In reporting the brutal murder in Melbourne of Palestinian Israeli exchange student Aya Maasarwe, the Australian corporate media have referred to her either as an 'Israeli' or an 'Arab Israeli', the latter being the preferred Zionist term for the Palestinian minority who managed to avoid being driven into stateless exile in 1948, were kept under military lock and key until 1966, and who only thereafter received Israeli - second class - citizenship.
I can't recall seeing Aya anywhere in the media described as what she was, a 'Palestinian Israeli'. Here is yet another example of how a hopelessly biased, Zionised media misrepresents, marginalises, and erases Palestinian reality.
Another Palestinian Israeli, the poet Mahmoud Darwish, wrote the following lines, taken from his 1966 poem, A Lover from Palestine. He was, of course, referring to his stolen homeland. My thoughts are of Aya Maasarwe as I type Darwish's words here:
Palestinian, her eyes and her tattoo
Palestinian, her name
Palestinian, her dreams and her sorrow
Palestinian, her scarf, her feet, and her body
Palestinian, her words and her silence
Palestinian, her voice
Palestinian, her birth and her death
Showing posts with label Mahmoud Darwish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mahmoud Darwish. Show all posts
Sunday, January 20, 2019
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Overstating the Sunni-Shi'a Divide
In sounding the death knell of pan-Arabism/secularism in the Middle East, the Lowy Institute's "resident fellow" Rodger Shanahan has it down just a little too pat:
"It appears that the days of the Arab secularists are gone. There is no longer a contest of ideas in the Arab world, only a contest whom God does and doesn't favour. Today the dominant narrative is one of religion, which in turn is largely a reprisal [sic] of the centuries-old contest between the two main branches of Islam. Religion marks a rather more prosaic battle for political influence between Shia Iran and Sunni states led by Saudi Arabia." (Pan-Arabism loses ground in religious divide, The Australian, 4/5/13)
If, as he contends, "[s]ectarianism is now a more defining characteristic than ethnicity or tribal affiliation, and each of them is more powerful than nationality," then how does he explain the results of the following polls?:
"Despite the Sunni-Shi'a divide - especially in Arab states where Shi'a populations are majorities or pluralities such as Iraq, Lebanon and Bahrain - which is often matched by a division in attitude about Iran in these countries along sectarian lines, Sunni Arab populations elsewhere tend to base their views of Iran on issues that go far beyond this divide, and on some of which they are inclined to favor Iran. In polls I have conducted in six Arab countries - Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Lebanon - Iran consistently placed third on the list of choices provided by respondents when asked to identify the 'two most threatening states', indicating that many Arabs do see it as a threat. But what is more important in this case is that Arabs see Israel and the United States as presenting far greater threats. For example, in 2009, 88% of those polled identified Israel, 76% identified the United States, and only 12% identified Iran as one of the two greatest threats. There was some change a year after the start of the Arab uprisings in the November 2011 poll, although Iran remained far behind Israel and the United States: 71% identified Israel, 59% identified the United States, and 18% identified Iran as one of the two greatest threats." (Arab Perspectives on Iran's Role in a Changing Middle East, Shibley Telhami, Wilson Centre/USIP, February 2013)
Likewise, Shanahan's misrepresentation of Hamas and his use of Palestine's national poet, the late Mahmoud Darwish, to support his simplistic thesis, is far from scholarly. Here's his concluding paragraph:
"Nowadays, the Muslim Brotherhood that inspired Hamas's Islamist persuasion, and Iran that nurtured its religious character have fatally riven an already divided Palestine. The despair of the original Palestinian nationalists at what religion has done to Arab inclusivity was summed up by the famous Palestinian poet and activist Mahmoud Darwish near the end of his life when he famously noted of Hamas's triumph in Gaza that 'We have woken from a coma to see a mono-coloured flag (of Hamas) do away with the four-colour flag (of Palestine)'."
