In Memory of the September Victims. Where We Should Start! Dr Salim Nazzal
from Dr Salim nazzal -
The massacres of September 11th in the US have raised old and new questions alike, which have not been responded to before.
In Memory of the September Victims. Where We Should Start!
Al-Jazeerah, September 18, 2006
The massacres of September 11th in the US have raised old and new questions alike, which have not been responded to before. Perhaps part of the human tragedy is that humans open their eyes in times of great catastrophe. Only then, they begin a process of evaluation and research to find out what really happened and why. To link between the September Sabra and Shatila massacres of 1982, and the September 2001 massacres in America, there is no doubt that the murdered Palestinians in September (by the hand of the right wing Lebanese forces, and the support of Israel) wanted to raise their families in peace, just like the murdered Americans in 2001.
The only difference between the massacres of the Palestinians in September 1982, and the massacres of the Americans of September 2001 is the selective memory of the "civilized" world! Unfortunately, the world remembers the victims of the strong, but very few remember the victims of the poor. The September attack in 2001 opened the eyes of the world to the importance of standing against fanaticism and terrorism. The September Sabra and Shatila massacres didn't open the eyes of that same world on the Palestinian continuous tragedy. And I would even say, if the victims of September 1982 had attracted enough attention, the world could have possibly avoided a repeated bloody September. The painful question, in this regard is, do we as humans need catastrophic tragedies to open our eyes to the real world, away from our ideological glasses?
Therefore, it is not enough to condemn the murderers of September 1982, and September 2001.The answer to such atrocities is to dry the sources which produce injustice and intolerance. Regardless of faith or ethnicity murderers belong to one culture, which is the culture of death. All know the golden proverb, it is not enough to curse the darkness, and instead we need to light candles. The policy of cursing darkness by creating more dark spots is the worst possible solution. Therefore, to reject the culture of death, and to construct the culture of life, we need to address the root of problem. Removing the blades from the trees, can only postpone the problem at hand, to the next season. We need to dig deep into the problem to find the adequate solution.
Addressing the fanatical phenomenon cannot be solved by other fanatical phenomena. Both phenomenon belong to the same genre, based on the good/evil principle, which has lead only to wars and conflict: the only solution to dry the sources of fanaticism and closed mindedness is to address the socio-political problems, to provide a promising future for generations of Arabs who never know what freedom, democracy, or human rights means. And whom their anger can be easily used by radical elements.
The problem lies within the White House, which supports the oppressive Arab regimes, which have made Arab homelands prisoners. More than anytime in the past, America needs to break the policy of supporting the Israeli state, which due to this support; Israel is in constant defiance of international law. America must understand that its biased position in favor of Israel is a permanent recite for hate and conflicts. America must know that its discourse about democracy is not taken seriously by the democratic and liberal Arabs, as long as it supports the Israeli terror in the region. That if they want their message of democracy and human rights to be taken seriously, America needs to send a clear message to the Palestinians and the Arabs, that the US runs the American policy in the Middle East, and not Israel or the Zionist lobby in the US.
Palestinians who suffer from the Israeli occupation feel the direct responsibly of the Us towards its role in nourishing what Khalid Amareyeh describes as “39 years of death ,bereavement, savagery, demolition, roadblocks, persecution, and repression “ (Palestine-info.co.uk. August ).These are serious problems that cause all the mistrust and the tensions. The problem with America is not cultural by any means. Even if some cultural differences is found (which is a human phenomenon) Palestinians share Americans universal values such as the value of freedom, human rights.
For all these reasons, I disagree with some views that a great part of the problem between Arabs and the US is a matter of misunderstanding. How could we consider this a lack of knowledge about Arabs and Muslims, when in this century, according to Edward Said, more than 60,000 books have been written in the West about Arabs and Muslims? This is not a position of misunderstanding, but rather a political position. I think the problem is political and not religious at all: if the problem in the American support to the Israeli occupation is not political, what is politics about?
The real challenge which America must face is to help in promoting a stable middle east which can not be done without a just solution to the Palestinian question To do so, we need an energetic policy which puts fact on the ground, and stop for good, the Israeli policy of manipulating and misinterpretation terminologies. Israeli occupation is a fact. Israeli illegal settlements are a fact. Israel oppressive policy is a fact. All these are objective facts, grounded by the UN resolutions, and thousands of reports done by the Red Cross, Amnesty International, the Human Rights Watch, etc. If America is serious in finding a fair solution to the Palestinian question, it must start from these facts. If America is interested in fighting terror, the worst way is to support another terror. If America chooses to be fair, the answer is in forcing Israel to abide by the UN resolutions, without any delay. Shedding tears on the fallen in the 9th of September and at the same time creating conditions for more Septembers in America or Palestine is a policy which lacks the minimum of common sense and definitely lead to more conflicts which could be avoided.
Dr Salim Nazzal is A palestinian Norwegian historian.
