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24 December 2010
By Ramzy Baroud When a copy of William A. Cook's
latest book, The Plight of the Palestinians arrived in
my mailbox, I initially felt a little worried. The
volume, featuring the work of over 30 accomplished
writers, is the most articulate treatise on the
collective victimization of Palestinians to date. From
Cook's own introduction, 'The Untold Story of the
Zionist Intent to Turn Palestine into a Jewish State'
to Francis Boyle's summation of ‘Israel's Crimes
against the Palestinians', it takes the reader through
an exhaustive journey, charting the course of
Palestinian history prior to and since al-Nakba, the
Catastrophe of 1947-48. Still, I feared that something
might be missing in this noble and monumental
undertaking: Palestinian people's own responses to the
cruelties they've suffered. Would Palestinians be
presented yet again as merely poster-child victims,
eager for handouts? The photograph on the cover was
telling: a kindly old man with a white beard, who
could have been any Palestinian or Middle-Eastern
grandpa, is lovingly touching the hair of a toddler.
The two are crouching before a small, stained tent.
Al-Nakba was still recent, and the two Palestinians,
separated by two generations appear tired and haggard
as they are caught in this hopeless scene. Yet,
somehow the grandfather insists on preserving his
right to love his grandson. This insistence on one's
humanity has been the key strength which has allowed
the Palestinian people to preserve their struggle and
resistance before the wicked arm of occupation and
oppression for nearly 63 years. Do most academics know this? Do
they truly comprehend what it is that makes an old man
from a West Bank village face the brutality of Jewish
settlers, year after year, as he returns to harvest
his few remaining olive trees? Or a Palestinian woman
from Gaza who keeps coming back to hold a vigil before
the Red Cross office with a framed photo of her
once-young son, now ailing in some Israeli jail? What keeps them going is
something that cannot be dissected scientifically or
analyzed intellectually. It can only be felt,
experienced, and partially understood. This
understanding is essential, for without it much more
time and effort would be wasted, discounting the most
important component in the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict: the Palestinian people. Some intellectuals, although
well-intentioned, often conflate the understandable
weakness of the current Palestinian leadership and the
steadfastness of the Palestinian people. They write
about both entities as if they are one and the same.
One of the best authors on Palestine rightly pointed
at the huge discrepancies of power between
Palestinians and Israel, noting that such an imbalance
could not possibly lead to an equitable platform for
negotiation. To demonstrate the point, the author
refers to Palestinians as "almost totally powerless
people", negotiating with a "powerful occupier." But the Palestinian people are
currently negotiating with no one. Their
representatives merely represent themselves and their
own interests. It is important that we preserve that
distinction - between the Palestinian Authority in
Ramallah and Palestinian people, who have held on to
their rights for so many years, and unleashed two of
the greatest expressions of people's power and
resolve: the First Uprising of 1987 and al-Aqsa
Intifada of 2000. A whole population taking on the
self-celebrated "greatest army in the Middle East" is
hardly "powerless". The Palestinian people have
printed themselves on the practical discourse of this
conflict, and they have proved themselves to be
powerful players in determining their own fate. Jeff Halper, the Director of the
Israeli Committee against House Demolitions,
understands this fact well. The peace and justice
activist has spent decades working for a just
settlement to the conflict, a journey that's allowed
him to work with numerous Palestinians. He has thus
grasped something many politicians have intentionally
or inadvertently missed. "Until they - the Palestinian
people as a whole, not the PA - say the conflict is
over, it's not over." He further states, in a recent
article entitled ‘Palestine 2011', that "Israel and
its erstwhile allies have the ability to make life
almost unbearable for the Palestinians, but they
cannot impose apartheid or warehousing." Halper is correct, and history
has repeatedly validated his assertion. There are
limits to the power of the "powerful occupier". It can
kill, confiscate, destroy and burn, but it can never
force the other into submission. Thus to speak of
Palestinian victimization without discussing their
collective resistance presents an incomplete version
of the story. The Plight of the Palestinians
turned out to be an essential read, and a full and
authoritative discourse. It offers a grim and detailed
story of suffering and the ‘slow motion genocide',
which is important in order to appreciate the
harshness of the Palestinian experience. Without this,
one can never understand the anger, resentment and
pain that are shared by several generations of
Palestinians, in Palestine and in the Diaspora. ‘The Human Tragedy' is laid bare
in Part I. Every paragraph confronts the reader with
gory details. But if such violence is the reality of
the history of this conflict, why do many people
understand it differently? The answer lies in Part 2:
‘Propaganda, Perception and Reality'. It starts with a
quote, the Israeli Mossad's own pre-2007 slogan: "By
way of deception, thou shalt do war." It seems that
such a slogan has defined Israeli official conduct.
However, civil society cannot be misled forever, and
the powerful initiatives carried out by ordinary
people around the world are what give Part 3 its
value. ‘Rule by Law or Defiance' is an uplifting
introduction to activist efforts, with topics ranging
from ‘The Russell Tribunal on Palestine' to the
‘Necessity of the Culture Boycott'. The Plight of the Palestinians is
not just another chronicle of the history of a
defenseless nation. While it is an unhesitant
acknowledgment of that reality, it is far from being a
celebration of victimhood. Rather, it documents the
logical evolution from suffering to resistance. In the essay, ‘Does It Matter
What You Call It?' two of my personal favorite
authors, Kathleen and (late) Bill Christison write:
"Palestinian resistance does figure in this dismal
story. In the same small village where one is
uprooting his family, others are building..." It is the very balance between
destruction and rebuilding, despair and hope,
occupation and perseverance that makes the Palestinian
people powerful. Their power cannot be demonstrated in
numbers, but it can be felt, experienced, and
understood. The Plight of the Palestinians: A Long
History of Destruction spreads the seeds of
understanding, which is so essential to any meaningful
and lasting change. - Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net)
is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the
editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is
My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story
(Pluto Press, London), now available on Amazon.com. |
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