ZGram - 11/24/2001 - "Our living martyrs"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

Copyright (c) 2001 - Ingrid A. Rimland

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

November 24, 2001

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Just a few words re today's missive.  Samah Jobr, a young Palestinian
physician, speaks in this essay about "Our living martyrs", his people's
political prisoners, by drawing a comparison between them, all but
forgotten behind their prison bars, and Nelson Mandela who never lost his
inner bond with the people on whose behalf he suffered.

There is a difference here - a poignant one.

Nelson Mandela was imprisoned by an enemy who still obeyed an inner code of
honor.  That is not true of Israel.  Mandela's suffering and sacrifice,
real though it was, can't be compared with what the poor tormented
Palestinians still have to endure in a country where torture was legal
until just a few years ago and is still being practiced, according to
global Human Rights voices.

Herewith yet another small, heart-rending story in the grand design of thing=
s:
 =20
By Samah Jabr =20

WHEN I meet the mother of a Palestinian killed in this conflict, I don't
cry with her or ask her to show artificial pride and strength. Instead I
say, "Your beloved is in God's hands, where life is more just and fair than
ours." Many times, my words have been effective. =20
But when I meet a mother of a Palestinian political prisoner, I don't know
what to say. I choke with the words dead in my throat. =20

A month ago, I went to Neve Tirza to stand in solidarity with a group of
women political prisoners inside the jail who were on a hunger strike.
There were only about 50 of us in the protest, a meager group compared to
the massive crowds that usually follow the funeral of a martyr or the
hundreds who line up outside universities to holler out their positions and
announce a strike in protest. =20

Standing there looking at the meager showing, I imagined that some who
might have joined us had been stopped at checkpoints. Certainly others had
to make use of a day in which Israeli travel restrictions had relented to
see what food they could find.            Perhaps some hurried to their
offices in hopes of getting a little work done before the mid-afternoon
rush hour, then racing to get home before a new closure took affect.

But despite my efforts to make the best of things, the sight of the small
group made me think of the sad words of Mahmoud Abu Al Sukkar, a
Palestinian man who spent 26 years of his life in jail because he dared
express dissent when Zionists came to take his land.

"I used to think that if you call Palestinians to stand in solidarity with
their prisoners, the streets would be full of the thousands. But that was
my fantasy and imagination," he lamented in his loneliness.      =20

Abu Al Sukkar's expression of isolation nudges me to remember how our
Palestinian negotiators have neglected and disregarded the thousands of
freedom fighters who spent and are still spending the best years of their
lives behind bars. What if the greatest among us are in these prisons,
waiting and holding out for their chance to lead? =20

I lament the lack of care we appear to express for these prisoners. Except
for the prisoners' own families who have longings and fears for their loved
ones' safety, few among us recreate the greatness of our prisoners outside
the walls that encircle them.         Think, for example, how Nelson
Mandela made prison his platform, supported by his community outside.

         Israel is notorious for its political prisons - Neve Tirza, Abu
Kbeir, Dimona, and others. While the government of Israel keeps captives as
young as 14 in these jails, few Israeli human rights organizations speak
out consistently against the inhuman conditions and physical and
psychological torture endured by the captives.

That no one in the Palestinian Authority moves to improve conditions in
these prisons is proof of the current void between the Palestinian power
structures and morally concerned people within and without Israel's iron
walls.            Palestinian and Israeli peace activists alike lament the
situation.

"Where," wrote one concerned Israeli, "where in the world do you put
14-year-old girls in prison for being politically active? Only in Israel!"
=20

In South Africa, Nelson Mandela spent 28 years in prison. He was tough,
refusing to capitulate to his captors' demands, rejecting opportunities for
freedom and waiting instead for the moment that he would gain freedom not
only for himself, but for all his people. He had the strength of character
to be a man of the people and the people were ready to engage the
leadership he offered. Mandela never forgot his people and, they, in turn,
did not forget him. =20

Standing outside Neve Tirza, I know the names of some of the prisoners. But
there are so many. Whom have we forgotten?

When our prisoners leave their cells, will we Palestinians be ready to
embrace the sacrifices they made and open to them the avenues of
leadership? Given that we are all virtually prisoners in our own homes, are
we even able to see potential for leadership among ourselves? Could it be
dormant,lying in front of our very eyes, unrecognized, but ready just the
same? =20

Since the beginning of Intifada II more than one year ago, Israeli (and now
Palestinian) prisons have swelled, occupied by those who would not follow
the rules.       Given that half of the Palestinian population is under the
age of l8, it isn't surprising that many of the prisoners are in their
prime: youthful, willful, wanting more from life. What do we say to the
parents and grandparents of our young prisoners, especially when some of
these have been captured by their own police and put away, out of sight and
out of mind?

 We bend, abashed, like the animals in George Orwell's "Animal Farm." In
Orwell's satire, the leaders of the animals are pigs. It is a sad day when
the lowly citizen-animals open the doors of their leaders' inner sanctums
and discover that those they trusted are eating ham. Saddened, the animals
take the ham and give it a decent burial. =20

Will we gain freedom at last only to cringe in resentment for those who
used our youth not to win our freedom, but to feed themselves? Or will we
bow in reverence to those great and small who sacrificed themselves for our
well-being? =20

If any place on the globe has witnessed conflict as wearing as that in
Palestine, it is Africa and yet, look at the men who have risen from the
depths of African despair:  Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu and, now,
Kofi Anan, the new winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

=46or us, the young people of Palestine, the future is ours. Either we will
succumb to self-pity or we can bury our dead, hold our heads high, turn
away from our prison walls and lead. =20

While I felt that our protest in front of Neve Tirza was disappointingly
small, I'm glad I stood with 50 people on that day. It was my way of
remembering, and of sharing in initiative.

Mother Teresa wrote, "Don't wait for leaders, do it alone, person to
person." So, I and the 49 others who made our presence known gave credence
and visibility to the women inside the Israeli government had hoped would
slip into oblivion (along with the rest of us).

We may not have a Nelson Mandela among us, but perhaps we have better. We
have thousands of political prisoners willing to sacrifice freedom and
happiness for Palestinian independence.

Whether hidden inside Israeli or Palestinian prisons or locked away through
house arrest or community bantustans, none of us are giving in. We stand
broken but not bowed, troubled but not humiliated, by Israel's expression
of might.      =20

Mandela stands out as one leader whom prison could not quell. The other
great rule-breaker of our time, Mahatma Gandhi, died in 1948, the same year
Zionists occupied the first part of Palestine. But those were different
times for those seeking independence.

    Now, governments of the "civilized" world manufacture conflicts that
reverberate like the movie "Star Wars." Here in dusty Palestine, we're not
thinking of Star Wars. We've seen the missiles come and go with flares and
sprays of light. We've felt billy clubs on our heads, endured the kick of
soldiers' heavy boots and resisted the bullets of contempt. We need to
stand tall, not dissolve in flames of hateful conflagration. =20

If we fail to honor our living as well as our dead, I worry that our
national liberation will not be what we expect. I am troubled that we may
succumb to the humiliation of our own silence and remain captives, unable
to take control of our own destinies.

I honor our prisoners of war; I pray that they will not be forgotten at the
negotiation table and I await the day when we, the young people of
Palestine, can show the world what leadership means.     =20

Published 7/11/01 =A9Palestine Report

Samah Jabr is a Physician and a life long resident of Jerusalem.

[END]

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

Thought for the Day:

"He might as well have written about Rudolf Hess."

(Ernst Zundel, after reading this essay, with tears in his eyes)