The Holy Family, Palestinian Youth and Palestine’s Zionist Problem
By: Rima Najjar
Tags: Zionism, Liberation, Christmas, Israel, Palestine

Photo (taken in 2014/Rima Najjar): A boy in AbuDis, a suburb of Jerusalem in the Holy Land behind Israel’s annexation apartheid wall the Jewish state built to keep Palestinians out of Jerusalem. The boy’s sweatshirt says “Palestinian”.

There is a saying in Arabic (taken from a verse in the Quran) “عسى أن تكرهوا شيئًا وهو خيرٌ لكم” which translates into “Perhaps you hate something that is good for you.” This was the text on which Lebanese novelist and prominent public intellectual Elias Khoury built during his intervention (Arabic) at the Palestine Forum symposium (Dec 12, 2020) entitled: “Palestine means freedom, dignity and justice… no normalization with racist settler colonial Israel… Palestine is our cause.”

What’s happening in my opinion is strongly positive, because the big 72-year old lie of authoritarian regimes and the like has now been uncovered. Many of these regimes were formed through military coups under pro-Palestine slogans … oil countries that established the Islamic Conference ostensibly for the sake of Jerusalem — they lied to us [Arab peoples] while all along being embedded with Israel. At last the truth has been publicly revealed and I wish to let these regimes know Palestine does not need you; on the contrary, you’ve made things easier. Palestine has a people defending a homeland, and Palestine also has the peoples of many other countries on its side. Your brutal, authoritarian regimes are reaping what you have sown. The fact is, today you are weak to the utmost, and are taking refuge in Israel for protection. Israel will step on you, not help you… the racist Israeli football club fans who chant “Death to Arabs” on the playing fields of Jerusalem have a point [in their derision for you] — Arab regimes propped up by colonialism on a sandy foundation. [My translation]

Mohammad Sabaaneh’s cartoon says, “utmost normalization”

As Khoury says, Palestine doesn’t need the Arab and African countries with whom it is forging “normalization agreements,” because Palestine has its own people to fight for it and, indeed, has the love of the peoples of these very “normalization agreement” countries and those of many others besides.

The wrench in the works, however, is that the Palestinian so-called leadership itself also continues to quixotically strive for a “normalization agreement” of its own with Israel.

In the light of the above, what’s happening now is a big move to educate and mobilize Palestinian youth everywhere. Education, first and foremost, is about the intifada that was quashed with the Oslo “normalization agreement” in 1991 that resulted, as Ramzy Baroud writes, in the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)

quickly moving in to harvest the fruit of the people’s sacrifices and translate them into tangible political gains, as if the traditional Palestinian leadership truly and democratically represented the will of the people. The outcome was a disaster, as the intifada was merely used to resurrect the careers of some “leaders” who claimed to be mandated by the Palestinians to speak on their behalf, resulting in the Madrid Conference of 1991, the Oslo Accords, and all the other “compromises” ever since.”

Reflecting this push toward a new leadership and renewed resistance, The Alternative Palestinian Path Conference (Towards a new revolutionary commitment, Madrid, Spain, October-November 2021) posted the following quotation on its homepage:

“If we are unsuccessful defenders of the cause, then it is better for us to change the defenders, and not to change the cause.”– Ghassan Kanafani

Masarat Center in Ramallah broadcast a conference for Palestinian youth (16 Dec 2020) titled the “Future Scenarios and Palestinian Resilience Policies Through Dialogue.”

The Christmas Appeal of Palestinian advocates Friends of Sabeel North America FOSNA features “The Holy Family,” a painting by Palestinian artist Maher Naji, depicting Mary and Joseph as Palestinians, the first set of Jews torn from their indigeneity by Zionism. (See similar images by Palestinian artists Sliman Mansour, Nabil Anani, Laila Shawa and Rawan Anani here: https://globalworship.tumblr.com/post/189857453970/the-nativity-painted-by-palestinian-artists)

“The Holy Family” by Palestinian artist Maher Naji created for the Friends of Sabeel North America Christmas Appeal

“My name is Maher Naji,” says the artist. “The painting shows the Palestinian family and its connection to our history, heritage, and connection with Palestine. It also affirms that the Palestinian people are continuing throughout history, forever. Our cause will remain until we attain our freedom and independence.”

“When the struggle is long,” says FOSNA, “we cultivate new generations capable of critiquing and building upon our toil…How new generations confound us! They trample the ground we have sown, they take radical action in new forms, and they change the shape of our movements, and hold us accountable when they do. Jesus showed signs of counter-cultural resistance to old norms and perhaps engaged in some critical theological exchanges with the religious authorities in the Temple.”

“Jesus of Palestine” (1980)— Artist: Deirdre Boyd via Hassan Fouda

On Dec 14, 2020, TV Channel 4 in the UK boldly broadcast British Palestinian activist Akram Salhab’s film that explores how the Palestinian experience of British colonialism has been sidelined. The announcer asked: “Are there some parts of this country’s history that remain off-limits for discussion?”

TV Channel 4 in the UK broadcast British Palestinian activist Akram Salhab’s film on the Palestinian experience of British colonialism

This question had been answered in the UK only a few days before the broadcast of Salhab’s film — it’s the Palestinians’ very existence that is the taboo issue:

Israel’s new Ambassador to the United Kingdom, 42-year-old Tzipi Hotovely has used her first speech during an event organised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews to describe the Nakba as “a very strong and very popular Arab lie.” She added that the displacement of Palestinians since 1948, when Israel was created in their land, is “a made up story”.

Israel has long used the word “Arabs” in its census categories to refer to Palestinians for the purpose of denying us our legitimate status as the indigenous people of Palestine. The irony now after these “normalization agreements” is that Israel’s usage of the term “Arabs” has become problematic in its dealings with “Ur-Arabs”—i.e., the people of Arabia. I imagine Israel must now re-educate on the pejorative use of “Arab,” not only its racist football club fans , but also its racist diplomats.

Meanwhile, Israel continues unabated with the big steal — no “very strong and very popular Arab lie” that — but a tragic and traumatic expansion of the Jewish state’s original heist of 78% of Palestine in 1948.

“We understand that Israel’s settler colonial project is built upon the erasure of Palestine and Palestinians, but the tide is turning and we must press forward,” Prof. Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi writes on behalf of this year’s Mondoweiss fund-raising campaign — “a clarion call to right that injustice.” She adds:

Zionists and white supremacists have long sought to muzzle me. Now they are widening their nets considerably. In the past few months alone, more than 120 pro-Israel groups have lobbied Facebook to censor criticism of Israel. The UK Labour Party is trying to crush solidarity with Palestine. Among members suspended by the party was Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong defender of Palestine and racial justice advocate. Trump’s State Department launched a bid to label major human rights organizations as “antisemitic” and governments worldwide — including the U.S., Germany, the UK, and Canada — have adopted a twisted definition of antisemitism that shuts down citizens’ free speech.

Why is this happening now? We both know It’s because more people understand that Israel’s settler colonial project is built upon the erasure of Palestine and Palestinians.

The next generation of Palestinians is going nowhere but back to Palestine.

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Rima Najjar is a Palestinian whose father’s side of the family comes from the forcibly depopulated village of Lifta on the western outskirts of Jerusalem and whose mother’s side of the family is from Ijzim, south of Haifa. She is an activist, researcher and retired professor of English literature, Al-Quds University, occupied West Bank.