More Than a Fight over Couscous: Why the Palestinian Narrative Must Be Embraced
26 March 2018
By Ramzy Baroud
As soon as Virgin Atlantic Airlines introduced a couscous-style salad
"inspired by the flavours of Palestine", a controversy ensued. Israel's
supporters ignited a social media storm and sent many complaints to the
company, obliging the airline to remove the reference to Palestine.
In the Zionist narrative, Palestine does not exist - nor is it allowed to
exist - even if merely as a cultural conception.
The sad irony is that, while Israel appropriated Palestinian-Arabic couscous
(the Palestinian dish, in particular, is known as 'maftoul'), branding and
marketing it in western countries as 'Israeli couscous', its supporters go to
every extent possible to erase any reference that may validate Palestinian
Arab culture, whether Muslim or Christian.
This is an old habit, an endemic practice that dates back to the destruction
of nearly 600 Palestinian villages and localities in 1947-48. Palestinians
refer to these earth-shattering events as the 'Nakba', or catastrophe.
Tellingly, Israel outlaws the use of the term or the commemoration of the
tragic event in any way.
From claiming Palestinian Arab culinary culture as their own, to 'Judaized'
Arabic street names to rewriting history, Israel and its supporters are
relentless.
Israel fears a Palestinian narrative because the Israeli government
understands, and rightly so, that it is the collective Palestinian narrative
that has compelled resistance, in all of its forms for over 70 years.
All attempts have failed, until recently.
The 1993 Oslo Accord is a critical juncture that shattered the cohesiveness of
Palestinian discourse and weakened and divided the Palestinian people.
However, it is not too late to remedy this through decisive and concentrated
efforts that overcome the challenge of a Palestinian political viewpoint
beholden to self-seeking political aspirations and competing factions.
In the absence of a Palestinian leadership populated by the Palestinian people
themselves, intellectuals must safeguard and present the Palestinian story to
the world with authenticity and balance. The clarity and integrity of the
Palestinian story has been damaged and divided by Palestinian Authority (PA)
tactics which remove Palestinian refugees' right of return from their
political platform.
Essentially, the story of Palestine is the story of the Palestinian people,
for they are the victims of oppression and the main channel of Resistance,
starting with the creation of Israel on the ruins of Palestinian villages. If
Palestinians had not resisted, their story would have concluded right there
and then and they, too, would have disappeared.
Those who admonish Palestinian Resistance, armed or otherwise, have little
understanding of the psychological ramifications of resistance, such as a
sense of collective empowerment and hope amongst the people. In his
introduction to Frantz Fanon's "Wretched of the Earth", Jean-Paul Sartre
describes violent resistance as a process through which "a man is re-creating
himself".
And for seven decades, Palestinians have embarked on this journey of the
recreation of the "self". They have resisted, and their resistance in all
forms has moulded a sense of collective unity, despite the numerous divisions
that have been erected amongst them.
Relentless resistance, a notion now embodied in the very fabric of Palestinian
society, denied the oppressor the opportunity to emasculate Palestinians, or
to reduce them to helpless victims and hapless refugees. The collective memory
of the Palestinian people must focus on what it means to be Palestinian,
defining the Palestinian people, what they stand for as a nation, and why they
have resisted for years.
A new articulation of the Palestinian narrative is necessary, now more than
ever before. The elitist interpretation of Palestine has failed, and is as
worthless as the Oslo Accords. It is no more than a tired exercise in empty
clichés, aimed at sustaining American political dominance in Palestine as well
as in the rest of the Middle East.
The peace process is dead, but the Palestinian people are still resisting;
unsurprisingly, the people are mightier than a group of self-centred
individuals. Grassroots resistance is not constrained by the frivolous
politicking of PA leader, Mahmoud Abbas, or any other actors.
Abbas and his men have not only muzzled the political will of the Palestinian
people and falsely claimed to represent all Palestinians, they have also
robbed Palestinians of their narrative, one that actually unites the
'fellahin' (peasants) and the refugees, the occupied and the 'shattat' (diaspora),
into one distinct nation.
It is only when the Palestinian intellectual is able to repossess that
collective narrative that the confines placed on the Palestinian voice can be
finally broken. Only then can Palestinians truly confront the Israeli Hasbara
and US-Western corporate media propaganda and, at long last, speak unhindered.
But there are obstacles, leading amongst them is the ruthless attempt by
Zionist historians and institutions to replace the Palestinian historical
narrative with their own. The story of the Palestinian cuisine on an airline
menu may appear trivial in the greater scheme of things but it is significant,
nonetheless.
In the Zionist Israeli narrative, Palestinians, if relevant at all, are
depicted as drifting nomads, without a culture or tradition of their own, an
inconvenience that hinders the path of progress - a duplicate narrative to the
one that defined the relationship between every western colonial power and the
resisting natives, always.
From the Zionist point of view, Palestinian existence is an inconvenience that
was meant to be only temporary. "We must expel Arabs and take their places,"
wrote Israel's founding father, David Ben Gurion.
Assigning the Palestinian people the role of dislocated, disinherited and
nomadic people without caring about the ethical and political implications of
such false representations has erroneously presented Palestinians as a docile
and submissive collective, to be wiped out by those more powerful.
Nothing could be further from the truth, and Palestinian resistance is the
unremitting example of the strength and resilience of the Palestinian people.
Palestinian culture is rooted, like the olive trees and mountains of Galilee.
Yes, the fight has been an arduous one. Between the rock of Israeli occupation
and Hasbara and the hard place of Palestinian leadership acquiescence and
failure, Palestine, Palestinians and their story have been trapped and
misconstrued.
It is time for us to step up. We, as Palestinian writers, historians and
journalists, assume the responsibility of reinterpreting Palestinian history
and internalizing and communicating Palestinian voices, so that the rest of
the world can, for once, appreciate the story as told by wounded, but
tenacious, victors.
- Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle.
His latest book is 'The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story' (Pluto Press, London,
2018). Baroud has a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter
and is a Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International
Studies, University of California Santa Barbara. His website is
www.ramzybaroud.net.
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