Our Tragedy

If the leadership is unable to achieve the goal, fails, or moves away from the values of achievement and the unification of efforts, then the people will correct it—provided, that is, that the people are alive. A living people does not tolerate injustice, submit to failure, allow its emotions and feelings to be manipulated, or take lightly violations that attack its values and morals. A living people is a people that understands commitment, values it, and defends its foundations and principles, because it is a people that achieves accomplishments and progress. Its members are characterized by vitality, activity, fulfillment of duty, and rebellion against everything that would weaken determination. As for a people unmoved by defeats or setbacks, that remains silent about social corruption and attacks on public rights, and goes along with them, it would rather remain beneath the earth, trampled by events and other nations without crying out.

Historically, it is well known that peoples pass through stages, including the stages of ebb and flow. In the stage of flow, the people are characterized by activity, vibrant life, and elevated morals such as collective work, mutual cooperation, keeping promises and covenants, and respecting others, their rights, and their freedoms. They focus on production, excellence, and giving. At this stage, the people derive their strength from within themselves, and from them burst forth energies of creativity and renewal, as well as tireless efforts toward innovation and achieving further progress in the various fields of life. People are also loving, tolerant, and compassionate toward one another, ready to undertake public duties as part of their upbringing. In the stage of ebb, however, people become fraudulent, hypocritical, and deceitful, unworthy of trust. They honor no covenant, pact, promise, or appointment, and swear emphatically that they are truthful. Their morals are degraded; they observe neither honor, conscience, nor religion, and they spread corruption throughout the land. They violate one another’s rights and tear one another apart, observing neither what is forbidden nor what is permitted. At this stage, people become trivial, and their concerns even more trivial than they are. Their ears open to tales of demons while they leave their future to whoever manages their affairs without them. The public interest concerns them less than monitoring one another and attacking an individual’s private life. They are lazy and dependent, offering many prayers that go unanswered while doing little work or giving. They violate the public interest, and favoritism, nepotism, and superstition become widespread among them. They reject freedom and prefer conspiracy to openness, effort, and generosity.

A people in the stage of flow is ready to correct defects, rectify mistakes, and revolt if necessary. A people in the stage of ebb, however, becomes a subject for corruption, laxity, degradation, and domination. During the stage of flow, the leadership takes its people into account and tries to conceal itself from mistakes. During the stage of ebb, the leadership takes its time doing whatever evil it wishes, facing few objectors and many opportunists who pursue contemptible practices. Many are those who envy tyrants for their tyranny and corrupt people for their corruption.

If we look at the condition of the Palestinian people in light of the foregoing, it becomes clear that this is a stage of ebb and retreat. I will not go into the details here, because that would require extensive work beyond the scope of this book. Instead, I will briefly touch on fundamental issues in order to complete the chain of discussion that argues for the integration of the elements of defeat. These elements consist of the leadership, the vanguard, and the people. These elements interact, and their interaction describes the nature of the stage and reveals the psychological, educational, moral, and material conditions of the nation. If the leadership is enlightened and possesses a high degree of moral excellence, knowledge, broad horizons, commitment, and responsibility, it leads its people forward, and the only thing that hinders it is the people falling short of its energies and aspirations. But if the leadership is corrupt, a living people corrects it. If the leadership is corrupt and the people are dead, the vanguard—represented by thinkers, writers, authors, and intellectuals—moves to the forefront to prevent deterioration and elevate the nation. But if the leadership is corrupt, the vanguard is absent, intellectuals compete to obtain favors from the leadership, and the people are dead, drowning in corruption or a lack of commitment, then the nation is certainly in a tragedy.

