Interviewed by: Dr. Wissam Al-Faqawi
Dr.. Rabab Abdel Hadi is the founder and director of the Academic Program for Studies of Arab and Muslim Diaspora Communities and a professor of ethnic studies at the University of San Francisco and the international oral and intellectual history research project “Teaching Palestine: Educational Practice and the Universality of Justice.”
* In light of the similarity that exists between the United States, which carried out racist settler colonialism against the indigenous people of the country, and the Zionist enemy state, which was established in the same way, and the goal and organic alliance existing between them, and by virtue of your interest in studying colonialism: Do you believe that the struggle against American imperialist colonialism in general should Is it based on one vision for both?
** I believe the answer is yes and no, why yes? Because the United States “for Israel” and the Zionist project in Palestine were built on the foundations of racist, genocidal replacement settler colonialism, and there are those who claim that the Zionist movement did not intend to annihilate the entire Palestinian people, but a large group of studies confirms the opposite.
Many of the country’s indigenous tribes were completely annihilated and wiped out of existence, as in Palestine. There are more than 530 villages that no longer exist. Because colonialism is based on erasing and eliminating the presence of the country’s indigenous people, and just as Zionism claims that Israel is “a land without a people for a people without a land,” of course the theoretical and political question is “Do the Jews constitute a nationality or not?” It is still subject to ongoing discussion and controversy.
There are many similarities that justify our classification of the United States as a racist settler state and “Israel.” There is a group of American liberal thinkers who believe that it is possible to correct America’s course, and that the problem is an issue of deviation from the path. This is also what the so-called Israeli opposition relies on, that there is The possibility of restoring the “ideal” foundations and principles of equality upon which “Israel” was founded. Here the question arises: “What were you before and from the beginning of the founding of the American Zionist and colonial state?” Also, when we compare the two “independence” documents, they are based theoretically, ideologically, and politically on the perspective that there were no peoples before them to justify what they call their right to the country on “civilizational” or religious grounds, as if they were distributing morals to humans, but they all stem from considering one people better than others. This is a structural basis for structural racism in the two countries
I believe that the similarity between the two parts is great, despite the difference in the dates of the emergence of the two parties, and the means that were used. The two parties also used the religious issue, and many of the people who founded America were fleeing from religious oppression in Europe, and as for the Zionist project, it was established by Jews fleeing from hostility. For the Semites and the Jews in Europe, both of whom claim that the Palestinian and indigenous peoples do not deserve the land that has been colonized and settled.
* Regarding the emergence of the United States of America at the expense of the indigenous people, the American “colonial memory” worked to preserve parts of their dead, practice genocide, and promote the culture of killing among the “society” of the colonizers. On the other hand, how do you see this “memory” being established in Zionist thought and practice?
** Both colonial systems practice a systematic plan based on imposing premeditated collective forgetfulness, and one of its foundations is forcing the indigenous people to forget their history. The majority of studies and academic curricula claim that the history of the colonized peoples did not exist. On the other hand, we know through comparative studies of colonialism in In different regions, the colonialists documented massacres and genocidal killing. The history of battles documents that American soldiers and settlers were removing the skin from the heads of the fighters and keeping their skulls. This is also what French colonialism practiced in Algeria. It should be noted that in November 2022, France handed over only 24 of the skulls of the mujahideen. During the popular liberation war in the sixties of the last century, which France was displaying in the “Museum of Man” in Paris, and the same was true in South Africa, what happened with Sarah Barton, who displayed her genital organs in European museums, is a blatant example of the absence of every human practice, and its inferiority. Towards the indigenous people of the country.
The Zionists also carry out these systematic practices, as they detain the bodies of the martyrs and their remains in mass graves, some of which they call “cemeteries of numbers,” and others in the refrigerators of autopsy hospitals, such as Abu Kabir Hospital and others. All of this is done under the supervision of the government and the Israeli military and intelligence establishment, and the remains of some are detained. Martyrs, for example, for more than 40 years, such as Dalal al-Maghribi, refused to hand over her bones to her family until her mother died from oppression, and she was buried in the grave that was dug for her in the Resistance Martyrs Cemetery in Shatila in Beirut. It is necessary to point out that these practices are neither spontaneous nor exceptional, but rather an integral part of the systematic colonial Zionist strategy, which aims to terrorize the Palestinian people and impose collective punishments on them to discourage resistance. They do not content themselves with killing, arresting, and demolishing homes, but they also detain the bodies of the martyrs even after their execution. .
