Azmi Bishara: “There Is No Palestinian Nation”

Arab MK turned fugitive spy Azmi Bishara in an old interview with pre leftist makeover Yaron London, says that “Palestinian Nation” is a made up colonial term, and that he sees himself and Palestinians part of the greater Arab nation of South Syria.

Well, I dont think there is a Palestinian Nation at all.

I think there is an Arab Nation, I always thought so and I didnt change my mind.

I dont think there is a Palestinian Nation, I think its a Colonial invention Palestinian Nation.

When were there any Palestinians? Where did it come from? What

I think there is an Arab Nation, I never turned to be a Palestinian Nationalist, despite of my decisive struggle against the Occupation.

I think that until the end of the 19th century, Palestine was the South of Great Syria.

 

 

4 thoughts on “Azmi Bishara: “There Is No Palestinian Nation””

  1. Bishara is wrong. There most certainly is a Palestinian nation.

    But it is usually known as the Jewish nation.

    He says the narrative of a “non-Jewish Palestinian nation” is a colonial invention. He is right on that.

    It is an invention of Arab/Islamic colonialism, serving the Arab/Islamic colonialist, imperialist agenda by concealing the truth about it.

    He says there is only an Arab nation, and that Palestine was never anything special before the 1920s—it was just the southern part of Syria (Bilad El Sham) up until Britain and France sliced it between themselves after WWI.

    Again, that’s right. But the agenda of anti-Zionism, whether that of Arab imperialism or of Islamic imperialism, is ill served by admitting that truth. For, so far back as the 1930s and 40s, when the question of Palestine came to an international head, one of the points the anti-Zionists had no answer to was how they could complain of “Arab dispossession” when the Arab nation already had so much to itself while the Jews still had none (and today only have a tiny sliver of land, insolently contested as well).

    That is also the answer to the “we gotta move on” camp on this issue. Have Israel’s enemies moved on? Have they relented on their narrative that Israel is European colonialism, their wholesale denial of Jewish history and the Jewish connection to this land? And if you think it’s all about the post-1967 territories, just take a look at Al Araqib, within pre-1967 Israel but replete with all the characteristics of anti-Israel activism you can find in the post-1967 territories.

    Under the narrative of “indigenous Palestinians against white European Zionist colonial settlers,” the best we can hope for is clemency. Call me weird, but in view of the events in the Middle East both historically and current, I can’t trust myself and mine to the tender mercies of our enemies.

    Under the truth that the Jewish nation is the one and only true Palestinian nation, and that any opposition to Jewish national rights is imperialist aggression and injustice, our heads are held high and, most importantly, we gain the confidence to resist and repulse the imperialist aggression toward us with no holds barred.

    In contrast to the way the government and its craven appeaser Minister of Security (who just said the Levy Report should be rejected on the grounds that it would make Israel a pariah—go back to the shtetl, you cowardly fool!) have responded to years of rocket shelling of Jewish population centers with nothing more than kid gloves.

    Free Palestine! Arab settlers and Islamic imperialists out of Palestine now! Justice for the indigenous Palestinians, the Jews! No justice, no peace!

    1. In keeping with my solemn pledge not to ostentatiously throw the two-state solution argument in your face, instead I’ll ask you this. Who is best suited, in your opinion, to make the case you’ve laid out here, to the Israeli people for the upcoming national elections in January, 2013? The leadership of Likud, Labor, Kadima and other parties are all opposed to the forced expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank. What the Palestinians call themselves is not the most important issue for Israelis to deal with, if I may be so bold to suggest. Electing a ruling coalition that will implement practical solutions that are in the best interests of Israelis is far more important. But you’ll probably get Netanyahu again, anyway.

      1. “Who is best suited, in your opinion, to make the case you’ve laid out here, to the Israeli people for the upcoming national elections in January, 2013?”

        The case has already been made, and on January 22nd, 2013 this will be seen when the Likkud loses a ton of points—votes, not the elections themselves—to parties further to the right like HaBayit HaYehudi.

        “The leadership of Likud, Labor, Kadima and other parties are all opposed to the forced expulsion of [Arab colonists] from the West Bank.”

        To be frank, I have not much hope seeing it done except in the context of a war of survival. Of course, such a war is inevitable, seeing how jihadist regimes are now sprouting all over the Middle East.

        “What the [Arab colonists] call themselves is not the most important issue for Israelis to deal with, if I may be so bold to suggest.”

        I agree. What we Jews call them, on the other hand, is a very important issue. This isn’t about names so much as the reality behind them. As my comment above says, the same root cause, the same failure to recognize the threat, underlies Israel’s acquiescence to the Kassam rocket barrage as to its acceptance of the Arab imperialist terminology.

        “Electing a ruling coalition that will implement practical solutions that are in the best interests of Israelis is far more important.”

        Yes, I hope something practical will finally be done about the Kassam rocket barrage on the Sderot region.

        “But you’ll probably get Netanyahu again, anyway.”

        It’s funny how you think Netanyahu is too right-wing while I think he’s too left-wing. A lot of the outside world thinks “right-wing hardliners” when Netanyahu and the Likkud are mentioned, while the view from Israel is, for many Israeli Jews today, that Netanyahu and the Likkud are “right-wing talkers, left-wing doers.”

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