Our Dignity Imprisoned, Our Backs Lashed

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Palestine is occupied, settlement is spreading, and Judaization is in full swing. We have neither security nor independence, nor even a loaf of bread earned by the sweat of our brow, and yet we possess enormous energies for bickering, for making claims, and for chasing private interests that harm the homeland rather than benefit it. If we had any shame, or possessed even a little modesty, we would ask the earth to swallow us, or we would beseech God, glory be to Him, to replace us with another people.

Others ride upon us, and saddle our backs (from “hils,” meaning a saddle-blanket), do us favors as if granting charity, impose their will upon us, and decide our fate, while we are busy with a premiership, ministers, and an Authority presidency. If we possessed any sense, or enjoyed even a simple inner moral restraint, we would not boast of positions, or of claims to freedom and independence.

We are under occupation, and the whole of Palestine is under occupation, and if the enemies do not graciously grant us the crumbs of bread, our children will go to sleep without supper. We have no pride, no honor, and no dignity, despite all our statements and speeches that claim otherwise. And in spite of that, we still imagine that there are positions worth our infighting and our bloodshed.

And the greatest calamity is that there are those who go on outbidding each other in patriotism without the slightest hesitation or shame. It is a thing both amusing and deeply bleak, when someone who recognizes Israel, normalizes relations with it, coordinates with its security services, and carries a VIP card, stands there outbidding another traitor just like himself. Good luck to Israel. The bidding now is no longer between patriots, or between patriots and traitors, but between traitors and traitors. And, naturally, the one who postures as the most patriotic is the one guilty of the greatest treason.

For years now, our Palestinian Arab people has been kept preoccupied with the nonsense of positions and ministries, even though we have no need for an Authority presidency, a premiership, and ministers. What we need is a measure of dignity, and it will never come to us from someone who has sold himself into the service of the enemies.

Only our own two arms can restore our dignity. It is required of us, as a Palestinian people that has offered every manner of immense sacrifice across decades, to stand against this recklessness practiced by Palestinian figures who claim to be leaders, and to act so as to seize back the initiative and return to our former path of struggle for liberation and return. And it is required of us not to go easy in confronting this delirium practiced by Palestinians, because in it lies the ruin of generations, the loss of memory, and the destruction of Palestinian identity. Zionism has failed to achieve its goals of dissolving the Palestinian people and pushing it toward social and moral bankruptcy, but the Palestinian side that cooperates with it has proven highly effective at striking the Palestinian record of struggle, and at degrading the moral and social energies needed to carry the struggle forward.

It is required of all of us to take back the reins of the initiative.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “حياؤنا محبوس وظهرنا محلوس” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.