It is
common knowledge that the Palestinians have long
been direct victims of the directionless, spineless
and hypocritical polices of the Arab leadership. It
is equally common knowledge that the State of Israel
need make no effort to impose its vision, its
methods and its objectives. Given the support of the
United States, Europe’s guilty silence and the
compliant passivity of the Arab regimes, we know
what to expect. The foreign policy of most Arab
states has been described with good reason as
“pro-Zionist.” Their cowardice and treachery comes
as no surprise.
Following last year’s murderous attack on Gaza by
Israeli forces, we may have thought we’d seen the
worst. That judgment failed to take into account the
ingenuity of the “worse yet” scenario produced by
the Egyptian regime and the “religious authorities”
of al-Azhar. In the name of “national security”, of
the fight against “terrorism”, and ultimately, of
combating “corruption”, “smuggling” and “drug
trafficking”, the Egyptian government is building a
wall reaching twenty meters below ground level to
stop the “Gazans” from carrying out their “illegal”
activities and from digging “smuggling tunnels.” Of
course, the Egyptian government has no intention of
confining the inhabitants of Gaza to their hell; of
course, the measure is dictated only by concern for
national security! So persuasive is the argument
that the committee of religious experts of al-Azhar
quickly endorsed the government decision, declaring
it to be “islamically legitimate” (“in conformity
with the Shari’a”) for the country to protect its
borders. (The al-Azhar scholars were responding to a
fatwa issued by the International Union of Muslim
Scholars that had ruled the exact opposite, that the
Egyptian decision was “islamically unacceptable.”)
For shame! So this is how justice is mocked, how
power and religion are misused. The Palestinian
people, and most of all the inhabitants of Gaza, are
denied their dignity and their rights; deprived of
access to food, to water and to basic health care.
And now, the Egyptian government becomes the ally of
Israeli policy at its worst: isolating, strangling,
starving, and smothering Palestinian civilian life
after having eradicated hundreds. The aim is clear:
to choke off all resistance and to destroy its
leadership. The Egyptian government has blocked
convoys attempting to deliver badly needed aid to
the Palestinian people in an effort to raise the
siege of Gaza. The mobilization that brought
hundreds of women and men from around the world to
Rafah was met by refusal upon refusal by the Cairo
authorities, along with a strategy of selective
humiliation.
For shame! No wonder the Israeli government purring
with contentment. After all, a new and “promising”
start for the “peace process” has been announced!
There will be something for everybody: the United
States, along with Saudi Arabia and Egypt has spared
no efforts to draft a new and “comprehensive”
program. A splendid “peace process” indeed, in whose
name civilians have suffered months of blockade
before their leaders are invited to take their place
at the “free” and “respectful” negotiating table.
Israel can keep on purring: it can play for more
time without making the slightest concession.
Settlement activities are to be temporarily
frozen—except for construction projects already
underway. Finer negotiations would be hard to find!
It cannot be repeated often enough: the Egyptian
“national security wall” is a wall of shame. The
religious authorities that have legitimized it have
behaved exactly like the notorious “ulama” (Muslim
scholars) or “Islamic councils” that openly serve
power, whether of dictators or the forces of
colonialism, or of some self-styled Republic
specializing in the manipulation of religion. What
can possibly remain of their credibility after
issuing a “political fatwa” that lends the Islamic
endorsement of craven scholars to the power of
dictatorship? Silence would have been far better.
We must condemn these unacceptable acts, and stand
beside those who resist with dignity. If successive
Israeli governments know one thing—with which we
must agree—it is this: the Palestinian people will
not surrender. For those who may still harbor
doubts, we must add a second certainty, that of
time: History is on the side of the Palestinians; it
is they who represent, today and tomorrow, hope for
the noblest human values. To resist oppression, to
defend one’s legitimate rights and one’s land, to
never yield to the arrogance and to the lies of the
mighty. As for the power of the Israelis, the
Egyptians and others, as for the fatwas of
government-appointed ulama, these things too will
pass; they will pass, and will be forgotten. Happily
forgotten. For the duty of memory is transformed
into forgetfulness when it comes to the names and
the acts of dictators, traitors and cowards.
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