* Your struggle in the United States was not limited to the Palestinian issue from which you originate. Rather, you struggled alongside indigenous people, Africans, Asians, Latinos, and others… Are you searching here for comprehensive justice that is missing in white society? Or is the struggle on this front part of the Palestinian liberation battle? Or both?
** Certainly both, because I am inspired by the ideas of the Palestinian resistance that deepened in the sixties of the last century, and strengthened the concept of internationalism and common struggle, and this is one of the most important factors that attracted me to the thought of the Palestinian resistance, which focuses on the solidarity of peoples and their integration with each other, as is evident from the resistance literature that we have known. With the Vietnamese, Cuban, and Algerian struggle, and this is what I call “the comprehensiveness of justice,” so how can we divide justice and demand justice only for Palestine, isolating it from other peoples.
Through my involvement in Palestinian national action and the solidarity movement with the Palestinian people in the United States, my awareness of the struggles of other peoples against America’s racist colonial settler colonialism, which was not only based on the extermination of the country’s indigenous people, but also on the kidnapping and enslavement of Africans from their countries, the colonization of Puerto Rico, and the prevention of Chinese workers who They built railways by bringing in their families, and practiced persecution and punishment of all who objected and resisted American policy, such as deporting a large group of communists and anarchists in the twenties and thirties and building Japanese concentration camps during World War II, and accusing them of hostility because they were Japanese only, and in the fifties McCarthyist attacks escalated (relative to Senator Right-wing racist John McCarthy) to pursue thousands of Americans and persecute them because of their ideas. In the sixties, the FBI established a secret intelligence program to suppress liberation movements such as the Black Panther Party, the indigenous people of the country, and the Puerto Rican, Mexican, and Asian liberation movements. FBI agents assassinated dozens of activists, just as Israeli intelligence assassinated ( Mossad) the Palestinian leaders, including the martyrs Ghassan Kanafani , Majid Abu Sharar, Kamal Adwan, Kamal Nasser, Abu Youssef Al-Najjar and Wael Zuaiter, in order to eliminate intellectual competencies and advanced cadres whose production requires enormous efforts and capabilities. Thus, this American colonial strategy, which does not differ from the Zionist strategy, aims to rob The people from their leaders to obstruct their struggle.
In addition to this American history and the oppressors, there is another very important factor, which is the role of racist ideology that claims the racial superiority of white people over all other human beings, and uses this ideology, which must be taken seriously – despite its sometimes demagogic appearance – to mobilize the ranks of white people and organize them, and for actual implementation. To rule the country on the ground and oppress the majority of people in the world. Ovalism is an ideology similar in content to the ideology of apartheid in South Africa, as well as old and new Nazism in Germany, Europe and the United States, which claimed the superiority of what it called the Aryan race, and Zionism (Jewish racism), which believes that the Jews are superior to the Palestinians, which justifies their killing and extermination is no different. In its content about these racist and fascist ideologies and trends.
