A Flaw in the Geometry of Resettlement & Exodus

Jewish supremacist trash-talk is nothing new:

"I've always wanted to boycott the Palestinians for growing a society that celebrates suicide bombers and rewards those who murder Jews. I can't think of a single product which they export, however, besides jihad. I'm already not buying that." (Daniel Lewis, Rushcutters Bay, NSW, Letter, The Australian, 4/4/11)

Edward Said must have had something like the above in mind when he wrote the following resonant words in 1986:

"Identity - who we are, where we come from, what we are - is difficult to maintain in exile. Most other people take their identity for granted. Not the Palestinian, who is required to show proofs of identity more or less constantly. It is not only that we are regarded as terrorists, but that our existence as native Arab inhabitants of Palestine, with primordial rights there (and not elsewhere), is either denied or challenged. And there is more. Such as it is, our existence is linked negatively to encomiums about Israel's democracy, achievements, excitement; in much Western rhetoric we have slipped into the place occupied by Nazis and anti-Semites; collectively, we can aspire to little except political anonymity and resettlement; we are known for no actual achievement, no characteristic worthy of esteem, except the effrontery of disrupting Middle East peace. Some Israeli settlers on the West Bank say: 'The Palestinians can stay here, with no rights, as resident aliens'. Other Israelis are less kind. We have no known Einsteins, no Chagall, no Freud or Rubinstein to protect us with a legacy of glorious achievements. We have had no Holocaust to protect us with the world's compassion. We are 'other', and opposite, a flaw in the geometry of resettlement and exodus. Silence and discretion veil the hurt, slow the body searches, soothe the sting of loss." (After the Last Sky, pp 16-17)