Gutierrez is a fourth-year history and sociology student.
By Gustavo Gutierrez
The Palestinian cause is a noble one of national liberation. The
cause of terrorism in the Middle East has nothing to do with the
tenets of Islam, but a Western notion of nationalism.
Suicide bombings and/or “homicide bombings” are a
belligerent form of nationalism. Nationalism requires total
allegiance to the welfare of the state that takes a higher priority
on the scale of all things, including human life itself.
All nations who have gained independence from North American and
European imperialism since World War II have employed various
degrees of terrorism, including the state of Israel against British
mandatory rule in Palestine.
I do not condone terrorism, but terrorism is a tool of the
politically and militarily weak. The ruling coalition in Israel
just voted against the creation of a Palestinian State west of the
Jordan River. The Likud Party is committed to stopping all efforts
in the creation of a sovereign Palestinian State, free of foreign
incursions by an aggressively militant state that silences the
political left in its own country.
Jews who speak out are called self-hating traitors and
threatened with verbal and physical retaliation for their stance on
the issue. Aren’t those who stifle free expression among the
Jewish populace “terrorists” too? In some cases, these
“terrorists” have silenced Jewish opposition against
occupation in territory that does not belong to the state of
Israel.
The Likud Party with the help of Benjamin Netanyahu consider a
“Free Palestine” to be a national security threat.
Isn’t this a racist indictment against all Palestinians?
Those who commit heinous crimes against civilians are not
representative of the vast majority of Palestinians, including
Muslims and a sizable Christian minority.
Why don’t we hear about Jewish “domestic
terrorists” in Los Angeles who plotted to bomb a mosque in
Culver City? Why don’t we hear about “Israeli terrorist
cells” who plotted to bomb Palestinian schools in East
Jerusalem? Why is the Western press, notably the American press,
unwilling to give coverage to these “latest
developments” in the “Mideast Crisis”?
The Middle East is a complex and nuanced part of the world. We
should remember not to be blinded by the rhetoric fed to us and
inculcated by us in an obviously biased media that is so scornful
toward anything Middle Eastern and Islamic in nature. And this is
the land of the “free” press, where we prize ourselves
for accurate coverage. The Fox News Channel is a great example —
and quite possibly the worst excuse for journalism out there.
The road to peace requires a partition of the postage-sized
stamp of land known as Palestine among Israelis and Palestinians.
If Israel is not willing to allow refugees to return to their
ancestral homes, then the only viable solution is a “Free
Palestine” coexisting with Israel. To say that Jordan is
primarily Palestinian, which it is, and to say there is no need to
create a Palestinian State is arrogance at its worst.
We should tell Tibetans in China that there is no need to clamor
for national independence since their leader lives in exile in
India, right? They can just cross the Himalayas into Nepal and
India and the matter would be settled, right? It wouldn’t.
Palestinians, like other occupied peoples in the Third World, have
an emotional attachment to the land sandwiched between the Jordan
River and the Mediterranean.
As a nominal Christian, I have an attachment to the “Holy
Land” because it was the territory in which the Gospels took
place. Every sermon I attended when I was young, the
pastor/reverend would urge the congregation to pray for the
“peace of Jerusalem.”
Nationalism requires that people have loyalty to a specified
landbase that is seen as the home of a particular group of people
on the basis of religion, history, language, etc. In the
Palestinian question, both Jews and Palestinians have equal claim
historically to the land in question. Since no one has a monopoly
on claiming “indigenous rights” to Palestine, the land
must be shared.
How long can Israel live in a state of war? Half a century is
enough!