Why Is the West Bank Silent?

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

A woman of considerable education and learning once called me, asking about the secret behind the West Bank’s silence regarding the right of return and its marches taking place in the Gaza Strip. She said Gaza suffers severely from the hardship of living the siege imposes, and the West Bank suffers in a different way, despite its relative ease of living compared to Gaza — so why does Gaza move with such force, vigor, commitment, and determination, while the West Bank barely moves at all, except in small measure at certain contact points? Her argument was that there are enough reasons for people in the West Bank to move in defense of the Palestinian people’s rights. She wanted a brief, focused answer.

The answer is that several parties, the Palestinian Authority, the Zionist entity, and the United States foremost among them, have worked, since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, to demolish and destroy Palestinian national culture and the moral value system of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. They succeeded in the West Bank, but Gaza’s escape from the Authority’s grip largely spared it this sabotage. National culture remains greatly palpable in Gaza, and with it a sense of national responsibility and commitment is available, but this culture has withered dangerously in the West Bank, so people’s engagement, overall, with events requiring the closing of ranks has weakened. Three consecutive wars occurred against Gaza, accompanied by mass killing and enormous destruction, yet other peoples’ engagement with Gaza was greater than the West Bank’s engagement, even as Gaza has been besieged for years, its people living the bitterness and harshness of life, while the West Bank is a partner in the siege.

The various powers referred to worked, through multiple means, to destroy people’s national psyches, especially in the West Bank, distancing them from national concerns. Among these mechanisms is the policy of corruption and corrupting that the Authority pursued, which remains the subject of continuous criticism since the Authority’s establishment to this day. Whoever wants to sabotage a society need only strike two fabrics: the social and the moral. The task of corruption is to lead people toward violating values, laws, and national norms, and developing a culture of cleverness (fahlawa) characterized by working to wrest whatever a person can from others through injustice and falsehood, without legal responsibility pursuing him. If the head of the household is corrupt, we must expect others to lean toward corruption too, and the unspoken message of people becomes: if the land is full of thieves, why shouldn’t I become a thief too and spare myself the burden of work and production? Corruption spread widely at the official level, and so the popular level began imitating its leaderships, who claimed to be national. Alongside this corruption, a culture of thuggery spread — bullying others, terrorizing, intimidating, and extorting them — a culture that spread across various villages and cities, and continues to this day. Because of their repeated assaults on people, many thugs became wealthy, holding sway in society and in the domestic economy.

An assault was carried out on the educational system to erase the national dimension from teaching, and distort history and religious ideas to please the Zionists and meet European and American conditions. The Westerners who established the Zionist entity and displaced our people are the ones who, over the years, controlled our educational curricula and our media programs, and even much of our laws, working to exclude national ideas and national commitment from these curricula.

But the most effective mechanism in stripping people of their will was striking at people’s reassurance regarding their living conditions and financial situation. The Palestinian Authority, encouraged by the Zionists and Americans, tied a large portion of people’s daily bread to salaries, whose money initially came from abroad, so that employees would be careful about what they say and do, not opposing or engaging in fields the Zionists disapprove of. In other words, every employee had to watch himself, knowing there are Palestinian and Zionist security apparatuses monitoring him, tracking his news and activities. Then the doors of bank financial facilities were opened to people, so that a large proportion became indebted to the banks, having always to think about how to pay installments, and how to program monthly expenses so they could afford a loaf of bread. And what do we expect once people’s daily bread becomes tied to the enemy’s will?

In return, it was necessary for people to feel a kind of blessing and comfort compared to the Gaza Strip. The European states opened their hands to non-governmental organizations, employing thousands of people, and funded many projects, some service-oriented, some productive, that revived some people. The Americans did likewise through the USAID institution.

People in the West Bank began eating Kit Kats, at a time when the people of Gaza could not even find thyme and olives. So will people in the West Bank return to their national responsibilities, sacrificing the consumer culture that has developed among them? A consumer culture developed in the West Bank that fed on national culture, and personal concern replaced national concern among a broad segment of people. It is true people in the West Bank recognize the difficulty of conditions in Gaza, but most of them content themselves with expressing sorrow and grief over what matters have come to.

This is why the West Bank is silent, and I am confident others will offer further reasons complementing what I have put forward. The West Bank lives a national tragedy, but the culture of consumption and lethargy is what prevails now, and it will inevitably change. But there is no hope of change as long as the Oslo-era leadership remains dominant over the people.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “لماذا تصمت الضفة الغربية؟” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.