Throw a shoe at Obama’s betrayal

Ilan Pappe The Electronic Intifada 23 May 2011

Palestinians protest after Obama’s Middle East policy speech, Qalandiya checkpoint, occupied West Bank, 20 May 2011.

Anne Paq ActiveStills

At 4:17pm GMT on Sunday, I threw a shoe at my television screen, aimed at US President Barack Obama, precisely at the moment he began to explain that the reference in his Thursday speech at the State Department to the 1967 borders was in accordance with the Israeli interpretation of these borders.

Not that I was thrilled with that speech either but it was at least as meaningless as his previous speeches on the topic. But at 4:17 he said there will be “no return to the borders of June 4, 1967” and the thousands who attended the AIPAC convention cheered wildly. Annexation of Israeli settlement blocs built illegally in the occupied West Bank and the creation of a small Palestinian bantustan in the spaces in between was the essence of Obama’s real vision for peace.

It was a soft shoe and all it did was to bounce off the screen. Being such a harmless weapon it was also directed at my Palestinian friends who since Friday explained, publicly, how unusual and important was Obama’s speech at the State Department.

It is tough enough to know that in the White House sits someone who betrayed not only the Palestinians, but all the oppressed people in the world and in the US he promised to engage and represent.

But I have turned on my TV set and moved to Puerta del Sol in Madrid — there where thousands of young people were reformulating the powerful message that came from Tahrir Square in Cairo and which was also heard on the borders of Palestine on Nakba Day and in London’s Trafalgar Square during recent student demonstrations.

It was a call of defiance against such political discourse and its poisonous effects. Yes, they say in Madrid as they did on Palestine’s borders, our lives are ruled and affected by smug, cynical and indifferent Western politicians who hold immense power to maintain the unjust world for years to come, but we have had enough of this and will resist it.

Wherever one is affected by this political and economic Western elite, one faces two options. Either to accept fatalistically that the only thing one can do is retire to small, personal gardens of Eden and try to ignore them as much as one can and sustain oneself without them, within the limits of what is possible. Or if one does not possess this inclination or luxury, one can instead join all those who are unwilling to succumb and are telling this elite that its world and agenda is not theirs.

In some places the authorities shoot at massive demonstrations carrying such a message; in others they just ignore them. These are early days to judge the failure or success of such endeavours but it is clear that so far the protest is expanding. It defies the hegemonic political dictates of governments and it displays growing impatience with, and resentment toward, the manipulative corporate games and macro-economic ploys.

The people of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip were a victim of such politics and economics under the guise of the so-called peace process. However, recently, in Palestine, the local politicians have at last heeded the popular demand for unity and assertiveness after years of ignoring it.

As a result, the support for the people’s effort in commencing a new phase in the popular resistance against the Israeli occupation is galvanizing the global Palestine solidarity movement with the similar energy generated before by the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

The regaining of the initiative by the common people in the Arab world and Europe should help us to avoid sinking too deeply into paralysis and inaction in the face of such cynicism. So much can still be done, in total disregard of the hegemonic discourse and inaction of western political elites on Palestine. So much has already been done in the continued resistance against the Israeli destruction of the land and its people.

One can continue to boycott Israeli goods and cultural representatives in France, even if there is a new law against it. If Palestinians in Israel can defy Israeli laws against Nakba commemoration, insidious European laws and regulations should be ignored as well. One can curb any academic institutional connection between British universities and Israel despite the embarrassed Foreign Office’s and official academia’s position on it. And finally, one can continue to spread through the alternative media the truthful and expanded picture despite the shameful way in which “liberal” American and European media is portraying the reality on the ground.

The world after Obama’s two speeches is a bizarre place. The gap between Obama, Berlusconi, Netanyahu, Cameron, Merkel and their ilk has disappeared. For a while there was a danger that one could count some Palestinian leaders within this undignified group of western leaders. But hopefully this danger has waned.

Very much as in the case of Israel, so it is in the case of the western political systems, the option of change from within the political systems is doubtful and vesting too much energy in it may be useless. But everything which is not there — churches, mosques, progressive synagogues, ashrams with a worldview, community centers, social networks and the world of nongovernmental organizations — indicate the existence of an alternative.

A relentless struggle against the ethnic cleansing of Palestine will continue outside the realm of the western corridors of power. What we learned from Egypt and Tunisia, even if we are not sure what would be the endgame there, is that struggles outside corridors of power do not wait for leaders, well-oiled organizations and people who speak in other people’s names.

If you are part of that struggle be counted today and do what you can regardless of the unfortunate Obamafication of our world.

