There is an impending Palestinian Holocaust

["Nello Margiotta" <animarg@tin.it>]

By Seham M. S. Fatani, Special to Arab News
(Seham Saleh Fatani is a lecturer in English literature. She teaches at King
Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah.)


Strange rhetoric, strange logic, strange politics are coming from American
and Israeli officials and media. Palestinians are told again and again: "You
must submit; you must be passive; you must suffer dishonor and disgrace but
neve r resist or resort to war; be bullied, be outraged, be killed, but don'
t kill or retaliate; give up your struggle against occupation, give up your
identity as Palestinians, go to Jordan or any Arab country; give in to
Israeli plans but don't hate them; be stripped of your clothes and human
dignity but don't reject your Zionist masters." In short, the Palestinians
are being told: "You are the inferiors and will never be otherwise; you must
put up with Israeli occupation and massacres or shut up."

A Palestinian friend said, "No one can defeat our will; no one can strip us
of our identity or move us to other countries. Palestine is ours and it
shall be free."

Another Palestinian says that it is not the Israeli Zionists that they fear
nor the American-Zionist media and politicians nor the barbaric air raids
nor the tanks and explosives but having to shelter for a long time with the
remains of massacred friends, family and children. It is a horrible feeling
when the dead cannot be buried. There are reports of thousands of dead on
the streets and inside houses. Eyewitnesses report Israeli bulldozers
shoving the remains of massacred Palestinians into mass graves to cover up
the genocide resulting from Israeli barbarities.

Nothing can explain or justify Israeli massacres, Zionist horrors and war
crimes or Sharonic tyranny and despotism. And I remember the fiendish look
on Ariel Sharon's face as he and his thugs desecrated the sanctity of
Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on that September day when this "intifada"
began. Their threats now extend even to the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem.
The look is incomprehensible, such as would never be seen on the face of a
civilized human being. A look more terrible than terror, more horrendous
than horror, more brutal than brutality, more cruel than cruelty, more
Satanic than Satan, and more hellish than hell.

I am stunned; I am without expression. I need many voices to protest the
hideousness and madness of the so-called American and Israeli wars against
terrorism. I need voices to speak against Israeli violence in occupied
territories. I need voices to point out Palestinian pain and to protest
against Israeli warmongers and Zionist beasts. I need voices to tell the
American-Zionist controlled media, Congress and Senate: "Stop perpetuating
lies; stop manipulating history; stop justifying Israeli massacres of
innocent Palestinians as being Israel's right of self-defense; stop labeling
Palestinian freedom fighters terrorists and murderers - they are dying
heroically as they resist an illegal occupation; stop betraying and
polluting America, American citizens, American innocence, American spirit
and American conscience. Stop this madness. Enough is enough."

I need voices to tell my American friends: "America has adopted and fed
Israel, a rough Zionist beast. Now, the beast is loose and is slouching
toward Jenin, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus, Jerusalem, Lebanon and Syria. A
Zionist beast blessed by American money, F-16s, tanks, artillery, bombs,
politics, the Congress and media." I must tell the Americans to wake up
before Zionism replaces American democracy and turns all peace-loving
democrats into Zionist beasts bent on ruling the earth. Dear Americans, don'
t allow yourselves to be misled. Don't be prevented from seeing the truth.
Don't let your Congress serve Israeli interests and greed at the expense of
tarnishing America's image and exploiting its resources. The wars against
Afghanistan, against Iraq and Palestine serve no one but Israel and her
greed. These wars are angering the world and turning it against America.
Always, always America protects Israeli and Zionist terrorists and supports
their expansionist desires.

I want to speak to my beloved American teachers in America. I need to say,
"Tell your students the truth about wars and insist on objectivity, justice
and fairness. Tell your students not to jump to conclusions or form hasty
and harmful generalizations. Tell them not to use either/or fallacy or
vicious or inhumane rhetoric; they must do their own research, use reliable
unbiased sources and be carefully moral and ethical when speaking their
minds. Teach them the humanities and how to build civilizations that reflect
the image of God and not to encourage the use of high-tech bullets, nuclear
weapons and Satanic military might to destroy other ideas and opinions."

I need to tell the president of the United States, "Mr. President, for God's
sake don't talk like an evil man who cannot escape from an evil choice. It
is better to be dumb than to speak like an evil accomplice who financed
Zionist warlords and launched an evil crusade against Muslims everywhere.
Mr. President, don't play Pharoah, Alexander the Great, Darius of Persia or
the Roman Caesar: They all believed themselves invincible superpowers who
could never be defeated. Where are they today? Don't allow the destruction
of humanity in the name of freedom and democracy. Don't play the tragic hero
whose flaw is 'hubris' - or pride - that forces him to transgress human
boundaries and inevitably leads him to his downfall. Don't betray yourself,
my American friends or the American people whom I love - and don't betray
the American dream. Mr. President, don't sell America to the devil; it would
be a tragic mistake that will turn the world into a bloody stage. But most
of all, don't turn the Arab friends of America into enemies because of your
biased, irrational and blind support of Israel. Don't shut your eyes, your
ears and your hearts to the truth of the Palestinians' plight and their
right to self-determination and an independent homeland. The sufferings, the
massacres, and the destruction inflicted upon Palestinians cannot be
forgiven. Give Israel a red light and put an end to the violence; the
Israelis believe they have a license to kill Palestinians. One phone call
from the White House could put an end to Sharonic terror. Sharon is a war
criminal, determined to destroy everything for a greater Israel. Instead of
calling him 'a man of peace', I suggest you send him to join Slobodan
Milosevic. He must be prosecuted for massacres and war crimes. It is a
frightening world in which peace is dying at the hands of Zionists."

