from Palestine by Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh
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- Published on Tuesday, 06 October 2015 10:45
- Written by editor
futile attempts to prevent it. The rampage by colonial settlers started
with the arson attack on the Dawabsheh family home several weeks ago
(mother, father and child martyred, second child still in hospital).
Reactions were expected and the settlers are now getting green light to
massacre Palestinians and attack their holy sites. The arrogance of
Netanyahu unleashing his settlers on AlAqsa mosque and then staring down
the United Nations and lecturing them about Iran was like a Greek myth:
tragic and theatrical. This theater of the absurd would be comical if it
was not so devastating. The silence of the US validates the widespread
belief here that this theater is intended to hide a deal struck between
Netanyahu and Obama whereby the US will let Israel proceed with its plans
to Judaize Jerusalem and annex other areas of occupied territories. All
politicians played their assigned role and Mahmoud Abbas continued... to beg
from position of weakness he created (by weakening his people). Yet,
freedom is coming sooner than most people believe. If you are interested to
learn more about why I say so and the relationship of resistance to hope,
please read my book available in many languages "Popular Resistance in
Palestine: A history of Hope and Empowerment" (see
http://qumsiyeh.org/popularresistanceinpalestine/ )
The importance of what is happening here to regional and international
issues will be highlighted in my upcoming talks. For example here is my
abstract for Rhodes Forum:
In this paper we discuss the current mayhem in the Arab world as an
inevitable outcome of a historical process originating in Europe 100 years
ago with three key dates: the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreements, the 1917 Balfour
and Cambon declarations in support of Zionism, the 1919 Paris "Peace
Conference", and the 1920 San Remo Conference. The unifying thread of these
key events was western support for fragmentation of the Arab world via
sectarian and ethnic divisions spearheaded by the formation of a Jewish
state in the heart of the area. Rational voices in the Western world argued
for a more collaborative approach that takes into account the interests of
the common people of those areas (i.e. self-determination). Such voices
were silenced because of elite and moneyed interests. Some of those
rational voices correctly predicted the mayhem that we see ourselves in
this year including extremism, terrorism, flood of refugees, and apartheid
racist systems. To reverse this trend is difficult but not impossible. We
must first recognize the above diagnosis and begin to reverse western
discourse that is now dominated by the USA (itself under significant
influence from the Israel or Zionist lobby). We show that there are really
only two paths:1) the path of status quo, militarization, and hegemony
aided by puppet dictors which leads to no winners, or 2) the path of human
rights and justice which leads to accommodation, justice, and equality. The
latter path is explored in detail showing that key to it is starting with
democratization in Western dependent countries like Israel and Saudi
Arabia. In particular, evidence shows that it is critical to allow
Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands and create a
secular pluralistic democracy in historic Palestine as this was and is the
main destabilizing element in Western Asia. We show that it is possible to
arrive at this humanistic outcome throughout the region via non-armed
methods such as popular resistance and the growing boycotts, divestment,
and sanctions (BDS) movement.
Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh teaches and does research at Bethlehem and Birzeit
Universities. He is director of the main clinical cytogenetics laboratory
and director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History and Institute for
Biodiversity Research (http://palestinenature.org)
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