan Pappe the book "Our Vision For Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders & Intellectuals Speak Out"  (available in Arabic and English) in which I had a chapter. Ramzy wrote Friday 1 AM about his sister:

"Early this evening, Israel has killed, or more accurately assassinated, my sister Dr Soma Baroud, by bombing her taxi in the Khan Yunis area, killing her and six other innocent people. She was the kindest soul, a great mother and a most loving sister. She was a member of a generation of female doctors that revolutionized medicine in the Strip. She healed many people, never charged the poor and until the last day of her life remained principled, loving, kind and patient, even when Israel blew up her house a few weeks ago. I don’t know what else to say, aside from the fact that I suddenly feel as if a child who became orphaned all over again. She was a leader of our family, and fulfilled the role of our mother who died at a young age. I am sorry, sister, that I could do nothing to protect you. I feel deep shame that I live in the very country that paid for and made the bombs that killed you. When the numbness is gone, I will try to stay strong only driven by the hope that we will meet again in Paradise."

Dr. Soma

Dr. Soma is gone as a sister. Hiam and Layan are disfigured as sisters but still alive for now. Each death and each injury and each difficulty produces a scar and Palestine has millions of scars.  For each of us who care, these scars are personal and they do not heal. They shape our minds and hearts. We do not forget. The only thing we try to do is channel these traumas towards actions for justice and for peace. I investigated hundreds of forms of resistance and wrote a book and many papers on popular resistance. This allowed me to experiment and work with various forms of resistance also as therapeutic to our traumas. It is not merely civil disobedience or being in the wrong place at the wrong time that results in our detention or arrest (this of course happened to me as to over 1 million Palestinians). There are hundreds of other forms of resistance which I explained in my book and that I personally practice. I must say in retrospect that the most important form of resistance is resistance to mental colonization (see this paper). That also means not losing our mind over all the atrocities we see but to stay focused on the work that needs to be done. I wrote lessons I learned in a reflection in  2018 still valid.

Keep Palestine alive by staying humane and active

Need for action

Reminder: There is an ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip. Maybe we need reminder of other facts showing why this matters globally and ask how we collectively can act to stop being pushed into a cataclysmic future:

-Zionism worked to forcefully transform a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-religious, and multi-lingual country called Palestine (part of the land of Canaan) to a “Jewish state of Israel” 

-(Zionism partially successful): Today there are 15 million of us Palestinians, 8 million are refugees and millions live in shrinking reservations/ghettos/bantustans/concentration camps subject to the most brutal daily attacks and torture for 76 years.

-A genocide started in 1948 with 33 massacres and ethnic cleansing (Nakba) and accelerated in the past year after the Gaza ghetto uprising 7 October 2023. Over 250,000 Palestinians have been killed since 1948, over a million injured.

-Zionism started and promoted from Western Powers using a distorted image of Judaism in the same way that crusaderism used a distorted image of Christianity.

-These western powers (themselves colonial and build on the destruction of hundreds of millions of indigenous people) are supporting now one of the most dangerous colonial power in history (dangerous for all humanity, see below).

Reminder: There is an ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip

-All colonial powers dubbed any form of local/native resistance as terrorism, barbarism, savagery etc.

-To be honest with ourselves we must admit that hundreds of millions of people of the global south were (lethally) mistaken in assuming there was relevance to a western (read colonial) created global system that talked about International law and order while committing the most heinous crimes against humanity. Exhibit A: check US behavior at the UNSC.

-Any moral laws in Christianity, Islam, Judaism or other religions are totally meaningless to saving us when their subjects engage in committing horrors like what we saw in the past 200 years (massacres, pogroms, over 50 genocides, etc) and their co-religionists stay silent.

Reminder: There is an ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip

-This genocide is different than say the genocide of native Americans or aborigines or others: 1) broadcast live (no one can claim they did not know, see ongaza.org for links), 2) accompanied by the largest body of lies perpetuated on (controlled) mass media and pop culture in the West/Global North, 3) originates not from one regime but from several (many under strong Zionist lobbies), 4) Perpetrated by Zionists with an superiority-inferiority complex (claim of perpetual victimhood while claiming superiority over “goyim”), 5) it accelerated in the 21st century in the era of weapons of mass destruction (hyperbaric bombs, nuclear, chemical, mass planting of explosives in common house-hold devises) and mass control (Zionist Pegasus software, control of mass media and technology etc)

-Zionism being in the active phase of colonization does not set its borders. They tell us they are expanding and they expand. Their next occupation/colonization areas being talked about is all the lands from the Nile to the Euphrates. But it goes beond that since Zionists now control education and many business is countries like the USA and the UAE (Exhibit A: watch suppression of free speech on university campuses).

Reminder: There is an ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip

-Jewish Zionists represent at best 8 million people and Christian Zionists at best 50 million (there are 16 million Jews and 2.38 billion Christians in the world). Zionists thus represent 0.72% of the total world population. Any rational analysis shows how they drive apocalyptic fate of the world against the wishes of 99.28% of the world population (minus those who profit from militarism and the rampant capitalism system, people like Trump and Musk).

-Military spending keeps increasing especially in Western colonial powers (including “Israel”) and in their puppet regimes like “Saudi Arabia” and UAE. 

