|
The
New People |
||
|
|
It's No Accident, April 5, 2002 "Honor the
courage of the Palestinians"
By John Lacny
There are moments in history when people of conscience are
called to raise their voices in unison against cant, hypocrisy, and those libels on
a whole people that facilitate a program of wholesale race-murder. This
is one of those moments.
Anyone — even among those who fancy themselves "apolitical"
or unconcerned — who cannot spare a word of solidarity with the
Palestinian people in their hour of need (or who — even worse — side with the
aggressors) will stand condemned before the bar of history as an
accomplice to crimes against humanity.
It is easy to feel helpless at this moment, as the Israeli tanks
crash through Ramallah, Bethlehem, Nablus. Perhaps Hebron or Jericho will
have fallen by the time you read this, their men rounded up and blindfolded,
with even more homes destroyed, random people — including children —
gunned down in the streets, curfews imposed and entire cities placed under
house arrest without access to basic utilities like electricity or water.
And all of this — the latest round of humiliation imposed on a
people who have suffered under military occupation for thirty-five years —
facilitated by the settler-state's degraded paymaster, the United States
of America.
When the Bosnian Serbs talked about "ethnic cleansing," the
whole world recognized it as the bloody-minded euphemism for mass murder
that it was. Now as the Israelis talk openly of "creating a separation" (by
which they mean the confinement of Palestinians into even smaller and
more meticulously-policed ghettoes) and even "population transfer" (by
which they mean the wholesale expulsion of Palestinians from the Occupied
Territories), we indeed see outrage around the world, but not where it
counts: in the United States, from which Israel draws its sustenance.
Let us not kid ourselves: without the resolute action of decent
people, the future looks very grim. Ronnie Kasrils, the South African Minister
of Water Affairs who was a militant activist in the anti-apartheid
movement for decades, granted a fascinating interview to the Cairo-based
Al-Ahram Weekly. Kasrils points out that "The South African apartheid regime
never engaged in the sort of repression Israel is inflicting on the Palestinians.
For all the evils and atrocities of apartheid, the government never sent
tanks into black towns."
For statements like these, Kasrils — who is Jewish — has been
attacked by the leadership of major South African Jewish organizations,
but he brushes off such criticism: after all, these same organizations used
to denounce other Jews who struggled against apartheid.
Yet those of us who cherish human rights must embrace what
the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish has called "an incurable malady":
hope. And there is cause to do so.
As of this writing 398 Israeli reservists have signed a statement
(available online at seruv.org.il) saying that they will not serve in the
Occupied Territories, and there are even more "refuseniks" out there, even if
they have not signed.
The bulk of world opinion outside of the United States and the
top levels of a few other governments is resolutely on the side of the
Palestinians. Many a Zionist has used this as "proof" of the world's enduring
anti-Semitism, but as Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery says bluntly: "World public opinion is always on the side of the underdog. In this fight, we are
Goliath and they are David."
You will note that all of the inspiring examples I have cited so far
are Jews. This is no accident, because these courageous individuals
represent a break from the grotesque tribalism that has led to so much oppression
and bloodshed. These individuals recognize that the prerequisite for any
solution in the Middle East must be an unconditional end to the Occupation.
But above all, let us in these dark times honor the courage of
the Palestinians themselves who are fighting for their survival as a people.
For my part I will say it unequivocally: Victory to the Intifada.
"I am aware that many object to the severity of my
language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and
as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think,
or speak, or write with moderation. No! No! Tell a man whose house is
on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his
wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually
extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; but urge me not to
use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest — I will
not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch —
and I will be heard."
— William Lloyd Garrison, 1831
"It's No Accident" is a political column by John Lacny, a
student activist at the University of Pittsburgh. To subscribe to "It's No
Accident" send an e-mail to: lacny-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Contact John directly by e-mail to: jplst15+@pitt.edu.
You can change the settings of your subscription and read
archives ofthese columns at the website: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lacny.
There, under "Bookmarks," you can also find a small but
respectable list of links to progressive organizations and sources of information.
The New People
Table of Contents, May 2002
Return to the Thomas Merton Center Home Page