The Rape of Palestine | Letters from Palestine |Axisoflogic.com

Yet again, Gaza is under siege. Israeli Destruction Forces have their tanks, bulldozers, and troops in Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya, Jabaliya Camp, Khan Younis, and Rafah. Another 46 Palestinians have been murdered and 86 permanently injured. Homes have been destroyed, olive trees uprooted, and families torn asunder. Palestinians die a small death every time an olive tree is uprooted, every time a Palestinian is killed, and every time a family is displaced. These Israeli sieges are systematic, calculated and opportunistic. The aim of these sieges is to promote the Zionist Project (sometimes referred to as �Occupation�) to completely cleanse Palestine of its indigenous Arab rooted-ness, culture, and history. According to this colonizing project, the land of Palestine should be free of Palestinians and any reminder of its Palestinian past, present, and future. The resistance to this project is, however, fierce, steadfast, and continuous.

I was recently in Gaza for almost 2 weeks and witnessed the many faces of resistance, struggle, and freedom. I saw the faces of Palestinian children coming home from school with back-packs filled with books and homework--smiling, laughing, holding hands and saying, "see you tomorrow, my friend". I saw the families of these children welcoming them home with love in their eyes, despite their fears and anxieties. I saw Palestinians going to work, passing through hours of dehumanizing checkpoints trying to eek out a living to support their families. I saw weddings in the evening (about 18) and funerals in the morning (about 20). I heard the call to prayer and the Friday sermon calling out to the families of the brave defenders of Palestine who paid the ultimate price. And life goes on. Our rooted-ness in Palestine goes on. Our history goes on. Palestine goes on, and on, and on....

It is obvious to everyone here that the main target of the Empire is the Arab World. The Imperial Project is to control the natural resources, markets, and labor force of the Arab World and to extend American-Israeli domination in the region. Palestine is, however, the thorn in the side of the Empire. The center of the resistance to the Empire is in Palestine, and the epicenter of that struggle is in Gaza. When we resist in Palestine, we are resisting for our brothers and sisters in Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, and Venezuela and for all people resisting imperial aims, globalization, and the ugly ravages of structural adjustment programs. Israeli occupation of Palestine is a kind of structural adjustment program. Palestinians no longer enjoy the fruits of their labor nor live off of their land. When you go into markets in Gaza and the West Bank the shelves are full of the Israeli products, the products of our occupiers. The same process is happening Iraq and Afghanistan and has happened already in Mexico and Latin American. This is Imperial freedom and democracy, the kind of freedom and democracy that are brought to the indigenous people of the Arab World. It is an imposed freedom with imperial strings attached to it. Freedom, as every oppressed person knows, is not brought to you, it is taken. This is the nature of resistance and struggle in Palestine, a taking back of our freedom, dignity, and right to exist on our own land.

How many times will Palestine be raped before the world takes note and opens its eyes? You see, when Palestine is raped, all oppressed people are raped. And when Palestinians resist dispossession, dislocation, and dismemberment from their rooted-ness, they are resisting the Imperial dreams of their American/Israeli colonizers who wish to control the Arab World and beyond. The struggle for freedom in Palestine is the same struggle of all oppressed people for freedom and dignity. Do you believe in justice and freedom? If you do, then you have to go all the way. There is no partial justice. Without genuine justice and freedom in Palestine, there cannot be freedom and justice anywhere in the world.

Finally, I wish to speak to the inability of some people to go all the way with justice, specifically to the so-called progressive movement, the so-called left, and to all activists who cannot find it in themselves to go all the way with justice in Palestine. This is directed to the Noam Chomskys, the Michael Lerners, the Medea Benjamins, and to the Leslie Kagans of the world. This is to the Tikkun Community, UFPJ, JVP, Global Exchange and to all those individuals and groups who can speak about justice and freedom in Iraq, but not in Palestine; who can speak about justice and freedom in Haiti, Venezuela, Sudan, and every where else in the world, but not in Palestine. It is time to confront your abject political analyses. It is time to confront your denial and racism. It is time to confront your moral hypocrisy. You are complicit in the rape of Palestine.

I invite you to come to Gaza with me and look into the beautiful brown eyes of Reema, a 7 year-old Palestinian child living in the Jabaliya refugee camp and tell her and her family that they are not entitled to justice, freedom, and the right to return to their village that is only 5 km from where they now live. Your abject sense of morality and justice and vacuous political analyses are empowering the empire. Can you go all the way with justice? If not, remember one thing�where there is occupation and injustice there will always be resistance.

Dr. Ghannam's work on Axis of Logic can be found in the right-column section, Letters from Palestine. He is Board Member of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Chief of Medical Psychology at the University of California San Francisco. He is a grassroots activist and member of Al-Awda San Francisco and Al-Awda's international executive committee. He currently serves as the president of the San Francisco American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Dr. Ghannam travels every three months to Palestine where, over the past 12 years, he has established clinics in Gaza City, Jabaliyah, Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah under the auspices of the Gaza Community Mental Health program.