With the increasing death toll and blood shed in Gaza, Palestine, we have all noticed a parallel increase in protests, riots and strikes condemning the merciless massacres. Every human being, who has a slight sense of humanity left in him/her, has stepped outside of their house, shop, office or even car to shout out in anger calling for yet another Zionist campaign against Palestinian civilians to stop. The difference this time though, is that the international angry response to this indescribable atrocity has climbed distinctly up the scale to higher levels. It is probably due to the fact that Israel was solely responsible for a similar war two year ago (Lebanon 2006). Yet, it is also the fact that 1.5 million Palestinians are trapped in a surrounded patch of land and are being bombarded everyday with no where safe to take refuge in. These people have had no electricity, no water and no food for 18 months and now they have no security.
As an individual with a great sense of humanity and a Palestinian whose sense of belonging to the holly land never faltered, I stepped out of my house and joined a small protest camp a few kilometers away from the shameful Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan. Set up by a group of independent individuals, with tents, pictures and paintings donated by independent artists, the camp demonstrated some of the vocal public anger in Jordan. Similar to other protests, people gathered everyday to chant, sing and share ideas and experiences. Of course, this is not wrong. It is a way to express fury, mixed feelings and a certain point of view. However, for a week I got a sense of the general approach in the country. This attitude was signified in a set of questions and sarcastic statements like: “So what did you accomplish so far?”; “What are your impossible demands?” and “You will not be able to achieve anything! So why should we waste our time!” These are usually coupled with the general fear of the stupid secret service (mukhabarat) agents who swarm the country and contaminate every corner.
So, I got to thinking: what is it that we really want and seek to achieve through these public anger gatherings?
Logically, there are some immediate answers. In this case, there are some countries that have open diplomatic ties with the Zionist entity and hence the public tries with vocal pressure to demand an end to such ties (closing down embassies; posing a gas embargo etc.). Another counter is to spread public awareness and remind the general society of the cause any protest is organized for. It is a pity that the world needs to witness the death of more than 800 civilians to remember a 60 year old cause (!). So far, and especially in this part of the world, such public expressions have rarely, if never, established a new order. Hence, and unfortunately, people in general, have lost faith in such activities and have settled for the television screen to watch the daily anguish over a steaming cup of sweet tea. And hence we hear: “This is not our problem”; “We cannot do anything”; “We have children so we remain silent”.
In reality, there remains to be a huge gap between the Arab populations and their governments. As the British army referred to the Middle East when colonialism came to an end: “We have seen people without leaders.” Besides the gap, the general scheme among Arab leaders is to stick to their power positions until death parts them from the decision making spot. Thus, and since they realize the nature of the Arab streets (i.e. angry, emotional and verbal), they use their coercion powers through special bodies to keep the street silent by force. In fact, force continues to be used to silence Arab populations even in peaceful protests and demonstrations. So, we realize that vocal and public display of anger and stands towards a case is good to shed light on it and remind those who forgot but is not enough to start spinning the wheel of change.
Not long ago, Condoleezza Rice spoke of a new Middle East. For her country’s agenda, this would include many factors: change the geographical map once and for all; displace all Palestinians and give them an alternative piece of land; secure Israel and aid in its expansion; control more resources etc. It might even include eradicating all Palestinians in the region (Since “A good Palestinian is a dead Palestinian” as put by one of the Zionist founders of Israel).
For us, the cycle of change for our new Middle East must start with each one of us. The whole world has witnessed some kind of war, be it civil or international, throughout history. However, the key difference between us and the rest of the world, specifically the developed one, is that change has occurred after those historical catastrophes. Other populations have moved forward, have altered their mode of thinking in a way that resulted in a developed world. Leaderships spring from populations and hence the cycle of change will come from us, the people and not the governments. We are very well educated, we have introduced all forms of technology into our world and we have open access to the rest of the world.
The only thing that is left here is for each one of us to start with him/her self. Many preach the world on how things should be done politically, socially or religiously while they themselves do not know half of what they are preaching about. It is our duty towards us, our families, friends, the next generations and the Arab world to educate ourselves. We need to learn, read and remember every detail of the past and present to plan for the future. It is with knowledge that populations rise, fight and eventually win. I might not see it; neither would the next generation see it. It takes time. So be it.
A few years ago we were talking about Palestine. Recently we started talking about the West Bank and Gaza strip. Now we are talking about Gaza solely. Let’s read, learn and spread the word so we remember the original Palestine and plan for our own new Middle East.
Amman
10.1.2009
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