على الصعيد الاجتماعي، من الواضح أن التعصب القبلي أو العشائري ما زال يضرب جذورا في المجتمع الفلسطيني. وقد برز هذا التعصب في الانتخابات التي جرت في مطلع عام 1996، ونسبة لا بأس بها من الأصوات الانتخابية كانت محكومة بصلة القربى وليس بمبدأ أو برنامج انتخابي. ويظهر هذا التعصب أيضا في الوظائف الرسمية حيث يعمل مدير المؤسسة على تشغيل أقاربه وأصدقائه وأصدقاء أصدقائه. هذا علما أن الروابط القبلية في هذه المرحلة قد خفت حدتها لصالح القبائل الحديثة وهي الفصائل الفلسطينية. على الرغم من أن هدف هذه الفصائل هو حشد الطاقات الفلسطينية من أجل التحرير إلا أنها لم تخرج عن التقليد العربي وحوّل كل فصيل نفسه إلى قبيلة تؤمن بالمثل القائل “أنا وأخي على ابن عمي، وأنا وابن عمي على الغريب.” هذا بشأن الصراعات الداخلية، أما بشأن الصراع مع قوى خارجية فإن المثل المستعمل “انج سعد فقد هلك سعيد.” وعلى نمط القبائل الجاهلية التي كانت تستعين بقوى خارجية من أجل تثبيت نفسها لا يوجد مانع الآن للاستعانة بقوى خارجية لحسم صراع داخلي.

In a tribal society, people do not seek justice or the truth; instead, they remain prisoners of their biases, isolation, and private interests. What matters is the interest of the tribe or faction, even if the nation’s interests are harmed. In our society, people now understand that this behavior is wrong and contrary to sound values, yet they practice it.

This leads us to the question of awareness. Many people understand the truth and know their rights and duties, but they do not put them into practice. There is a clear split between theoretical knowledge and practical application, and an obvious separation between theoretical awareness and practical awareness. People in our country talk a great deal about what should be done, but they do not act, or they do the opposite. For example, someone may talk about the need to keep the street clean while at the same moment throwing something that makes the street dirty. Someone may talk about the need for people to respect one another while, at that very moment, speaking ill of his brother. Principles are one thing and practice another. Principles are for conversation, while the speakers already know that none of them will abide by them.

In our country, people speak out against favoritism, nepotism, and administrative corruption at the official level, but it seems that most people are corrupt, each in his own way. When the administration was in the hands of the occupation, many people sought out spies and agents of the occupation to advance some of their interests, such as obtaining a permit or a job. After the Palestinian Authority came and the importance of intercession in advancing personal interests increased, people did not boldly confront this behavior. Instead, they continued to appease and accommodate the situation that had emerged, intensifying their efforts to find intermediaries and obtain things they did not deserve or that belonged to others. Even people who were supposed to be in the vanguard of defending the truth began looking for ways to satisfy their desires and achieve their personal interests, even at the expense of the homeland and its citizens. Former activists who had long presented themselves as defenders of values, morals, the national interest, and nation-building did not escape this degradation. Suddenly they found themselves on the path to the abyss, competing for personal interests and positions as though they had never struggled for a right or a homeland. Even religious people did not depart from this behavior, permitting what is Islamically impermissible. Since the Palestinian Authority arrived, many people have rushed to honor returnees by holding lavish food gatherings, giving gifts, and engaging in excessive hypocrisy. People would have liked to engage in the same hypocritical practices under Israeli administration, but the Israelis were not fond of banquets and gifts. Some of their employees did practice corruption, but on a personal scale. For example, some income-tax employees would emerge very wealthy because quite a few of our merchants gave them bribes and gifts. When corruption became a general phenomenon, hypocrisy and the relentless pursuit of corruption became general phenomena as well.

It is true that the Authority brought corruption, but the public was a major factor in increasing its severity and escalation. Some people built houses for some Authority officials virtually for free. One provided the cement, another the aggregate, a third the stone, and another did the finishing work, and so on. The extent of people’s decline was clear when thousands rushed to join security services for which writing reports about people’s activities was considered a major part of their work. Those long, harsh years during which our people suffered under the power of Israeli and Arab intelligence services did not deter them. Despite the severe suffering our people endured at the hands of spies and informants, large numbers of our people had no objection to loitering among people and in gatherings, picking up news, monitoring it, and passing it on to the authorities.

