Palestinian columnist and Al-Jazeera newsroom producer Samir Al-Hijjawi recently wrote an op-ed titled "Israel Is Surely Temporary," which was published in the Qatari daily Al-Sharq, and, in slightly modified form, in the Jordanian government daily Al-Rai. In it, he wrote, "It's time for Israel to go... It's time for the end of the great lie... It's time [for Israel] to go because the regimes protecting [it]... are toppling one by one." He added that the "Nakba Day" protests on Israel's borders were proof that the Palestinians and Arabs would never relinquish Palestine, the beloved waqf (religious endowment) of all Muslims.
Following are excerpts from the op-ed:
"The Arab and Palestinian youth who gathered on the borders of Palestine on Nakba Day showed that Palestine resides in the hearts and minds of the Arabs, from the [Atlantic] Ocean to the Gulf, and that the attempts of the Zionist entity and the West, along with the official Arab regimes, to erase Palestine from memory have utterly failed.
"Israel – along with its allies, the official Arab regimes, including Mahmoud 'Abbas and Salam Fayyad's [Palestinian] Authority – has taken pains to remove Palestine from the school curricula and the mosques. The Zionist entity has attempted to oppose anything that might evoke Palestine – films, [television] shows, articles, poems, books, and lectures. Israel has raised hell following [the publication of] a [certain] article by a Palestinian intellectual, or poems like Mahmoud Darwish's 'Passers between the Passing Words.' [Israel has also] prevented the documentary about the Dir Yassin massacre from being screened at the U.N., and was enraged at the Turkish [television] series 'Valley of Wolves,' responding by brutally [rebuking] the Turkish ambassador [to Israel] to the point of humiliating him.
"Israel is not acting alone in this arena. It has help from institutions, lobbies, and movements, such as the secret Masonic movement [i.e. the Freemasons], as well as the clubs associated with it, and also from research centers, as they are called, and from associations, clubs, 'peace forums,' and other sham [organizations] whose only concern is to ensure support and protection for Israel.
"The Arab and Palestinian youth have refused to be tamed, subjugated, and intimidated, and have proven that under no circumstances will they forget Palestine. The Arabs may be divided over any [other] matter, but not over Palestine. The sensitive Arab forgives whoever harms him, but cannot forgive the Israeli massacres of the Palestinians, nor the detention of 11,000 Palestinians in subhuman conditions, nor the siege on the Gaza Strip.
"It is no coincidence that the Arab and Palestinian youth in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and Syria are gathering and setting forth for Palestine, standing on the border and throwing stones at the soldiers of the Israeli occupation, facing [their] bullets with bared chests. [It is] out of love for Palestine and its soil; for Jerusalem, for Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher; for [the Prophet] Muhammad... and for [Jesus]... [It is] out of love of history, culture, honor, freedom, and nobility, and out of love for the land of the prophets, of [Muhammad's] ascension to heaven, and of the resurrection of the dead. Every Arab and Muslim considers Palestine his own land, and it is indeed the waqf of all the Muslims, even if it is [only] the Palestinians who live there.
"It's time for Israel to go, along with its tales and legends. It's time for the end of the great lie that has destroyed everything and poisoned relations between the Arabs and the West. It's time [for it] to go because the regimes protecting this entity are going; [indeed,] those that protect the borders of this artificial entity are toppling one by one. It has no choice but to go.
"They have taken their fair share of our blood, and they must dig up their graves and go, as Palestine's greatest poet, Mahmoud Darwish, has said. The Jews in Palestine, the occupiers and the colonialists, have no choice but to go, as the Palestinian will not accept any alternative to his homeland and soil, even if he is given the whole [rest of the] world.
"As my friend, the great writer Sami Al-Zubaidi, wrote [in his May 16, 2011 article in the Jordanian daily Al-Rai]: 'The Palestinian who keeps the key to the courtyard of [his] house passes his dream on to his sons. There is no one else in the world who passes his dream [to his sons], other than the Palestinian. This is the characteristic that distinguishes him from all others... [Other] people celebrate their joyous occasions, [but] the Palestinian nightly celebrates the dreams that accompany him wherever he goes. He prays that the cloud arriving from the West [will bring him] the scent of oranges. Jaffa is Jaffa, even if it is [now full] of fake skyscrapers, and we will return to it – just as Judgment Day will surely [come]. Blessed are the dreamers.'"[1]
[1] Al-Rai (Jordan), May 18, 2011; Al-Sharq (Qatar), May 17, 2011.