Based on these and other factors, the Palestinian struggle cannot be isolated from the struggles of other peoples. Rather, we must ally and stand in solidarity with them wherever they are resisting and fighting colonialism and imperialism in their homelands and in their areas of influence. A quick review of the historical documents in the American official archive and through oral history testimonies or what we call the living archive, we find that the Black Panther Party in the sixties was communicating with the Palestinian resistance movement as it was an integral part of the national liberation movements against colonialism. The majority of the ideological and political groups and trends are among blacks. In the United States, it supports the struggle of the Palestinian people, and stands by its side against Zionism and its racism. The unknown documents and oral history that we discover day after day indicate that the spiritual fathers of the Black Panther Party and the black radical movements have not compromised with the Zionist movement since the 1940s, despite the pressures of the Zionist institutions, and they were in contact. With the Palestinian resistance witnessed by the visit of the martyr Malcolm
Here I would like to draw the attention of Al-Harfa readers to the most important documents that we highlighted during three years (from 2019 to 2021) through 5 educational and awareness-raising seminars entitled “Teaching Palestine Series” in our open digital classes that we organized to confront the Corona pandemic, and in which we focused on Commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the important statement that was drafted, edited, published, and signed by a group of black figures known for their credibility and representation of vital positions in the cultural, trade union, academic, and popular movement organizations. The importance of this statement is not limited to the success of this group in publishing it in the New York Times, which is known for its bias towards Israel and Zionism, but perhaps more importantly is the timing of the statement, the clarity of the political and ideological statement, the accuracy of the information, and the intellectual depth of the research it contains. It was issued on November 1, 1970, in response to the Black September massacres and in challenge to the attempt of the liberal movement within the black civil rights movement to claim that there is a pro-Israel consensus among the majority of black Americans, in addition to the clarity of the political and ideological statement, the accuracy of the information, and the depth of the research. The statement in solidarity with the Palestinian people and the ugliness of the September massacres also confirms solidarity with the struggles of the peoples in Vietnam, Cuba, Angola and South Africa, presents an integrated analysis of Zionism, clarifies the difference between Zionism and racism against the Jews, and emphasizes confronting imperialism.
* As a researcher specializing in studies of Arab and Islamic nationalism and diaspora, and in light of the spread of “Islamophobia” among wide circles of Americans, do you believe that the matter carries serious risks for American society? Or is the issue part of the continued stigmatization of Arab and Islamic “terrorism” and thus creating permanent fear?
** I believe that Islamophobia is a doctrinal and structural issue in American society that reflects the prevailing and dominant thought, including the so-called Judeo Christian tradition, which replaced the historical Christian tradition embraced by America’s founders. Despite the historical hostility of mainstream American thought to the Jews, there is no doubt that the increasing strength of the Zionist movement since the founding of “Israel” in 1948 has had an organic effect on changing the dominant American thought because of its strategic alliance with the United States and its partnership and centrality in striking national liberation movements in the Arab world, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and training. And arming repressive fascist regimes, the most recent example of which is the scandal of spying on the phones of human rights activists in Mexico and the rest of the world.
There is a common belief, even in Arab and Muslim academic circles, that Islamophobia emerged after the bombings of September 11, 2001, and even studies that have reviewed this statement still link Islamophobia to 2001. I believe that this not only contradicts history, but also holds Muslims responsible for the hostility against them and the responsibility 2001 attacks too.
All manifestations of racism, including Islamophobia, are not an accidental phenomenon. Rather, they are an integral part of the structure of the United States and its emergence and composition as a racist settler-colonial entity. The colonial structure in the Americas since 1492, when the Spanish Catholic Kings Ferdinand and Isabella persecuted Muslims just as they persecuted Jews, systematic persecutions and torture. Mass massacres, expulsion and deportation of citizens from their lands. Unfortunately, part of this narrative related to the persecution of Muslims, such as the Crusades that aimed to establish racist settler colonialism in Palestine and Jerusalem , was missing, as traditional popular history narratives were limited to the atrocities suffered by the Jews, while hostility towards Muslims was not addressed. Note that it is linked to the roots of Islamophobia. The Castilian rule, for example, tested the extent of conversion of Muslims and Jews by forcing them to eat pork or wine. Here, I would like to point out that the torture and persecution of Muslims and Jews completely contradicts the spirit and tolerance that Christ called for, but it served the interests of the Spanish throne in its competition with England in accumulating its wealth through colonialism and plundering the world’s wealth. Recently, academic groups on both sides of the Atlantic have begun to review history and reject the practice of collective forgetting of Spanish colonial history, its persecution of Muslims and Jews, and its war of extermination against the indigenous people of the countries in the Americas.
In addition to these historical roots, Islamophobia in the United States serves contemporary American imperial interests. Its escalation was linked to the need of policymakers to replace communism with Islam after the fall of the socialist system, especially after the overthrow of the Shah’s regime in 1979, and imperialism’s loss of an advanced strategic base that, in cooperation with Israel, played a central role in striking revolutions and liberation movements in the region in Oman, Dhofar, and Bahrain .
