Palestinians deserve an explanation

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Palestinians deserve an explanation

The Palestinians are eager to hear an answer for the right questions that were asked

By Steven Salaita (Palestine Chronicle)
February 02, 2002, 10:49 AM

  • I spend much of my time justifying my own existence. My existence, you see, is tied intimately with Palestine and the Palestinians. I rise and sleep with Palestine on my mind. It is impossible to forget the images to which one is subjected upon visiting the occupied territories. Images of toddlers with prosthetic legs and glass eyes. Images of sprawling tent cities in outdoor prisons. Images of emaciated children pockmarked with scars from rubber bullets. Images of concrete piles surrounded by bulldozer tracks and diffused shell casings. Images of blood, endless blood, staining the lives of civilians living under military occupation.

Amid my comfortable life with food and heat in America, these images have become a part of me, defining my subjectivity in conjunction with (and in opposition to) images of relative opulence in the United States.

But when I try to tell these stories to Americans, I am met only with questions requiring justifications. Why do Palestinians hate us? Why did they all dance in the street after September 11? Why are they so violent? Why do they kill civilians? My existence is thus reduced to philosophical beggary. More important, the existence of Palestinians is delegitimated as something that can be expressed not in context of their own history of oppression, but in terms of how Americans wish to define and control it.

While these questions are important and, in the proper framework, merit serious attention, they cannot be articulated honestly without context, something visibly absent in the American imagination. So, for my American countrymen, I pose a different set of questions before approaching theirs:

Why is Israel’s internationally-condemned violence subsidized by over $3 billion of annual American aid? Why did the American media focus relentlessly on the small group of celebratory Palestinians on September 11 and systematically ignore the hundreds of vigils expressing grief over the loss of innocent life? Why do we allow American-made weapons to disfigure and murder hundreds of children and coordinate an ideologically driven occupation the entire world outside our borders condemns?

Still more pressing questions arise:

Why are Palestinians relegated to defensive positions when it is Americans, as the proprietors of Israeli aggression, who need to justify themselves?

Why are Palestinians constantly misappropriated outside their own historical conditions and consigned to American sensibilities, while Americans demand that Palestinians understand those sensibilities?

Simply stated, as an American of Palestinian ancestry and a supporter of justice as defined by international principles (which would naturally lead me to support Palestinian liberation), I am weary of expressing myself in a vocabulary amenable to American sensibilities, as are all Palestinians. It is time for Americans to understand Palestinian voices, especially since so much energy is spent speaking condescendingly as their moral taskmasters with no understanding whatever of the miserable conditions within which they live.

It is a rule of modern history that those with access to power are able to speak on behalf of those with none; cultural and political interchange is therefore skewed in favor of the powerful, who institutionalize their knowledge of the powerless without necessarily understanding anything about them. The powerless, of course, are expected tacitly to accept this equation.

Many Americans, then, are able to offer “solutions” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without ever mentioning the dispossession of millions, the powerless refugees scattered throughout the Middle East, the extraordinary property destruction estimated to run into the billions, the daily indignities and humiliations, the pervasive hopelessness and anger as settlements quickly devour what little land remains.

These issues, not Palestinian resistance, require immediate justification. So, I ask you again: Why do we continue to support Israel, not only to the detriment of the Palestinians, but our own national interest? The Palestinians are eager, after 36 years of military occupation, to hear your answer.

(arabia.com)This article is brought to you in association with Palestine Chronicle

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The short answer is that the Arabs have attacked Israel several times and each time they lose the war and more land. Israel has suffered terrorist attacks against its civilians from Palestinians since its inception. More recently starting with the PLO in 1964, there are several Palestinian groups that exist soley to exterminate Israel and they have large followings. The Palestinians have had nothing but corrupt and violent representation that has done nothing to further their cause for independence, only increase Israel's will to occupy to prevent the extremists from exterminating them.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Seminole: *
The short answer is that the Arabs have attacked Israel...
[/QUOTE]

More lies.

Israel joined the UK and France in attacking Egypt in 1956.

Israel attacked the Arab states in 1967.

Israel attacked Lebanon in 1982, for which it received a long and bloody nose for.

All the while the Israeli people have nothing but a genocidal war criminal like Sharon to offer time and time again.

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The gentle and peace loving Arabs attacked Israel in 1948 and got they butts whooped. This first mistake cost them a lot of land and more than a bloody nose. Nassar initiated the 1956 war with a blockade and the repeated call for a war of total destruction against Israel which caused Arab countries to mobilize their troops against Israel. Israel once again defeated the threatening Arab forces. Nasser's machoism in 1967 once again initiated a conflict by blockades, threats, a defense pact with Jordan, Arab troop mobilization and the call for Israel's destruction. He was once again left with egg on his face and lost more land (this time in just 6 days). And of course we all know how Israel was saved by General Ariel Sharon 's victory against the attacking Egyptians in 1973.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Seminole: *

Nassar initiated the 1956 war with a blockade and the repeated call for a war of total destruction against Israel which caused Arab countries to mobilize their troops against Israel. Israel once again defeated the threatening Arab forces. Nasser's machoism in 1967 once again initiated a conflict by blockades, threats, a defense pact with Jordan, Arab troop mobilization and the call for Israel's destruction.
[/QUOTE]