Hm... doesn't that first sentence rather contradict Shanahan's Sunni vs Shi'a thesis?
Now to Hamas:
First, as its full name - the Islamic Resistance Movement - suggests, Hamas is focused solely on resistance to, and liberation from, Israeli settler-colonial aggression in Palestine. National liberation, not pan-Islamism, is its raison d'etre. As such it has little in common, Zionist propaganda notwithstanding, with outfits such as Al-Qaeda.
Second, since the Oslo 'peace press', Hamas embodies more of the traditional Palestinian national program than its secular Palestinian rival, Fatah.
In short, Hamas is as much a nationalist organization as it is an Islamic one.
As for Mahmoud Darwish, he was not condemning Hamas alone, or suggesting it had dropped Palestine for Islam, the impression Shanahan gives, but reacting specifically to the democratically elected Hamas government's preemptive coup against the forces of the notorious CIA-backed Palestinian Fatah stooge Muhammad Dahlan in July 2007.*
That his words were directed at both camps is apparent in his following (ironic) words: "We have triumphed. Gaza won its independence from the West Bank. One people now have two states, two prisons who don't greet each other. We are victims dressed in executioner's clothing."**
[*See my 6/3/08 post Mainsewer Media Clueless in Gaza;**See Failing Darwish's legacy, Sumia Ibrahim, The Electronic Intifada, 19/8/08.]
"It appears that the days of the Arab secularists are gone. There is no longer a contest of ideas in the Arab world, only a contest whom God does and doesn't favour. Today the dominant narrative is one of religion, which in turn is largely a reprisal [sic] of the centuries-old contest between the two main branches of Islam. Religion marks a rather more prosaic battle for political influence between Shia Iran and Sunni states led by Saudi Arabia." (Pan-Arabism loses ground in religious divide, The Australian, 4/5/13)
If, as he contends, "[s]ectarianism is now a more defining characteristic than ethnicity or tribal affiliation, and each of them is more powerful than nationality," then how does he explain the results of the following polls?:
"Despite the Sunni-Shi'a divide - especially in Arab states where Shi'a populations are majorities or pluralities such as Iraq, Lebanon and Bahrain - which is often matched by a division in attitude about Iran in these countries along sectarian lines, Sunni Arab populations elsewhere tend to base their views of Iran on issues that go far beyond this divide, and on some of which they are inclined to favor Iran. In polls I have conducted in six Arab countries - Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Lebanon - Iran consistently placed third on the list of choices provided by respondents when asked to identify the 'two most threatening states', indicating that many Arabs do see it as a threat. But what is more important in this case is that Arabs see Israel and the United States as presenting far greater threats. For example, in 2009, 88% of those polled identified Israel, 76% identified the United States, and only 12% identified Iran as one of the two greatest threats. There was some change a year after the start of the Arab uprisings in the November 2011 poll, although Iran remained far behind Israel and the United States: 71% identified Israel, 59% identified the United States, and 18% identified Iran as one of the two greatest threats." (Arab Perspectives on Iran's Role in a Changing Middle East, Shibley Telhami, Wilson Centre/USIP, February 2013)
Likewise, Shanahan's misrepresentation of Hamas and his use of Palestine's national poet, the late Mahmoud Darwish, to support his simplistic thesis, is far from scholarly. Here's his concluding paragraph:
"Nowadays, the Muslim Brotherhood that inspired Hamas's Islamist persuasion, and Iran that nurtured its religious character have fatally riven an already divided Palestine. The despair of the original Palestinian nationalists at what religion has done to Arab inclusivity was summed up by the famous Palestinian poet and activist Mahmoud Darwish near the end of his life when he famously noted of Hamas's triumph in Gaza that 'We have woken from a coma to see a mono-coloured flag (of Hamas) do away with the four-colour flag (of Palestine)'."
Hm... doesn't that first sentence rather contradict Shanahan's Sunni vs Shi'a thesis?