The military-political system has always needed enemies to justify its continued production of weapons of destruction, especially after the disappearance of the “communist threat” and the expansion of the demands of large American sectors for a peaceful economy and peace dividends. Any review of American military strategic studies confirms the necessity of feeding and escalating Islamophobia, and Zionist intellectual institutions play a major role in feeding this mechanism, as the “Israel” economy is based primarily on war industries and the industry of extermination and killing. Even stolen Palestinian oranges never ranked first in its exports. Zionist propaganda and media aim to beautify Israel’s image and divert attention from its crimes. This explains this common and wrong belief, as Merkava tanks and electronic intelligence and espionage industries are at the forefront of Israeli military exports. As the Israeli think tank asserts, “Who Wins?” “Israel” needs to wage a war approximately every five years in order to market its military industries under the slogan that they have been tested in battles, and this explains why Zionist intellectual institutions need to feed Islamophobia, especially since hostility to Islam is organically woven into the fabric of dominant American thought, harmonizing with the racist and chauvinistic ovalism against… “Strangers.”
The fact that Islamophobia is a form of racism must be subject to a structural analysis that is not limited to the framework of personal feelings and the individual psychological state. It is easy to produce permanent fear and fuel hostility towards Muslims and Arabs. But were the 2001 bombings sufficient to explain this phenomenon? If so, what explains that American feelings against whites did not flare up despite the fact that Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma government building bomber, was white and a radical Christian? What about the organized right-wing forces that tried to seize power and storm the US Congress in support of Trump on January 6, 2021?
* In light of your exposure to constant persecution by the Zionist lobby, which amounted to death threats, you had an important statement: It is not enough for a person to be the bearer of a thought, but rather he must practice this thought, and this brings us back to the issue of the dialectic of thought and practice in the most comprehensive sense: where is he? The position of Palestinian academics, whether in America and elsewhere, or Palestine for that matter?
** There is no doubt that Palestinian male and female academics play an important role in influencing public opinion, in building knowledge for justice, and legitimizing struggle knowledge as an integral part of academic knowledge, and this is what distinguishes the clashing intellectuals from others, as they are committed to paying a moral and national tax as compensation. Simply by drawing on the experiences and expertise of this people for the benefit of their research, studies, and advancement in their academic positions.
On the other hand, male and female academics study in universities and graduate institutes, which constitute knowledge production factories and provide a space in which students mingle to develop their collective critical thought, which contributes to raising their awareness and involvement in unions and organizations that have historically established and continue to play an essential role in combating injustice and participating in… Social justice and international movements, such as the movement against the American intervention in Vietnam previously and Iraq later, and the movements demanding the replacement of colonial and racist school curricula with curricula that introduce students to the struggles of just peoples, including the Palestinian people, and this explains the fierce attack by the institutions of the Israeli lobby against the interconnected intellectuals, male and female, of Palestinians and non-Palestinians, and the pressure on Academic institutions for the purpose of imposing the Zionist narrative and erasing all curricula that study Palestinian history, culture, and Palestinian social and national movements.
Take, for example, our experience at San Francisco State University. The Israeli lobby institutions targeted the Academic Program for Studies of Arab and Muslim Diaspora Communities (AMED) with the aim of demolishing it and erasing our curricula that are committed to producing knowledge for the sake of justice, even though the university attracted me in 2005 from my work as director of the Center for Arab American Studies. The University of Michigan at Dearborn established the program in 2007.
Despite officially adopting the curriculum as an integral part of the academic programs at the university, the university has escalated its restrictions on us for 15 years, and the reason for this is due to its increasing complicity with Zionist institutions on the one hand, and its transformation from a public university into something resembling a private commercial company that accepts Zionist donations. And the conditional right-wing, and in return it carries out its function in serving the Zionist lobby.
