“I am neither Athenian nor Greek, but a citizen of the world.” Like Socrates’ assertion, we too must declare that we do not belong only within the closed doors of our families, the closed gates of our universities or the closed borders of our country: we are a people of the world.
If it is not borders that bind together this “people of the world”, then it is the axiom of ‘free and equal life’ that binds them in principle. The function of this “people of the world” is then to affirm the life and existence of all the people, never to ignore or justify a destruction of the existence of any people. We must declare that the condition of any people at any place has a bearing on our existence.
The Palestinian people like any other people belong in this world and have the right to exist on their land. Despite the destruction of their lives, homes and their entire environment, despite their violent displacement, the Palestinian people returned to their destroyed homes after the ceasefire, to build again, to live again, to exist as a people again. We stand as a witness and even learn from this immortal zeal of life against all odds. In solidarity, we must also raise the flag of this immortal zeal of life. Hence, we must oppose the renewed violence that aims to replace an entire people with obscene groups of settlers-colonists, consumers, tourists and property dealers, a violence that aims to replace their living place with the obscene “Riviera of the Middle East.” The Palestinian people do not belong in refugee camps, in inhuman conditions dependent on the humanitarian aid, the entry and access of which depends on the absent humanitarianism of the oppressor. We demand not only aid, not only peace, not only a ceasefire, not only disinvestment but a dignified world for the Palestinians like any other people.
Today, instead of decrying why Netanyahu or Trump or Putin are not following the international law, the universal freedom and rights enshrined by the United Nations, the due process, we must recognise the hollowness of each of these international rights. The myth of inviolability of these rights, now openly flouted by those in power is now in front of us. They are not a truth which people in power are bound to. The people in power declare with full impunity that their law is the law of the settlers and real estate capitalists, that it is “not truth but authority that decides the law”. Not the truth of justice, freedom and equality but only an expansion of power and wealth grounds law today.
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So instead of our affective reactions, of horror and helplessness, of asking “how can they do something so illegal?”, we must recognise that it is freedom and resistance today that is “illegal”. It is the Palestinians who hold on to their land against the law of Zionism, the students in the US and elsewhere who are “unlawful”. We must also become “unlawful” to the laws of the settlers and the capitalists. From within our localised places, from our hostels, our classrooms, our homes, we must join the “unlawful” Palestinians and students across the world and declare: “we the unlawful people of the world demand freedom for Palestine, freedom for all people everywhere…”
(This pamphlet emerges from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, originally under the title ‘Free Palestine in IIT Delhi’, where students were forcefully stopped from distributing it, on 24th March. It now belongs to any place whatsoever.)
