We Must Defend Ourselves

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

To those far away, and perhaps even to those nearby, we the people of Palestine look like a lizard in the desert struck with paralysis, unable to survive except on scraps thrown to it by one who will come back the next day to devour it. We are the people of Palestine who have never ceased fighting for a hundred years, yet a weakness has overtaken us, so that the brokers of the nation and the wolves of the jungle have come to belittle us, and encroaching upon us has become an easy matter, to the point that the corrupt among us have made our necks and our country submissive to the covetous Zionists.

The Zionists confiscate the land, build the settlements, Judaize Jerusalem, creep toward al-Aqsa and the Noble Rock, and threaten our continued presence on this blessed land, while the world sees nothing from us but a feeble, begging discourse, hoping that someone might take pity on us. Our wailing fills the sky, and our screaming is heard even by inanimate stone, but the powerful only grow more entrenched, and none among them answers. Yesterday, leaders from Palestine appealed to Russia, America, Britain, the Quartet, the United Nations, and the European Union to stop Israel’s plans to displace people once again, and this time too their appeal will find no echo. After all these long years, after all this blood that has been shed, the caravans of martyrs who have fallen, the houses demolished, the trees uprooted, the women widowed, the children orphaned, the lands seized, and the tears that have poured down, Palestine’s leadership has nothing left but to grovel before those who created Israel, hoping they might yet be rescued.

Our land has been seized, our people scattered, our honor violated, our fortresses destroyed. Our children do not sleep peacefully, our daughters feel neither security nor peace of mind, our women’s faces are forever wet with blood, our mothers tear at their collars in grief, our men are killed morning and evening, and our entire life is one unending tragic series. Until when?

We must return to ourselves, and defend ourselves by our own hands. Whoever wishes to join us or help us is welcome, but we must know that whoever does not liberate himself will find no one to liberate him. What must we do? I set out the following points clearly:

First: we must set our internal Palestinian house in order. Here I do not mean reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, but rather raising our moral standard and strengthening the degree of commitment and social cohesion. The conflict between the factions is a product of structural problems, not their cause. The Palestinian Authority, in this respect, is a calamity that has befallen us; it has managed to accomplish many things the occupation itself could not accomplish, foremost among them the reckless squandering of people’s money, and at times their honor.

Second: normalization with Israel must be stopped, security coordination with it must be halted, and the agreements must be annulled. Perhaps this cannot happen all at once, but we begin first by pursuing those who normalize relations and those who coordinate security, and then continue until we are rid of all our shameful obligations to the enemy.

Third: we must begin with the first steps of resistance, namely the economic boycott of Israel wherever possible. There are many Zionist-manufactured goods that we do not need at all, for which we could find alternatives, and yet we continue to buy them. This is a disgrace to us, and we must realize that whoever buys his enemy’s goods is contributing to arming that enemy’s army.

…-tional bonds, and their Arab and Islamic depth.

Fifth: we must cleanse ourselves of the collaborators and spies who eat away at our body. This is not an easy task, but we must recognize that these people are an internal rot, sowing sedition and discord, and helping the enemy in matters great and small.

Sixth: we must reconsider our old methods of struggle, which have proven useless. The factions must adopt a new organizational policy that takes care with security protection and clandestine work. Showy, performative militant action is destructive and produces nothing but counterproductive results. The mujahid and the militant must learn not to divulge a secret even to themselves, and both must know that the true revolutionary is well-mannered, kind, and mindful of people, their interests, and their property.

Seventh: we must turn to production — reclaiming the land and planting wheat and olives. We will not achieve full self-sufficiency, but we must try, and a loaf of bread will be enough for us if we share it justly.

Eighth: it is necessary that we give up the money of the donor states, because it is poisoned money intended for nothing but the destruction of the Palestinian people. The glitter of the salary tempts us now, but this salary will, in the end, cast us into the street searching for scraps we may not even find.

Ninth: we must change our alliances and our sources of funding, without selling ourselves or mortgaging our decisions to the benefit of this party or that. Is the Arab homeland, and the Islamic world, truly devoid of those who would support us without asking anything in return? No.

Tenth: we must elevate education, and take care to apply the law justly. Our educational institutions are crippled, whether at the level of schools or universities, and many teachers themselves are in need of someone to teach them. The educational situation in Palestine is extremely dangerous, and it is a situation that, more often than not, contributes to erasing national consciousness and reinforcing submission and recklessness.

These are points that are not easy to implement; they require effort, sleepless nights, exhaustion, and sacrifices. But the alternative is that we lose ourselves, our reputation dissipates, our homeland evaporates, and we are trampled underfoot by the base and unworthy. The efforts required demand patience, perseverance, and endurance of hardship, but that is a lighter burden than humiliation and abasement. So do we wish to live with dignity, honor, and a free homeland, or do we wish for a salary steeped in humiliation from the people of the West? Your salary comes to you now in exchange for your homeland, but your son will find himself, in the future, with neither salary nor homeland. So which do you choose: the shorter path — the path of sacrifices, scientifically and calmly planned — or the path of false Western promises?

Israel will not stop its schemes, and our current circumstances tempt it to advance recklessly amid all the screaming and wailing, but it will begin to think twice and again once it sees our feet beginning to climb the ladder from the bottom rung upward. A strong people, bonded together, mutually in solidarity and mutually responsible, frightens its enemy even if it has no weapon in its hand, because its cohesion is bound to bring it weapons.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “يجب أن ندافع عن أنفسنا” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.