The silver lining that is evident now in the Palestinian cause is the growing consciousness of ordinary people for the plight of the Palestinians. — AFP
IF I were a Palestinian my story would be nothing but one of continuous suffering since the early 20th century
Perhaps I could be considered as the only nation, a people, that once had a homeland and then was forcefully deprived of it. It would be incomprehensible as to why my people and I would have to leave our land when we had already inhabited it centuries ago.
Of course, then, in the earlier times. there was no nation state concept, only communities and tribes inhabiting the land. That is how we all lived.
Besides, there would also be people not belonging to my ethnic group, but would be sharing the land with us. They too may have had a history of inhabiting that land. Remember there was no nation state then, and they were the Jews who co-existed with us.
Much later when ideas about the nation state emerged, our nation became known as Palestine or it was referred to by some other similar sounding name. And remember again that this land had us – the Palestinian Arabs comprising both Christians and later Muslims as well as the Jews inhabiting it.
We would be living in harmony until the evil that be descended upon us.
Far away in distant Britain, a Zionist activist, Theodor Herzl, presented a proposal for a “Jewish” (actually Zionist) state to be established on our homeland, Palestine. This proposal was agreed upon by then British foreign secretary, Lord Balfour. The document came to be known as the Balfour Agreement.
Of course, much earlier, there was World War 1, which saw the fall of the Uthmaniyah Caliphate which was ruling Palestine at that time. Of course, there were many aspects to the demise of the Caliphate’s rule in Palestine, chief of which was the cunning of the British colonialists in convincing the local Arabs to rise up against the Turks and eventually handing Britain victory over the Caliphate’s forces,
With the collapse of the Caliphate’s forces around 1918, Palestine came under the British Mandate and that facilitated Hertzl’s proposal to establish the Zionist state of Israel right there on Palestine.
But there was also this continuous influx of Jews into Palestine following the Balfour Declaration, way before the Zionist entity was officially declared. The manner of populating Palestine with Jews was nothing less than aggressive – backed by some Western nations and of course financed by the diaspora Jews. Britain was the main player behind all this ensuring that the Zionist project to populate external Zionist Jews onto Palestine was successful. It was of course a very bloody process – who would accept their lands to be taken over by outsiders? Would you allow outsiders to come plant their state on the nation that belongs to you? But of course, the pro-Zionist media would not cease its lies that the “Jews” were “fighting their war of liberation”, Conveniently, they twisted the fact that Arab opposition to the establishment of a state for Jews in Palestine would be totally unacceptable because it was unjust, colonialist in nature and meant the uprooting of the local population.
Then came 1948 where the plan to establish the Zionist state of Israel right there in Palestine became reality. It was the most painful moment in the history of us Palestinians. It began with the Nakba where more than 750,000 Palestinians were forced out of our villages and lands; everything had to be left behind and Palestinians just had to flee for their lives starting the era of becoming refugees in other lands.
The closest Arab nations where us refugees could take refuge was in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt at that time. Of course, some stayed back despite the violence committed by terrorist Zionist gangs like the Stern and Irgun. In fact, the leader of the Irgun terrorist group later became a prime minister of the newly established Zionist state. Those who stayed were scattered in their own land now re-named Israel. They became locked up in the area west of Jordan and in scattered areas all over the now newly-formed entity.
It would be the fate of those who chose to stay that is now the highlight of the current crisis. It is these Palestinians who continue to suffer the oppression, brutality and inhumane treatment at the hands of the new colonial-settler regime called Israel.
Following the Israeli-Arab war that was started by the Zionist entity on June 5 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. While it returned the Sinai peninsula to Egypt, it did not return the West Bank to Jordan, nor the Golan Heights to Syria and instead continues to occupy these territories to this day. This despite UN resolutions calling upon the Zionist regime to withdraw to pre-1967 borders. Nothing surprising here – Israel is perhaps the only state that has ignored and defied UN resolutions repeatedly, the latest being the UN Security Council Resolution calling for humanitarian pauses in the current Israeli-Palestine war in Gaza.
