Hope for 2024

 Why I am optimistic about 2024 despite the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip largely absent from Western media coverage? Just the two bits of news yesterday could be enough to depress us: that about 1000 children had undergone amputations without anesthesia and that Israeli trafficking business in Palestinian organs is flourishing. Well, let me explain my optimism despite the horror.

I remember my late mother telling us of the 33 massacres that happened during the Nakba of 1948 and the ethnic cleansing she witnessed at the tender age of 16 where 850,000 Palestinians were forcibly removed or escaped from the Zionist onslaught intended to create a Jewish state where there was a pluralistic society in Palestine before. 530 villages and towns were ethnically cleansed. She remembered her friend and school mate Hayah Balbisi (a teacher murdered by the Zionists with her students in Deir Yassin 9 April 1948). She remembered the refugees who came to Bethlehem area (later set-up in three refugee camps). She remembered the American Friends Service Committee and then UNRWA who helped them. My mother died in April this year. at almost 91. In a way, it is a blessing tht she did not live to witness the carnage and genocide in Gaza.  In number of people displaced and those killed a bigger Nakba/Catastrophe than the one she witnessed in 1948. Yet, her life after 1948 was not the same as before 1948.  Thus, at 16 she became a life long activist. A generous and kind person who raised six children, helped the refugees, cared about fellow human beings. My father was equally dedicated and passionate. I remember when he was crying watching the news in 1970 of Jordanian tanks in Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan.  Both of my parents, survivors of the Nakba were teachers who influenced thousands of students. I still meet people my age who tell me how they were helped and how the lessons they learned are remembered 50 or 60 years later. Thus, the 2.3 million residents of the Gaza strip (nay the 15 million Palestinians in the world) have to pick the banner and I already see more activism from them than ever before. Many will join the resistance (armed or unarmed). Many will speak out, will donate, will lobby, will not be silent. But we Palestinians ar not alone: 350 million Arabs, over one billion Muslims, and over 4 billion people of conscience are there. You will see more and more of them mobilized. Even tens of thousands of Jews (perhaps hundreds of thousands) have already mobilized against racist Zionism.

Haya Balbisi and my mother

75 year of ethnic cleansing and genocide were little discussed in the West until this year. I lived in the USA for 28 years and traveled in 45 other countries and reached tens of thousands of people with my talks, books, and writings. We even had a wheels of justice bus tour 2000-2005 that traveled 48 states speaking at 1200 colleges and universities, over 300 schols, and hundreds of community centers and other venues.  This email now reaches 55,000. But past activism pales compared with what happened in 2023 and what will happen in 2024. Hundreds of millions are mobilized and once eyes are opened, they cannot be shut again. Hypocrites including Arab, Muslim, and Western leaders and their associated organizations like the UN were exposed and will retreat. Those who supported Zionism under the table (Jews and Gentiles) had to take stand: with apartheid genocidal Israel or against it; with human rights and peace or with war (even against a simple ceasefire). The US government is now leading in financing and arming this genocide after having committed a number of genocides itself (native Americans, blacks with slavery, Cambodia, Vietnam, Iraq, Yemen and many other countries and its leadership in spreading unfettered consumerism globally that destroyed our planet with climate change). The accumulated sins will not allow the state to remain a superpower and its might is declining. The US is now reduced to being a hired gunman to defend the thug. Hence, its navy ships in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea to attack any country that is trying to stop attempts to end the genocide and illegal blockade of Gaza.

This is not far fetched. The war machine is only succeeding in killing civilians (nearly 30,000 so far including about 9000 children) and injuring some 55,000 civilians which they bomb from the air. In the land battle against resistance forces, they are losing or at best it is a stalemate since 7 October. The Israeli army is losing soldiers by the hundreds. Over 750 military vehicles (tanks, APCs, bulldozers) are rendered out of service. Their economy and social order cannot sustain a prolonged war that their government keeps talking about. The resistance now says they will not discuss prisoner swaps (139 Israelis vs 11,500 Palestinians) until a complete ceasefire. Netanyahu regime is not willing to accept because that would mean he and his other corrupt lieutenants will end up in Jail.  More and more Jews around the world now openly oppose Zionism. Political Zionism is a racist movement that intended to transform Palestine (multiethnic, multireligeous, multilingual) to a monolithic Jewish state. Like the worship of the Golden Calf, this false new God cannot be sustained in the 21st century. It has failed and this genocide is the last gasp / the last nail in the coffin. While 94% of Israelis supported the killings in Gaza in a poll conducted in November, there is now growing disillusionment. Most Israelis no longer believe their government (military or political leadership). Afterall, they lied about what happened 7 October (beheaded babies, rapes etc. read ongaza.org). The most remarkable transformation is that the truth is coming out about the history of Palestine, about the Nakba, about the genocide, about the statements of Israeli leaders, and about the impact on te globe of a massive fraud. This despite the hundreds of millions spent, AIPAC and the 150,000 Sayanim producing slick propaganda and talking points especially in Western Countries. The truth is spread through hundreds of billions of posts on social media (FaceBook, X/Twitter, Telegram, Instagram etc) cannot be silenced by the money being spent by the rich Zionist movement. We say in Arabic “Ma Bitghati AlShams biGhorbal” (you cannot cover the sun with a sieve).