Ilan Pappe is Professor of History and Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter. His most recent book is Out of the Frame: The Struggle for Academic Freedom in Israel(Pluto Press, 2010).

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Comments

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boxthejack replied on

Pappe says: "the creation of a small Palestinian bantustan in the spaces in between was the essence of Obama’s real vision for peace."

Obama says (to Andrew Marr): "you're going to have two states side by side."

You can't have a little archipelago of Palestinian territory?

"No. You're going to have two states. And the basis for negotiations will involve looking at the 1967 border."

I too am not exactly expectant, but I think Obama's treading the tight-rope between Zionist accommodation and electoral destruction in such a way as to give optimists hope. The proof of the pudding will of course be in the eating.

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Carol Scheller replied on

And who is doing the eating.

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D Spencer replied on

It does not seem like "Ethnic Cleansing" is the appropriate word. No one is diminishing the plight of the Palestinians. But when Kuwait expelled 500,000 palestinians in one week, this is ethnic cleansing correct? But otherwise, I do not see how the word can be used if the Palestinian population is increasing, and they do not all dissapear in matter of days? I am just worried that inflammatory language, on all side of this issue, will make things worse. To make this fair, I don't think Israelis should use inflammatory language either to rile people up.

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boxthejack replied on

...for the Jewish state to be both Jewish and claim to be democratic it required a Jewish majority in a land with a non-Jewish majority. Pappe's work, especially 'The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine', shows convincingly (I think) that this was secured as part of a systematic and deliberate process of dispossession, which persists today.

You are right insomuch as there was no Armenian/Syriac-style 'flushing out' of 99.9% of the population, but that would have been conspicuous.

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Froy replied on

Over 700.000 Palestinians out of a total population of around one million were expelled from their homes. I'd call that a pretty thorough ethnic cleansing.

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D.Ali replied on

" For a while there was a danger that one could count some Palestinian leaders within this undignified group of western leaders. But hopefully this danger has waned."

As a Palestinian, I'm not so sure about the second part.

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Arun Varma replied on

I wouldn't subject my poor telly to such abuse....that's the only way I get to watch the cricket. As for that limpid lickspittle of an emperor.... I'm having a quiet drink, I would like to keep it that way

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Omar replied on

Dr. Pappe is, as usual, correct in his assessments. To see a shameful Obama groveling in front of AIPAC and kowtowing to Netanyahu was no less than embarrassing to watch.

How is it that the corrupt, inept PA has managed to regain its legitimacy merely a few months after the release of the Palestine Papers, which exposed what most of us have known for a long time?

My fear is that the Hamas/Fatah reconciliation will ultimately turn Hamas into another PA. Like Arafat and the PLO more than 20 years ago, Hamas now craves international legitimacy. My worry is that this legitimacy, if they indeed gain it, will not translate to legitimacy of the Palestinian cause.

Pressure is the only way to change the power paradigm of the conflict. Dr. Pappe is correct: the only way to resolve the conflict in a just and sustainable manner is to circumvent this power. That is why the BDS is vital. It took many, many years for the BDS movement to take effect in South Africa, but today the rise of social media can help expedite the BDS movement for Palestine.

We now have a clear position by the US and Israel: "no" to the 1967 borders. This should encourage us to abandon the charade of the two state partition once and for all and centralize a movement that is rights-based.

The question is how do we, supporters of one democratic state for all people on the land, better organize and develop a coherent strategy that garners mainstream attention?

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David Sevilla replied on

Once I heard an old activist tell us how she asked César Chávez once what was the path to her group's goals and he answered: "one person at a time". Reach out, talk to others, organize discussions. Go to the root of the problems, criticize your own opinions, be open to listening. Egypt got rid of its dictator with only 10% of its population demonstrating in the streets, let's work on it. Let's get moving.

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judy neunuebel replied on

Thank you for those words. We will continue to fight.

Judy Neunuebel

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ANTHONY JOSEPH GEHA YUJA replied on

Kudos to Dr. Ilan Pappe for this splendid article and for his refreshing morality which are at variance with the moral corruption an hypocrisy of most western politicians including the latest addition Barak Obama, PUPPET AND LIAR IN CHIEF in the service of this callous and predatory NEW WORLD ORDER!

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Nahla Assali replied on

I wish we see one US president stand to his principles( if he has any) and forget about a second term. This is the only way to get free_as we all want_ from the shackles of Israel.

