Issawi and the War of Wills

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Samer al-Issawi has confirmed the experience of the peoples of the earth who fought for freedom and liberation, an experience that says weapons cannot rise above the human will, and that a firm will folds beneath its own weight the mightiest of arms. Through his great historic steadfastness, he affirms to his Palestinian people that whoever endures shall triumph, whoever persists shall achieve, and whoever looks toward the future shall reach it.

They said politics is the art of the possible; al-Issawi has proven that it is the insistence upon the possible. He insisted, fully aware, as we are all aware, that his material strength is utterly negligible next to the strength of his jailers, and he proved that strength is not merely tanks, aircraft, and rifles, but a battle of will, trust, faith, and conviction. What good is a weapon carried by a trembling, shaking hand? What is the worth of a tank driven by one defeated from within? And what weakness is there in one who possesses no tank, yet possesses the will to face it down and neutralize its effect?

A human being’s strength lies within him, and his other weapons are nothing but mere support for the will available within; when will is absent, the strength of weapons is absent too, and when will is present, weapons collapse before it.

[The text here is damaged in the original and resumes mid-sentence:] …we should have to beg the Americans to supply us with money or else we die, when we already know full well that whatever Western money we receive is nothing but payment for our homeland, and payment for our surrender of our fixed national rights. So if we wish to glorify al-Issawi, we must understand that it is those possessed of firm will, dignity, and honor who are victorious. Al-Issawi is not merely a person who went hungry; he is a maker of history, a maker of an example, a maker of a model to follow, and it is upon us to take the lesson rather than dwell at length on praise.

Al-Issawi deserves acclaim, praise, veneration, and appreciation, but he would certainly be happier still if we took the lesson from him, and became convinced that bowed heads will never straighten their own necks, and that loftiness belongs to the raised head. What do we want: the values of the empty stomach, or the values of the bloated stomach? The values of the empty stomach lead us to freedom, while the values of the bloated stomach will lead us only to further humiliation.

Is an empty stomach itself a struggle? If we have told al-Issawi yes, then he expects of us not that we go hungry as he endured, but that we content ourselves with what we produce, and insist on producing still more, so that the Americans may never again humiliate us.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “العيساوي وحرب الإرادات” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.