I suggest you read up on your history of the 1956 Anglo-French-Israeli invasion of Eqypt, especially the part about how the United States government publicly condemded them, and threatened financial consequences for the invaders. As for 1967 I see you have not denied that it was Israel that launched the invasion of the Arab states, and while you are quick in praising the war crminal Sharon you failed to mention what he did in Lebanon, another country Israel invaded and received a very long running bloody nose.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Seminole: *
The gentle and peace loving Arabs attacked Israel in 1948 and got they butts whooped. This first mistake cost them a lot of land and more than a bloody nose. Nassar initiated the 1956 war with a blockade and the repeated call for a war of total destruction against Israel which caused Arab countries to mobilize their troops against Israel. Israel once again defeated the threatening Arab forces. Nasser's machoism in 1967 once again initiated a conflict by blockades, threats, a defense pact with Jordan, Arab troop mobilization and the call for Israel's destruction. He was once again left with egg on his face and lost more land (this time in just 6 days). And of course we all know how Israel was saved by General Ariel Sharon 's victory against the attacking Egyptians in 1973.
[/QUOTE]

Correction, Israel did not defeat anyone, it used to be (now lowly British) and then USA. Only with the help and weaponary provided by the west were they able defeat arabs. I believe, Palsetanians will like nothing more than an equal footing (Weapons) and than we will see how brilliant the Israelis really are.

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:rolleyes:

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Perfect example of taking quotes out of context. Did you bother to read the whole sentence? Apparently not. Its ok, its not your fault, you are so blinded by the lies and deception you cannot tell the forest from the trees. For the sake of the discussion, please refrain from these deceptive tactics, they only work in Bush Administration.

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Out of context? Sorry, I could have gone on for a few paragraphs on the rationalizations used to make excuses for the losing Arab side. :crying:

And please don’t be so condescending and presumptous about my ability to see the truth. Your’e right - an open mind is a wonderful thing. Israel’s policy of occupation has sucked. Arab reaction to the Israeli state has sucked even more. Their constant provocation has done nothing but caused more territorial concessions, more occupation and more misery for the Palestianians.

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^^ Seminole, my reply was only three lines. Anyway, you are telling me that you make assumptions just by reading the opening lines of the paragraph? How can you really form an opinion if you follow this pattern? Just wondering:confused:

Anyway, I do agree that killing inncoent civilians (both Arabs and Israelis) is wrong. I just wish that people will try to understand what drives these suicide bombers to commit such acts. If we can identify the reason, maybe we will have a chance for peace.

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Kaleem yaar, for the best part of half a century the Zionist entity of Israel refused point blank over and over again to recognise the Palestinians as a nation and people, the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and the right of the Palestinians to their own state. Yet despite a hundred billion dollars of economic and military aid from the United States the Zionists caved into alll three demands from the Palestinians who had no such resources, and who were villified by Zionist supporters where ever they went in the world. The greatest victors are those who survive and continue to survive one of the greatest persecutions and tragedies that have befallen a people since WW2. Those people are the Palestinians… :k:

A further highly satisfying occurence is the demographics in this land. Since 1948 the Zionists have expelled or made homeless millions of Palestinians from the Zionist entity of Israel, and used the tactics of “cruel zionism” i.e. bomb and murder their own Jews in foreign lands (like Iraq) to force millions of Jews to emigrate to Israel to boost the Jewish population numbers. Yet despite all that today this land (Israel and the territories) has an almost equal proportion of Arabs and Jews, with Arabs reproducing at a very healthy rate that will relegate Jews to an increasing minority. I have great faith that in the coming years Zionism will go the way of white apartheid rule in South Africa, and be consigned to the dustbin of history. Hopefully non-Zionist Jews can overcome the extremist and Zionist majority among Jews, as the the whites finally did in South Africa and come to an amicable agreement with the majority people i.e. the Palestinian’s that safeguards their presence in the coming reality.

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the idea that 100% of the blame for this mess belongs to the israel (or its friends) is crazy. muslims made a lot of mistakes over history that led to this situation. ignoring that part, and concentrating on blaming the enemy is akin to sticking your head in the sand.

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All this talk about who attacked first, and who is morally right or wrong, is just pure nonsense. Listen people, this world is all about power. Power of the strong over the weak.

The Christians of Europe have always hated the presense of the Jews in their countries (They hate the Muslims just as much, remember the crusades). The USA and Western Europe after WW2 felt guilty at what had been done to the Jews by the nazis. They decided to reward the Jews with a country in Palestine. This way, Europe could get rid of the Jews and also feel good about doing something for them. Also, the zionist Jews would help maintain the west's dominance over the Middle East.

Enter current situation. The Jews of Israel are ruled by the zionist ideals. Their goal is to create an ethnic Jewish state consisting of all Palestine and any other areas they can get their hands on. Funded by billions of dollars every year by the west and USA in particular, zionist Israel has built up a lethal army and now is engaged in fulfilling its goals. With no Islamic country able to challenge this aggression, the powerful will continue to dominate the Palestinians.

Right now, the position of the Islamic countries is weak. They do not possess the industry and technology to match the west. They are mostly un-educated and have no unity amongst themselves. Plus the leadership of all these countries is weak and hence not able to or don't want to change the situation.

Crying or moaning or pleading with the west will not get the Palestinians any sympathy. The cowardly acts of bombings and kidnappings will not change the situation either. Only the realization that Muslims need to get educated (technology is what separates the west), united and have real leaders that have the courage to change the current situation will really give real power to the Muslims. With such power, they can challenge the likes of Israel and get back Palestine.