There is still a disagreement among Palestinians whether to support president Abbas in his initiative or not. On one hand, there is the belief that the recognition of a Palestinian state will give the Palestinians a louder voice in the international arena, and that this step will be a step closer towards Palestinian self-determination. On the other hand, many Palestinian refugees and Palestinian citizens of Israel do not feel represented by Abbas in this move. Other Palestinians think the recognition of a state is useless since Israel will still be in control of most of the land, air, and water.
Opinions vary, and that is ok, but after hearing the speeches at the United Nations I had a lot to think about.
I first got angry after hearing Netanyahu’s speech. Netanyahu repeatedly mentioned the holocaust and the suffering of the Jewish people under Nazism, a subject that always comes up when discussing the question of Palestine. We should never forget the victims of that dark era, never. But what makes me angry is that I feel that those victims are being killed over and over again whenever they are being used by a state for legitimizing the oppression of a whole people in their name. And all I can think about to myself is: why can’t people see this?
In addition, Palestine solidarity movements have learned never to compare Israeli policies and strategies against Palestinians with the Nazi regime, because they are almost always accused of anti-Semitism. Yet, we hear over and over again comparisons made by Israelis between the Nazi regime and the Palestinians or other Arab regimes. The most recent example was in this same UN speech when Netenyahu said:
“...after eight years of this unremitting assault, Israel was finally forced to respond. But how should we have responded? Well, there is only one example in history of thousands of rockets being fired on a country's civilian population. It happened when the Nazis rocketed British cities during World War II. During that war, the allies leveled German cities, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties. Israel chose to respond differently. Faced with an enemy committing a double war crime of firing on civilians while hiding behind civilians ? Israel sought to conduct surgical strikes against the rocket launchers.”
So... hand made rockets fired from people under siege is compared to Nazi rockets fired during World War 2. Is Hamas, or the Palestinians, compared to Nazi germany here? Really? 1.5 million on a small piece of land are compared to the state of Nazi Germany. How Ironic. And wait Mr. Netanyahu, what would you compare the white phosphorus with, and all other weapons you have used against the Palestinian people?
Then I had to think about this whole notion of nation-states and the legitimacy this form of state has in our world these days. What is a nation? What is a state? Will a Palestinian state still be a state when recognized as a member to the UN but with a wall dividing its land, checkpoints all around, settlers burning mosques and trees, and no control over natural resources? And, why do Palestinians need a state in order to be recognized in the first place?
Why does there have to be a ‘Jewish’ state, supposedly the state of all the Jews around the world, for the Jewish people to feel ‘safe’? Why does the existence of one state have to come on the account of others? Why should the existence of a ‘Jewish’ state be based on systematic racism and discrimination against non-Jewish citizens, confiscation of lands, and continuous wars? Something is not right.
A couple of days ago Hillel (a student group with Zionism in its mission statement) put out a tent on Columbia campus with a banner saying “Talk Israel: Join the Conversation”. Some SJP members entered the tent to join other students in their discussions. One discussion point was titled “my love affair with Israel” and people were asked to say two words that came to their mind when hearing the word “Israel”. As most Jewish-Americans said “home”, my Palestinian friends felt pain. They felt pain because it was also their home, but as any Jewish person could go to the “home” they have never been to before because of the Israeli “law of return”1, my Palestinian friends were not allowed to go there, and see the houses where their parents were born in Yafa, Haifa, and Akka, despite their “right of return”2.
History and reality are never objective; we know that. But what I do want Columbia students to take away from the United Nations conference is this:
Always remember that Palestine and Israel are not two equal powers. We should be aware of this unbalanced power when discussing Palestine and Israel, and rethink the arguments and words we continuously hear when talking about this region
It is still unknown what the results of the Palestinian bid to the UN will be. But at least one positive thing came out of it; Palestine is being discussed again, and for that I am thankful.
1 comment:
A great article. Thanks for making me think about things again!
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