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T. Ray replied on

Dr. Pappe's book precisely defined "ethnic cleaning" and its status as a crime against humanity, the most despicable of all types of crimes against human rights. He provided the historically precise definition as the deliberate removal of a people from their land and replacement of them by another people. That is the essence of the Nakba: European Zionist soldiers, trained by the British Army and armed by the US Army, entered Palestine pursuant to a plan developed in advance to carry out precisely this crime against the Palestinian people, who lived in their own homes, on their own lands, where they had lived for centuries and to which they held legal deeds. Those who resisted were murdered - men, women, and children. Elderly persons died on the forced exit and pregnant women miscarried. Entire villages and towns were eliminated by massacre. 750,000 persons were forced out; none left voluntarily. If armed invaders occupied the next town over from the town where I live, a few miles from mine, on an undeniable Blitzkrieg path to take the entire region, my quick departure would be a forced exit. The Arab nations of the Middle East have sizable populations of Palestinians who were driven out by the Zionists. In Lebanon, they still live crowded into the refugee camps where no one would ever choose to live. The behavior of the European Zionist Jews is chillingly similar to the behavior of the German Nazis and the Serbs of both Bosnia and Serbia. Anyone who uses euphemisms in describing crimes against humanity should be immediately and abruptly confronted. Dr. Pappe, a Jewish gentleman and a most scholarly historian who used to teach at Haifa University in Israel, now teaches in Britain. In the "democracy" called "Israel," he was accused of disloyalty for exposing the standard Zionist propaganda version of the history of Israel and telling the real truth. He deserves the admiration of all of humanity. All intelligent Americans admire the priceless contributions that our Jewish citizens have made to the development of our society. I thank God for those who are courageous enough to speak against our nation's continuing policy of complicity in and sponsorship of the crimes of Israel. There are real risks involved, and some have suffered professionally as the result of retaliation by persons in positions of authority. There is absolutely no excuse for non-Jews who are too cowardly to speak truth to power.

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Dan Hadan replied on

Those Palestinian protesters Qalandiya checkpoint rightfully call a Obama to be a hypocrite. It suffices to remember Obama's duplicitous "A New Beginning" speech, at Cairo University of June 4, 2009, in which Obama stated "expanding settlements must stop!"--a Wikileaks cable has revealed that at the time of Obabma's speech Israel already had ’secret accord’ with U.S. over "expanding settlements." (Cf. cablesearch dot org, enter 09PARIS827 in the search request, et voilà: "MFA Middle East Director (Assistant Secretary-equivalent) Patrice Paoli informed POL Minister Counselor June 18 that Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told French officials in Paris June 15 that the Israelis have a "secret accord" with the USG to continue the "natural growth" of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.").

Likewise Obama's backing a resolution on a nuclear-free Middle East at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, held in NYC in May, 2101, was a mere deception because, again, Israel already had a "secret nuclear project with U.S." (cf. Go to Haaretz dot com and enter "Former Netanyahu aide leaked secret nuclear project with U.S." in the search.).

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Dan Hadan replied on

Those Palestinian protesters Qalandiya checkpoint rightfully call a Obama to be a hypocrite. It suffices to remember Obama's duplicitous "A New Beginning" speech, at Cairo University of June 4, 2009, in which Obama stated "expanding settlements must stop!"--a Wikileaks cable has revealed that at the time of Obabma's speech Israel already had "secret accord" with U.S. over expanding settlements. (Cf. "MFA Middle East Director (Assistant Secretary-equivalent) Patrice Paoli informed POL Minister Counselor June 18 that Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told French officials in Paris June 15 that the Israelis have a "secret accord" with the USG to continue the "natural growth" of Israeli settlements in the West Bank." < http://cablesearch.org/cable/v...).

Likewise Obama's Secretary of State, Hillary Clinoton, backing a resolution on a nuclear-free Middle East at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference, held in NYC in May, 2101, was mere deception because, again, Israel already had a "secret nuclear project with U.S." (cf. "Former Netanyahu aide leaked secret nuclear project with U.S." < http://www.haaretz.com/print-e...).

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Vickie Mansour replied on

Dr Pappe--
I assigned this article to my AP US History class. We have had an interesting week looking at the mechanisms within Middle East foreign policy, and I thought your article showed a thorough analysis of events.
I teach in Chicago, however, most of my students are Palestinian. They've grown up cloistered in a nurturing environment. Next year, they will face the kind of racism that tears at the heart.
Thank you with helping me to equip my students with the tools to argue with strength. They will inevitably meet someone who will tell them that they do not exist...or worse. I hope they will know how to respond. But how can anyone?!