incoherent reflection

I have been away from hearing news for the last two weeks, as I was busy with personal issues that required traveling. I was desperately grasping into news outlets to check out what was going on in my absence, to realize that nothing changes but for the worse. After two weeks of absence, news on killing from all direction is just what is ongoing. In Syria, Iraq, Palestine, elsewhere. People are killing each other. It is no longer an issue of occupation of Palestine. Alternatively, the problem of the infidels to Daesh and its allies, or the Ikhwan and the Sissi followers. It is about anyone who is different from you. The killing of a Palestinian boy by Nusra or Daesh in Syria is not distinct from the murder of the Copt in Egyptian suburbs, and it is not of any difference from the killings among Palestinians in a street fight over a photo on Facebook or a quarrel in a wedding.

There is this mutual sense of tribal and expulsion mentality that is forming what we witness today. It is not about religion or an ethnicity; it is just about one’s tribe and ownership of an individual status or power.

The amount of hatred that is existing among people is a natural outcome of tribal thinking that is engraved in our education and culture. The rise of Daesh is not a work of a genius; it is a natural consequence of our upbringing as Arab Muslim nations. The abuse we are seeing in using old names and incidents to justify the terror they are enforcing is also a result of our ignorance of people in our history and figures. No wonder why as well… our education is based on memorizing, and our upbringing is based on obedience to the “father power,” the teacher, the mufti, the imam … we never use our education for knowledge, but for the blind following to what they dictated us on. This is why Da’esh has managed to expand. That is why there are so many as such as Daesh that are spreading. It is easy to mobilize because we are a nation of ignorant people who gained the most in repletion and memorizing. Thinking, analyzing and critical observation is still resisted.

What stopped me in today’s articles, and seemed like a real change, but surrounded by cloudy questions was an article translated from Hebrew about Khaled Meshaal ( Hamas top leader) declaring some time ago that Hamas is ready to recognize Israel and make peace. The Israeli writer was critical and somewhere maybe was weary, not in the analysis but in the idea that this could be possible.

As I thought if Meshaal’s announcement has to do with the current situation of the upcoming municipality elections, which is very possible. Such elections are the last resort for the thirst of power these people want to have (both Fateh and Hamas). As Erekat was also announcing some “talks” possibilities, Meshaal bold declaration might be timely in this sense.

Somehow, the article made me think how right this could be. How smart as well it could be from Hamas side. In the end, Fateh has nothing to offer except a promise of a talk in the never going to go further negotiations. However, at the same time, I cannot but stop at this abusive state of the nation. How these people are ready to do all to win a seat of power that has nothing but their control over some money resources from donor countries. The whole issue of Israel is only revealing that Arab states and Palestinian leadership behind closed doors have always recognized Israel and nations have been mobilized against it in public. Now, the contradiction is too striking with the normalization of the different Arab states with Israel. I firmly believe, but overwhelmed with fear I can say, that the only way out towards a better living is the reconstruction of the Israel issue by us Palestinians. Recognition does not mean acceptance necessarily, there are so many miseries in this case that are hard to reconcile. However, at the same time the recognition that Israel is an entity that is there not just as an occupier but also because of the announcement of the League of Nations and compensation with what became the Arab states in the first quarter of the last century.

The only way out for us is to start reading the reality with a critical and observing eye that can bring us a step forward to peace. Not the political order that is consumed as a notion, but peace for us people. Palestinians, who are so distracted, shattered, bleeding in so many obstructions and frustrations, we no longer realize what we are.