-The military is the largest single contributor to pollution and climate change. Geopolitcal tension and wars also divert people attention away from sustainability issues.

-Colonial oppressive regime used and still use “divide and conquer” strategies to get poor people hating other poor people while the rich get richer (see populist right-wing rhetoric in Western countries for good examples).

-Global joint struggle can work as it did against colonial apartheid South Africa

Reminder: There is an ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip

Whole families are daily being wiped out in the Gaza strip (and now in Lebanon) while the trends above portend a catastrophic and cataclysmic end of human civilization. People around the world are waking up (hundreds of millions were on the streets). Yet, we must organize better, get our activists better educated, and understand the nature of the evil forces that will make this planet uninhabitable if we do not stop them. The burden is on this generation to stop the rush to our extinction. In particular oppressed people around the world must unite. We are the majority as noted above. Search your city for organizers and events in this week on the anniversary of the acceleration of Genocide or organize your own activity. Let us also all redouble our efforts for boycotts, divestments, and sanctions. We are lucky to live in an era of transformation where we can make a difference and it is an existential struggle for humanity. And yes, there is a path forward 

End of Empire?

I wrote this after watching this shocking [must see] video that explain things to you about what humanity is up against https://youtu.be/yDWaRO88ezA  and illustrate the urgency of the situation [And if you want to know about the linked ongoing genocide and ecocide, just visit http://ongaza.org]

Unless Kamala Harris reverses course and suspends arms shipments to Israel  used in genocide, Trump will win the election because critical Muslim, Arab and progressive voters in key swing states will not vote for genocide party A. They will not vote for genocidal party B (Republicans) now run by the megalomaniac Trump who is willing to burn the world for his ego and to prevent the Mossad from releasing damaging tapes they have on him (Epstein/Maxwell produced). In either case, the US is likely finished as an empire unless its public wakes up as they did during the 1960s. Many of us had predicted this a while back but the speed of the decay is stunning which gives a risk of a global war to save the Empire (a losing proposition in areas of high tech WMDs). It is not just related to over 1.2 million COVID19 US deaths or to a $35 TRILLION in government/national debt (much of it to countries like China and Japan and much of it for wars done for the lobbies) or the corporate and personal debts. It is not just that the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world with two million citizens behind bars. It is also due to NATO taken over by irresponsible leadership that is getting us closer to a global war (see this analysis https://youtu.be/yDWaRO88ezA). It is also that the political system had the illusion of democracy (democrats and republicans exchanging seats and positions) while key actors (Federal reserve system of rich bankers and lobbies like the Zionist-Israeli lobby) actually manage the system.

More and more people also now increasingly realize that the so-called “justice system” is really dysfunctional and serves the rich and powerful. Lower level courts sentence black individuals to harsh sentences while exonerating white racist killers and mid level system that allows corruption to go on (e.g. by rich people like Trump, Sheldon Adelson, Haim Saban, Roger Stone, Les Wexner) to the supreme court. The Republican controlled Supreme Court ruled that actions by the president while in office are not subject to law/prosecution. Even free speech and attempts to boycott rogue states like Israel (an apartheid genocidal state) is now forbidden by law in many states and in some federal regulations.  That war on truth and justice in the west is carried in parallel with the actual genocidal war on our people (Palestinians and Lebanese and others) to cleanse the land and resources coveted for the Empire sans its indigenous people).

The Orwellian theatres of the absurd notwithstanding, the new world order is not turning out the way it was planned. The neocon Zionists of the 1990s plans included "securing the realm" and strategies that predicted an event like 11 Sept 2001 would help them to secure a “new American Century”, the pre planned invasion of Iraq etc. They have all backfired. While the senile king of Saudi Arabia incoherently tried to read a text prepared for him attacking Iran and his murderous son was enjoying booze and women on his $100 million yacht, Iran, China and Russia where defying Israeli occupied Washington (e.g. on the illegal economic war on Iran and Syria), interlinking their economies, military cooperation and more.

Times are indeed changing. Trump may win the elections but this will only accelerate the demise of the US power. Here is why he may win (in order of importance): 1) the Zionist lobby wants him to win elections to complete successes in bolstering Israel (and ensure the lobby is above the law and beyond scrutiny), 2) Harris courting of the lobby and supporting genocide undermines any remnant of illusion progressives, 3) Trump and his circle will do anything to win, 4) the American public is not allowed to hear all facts and the public can be manipulated by mainstream media and social media to vote for lesser of two evils based on fear propaganda (hundreds of millions spent on advertisements), 5) the Democrat party is corrupt and worked hand in glove with republicans against allowing other parties.

While I do not mourn the impending demise of the empire, I do feel sad for the economic deprivations that will come in the next few years in a land that I lived in for over two decades (before I returned to Palestine) and that I love (people, nature, etc). I would wish for the pain to be minimal and for better and quicker rebuilding in a far more sustainable and equitable way. The main danger after the election, is of a global war launched to defend Zionism and allow it to build an empire in Western Asia. The Israeli/Zionist Apartheid and ongoing genocide (in Palestine) remains the Achilles heel that exposes Western Hypocrisy just like Western support for South African Apartheid provided in the 1980s.

