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Saudi
4/18/2002 (14:38) |
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There is an impending Palestinian Holocaust
By Seham M. S. Fatani, Special to Arab News
Strange rhetoric, strange logic, strange politics are coming from American and Israeli officials and media. Palestinians are told again and again: “You must submit; you must be passive; you must suffer dishonor and disgrace but neve r resist or resort to war; be bullied, be outraged, be killed, but don’t kill or retaliate; give up your struggle against occupation, give up your identity as Palestinians, go to Jordan or any Arab country; give in to Israeli plans but don’t hate them; be stripped of your clothes and human dignity but don’t reject your Zionist masters.” In short, the Palestinians are being told: “You are the inferiors and will never be otherwise; you must put up with Israeli occupation and massacres or shut up.”
A Palestinian friend said, “No one can defeat our will; no one can strip us of our identity or move us to other countries. Palestine is ours and it shall be free.”
Another Palestinian says that it is not the Israeli Zionists that they fear nor the American-Zionist media and politicians nor the barbaric air raids nor the tanks and explosives but having to shelter for a long time with the remains of massacred friends, family and children. It is a horrible feeling when the dead cannot be buried. There are reports of thousands of dead on the streets and inside houses. Eyewitnesses report Israeli bulldozers shoving the remains of massacred Palestinians into mass graves to cover up the genocide resulting from Israeli barbarities.
Nothing can explain or justify Israeli massacres, Zionist horrors and war crimes or Sharonic tyranny and despotism. And I remember the fiendish look on Ariel Sharon’s face as he and his thugs desecrated the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on that September day when this “intifada” began. Their threats now extend even to the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem. The look is incomprehensible, such as would never be seen on the face of a civilized human being. A look more terrible than terror, more horrendous than horror, more brutal than brutality, more cruel than cruelty, more Satanic than Satan, and more hellish than hell.
I am stunned; I am without expression. I need many voices to protest the hideousness and madness of the so-called American and Israeli wars against terrorism. I need voices to speak against Israeli violence in occupied territories. I need voices to point out Palestinian pain and to protest against Israeli warmongers and Zionist beasts. I need voices to tell the American-Zionist controlled media, Congress and Senate: “Stop perpetuating lies; stop manipulating history; stop justifying Israeli massacres of innocent Palestinians as being Israel’s right of self-defense; stop labeling Palestinian freedom fighters terrorists and murderers — they are dying heroically as they resist an illegal occupation; stop betraying and polluting America, American citizens, American innocence, American spirit and American conscience. Stop this madness. Enough is enough.”
I need voices to tell my American friends: “America has adopted and fed Israel, a rough Zionist beast. Now, the beast is loose and is slouching toward Jenin, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus, Jerusalem, Lebanon and Syria. A Zionist beast blessed by American money, F-16s, tanks, artillery, bombs, politics, the Congress and media.” I must tell the Americans to wake up before Zionism replaces American democracy and turns all peace-loving democrats into Zionist beasts bent on ruling the earth. Dear Americans, don’t allow yourselves to be misled. Don’t be prevented from seeing the truth. Don’t let your Congress serve Israeli interests and greed at the expense of tarnishing America’s image and exploiting its resources. The wars against Afghanistan, against Iraq and Palestine serve no one but Israel and her greed. These wars are angering the world and turning it against America. Always, always America protects Israeli and Zionist terrorists and supports their expansionist desires.
I want to speak to my beloved American teachers in America. I need to say, “Tell your students the truth about wars and insist on objectivity, justice and fairness. Tell your students not to jump to conclusions or form hasty and harmful generalizations. Tell them not to use either/or fallacy or vicious or inhumane rhetoric; they must do their own research, use reliable unbiased sources and be carefully moral and ethical when speaking their minds. Teach them the humanities and how to build civilizations that reflect the image of God and not to encourage the use of high-tech bullets, nuclear weapons and Satanic military might to destroy other ideas and opinions.”
I need to tell the president of the United States, “Mr. President, for God’s sake don’t talk like an evil man who cannot escape from an evil choice. It is better to be dumb than to speak like an evil accomplice who financed Zionist warlords and launched an evil crusade against Muslims everywhere. Mr. President, don’t play Pharoah, Alexander the Great, Darius of Persia or the Roman Caesar: They all believed themselves invincible superpowers who could never be defeated. Where are they today? Don’t allow the destruction of humanity in the name of freedom and democracy. Don’t play the tragic hero whose flaw is ‘hubris’ — or pride — that forces him to transgress human boundaries and inevitably leads him to his downfall. Don’t betray yourself, my American friends or the American people whom I love — and don’t betray the American dream. Mr. President, don’t sell America to the devil; it would be a tragic mistake that will turn the world into a bloody stage. But most of all, don’t turn the Arab friends of America into enemies because of your biased, irrational and blind support of Israel. Don’t shut your eyes, your ears and your hearts to the truth of the Palestinians’ plight and their right to self-determination and an independent homeland. The sufferings, the massacres, and the destruction inflicted upon Palestinians cannot be forgiven. Give Israel a red light and put an end to the violence; the Israelis believe they have a license to kill Palestinians. One phone call from the White House could put an end to Sharonic terror. Sharon is a war criminal, determined to destroy everything for a greater Israel. Instead of calling him ‘a man of peace’, I suggest you send him to join Slobodan Milosevic. He must be prosecuted for massacres and war crimes. It is a frightening world in which peace is dying at the hands of Zionists.”
