We, They, and the Fire
Although I live thousands of kilometers away from my homeland, far from my family, every small and big event happening in beloved Palestine shakes my being and increases my interest and follow-up… This was in the past and happened in the last two days when fires broke out in many areas of the homeland, the most intense being the fires that attacked Haifa, the bride of the sea.
I followed the events closely with concern and interest… concern for my homeland, concern for our olive trees, concern for the homeland's trees and our environment, and a frightening concern for dear friends living near the fires… I followed the events professionally to monitor the reactions of official circles, ordinary people, intellectuals there, and the reactions of my people and nation inside and outside the homeland. I followed the events via television, radio, the internet, and correspondence with friends by various means, and I saw it as my national and professional duty to share with you my impressions and preliminary conclusions about the fire and our reactions and theirs so we can think together: where are we and where are they? 1. Not all that glitters is gold is a saying proven true in the last two days. Human souls, the depths of their hearts, their intentions and directions become clear in times of hardship. Catastrophes are a mirror to people's hearts, and their words and actions are an open page from which you read what truly goes on in their minds and from whom you deduce who they really are and where they stand on humanity!
If the fires were caused by human action, it is a criminal act unforgivable regardless of who carried it out. Whether Palestinian Arab, Israeli Jew, tourist, or foreign worker, they are all criminals. Social media pages and some Arab satellite channels were filled with words from “amateur analysts” who attributed the fires to God Almighty! According to these fools, God took revenge on the Zionists for preventing the call to prayer from mosques in mixed cities in Palestine. These people see God as a vengeful, angry, hateful punisher and forget that God and all religions are mercy, love, compassion, kindness, and empathy. They forget that God calls for goodness and harmony and does not know the cruelty of creation like them. They insulted God with their words and insulted the nobility of our people and nation, which has rights, is right, demands rights, works to uphold rights, and to free us from injustice. The owners of this barren thought forgot that the Zionists raised the issue of the call to prayer to distract us and divert our attention from what is more important and dangerous… They distracted us with the call to prayer to pass their racist colonial law to seize our lands in occupied Palestine of 1967 and legalize the settlement outposts there. The strange and amazing thing is that none of these amateurs uttered a word about the seizure of our lands and were preoccupied, as planned, with the call to prayer. This is a dangerous indicator; we, the people of politics, must scrutinize it well to see where the priorities have reached among a wide segment of our Palestinian people and our Arab nation! Some shouted - God is great - Israel is burning - and forgot that in Israel there are one and a half million Palestinians living throughout Palestine and tens of thousands of them live near the fires that threaten their lives and properties. These naive, ignorant people from our Palestinian people abroad and our Arab nation do not understand geography or reality. They do not know and do not want to know that our Palestinian people inside live in villages and towns affected by the fires and that no homeland burns its land and olive trees, no true homeland rejoices in its polluted environment, no true homeland rejoices in the death of innocents, and no true homeland dances on the misfortunes of others even if they are its enemies. This is a policy of cruelty and “you and then you, my Lord” policy we lived through during the second Intifada and all felt its fire. When will we learn from the saying of the late thinker and symbol Edward Said: We must surpass our enemy in ethics!??? 5. The reactions of my friends and colleagues in the Joint List were an example of responsibility and ethics to be proud of. Their call that the land is ours, the trees are ours, and the environment to be polluted is ours stems from a realistic outlook and pragmatic politics. Their appeal to the Palestinian masses inside to cooperate with firefighters and police to extinguish fires, contain chaos, and help the afflicted expressed their responsibility towards their people, their properties, and their fate. Their words that this disaster does not serve destructive populist political calls were correct, words of rightful people and people of responsibility and patriotism par excellence. The reactions of the Zionists, from the Prime Minister, some ministers, security men, and those who claim to be experts on Arab affairs and their blind analysts with their racism did not really surprise me. Every observer of these racist usurpers’ policies can only expect such baseness and such racist vileness in claiming that Palestinians carried out this act! Their racism will be their downfall, and this has begun. Like other racists in history, their end is inevitable… This is not a prophecy but a careful, objective, scientific reading of historical processes and the inevitability of reality, and there is no need, as some of our people inside did, to move to a position of self-defense to clear our conscience from a matter we have no part in. Whoever did this act is a criminal regardless of color, religion, or national affiliation. When fire consumes, it does not ask who owns it, and when it burns people, it does not ask about religion or ethnic or political affiliation. This is a humanitarian and environmental disaster, and we all on this earth will bear the burden and be affected by the consequences. I was moved and my eyes welled with tears as I followed the announcement of hundreds of our people in the Triangle and Galilee to the fire victims that their homes are open to shelter, house, and comfort them in this difficult time. I was moved when I called a dear friend living in Haifa to check on her, and she told me in a trembling voice of fear that she was fine and waiting for an Indian family living nearby to take them with her to her family home in a village far from Haifa… I felt pride and honor when I saw pictures of young men and women in the New Covenant Church in Haifa preparing sandwiches for firefighters and saw Palestinian civil defense vehicles and youth in Haifa helping to extinguish fires… Then I remembered my grandmother’s saying, who was an example of humanity, love, and giving – may God have mercy on her – “If the people are absent, the land is soaked” – and I said to myself this is the people of truth, the people of heroes, this people who did not forget their humanity despite their pain and despite the oppression of their occupiers and usurpers of their land and honor. This great people must triumph and raise the banner of independence, freedom, and humanity in Haifa, Jaffa, Acre, Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Gaza. I was impressed by the reaction of the artist friend Ramses Qassis who responded objectively to the racist approach of the Zionist security and police officials threatening to pursue anyone who promoted the fires and danced joyfully for them. These racists had in mind our Palestinian people inside. Artist Ramses published on his Facebook page words from Israeli Jews inciting to burn Palestinian Arab homes, villages, and properties and called on his friends to monitor social media pages to expose their racism, hatred, and vile psyche and called on the police to pursue them if they are truly concerned with social peace.. This is the responsible, sincere national feeling, away from cruelty politics and responding with hatred and animosity. This is the national awareness we aspire to plant in the minds and souls of our Palestinian people… We do not dance on anyone’s disaster… Our humanity stands as a barrier against our instinct… We are rightful people and household, with high morals and our humanitarian national responsibility, confronting racism inspired by the spirit and words of the late symbol Edward Said. We do not hate anyone; we love life and love it with noble ethics.