Now to Hamas:
First, as its full name - the Islamic Resistance Movement - suggests, Hamas is focused solely on resistance to, and liberation from, Israeli settler-colonial aggression in Palestine. National liberation, not pan-Islamism, is its raison d'etre. As such it has little in common, Zionist propaganda notwithstanding, with outfits such as Al-Qaeda.
Second, since the Oslo 'peace press', Hamas embodies more of the traditional Palestinian national program than its secular Palestinian rival, Fatah.
In short, Hamas is as much a nationalist organization as it is an Islamic one.
As for Mahmoud Darwish, he was not condemning Hamas alone, or suggesting it had dropped Palestine for Islam, the impression Shanahan gives, but reacting specifically to the democratically elected Hamas government's preemptive coup against the forces of the notorious CIA-backed Palestinian Fatah stooge Muhammad Dahlan in July 2007.*
That his words were directed at both camps is apparent in his following (ironic) words: "We have triumphed. Gaza won its independence from the West Bank. One people now have two states, two prisons who don't greet each other. We are victims dressed in executioner's clothing."**
[*See my 6/3/08 post Mainsewer Media Clueless in Gaza;**See Failing Darwish's legacy, Sumia Ibrahim, The Electronic Intifada, 19/8/08.]
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
The Palestinian Wedding
"Israeli soldiers shot and killed an Arab fugitive who failed to obey their orders to halt in an orange grove on the outskirts of Gaza last night. A man fleeing with the fugitive was wounded and captured. The deceased was identified as a former Gaza magistrate, Shauki el-Farah, who was arrested by Israeli authorities on Aug. 9 for allegedly transmitting military information to the El-Fatah terrorist organization. He escaped from prison on Aug. 11 and had been the object of a widespread manhunt." (Jewish Telegraphic Agency Daily News Bulletin, 17/9/68)
***
This is the wedding without an end.
In a boundless courtyard,
On an endless night.
This is the Palestinian wedding:
Never will lover reach lover
Except as martyr or fugitive.
Mahmoud Darwish
***
This is the wedding without an end.
In a boundless courtyard,
On an endless night.
This is the Palestinian wedding:
Never will lover reach lover
Except as martyr or fugitive.
Mahmoud Darwish
Saturday, January 17, 2009
No choice but to resist...
Operation Defensive Shield (29/3/02-21/4/02) was Israel's last major military rampage in the West Bank. The Israeli terrorist forces used the most advanced weaponry at their disposal: Merkava tanks, Apache attack helicopters and F-15 fighter jets. When it was over, the economic and social structure of the West Bank lay in ruins, homes were destroyed, 220 Palestinians were dead, hundreds more were injured, and thousands were imprisoned. The following words, from Palestinian writer and academic Edward Said (1935-2003) and poet Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008), written during the operation, are as relevant today as they were then. I dedicate them to the Resistance and people of Gaza:-
"The most important lesson for all of us to understand about ourselves is manifest in the terrible tragedies of what Israel is now doing in the Occupied Territories. The fact is that we are a people and a society, and despite Israel's ferocious attack against the Palestinian Authority, our society still functions. We are a people because we have a functioning society that goes on - and has gone on for the past 54 years - despite every sort of abuse, every cruel turn of history, every misfortune we have suffered, every tragedy we have gone through as a people. Our greatest victory over Israel is that peole like Sharon and his kind do not have the capacity to see that, and this is why they are doomed despite their great power and their awful, inhuman cruelty. We have surmounted the tragedies and memories of our past, whereas such Israelis as Sharon have not. He will go to his grave only as an Arab-killer and a failed politician who brought more unrest and insecurity to his people. It must surely be the legacy of a leader that he should have something behind upon which future generations will build. Sharon, Shaul Mofaz, and all the others associated with them in this bullying, sadistic campaign of death and carnage will leave nothing except gravestones. Negation breeds negation. As Palestinians, I think we can say we have left a vision and a society that has survived every attempt to kill it. And that is something. It is for the generation of my children and yours to go on from there, critically, rationally, with hope and forbearance." (From Thinking Ahead, Al-Ahram, 4/4/02)