 
Let us (re)imagine and plan a world of multilateral cooperation, sustainability and equality and work extra hard to achieve it before it is too late and cockroaches inherit our planet. It is more urgent now than ever and it is an existential struggle for all humanity.

Existential struggle

Now the numbers killed in the indiscriminate slaughter in Gaza exceeded 40,000 registered deaths (72% of them women and children). But the number of deaths could be many folds more (at least ten thousand under the rubble, many thousands died for lack of food or medical care etc). But globally the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. How do they do it and how do we stop it. First simple facts:

-The reasons we have high incidence of hurricanes, floods, and other catastrophe is man made climate change-The reason we are not doing much about climate change is that there are greedy individuals who profit from the trends
-There are no just wars. There are understandable and justified resistance of native people to colonialism
-The uncontrollable fascist Western-created “Jewish state” is beginning to be an irritant to Western Powers who invested hundreds of billions in this pet project of imperialism. Hence, they try to save it from itself and from furthering the genocide that is embarrassing them and exposing western hypocrisy. Hence they are meeting in Qatar. Such efforts are driven more by failures: failure of the 5th strongest army in the world (supported by the US and the UK and France) to defeat a guerrilla force in the besieged and occupied Gaza strip; failure to create a deep Shia-Sunni divide; failure to mobilize the word against Islam; failure to contain the truth of what is happening on the ground; failure to bully their way.. etc.
-Western creations like ISIS/Daesh are now exposed for their agendas and are in retreat in the face of pushback by people of all faiths (Sunni Kurdish, Shia, Christian etc).
- Countries like North Korea, Russia, China, Venezuela and Iran watched what the US did in places like Libya, Syria and Iraq. They watched as western powers did economic sabotage and caused havoc around the world (from blowing up Nord Stream Pipeline to economic strangulation). Instead of successfully bankrupting Russia and China, the US/Israel policies are bankrupting their own states. -Israel is not an asset to the US or to any other country but a liability to the whole world. Zionism is not nationalism, it is a worldwide movement in which Israel is only one of its bases. A world Zionist network created Israel and supports it at the cost of millions of native Arab rights. It is a movement based on manipulation, wars, destruction and genocide GLOBALLY.
-We have wars to distract us from the inequalities and injustices and to make money for a few already very rich people. Zionist Jews dominate these elites (Mirriam Adelson just donated $100 million to the trump campaign and >50% of donations to the Democratic party come from Zionists).
-An axis of resistance against US and Zionist imperialism does exist and does have the support of most of the people globally (e.g. see growth of BDS movement and public surveys and see what countries like Yemen and Lebanon are doing to stem aggression and genocide)
-An axis of collaboration, lies, deceit, and murder does exist and has the support of most of the regimes in the Arab world (e.g. Saudi Arabia, Emirates, Egypt, Morocco) as well as regimes in Western countries (US, Britain, Australia, France)
-Demography has shifted around the world and thus most regimes move to assert more government controls and less democracy. Laws are enacted to silence any critics. The best tool for governments is to use perceived threats (previously communism, now immigrants, Islam and terrorism). False flag operations have thus gone dramatically up.
-For people to act is no longer a luxury but an existential need to protect our species. The last two decades showed that the schemes of the rich and powerful can delay freedom and damage sustainability. Yet, we the people can and do succeed. People do make a difference. If you think on all positive things in human history, they all happened by people acting positively and challenging status quo or rising up to help those in need. The most important development is that citizens in the West now know the truths including the truth that their systems are managed by moneyed interests and distractions and thus they have no democratic say in government (selecting "lesser of two evils" to give the delusion of "democracy" and "voting").

Apathy is an enemy of progress, action works. We are hopeful because as Howard Zinn once wrote (and I quoted it in my book “
Sharing the Land of Canaan” in 2004):

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

الحل

على مدى السنوات الخمس والأربعين الماضية، كنت ناشطاً في الشوارع وعلى شبكة الإنترنت مع نضال شعبنا من أجل العودة وتقرير المصير في مواجهة نظام استعماري وحشي لا يرحم. قرأت آلاف الكتب وكتبت بعضها بنفسي. قرأت عشرات الآلاف من الأبحاث والأوراق التحليلية (وكتبت مئات منها بنفسي). في الواقع، يمكن وصف مشكلة بلدنا بإيجاز شديد. ويمكن وصف حلها (العلاجات) بإيجاز أيضاً. إن تنفيذ الحل سيكون ممكناً وهو السبيل الوحيد لتجنب حرب عالمية كارثية.

باختصار، لدينا 15 مليون فلسطيني أصلي، وأكثر من 8 ملايين منا أصبحوا لاجئين أو نازحين قسرا (وهذا العدد يتزايد يومياً). حتى الآن قُتل أو هلك أكثر من 250 ألف فلسطيني بسبب سياسات الإبادة الجماعية منذ عام 1948. وأصيب مليون فلسطيني وسجن مليون آخر منذ عام 1948. وقع اليهود الجناة تحت تأثير فكرة تسمى الصهيونية التي تحاول إقناع الناس بأن اليهودية هي جنسية (اليهودية القسطنطينية كما أطلق عليها مارك إليس) وبالتالي فإن اليهود كجماعة ليس لديهم الحق في هذه الأرض القديمة فحسب، بل لديهم حق حصري فيها. تم جمع أكبر عدد ممكن من اليهود من جميع أنحاء العالم للاستيلاء على الأراضي الأصلية بقوة السلاح وقوات جماعات الضغط في جميع أنحاء العالم التي تذهب إلى الحكومات الغربية لتبني هذا المشروع المتمثل في التطهير العرقي والإبادة الجماعية (وتدمير البيئة وكل شيئ!).