Since 1948 up till now, there have been countless attacks by the occupying colonialist power upon the Palestinians. Hardly a year passes by when there is no provocation on the part of the occupier that sparks a response from the occupied and which leads to deaths, injuries and destruction.
Each time, Israel would provoke the Palestinians by rough-handed actions like attacking Palestinian neighbourhoods, forcing farmers out of their land, manhandling women and children and sometimes just uprooting olive orchards. The Gaza Strip in particular has faced relentless attacks by the occupier since 2006, when Hamas won the Palestinian elections.
This brings us to the current situation.
To say that the Palestinian resistance attack on Israel was the cause of this war now being perpetrated upon us is a total lie.
Israel – read the Zionists – has always been lying. It said that there was no Palestine in the first place to justify its plan of settling Jews in Palestine. They lied about the Nakba. They lied about the Zionist terrorist gangs that were attacking Palestinians before and after the Nakba claiming that these gangs were fighting for freedom. They lied by blaming the Arabs for “starting a war” with the Jews, hence their “independence war” in 1948. They lie every year when they celebrate “Independence Day”. They kill, oppress, steal and do every imaginable criminal act but narrate these actions as “self-defense”. They colonise Palestine and subjugate the Palestinians but they claim to be the victims. Just as they are lying unashamedly now by claiming, once again, that they are the victims while bombing Gaza relentlessly killing more than 11,000 Gazans, of which about 5000 are children. They kill babies wantonly but accuse the freedom fighters as “baby killers”.
They are continuing with their lies. Because their lies are becoming exposed by the day, they resort to exert even more brutal force. They do not care about the world’s opinion. They will just dismiss and attack any criticism of their state. That is why they called for the UN Secretary General’s resignation because he was being factual. I would repeat what Antonio Guterres said, that the attack by Palestinian freedom fighters did not occur “in a vacuum”. Prior to Oct 7, the extremist Zionists under protection from Israeli police, were desecrating the al-Aqsa mosque by intruding into the prayer section reserved only for Muslims despite several protests from the Palestinians. In fact, the Palestinians had issued a warning that any intrusion into the mosque would be a red line that would evoke a proper response though what it would be was not revealed.
The Israelis want to be accepted by the global community, but their words and actions do not conform to global human values. They now effectively oppose an independent state for Palestine despite fooling everyone in Oslo in 1993, just as they discarded all the UN resolutions calling for a withdrawal from all occupied territory. One just has to look at the map of a “new Middle East” flashed by Netanyahu at the recent United Nations General Assembly meeting to confirm this.
Obviously, all this brutality by the occupier have been made possible not just because of its own belligerency but also because of blind US backing as well as the collusion of the Arab states that have diplomatic relations with it. We know how the US has given a blank cheque to Israel to do as it pleases, always taking its side even when it bombs hospitals, schools and UN refugee centres.
It is damningly shocking that the president of the US could calmly support all the brutal killings and bombings of homes, hospitals, schools and refugee centers in Gaza to the point that he felt there were no “red lines” to the Israeli assault on the Strip, meaning of course, he implicitly agreed to the genocide of the Gazans. And that too with American weapons.
That is what makes the issue a tragedy for Palestinians. There is actually no option left except to continue the struggle for freedom from occupation. And Hamas as well as other resistance groups will continue to fight for freedom. Do they have a choice?
Why can’t Israel just comply with past resolutions and accords and allow Palestinians to have their own state? Why continue the occupation indefinitely?
The silver lining that is evident now in the Palestinian cause is the growing consciousness of ordinary people for the plight of the Palestinians. Oct 7 has ignited a new wave of support for the Palestinian cause. And the people who are now becoming more vocal in pressing for the rights of the Palestinians, for a Palestinian state and end of occupation includes even prominent Jews across the world.
God willing, the sufferings of the Palestinians will finally come to an end.
Dr Abdul Latiff Mohd Ibrahim is Senior Fellow at the Nusantara Academy for Social Research Malaysia. The views expressed here are solely the writer’s own.
