Delia Maria PHD
LONG LIVE ARAFAT!
Since college days I was enthralled by the face of Yasser Arafat on the TV screen, clad in his checked headscarf, espousing the dreams of a Palestinian homeland. Images of Palestinian men, women and children facing Israeli tanks and machine guns, with only stones in their hands for self defence, stirred my revolutionary soul. Pune city had a small group of Palestinian students in the mid 80s and together we formed an Indo-Palestinian Solidarity Union to offer support to their cause.
The IPSU hosted the Palestinian liberation day every year at Nehru Memorial Hall in Pune. A regular quiz was held to test how much local Puneites knew about their land and their people. Posters were exhibited showing the occupation and the uprising. Then they would delight us with a robust, all-male dance and falafal. For us students full of youthful idealism, there was bonding with brothers facing the same oppression with Israeli occupiers as our people had once faced under the British crown.
In the 90s, on a trip to the Middle East, I met a number of middle-aged Palestinian men who were working in the Gulf cities. Most of them narrated tales of having being tortured in their youth by Israeli troops. One described how he was made to stand with his comrades in a room full of water upto the waist for four whole days. Many developed health problems and decided to leave. With the petro dollars they were earning abroad, they were able to fund their families and friends back home in the occupied territories to carry on the sturggle. They all made one observation; their younger generation had seen so much harship and suffering that they had all become “fearless”. Perhaps that explains why the second Intifada manifested into suicide bombings and extremism.
Today, as the western controlled media debates whether Arafat ruined or furthered the Palestinian cause, whether he was a liar or was corrupt, whether he lost many an opportunity to win back his homeland and broker peace with Israel, history cannot but acknowledge the facts of the 40 year old struggle. One, the artificial creation of the state of Israel dislodged eight lakh Palestinians from their homeland. Two, since 1967, 12,000 Palestinian homes have been destroyed and 15,000 more damaged by Israeli aggression. Three, that three generations of Palestinians continue to live with daily assasinations, firings, tortures, kidnappings and massacres in full view of the world. Four, Israel continues to occupy another peoples territory in total contravention of international law and with the full blessings of the US and the European Union, Five, that peace agreements, withdrawal and disengagement plans cannot succeed unless the Palestinian people are given back their homeland, its resources and their freedom. For the mighty US empire, daily battling to keep its “democratic” image in Iraq, almost every writer concedes that unless it helps resolve the Palestinian question, it will continue to remain alienated in the Middle East.
As Arafat leaves behind his footprints , the world realises that despite all his shortcomings, he was a part of a genuine struggle to free the Palestinian people from Israeli domination. His people rallied behind him because he put their cause on the world agenda. The right to one’s homeland is a fundamental right of every person and community under international law; the Palestinian people along with people elsewhere fighting for nationhood reminds the world everyday. For peacemakers, the two Intifadas reminds us that there can never be “peace without justice”. Peace agreements and peace accords will not sustain unless the root cause of conflict is removed i.e. justice and equality for all. We thank the Palestinian people for teaching us these lessons through their blood, tears and struggle.
Delia Maria
