August/September 2005

http://alawda.newjerseysolidarity.org

Disengagements, Engagements and Healthy Paranoia

Being a Palestinian in the US, one is often rendered invisible within the mainstream landscape of the American society. Much of what is known about my people is often guided by misinformation and biased misconceptions orchestrated by the mainstream media. More notable though is the sense of general indifference and disinterest with who we as Palestinians are and what we as a nation are going through in our struggle against oppression, occupation displacement and the ongoing threat to our existence. It is only during selected 'historic' events usually publicized by the well-orchestrated Israeli-led campaigns, that we are rediscovered by the US media. Thus for example we become visible during 'historic' events such as the signing of the so-called Oslo agreements, the revitalization of the second Palestinian Uprising (Intifada) - particularly when the resistance was able to exact losses on the Israeli side, Arafat's death, the election of Abbas into office and most recently the Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip. These events are often construed as another 'epic' development in the Israeli-Palestinian saga placing Palestinians in the lime light for a typical "90 second news scoop" asking our quick reactions on how we think these events are going to affect the future of the 'peace process' between the two sides.

In that tradition, I was recently approached by a local news reporter to comment on the most recent chapter in this epic conflict - Sharon's disengagement plans. At the time the 'terrible' pictures of Jewish settlers torn out of 'their houses' were already dominating the Western media empathizing with the 'human tragedy' it entails. Clearly a blatant distortion of reality-fully identified with right-wing militant Jewish settlers - a propaganda line that was too excessive even for the Israeli media to follow. Anyhow, as I was being questioned by the local reporter on the Gaza disengagement plan, it was clear that he was getting increasingly frustrated with my answers. "Don't you see it at least as a 'half-step' forward" he asked? "Its more like a lean back before a new full blown attack" I answered, slightly amused by the unintended rhyme in my response. I clearly wasn't living up to the aura of optimism this reporter specifically and the US media generally was trying to contrive from Sharon's disengagement plan. It was after all a prelude to the next stage in this media campaign that would ultimately reinvent his image from the butcher of Sabra and Shatilla massacre to the "man of peace". I proceeded to explain to the reporter that the Israeli withdrawal was merely a strategic one; that Gaza was still under occupation, kept as the largest open-air prison in the world with over 1.3 million people caged in a 360 sq km strip of land; that the military and economic restraints are even more belligerently imposed by the Israeli occupying army; that the Palestinian Authority would be expected to act as prison guards rather than a self-governing body; that the few settlements dismantled in the Gaza strip came at a cost of expanding the settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem; that 80% of the Palestinian population in Gaza Strip are displaced refugees waiting to return to their lands and villages within Palestine.

As I struggled to use this small window into the Western media to get in as many points as I can that would make my people's suffering known to the world, I realized that I was probably coming out as being too pessimistic and skeptical. But then that seems to be the onus of most Palestinians as well as those solidarity activists that have joined them in their struggle for justice. Over the past 57 years we have all become increasingly skeptical and dubious of anything the Zionist or pro-Zionist US policy has to offer. The harsh lessons of the past, dispossession, expulsion, massacres, land grabs, occupations and Apartheid-like practices have kept our reality testing in check - nothing the Zionist government or military does can be regarded as coming out of their good intentions or that it is random in that respect. If anything history has taught us that plans are laid, stored and later retrieved from the drawer only to be implemented when the global timing is ripe. These have historically been documented (within the Zionist archives for that matter) and typically included well devised plans of massacres and terrorization internationally recognized as ethnic cleansing practices.

Thus we have become a skeptical nation - paranoid some might say - 'looking for overarching conspiracy theories to explain everything'. Given these propositions I would be more inclined to accept 'healthy' paranoia as an informal diagnosis. Regardless of what feelings of persecutions and victimization we experience as a Palestinian collective, the facts on the ground were invariably self evident - massacres, detentions, road blocks, confiscation of land, occupation and many more transgressions that exacerbated the real not imagined suffering of the Palestinian people. It is tempting to proceed with this argument further distinguishing this 'healthy' paranoia from the more pathologically delusional one. One that insists on deliberately confounding victimizer with victims and presenting a convoluted picture of reality where the image of the occupying oppressive soldier at the checkpoint or the sniper taking aim at the eyes of Palestinian children used as target practices, are "reinvented" to depict them as the ultimate victims in this conflict - the Jewish minority fighting for survival in "a sea of hostile Arabs". Tempting as it may be the delusions of Zionist paranoia, is a subject for another essay that deserves further attention beyond the scope of this article.

To come back to the main thrust of my argument, Sharon's disengagement plan is part of a larger Zionist scheme that we need to be cognizant of. We cannot afford the luxury of accepting the "disengagement plan" at face value as a means to unilaterally disengage form Palestinian populated areas. It should be acknowledged though that this has been a military defeat for the Israeli army that was unable to protect themselves and their settlements in face of an unyielding steadfast Gazan resistance. So what is behind Sharon's strategic move? By now much have been said and discussed about the disengagement plan and many competent analyses were made to unravel the (not so) hidden motives behind it.

In the same vein, I would add my own understanding of how this plan would impact of Palestinians' lives and its implications on the Palestinian question at large. Sharon's choice of word - unilateral disengagement - though appropriate in some respect is still misleading. It is misleading in that it is assumed to be disengagement from Palestinians. The plan in that respect would never achieve its stated goal. I would also claim that it is not intend to do so in the first place. The disengagement plan aspires to disengage Palestinian population from each other.

However, the hope for Palestinian disengagement is not merely a physical one - this is already established through the implementation of the Israeli Apartheid Bantu system in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza, the separation of the '48 Palestinians living within the Israeli state from the rest of the Palestinian people, and the denial of the right of return for the Palestinian refugees living in exile. Sharon, I contend is seeking a metaphysical disengagement of the Palestinian question. By withdrawing settlements from Gaza, Israel would like to create an illusion that the occupation in the Gaza strip has ended. Recent statements made by Mofaz and others in Sharon's cabinet immediately after the Gaza strategic withdrawal, alludes to these intentions. With the Gaza Strip no longer recognized by the international community as occupied lands, they hope it would no longer be seen as part of the larger Palestinian question. Similarly efforts to assimilate Palestinian living in refugee camps in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon would help dissolve them out of the equation. Restrictions on '48 Palestinians to maintain their political, social and familial connections to the brother and sisters in the West Bank and Gaza would further ensure their disengagement from the larger Palestinian collective. Indeed the most challenging predicament facing Palestinians today is these efforts to tear down the Palestinian body into smaller organ parts, reduce them to pieces until they are dissolved away.

The strength and steadfastness of the Palestinian people through almost a century of ongoing struggle for self-determination was maintained by their national political awareness to their connection to the land of Palestine. With the loss of almost 80% of the land in 1948, and the transforming most of the Palestinian society into scattered refugee communities the only resource left was our historical narrative and unwavering belief in our just cause - all existing in the metaphysical realm of our existence. That is what Sharon intentionally or unintentionally is now trying to get at and what we need to be cognizant about. Knowing the Palestinian people I am confident that these efforts to dissolve us as a people and our just cause would prove futile. However the threats are real and we would need to be stronger than ever to counter them. The key strategy for resistance is first and foremost "tawasol' - that is an engaging alliance between all factions of the Palestinian people.