Time is Running Out for Israel, Atzmon’s report of the Nakba commemoration event
By Gilad Atzmon • May 13th, 2008 at 15:49 • Category: Culture and Heritage, Gilad Atzmon, Israel, Music, Poetry, Events, Nakba and Right of Return, Our Authors, Palestine, Resistance
Something positive is happening, I would even call it a shift of awareness, a realisation that the Palestinian struggle is leading somewhere after all.
Yesterday, at Exeter University, to a very crowded theatre, in an event of that was a commemoration of 60 years of the Nakba, I had a chance to listen to Dr Manuel Hassassian (at the left), the Palestinian Ambassador to Britain. I may as well say it, Palestinian eloquence cheers me up and fills me with hope and pride and Dr Hassassian has plenty of it.
These days it is rather rare to hear or see a PLO spokesman who lets his fierceness and rage be seen. The Ambassador was angry, he was furious, yet, at the same time, astonishingly measured and considered.
“Enough is enough”, was his message. He admitted that twenty years of negotiation with the Israelis led his people nowhere. America is not a true honest negotiator and this may not change in the near future. America and Israel have locked themselves into a Catholic marriage, they can have a spat, sometimes they do not talk for weeks but somehow, they always stay together.
“We the Palestinians,” said the Ambassador, “tried our very best to secure a peace deal. In 2002, the Arab League offered a peace imitative, this didn’t lead anywhere either. All we hear about is the Israelis seeking security.” As pathetic as it does sound, he had to bring to our attention the absurdity of the fact that the state with the world’s 4th largest army is seeking security from occupied Palestine! The crowd burst into laughter. Apparently the Israelis think they are close to exhausting the patience of the Palestinians, suggested the Ambassador. However, in his view, they are really miscalculating the balance of power. The future belongs to the Palestinian people.
“True, they, the Israelis, have a ‘nuclear bomb’, but we,” said the Ambassador, “have a ‘demographic bomb’.” Again, the audience cracked into laughter and believe me, there is nothing more cheerful than seeing a big theatre crowded with Palestinian solidarity activists having a laugh at the expense of almighty Israel. In less than 12 years the Palestinians are going to be the majority on the ground. If the Israelis believe that 22 Arab states and billions of Muslims will let them get away with their daily atrocities, they are really fooling themselves.
Though the Ambassador didn’t say it, the message was clear. As far as the Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims are concerned, the window of opportunity is closing down. The doomed fate of the Jewish state is written on the wall. You have to be blind not to see it. In Exeter University Theatre everyone could see it. Needless to say, Rabin, Peres, Sharon and Olmert have read it as well. Apparently, the looming reality has been far stronger than their political power.
Yesterday in Exeter I saw a room full of students of very many nationalities including of course very many young Palestinians and Arab students. Many British people of all ages were present, including the very supportive community of the local PSC branch.
The Exeter Friends of Palestine may have got the recipes right. They have combined an academic and intellectual discussion with a cultural event and a culinary break. After three talks, one given by a PhD student Aida Es-Said, one by Dr Manuel Hassassian and the third by myself, the audience was invited to attend a concert featuring Nizar Al Issa, Mohammed Diab, a local folk dance group and my own Orient House Ensemble. On the way to the concert the entire crowd was introduced to the best of Palestine cuisine: Humus, Tabuleh, Falafel, Grape leaves and so on.
There wasn’t even a hint of the old anachronistic dogmatic leftist clichés. No one insisted upon telling us what we should talk about. No one mentioned ‘anti-semitism’. It wasn’t at all about Jews and their suffering, but rather about Palestine and the ongoing genocide committed by the Jewish state. The event was all about Palestinians who stood up and say: this is who we are, this is our Nakba, this is what we think, here is what we eat, this is what we listen to and this is how it looks when we break into dancing.
If you like what you see, hear or eat, then Salam Alekum.
If you don’t, no worries, don’t waste your time, just move on, go somewhere else.
Gilad Atzmon is a jazz musician, composer, producer and writer.
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The main atitude from most of the Zionists I engage/encounter is the notion that the power imbalance will last forever. It is akin to financial speculators who are convinced that the ‘bubble’ will never burst. The one way that Zionists can maintain the power imbalance unfortunately, is to unleash their aggression openly and unchecked; world opinion be damned. However, to roll the dice in that manner means that complete victory and neutralization/annihilation is the only option because anything less would result in severe consequences for Israel. It is unfortunate that Israel has so consistently avoided being a partner for peace because as Gilad has so clearly pointed out, time is running out. If they weren’t confident of the compromise they could negotiate from a position of strength, imagine their anxiety when their bargaining options are even more limited.
Beautiful written - i was there and i loved it. Your talk especially was moving.
You said yesterday that at first you wanted to sacrifice yourself but then changed your mind. You did it anyway, only you did it for humanity.
Thank you
“It wasn’t at all about Jews and their suffering, but rather about Palestine and the ongoing genocide committed by the Jewish state.”
This whole notion of genocide is so utterly absurd. Doesn’t anyone realize the population of Palestinians has been and is still increasing? Kind of goes against this fallacy of a genocide…but you will, I am sure, believe what you want to believe.
Never underestimate the power of keeping stories alive, sharing them in all their nuances, and imagining a happy ending.
[...] while watching and listening to the astonishingly eloquent Palestinian ambassador to Britain Dr Manuel Hassassian . Last Friday I met the French resistance at a Euro Palestine event at the Parisian [...]