Blind factional fanaticism and loss of humanity
What happened yesterday during the funeral of the young martyr Muhannad Abu Tahouna, son of the Nuseirat camp in the Gaza Strip, is enough for every patriotic Palestinian with a living conscience and humanity to stand and scream with all their strength and energy against the two factions of the division, Fatah and Hamas… Enough… Enough
The division has corroded the Palestinian body and tampered with it, reaching the spinal cord and gnawing at it while the masses of both factions applaud joyfully… The division began politically and then turned into a geographical and social division in all its dimensions, and we now deal with the reality of two states in one homeland… Fatahstan in Ramallah and Hamastan in Gaza. Yesterday, we were witnesses to a division that reached graves and the dead…
The parties of the division no longer respect even death and martyrdom and do not consider the families of the martyrs and their tragedy of losing their loved ones… Their only concern has become factional fanaticism that has turned into a quasi-religion and is no longer a political affiliation as we knew it in past decades.
Yesterday, those responsible for the Martyrs Mosque in Nuseirat camp refused to pray over the body of the late martyr Muhannad Abu Tahouna because he was draped in the Fatah flag, and as Hamas claims, he was an active member in its ranks, but his brothers wanted to drape his body in the Fatah flag… They asked the martyr’s father to remove the Fatah flag and place the Hamas flag on the body before the prayer began… The father refused, and those responsible refused to pray for the martyr in the mosque, so the prayer was held in the street…
I don’t know how you feel reading these lines, but I share with you, honestly and as a Palestinian brother, that I screamed with anger and hatred at these blind people, and my eyes teared up with sadness for a young man at the start of his life and for a father whose feelings were violated by Fatah and Hamas…
Yes, since the beginning of the division until now, we have descended rapidly to the lowest levels of national degradation, and neither statements, calls, nor appeals to the living national conscience among the people of the two factions are effective… The two factions, who do not know the limits of their conflict… have become not only a burden on the homeland, people, and cause but also inhumane and unfeeling…
Our fighters, prisoners, wounded, and martyrs are all, first and foremost, sons of the Palestinian people… They fought, were imprisoned, wounded, and martyred for the land of the homeland, the dignity of its people, freedom, and self-determination… No one is martyred for a faction, leader, or president in a fancy office here or there…
It is mistaken to think that exploiting martyrs, wounded, and prisoners and trying to use their families’ suffering for narrow factional interests is exclusive to Fatah and Hamas. All Palestinian factions engage in this shameful act… They compete in issuing posters, calls, and leaflets about the martyrdom or imprisonment of someone they claim is one of their members, even if that fighter is far from them or does not belong to them… The conflict that occurred yesterday in Nuseirat camp was not the first of its kind and unfortunately will not be the last in a bankrupt Palestinian political environment that has nothing left but to trade in the blood of martyrs and the suffering and grief of their families…
This factional trade in lives and fate is the consolidation of a factional division that has been bleeding the Palestinian national body for decades and has now become a longitudinal and transverse division that cannot be overcome except if the Palestinian street moves and revolts against this trade and raises the banner of unity in every street, school, university, and town…
Our slogan is Palestine, our land is Palestine, and our first and last affiliation is to Palestine—the land, homeland, and people… The events of Nuseirat camp clearly indicate the bankruptcy of political leaderships and their loss of direction, and their calls to overcome the division have unfortunately become nothing but excuses…
The Tunisian poet Abu al-Qasim al-Shabi was right when he said:
If the people one day truly desire life, then fate must respond
The fate of the Palestinian people is to go through this difficult stage and live under a deteriorating political system led by political leaders who no longer believe in the power and capabilities of the people… Their only concern has become decorating themselves with the blood of martyrs and the suffering of the wounded, prisoners, and their families… But it is never the fate of the Palestinian people, this people who have challenged for over two centuries and continue to challenge the most dangerous and fiercest forms of organized war and political crimes against them, to surrender to the status quo and await their extinction… Now we stand at a great and dangerous crossroads, and as the rural proverb says: “Only your nail scratches your skin,” we must not surrender to fate… We must challenge obstacles and take the words of the Tunisian poet:
And whoever does not love climbing mountains will live forever among the pits
The pit prepared for us by the division, which key Palestinian parties have worked to entrench and deepen in the Palestinian reality… We, individuals and factions, elders, youth, women, and men, must close it with our own hands… Hoping that an Arab or foreign party will help us overcome this fate is nothing but mirage and illusion…
The experiences of peoples teach us that relief comes from within and from the self’s conviction of its abilities and capabilities…
Our martyrs are martyrs of the Palestinian people and the land of Palestine; we honor them by wrapping their bodies in the flag of this ancient people and decorating their pictures with the map of Palestine and the flag of Palestine… Our only flag and our only affiliation, and no, a thousand times no to factional exploitation of the pure blood of martyrs, manipulating the feelings of their families, and exploiting their grief and tragedy of losing the apple of their eye for narrow factional interests far from humanity and national decency…
To you, Muhannad Abu Tahouna, and your family, we bow in reverence and appreciation for your sacrifices and with shame for ourselves and our factions… It was your honor, martyr of Palestine Muhannad, to have your body prayed over on the precious soil of Palestine and not in a mosque named by the Almighty Lord as the House of God, which they made a symbol to entrench division among family and people
