This a photo from a Palestinian protest in 2007, when former U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice came to Israel to meet with then Palestinian President Mahmoud Abba. There is a short article that goes with the photo, if you want to check that out: http://www.imemc.org/article/46551
When searching for things to post for this project, I found a lot of comparisons made between Native Americans of the U.S. and Palestinians, being that both peoples were displaced by a colonial power to smaller bound settlements else where. It is interesting that these protesters are not even addressing the Israelis, but the other powers involved, that have supported and enabled Israel's reclaiming of the Gaza area. They are appealing to an outside power, because maybe they know they cannot protest to Israel power about border checkpoints, because they know it will be fruitless, or maybe they believe that the U.S. has the power to help the situation.
I do think the comparison is valid. However, it comes down to a question of who was there first. For the Americas, it was the native peoples, but determining who the native peoples of the West Bank and of the entire Middle East is much more problematic--that's what they are fighting over! In the U.S., it is known that there were many people here before white settlers came and took the land. In this area, there has been so much transfering of power, that the history of the land is different depending on who you talk to. is the conflict a question of civilization? who was the first "civilized" peoples to live here or there? is that how the actions of white settlers has seemingly been justified (or atleast gone without much widespread criticsm) in the U.S.? These imaginative geogrpahies of who deserves to live where muddle the history of the land to a degree that seems unmuddleable.
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I have absolutely never thought of the Palestinian national movement in terms of Native Americans, but I found myself making the same comparison (without reading this post) in another post of mine. I am not sure how shaky of a comparison it is. I think now the conflict has morphed into less about who was there first, who the native West Bank/Gaza/Israel people were, and more about the political realities pre and post 1948. Even if the Jewish population could prove that Jews settled the land of Israel first, it would not change the other realities of conquest, diaspora, and Palestinian settlement.
ReplyDeleteI think it is very interesting to see the parallels that people have drawn between the Israeli Palestinian conflict and other historical conflicts and tales of oppression. Most often, though it is may be easy to understand why these comparisons are made and the thought behind them, I feel that they are always somewhat lofty or unstable because each conflict is so individual to its own situation. It seems to me that you cannot simply equate two completely different peoples because it erases the histories, heritages, and identities of these populations.
ReplyDeleteI was also reminded of this when looking for media sources and several likened Israeli action to the Nazi regime under which the Jews themselves were persecuted and terrorized during World War II. Thus, the comparison emphasizes the irony that the Palestinians are now suffering in the position that the Jews once were. While I understand the political statement, again, I can't accept a complete comparison between two separate parts of history.
It really makes you think about how rare it is to hear about the Native American cause. The case of Israel and Palestine is constantly in the news, but you don't hear from the Native Americans often. They have a really legitimate claim to America that is never discussed anymore. Maybe before we try to solve problems in other countries, we should think more about the problems in our own.
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