The Humiliation of VIP Permit Holders

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

For readers outside Palestine, let me explain that a large number of Palestinians in the West Bank, employees of the Palestinian Authority especially, carry a card issued by the Zionist occupation called “VIP” — which they take to be short for “very important person.” I would suggest it more accurately stands for “very irresponsible person.” Their translation is not accurate in practice, because there are very many truly important people in Palestine who do not carry this card. Whoever carries this card must be distinguished by positions or acts the occupation approves of, or that align with its policies. The question of “importance” is not the point — what matters is what the person in question actually does: are his actions within the policy Israel approves of or not? Does he support the agreements with Israel, the Quartet’s conditions, and security coordination, and does he hold a position through which he contributes to entrenching the Oslo Accords and the agreements that followed from it?

The occupation has long issued such cards, even before the Palestinian Authority arrived, and they used to be obtained by certain spies whose profession was tracking the news of resistance fighters and reporting them to the occupation, and by agents whose job was to understand the enemy’s policy and work to implement it through various means by misleading and deceiving the Palestinian people. People used to describe these individuals as agents, and the very people who now hold power in the Palestinian Authority were once the harshest critics of those who obtained this card, attacking them fiercely.

One morning I was driving from Nablus to Ramallah, and had to pass through the Zionist checkpoint set up in the Zaatara area. At the checkpoint there are two lanes: one for ordinary citizens like myself, and another for vehicles with Zionist license plates and for Palestinian VIP cardholders. We ordinary citizens would pass through the checkpoint without the soldier even looking at us, while the cardholders stood in a line waiting for a signal from the soldier, who pretended to be busy. Of course, I took the opportunity to say to every car, “You deserve it.”

It was clear the soldier was deliberately humiliating them, his unspoken message telling them: “You, gentlemen of the very important, cannot pass unless a Zionist soldier — who has no place on any list of the important — permits you.” Of course, we the poor ordinary citizens are subjected to a great many insults from the Zionists, at checkpoints and elsewhere, but we expect nothing else from them, and we understand this conflict involves such practices, and all we can do is endure until the promised day when the magician’s own spell turns against him. But the problem with the VIP holders is that they truly believe they are important, and we watch how they behave before ordinary people with a kind of arrogance and a sense of grandeur. Some of these “great” men boast that they carry a VIP card, speaking in gatherings about the greatness that brought them to this level, one the Palestinian people generally reject and shun. If only these people would listen to what people say about them, the descriptions applied to them, and the nicknames expressing people’s mockery and contempt for them.

The Zionists do not treat these people with contempt and condescension all the time, but they do so from time to time, to remind them that they are the slaves and the sons of Zion are the masters, and to remind them of the blessings they receive in exchange for the services they provide to their masters. How many times have Zionist soldiers stopped so-called “ministers,” “directors,” or “negotiators,” for no reason other than to remind them of their place.

Has the VIP cardholder ever asked himself how he feels carrying a Zionist card that permits him to cross differently from the sons of his own people? Can he explain to us his feelings as he passes, showing his card at the checkpoint, while the sons of his own people line up at the checkpoint waiting to cross? Has he asked himself what price he paid the enemy to obtain this privilege, steeped as it is in humiliation and disgrace? Or is the matter simply a trade: Palestine in exchange for a few cheap privileges?

Wake up, and return to your people. This work of yours produces nothing but humiliation and disgrace, and you are deluded if you imagine that this soldier, who deliberately reminds you of your true size, will ever build you a state.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “بهدلة أصحاب ال في آي بي (VIP)” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.