Reflections of a Syrian

The newspapers are abuzz with articles like Israel at 60 and so on. On television, the program "The Birth of Israel" is showing which I haven't had the time or inclination to watch. For myself, the atrocious and blaise behaviour of some people borders on the infuriating. They celebrate 60 years of occupation, ethnic cleansing and the continued attempts to strangle the life out of the Palestinian people. Yet somehow, it is the Palestinians that are portrayed as the aggressors, as those who refused compromise, as those who somehow bite the hand that feeds them. There are many popular myths which are perpetrated around for consumption. Amongst these, one of the most prominent is demonstrated in Steven Spielberg's absurd film "Munich". This film had what will probably be remembered as the most ridiculous scene in movie history. As the protagonist makes passionate love to his wife, the scene is peppered with flashbacks of the Munich hostage crisis. Presumably we are to take this as the almost messianic dichotomy that some apply onto the Middle East, "We love life but you celebrate death". This absurd logic works on the assumption that somehow those who resist Israel are not human, not normal and evil. Kept conveniently away from view is the inhumanity of those who came from beyond the sea to occupy Palestine. We do not see or hear of their cold machines of death which kill people with the press of a button. Neither are we to consider the only nuclear arsenal in the region which Israel "will not be the first" to introduce. No, the vicious machine which supplies, arms and funds this state is not mentioned either, how could it when it involves every man woman and child who lives inside it, working, paying and perpetuating it. Palestine is so much more than a cause, it is The Cause, a litmus test for how you view the world and wish it to be. On one side are the people who say other than they do, the people who spoil the earth but think they are doing good. On the other are those poor and oppressed, Fanon's wretched of the Earth, who resist injustice.

This Saturday I will be marching in protest on the 60th anniversary of al Nakba. Like you all I have so much other things to do, but I'll be damned if I miss this opportunity to protest against injustice. See you there.