Palestine & Israel-Part One: Debunking Two Narratives
What is Going on Between Palestinians and Israelis?
The article, which includes parts two and three in the blog, describes the struggle
or the situation at its current phase and tries at the same time to remain
faithful to the truth from a Palestinian perspective. Living in the occupied
Palestinian Territories, I try to simplify the issue and minimize the use of
history as much as possible but without watering it down. Furthermore, I
organized the information in the article like an inverted pyramid, where it
first posits the main questions as a basis or strong foundation for the reader.
The information narrows down gradually, and specific details are presented in
the final part. So as the reader progresses, the reader gets informed on the
central issues and can stop reading at any point and hopefully still get a good
foundation of what the struggle is about. The reader is also invited to click
on the personal accounts icon in this blog, where I have written personal stories
about living and growing up under occupation in the harsh circumstances
mentioned below.
Debunking Two Narratives
Whenever I introduce myself as a
Palestinian woman, I am haunted by two narratives deeply rooted in my
interlocutor’s psyche. These narratives are falsely spun by western media. But
before I explore these narratives further, I would like to epitomize the word ‘Palestinian’
in this context to represent a symbolic condition any group of people can find themselves
in when life isn’t fair. As random as life is, people can find themselves in war
and flee their homes. These refugees who are paperless and homeless would need immediate
aid. Still, after that, they would be left alone and forgotten in a world
characterized by a massive imbalance of power. So I write about my own experience
as a Palestinian, but this state of existence is symbolic of many other
identities where conflict around beliefs or interests creates refugees and
misery, which continues for generations. The only hope for an end is to pay
attention, understand, take heed, and hopefully apply morality in distinction. This
article is an invitation for precisely this.
The image depicting Palestinians is
an aversive one. The two narratives delineating us are probably well known: Palestinians
are terrorists, or the modified version is that the society harbors terrorism.
The second narrative, which according to my experience, is worse and more
demeaning, is the nonexistent narrative. On the collective level, some believe
that our history doesn’t exist. The narrative indicates that 'this land is for
Jews and has been for Jews for thousands of years perpetuating the myth of
"a land without people for people without a land." On a personal level, I met people I had a
small talk with and then, after revealing my identity, behaved as if I didn't
exist, who looked past me or through me.
The first narrative is addressed
frequently: are we terrorists or freedom fighters? The answer, of course, depends
on the perspective you align with. However, in real life, and as history
attests, any struggle against oppression, occupation, or apartheid usually witnesses
both; nonviolent demonstrations and action alongside armed resistance. This is precisely
what is happening here in Palestine. The cases of nonviolent resistance are
plentiful in the Palestinian struggle, such as the First Intifada[1],
and more recently, the case of Mount Sbeih, or in Arabic Jabal Sbeih[2] in
Nablus. But sadly, the western narrative, in line with the imbalance of power,
chooses to emphasize one narrative over the other. This is shown in their vocabulary
usage, choice of stories, and deciding when to cover the news, reporting only
when one side is attacked but not when Palestinians are attacked, and
Palestinians are constantly under aggression.
Also, in principle, international
law does allow people to fight against an occupying power. The examples in
history are plenty: when colonized countries in Africa and the Middle East
fought for their independence. In India and South Africa, where the fight in
its final phase did become a nonviolent movement against a cruel form of
governance, a large part of their fight in previous stages was armed. And World
War II, when the French, British, and the Americans fought Nazi Germany.
I find the second narrative, which
tries to erase history, more baffling. Glancing over history will not only
debunk the first narrative even further but will also reveal the oddness of
both narratives. First of all, any history book or article before 1948 would
have the name Palestine in it. The region was inextricably linked to both World
War I and II. Jews in the 1930s and 1940s fled racism in Europe, came to
Palestine, and ironically used armed resistance to fight the British Mandate.
The names of these Jewish military groups are Irgun, Lehi, and the Hagana
forces. A quick search on Wikipedia about these groups will explain the history
and show pictures of their violent operations. And in 1948, the Hagana took by
force all of coastal Palestine. I’ve always wondered why the history of World War
II stops at the shores of Europe in the West? I’ve always held my breath hoping
they would continue the story after D-Day, "but read the next
chapter," I would say in my head.
