by Mazin Qumsiyeh
Qumsiyeh: A Human Rights Web
5 June 2007
An old saying in the fight against segregation in the South was "free your
mind and your ass will follow". I was thinking about this in the past few
days in several events that ranged from racists lecturing their audience
about how Muslims treat non-Muslims to supposed peace gatherings that did
not want to deal with violations of human rights and international law when
it is done to Palestinians (too controversial! even though funded by our
taxes) to gatherings of a few dedicated activists discussing the growing
(but still in its infancy) movement of boycotts, divestments, and sanctions.
Hypocricy, racism, and infiltration of peace movements by government agents,
racists and others is not new (read e.g. David Dellinger's book "From Yale
to Jail" about the 1960s). But in this short article, I want to focus on
something else: 70% of the US public thinks the invasion and occupation of
Iraq was wrong, nearly 100% of Arabs and Muslims in America think both the
occupation of Iraq and of Palestine are wrong. Yet of these millions few
want to change their routine to effect change. I want to take time to
address those who have yet to do so by asking them the question: How
willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice? and till when will
those who are silently observing (or cursing the darkness instead of
lighting a candle) remain silent. But first, please take the time to review
this very short vide on Gaza. It will change you even if you think you know
what is going on: See Here
So, how willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
After all, it is about convenience. Fear of inconvenience permeates us.
Our lives are commercialised (go shopping Bush told us after 9/11),
sanitized from the suffering of others, routinised lest we encounter the
unfamiliar, and stigmatised (both stigmatising ourselves and others). All in
all, avoiding what the Buddhists call "having joyful participation in the
sorrows of this world".
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
After 60 years of ethnic cleansing, 6 million Palestinians refugees and
displaced people. After 530 depopulated villages and towns and more land
being confiscated daily (All done with Western governments direct and
indirect support).
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
After American-made Caterpillar bulldozers uprooted over 1 million olive and
other fruiting trees. After colonial settlers (some of them soldiers) with
US made M16 killed thousands of native civilians in their own lands
including when the natives were protesting peacefully.
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
After nearly $1 trillion of OUR taxes were sent to support the Israeli
apartheid state (over $11 million daily) and some of it was circulated back
to spread propaganda in America and gain the subservience of Congress with
bribes (free trips, campaign donations, etc).
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
After the lobby, lobby that was rated by Fortune magazine as third and
sometimes fourth in power (and the first that advocates for a foreign state)
with its tentacles in media and academia, after this lobby managed to get us
into a war on Iraq that cost the lives of nearly 1 million people (and made
2 million refugees, a genocide 10 times the size of the atrocities in
Darfur), After this lobby ramped up its campaign of lies and distortions
about Iran to prepare us for another, even larger catastrophe.
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
After an International Court of Justice ruling that the apartheid wall
violates International Law, after Israel continues to violate dozens of UN
security Council resolutions and hundreds of UN General Assembly
resolutions. After our Israeli-Occupied US Congress violates US laws by
funding those who persistently violate human rights and by issuing
"resolutions" that are contrary to US laws and constitutional protections
(e.g. on separation of religion and state).
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
After our government held and tortured so many people without charges and
without benefit of trial for years at Guantanemo, Abu Ghraib and countless
secret prisons around the world.
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
After Howard Zinn once wrote "you can't be neutral on a moving train" and
countless books and literature (much of it available on the internet shows
that you can't complain while feeding the beast that is devouring your
brothers and sisters. Curse not the darkness, light a candle.
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
Will we be inconvenienced by working with those whom we do not agree with
100%? Will we be inconvenienced by having to argue for our positions,
defend ourselves, speak truth to power? Will it be easier to just talk to
the converted or stay away?
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
Will we be inconvenienced by joining the massive demonstration in Washington
DC this Sunday (see http://endtheoccupation.org) and in other cities instead
of watching TV or whatever else we do on Sundays? Will we be inconvenienced
by taking time to write letters to editors, churches, and politicians? Will
we be inconvenienced by picking up the phone to call them while not sure of
the response? Will we be inconvenienced by engaging in boycotts,
divestments, and sanctions, thus risking being called names ("anti-Semitic",
"self-hating Jew", etc) by those who promote segregation, apartheid and
racism? Will we be inconvenienced by taking matters into our own hands
instead of waiting for Arab or American politicians (people becoming the
leaders that politicians follow)?
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
And when death comes knocking on our door (as it inevitably will), will we
remember how much time we spent at our jobs, petty lives, conveniences, fun?
Or will we remember ...How willing were we to be inconvenienced to get
peace/justice?
Dr Mazin Qumsiyeh served on the faculty of both Duke and Yale Universities
(six and five years respectively). He is currently serving on the Steering
Committee of the US Campaign to End the Occupation (endtheoccupation.org),
the executive committee of the Palestinian American Congress
(http://www.pac-national.org/), and the board of the Association for One
Democratic State in Israel/Palestine (one-democratic-state.org). His third
and latest book is titled "Sharing the Land of Canaan: human rights and the
Israeli/Palestinian Struggle".
Web link
http://www.qumsiyeh.org/howwillingarewetobeinconvenienced/
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