Museum for Palestinian Arab suffering
Rashid Shaheen, in the Arabic edition of Ma’an, calls on turning the Arafat shrine in Ramallah into a “Yad Vashem” of Palestinian Arab suffering, for visiting dignitaries.
This is a great idea.
A museum showing a good, accurate history of how Arabs migrated en masse to Palestine in reaction to the economic boom from Zionism starting in the late 1800s; how they benefited from the Jews and raised their standards of living compared to all Arab countries, and then how their leaders started using them as fodder for political purposes and started what is now some eighty-odd years of suffering at the hands of their Arab “brethren” would be a good start, and a story that needs to be told.
The deadly fighting between the Husseinis and Nashashibis in the 1930s, and how the hundreds of deaths that resulted are now referred to fondly as a “Great Revolt,” would be able to teach generations of Palestinian Arab children about how the current infighting has a long history behind it.
A section showing how Israel didn’t allow UNRWA to build any refugee camps in Israeli territory, explaining how treating its Arab citizens in such a way was an insult and insisting on building them real homes in real towns and living in dignity, and comparing them with how they were treated in Arab countries, would be instructive.
Another section can describe how no Arab countries save Jordan will allow Palestinian Arabs to become citizens, even though they can become citizens of Western countries. An entire wing can cover Lebanese discrimination, and another on how Egypt treated Gaza from 1948-67. Statistics showing Palestinian Arab mortality rates and life expectancy before and after Israel controlled the territories could be a highlight.
There are countless other examples of Palestinian Arab suffering that need to be told, and a museum in Ramallah associated with the tomb of one of the biggest sources of their suffering would be quite appropriate.
Unfortunately, I don’t think this is what the writer had in mind.
cross-posted on Elder of Ziyon
About the Author
Elder of Ziyon may or may not be a real person. He (or she, or it) blogs at http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/Filed Under: Uncategorized
Hello Mr Elder of Ziyon,
I have come across your blog recently, and I was wondering if I might interest you in a one-on-one discussion between you and me over email, regarding the Israeli-Arab conflict.
I put my email in the email box of this comment.
I think the best way for convergence, (if possible) of the minds is done one on one. I have talked/argued with a couple Israelis/Zionists before, but hey were always in rushed scenarios.
Anyway, look forward to hearing from you!
-RP
Random Palestinian:
I wish you good luck. The extremist views held by these bloggers will not be easily shaken. Calm yourself to endure much ridicule and contempt.
I already wrote back to RP. Feel free to ask him whether I subjected him to “ridicule and contempt.”
Your assumption that I would do so says much more about you than about me. Consequently, my respect for Random Palestinian far exceeds my respect for people like you.
Cheers!
hi EOZ,
Thanks for the email. Ok, understandable, as I am a very busy individual too. Regarding the talk, would you rather it take place on your blog VS here on one-to-one? If that is the case, we can do that instead.
Regarding the post, well I commented on that post just to get your attention, because I couldnt find your email, but I was not commenting about that particular post. Anyway, I was hoping to garner/ask some information about your views etc on the conflict in general. Of course, I would expect that we go on tangentials every so often, such is discourse. Of course you may do the same of me.
I also gather that you are a Zionist Jew.
Like yourself, I am also very busy most of the time – I think an average of one-reply/day would probably suffice on each side, maybe more.
My motivation for this is because I think, well, how to put it in a nice way.. Ok. Of course we all have our positions on many issues. I find that most of the time, those positions are taken emotionally. It is my goal that we agree on a position, based on reason, and logic.
In other words, I am coming from the angle that Zionism is a colonial, imperial, and facist ideology. (And I do not mean to insult you personally). This does not mean that I am calling you a pro-colonialist/imperialist/fascist – afterall, there may be other sub-facets of Zionist that you like, perhaps like community, sense of purpose, or what not. But at its core, I believe that this is what it is, but at the same time, this is why I wanted to discuss this matter with another Zionist. To be blunt, I want to sell you on my logic, as I am sure you want to sell me on yours. I think this needs to happen somewhat.
At the end of the day, I believe that we are all subject to logic, and reason. I cant argue against it. You cant argue against it. This is our common denominator so to speak. And this is also the only way forward, if for no other reason, than to better understand each other, and pursue actions accordingly.
Well, I hope you accept this, and like I said, I am quite busy myself as you are, but I hope you will be willing to devote perhaps 20mins/day towards this.
Regards,
RP
Hi RP.
I’ll be happy to address these issues. I’ll do it on my blog (http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com); if Aussie Dave wants I can crosslink my postings here as well.
I’ll start writing my first reply now, addressing specifically colonialism.
Oh, and while I will address your points, I will ask that you do me the courtesy of addressing mine on a separate track (a dialogue where one party is on the defensive is hardly dialogue.) A good first part would be answering my thesis that Palestinian Arabs have been treated far, far worse by their leaders and by Arab nations than by Israel, which I outlined in this post.
I blogged about Zionism and colonialism at my blog.
The same arguments would apply to imperialism; if you are referring to cultural imperialism then the analogy is even further off-base.
If you can give me your definition of fascism perhaps I can start working on that one. From any definition I can find it sounds like it applies to a far greater extent to the Arab world than to Israel. In fact, it is very difficult to find a criticism of Israel that is not tenfold worse in the Arab world.