Main points from the lecture:
• What were the Arabs fighting for between 1948 – 1967? It wasn’t Golan height or Sinai because they were not occupied at the time. They were fighting for Palestine against the Israeli occupation. This is an Arab matter!
• The Palestinian cause is not separate from the Arab matter المسألة العربية. Both are interrelated.
• If someone argues that the Palestinian cause is a 1967 lands matter, then they must consider 4 points:
1. Forget about the 1948 catastrophe (Nakba)
2. Forget about the 1948 refugees
3. Write a different history about the Arabs redefining identity, nationalism and sectarianism.
4. Declare that there is only one formal representative for the Palestinians. Let him/her take care of their own business (!) This is usually done by Arab leaderships to facilitate individual Arab peace treaties with Israel (Example: Anwar Sadat defending the Palestinian representation in front of Saudi in 1947 to prepare the foundations for Camp David treaty).
• The Palestinian cause should not be used as a tool within Arab-Arab conflicts and should be addressed on its own.
• In the 61st year since the Nakba, the negotiations that are going on right now intend to reach a new individual peace treaty between the Israelis and the Palestinian and it’s not to solve the matter. You can hear this in the new terminology that is being used all the time: عملية سلام" ، "عنف من الطرفين"، " متطرفين من الطرفين" ، " المسارات"“
• (What are we talking about here! We cannot compare 11,000 Palestinian prisoners, most of whom have not received a fair trial and are civilians to ONE IDF soldier who was taken in while fighting and killing civilians! Yet, we are asking decision makers to make this comparison !!!!!!!!!!).
• "القضية الفلسطينبة قضية لاجئين وليست قضية الــ 67."
• "القضية تحتاج إلى إيمان بالقضية وليس دين"
• Arab regimes tend to glorify Israel and over estimate its strength to cover for their defeats and their intentions not to fight. “Believe me: they are not that great!!”
• The real original intention of the Zionist institution is to occupy lands in exchange for Arab confession that Israel exists. In other words, the Zionist agenda was actually to start the “peace treaty” cycle. And, when the first Arab country (and the biggest) signed its peace treaty with Israel, the Israeli leaderships were more relaxed and are now handling negotiations slowly just like handling real-estate deals. In other words, the foundations for Arab defeat started being put down. بدأت تأسسة الهزيمة
• And hence, the Arabs started to come up with lousy terms to cover up and legitimize their peace treaties and peaceful intentions towards Israel, like “International Legitimacy” الشرعية الدولية (What the hell is that?)
• Resistance:
I. We should keep in mind that the PLO was organized and established by a group of refugees in the Diaspora (specifically in Kuwait/Gaza camps/ Lebanon/ Syria). And hence it is a “refugee’s movement”.
II. According to the Arab regimes, there is a “right” to resist but they won’t allow any “act” of resistance. It is all theoretical and not practical!
III. Populations are OBLIGED to resist actually.
• Therefore, can we talk about the cause without the refugees? What is the role of the refugees in the Palestinian liberation movement? What is the role of the Diaspora in pushing
for the Right to Return?
• " أنا أتحدث عن نضال عادل وعن العدل وتحقيق العدالة للشعب الفلسطيني وهذا يبدأ في العام 1948 وقضيتنا هي النكبة"
• The Palestinians have gone through, and are going through, 2 types of apartheid:
1. Expulsion from their home land in 1948
2. Segregating them from the land in 1967 and this has been recently reflected in building the apartheid wall.
• Many would say that there have been numerous catastrophes bigger and more tragic than the Palestinian one in terms of loss of lives and number of refugees. Well, the Palestinian matter is the only civil strife issue that is still going on since WWII !!
• International attention:
o All of this international attention is not focused on the Palestinians. It’s only concern is the Jewish matter only (“We are a footnote!”)
o (History) In fact, the Europeans consider the Jewish existence in Europe as an extension of the East in the West. For the Europeans, it was a matter of religion and nationalism (is it based on religion or ethnicity) and hence the discrimination against the Jews in Europe. In fact, the Europeans declared that in order for a Jew to become European, one should leave Europe! This is the racist/historic pact between the Zionist movement and Europe. In other words, Israel is an extension of colonialism and the West in the East and Israel forms your nationalist identity in the East.
o So the Western engagement in this matter is all about the European identity.
o Thus, the Palestinian matter is being transformed to two equal rights and hence a solution must be reached to satisfy both sides (!).
• With time, the Palestinian matter is becoming more and more complicated. This cause is a prisoner and is caught up within all the international developments and their accompanying complications. It is also becoming a cause between Arab countries and is also getting caught up within their problems or is being seen as a radical revolution (!)
• Our caused is being avoided because it is caught up at a crossroads between an Arab-Palestinian issue and a European-Jewish issue + the numerous international forces/parties and pressures that have come together like never before in the course of history to suppress the Palestinian matter.
• The first final point:
o The Arabs will never liberate themselves without liberating the Palestinians and solving their cause and vice versa.
o The Arab regimes blame the Palestinian cause for their social, economic and political problems again and again. In reality, Israel is the biggest player/actor in the Palestinian scene. Yet, Israel has been developing continuously in terms of economy, middle class sector of the society, commerce, political stability etc. So, their huge involvement in this matter did not stop them from developing their country from scratch without any oil or other resources that the Arabs have in abundance!
• The second final point:
o What is the fate of the Palestinian refugee camp without a Right to Return or protection? (food for thought). Keep in mind that the camp’s purpose is meant to be temporary. A camp is established for people either to fight from or to return to their homeland after a temporary period of time. It is not a question of luxury and lifestyle.
• Finally, the Palestinian matter is an Arab matter. Yet, the Arabs do not want to fight. The Arabs have fought Iran for 8 years in a war that resulted in tens of thousands of casualties and massive destruction. No one dared to speak against this war in terms of losses. So, why stop now and over estimate everything. It is because we do not want to fight. Simple.
" نحن نهول حتى لا نحارب"
Beirut.
14.5.2009
