On optimism and the struggle

By Mazin Qumsiyeh

Have you noticed how there is now a "peace process industry" for Palestine/Israel and a "democracy industry" for Iraq? Those accepted into this industry as key profiteers seem to adopt the same language. Some hope for crumbs from the table of their oppressor. What is being gobbled on the oppressors' table is nothing short of humanity, people's natural resources (land, water, etc.) and, more important, the future of our children (Israelis, Palestinians, Americans, etc.).

But between the pessimism of those out of power and the greed of those in power is there room for optimism? There is room for optimism if one thinks that the good struggle is not about winning in a binary world with zero-sum games but about living life as intended and by recognising that accomplishment may mean just checking the unlimited accumulation of power based on greed.

By definition, those who are motivated by greed have the handicap of not being able to set internal limits on lust for power. Teach-ins, mass demonstrations, boycotts, divestments and other forms of struggle were critical for the civil rights movement, for the final withdrawal of US forces from Vietnam, for the final end of US and corporate support for Apartheid South Africa, and for just about every significant social movement.

But the struggle is also important in less obvious situations. Without the mass, good, struggle, US neocons would likely have killed far more Iraqi civilians and perhaps even invaded Syria and/or Iran. They would have had no interest in public relations campaigns about the abuses in Iraq and Guantanamo. They would have had no interest in reversing such ludicrous ideas as changing Iraqi flag with its Arab character into one with an anti-Arab character. They would have not started any investigations of the massive financial riggings and corruption.

In Palestine, unchecked power would have finished the job of ethnically cleansing the native Palestinians (started in Nov. 1947). It is true that colonisation activities continue while the peace process industry hums along, trying to co-opt any resistance to the occupation and land confiscation. It is true that one is reminded of the same media hype following the signings of Oslo I and Oslo II, when the Palestinian National Authority under Yasser Arafat was working hard to contain and stop any acts of resistance. (I remember even the CIA and Shin Bet issued glowing reports on this effort). Then, as now, we have constant talk by the Israeli government of "disengagement" and "redeployment" while Palestinian quislings like Mohammad Dahlan talked in the wishful-thinking terms of Israeli "withdrawal" and a Palestinian state!

Both Israeli officials and now the "acceptable" Palestinian officials speak the same general language in most areas (for example, assiduously avoiding any mention of compliance with international law, human rights, ending occupation, ending colonisation activities, etc.). Meanwhile, Israel continued its "bulldozer policy": land confiscation, colony building and canonisation/ghettoisation of the increasingly impoverished Palestinians. But on the other hand, there are indeed positive signs and they are not decidedly about the elections of Dr Mahmoud Abbas:

- A growing and effective movement is asserting human rights, forcing some politicians to take notice. Condoleezza Rice is now talking about a viable and contiguous Palestinian state and Israel is backtracking on some home confiscations in Arab East Jerusalem.

- A divestment and boycott campaign is growing despite all the mean PR campaign. Most recently, the University of Wisconsin added its voice to dozens of other groups (including church groups) calling for boycotts and divestments.

- The International Court of Justice ruled last July not only that the segregation wall was illegal but also that all Israeli settlements/colonies in the areas occupied in 1967 are illegal (including East Jerusalem). This was combined with the recent statement by UN officials explaining that Israel remains an occupying power per the Geneva Convention definitions) even if it "redeploys" its troops and settlers.

- The Palestinians have never given up their struggle for freedom despite the incredible pressures and history of ethnic cleansing and destruction (so far, nearly two thirds of the nine million Palestinians are refugees or displaced people and over 200,000 have been killed in the past 56 years).

These and other examples of good things grow despite those in power in a space created by those challenging such power. Life is always a struggle and if it has any secret, it is precisely that it is a struggle and that progress happens as a result of so many good people constantly challenging and speaking truth to power ("trouble makers" in a good sense).

On a personal level, the biggest victory is not to capitulate and not to sell your soul to the highest bidder, but instead, to live and work for peace with justice; as the Buddhist saying goes "having joyful participation in the sorrows of this world".

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The writer is author of "Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle". He contributed this article to The Jordan Times.

This article was published in the Friday-Saturday, February 11-12, 2005 edition of the Jordan Times. It is used here with permission.