Women's Restrooms and the Calamity of Corruption

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

It was not strange to hear news of an official placing cameras in women’s restrooms — we are ruled by people who know neither God nor human values, and are restrained by no moral principles. This is how we have come to know them over the long years, the very ones who often boast of national slogans, promising the people prosperity, an independent state with holy Jerusalem as its capital, the return of refugees, and eternal bliss and happiness. May God curse the patriotism that could describe their deeds or point to their character. If these corrupt, corrupting men are the ones who will establish a state for us, it is better we remain without a state, better the occupation remain. These are the ignorant friend, the degenerate, base kin from whom nothing comes but curses and abuse.

Could it ever have occurred to Iblis to plant cameras in women’s restrooms? My assessment is that Iblis is far too refined for that — if he wanted to look at women, he would look at them in their beautiful clothes and fine appearance. But this base act is embraced only by a debased, degenerate human being.

These cameras are nothing new to the culture of the Authority and its pillars — they exist and are used against people. They previously tried to set a trap for me, to bring me down and silence my pen afterward. They were not content with shooting at me, throwing me into detention, and burning my car several times — one day they even sent me a flirtatious girl expressing her admiration for me, inviting me to attend a birthday party in Al-Bireh, describing to me a location I later learned was a Palestinian Authority security center. The head of a security apparatus at the time imagined I would fall for it as happens with him, and reported to Arafat that Abdul-Sattar Kassem had fallen into the trap. His superior believed him, but that day I went instead to Tulkarm, so it would never occur to me to go to Al-Bireh, and I was aware the girl — whose name I still remember, L.S. — was compromised, security-wise. One of those running the trap later stated that Abdul-Sattar Kassem had slipped past the cameras they had prepared for him because he never showed up. Their problem is that they measure everyone by their own moral standards.

We hear daily of disgraceful corrupt acts, and many wicked deeds committed against the sons of our people, and the Authority’s and its pillars’ shameful stories never end, their variety and inventiveness never ceasing. These people have made a profession of corruption, until the Palestinian cause has become a plaything for amusement, enrichment, debauchery, and serving the Zionists.

Who bears the responsibility? We, the people of Palestine, bear the responsibility. We never rose up, from the very start, against corrupt practices — indeed we participated in them, desiring to achieve personal interests even at the expense of Palestine and its people. We stayed silent at first, indeed we walked the paths of favoritism, nepotism, bribery, and gratuities to obtain a job or things we had no right to. Each of us thought only of solving our own problems and personal ambitions, in isolation from the public good. We remained in this state until their cameras reached the honor of our daughters and women.

This is a Palestinian revolutionary culture that has existed for a long time, since before the establishment of the Palestinian Authority. We practiced it in Lebanon, in Kuwait, and in Tunisia, and Arab peoples came to hate us because of this corrupt morality. So has the time come for us to move in defense of our honor and dignity, and of our cause, whose fate these “revolutionaries” control?

Let no one think strict measures will one day be taken against the corrupt. Perhaps someone will be punished harshly for his corruption because he is weak, or because he is a poor wretch who stole 100 shekels, but no one but the people will ever punish the whales of corruption. The reason is that the people at the top are corrupt, every one of them implicated, and if one of them is ever questioned or punished, he will expose the others. This is why they always work to muddy the waters and hide the names. The corrupt does not hold the corrupt accountable. The corrupt holds the righteous accountable, because the righteous exposes the corrupt’s disgraces through his own integrity. This is why there is no place for the trustworthy in our country — places are reserved only for the corrupt, the bribe-takers, the thugs, the ignorant, and the people of favoritism and nepotism.

This country is a victim of its own intellectuals, thinkers, academics, and men of religion, because they are silent. They do not confront falsehood, fearing the word of truth because of the persecution and loss of privileges it entails. This country can only be saved by people of the highest, most exalted morals, who offer their people, their homeland, and their holy sites in pursuit of God’s pleasure, not out of love for spoils. Its academics and men of religion see falsehood and do not confront it. Wherever you go, wherever you sit, you hear these people grumbling, but they never raise their voices in confronting corruption and encroachment upon people and their rights, and encroachment upon the Palestinian cause. They have chosen silence, protecting their own interests and fearing the Authority’s punishment. They have placed their consciences in the freezer, while wanting, at the same time, the sons of the poor to keep offering sacrifices. There is a responsibility these people fail to uphold, and disappointed is he who fails to carry the trust and ultimately drowns in humiliation, defeats, and wallowing in the mud.

Will the people of the Authority ever come to their senses? No. Whoever recognizes Israel and coordinates with it finds it easy to place cameras in women’s restrooms. If he has already given up a homeland, and the holy sites and the good land have become cheap to him, could he possibly hold himself back before women? These people were placed in their positions to sabotage Palestinian society. Had Israel thought they would be elements of construction, it would never have allowed them to remain.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “حمامات النساء ومصيبة الفساد” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.