The extent of the university’s escalation of collusion with the Zionist lobby becomes clear through a quick review of the program’s history. Despite the approval of our academic curriculum, including the Palestine course, by every academic and administrative station, since the intensification of the Zionist attack and despite our decisive victory in a case filed against one of the institutions of the Zionist lobby against us in the state (federal) court (That is, at the level of the United States) in 2017, the Zionist university administration canceled, in every semester, a group of courses, reduced them, or changed their dates to confuse the students, expelled a number of qualified lecturers, and refused to include courses related to Palestine several times. In this semester (fall 2023), the university refused to include my course on Palestine despite the students’ insistence and the signing of a petition by more than 2,000 people demanding the inclusion of the course, including a large number of students and professors.
Also, despite the failure of a major Zionist campaign in 2016, to pressure the university to cancel a cooperation agreement that we initiated at AMED with An-Najah National University in Palestine, the university administration submitted to Zionist pressure, and at the last minute canceled the summer school in Palestine in 2019, after the students had registered and prepared for it. themselves to travel and study at An-Najah University.
This hostility repeated itself regarding Professor Edward Said’s mission, which the Zionists initially tried to completely thwart, but after we succeeded in adopting it and presenting awards to outstanding students in 2015, the university administration every year after that placed a group of obstacles in the way of opening the way for students to submit their applications and win. .
Last year, the university president flouted decisive decisions issued by three arbitration committees, randomly selected from faculty members, to protect academic freedoms and undo a breach of a legal contract under which the university had hired me, which required the employment of three permanent professors in the AMED program. The university also refuses to provide protection and defense for me and for my Palestinian, Arab and Muslim colleagues and students who are at risk from Zionist organizations.
The same question arises: Why does San Francisco State University practice discrimination and racism against Palestine and side with Israel and the demands of the Zionist lobby, despite its honorable history? In 1968, its students waged the longest student strike in the history of the United States and succeeded in obtaining most of their demands to change the racist and colonial curricula. Here I return to remind you of two issues, first: the transformation of the university from an academic institution into something resembling a commercial company, and second, its collusion with the institutions of the Zionist lobby, and receiving donations. Conditions from them and from right-wing parties, and this is of course an integral part of the Zionist strategy, not only against me, but against everyone, and all academics and intellectuals who produce knowledge; With the aim of criminalizing teaching about Palestine, and punishing anyone who dares to criticize Israel and the Zionist narrative, which is in harmony with the American racist narrative.
* The Zionist enemy and the imperialist colonial powers often work to spread the idea of defeat among peoples as a whole, especially the colonized ones, through what can be called “the occupation of the will” rather than the “occupation of the mind.” What is more dangerous in passing this on is the presence of local mediators or agents in a more precise sense: Is it Is rooting the idea of resistance alone sufficient for rejection and confrontation?
** There is no doubt that the rooting of resistance thought is an essential factor for peoples’ steadfastness and victories, and this is confirmed by peoples’ experiences, as well as studies of resistance and social movements. As the popular proverb says, “No right is lost that has demands behind it.” The experience of the Palestinian people, like other struggling peoples, such as the Vietnamese and Algerian peoples, for example, faced what is known colloquially (or popularly) as the “Khawaja complex,” which is the phenomenon that accompanies any struggle movement because agents, climbers, opportunists, and utilitarians are present in every people, which France Fanon and Amilcar considered. Cabral and a large group of thinkers in liberation movements. The Palestinian people are not an exception to this. Otherwise, how do we explain the phenomenon of agents who slander the activists, those who sell themselves in exchange for material interests, or those who “theoret” for defeat and surrender?
Likewise, the Zionist establishment seeks to cover it up and cover it up, and of course the oppressive Arab regimes cooperate with them. Because of their connection to their interests, but the people’s choice is clear. From the World Cup in the State of Qatar , the masses were chanting for Palestine, and the strong Libyan popular reaction against the meeting of the Libyan Foreign Minister with the Foreign Minister of “Israel” and the demonstrations that took place in many Arab countries, in support of Palestine, is evident. There is a huge difference between regimes and peoples, and we must distinguish between them, and when we hear that the Arabs have sold out the Palestinian cause, we must make it clear that we distinguish between dictatorial, fascist, tyrannical and oppressive regimes, which seek profit and achieve their interests only, and do not worry about the interests of the peoples at all, and the peoples who reject all of that matter. Which is not done spontaneously or naively, but rather with conviction. Because we all know very well the dangers of oppression that await those who decide to leave their home to participate in a demonstration or protest movement. However, we are certain every day of the extent of the solidarity of the Arab peoples and the peoples of the world with Palestine, because the issue of Palestine is a living issue. The Palestinian people refuse to die and insist on resistance. And existence, and therefore all peoples align with it; Because his cause is just.