Before 1948, during the years of occupation, and even now, our sons build the settlements. We sweep the streets of Tel Aviv and Netanya, pick oranges, and harvest crops for the enemy that uprooted us from our homes so that it may grow richer and stronger. By this logic, our strength is an asset to the enemy and a burden on us. Thousands worked as spies for Israel, and spies still roam freely today, reporting to Israel on various activities, work, and people. We continue, as we did in the past, to buy Israeli goods. It is not unusual for someone to enter a shop to buy an Israeli product, and if he does not find one, he may refuse to buy the equivalent Arab product because the Arab product is dishonest. We frequent Israeli entertainment venues and pay admission fees into Israel, and there we do not throw garbage on the ground but into the trash bin. If we go to an area belonging to us, we turn it into a dump. If we go to an office run by Israelis, we line up properly and wait our turn, not because we respect order but because we are afraid. In an Arab office, however, we accept nothing but chaos.

We want to commit every contradiction against the homeland, and at the end of the day launch a sweeping attack on the Arab leaders, on America, and on the Palestinian leadership. We may turn in prayer to the Almighty, asking Him to send the birds of Ababil, or to let the sea waters flood the coast so that the Jews become erased from existence, or to send among us a new Saladin. I do not understand why God should answer our prayers. What I understand is that someone who helps the enemy in its aggression should not expect divine assistance. Perhaps if Saladin appeared among us now, he would hurry back to his grave; perhaps if he chose to remain among us, we would kill him. I try to imagine Saladin asking people to stop hypocrisy and lying, to stop consuming Israeli goods, to introduce compulsory military service for men and women, or to stop building settlements and buildings for Jews. Surely we would say that this is a madman impersonating Saladin, and we would kill him to prevent discord.

Do we realize that many of us cross the street lengthwise, and do we realize that we feel no embarrassment when we stop our cars in the middle of the street to chat while others wait for us to finish what we are doing? Do we understand what it means to use a car horn to call out to others? One of us stops in the street wanting a friend, spouse, or brother, and instead of getting out to ring the bell, he unleashes his car horn. We do the same at wedding celebrations, unleashing loudspeakers and their irritating music upon people’s ears. Worse still, we drive through the streets of the city or village honking our car horns in celebration of the new groom.

And do we know that a large majority of us do not read a book after obtaining a degree? Do we understand what it means for a university professor to spoon-feed his students, with all he does in the lecture being to train them to copy? Do we know what it means for schoolteachers to remain in financial hardship? Are we aware of the continuing deterioration of the educational process while our students achieve high grades? Do we know that our way of life and educational curriculum deprive our children of the ability to take initiative and make decisions, turning them into passive, lazy, dependent, and uncreative followers?

We still believe that our daughters are commodities, with negotiations often centered on their dowries. We still believe that the man seeking her hand cannot be trusted and may betray her one day. Therefore, he must buy her a great deal of gold for the future, and we require him to provide a high deferred dowry so that it will serve as an asset for the woman after he divorces her. This happens while we already know that a man does not proceed to divorce his wife until he has enticed her to spend some or most of the gold she has, and he also seeks to turn her life into a hell so that she herself asks for divorce while forgiving him her deferred dowry. If the husband does not do this and proceeds with the divorce, the enforcement office orders payment of the deferred dowry in very small installments, so that the woman does not feel any real value from the dowry she thought would secure her future. We know this, yet we insist on complicating marriage procedures and sowing suspicion and doubt between the spouses before they marry. At the same time, we constantly speak about the need to develop a cohesive society, and because we talk so much, our minds cease to grasp the dimensions of young people’s inability to undertake marriage.

We beseech Almighty God to send us His forces when a Jew attacks or confiscates land, yet we are ready to wage continual battles against a neighbor who covets a few meters of land or against a brother whom we think wants to inherit more than his share. Many brothers cut ties with one another over inheritance, yet they are willing to deal with those who seized the homeland if given the opportunity. As for our sisters, we have no qualms about consuming their rights. Few among us sit with their sisters to discuss how to apply God’s law regarding inheritance. Most of us take our sister’s share and try to appease her with a little generosity. And when we mention God Almighty, each of us lowers his eyelashes in reverence and fear of God.

