[wvns] Susan Abulhawa: A is for Aparheid or Annapolis
Jewish exclusivity and entitlement at the expense of non-Jews is not a right, for God's sake, it is racism!
`A' is for Apartheid or Annapolis
By Susan Abulhawa
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story-12020764259.htm
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, Sumarians,
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
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