إن المشاكل الرئيسية التي واجهت هذا المشروع الاستعماري هي 1) أنه وصل إلى الاستعمار متأخراً بعض الشيء بعد أن فقد الاستعمار جاذبيته (المدينة اللامعة على التل، والأرض الموعودة، والأعراق الأدنى وكل ذلك)، 2) المقاومة العنيدة من قبل السكان المحليين (المسيحيين، المسلمين، البهائيين، الدروز، إلخ) الذين لم يرحلوا ببساطة (انظر كتابي حول هذا الموضوع http://qumsiyeh.org/popularresistanceinpalestine/، و3) صعوبة السيطرة على المعلومات في القرن الحادي والعشرين (على سبيل المثال البث المباشر لأعمال الإبادة الجماعية تنشر على منصات التواصل).

إن الدعم للمشروع الصهيوني وسبب استمراره لفترة طويلة كان عدة أسباب (ليس بترتيب معين): 1) الدعاية الجيدة التي تم نشرها على نطاق واسع من خلال وسائل الإعلام الغربية الخاضعة لسيطرة جيدة وهوليوود والتي خلقت وهمًا (ثقافة شعبية) بأن إسرائيل ديمقراطية وأنها مخلصة ومفيدة لليهود وأنها تدافع عن نفسها ، 2) شبكة صهيونية عالمية قوية التنظيم على استعداد لفعل أي شيء من أجل تعزيز القضية بما في ذلك الرشوة والابتزاز ولي الذراع بطرق أخرى، 3) سياسة إنشاء ودعم "زعماء" مستبدين عرب ومسلمين على استعداد لدعم المشروع للاحتفاظ بمقاعدهم. لقد تلقت هذه الركائز الثلاث ضربات قوية بسبب المقاومة والإبادة الجماعية المتعمدة والمستمرة الواضحة والصحوة العالمية (بما في ذلك العربية والإسلامية). لكن يبدو أن الركائز صامدة حتى الآن رغم اهتزازها. وفكرتي هي أن الضربات الموجهة إلى هذه الركائز يجب أن تتزايد بشكل كبير لإنهاء هذا الكابوس للبشرية وتجنب حرب عالمية كارثية (حيث سيكون الجميع خاسرين). ما هي المطارق التي تحتاج إلى تعزيز؟

1) المقاومة: بطبيعة الحال، في النضالات الاستعمارية المناهضة للاستعمار، تكون أغلب أشكال المقاومة غير مسلحة وبعضها مسلح. ويعترف القانون الدولي ليس فقط بحق المقاومة بل والالتزام بالمقاومة. وهذا يشمل ضرورة بناء مؤسسات الصمود (المرونة/المقاومة) على الأرض مثل مؤسستنا (palestinenature.org) ومئات المؤسسات الأخرى. وعلى مدى السنوات المائة والخمسين الماضية، ثبت أن قتل المزيد من الفلسطينيين يخلق مقاومة أكثر (وحتى أكثر ذكاءً/إبداعًا) (انظر مرة أخرى كتابي حول هذا الموضوع http://qumsiyeh.org/popularresistanceinpalestine/).

2) الدعم من قبل جميع أصحاب الضمير في جميع أنحاء العالم. وهذا يشمل أشياء مثل المقاطعة وسحب الاستثمارات وفرض العقوبات (انظر bdsmovement.net)، والعمل الإعلامي، والعصيان المدني وغير ذلك.

3) قول الحقيقة: نشر الرواية الحقيقية لما يحدث وتبديد الأساطير والأكاذيب بما في ذلك حول "حق المستعمرين في الدفاع عن أنفسهم"، وطبيعة أنظمة الفصل العنصري، وأساطير "حل الدولتين". وللتعرف على هذه الأساطير، راجع كتابي الصادر عام 2004 http://qumsiyeh.org/sharingthelandofcanaan/

4) تفكيك شبكة دعم الاستعمار. ويشمل هذا فضح كل الأفراد والكيانات التي تدعم الصهيونية بما في ذلك "السلطة الفلسطينية". فقد أنشئت السلطة الفلسطينية بموجب "اتفاقات أوسلو" وكان من المفترض أن تكون مؤقتة لمدة 5 سنوات ولكنها الآن تبلغ من العمر 30 عامًا وقد جعلت "إسرائيل" ناجحة اقتصاديًا ودبلوماسيًا بينما دمرت مجتمعنا ودمرت المقاومة الشعبية بشكل منهجي. وهذا هو الاحتلال الاستعماري الأكثر ربحية في التاريخ. إن تقويض هذا النظام المزور أمر ضروري وكذلك الدفع نحو إنهاء الاستعمار والنضال ضد الفصل العنصري. وهذا أصعب بكثير على المستعمرين التعامل معه. راجع كتب إدوارد سعيد حول هذا الموضوع.

