From West to the west
Saed Abu-Hijleh almost didn’t make it past Pearson Airport officials to get into Canada. After arriving in Toronto this week, the Palestinian geography professor was held for four hours and questioned about his intentions for visiting. (back to story...)
Discuss this story (15 comments)
All discussions are moderated. Please see our full comment policy for details.
Didn't the Journal pretty much run the same article last week. Just because SPHR hauls out 2 propagandist in close proximity, doesn't mean the Journal needs to feed their attention seeking habits...
zach,
are you upset because israel on campus is really lousy at organizing at queen's? or are you more upset because the truth about israel is becoming more and more obvious through SPHR's organizing efforts?
Just thought I'd bring your attention to the following news item which doesn't seem to have made it to the western media yet:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/mid...
Israel now wants to change the "laws of war" to justify its war crimes.
This is a sad year of Israelis, really.
I went clothes shopping yesterday and saw keffiyehs in the two for $10 bin.
(Keffiyehs are those white scarves with a black grid pattern that terrorists and their supporters like to wear.)
Truth is, except for a few die-hards flunking out of Poli-Sci, Palestinian chic is over.
By next year, even the Queen's Journal will notice and a new and hipper editor with find some cooler propaganda to publish.
I guess it is easy for someone who did not experience the horrors of living under a brutal military occupation to dismiss the suffering of those who do. Instead of taking a stand against injustice we see some trying to camouflage the terrorism of the state of Israel with simplistic propaganda, denial of harsh truths, and pathetically apologetic discourse for the actions of a rogue state. The audacity to call Israel’s continued oppression of Palestinians as “self-inflicted misery” is indeed indicative of a callous soul and blind eyes that belittle the agony of other human beings. This is the essence of racism, when one sees others as inferior, or sub-human, then one can justify any wrong done to them, even the denial of their right to express their pain; their screams of pain then reaches not to deaf ears but to deaf hearts. This is echoed expressively in the Holly Quran (It is not the eyes which go blind but it is the hearts within breasts which go blind). Sadly, I personally experienced the whole spectrum of Israeli oppression: from being shot by Israeli soldiers at the age of 15 in 1982, to being tortured on my wounds only two months later in the infamous Far’a prison, where I almost died, to the assassination of my mother Shaden Abu-Hijleh by Israeli Death Squads (www.remembershaden.org), who was a peace activist and a philanthropist. Yet, I still believe in peace. I wholeheartedly believe in a one-state solution where Muslims, Jews, and Christians can live in Palestine, free from racism & apartheid. While in Canada I was hosted by Jewish professors who are against the actions of the Israeli state & who truly believe in the vision of a secular democratic state for all; not an exclusive Jewish state that oppresses and denies the national right of a whole people. This is the vision that ended Apartheid in South Africa & this is the vision that will end Apartheid in Israel. When the writer of the above comment says “The good news is…the inconveniences and problems the professor complains about have disappeared,” it makes me think I am living in Mars but not in occupied Palestine. The continuation of the building of the Apartheid Wall, the continuation of ethnic cleansing campaigns in Jerusalem and the areas adjacent to the Wall, the uprooting and burning of Palestinian olive trees by Israeli settlers and army, the continued imprisonment of more than 11,000 Palestinians , many under administrative detention, and the humiliation on military checkpoints (and yes, although the number of these checkpoints is now not 600! the tens of those that remain are still a stark feature of Palestinian suffering all over the occupied Palestinian territories).
Professor Abu-Hijleh,
I agree that it is easy for an unaffected citizen to discount your personal suffering, and that of the Palestinian people as a whole. But it is even easier for someone who is himself subject to suffering - especially to the extent that you describe - to discount the suffering of others.
By using the language you have, describing an "Apartheid Wall", by criticizing the impact of military checkpoints without acknowledging the reasons for which they are in place, you discount the suffering that Israeli citizens endured which necessitated the implementation of these measures.
I don't deny that your personal struggle is immense. I also don't deny that there are Israeli Jews who are guilty of the same hypocrisy that I describe above - I have met many of them myself. But as long as you blind yourself to the suffering of the Israelis, how can you ask others not to do the same to you?
Alex,
You are shameless. What Israeli suffering are you talking about? The suffering in the illegal settlements where Zionist settlers steal water, usurp land, and beat innocent Palestinians? Or, perhaps you mean the suffering they incur when serving in the Israeli army and they are "forced" to kill Palestinians? Or, maybe the suffering they incur when they are able to move freely within Israel, buy land, build homes, and have normal lives? Perhaps you also mean the suffering they incur as colonizers, settlers, and occupiers? Or, perhaps you mean the suffering they incur when they are forced to build walls around people and lock them into open-air prisons? Or perhaps the suffering Israelis incur when they starve the Palestinian people -- against the good will and morality of the Israeli people, of course. All these are indeed examples of suffering -- the kind of suffering that colonizers the world over experience and feel as they kill, murder, and pillage.
What part of Dr. Abu Hijleh's narrative did you actual hear and understand? You render his narrative as part of a "personal struggle," thus denying the systematic and widespread suffering of the Palestinian people as a collective at the hands of the colonizing and thieving Israeli state.
