Democratic Palestine : 28 (ص 37)
غرض
- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 28 (ص 37)
- المحتوى
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such a situation, the Palestinian does not fight for land,
statehood and a flag alone, but primarily against a series of
inhuman ideas and practices, because the Palestinian cannot
acquire a democratic state without defeating Zionism with all
its consequences. For sure, the Palestinian does not fight for
abstract principles. Nevertheless, to forget principles while
fighting renders the struggle meaningless.
Since Zionism is the incarnation of racism, fascism and col-
onialism, its opponent political project can win only if it con-
stitutes the antithesis, the real personification of human
fraternity, democratic mentality and true freedom. This is why
we say that the Palestinians defend their homeland to the ex-
tent that they defend humane, revolutionary ideals. Those who
are busy throwing stones are in their daily struggle manifesting
ideals; with creativity, they convert stones into revolutionary
weapons.
There’s no room for formal debate in the Arab-Zionist con-
flict. Formalism deletes man and limits itself to abstract sym-
bols. It may say, «The Palestinian has lost his land, and is in
need of one; he has no state, he needs one; he lives in camps; he
needs cities.» The problem, however, is not that simple. When
the Palestinian lost his land, he became a refugee; he became a
miserable person living on the outskirts of urban centers,
waiting for alms; he became the ugly element which detracted
from the beauty of cities; he is different, and being deprived is
the reason for his difference. When the Palestinian lost his in-
dependent political entity, he became dependent, impotent and
unable to settle his own affairs, in urgent need of a protector.
That is, he lost his freedom as well as his own aspirations.
Through life in camps, the Palestinian has become completely
alienated. He became the defeated, the ignorant, the
backward, the outlaw who understands only the language of
violence. When the Palestinians revolted against the misery of
their camps, refused mandates and raised their rifles, they were
given new names such as terrorist, troublemaker, degenerate
communist, dishonest armsdealer, while maintaining the old
negative titles as well. The fedayeen, in the eyes of the enemies
of the Palestinian, became a representative of the mafia.
The Palestinians don’t fight Zionism because of superficial
speculations based on land. They fight based on their own
history which is well aware of oppression, alienation, persecu-
tion and annihilation, well aware also of Arab Zionism which
sees danger not in the Zionist entity, but in the Arab who sup-
ports the Palestinian. For forty years of exile, the Palestinian
has known classical Zionism as well as new Zionism,i.e., Arab
Zionism represented by the reactionary Arab regimes which are
against freedom and maintain an open and disquised alliance
with Zionism in order to fight all Arabs who call for freedom.
Palestinian consciousness has not come about as a result of
abstract meditation, or sheer yearning for a remote homeland,
as if the problem was the fact of their existence on land which
is not theirs. This consciousness has been built up within the
old, permanently renewed conflict between the Palestinian and
the Zionist, between the Palestinian and the Arab reactionary
forces who are based on oppression and persecution. Such
consciousness has evolved within the framework of practice
and practical confrontation, leading to the reformulation of
the Palestinian as an oppressed person fighting oppression,
racial discrimination and dependence. Within this framework,
the difference between the Zionist and the Palestinian is not
manifest in the problem of usurped land, but on the level of
values, practices and world outlook. The Palestinians are
fighting for their land and right to exist, but this fight does not
acquire its full meaning unless it is a revolutionary struggle for
national liberation and social revolution, and against the im-
perialist project in the Middle East. This is why Palestinian
consciousness constitutes the direct antithesis of Zionist con-
sciousness, why the defeat of Zionism is the essential precon-
dition of the realisation of a democratic Palestinian state.
The Palestinians do not fight for an abstract political form,
a formal entity or a dependent institution. They are fighting
for a state in which they can materialise their free human ex-
istence; hence, the impossibility of reducing the legitimate
Palestinian aspirations into a false political settlement, Camp
David-style. Their legitimate rights stem from the very nature
of their tragic experience which has three dimensions:
First is the moral one since the Palestinian cannot be a
human being with character unless he resists occupation and
fights to restore his homeland. Fighting for one’s homeland is
a positive human value in itself. Patriotism in this sense is the
image of developed human consciousness in its noble form.
Second is the emotional dimension which is universal human
aspiration. To become what he now is, the Palestinian who is
throwing stones has gone through decades of pain and
persecution, becoming aware of the significance of the misery
of the tent, the ugliness of occupation, of babies dying because
of thirst, of the savage Arab persecutor, etc. The Palestinian
has become the image of the accused a priori - the terrorist in
some western countries, the saboteur in some Arab countries,
the anti-religious in some Islamic countries, etc. He is con- >
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37 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 28
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