Three faces and a homeland
Dr Bouthaina Shaaban
14 Sept. 2009
One of the most memorable faces which inhabit my conscience is
the face of that Palestinian woman, Um Kamel, the owner of a house next to
al-Aqsa mosque. The Zionists paid her $1
million per square meter of her house, but she refused to sell, although she
knew very well that, as usual, they will destroy or occupy it without paying
her a single dollar. They have done that
for over sixty years to the houses of millions of Palestinians who have been
sent to exile and to refugee camps inside and outside
Um Kamel, in this, is like the families of Hanoun and al-Ghawi
and tens of other families, whose homes were destroyed by the Israeli
government and who were forced by occupation forces to destroy their homes with
their own hands. For the length of
Ramadan, they took the naked earth as their bed and the sky as their cover,
while foreign settlers coming from far away countries occupy the homes these
Palestinians have inherited from their ancestors for centuries. Yet, they have not despaired despite the
brutal oppression and despite the miserable condition of this nation which has
done nothing in Ramadan to support their right.
The condition of Um Kamel, Hanoun and al-Ghawi families is
similar to that of the Iraqi scientists who were faced by one of two options:
either to immigrate to the countries which destroyed their country or die in
al-Qaeda blasts. Yet, many of them
refused to leave and were killed on the land they refused to leave an easy prey
to the enemy.
No one asks any more about the whereabouts of the scientist
Rihab Taha and thousands of other scientists and intellectuals. People like these are a source of pride in
the West, while this West nicknamed Rihab Taha ‘Dr germ’,
although she was a distinguished scientist who never killed or harmed any one;
and by now the whole world knows the fact that Collin Powel’s accusation to
The case of the Iraqi scientists is also similar to that of the
Palestinian and foreign children, young people and women, who demonstrate on a
daily basis in Bal’in and Na’lin against the racist separation barrier and are
beaten up, arrested and tortured. They
know that they are on their own, and that none of the leaders, politicians and
journalists, who claim to defend peace and human rights, supports them. Nevertheless, they never tire of
demonstrating. They are similar to those
who go to prayer at al-Aqsa mosque. They
suffer all kinds of hardship at the racist and humiliating checkpoints erected
by occupation forces before the full gaze of the leaders of the ‘free’ world
and its media.
These are the defenders of the holiness of al-Aqsa with their
bodies, their faith and their will. They
are the carriers of the torch of freedom of worship, the defenders of the dream
of salvation from Zionist enslavement despite the betrayal and complicity of
their brothers who are busy being lackeys to the enemy. The West claims to be promoting and
spreading freedom, including the freedom of worship, but keeps a deadly and
dubious silence when it comes to defending the right of the Palestinians to
worship.
The second face is that of a person who sees nothing in the
homeland except himself, his wealth and materialistic desires taking cover
under superficial values. He loves his
country only if his wealth and his companies proliferate and his bank accounts
swell albeit in the banks of others.
With all of this, he goes begging at passport booths in Western countries
imagining that a luxurious apartment in a Western capital can be turned into a
homeland.
My question to this second type is: haven’t they learned the
lesson from those who enslave their will to the enemy for ages then they end up
on a suburban dumpsite near
a far away capital?
Haven’t they learned from those who sold their homeland and served those
conspiring against their countries and ended up on their own, humiliated and
not owning a tent, a passport or a refuge?
This second type pretends when holding a position of power to be
patriotic and wise just in order to carry out the things he is asked to do by
his masters. Don’t they see officials in
other countries being turned into entertainers, clowns and lecturers just in
return for a passport and an apartment?
Haven’t they learned that the soil on which Um Kamel and the Hanoun and
Ghawi families sit is the most precious thing a human being can own and that
life far away from it is not worth living because it is a life without dignity?
The third face is the face of every child in
It is remarkable that all of this does not, particularly in
Ramadan, stir the magnanimity and pride of the Muslims who are capable, had
they the will, of providing the Palestinians with tremendous support and
strengthening their steadfastness. So
far the Palestinians are able to do that with their bodies, souls and children
without any significant support from a world which confined itself to the role
of spectator.
These faces get mixed up in my mind; and I wonder every day how
the line is blurred between those who defend their sanctities without any
weapon or material capabilities except a will based on a strong belief in their
right to freedom, and those who sell up everything with their silence and
complicity, between those who sacrifice their blood for the freedom of their
homeland and those who look at their homeland as a bounty because they are
enslaved to money or to position or a false sense of peace and quiet.
The tragedy is that these faces exchange their shadows in the
reality of Arab nation today. It is
difficult for many people to distinguish them from each other because those who
target us use the media in order to polish the images of their lackeys. When the distinction between the features of
both sets of faces becomes clear in our mind and conscience, we can say the Arab renaissance has
began.
Prof.
Bouthaina Shaaban is Political and Media Advisor at the Syrian Presidency, and former Minister of Expatriates. She is also
a writer and professor at