لاحظ أنني لم أضف نقطة خامسة حول الأمم المتحدة أو القوانين أو الاتفاقيات الدولية لأن تنفيذها يعتمد على آليات تستطيع الولايات المتحدة استخدام حق النقض عليها، مما يمنح إسرائيل الحصانة. إن الأمر لا يزال غامضاً بشأن ما إذا كانت مثل هذه الآليات أو حتى التصريحات الصادرة عن منظمات حقوق الإنسان لها فائدة تتجاوز قيمتها في العلاقات العامة. لذا ينبغي أن تكون النقاط الأربع المذكورة أعلاه كافية في تآزرها لضرب الركائز الثلاث المذكورة أعلاه والتي تدعم الاستعمار الصهيوني. هذا هو مسارنا الإنساني الذي يبتعد عن المسار الصهيوني الذي يؤدي إلى فناء العالم ونبوءة نهاية العالم Armageddon التي تحقق ذاتها. لا يزال بوسعنا إنقاذ البشرية ولكن النافذة تضيق لذا يتعين علينا أن نتحرك على وجه السرعة. ونقدر أفكاركم.


أتظن أنك عندمـــا أحـــرقتنــي ورقصت كالشيطان فوق رفاتي
وتركتنـــي للذاريــات تـذرنــي كحلاً لعين الشمس في الفلـوات
أتظـن أنك قـد طــمست هويتي ومحــــوت تاريخي ومعتقـــداتي
عبثا تحاول …. لا فنـــاء لثائر أنــــا كالقيامـــه ذات يـــــوم آت
أنا مثـل عيـسى عــائد وبقــــوة مــن كــل عاصـــفة ألـم شتـاتي
سأعــود أقدم عاشــــق متمــرد سأعـود أعظـم أعظم الثــــورات
سأعود بالتوراة والإنجيـل والــ قـــرآن والتسـبــيح والصـــلواتي
سأعـود بالأديـان ديــناً واحـــداً خــــــال مـــن الأحقـاد والنعرات
رجل من الأخدود ما من عودتي بـد … أنا كل الزمــــــان الآتــي
مهذل الصقور

The path forward

Over the past 45 years, I have been active on the streets and on the internet for our people struggle for return and self-determination in the face of a most brutal and merciless colonial regime. I read thousands of books and wrote a few myself. I read tens of thousands of research and analytical papers (and wrote hundreds myself). The problem of our country can actually be described very briefly. Its solution (remedies) can also be described briefly. Implementing the solution would be doable and is the only way to avoid a catastrophic world war.

So briefly, we have 15 million indigenous Palestinians, over 8 million of us are intentionally made refugees or displaced people (and that number increases daily). So far over 250,000 Palestinians were killed or perished prematurely thanks to genocidal policies since 1948. A million were injured and another million imprisoned since 1948. The perpetrator Jews fell under the spell of an idea called Zionism that tries to convince people that Jewishness is a nationality (Constantinian Judaism as called by Marc Ellis) and thus that Jews as a collective not only have a right to this ancient land but have an exclusive right to it. Gathering as many Jews as possible from around the world to take over indigenous land was done by force of arms and forces of lobbies around the world that go Western Governments to adopt this project of ethnic cleansing and genocide (and ecoside and scholasticide!).

The main problems faced by this colonial project are 1) that it arrived at colonialism a bit late after colonialism lost its appeal (the shiny city on a hill, promised land, inferior races and all that), 2) A stubborn resistance of the local people (Christian, Muslim, Bahai, Druz etc) who would not simply go away (see my book on this http://qumsiyeh.org/popularresistanceinpalestine/), and 3) difficulty to control information in the 21st century (e.g. live feed of genocidal acts).

The main support for the Zionist project and why it persisted so long were several (not in any particular order): 1) very good hasbara /propaganda disseminated largely through well controlled western corporate media and Hollywood creating an illusion (pop culture) that Israel is a democracy, that it is redemptive and good for Jews, and that it is defending itself against barbarism, 2) A well-oiled Zionist network willing to do anything to advance the cause including bribery, blackmail, and arms twisting in other ways, 3) A policy of creation and support of Arab and Muslim autocratic “leaders” willing to support the project to keep their seats. These three pillars have received significant blows thanks to the obvious intentional and ongoing genocide and a global (including Arab and Muslim awakening). But the pillars for now seem to hold though shaky. My thought is that the pounding at those pillars must increase significantly to end this nightmare for humanity and to avoid a catastrophic world war (where ALL will be losers). What are the hammers pounding that need to be strengthened?

1) Resistance: naturally in colonial anti-colonial struggles, most of the resistance is unarmed and some of it armed. International law recognizes not only a right to resistance but obligation to resist. This includes the imperative of building institutions of sumud (resilience/resistance) on the ground like our own institution (palestinenature.org) and hundreds more. Over the past 150 years, it has been shown that killing more Palestinians creates more (and even smarter/more innovative) resistance (again see my book on this http://qumsiyeh.org/popularresistanceinpalestine/).

2) Support by all people of conscience around the world. This includes things like Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanction (See bdsmovement.net), media work, civil disobedience and more.