* Your doctoral thesis, on Palestinian national identity during the national liberation phase and the post-Oslo transitional phase: What is your reading of the Palestinian situation thirty years after the Oslo Accords?
** Personally, I opposed everything in the Oslo Accords since news of it leaked. I refused to accept the invitation and attend the signing of the agreement at the White House in Washington on September 13, 1993. I remember at that time that the media was always communicating with us – as we were activists in the solidarity movement with the people. Palestinian – She did not like my statements that today is a day of mourning. In fact, the media blacked out all Palestinian voices opposing Oslo to create the impression that it was a real peace project. Unfortunately, the Palestinian leadership did not learn from the lessons of the Vietnamese experience, where the revolutionaries rejected all the conditions of the humiliating negotiations to the point of insisting on the oval shape of the table. It was not just a settlement, but rather the signing of part of the Palestinian leadership on the legislation of the occupation by establishing this authority as an agent of the occupation and a tool for its legislation.
In my thesis, I criticized the advocates of the civil society theory that was popular at the time, which considered that the scope of public freedoms expands in the “post-conflict” stage and argued that the stage of national liberation, despite the injustice and cruelty of colonialism, opened a wide field for the legitimacy of the women’s liberation movement and trade union rights, and opened a space for Broader to the Palestinian community. For example, but not limited to, the unified leadership of the intifada approved the celebration of International Women’s Day and International Workers’ Day, but the Palestinian Authority tried to cancel these celebrations and was forced to retreat due to widespread popular resistance.
Also, let us not forget that 17 Palestinians were martyred at the hands of the Authority in the first year it assumed power, and the situation has worsened after 30 years of suppression of the resistance and every free voice, such as the assassination of the martyr Nizar Banat. The arrest campaigns against any opposition to their policies remind us of the way Arab regimes deal with their people: they suppress the opposition, confiscate democracy, in addition to their cooperation with the Zionist occupation in the so-called “security fields.” This is, in fact, an intelligence service for the occupation that helps it pursue the resistance fighters. That is, the authority not only rejects resistance, but also hands over the freedom fighters to the occupation, and does not want or allow anyone to resist.
Here I still call on all workers in the Palestinian Authority to resign from its institutions collectively. Let us remind those who justify working in the Authority’s institutions that it is for the sake of a living, that people were getting a living before the arrival of the Authority in 1993, and social solidarity between people was greater, but the Authority By adopting neoliberalism, it fueled the selfish spirit of individuals, and opened the door wide for its employees to borrow from banks, which also contributed to destroying the spirit of cooperation and solidarity in society.
* The great victory that the Zionist enemy aspires to is the generalization of its fabricated Jewish historical narrative about its right to the land of Palestine, as a historical victory that exceeds the political recognition of its right to exist that it received from the official leadership in the organization. But on the other hand: Are there no serious dangers threatening the Arab historical narrative? The Palestinian Authority in light of the scene of official Arab defeat and normalization?
** I believe that the fact that the truth is with us does not mean that we should rest and rely, since the whole world knows that, and this concerns us who work in the field of knowledge production. In this context, the battle is raging with the Zionist forces, which are integrated forces, with a structure that is interconnected with “Israel”, especially the “Israeli” Ministry of Strategy, which rose to suppress all movements that stand in solidarity with Palestine and work for it, including the boycott movement.
