The Al Quds Al Arabi columnist Abdul Bari 'Atwan titled his most recent column "The Palestinians as Beggars." In addition to the title, he has these "brilliant" remarks to make: (my comments are in red)
الشعب الفلسطيني الذي كان دائما رمزا للجهاد والكرامة وعزة النفس اصبح شعبا متسولا كسولا متواكلا، يتعيش علي فتات المساعدات الغربية والعربية بفضل اتفاقات اوسلوورجالاته
"The Palestinian people who were always symbols for struggle and dignity has become a begging, lazy, dependent people, living off Western and Arab crumps because of Oslo and its men."
The Palestinians are under occupation and no one ever gave them aid that didn't have political strings attached. This includes Arab money, which dried up with the first Gulf War (some would say because of a kiss). So don't pretend that we have a new situation created by Oslo.
اصبح الشعب الفلسطيني شعبا من المتسولين، تستجدي قيادته فتات الاحسان من اوروبا وامريكا، وكأنهم ضحايا زلزال، او موجة جفاف، مثلهم مثل اقرانهم في اثيوبيا والصومال.
The Palestinians have become a people of beggars, its leadership asking alms in Europe and America, as if they were the victims of an earthquake or drought like those in Ethiopia and Somalia.
Clearly this idiot has no idea what an occupation means. It is like an earthquake and a drought. And I find the implied put downs of victims of droughts and earthquakes quite offensive on another level.
جوع الفلسطينيين ورقة قوة، وليس ورقة ضعف، لان هذه النمور الفلسطينية اذا جاعت، ستوجه غضبها الي سجانيها في تل ابيب وواشنطن، وستنعكس آثار جوعها دمارا في العديد من العواصم الاوروبية مثلما حدث في مرحلة السبعينات.
ولهذا يريدون ان يعودوها علي الكسل والاعتماد علي فتات المساعدات حتي ينسوا قضيتهم.
The hunger of the Palestinians is a strength not a weekness. Because if these Palestinian tigers starve they will direct their anger at their jailors in Tel Aviv and Washington, and their anger will leave a trail of destruction in many European capitals like it did in the 70s. They want them to be lazy and dependent on crumps so they can forget their cause.
So Palestinian hunger to him is another "card" in a game! Let them starve, then they will rebel. Brilliant strategy! The animalistic imagery is also offensive. Polls showed that Palestinians became less politicized during the second Intifada because of the hardened economic conditions. And his hope that the hungry Palestinians will attack Europe is despicable. The Palestinians have no reason to terrorize Europeans or Americans; their occupiers are the Israeli government. He should save his brilliant ideas for his friend Bin Laden.
اضيها. ومن المؤسف اكثر ان غالبية هذه الاموال تذهب الي الخزينة الاسرائيلية، وتنعش الاقتصاد الاسرائيلي، لان من وقعوا اتفاق اوسلو، وبروتوكولاته، ربطوا الاقتصاد الفلسطيني بنظيره الاسرائيلي، وجعلوه زائدة دودية ملتصقة بالمصران الاسرائيلي الاقتصادي الغلي
He laments the most of the money goes to the Israeli treasury and helps their economy because those who signed Oslo connected the Palestinian economy with the Israeli economy.
I can't believe this man! No clue of what occupation is. The occupied territories have always been economically dependent on Israel. This is not Oslo's doing.
ه. يجب ان يعيد هذا الشعب لكوفيته رمزيتها وعذريتها وطهارتها الثورية، تلك
This people must return to its Kufeyyeh its symbolism and its revolutionary virginity and purity.
Yes, a bit of sexism is in order. Virgin revolution my foot!
هذا الشعب الذي كان يعيش علي لقمة الخبز الجافة، ويأكل من زيتونته، ونتاج حاكورة بيته من الخضار والبقول، وبيض فراخه، وحليب معزته، هذا الشعب بات ينتظر آخر الشهر ليعرف ما اذا كان الراتب ستدفعه سلطة اوسلو ام لا
This people used to live on a crust of bread, and eat from its olive trees and the produce of its garden and the eggs of its chickens and the milk of its goat. This people now is waiting till the end of the month to see if the salary will be paid by the Oslo authority or not.
When was that? I must have missed it? And has he not heard of land confiscation? Of the occupied territories being a market for Israeli goods? Of closures? We have been eating sliced bread since 1967.
But how dare the poor Palestinian peasant be employed and ask for a salary, especially after he lost his land and was prevented from working in Israel? He should starve. It's more romantic.
2 comments:
Amal,
without going into Abdel Bari's editorial (he's an idiot and an ikhwani-in-disguise) it's clear that there are, and will always be two points of view:
-That of the WB and Gaza palestinians, that wants the clock to go back to 67 (minus jordan and egypt). For this point of view, the people outside palestine are part of the problem, not the solution. They're also unfairly blamed for the failure of Camp David 2000.
-That of the refugees, their descedents and the exiles. Those people don't have much of a clue as to what is happening inside. They also don't care how much suffering is inflicted on the people inside, as they believe the cause begins and ends with them.
So let's stop the charade. It's obvious now that the palestininians are not one people, but two- or three counting those with israeli passports. Whenever one negotiates, it uses the other two as mere cards to play. The PLO did that pre-93, and the Authority is doing it now. Since the interests of both the ones inside and outside will never line up, let each side fight its own fight.
I honestly don't see Abdul Bari's article, nor your response, but within the context of that divide. For what it is worth, though, your argument is much more sound than his, and your insight is way deeper, but the context is still undeniable.
il trovatore,
there are actually more than two points of view. Call it three, four, or more. Yes,the Palestinans are in different locations and sometimes have conflicting interests. The PLO unified Palestinians up to a point (except for Palestinians in Israel), but Oslo managed to bring the divisions to the surface. I'm not denying any of that. And if I tend to speak of the occupation more than I do of refugees in Lebanon or Syrian is simply because I grew up under occupation and it's the setting I most know about. It also happened that the theatre of confrontation is now in the occupied territories; this has been the case since the PLo's dispersal following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. I'm sure you know all of that.
Yet, the divisions are not neat. In the occupied territories there are also refugees. There are also "returnees"--those PLO Palestinians and their families who came back as part of Oslo. Those "returnees", in fact, make the backbone of the PA. There is tension hetween them and the "locals" (both refugees and non refugees). The Palestinians abroad are not of one mind or of the same interests: there are the refugees and there are those in the wider diaspora. But part of the work that nationalism does is creating a community, with shared interests, or at least perceived shared interests. The majority of the Palestinians still believe that nationalism is the best way for them to achieve justice. They may be wrong; may be they should just go for justice wherever they could find it.
My beef with Atwaan is with his fabrications of history in order to score a rhetorical point. You can be against the PA and Oslo; but he shouldn't get away with inventing a reality that never was. And I'm really glad you agree with me that he's an idiot.
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