It is an existential struggle as you know: we either allow subjugation of people or we all achieve freedom and peace. As many of us predicted before, these pains are the birth pains of a new era. It always happens when empires collapse and new powers come to be. The US/Israeli Empire is waning. The Western Roman Empire declined in the 5th century AD. Every empire declines and the US decline is accelerating because both Democratic and Republican parties are under the thumb of the Zionist lobby that puts racism and greed first. Corruption is rampant at the highest levels (Netanyahu, Biden, Trump).  Many are starting to realize that and to realize that the repercussions of this allowed genocide is not just local but regional and global. Israel/USA are destabilizing the whole world.

A new multipolar world is emerging and cannot be stopped. Our task is to shape it so that it is more just. We the people of earth cannot continue to let the greedy 0.1% control our lives. Only love of all humanity and all nature that can work the miracles needed. So let us talk of that. While our hearts go to all who lost loved ones we must thank the millions who did not remain silent. Those who fought against Nakba denial. Those who worked for human rights and justice. Those millions like Greta Thunberg who understand the connection between climate justice, environmental justice, and land justice.  Thousands of organizations (Jewish Voice for Peace, CodePink etc,) engaged in civil disobedience, in boycotts, divestments, and sanctions. People of all faiths and no religious faith who mobilized and acted. We thank you all. You are the love that conquers the fear and gives us hope of a better humanity and a sustainable earth. Of course, it will not be easy and no worthy cause is easy.

We must muster all our resources, all our will, all our energy to stop this genocide, stop all wars, seriously tackle climate change, reshape the failing world order to not allow any future silence on genocide, remove the rampant capitalist/consumerist system that exploits people. We must all stop being consumers of (mis)information and of products to become engaged, compassionate, caring people. This is not easy for any of us. After all, we are all fragile “human beings” and doubts and fears and the devil on one shoulder keep nagging at us. Let me to give you a small example from myself. If they want to be saved, they should sit with the resistance forces (Hamas, Islamic Jihad etc), with Iran, Russia, Brazil, Venezuela, and China to implement return of Palestinian refugees per UNGA194, democracy (right of self-determination) and end apartheid and militarism locally and globally. They must also address creating a truth and reconciliation committee and tribunals to address war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Twenty years ago in my book "Sharing the Land of Canaan"  I articulated what I consider the rational way to stop the onslaught on people and nature in historic Palestine (now under the boot of Israel). I add the quote from Howard Zinn related to hope which I used in that book to remind myself: 

"There is a tendency to think that what we see in the present moment we will continue to see. We forget how often in this century we have been astonished by the sudden crumbling of institutions, by extraordinary changes in people's thoughts, by unexpected eruptions of rebellion against tyrannies, by the quick collapse of systems of power that seemed invincible. 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 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 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."

My mother agreed with this assessment in our last full conversation. She said to me she will not live to see the end of the tunnel but we will. I do see it but it is darkest before the dawn. May we all connect with nature and with our humanity. We will overcome someday and that some day could be in 2024 if we work together. For example by using BDS: https://bdsmovement.net/Act-Now-Against-These-Companies-Profiting-From-Genocide 

Our Institute (palestinenature.org) plans to redouble our efforts to serve people and nature in 2024: watch for our upcoming annual report, plans for our tenth year anniversary which we celebrate in June, and plans for the future (all coming in January). From our institute we wish each of you (friends, colleagues, donors, volunteers, activists) a productive, healthy, human-friendly, and eco-friendly 2024.