In order to present any narrative and expand the base of solidarity with it, we must not give up on it, but rather work to circulate it, document it, and support it with documents, part of which is the living archive, especially the people who witnessed the history of the conflict, and this is not limited to traditional archiving. We must also demand the occupation and Britain to open the archive of the Palestinian people. Even if we are not able to access these archives ourselves, we can access them through others, such as those who called themselves the new “Israeli” historians, because they are more capable than us of accessing this archive in “Israel” because they hold its nationality. Hence, we say: Being people with a right requires that we work daily to refute the Zionist narrative, which aims to establish surrender, submission, and defeat in our people. Because they are trying to convince us that we are a defeated people. The Zionist discourse intends to call the occupation of 1967 the “Six Day War” so that the listener can conclude that they were able to defeat all the Arabs in only 6 days, and therefore we must clarify our narrative to the world and defend all Arab peoples.
* Ghassan Kanafani had a firm conviction that the Palestinians alone were unable to liberate Palestine, stressing the necessity of integration with the Arab nation in a long-term popular liberation war, in order to accomplish this national and national mission, and this in turn raises the issue of the priority of the relationship with peoples, not regimes: What What do you say about this?
** I believe today that Palestine is the compass of justice in the world, and all people of living consciences have become in solidarity with Palestine, not only because we are a just and just cause, but because Palestine is still resisting, along with all the peoples of the entire world, and the experiences of national liberation around the world indicate that the peoples The occupier does not win alone, despite the importance of resistance to the occupied people and solidarity with them. It needs the support of all the free peoples of the world, and the experience of Vietnam is the best witness to this fact.
Through my study and teaching, I learned about the experiences of liberation that peoples gained after a long, continuous process of resistance. Here, too, we recall the Vietnam experience, as the resistance of the Vietnamese people on a daily basis expanded and supported the national liberation movement in Vietnam, and accordingly, the circle of rejection of American military service in Vietnam expanded. The principles of this movement have deepened and become rooted. This same statement should apply to the Arab peoples. For example, when the Arab revolutions broke out in 2011, they were not disconnected from the historical Arab movement. Because people around the world revolt every day and resist every day for a better reality, freedom from oppression and freedom.
Here the question arises again: Will the liberation of Palestine pass through Arab capitals?
Yes, it will pass. Certainly, the liberation of Palestine requires broad Arab support. Because the Arab incubator for the Palestinian people plays an important role in stabilizing them in their land, and this incubator has always embraced the resistance of the Palestinian people from Jordan to Lebanon, and the Arab peoples still embrace the Palestinian people and we must day after day expand the scope of this embrace, and I see that the discourse that promises that the Palestinian people He alone is able to achieve his freedom is part of the discourse of defeat that colonialism tried to pass, including what the official leadership in the Palestine Liberation Organization claims when it says, “We are alone.” When we say: We are alone and no one defends and stands in solidarity with us, and what do we aim for in that?
The defeatist statements that resonate here and there and are promoted by some media outlets fall within an ongoing Zionist imperialist media strategy. Accordingly, I believe that repeating these statements falls within the Zionist colonial discourse, and the facts have proven that the Palestinian people are determined to continue the resistance, from Jenin to Gaza to Nablus, Acre, and Lydda . The Negev, Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, Beita, Hawara, and Turmus Ayya, and each place has its own ways and models of resistance. In the occupied interior, for example, the Palestinian Druze have become increasingly burdened by their refusal to serve in the “Israeli” army, where the “Reject and your people will protect you” campaign is active, and in the Negev the resistance to the “Prafer” project has succeeded. Al-Araqib is still steadfast despite more than 220 Zionist destructions, and these models inspire each other, as the youth of the Palestinian Negev center in the “Burj al-Barajneh” camp were inspired by the experience of rejecting the “Prafer” project and named the center after him.
It is true that the Palestinian people are dispersed around the world, and of course this is also not the result of a coincidence, but rather this is an American-Israeli colonial plan, but the unity of the Palestinian people, the cause and the land is being strengthened day after day despite all the occupation’s attempts to isolate the Palestinian people’s groups from each other.
We intellectuals have a central role in correcting the defeatist narrative, and we must not repeat it. Our duty is to investigate the facts and further study related to the work, and we learn more, teach more, and discuss more on the basis of understanding the importance of awareness in conflict, as awareness and resistance are never separate.