At the risk of putting words in his mouth, Dr. Abu-Hijleh in no way denies the suffering of others, but simply speaks from experience. He exclusively partakes in non-violent resistance, so all the violence committed against him has been an aggressive act, initiated by the Israeli state.
anti-zionist's rhetoric shows exactly what is wrong with so many anti-Israel activists today. Rather than recognize that both Israel and Palestine (read: Hamas and Fatah) have contributed to the perpetuation of the conflict in their own ways and have caused suffering of the other's people, he seeks to dump the entirety of the blame onto Israel. This prejudiced approach solves nothing and leads to further polarization, not reconciliation.
There is no comparison between colonization and resistance to it. There is no comparison between occupation and resistance to it. There is no comparison between ethnic cleansing and resistance to it. There is no comparison between apartheid and resistance to it. There is no comparison between racial supremacism and resistance to it.
The atrocities committed by the ANC did not fuel the "conflict" in South Africa. Colonization, occupation, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and racial supremacism fueled it. Only by dismantling this systematized oppression will resistance to oppression cease. This is why we focus our efforts against Israeli apartheid. Suicide bombings etc. are entirely condemnable, and we condemn any attack on non-combatants. It's very simple though... no more oppression, no more resistance.
Besides, within constraints, armed resistance is the right of the Palestinians as a people under occupation. Israel has no right to even BE in the OPT. There is no dispute to this.
Daniel,
Stop trying to impose a fabricated and imagined symmetry between Palestinians and the Israelis. Israel is a colonizing state. Palestinians are a people without a state; the so-called Palestinian state is a state of perpetual dependency because of Israeli occupation and colonization. There is nothing prejudiced or wrong in saying that Israelis are collectively punishing the Palestinian people and that the Zionist entity is a racist, colonialist, and usurping state.
Although the situation in occupied Palestine is asymmetrical when it comes to suffering, I have not said anything in my comment that negates the suffering of anyone. Again, as others have eloquently expressed in their comments, can we compare the suffering of a slave and a slave master if the slave harms the master in an action that attempts to end slavery! Or the suffering of a man being scratched by a woman who is being repeatedly raped by him! You might respond and protest these graphic comparisons, but here you are criticizing me for using terminology like the “Apartheid Wall.” What do you want us to call it, a Wall of Love, or just a “security fence” as Israel likes to call it! If you study the territorial practices of Israel this is the closest description that one can use to describe this illegal structure (and yes illegal according to international law, see the International Court of Justice ruling of July 4, 2004). Once again, I strongly believe that the only way foreword is a human solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; a solution that makes us all coexist in a democratic state. It is a dream that we should all work for; a country for all of its citizens. Israel as a settler colonial state cannot survive in the Middle East; Because of the changing demographics, for Israel to remain as a “pure Jewish state” means either genocide against Palestinians, or another campaign of ethnic cleansing on a large scale, similar to the one it did in 1948. I hope the world wakes up, and support the human vision of a just society for all regardless of their religion. This is not propaganda and I am not a propagandist. This is a genuine call for peace from someone who suffered under the yoke of the Israeli occupation, and who wants this suffering to end; to move from a situation of victim and victimizer to a place where there is no victim or victimizer. There can be no peace without justice, and justice for all I must add.
Salaam (Peace)
A State of Love
By Saed J. Abu-Hijleh
One state, two states, or no state,
Zionism, what a fate...
They caught the bait, and continued the hate,
Can they keep this rate... of ethnic cleansing!
Israel the "Jewish State", 60 years too late...
In the Middle East "the only democracy",
What a hypocrisy!
Can't they see our blood filling the Jordan River?
A wound oozing forever!
A State of Love the only solution,
Yes we say to spiritual cleansing,
No we say to ethnic cleansing,
"All in and no one out" at the top of my lungs I shall shout...
Refugees must come back, a just society with no doubt.
One State, No hate,
A State of Love,
Blessed from the above...
The children dance, happy in a trance,
This is our last chance...
This discussion is closed to further comments.
Thanks to everyone who contributed.
-Journal Editors in Chief
This story is closed to new comments.
Journal comments policy
The comments on this website do not represent the views or opinions of the Queen's Journal, but of the comment-writer alone. Libelous comments and unsubstantiated allegations will not be printed, nor will comments that discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status or mental or physical ability. All comments are moderated, and may take up to 24 hours to be posted on this site barring any unforeseen circumstances. The Journal reserves the right to refrain from publishing comments. Comments are not edited for grammar or spelling, or for vulgar language outside of the above restrictions. The Journal respects your privacy. By posting your comments in our feedback forum you give us permission to post and publish your name, city and comments on the Journal website. All submissions must contain the email address of the comment-writer. Thank you for your co-operation.
Toronto
October 23, 2009 at 7:22 a.m.
The professor seems to have given a tallk about the Palestinians' self-inflicted misery.
When you launch a terror war against an adjoining state, what sort of response do you expect?
The good news is that as Israel has improved its security situation, the inconveniences and problems the professor complains about have disappeared.
Of those 600 roadblocks and checkpoints Israel once used to restrict the movement of terrorists within the West Bank, almost none remain.
Similarly, with the terrorists removed from the universities, they're all open regularly - more dependably than York University in fact.
And as Palestinian students have stopped throwing stones at Israelis and supporting suicide attacks, they're not spending time in administrative detention.
The bad news is that the Palestinians remain unable to accept responsibility for their own affairs.
The Fatah administration in the West Bank is totally dependent on the Israeli Defence Force.
If the IDF left tomorrow, Hamas would take over the day after. And as Hamas went about executing Fatah officials, Fatah officials and professors would loudly complain that it was all Israel's fault.