In all the years that I have been involved in the desperate story of my country and my people I have never felt more despair than at this moment.
My despair does not stem from the loss of faith in my people’s ability to fight, resist and sacrifice. No, not at all. We Palestinians have been resisting and fighting our colonisers for over a century. I know, deep in my heart, that those in the front line in all of historic Palestine will continue to fight, come what may, no matter how much, or how long it takes.
I wish I could say the same about our so-called leaders on both sides of the National Palestinian political divide. I was a supporter of the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organisation, from its inception in the 1960s. But that band of brothers, fighting for justice has been corrupted over the years and the PLO of the 1960s is no longer.
While they sit in Ramallah or Gaza pretending to rule over the fraction that remains of Palestine the Israeli Government continues stealing the land, imprisoning our men, women and children and murdering them in cold blood and in broad daylight.
What does the PLO/PA do about it? Words.
But, these words are costly because they give the impression that we are represented, that we have someone who is championing our cause, standing up to our occupiers.
Nothing of the sort.
They just offer words while Israel swallows our lands, a chunk at a time.
The latest greedy mouthful that Israel is about to relish amounts to 30% of the land-mass of what is known as The West Bank and The Jordan Valley. Yes, the PLO/Palestinian Authority is making noises, issuing condemnations, saying this is unacceptable and calling upon the international community to do something about it.
Wait a minute. Didn’t Israel swallow the majority of Palestinian land during the savage ethnic cleansing of our country in 1947/48. What did the International community do?
Nothing.
Didn’t Israel swallow the rest of historical Palestine after the 1967 war?
What did the international community do?
Nothing.
Didn’t Israel, with the help of their benefactor, the USA, swallow the whole of Jerusalem and declare it their eternal and undivided capital in 2018?
What did the international community do?
Nothing.
Didn’t Israel swallow the Syrian Golan Heights at the same time?
What did the international community do?
Nothing.
Didn’t Israel swallow the shab’a farms in Southern Lebanon?
What did the international community do?
Nothing.
The fact of the matter is that we, the Palestinians, through no fault of our own have been let down over and over and over again, ever since 1917 when the British Government decided, both immorally and unjustly, to offer our land to the Zionist movement as a homeland for the Jews in Palestine.
The UN let us down and continues to let us down. Britain let us down and continues to let us down. Europe let us down and continues to let us down. Russia (the Soviet Union) let us down and continues to let us down. The USA let us down and continues to let us down. Australia, Canada and New Zealand let us down and continues to let us down. Our own so-called Arab League let us down and continues to let us down. The Muslim World let us down and continues to let us down.
And now, in the age of instant and changing technology, those who are at the helm of the technological explosion are letting us down.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram all censor our messages and all delete them at a push of a button as if we do not deserve a voice. But the killer blow was from Google. In its recent issue of World Maps they have decided, again with a push of a button, to erase Palestine off the map. You see, the Zionists said, 130 years ago, ‘What are Palestinians? They do not exist.”
And so it came to pass. See it for yourselves. Proud Palestine, birth-place of Christ, sweet land of milk and honey is no more. According to the great god, Google.
Jafar M Ramini is a Palestinian writer and political analyst, based in London, presently in Perth, Western Australia. He was born in Jenin in 1943 and was five years old when he and his family had to flee the terror of the Urgun and Stern gangs. Justice for the people of Palestine is a life-long commitment.
SIGN UP FOR COUNTERCURRENTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