3) Truth telling: Putting out the real narrative of what is happening and dispelling the myths and lies including about colonizers “right to defend themselves”, nature of racist apartheid regimes, and the myths of a “two-state solution”. For the latter, see my 2004 book http://qumsiyeh.org/sharingthelandofcanaan/

4) Dismantling the support network of colonialism. This includes exposing al individuals and entities that support Zionism including the “Palestinian Authority” (PA). The PA was created by the “Oslo accords” and supposed to be interim for 5 years but is now 30 year old and had made “Israel” economically and diplomatically successful while destroying our society methodically. This is now the most profitable colonial occupation in history. Undermining this rigged system is an imperative as is pushing for the alternative “decolonization” and anti-apartheid struggle. That is much harder for colonialist to cope with. See books by Edward Said on this.

Note I did not add a fifth point about the UN, International laws or conventions since their implementation depends on mechanisms where the US can and has used veto power on those thus giving Israel impunity. The jury is still out on whether such mechanisms or even statements by human rights organizations have utility beyond their public relations value. The four points above should suffice in synergy to hammer more at the three above listed pillars of Zionist colonial support. This is our human path which is away from the Zionist path which leads to world annihilation and self-fulfilling prophesy of Armageddon. We still can save humanity but the window is closing so we must act urgently. Your thoughts are appreciated.

Finally a poem with translation

أتظن أنك عندمـــا أحـــرقتنــي ورقصت كالشيطان فوق رفاتي
وتركتنـــي للذاريــات تـذرنــي كحلاً لعين الشمس في الفلـوات
أتظـن أنك قـد طــمست هويتي ومحــــوت تاريخي ومعتقـــداتي
عبثا تحاول …. لا فنـــاء لثائر أنــــا كالقيامـــه ذات يـــــوم آت
أنا مثـل عيـسى عــائد وبقــــوة مــن كــل عاصـــفة ألـم شتـاتي
سأعــود أقدم عاشــــق متمــرد سأعـود أعظـم أعظم الثــــورات
سأعود بالتوراة والإنجيـل والــ قـــرآن والتسـبــيح والصـــلواتي
سأعـود بالأديـان ديــناً واحـــداً خــــــال مـــن الأحقـاد والنعرات
رجل من الأخدود ما من عودتي بـد … أنا كل الزمــــــان الآتــي
مهذل الصقور

My rough translation (Poet Mohthel AlSqour)

Do you think that when you burned me And danced like devil over my remains
And left me for thrashers to thrash me Shades to the eyes of the sun in sockets
Do you think you have suppressed my identity And erased my beliefs and my history
In vain you try - no extinguishing a revolutionary I, like the resurrection, one day coming
I am like Jesus coming back strong and from each storm gathers mself
I will come back - oldest revolting lover and back as the gloriest of highest revolutions
I will be back with the Torah, the Injil* and the Quran and the tasbih** and the prayers
I will be back with all religions as one religion devoid of hatred and divisiveness
A man from the trench inevitable my return.. I am all the coming times …

*= new testament
**=glorification of god/supplication

Implosion and rebuilding

 Langston Hughes poem ("Lenox Avenue Mural" in the 1930s)

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

The “Israeli” Knesset voted to deny any possibility of a Palestinian state in Palestine. I read polls indicating most Israelis support the ongoing genocide of our people. I heard Donald Trump (next President of the “USA”) stoke colonial language and defend racist ancestors (who he called “our great ancestors”). The remaining indigenous people of that country, blacks, Hispanics, immigrants and people of conscience all felt the horror of colonial racism that Trump epitomizes. Genocide Joe Biden does not provide an alternative. The Green party does. But in any case, as the US Empire implodes, I am thinking of how such colonial powers (US and Israel) dehumanize their victims and get more cruel in their last days. The biggest current victims of the empire's dehumanization is of course us, the Palestinian people.  It is abundantly clear that oppressors spend an inordinate amount of time and resources to dehumanize their victims. But we humans spend an inordinate amount of time also trying to suppress our own humanity. To dehumanize someone is to deprive them of essential human qualities such as compassion, individuality, love, and social contact. Making a family line up in the sun for hours to cross a checkpoint is a form of dehumanizing. It is dehumanizing to deny food, water, and medical care, to destroy means of livelihood, to take someone's land, to torture prisoners, deprive them of food, and countless other brutal actions that constitute genocide. Ecoside and scholasticide are also part of this and it is happening.  Dehumanizing makes it easier for the colonizers to not feel compassion for their victims as they rob them of their lands and natural resources. In so doing the colonizers thus also dehumanize themselves because they have to desensitize themselves to human suffering. But the victims themselves can also internalize the dehumanization to think of themselves as somehow unworthy or that their life can only gain meaning if they emulate their oppressors and thus become oppressors themselves.  This spiral of dehumanizing can and must be challenged and the obvious way to do it is via our efforts to humanize ourselves and others: show compassion, mercy, love, and connectedness. The struggle is mostly inward and it is our own negativism that must be challenged every day, nay every hour. That is the humanizing struggle that is the hardest struggle of all.

