The View from the West

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

The last occupied people

By: Idris Elbakri

Posted: 01/7/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

The cycles of history have become too short. History now repeats itself with unsettling frequency. We have seen the cycle of devastating embargo, massive air war, land invasion and subsequent political changes (subdue resistance movements, change regimes, etc.) at least three times in the past decade: the Iraq invasion, the Lebanon war and now the all-out assault on Gaza.

In all three cases, the cycle is propagated by Israel, its ally the U.S., or both. Other nations of the world watch, clap or issue void condemnations. In Iraq, the cycle succeeded, in Lebanon it failed, and Gaza still holds its breath for the final outcome.

Historians do learn from history. Politicians don't.

The Iraq of today is not a modern democracy but a field for guerrilla warfare, terrorism and sectarian violence. Iraq's final farewell to its liberator, George W. Bush, was a shoe in the face.

When the dust settles in Gaza, there will be swollen graveyards, debilitated hospitals and a population more driven to extremes than ever. Every household will be in mourning.

Like its Lebanon invasion of 1982, its 2006 war on Lebanon and now its war on Gaza, Israel will exact its terrible revenge, kill thousands of people, but eventually leave in moral defeat.

With every new adventure, Israel's myth of might is further eroded and its adversaries made even more tenacious.

There is no equivalence of adversaries in this war. Palestinian rockets are manufactured in garages and basements and makeshift workshops. In the past eight years, they have killed 20 Israelis.

The Israeli bombs and fighter jets are all made in the U.S., and in one day they killed 200 people. The asymmetry is staggering.

Israel fights because it is a colonial power. The Palestinians fight because they are an occupied and dispossessed people, and more recently in Gaza, driven to starvation.

Like the Algerians in their struggle against French colonialism, like the South Africans struggling against apartheid and like almost every other struggle against occupation and colonialism, Palestinians use violence. Nelson Mandela was once considered a terrorist.

The Palestinians are not pathological killers and genetic anti-Semites, as often is the subtle and sometimes explicit message since 9/11. Their quarrel with the world is that they remain the last occupied people. They are desperate.

In my comfortable armchair a world away, I have argued against the immorality of the means of Palestinians.

Argue all we want about who started what and when, and who responded in self defence. Argue all we want about why Palestinians don't use peaceful means of resistance. We can shout all we want about Israel's right to defend itself. Yet, there remains a fundamental problem, the elephant in the room that everyone ignores: Palestinians want genuine freedom, true independence, return to their homeland, dignity and a seat at the roundtable of nations.

As long as all the shuttle diplomacy, numerous peace processes, international peace conferences do not address their grievance, fully and comprehensively, they will erupt again.

We are powerless to stop this bloodbath. Many more will be killed. Many more will be maimed. Israeli and Palestinian mothers will mourn more of their sons. The short cycle of history will ensure that this war will repeat itself again, and again.

Maybe, at least, we can start by acknowledging our moral defeat: Our much acclaimed values of human rights, freedom and human dignity are not universal. Some people are more deserving of democracy, freedom and life than others. Some people are more deserving of death than others.

The Palestinians know this. Their gravediggers are busy.

Idris Elbakri is a medical physicist. A Palestinian born in Jerusalem, he moved to Winnipeg with his family four years ago.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 7, 2009 A11

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