As big a fan as I am of gladstein (npub1trr…hdpu) , I’ve been incredibly disappointed by HRF’s silence now ten months into an ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Worse than silence, really. Of all the people they could have featured at the Oslo Freedom Forum, they chose Ahmed Alkhatib. I encourage you to watch it as, to anyone who knows anything about this conflict and its history, it is truly an atrocious speech: https://youtu.be/dxEZtVSO7_4?si=Q7EC1DnFNKU6Cqb3.
Ahmed reminds me of the character of Saeed, from Emile Habibi’s satirical fiction, ‘The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist’. The character is a quizzling and a collaborationist with the occupying forces, and if you watch Ahmed’s talk you see a similar psychology.
Notice how long Ahmed spends denouncing Hamas—the venom and vitriol in his tone. Notice the kind words for the collaborationist Palestinian Authority, which functions as little more than an arm of the Israeli government oppressing the people of the West Bank as they are continually dispossessed, brutalised and murdered. Notice his use of the passive voice when describing the mass murder committed by Israeli forces that switches to an active, adjective-laden screed when describing Hamas’ October 7th attacks. Notice how he calls for a “bilateral ceasefire”, instead of an immediate end to Israel’s decades-long military occupation.
Watching his talk you would think that Hamas is really the problem and that history really did begin on October 7th. And if we can just get rid of Hamas, and maybe that nasty right-wing Netanyahu government, then there will be peace.
Aside from being delusional, the truth is there can’t be peace between lions and men. When one party is intent on being a lion— on occupying, dispossessing, oppressing, kidnapping and torturing (what Ahmed antiseptically refers to as “the arbitrary detention of Palestinians”)and murdering, there can be no meaningful peace. The peace Ahmed speaks of is the same as the peace Israelis speak of: Palestinians in Gaza quietly lying down an dying in the concentration camp, whilst Palestinians in the West Bank continue to allow Israeli settlers to steal their land.
The solution is for Israel to immediately end their brutal and illegal occupation of the Palestinian people. That is the only solution. Not “education” or “empowering civil society” in Gaza.
There is no “both sides” to this. Israel is the occupying force and the Palestinians are the indigenous people resisting occupation. And the have every right to do so. Over the decades, the Palestinians have tried both political means of resisting occupation (Oslo, Camp David, the much-ballyhooed “peace process”). As Edward Said aptly noted, the whole peace process was just Israeli domination disguised as compromise. To quote the American-Israeli scholar, Barry Rubin, it was “all process and no peace”—a sham from the outset to continue denying Palestinians their rights.
The Palestinians in Gaza also tried peaceful protest, most recently in The Great March of Return of 2018-2019. Ahmed does not mention this, of course. Nor does he mention what the Israelis did: lining up their best snipers along the fence-line and intentionally targeting the knee-caps of young Palestinians to cripple them for life. They had a competition to see how many they could cripple.
Over 200 Palestinians were killed, and over 36,000 injured (including almost 9,000 children). 156 limb amputations had to be performed, 27 were left paralysed, 1200 suffered severe limb injuries requiring long-term surgical reconstruction.
You do not hear about this, though, because Palestinians have been so dehumanised and erased from Western media coverage. And Ahmed only furthers this whitewashing and dehumanisation.
Palestinians have a right to resistance. And if peaceful means only get them massacred, it is absurd for anyone to act outraged and clutch their pearls when they turn to violence.
Anyway, if Alex or anyone from HRF cares to comment, I’d be interested in why they have been assiduously covering every bomb Putin drops but ignoring the crime of the century being perpetrated in Gaza.
And I’d be curious if any of my fellow Nostriches have noticed the same thing I have.