I need a voice to speak to decision-making politicians who influence our
lives, "Say no to bigotry, no to xenophobia, no to racism, no to
stereotyping, no to destruction, no to tyranny, no to nuclear weapons, no to
massacres, no to war crimes, no to genocide, no to conspiracy, no to ethnic
cleansing, no to Zionism, no to Sharon, and no to occupation."

I want to tell the politicians, "Find solutions; stand by the victims; don't
manipulate people's lives or change the maps of the world. Enough is enough!
When will humanity see the dawn of a brighter day? When will the
Palestinians have a free Palestine?"

I need to ask Colin Powell to explain the obscure American and Zionist
rhetoric and logic which says: Palestinians must surrender to the Israeli
forces and must not resist Israeli occupation and expansionism; otherwise
they are terrorists. Palestinians must remain passive at any price, even
when they are stripped of their clothes in public and humiliated, their
lands confiscated and occupied, their lives destroyed and their possessions
vandalized. Palestinians must suffer dishonor and disgrace but must never
resort to war or any resistance; Palestinians can be bullied, be outraged
and be killed, but cannot kill or protest. Palestinians must put up with
Zionist massacres such as those at Sabra and Shatila, Deir Yassin, Qana and
now Jenin and Ramallah. They must shut up and say nothing to Sharon and his
version of Nazism. I ask Colin Powell, "What took you so long to come to
Palestine? You should have been there to witness first-hand what the
Israelis were doing to the Palestinians with American blessings, American
weapons and tacit American support. Mr. Powell, surely you have already
given the Israelis ample time and opportunities to destroy Jenin, Ramallah
and the Palestinians. Surely with your country's complicity and permission,
they have already massacred thousands of innocent people."

I want to tell Kofi Annan: "Sharon has gone mad. He is a war criminal and
not a 'man of peace'. Stop him from murdering Palestinians. Stop the
massacres. The Palestinian death toll is climbing. In the past two weeks,
Sharon has killed 1,500, injured 15,000, and detained nearly 6,000 more.
Despite European anger and Arab outrage, Sharon still plans other
atrocities. He is destroying Palestinian land and infrastructure. He is
destroying sites holy to both Muslims and Christians. He even has the
audacity to say that the Palestinians have seen nothing yet."

Mr. Annan, stop the smug supporters of Sharon. Stop Zionism. Stop the crimes
against humanity. Stop the Palestinian genocide. Send UN troops to put an
end to these atrocities. Send witnesses to record the massacres and the
massive burials and to report what the Israelis are preventing the world
from knowing the details of. Mr. Annan, history tells us that in war, all
good intentions fail; and absolute power, as Lord Acton pointed out,
corrupts absolutely. How can the Palestinians have peace when the Israelis
occupy their land and the Zionists destroy their lives? How can any
Palestinian, or even any civilized human being, deal with Sharon, a
megalomaniac paranoid tyrant? Sharon's purpose is reflected in his statement
that Palestinians are irrelevant and must be isolated, transferred or put in
camps awaiting massacre. Mr. Annan, Sharon is not only a threat to the
Palestinians but to the Israelis and to all humanity. Sharon wants Arabs and
Muslims to stand idly by and send no money, food or medical supplies to the
Palestinians. The Zionists say they cannot understand the rationale behind
helping Palestinians, and that countries, such as Saudi Arabia which support
the families of Palestinians who died trying to free their country are
immoral and are financing terrorism. What is it that they don't understand?
Have they been stripped of their integrity and sense of humanity? Is this
again a sample of the mysterious logic: Passivity and deprivation at all
times for Palestinians along with total submission to Zionist warlords? Must
we listen to their definitions of Palestinian freedom fighters and their
supporters as terrorists who do not belong to the civilized world? Must we
shut our eyes, ears, hearts and consciences just to please the Zionist
beast? Mr. Annan, I know you are a man with a vision and you can confront
the Zionist beast and its advocates head-on. Tell Sharon to stop his war and
to leave all the occupied territories at once. Only then will Palestinians
who are now martyring themselves for their homeland give up resistance. The
Palestinians may not have American weapons but they have something more
powerful and more effective: a God-given will and determination to make
their country free. God is on their side for they have a noble cause and God
will find ways to protect them. Not only that, but the wrath of God will
fall on their enemies who conspire against humanity, against God's creation,
against the Prophets and against the holy sites.

I need also to thank the Belgian people and government for their support of
the Palestinians and for their decision to sever ties with Israel. I need a
voice to tell them that their action will wake consciences to take action
and stop Israeli aggression. I also need a voice to thank the European Union
for stopping trade with Israel and for boycotting lsraeli products.

I need to speak to my Palestinian brothers and sisters - and especially to
Palestinian mothers and freedom fighters and martyrs fighting: "God is on
your side. Your cause is a just cause. Have strength and be sure that no
power on earth can crush your resilient will, your heroic struggle, your
resistance and your intifada. Know that your resistance and your martyrdom
will wake humanity to a new dawn. Justice will be served; the sun will rise
very soon on a new Palestine and we will all pray in Al Aqsa!"

I need to tell the world at large: "Don't you see the resemblance between
Sharon, Hitler and Milosevic? Don't you see a parallel between Nazism and
Zionism? Don't you know how Hitler ordered his officials to search Jewish
houses for those he called dangers to the state and how he put them into
concentration camps? Can't you see the parallel with what Sharon has done
and is doing? Don't you know that Sharon ordered his army to go to Jenin,
Ramallah, Nablus, Bethlehem and other places to search Palestinian houses
for people he called terrorists and how he then massacred many and
imprisoned others? Sharon and his Cabinet are staging an all-out war with
the aim of Palestinian genocide and ethnic cleansing."

I need a voice to cry out and tell the world there is an impending
Palestinian Holocaust.

I only pray that when I find a voice it will not fall on deaf ears!