Confronting the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital…
Between fruitful support and solidarity and destructive populist vulgarity!
In the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, populism has occupied a prominent place in mobilizing the masses, not only in general political discourse but also in strategic political discourse directed at the other… This populism grows denser and more visible, and we can clearly observe it when situations worsen and crises erupt. This phenomenon is not limited only to Palestinian political forces and Palestinian and Arab masses as some claim, but it is also found, for years now, in large quantities and abundance within Israeli society and in the discourse of its political leaders.
Populism in itself is a relative matter and not a purely clear-cut concept with defined boundaries and features… In other words, what I consider populist, another analyst or observer might see as pragmatic political rhetoric, and a third analyst might view as realistic political discourse close to popular sentiment… Therefore, it is difficult to find a politician honest with himself and his masses or a political activist who can claim that his political discourse is completely free of populism…
Most of the time, populism is employed in political discourse and rhetoric to portray a political-social situation with exaggeration and overstatement, either from a position of strength, which is proof of arrogance in the populist, or from a position of weakness, which expresses a policy of vulgarity and lack of honest confrontation policy in this populist or promoter of populist thought.
Populism is like salt in food; without it, there is no taste, but too much is unbearable!
The disaster and catastrophe begin when populism turns into the sole overwhelming political discourse present everywhere and in every political event, dominating all other ideas and prevailing in the political discourse of one party… Here, populism turns into demagogy, and at this moment, society with its political elite and mass base approaches barbarism and savagery that know no limits to hostility and hatred. History is full of cases of peoples and political leaders who began with populism in their discourse and direction toward their masses, allies, and opponents and ended with brutal, racist, criminal savagery.
In the current Palestinian case, after US President Trump signed the law recognizing “unified Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel,” populism dominated the Palestinian political discourse and left no room for balanced, rational discourse that serves the cause and the people.
Populist discourse was not limited to one political party or another… Everyone from Islamists to secularists, from progressives to conservatives, from communists to Knesset members, all excelled and competed among themselves in populist rhetoric. The most dangerous aspect is not the populist political discourse itself, but the consequences of this discourse on the Palestinian situation, which cannot be remedied afterward…
And to avoid prolonging, I would like to list some elements of the Palestinian populist discourse and its destructive negative repercussions on the just cause of the Palestinian people:
First, the talk about Palestinian Arab Jerusalem, its land, people, and its religious, civilizational, and cultural diversity with the phrase “Al-Quds Al-Sharif” (The Noble Jerusalem)… confines the discussion from all angles—political, religious, humanitarian, national, and legal—to about two thousand square meters and ignores the rest… This is the area of “Al-Quds Al-Sharif,” within which we find, alongside Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock, also the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and various Islamic, Christian, and Jewish religious landmarks. This term is above all an exclusionary and chauvinistic term and one of the most damaging terms to the national cause of Jerusalem. When a Palestinian or Arab citizen uses this term, we might overlook the deep critical philosophical perspective and consider it a statement stemming from instinct without political, social, or religious dimensions… But the matter is entirely different when this term becomes part of the political discourse of major influential movements, parties, and social political forces in Palestinian society and in the Arab and Islamic worlds. When secular social and political currents also adopt this discourse and term, it becomes a national and ethnic disaster and catastrophe! By adopting this term, the dimension and title of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict become religious, not political. Here, the Torah, the Bible, and the Quran become the reference for legitimacy and self-determination, not history and human development… Turning the conflict from a struggle of an oppressed, land-deprived people against brutal colonialist and settler Zionism into a religious conflict is a free service to the Zionist project in the Middle East. We see this destructive populist discourse spreading among people like wildfire… We observe the signs of this populism today worldwide when millions mobilize to support Al-Aqsa but do not move when Israel confiscates tens of thousands of dunams of Jerusalemite lands, displaces Jerusalem’s residents from their homes in the Old City, and changes its Palestinian Arab features… Since the populist discourse shifted from Islamist political discourse to become everyone’s discourse at the end of the 1980s, Israel planted tens of thousands of homes in Jerusalem and its surroundings and settled hundreds of thousands of settlers there, and the Islamic and Arab street did not move because “Al-Quds Al-Sharif” was fine… Now everyone cries over “Al-Quds Al-Sharif,” which America recognized as part of the occupying state! This is populism at its finest!