I need a voice to speak to decision-making politicians who influence our lives, “Say no to bigotry, no to xenophobia, no to racism, no to stereotyping, no to destruction, no to tyranny, no to nuclear weapons, no to massacres, no to war crimes, no to genocide, no to conspiracy, no to ethnic cleansing, no to Zionism, no to Sharon, and no to occupation.”
I want to tell the politicians, “Find solutions; stand by the victims; don’t manipulate people’s lives or change the maps of the world. Enough is enough! When will humanity see the dawn of a brighter day? When will the Palestinians have a free Palestine?”
I need to ask Colin Powell to explain the obscure American and Zionist rhetoric and logic which says: Palestinians must surrender to the Israeli forces and must not resist Israeli occupation and expansionism; otherwise they are terrorists. Palestinians must remain passive at any price, even when they are stripped of their clothes in public and humiliated, their lands confiscated and occupied, their lives destroyed and their possessions vandalized. Palestinians must suffer dishonor and disgrace but must never resort to war or any resistance; Palestinians can be bullied, be outraged and be killed, but cannot kill or protest. Palestinians must put up with Zionist massacres such as those at Sabra and Shatila, Deir Yassin, Qana and now Jenin and Ramallah. They must shut up and say nothing to Sharon and his version of Nazism. I ask Colin Powell, “What took you so long to come to Palestine? You should have been there to witness first-hand what the Israelis were doing to the Palestinians with American blessings, American weapons and tacit American support. Mr. Powell, surely you have already given the Israelis ample time and opportunities to destroy Jenin, Ramallah and the Palestinians. Surely with your country’s complicity and permission, they have already massacred thousands of innocent people.”
I want to tell Kofi Annan: “Sharon has gone mad. He is a war criminal and not a ‘man of peace’. Stop him from murdering Palestinians. Stop the massacres. The Palestinian death toll is climbing. In the past two weeks, Sharon has killed 1,500, injured 15,000, and detained nearly 6,000 more. Despite European anger and Arab outrage, Sharon still plans other atrocities. He is destroying Palestinian land and infrastructure. He is destroying sites holy to both Muslims and Christians. He even has the audacity to say that the Palestinians have seen nothing yet.”
Mr. Annan, stop the smug supporters of Sharon. Stop Zionism. Stop the crimes against humanity. Stop the Palestinian genocide. Send UN troops to put an end to these atrocities. Send witnesses to record the massacres and the massive burials and to report what the Israelis are preventing the world from knowing the details of. Mr. Annan, history tells us that in war, all good intentions fail; and absolute power, as Lord Acton pointed out, corrupts absolutely. How can the Palestinians have peace when the Israelis occupy their land and the Zionists destroy their lives? How can any Palestinian, or even any civilized human being, deal with Sharon, a megalomaniac paranoid tyrant? Sharon’s purpose is reflected in his statement that Palestinians are irrelevant and must be isolated, transferred or put in camps awaiting massacre. Mr. Annan, Sharon is not only a threat to the Palestinians but to the Israelis and to all humanity. Sharon wants Arabs and Muslims to stand idly by and send no money, food or medical supplies to the Palestinians. The Zionists say they cannot understand the rationale behind helping Palestinians, and that countries, such as Saudi Arabia which support the families of Palestinians who died trying to free their country are immoral and are financing terrorism. What is it that they don’t understand? Have they been stripped of their integrity and sense of humanity? Is this again a sample of the mysterious logic: Passivity and deprivation at all times for Palestinians along with total submission to Zionist warlords? Must we listen to their definitions of Palestinian freedom fighters and their supporters as terrorists who do not belong to the civilized world? Must we shut our eyes, ears, hearts and consciences just to please the Zionist beast? Mr. Annan, I know you are a man with a vision and you can confront the Zionist beast and its advocates head-on. Tell Sharon to stop his war and to leave all the occupied territories at once. Only then will Palestinians who are now martyring themselves for their homeland give up resistance. The Palestinians may not have American weapons but they have something more powerful and more effective: a God-given will and determination to make their country free. God is on their side for they have a noble cause and God will find ways to protect them. Not only that, but the wrath of God will fall on their enemies who conspire against humanity, against God’s creation, against the Prophets and against the holy sites.
I need also to thank the Belgian people and government for their support of the Palestinians and for their decision to sever ties with Israel. I need a voice to tell them that their action will wake consciences to take action and stop Israeli aggression. I also need a voice to thank the European Union for stopping trade with Israel and for boycotting lsraeli products.
I need to speak to my Palestinian brothers and sisters — and especially to Palestinian mothers and freedom fighters and martyrs fighting: “God is on your side. Your cause is a just cause. Have strength and be sure that no power on earth can crush your resilient will, your heroic struggle, your resistance and your intifada. Know that your resistance and your martyrdom will wake humanity to a new dawn. Justice will be served; the sun will rise very soon on a new Palestine and we will all pray in Al Aqsa!”
I need to tell the world at large: “Don’t you see the resemblance between Sharon, Hitler and Milosevic? Don’t you see a parallel between Nazism and Zionism? Don’t you know how Hitler ordered his officials to search Jewish houses for those he called dangers to the state and how he put them into concentration camps? Can’t you see the parallel with what Sharon has done and is doing? Don’t you know that Sharon ordered his army to go to Jenin, Ramallah, Nablus, Bethlehem and other places to search Palestinian houses for people he called terrorists and how he then massacred many and imprisoned others? Sharon and his Cabinet are staging an all-out war with the aim of Palestinian genocide and ethnic cleansing.”
I need a voice to cry out and tell the world there is an impending Palestinian Holocaust.
I only pray that when I find a voice it will not fall on deaf ears!
***
(Seham Saleh Fatani is a lecturer in English literature. She teaches at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah.)
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