Dominating the Earth

Dr Bouthaina Shaaban

Ahmad Mughrabi’s article in the Arabic daily al-Hayat, 18 August 2009, “Satellites and Geographical Positioning Systems in the Big Powers’ Scramble for Dominating the Earth” speaks about the competition in space, particularly in the field of using satellites for getting a deeper and more comprehensive view of the earth. The website of the American Union of Concerned Scientists reveals that satellites send 80 thousand views of the earth from outer space every day. These views include infra-red videos of the movement of wind, sea waves and other things.

We can just imagine the huge amount of information pouring down from outer space and consequently the amounts of money international interests pay to develop these satellites. It is not in vain that the great powers compete to launch satellites, improve their performance and possess knowledge about space which enables them to put these satellites to use in order to achieve dominance in this field.

In this context, it is useful to recall George W. Bush’s famous statement that “conflict over the earth has moved to space”. The global conflict between the superpowers over deploying satellite networks constitutes an entry point to thinking about this global dominance.

Dominating the earth is the central issue under which come all the causes of wars including occupation, colonial plunder under different kinds of slogans, like ‘war on terrorism’, ‘freeing the Iraqi people form Saddam Hussein’, ‘empowering Iraqi women’, dismantling mass destruction weapons which, events have proven, do not exist in Iraq, controlling the Nile’s water sources under pretexts like reviewing agreements, creating the Darfur problem between Arabs and Africans who have for ages shared land, resources, poverty and the gifts of nature.

But in order to provide a convincing logic and a facade consistent with the media campaign which adopts the concept of the civilized and law-abiding West, the wars waged to control the earth take a cover consisting of rights, security and combating terrorism which has been exclusively assigned to Islam. Thus, these acts remain in harmony with the image of the civilized West and do not expose the real goals which, if uncovered, show the real hostility against peace-loving peoples, the greed for their land and resources as the main driving force for military action, political blackmail, and economic sanctions imposed by the victorious states in World War II against countries which are still struggling to consolidate their real independence.

The clearest conflict over land is in Palestine where occupation forces have, for the past sixty years, expropriated Palestinian land, piece after piece, one archeological monument after another, one village after another, and one house after another. Today it is Judaizing places and changing their names in order to change the place once and for all. Israel refuses categorically to discuss the ownership of land despite the fact that Palestinians still possess the keys of the homes they were expelled from by settlers and still hold to the title deeds of the land which their ancestors owned for thousands of years.

As a cover for this policy, Israel has invented the myth of religious conflict and anti-Semitism, and recently after 9/11 focused on the danger of Islamic extremism and Israel ’s need for security. It is as if Jewish extremism which manifests itself in expelling people from their homes and bringing settlers from all parts of the world to replace them is less dangerous for the life, security and future of Palestinians and Arabs!!

The concept of ‘danger’ being promoted by anti-Arab propaganda is a racist concept par excellence because it portrays every Arab as a source of danger, while portraying occupation soldiers armed to the teeth and armed settlers expelling Palestinians from their homes as fearful for their lives. The pictures of Palestinian prisoners tell numerous stories everyday about people uprooted from their homes, blindfolded and pushed against the wall by a soldier who violates all sanctities and all international laws and conventions. Nevertheless, the picture is accompanied by a lie that he is fearful for his security and that his victims are the ones threatening this security.

It is within the perspective of dominating the earth that the settlement fever swallows up the best of Palestinian land and is trying today to swallow up East Jerusalem and the West Bank in a flagrant process of Judaizing land and holy shrines. It is also within this framework that the visit of an American Senate delegation led by Senator Mike Huckabee to Shepherd Hotel in Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem in defiance of the nature and sanctity of the place and absolute disregard to Palestinian rights in this city should be viewed.

What is more telling is that American donors who promote settlement in East Jerusalem receive tax exemptions granted by the US government to organizations which support “educational projects”! The Israeli daily Haaretz pointed out that American friends of the itrit kohanim organization have raised millions of dollars in the past few years in support of Judaizing East Jerusalem. And here is Senator Huckabee holding a celebration in the Shepherd Hotel in Sheikh Jarrah, which was expropriated together with the land surrounding it by Israel in 1968. Israel recently started building twenty settlement units on this site despite the protests of the international community.

Yet, those who have fallen into the trap of the ‘covers’ fabricated by Israel for its real activities and intentions speak of negotiations as the only way of dealing with those who uproot them one after another, while perceiving those with whom they share the same tragic destiny, as the only opponent.

For those I say: did you read what Yediot Ahronot reported on August 9, 2009 that 66% of Israelis consider their sovereignty over Jerusalem un-negotiable and that it is Israel ’s right to build settlements wherever it wanted? Is there anyone out there reading the real language of “dominating the earth”? And does anyone remember that land is the most precious thing that humans possess? Has not land always been the cause of wars among people and the source of their conflicts because it is the most precious thing they possess?