Among the signs of this destructive populist discourse today are the demonstrations of Arab and Palestinian communities in Europe protesting the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital… Tens of thousands of Palestinian and Arab community members alongside foreign solidarity associations in hundreds of European cities demonstrate against Trump’s signing of the racist law against our people and their just cause, armed with the principled opposition of European countries to Trump’s decision. However, a very small minority influenced by destructive populist discourse managed with vile slogans like “Khaybar Khaybar, O Jews” and trivial acts violating European laws such as burning the Israeli flag to turn the discussion from supporting the Palestinian people’s interests and the importance of this support to an opposing stance… These foolish acts and those behind them, the populists, provide a free service to Zionism and its colonial project, and these ignorant people are the bitter enemies of the Palestinian people’s cause and national interest. Here, I must remind these people of my dialectic about understanding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which I have written repeatedly and repeat here:
The Palestinian people’s struggle with Israel is a political struggle and a struggle for land and existence, not a religious or doctrinal conflict… Not every Jew is Israeli or Zionist… Not every Zionist is Israeli or even Jewish… Not every Israeli is Jewish or Zionist…
Second, mobilizing the masses by claiming that the core event is the transfer of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem…
When I read some comments on the event and hear their analyses, I wonder if this stems from ignorance and lack of knowledge or if it is deliberate populist guidance? The transfer of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is one of the outcomes of the event, not the most dangerous event itself… The embassy transfer is a technical act that should not be politically underestimated, but there is no need for populist exaggeration and portraying it as if it were the center of the event. The law Trump signed was passed in 1995 by a majority of US senators and the House of Representatives, and the president’s signature means it became effective and must be implemented technically and politically. The law literally states that unified Jerusalem (i.e., its east and west, which is the text of the Israeli law passed by the Israeli Knesset in the early 1980s) is the eternal capital of the State of Israel! Talking about the embassy transfer and mobilizing the masses with incomplete information is itself a violation of people’s minds and feelings… The law Trump signed cannot be canceled even if Trump himself withdrew and apologized for signing it… The law became effective, and only another American law can neutralize this law, and everyone knows that a majority in America against recognizing unified Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is more than impossible… Mass movements and supporters worldwide are very important to limit dealing with the American law and try to create a supportive atmosphere for recognizing the State of Palestine and its capital East Jerusalem by world countries, especially European countries… Shouting against the embassy transfer dilutes the main demand of movements and demonstrations supporting the Palestinian people worldwide and is nothing but populist talk.
Third, Arab and foreign countries’ demands to take punitive political and economic steps against Israel in response to its colonial arrogance…
Dealing with this Palestinian demand, repeated by all political players in the Palestinian arena from the authority, opposition, and those in between, is very important and unquestionable if taken seriously and realistically… But the reality in occupied Palestine reveals many matters that make this demand nothing but populist talk!
The official Palestinian side coordinates with the occupation security-wise and logistically and is bound by agreements in this regard… The Palestinian side has not even hinted at freezing these agreements despite everything that has happened in the past and is happening now in occupied Palestine and also deals economically with the occupation and opens its markets wide to Israeli products, even though most Israeli products have national alternatives in occupied Palestine!
With what eyes does the official Palestinian side demand and mobilize the Palestinian street to ask others, Arab and foreign countries, to take procedural steps against Israel, such as closing Israeli embassies and cutting diplomatic and economic relations, while it does not do this itself?
The popular and political discourse should be directed first to the Palestinian Authority to urge it to stop security coordination with the occupation and close Palestinian markets to Israeli products so that Arabs and foreigners are armed with a clear Palestinian stance characterized by steadfastness and challenge, not chauvinism and populism.
In this context, I remind the dear reader of the words of our master Jesus in Matthew 7:
Do not judge, so that you will not be judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