Kirk
npub16d…j2dq2
2024-07-26 00:58:15
Author Public Key
npub16dvms6kppqgnv9k0murxnp8zyap2y6yem5y2f74sm8dgxfdvtj4syj2dq2Published at
2024-07-26 00:58:15Event JSON
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"content": "As big a fan as I am of nostr:npub1trr5r2nrpsk6xkjk5a7p6pfcryyt6yzsflwjmz6r7uj7lfkjxxtq78hdpu , I’ve been incredibly disappointed by HRF’s silence now ten months into an ongoing genocide in Gaza.\n\nWorse than silence, really. Of all the people they could have featured at the Oslo Freedom Forum, they chose Ahmed Alkhatib. I encourage you to watch it as, to anyone who knows anything about this conflict and its history, it is truly an atrocious speech: https://youtu.be/dxEZtVSO7_4?si=Q7EC1DnFNKU6Cqb3. \n\nAhmed reminds me of the character of Saeed, from Emile Habibi’s satirical fiction, ‘The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist’. The character is a quizzling and a collaborationist with the occupying forces, and if you watch Ahmed’s talk you see a similar psychology. \n\nNotice how long Ahmed spends denouncing Hamas—the venom and vitriol in his tone. Notice the kind words for the collaborationist Palestinian Authority, which functions as little more than an arm of the Israeli government oppressing the people of the West Bank as they are continually dispossessed, brutalised and murdered. Notice his use of the passive voice when describing the mass murder committed by Israeli forces that switches to an active, adjective-laden screed when describing Hamas’ October 7th attacks. Notice how he calls for a “bilateral ceasefire”, instead of an immediate end to Israel’s decades-long military occupation. \n\nWatching his talk you would think that Hamas is really the problem and that history really did begin on October 7th. And if we can just get rid of Hamas, and maybe that nasty right-wing Netanyahu government, then there will be peace. \n\nAside from being delusional, the truth is there can’t be peace between lions and men. When one party is intent on being a lion— on occupying, dispossessing, oppressing, kidnapping and torturing (what Ahmed antiseptically refers to as “the arbitrary detention of Palestinians”)and murdering, there can be no meaningful peace. The peace Ahmed speaks of is the same as the peace Israelis speak of: Palestinians in Gaza quietly lying down an dying in the concentration camp, whilst Palestinians in the West Bank continue to allow Israeli settlers to steal their land. \n\nThe solution is for Israel to immediately end their brutal and illegal occupation of the Palestinian people. That is the only solution. Not “education” or “empowering civil society” in Gaza.\n\nThere is no “both sides” to this. Israel is the occupying force and the Palestinians are the indigenous people resisting occupation. And the have every right to do so. Over the decades, the Palestinians have tried both political means of resisting occupation (Oslo, Camp David, the much-ballyhooed “peace process”). As Edward Said aptly noted, the whole peace process was just Israeli domination disguised as compromise. To quote the American-Israeli scholar, Barry Rubin, it was “all process and no peace”—a sham from the outset to continue denying Palestinians their rights. \n\nThe Palestinians in Gaza also tried peaceful protest, most recently in The Great March of Return of 2018-2019. Ahmed does not mention this, of course. Nor does he mention what the Israelis did: lining up their best snipers along the fence-line and intentionally targeting the knee-caps of young Palestinians to cripple them for life. They had a competition to see how many they could cripple. \n\nOver 200 Palestinians were killed, and over 36,000 injured (including almost 9,000 children). 156 limb amputations had to be performed, 27 were left paralysed, 1200 suffered severe limb injuries requiring long-term surgical reconstruction. \n\nYou do not hear about this, though, because Palestinians have been so dehumanised and erased from Western media coverage. And Ahmed only furthers this whitewashing and dehumanisation. \n\nPalestinians have a right to resistance. And if peaceful means only get them massacred, it is absurd for anyone to act outraged and clutch their pearls when they turn to violence.\n\nAnyway, if Alex or anyone from HRF cares to comment, I’d be interested in why they have been assiduously covering every bomb Putin drops but ignoring the crime of the century being perpetrated in Gaza. \n\nAnd I’d be curious if any of my fellow Nostriches have noticed the same thing I have.",
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