Going back in time, this part of
history is also not emphasized. There were Jews in the Islamic countries of
North Africa and the Middle East during the Middle Ages, especially after Jews
fled Spain during the Spanish Inquisition and continued to live in the Arab
world until Israel was established. Going
back thousands of years, there was never a denial of Jewish presence in this
part of the world. In the Quran, Jewish existence
was never denied, although the narrative is different from the Old or New
Testament. There were Jewish tribes similar to many other tribes scattered around
this holy land around historical cities. Jewish presence across the geography
and the history of this region only testifies to co-existence between different
religions, so the denial or the overriding of such a history seems
counterintuitive. Jews and Muslims have a shared history!
Why these narratives, then? In my
opinion, both narratives are cunningly created to hide the very basis of any
struggle. Most conflicts are about exploitation or, let's call it as it is: ‘stealing’
resources like land, oil, gas, metals, and even history and culture as in our
case. Affluence and exploitation are linked. So under the name of ‘national
interests, wars are begun, troops are deployed, and oppression is used to stop
resistance.
The second basis for any struggle is
a sense of superiority of one group over the other. Yes, it is all too common;
humanity is still suffering from a superiority complex and thus the need for an
enemy, for an inferior group. According to the narrative, the inferior group
can't govern themselves, need training and counseling, who are savage enough to
‘use terror’ for no reason but to kill. Therefore, the underlying tone of many
struggles is that one side is claiming to be better, more civilized, less evil,
and richer in everything. In contrast, the weaker side is envious or simply hates.
So racism and discrimination is a significant undercurrent in the Palestinian
Israeli struggle, and therefore it typifies many previous and ongoing
conflicts.
Similar to other previous and
ongoing racial or ethnic conflicts, discrimination against Arabs, Palestinians,
and Muslims, sometimes erroneously lumped as one entity, is an integral part of
the struggle. An Arab or a Palestinian doesn’t have just one color. We have all
colors among us; white, black, brown, even Asian looking since this region was
occupied by all nationalities in the past. Arabs of the Middle East and North
Africa have a Mediterranean look similar to the Greeks, Italians, and Spanish.
Arabs are of various religions: Muslims, Christians, and ironically Jews. The
region is so diverse in ethnicity, history, and culture that it cannot be
reduced to one image. Yet, western media managed to create one that is inferior
to Israelis. It is crazy.
Ultimately, at the heart of all
racism and discrimination is fear. There is the fear of sharing affluence and
power. Why would anyone want to share privileges and power? Imagine
Palestinians as equal to Israelis; the thought would cause many to shake like a
leaf! Some powerful countries like Israel believe that sharing affluence and
power could be an existential threat. However, committing constant aggression
is not a safe choice either. History proves that power dynamics change over
time, even if it takes a relatively long time, and that sharing and admitting
equality is a safer choice for the powerful.
And more importantly, hovering
together in a more equalizing plane is fearful because one side will need to
admit to aggression and atrocities committed. Fearing equality among races and
ethnicities exists because true equality encompasses confession and apology. The
aggressor will need to face the ‘evilness’ committed, the same charge they
accuse the weaker side of. Standing in front of a victim and admitting
aggression is tough on the human psyche. The aggressor usually glosses over the
racial issue or the aggression as nonexistent or belonging to the past. This admission process has a
great deal of internal confrontation regarding cognitive, historical,
psychological, and circumstantial false narratives. A cycle takes place: The
aggressor needs to escape the admission. As the aggressor seeks to be more
powerful to escape the confession and the confrontation with one’s ‘violent actions’
that the process of equality entails, false narratives and committing
atrocities are inevitable. The aggressor tries to stop the natural resistance
to any oppression or cover what is happening, embodying violence or the state
they accuse the inferior side of.
This process also reflects the paradox
of unity and separation. To be more powerful, the aggressor needs to unite with
a higher Being or God, and thus the religious part of the narrative exists. Unity
with God or something higher than human is an attempt to separate from the
inferior other. The aggressor’s rhetoric and narrative pursue closeness to God
or goodness. They seek a higher ground that is pure, or in many cases –but not
always- their whiteness. By trying to unite with higher values, they commit the
thing the aggressor is trying to escape; his separation from God because God is
one.
Occupation is messy for both sides. Therefore,
similarly, Palestinians need to own their actions as well. Both sides will need
to help each other heal, unite with a ‘higher myth or ideal’ or, even better, join each other on a higher platform of reality.
"O Mankind! We
created you from a male and a female, and made you races and tribes that you
may know one another." The Quran, Verse 13, 49 The Chambers
(Al-Hujurat)
“Uniformity is not nature’s
way; diversity is nature’s way” Vandana Shiva
[1] A
good and funny movie to watch on Netflix about nonviolent resistance in the First
Intifada is The Wanted 18.
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