Islam is weak within us, and fear of God is not among our priorities. Look at the mosques, especially on Friday, and you will find huge crowds of worshippers. If their prayers truly prevented them from indecency, wrongdoing, and oppression, we would have defeated Israel long ago. But Israel has not been defeated. It opens its radio broadcasts with the Holy Qur’an and noble hadith, and during Ramadan you find Abu Jarir proclaiming faith over its airwaves. It even broadcasts the Friday prayer. It knows that superficial religion, concerned with appearances rather than substance, does not harm Israel and amounts only to attachment to something unknown that brings no benefit. Since I was a child, I have heard the Friday preacher pray that God would make Jewish women widows, orphan their children, and scatter their families. Since then, I have known that it is our women who have been widowed, our children who have been orphaned, and our families who have been scattered. Yet the problem is that the imam has not yet become convinced that his prayer has gone unanswered, nor has he seriously considered changing his approach and aspirations. Perhaps it has never occurred to him that praying in this manner may not be effective. Since I was young, I have known that people turn to God in prayer, but I have found nothing of the result from such prayer.

I believe that when religion turns into rituals emptied of their practical substance—substance that produces a social and public benefit—doubt begins to surround the question of faith. Faith founded on a firmly rooted creed must find practical behavioral expression that brings good to everyone. But when prevailing religious manifestations lack practical results, they will be nothing more than an expression of fear of the unknown, rather than faith in God.

We often tell our children that they do not know and cannot do, and demand that they not try. This saying follows us through the various stages of life. Our lives are full of expressions such as, “You don’t know, you can’t, you don’t understand, you don’t think, don’t do it, don’t get up,” and so on. A life full of discouragement and attempts to crush the will and turn the human being into a tool. There is an authoritarian, top-down upbringing that assumes understanding and knowledge are the exclusive property of the master who understands and reasons, while those beneath him are merely incapacitated beings who owe him obedience. Thus our lives become crowded with commands and prohibitions that encircle the individual, paralyze his thinking, deprive him of free thought and the ability to make decisions, and strip him of the right to shape his personality and develop self-confidence. Consequently, the concepts of shame and religious prohibition have expanded over time. Shame and prohibition surround a person to the point of turning him into a machine driven by people’s customs and expectations. It is difficult for any of us to move without asking what people will say. He must always look ahead and behind, to the right and left, above and below, to make sure he does not violate the rules. Because people do not spend their time on productive work and devote much of it to monitoring one another and engaging in backbiting, each person knows he is being watched and must be careful. He realizes that he is monitored not only by intelligence agencies, but also by the neighbor who looks out the window whenever he enters or leaves his home; by his work supervisor, who wants to make sure he is trivial and capable of hypocrisy and deception; by his wife, who wants to make sure he does not turn his head to the right or left; and by his friend, who wants to make sure he does not spend too much time doing useful work, and so on.

I do not want to prolong the discussion here; we know our tragedy. Each of us could speak at length about the many faults and shameful practices that lead us to defeat. Defeat has its roots and foundations, and we know that our commitment to these is very strong. I only want to summarize by saying that we lack faith, and that conviction is very weak in our hearts. We are repressive in our relationships with one another and authoritarian in our practices. Superstition still nests in our souls, and scientific thinking has not yet conquered our minds. For many of us, woman is still a disgrace, man is a devil, and suspicion must be the title under which homes are built. A conspiratorial mentality remains widespread, and disparaging others and their abilities still shackles our desire for collective work and mutual cooperation. We talk about what is called democracy, but we are very far from it, and we talk about freedom without insisting upon it. Whoever wants freedom must fight for it, but the fighter appears before people like someone “trying to establish religion in Malta” or “carrying a ladder sideways.” We do not want freedom, and if it were given to us amid the practices that characterize our behavior, I fear that we would neither tolerate it nor know how to use it.

Of course, the traits and behaviors I referred to above are not absolute and cannot be generalized to everyone, but they remain prominent characteristics that continue to follow us.

In the end, it must be said that if the head insisted on change and moved the nation toward freedom and liberation, the people would not insist on remaining in the misery in which they find themselves. When people see that the official is not truly responsible and that he leads them from one disappointment to another, their momentum disappears in favor of retreat and withdrawal.