I am grateful for the Lebanese novelist Elias Khouri for writing this article about the Gaza disaster. Unlike other leftist and secular intellectuals, who want us to believe that what happened is a grand defeat for US and Israeli policies executed by the honorable Hamas, he is rightly horrified at the violations. As he puts it, the corruption of some of Fateh and its security forces does not justify the disgrace that Hamas committed. Below is my translation of the the opening section.
لا املك كلمات تصف مشهد انتهاك بيت ياسر عرفات في غزة، او الدوس علي
صورته، ونهب بيت خليل الوزير، ولا يستطيع احد اقناعي بأن تحطيم الرموز الفلسطينية، والسخرية منها، تعبر عن شيء له اسم آخر سوي العار.
السياسة وتحليل الانقلاب العسكري الذي قامت به حماس في غزة يأتي لاحقا، ولا ادري اذا كان يفيد في شيء، وانا اري علي الشاشة الصغيرة مشاهد الكبائر. فلسطينيون يلبسون اقنعة سوداء ويصرخون بالتكبير مجبرين اسراهم من الفلسطينيين علي التعري ورفع الأيدي! اعدام سميح المدهون علي شاشة فضائية الأقصي التابعة لحماس، وانزال العلم الفلسطيني عن المباني العامة في غزة بعد احتلالها واستبداله بعلم أخضر!
حلّ القناع مكان الكوفية التي لبسها الفلسطينيون في المدن ايام ثورة 1936 تضامنا مع المناضل الشهيد عزالدين القسام، واليوم يأتي من تسمي باسم القسام كي يدوس علي الكوفية ويستبدلها بالقناع!
لن يقنعني الجـــواب بأن الكثـــــير من رجال السلطة ورجال الأمن فاسدون. فالفساد لا يعـــــالج بالافساد الاخلاقي الذي يدمر رمــــوز فلسطـــــين التي مـــــات في سبيل الـــــدفاع عنها عشرات الوف الشهداء. ولن تقــــنعني لغة التـــــذاكي التي تدعو الي الوحــــدة الوطنية فــــوق برك الدماء والاذلال والمهانة.
انها لحظة للحزن والأسي.
"I don't have words to describe the scene of violation of Yaser Arafat's house in Gaza, the stamping on his picture, and the looting of Khalil al Wazir's house. Nobody can convince me that the destruction of Palestinian symbols and their degradation has any other name but disgrace.
Politics and analysis of the military coup which Hamas carried out in Gaza should come later, although I don't see the point in light of the disaster I'm watching on TV: Palestinians wearing black masks, screaming "God is greater," forcing their Palestinian prisoners to undress and raise their arms; the execution of Samih al Madhoun on Hamas's Al Aqsa TV; the taking down of the Palestinian flag from public buildings in Gaza and the raising of green flags instead!
The mask has replaced the koufeyeh which the Palestinians wore during the revolution of 1936 in solidarity with the fighter Izz el Deen al Qassam. Now, people who took his name are stamping on the koufeyeh and wearing masks instead.
I will not be convinced by the argument that many of the the Palestinian Authority men and security forces are corrupt. Corruption must not be countered with moral corruption that destroys the symbols of Palestine for whom tens of thousands have died. I will not be convinced by the clever language calling for national unity over pools of blood, humiliation, and degradation.
This is a moment of sadness and grief.....I could have never imagined, in my worst nightmares, a nightmare like this one.
6 comments:
I am shocked by reader's responses to Khouri's statement!
It can't get worse: the seductions of darkness are unbeatable!
I'm not absolving Hamas of its horrific actions the past week, but I still think the root of the infighting is Fatah's refusal -- egged on by the US & the EU - to accept its electoral loss last year.
ng,
Yes, but these are the Al Quds al Arabi readers so I'm not surprised. Some people's hatred of Fateh is blinding them to what is far more dangerous than Fateh.
Peter H,
Hamas crossed a very dangerous line that Fateh didn't dare cross. Its discourse that calls its opponents infidels and collaborators is a hundred times more dangerous than anything Fateh has ever said. It won't do to blame the embargo or Fateh's transgressions. Nothing, nothing, justifies what Hamas did.
I'm not justifying Hamas' assault, and certainly not throwing people off buildings and storming hospitals. But it's a fact that there were certain factions within Fateh -especially the faction assoicated with Mohammed Dahlan -- that have been seeking to overthrow Hamas since the January 2006 elections. Read the leaked report by Alvaro de Soto, or this aricle by Tony Karon.
Peter H,
Yes, there were such factions in Fateh and I hope they will be tried for their role in all of this. However, it's not them who transgressed, using their military might to grab power. Hamas is the one who did it. That is a fact. Had Dahlan and his group done it, I'd be condemning them. But they didn't. Hamas is the one who has been arming itself to the teeth, digging tunnels, and PLANNING (because what happened wasn't a spontaneous escalation). Arguing that Hamas had to do what it did as a pre-emptive strike doesn't carry much weight (as Ali Jaradat convincingly argued in an article I linked to recently). Doctrines of pre-emptive strikes are repulsive whether in Iraq or Gaza.
And the issue is not simply that Hamas threw people off buildings and stormed hospitals. They attacked national symbols that many Palestinians believe in regardless of how they feel about Fateh. They used a discourse that no body else is using that casts their opponents (any opponent)as infidels and traitors. What they did in Gaza is the logical conclusion of this discourse as much as of American and Israeli plans.
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