Palestinians need new narrative

At a recent Istanbul conference that brought many Palestinian scholars and activists together to discuss the search for a common narrative on Palestine, a member of the audience declared at the end of a brief but fiery intervention: “We are not red Indians.”

The reference was a relatively old one. It was attributed to former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat during a 2004 interview in his office in Ramallah, where he was forcefully confined and surrounded two years earlier by the Israeli military. He said that Israel had “failed to wipe us out,” adding, “we are not red Indians.”

Though Arafat’s intention was not to degrade or insult Native American communities, the statement, often taken out of context, hardly reflects the deep solidarity between Palestinians and national liberation struggles, including indigenous struggles, around the world.

What surprised me was that the comment on Palestinians not being red Indians in Istanbul was quoted repeatedly and, occasionally, solicited applause from the audience, which only stopped when the convener of the conference, a well-regarded Palestinian professor, declared frustratingly, “they are neither red nor Indian.” Indeed, they are not. Actually, they are the natural allies of the Palestinian people, like numerous indigenous communities, which have actively supported the Palestinian struggle for freedom.

The seemingly simple incident or poor choice of words, however, represents a much greater challenge facing Palestinians as they attempt to animate a new discourse on Palestinian liberation that is no longer hostage to the self-serving language of the PA elites in Ramallah.

For several years, a new generation of Palestinians has been fighting on two different fronts: against Israel’s military occupation and apartheid on the one hand and PA repression on the other. For the people of this generation to succeed in reclaiming the struggle for justice, they must also reclaim a unifying discourse, not only to reconnect their own fragmented communities throughout historic Palestine, but also to reestablish solidarity lines of communication across the globe.

The massive geopolitical changes after the Cold War, in favor of the US-led Western camp, profoundly and negatively impacted Palestine’s relations with Arabs and the rest of the world. It also divided the Palestinians, localizing the Palestinian struggle in a process that seemed to be determined mostly by Israel alone. Gaza was placed under a permanent siege, the West Bank was splintered by numerous illegal Jewish settlements and military checkpoints, Jerusalem was swallowed whole and Palestinians in Israel became victims of a police state that defined itself primarily on racial grounds.

Undoubtedly, Palestinians are aware of the need for a liberated new language. This is not an easy task, nor is it a randomly generated process. In this new language, Palestinians are Native Americans, not in their supposed propensity to be “wiped out,” but in their pride, resilience and continued quest for equality and justice.