Last week a friend of mine was excited to celebrate “The Independence Day of Palestine” in Ramallah as the central and official celebration happens yearly. I felt indifferent and didn’t join the some who even mocked him. At the day of Independence Nov.15th he went early and came late exhausted:
-“How was it?” asking, almost knowing how it felt like when you walk a long way with a big hope and come back with nothing.
-“It was OK, but the zionist bastards spoiled it.” he replied dejected.
-“Why? How?”
-“They stopped us 4 hours in our way and I arrived late, and even in our way back they stopped us and pissed us off.” he replied crestfallen.
In 15.11.1988 I was in Nablus Central jail to “celebrate” the Independence Day of Palestine, for the first time. I was a kid then, one of the youngest prisoner and I refused to celebrate. I was almost shouting at the older prisoners SPECIALLY an older one from Nablus who was a real intellectual for me then and had taught me a lot:
-“Are you crazy? To celebrate Independence while you are in jail and under occupation? What independence is that?” I shouted as I felt furious and frustrated to share that farce. I was forced to “celebrate” by the elder prisoners of my faction, but I kept silent in that meaningless “Day of Independence”.
………………………………..
-“Do you really celebrate an independence day?” asked me a British FB friend.
-“Yes, we are lucky with our glorious Day of Independence!!”
You cant understand how the mechanism of deception unless you understand the political circumstances in which our “Day of Independence” was produced and how:
Exactly a month and a half before the first intifada I was captured by the zionist occupation forces for the second time in my life and was thrown in jail for years.
At the beginning of every Palestinian uprising, the greedy “politicians” of businessmen start to calculate their profit from the Palestinian blood and start to talk about cultivating the uprising into personal and political gains, AND that was what happened in the first intifada, the second intifada and is happening now.
It is difficult to gather the (some 20) Palestinian factions into one political program, but the political greed of each could put them together in less than 10 months to go for one goal which is the “Day of Independence” and the PLO held its 19th conference in Algeria to announce “the independence of Palestine” (even before one year of the beginning of the first intifada) for the following main reasons:
- The Arab and international pressure on the PLO to follow a united program and united representative in order to be dealt with and “solve the problem” that the zionist were facing inside Palestine, AND, on the other hand, the moral and political pressure that the uprising masses posed on the PLO to cope with.
- Realizing that the main “battle field” against the zionist occupation was transferred by the force of de facto into inside Palestine, as the PLO realized the ineffective of its struggle from outside Palestine SPECIALLY after the Palestinian fighters were forced out of Lebanon in 1982.
- To give a “false” hope and a slogan for the Palestinian uprising people to follow and stick to.
- To prepare for any possible political settlement for the Palestinian issue which came soon in Madrid “peace” Conference in 1990 and that was later on deviated in the secret agreements of Oslo Accord.
Within this context the PLO conference was held in Algeria and Arafat announced the “Independence of Palestine” were almost every Palestinian applauded and was happy with including the political elite and the intellectuals. I didn’t, and still don’t feel the “glory” of that alleged independence, simply because I live the hell of the zionist oppression daily and wont celebrate a false “independence” unless I am fully free !!
Independence?
Do you think that Syria is independent? Saudi Arabia is independent? Iraq is independent? When talking about independent states in the Middle East you should talk about JUST two states; Turkey and Iran … you cant even add “israel” because it is economically dependent on the States, let them cut off the $4 billion yearly financial support and it will collapse by itself within a few years ….. OR to say it the other way round; give me a yearly $4 billions and a free educational system and I will turn Somalia into the first industrial state in the whole of Africa in a few years.
Sami, the bedouin