"This is a war for war's sake, since it has no other aim than its self-perpetuation. Everyone knows this; and once again, the sword will prove incapable of crushing the spirit... In every corner crimes are being committed. On every street lie the bodies of the murdered. On every wall is blood. The living are deprived of the basic right to life, and the martyrs are denied graves in which to rest in peace. Above all, however, what we are now seeing is the expression of the will of a people that has no choice but to resist... Television has made it unecessary to explain ourselves: now our blood is shed in every home and is on every conscience. From this day on, he who does not become Palestinian in his heart will never understand his true moral identity... In the face of the political genocide being offered by the American-funded Israeli occupation of their land, [the Palestinians] offer their steadfast resistance no matter what the cost. Backs against the wall, their eyes fixed upon hope, they show a strength of spirit for which their can be no facile explanation... What concerns us is the defence of our national and human existence - even if our backs are up against the wall. We have absolutely no other option." (From A War for War's Sake, Al-Ahram, 11/4/02)
"The most important lesson for all of us to understand about ourselves is manifest in the terrible tragedies of what Israel is now doing in the Occupied Territories. The fact is that we are a people and a society, and despite Israel's ferocious attack against the Palestinian Authority, our society still functions. We are a people because we have a functioning society that goes on - and has gone on for the past 54 years - despite every sort of abuse, every cruel turn of history, every misfortune we have suffered, every tragedy we have gone through as a people. Our greatest victory over Israel is that peole like Sharon and his kind do not have the capacity to see that, and this is why they are doomed despite their great power and their awful, inhuman cruelty. We have surmounted the tragedies and memories of our past, whereas such Israelis as Sharon have not. He will go to his grave only as an Arab-killer and a failed politician who brought more unrest and insecurity to his people. It must surely be the legacy of a leader that he should have something behind upon which future generations will build. Sharon, Shaul Mofaz, and all the others associated with them in this bullying, sadistic campaign of death and carnage will leave nothing except gravestones. Negation breeds negation. As Palestinians, I think we can say we have left a vision and a society that has survived every attempt to kill it. And that is something. It is for the generation of my children and yours to go on from there, critically, rationally, with hope and forbearance." (From Thinking Ahead, Al-Ahram, 4/4/02)
"This is a war for war's sake, since it has no other aim than its self-perpetuation. Everyone knows this; and once again, the sword will prove incapable of crushing the spirit... In every corner crimes are being committed. On every street lie the bodies of the murdered. On every wall is blood. The living are deprived of the basic right to life, and the martyrs are denied graves in which to rest in peace. Above all, however, what we are now seeing is the expression of the will of a people that has no choice but to resist... Television has made it unecessary to explain ourselves: now our blood is shed in every home and is on every conscience. From this day on, he who does not become Palestinian in his heart will never understand his true moral identity... In the face of the political genocide being offered by the American-funded Israeli occupation of their land, [the Palestinians] offer their steadfast resistance no matter what the cost. Backs against the wall, their eyes fixed upon hope, they show a strength of spirit for which their can be no facile explanation... What concerns us is the defence of our national and human existence - even if our backs are up against the wall. We have absolutely no other option." (From A War for War's Sake, Al-Ahram, 11/4/02)
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Mahmoud Darwish: 1941-2008
This is the wedding without an end,
In a boundless courtyard,
On an endless night.
This is the Palestinian wedding:
Never will lover reach lover
Except as martyr or fugitive.
From Blessed be that which has not come!
Translated by A M Elmessiri
In a boundless courtyard,
On an endless night.
This is the Palestinian wedding:
Never will lover reach lover
Except as martyr or fugitive.
From Blessed be that which has not come!
Translated by A M Elmessiri
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