To remind those who may have forgotten, below is the charter of the PLO which was never legally amended (perhaps it should be). Today 8 million of the 15 million Palestinians in the world are refugees or displaced people. Most of us are calling for a democratic election to the Palestine National Council per the charter after which some things can be reconsidered democratically by those representing us (Jews, Christians, Muslims). Some of the things we believe would then be brought up and voted upon include the issue of inclusion of all Jewish (now Israeli) residents of the country who reject Zionism/colonialism and the issue of increased emphasis on popular resistance (see my book http://qumsiyeh.org/popularresistanceinpalestine/). Bringing the PNC back to life in a democratic way can ensure modernization, updating, and ultimately success of the mission and goals of the Palestine LIBERATION Organization instead of the current untenable situation hwre a Palestinian authority is disconnected from reality and is irrelevant except in serving the security needs of occupiers. The other option is to create a new PLO that addresses today's main challenge which is the US/Israel intensified efforts not only to liquidate the Palestinian struggle but to liquidate the people of Palestine (genocide) by a most fascist government. We are at a historic moment and the crisis provides an opportunity for renewal now with support of hundreds of millions of people around the world after the genocidal intent of imperial and Zionist forces became as clear as sunlight. Everyone now knows that no durable peace or progress in this area will happen without justice to the Palestinians and ending Zionist racism and creating real democracies. We must agree on tactics and strategy to do this. The alternative is a World War and we all die!

THE PALESTINIAN NATIONAL CHARTER
Resolutions of the Palestine National Council, July 1-17, 1968

