Palestinians Are Victims of the Jewish Victims of Europe

By Adam Casella

The ongoing violence between the Israelis and
Palestinians can be resolved peacefully with the
United States as a major Palestinian ally, Palestine
Liberation Organization Ambassador to the United
States Afif Safieh said yesterday in the Intercultural
Center Auditorium.

Safieh, a self-proclaimed pragmatist and idealist,
currently serves as the leader of the PLO office in
Washington, D.C. Safieh is a Christian and has been
outspoken in his desire for the resurrection of the
Palestinian state.

In a speech sponsored by the Lecture Fund,
International Relations Club and Center for Islamic
Studies, Safieh recounted the status of the
Palestinian people since Israel's founding in 1948,
described the obligations of Palestinians and Israelis
alike in remedying the conflict and reminded the
audience of the power of American idealism.

Safieh said that the "Nakbah," the displacement of the
Palestinian people since 1948, is the greatest
catastrophe in human history.

"If I were a Jew or a Gypsy, the Holocaust would be
the worst massacre in history. A Native American, the
European colonization of North America. An African,
slavery. And a Palestinian, which I am, the Nakbah,"
Safieh said.

He said that the last 60 years have resulted in three
great denials of the Palestinian people: the lack of a
physical nation, Palestinian civil rights and
international recognition of their suffering.

"Palestinians are not children of a lesser God," he
said. "They were the victims of the victims of
Europe."

Safieh recounted what he saw as the great injustices
of the region, with 88 percent of Palestinians living
below the poverty line.

However, he also shared his optimism for a peaceful
solution to the violence and conflict that have been
perpetuated throughout the last half-century.

"Nakbah is an ongoing process, and the Palestinian
people are collectively in strife and danger," Safieh
said. "The international community must rise to our
challenge and decide whether there is a people too
many or a state missing. I do not believe history has
yet made this choice, and I am confident that it will
choose correctly."

Safieh said that there are three dominant players in
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Palestine, Israel
and the United States of America.

"To Palestinians, one should say to make a leap of
faith in recognizing that a split society is
detrimental to our goals, to do some soul searching
and to engage in the domestic debate," Safieh said.

He encouraged Hamas to cultivate pragmatism and to
make a shift from violent resistance to popular
nonviolence. Safieh said that his nation is condemned
to resistance but that this circumstance can be used
to mobilize society peacefully and force Israel to
reduce its military efforts in the region.

"Independent figures who are willing to initiate and
engage in a free, open and respectful debate are
essential to Palestine's political success," Safieh
said.

He said that he believes Jews understand the price
that Palestinians have paid physically and
intellectually as a result of the creation of Israel
but nevertheless criticized Israeli expansion and
lobbied for dialogue and cooperation.

"Peace comes not from territorial aggrandizement, but
from regional acceptance; as such, our regional
history must be revisited, revised and rewritten,"
Safieh said.

He added that territory, not terrorism, has been the
cause of the stumble and collapse of peace
initiatives.

Safieh said that the United States played a
fundamental role in facilitating the peaceful
coexistence of Israelis and Palestinians. He lauded
what he saw as a resurgence of American idealism, like
that of the eras of Woodrow Wilson, Martin Luther King
Jr. and the founding fathers.

"America is a fascinating society — a nation of
nations in which one can preserve his or her identity
and further his or her integration independently — and
American idealism will be the remedy for Islamophobia
and many of the other issues of our time," he said.

He shared his belief that Palestine would be
resurrected, joking that those who lived in Jerusalem
have had some prior experiences with resurrection to
reassure them. Safieh also said that Palestine offers
the United States not the loss of a friend in Israel,
but the opportunity for an additional friend. Safieh
urged the audience to become aware that America is not
committed to Israeli expansion and reminded
politicians that it is no longer political suicide to
be pro-Palestinian.

"It is high time for the international community to
respect their commitments to Palestine," Safieh concluded.