Article 1: Palestine is the homeland of the Arab Palestinian people; it is an indivisible part of the Arab homeland, and the Palestinian people are an integral part of the Arab nation.
Article 2: Palestine, with the boundaries it had during the British Mandate, is an indivisible territorial unit.
Article 3: The Palestinian Arab people possess the legal right to their homeland and have the right to determine their destiny after achieving the liberation of their country in accordance with their wishes and entirely of their own accord and will.
Article 4: The Palestinian identity is a genuine, essential, and inherent characteristic; it is transmitted from parents to children. The Zionist occupation and the dispersal of the Palestinian Arab people, through the disasters which befell them, do not make them lose their Palestinian identity and their membership in the Palestinian community, nor do they negate them.
Article 5: The Palestinians are those Arab nationals who, until 1947, normally resided in Palestine regardless of whether they were evicted from it or have stayed there. Anyone born, after that date, of a Palestinian father - whether inside Palestine or outside it - is also a Palestinian.
Article 6: The Jews who had normally resided in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion will be considered Palestinians.
Article 7: That there is a Palestinian community and that it has material, spiritual, and historical connection with Palestine are indisputable facts. It is a national duty to bring up individual Palestinians in an Arab revolutionary manner. All means of information and education must be adopted in order to acquaint the Palestinian with his country in the most profound manner, both spiritual and material, that is possible. He must be prepared for the armed struggle and ready to sacrifice his wealth and his life in order to win back his homeland and bring about its liberation.
Article 8: The phase in their history, through which the Palestinian people are now living, is that of national (watani) struggle for the liberation of Palestine. Thus the conflicts among the Palestinian national forces are secondary, and should be ended for the sake of the basic conflict that exists between the forces of Zionism and of imperialism on the one hand, and the Palestinian Arab people on the other. On this basis the Palestinian masses, regardless of whether they are residing in the national homeland or in diaspora (mahajir) constitute - both their organizations and the individuals - one national front working for the retrieval of Palestine and its liberation through armed struggle.
Article 9: Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine. Thus it is the overall strategy, not merely a tactical phase. The Palestinian Arab people assert their absolute determination and firm resolution to continue their armed struggle and to work for an armed popular revolution for the liberation of their country and their return to it. They also assert their right to normal life in Palestine and to exercise their right to self-determination and sovereignty over it.
Article 10: Commando action constitutes the nucleus of the Palestinian popular liberation war. This requires its escalation, comprehensiveness, and the mobilization of all the Palestinian popular and educational efforts and their organization and involvement in the armed Palestinian revolution. It also requires the achieving of unity for the national (watani) struggle among the different groupings of the Palestinian people, and between the Palestinian people and the Arab masses, so as to secure the continuation of the revolution, its escalation, and victory.
Article 11: The Palestinians will have three mottoes: national (wataniyya) unity, national (qawmiyya) mobilization, and liberation.
Article 12: The Palestinian people believe in Arab unity. In order to contribute their share toward the attainment of that objective, however, they must, at the present stage of their struggle, safeguard their Palestinian identity and develop their consciousness of that identity, and oppose any plan that may dissolve or impair it.
Article 13: Arab unity and the liberation of Palestine are two complementary objectives, the attainment of either of which facilitates the attainment of the other. Thus, Arab unity leads to the liberation of Palestine, the liberation of Palestine leads to Arab unity; and work toward the realization of one objective proceeds side by side with work toward the realization of the other.
Article 14: The destiny of the Arab nation, and indeed Arab existence itself, depend upon the destiny of the Palestine cause. From this interdependence springs the Arab nation's pursuit of, and striving for, the liberation of Palestine. The people of Palestine play the role of the vanguard in the realization of this sacred (qawmi) goal.
Article 15: The liberation of Palestine, from an Arab viewpoint, is a national (qawmi) duty and it attempts to repel the Zionist and imperialist aggression against the Arab homeland, and aims at the elimination of Zionism in Palestine. Absolute responsibility for this falls upon the Arab nation - peoples and governments - with the Arab people of Palestine in the vanguard. Accordingly, the Arab nation must mobilize all its military, human, moral, and spiritual capabilities to participate actively with the Palestinian people in the liberation of Palestine. It must, particularly in the phase of the armed Palestinian revolution, offer and furnish the
Palestinian people with all possible help, and material and human support, and make available to them the means and opportunities that will enable them to continue to carry out their leading role in the armed revolution, until they liberate their homeland.
Article 16: The liberation of Palestine, from a spiritual point of view, will provide the Holy Land with an atmosphere of safety and tranquility, which in turn will safeguard the country's religious sanctuaries and guarantee freedom of worship and of visit to all, without discrimination of race, color, language, or religion. Accordingly, the people of Palestine look to all spiritual forces in the world for support.
Article 17: The liberation of Palestine, from a human point of view, will restore to the Palestinian individual his dignity, pride, and freedom. Accordingly the Palestinian Arab people look forward to the support of all those who believe in the dignity of man and his freedom in the world.
Article 18: The liberation of Palestine, from an international point of view, is a defensive action necessitated by the demands of self-defense. Accordingly the Palestinian people, desirous as they are of the friendship of all people, look to freedom-loving, and peace-loving states for support in order to restore their legitimate rights in Palestine, to re-establish peace and security in the country, and to enable its people to exercise national sovereignty and freedom.
Article 19: The partition of Palestine in 1947 and the establishment of the state of Israel are entirely illegal, regardless of the passage of time, because they were contrary to the will of the Palestinian people and to their natural right in their homeland, and inconsistent with the principles embodied in the Charter of the United Nations, particularly the right to self determination.
Article 20: The Balfour Declaration, the Mandate for Palestine, and everything that has been based upon them, are deemed null and void. Claims of historical or religious ties of Jews with Palestine are incompatible with the facts of history and the true conception of what constitutes statehood. Judaism, being a religion, is not an independent nationality. Nor do Jews constitute a single nation with an identity of its own; they are citizens of the states to which they belong.
Article 21: The Arab Palestinian people, expressing themselves by the armed Palestinian revolution, reject all solutions which are substitutes for the total liberation of Palestine and reject all proposals aiming at the liquidation of the Palestinian problem, or its internationalization.
Article 22: Zionism is a political movement organically associated with international imperialism and antagonistic to all action for liberation and to progressive movements in the world. It is racist and fanatic in its nature, aggressive, expansionist, and colonial in its aims, and fascist in its methods. Israel is the instrument of the Zionist movement, and geographical base for world imperialism placed strategically in the midst of the Arab homeland to combat the hopes of the Arab nation for liberation, unity, and progress. Israel is a constant source of threat vis-a-vis peace in the Middle East and the whole world. Since the liberation of Palestine will destroy the Zionist and imperialist presence and will contribute to the establishment of peace in the Middle East, the Palestinian people look for the support of all the progressive and peaceful forces and urge them all, irrespective of their affiliations and beliefs, to offer the Palestinian people all aid and support in their just struggle for the liberation of their homeland.
Article 23: The demand of security and peace, as well as the demand of right and justice, require all states to consider Zionism an illegitimate movement, to outlaw its existence, and to ban its operations, in order that friendly relations among peoples may be preserved, and the loyalty of citizens to their respective homelands safeguarded.
Article 24: The Palestinian people believe in the principles of justice, freedom, sovereignty, self-determination, human dignity, and in the right of all peoples to exercise them.
Article 25: For the realization of the goals of this Charter and its principles, the Palestine Liberation Organization will perform its role in the liberation of Palestine in accordance with the Constitution of this Organization.
Article 26: The Palestine Liberation Organization, representative of the Palestinian revolutionary forces, is responsible for the Palestinian Arab people's movement in its struggle - to retrieve its homeland, liberate and return to it and exercise the right to self-determination in it - in all military, political, and financial fields and also for whatever may be required by the Palestine case on the inter-Arab and international levels.
Article 27: The Palestine Liberation Organization shall cooperate with all Arab states, each according to its potentialities; and will adopt a neutral policy among them in the light of the requirements of the war of liberation; and on this basis it shall not interfere in the internal affairs of any Arab state.
Article 28: The Palestinian Arab people assert the genuineness and independence of their national (wataniyya) revolution and reject all forms of intervention, trusteeship, and subordination.
Article 29: The Palestinian people possess the fundamental and genuine legal right to liberate and retrieve their homeland. The Palestinian people determine their attitude toward all states and forces on the basis of the stands they adopt vis-a-vis to the Palestinian revolution to fulfill the aims of the Palestinian people.
Article 30: Fighters and carriers of arms in the war of liberation are the nucleus of the popular army which will be the protective force for the gains of the Palestinian Arab people.
Article 31: The Organization shall have a flag, an oath of allegiance, and an anthem. All this shall be decided upon in accordance with a special regulation.
Article 32: Regulations, which shall be known as the Constitution of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, shall be annexed to this Charter. It will lay down the manner in which the Organization, and its organs and institutions, shall be constituted; the respective competence of each; and the requirements of its obligation under the Charter.
Article 33: This Charter shall not be amended save by [vote of] a majority of two-thirds of the total membership of the National Congress of the Palestine Liberation Organization [taken] at a special session convened for that purpose.