Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: A Psychology of the Oppressed and the Oppressor

Non si puo' solo leggere haaretz....
http://www.islamonline.net
A Psychology of the Oppressed and the Oppressor
By Hwaa Irfan
The psychology of the oppressor and oppressed is a complex
relationship spanning centuries of conflict around the world. In the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict this psychological web is displayed in
many ways. For the Israelis, some experts wonder if memories of an
earlier holocaust are factors in the current conflict. Other experts
point out that the psychological torture and manipulation employed by
the Israeli government on its own people, as well as the Palestinians
is even more harmful than guns that have been fired on the West Bank.
Recent studies have shown that the psychological effects of war and
conflict are more damaging and longer lasting to the society than
casualties of war.
Many experts believe that Germany was the final blow to Ashkenazi Jews
and inflicted a permanent wound. Unable to avenge their oppressors,
they focused their energies elsewhere and through the United League
were able to create and then obtain their dream of a homeland. Holding
onto a false notion of nationality, patterns of behavior developed
until some people were able to intellectualize everything and it
reached the point of becoming obsessively competitive. Over a period
of time for some, this has become ingrained into the psyche. Some
Israelis even openly admit to massacres of the Palestinian people as
if it were a common occurrence. Minister of Defense Benjamin ben
Eliezar told the Israeli journal Ediot Ahronot, "It is a fact that we
have killed Palestinians in Jenin, Qabatiyeh and Tammun with the world
remaining absolutely silent. It's a disaster for Arafat" (Amnesty #1,
p.1).
For other Israelis, however, it is the psychological manipulation of
their government that keeps them fighting and not their own
convictions. To prevent resistance among Israeli youth, Israeli
soldiers and reservists are imprisoned for refusing to perform
military duties in the Occupied Territories. In September 2001, 62
Israeli students approaching the age of conscription stated, "We
strongly resist Israel's pounding of human rights, land expropriation,
arrests, executions without trial, house demolition, closure, torture
and the prevention of healthcare are only some of the crimes the state
of Israel carries-out, in blunt violation international conventions it
has ratified." They were subsequently arrested and humiliated in front
of their peers. In a letter dated this January, 460 reservists stated,
"We shall not fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate,
expel, starve and humiliate an entire people" (Amnesty #2, p.2). Many
people signing this letter were either imprisoned or mistreated in
some way.
Other Israelis have been called to public humiliation and
psychological trauma for their part in exposing Israeli massacres of
the past. Ilan Pappe, Israeli professor of political science at Haifa
University along with other revisionist historians have been dedicated
to unearthing Israel's true past of 1948's ethnic cleansing. Pappe
criticized Haifa's University conduct over the Teddy Katz case - an MA
student who was expelled last year for unearthing evidence of
massacres committed by Israeli forces in the coastal village of
Tantura in 1948. For this activity, Ilan Pappe was called-up for trial
by the Dean of Humanities using the Israeli courts legal authority to
do so (Sakr, p.1, 2).
However, the Israeli government applies even more intense
psychological manipulation to the Palestinian people. Muhammad
al-Naqari, an expert in "akhlaq" (ethics), calls this diffidence.
Diffidence, explains Muhammad al-Naraqi "is when one fails to reach
the heights of perfection.being content with the lower rudimentary
attainments (al-Naraqi, p.51). Diffidence is what heads of state have
succumbed to, killing the human soul, which seems unable to rise to
the growing injustices. ".Well I grant for you your Ummah that it
would not be dominated by an enemy who would not take their lives and
destroy them root and branch, even if all the people from the
different parts of the world join hands together, but it would be from
amongst them, your Ummah, that some people would kill the other or
imprison the other" (Muslim, 041, #6932).
Certainly, in modern Palestine it seems there are more dead souls than
dead bodies. Fear, in fact, prevails over death in Palestine today.
Many people contemplate recent events but even more people contemplate
the future. "Maybe by this time next year there will be no
Palestinians on the West Bank," says one West Bank resident. "You
might be watching T.V and seeing what everybody else is seeing. The
two main scenes on the screen are either our children who are full of
life, anger and blood or the politicians who are defending their
political purposes and preparing for the coming season. I feel so
angry when I watch those flowers, our children. We carried them in our
wombs; we fed them with our blood and tears. We laughed with them, at
them and for them. We built our small houses, dreaming that they would
be made bigger by their laughter and noise. We dreamt that our
children would look after us in our old age, knowing that there would
be no welfare state to ensure our well-being" (Alexander p.1, 2).
Muhammad Nassar is another victim of the psychology of the oppressed.
He watched his whole family disintegrate. "Do you know what it means
for a person to suffocate, to drown and not be able to scream," he
says,  ".that is me. I have been out of work for five months. I cannot
even put food on the table for my family. My wife's death at the
checkpoint has only made things worse. Who will take care of the
children? I don't even know why they allow us to live. Are we supposed
to stand-by with our hands tied while our loved ones are killed? Our
children made homeless and our dignity and humanity stripped from us?"
(Wahdan, p.2).
Psychological torture is also common among prisoners taken by Israeli
troops. Su'ad Ghazal was arrested at 15 for allegedly killing an
illegal Israeli settler. After two years of imprisonment she cried
out, ".but it is not just international law that has been violated. It
is not just my body that bears the scars of the cruelest kind of
physical torture or my mind that has been traumatically changed
because of brutal psychological torture, but the fact that any person
could be as cruel as to try to take away the child in me - to destroy
me as a human being, to insult me, to try to take away my dignity and
to erase my identity forever, in violation of all that is decent and
right". From the first day of her detention she was told: "Now you are
all alone and no one can help you.We will make you regret the day you
were born" (Yaghi, p.1, 2).
Despite harsh treatment by the Israeli government, Muslims in the West
Bank say that they rely on Islam to help them through their
difficulties. "Islam is our rudder in the ocean of madness, " says
Samia Nassar. "If they take this away the individual who is not
anchored in God can offer no resistance on his own resources to the
physical and moral blandishments of the world" (Jung, p.24).
Just as there are some Europeans who believe that the holocaust never
took place many now declare the same for Jenin. However, for those
Palestinians still alive in Jenin and other endangered cities in the
West Bank, it is a matter of hiding in fear, the fear of sleep, mental
distress, children urinating in fear, screaming, fevers, nightmares,
constant headaches, unable to eat, uncontrollable diabetes and
disruption in bodily functions (Giacaman, p.2).
Sources:
Alexander, Roger. "Women in Gaza." Society and Culture of Palestine.
12/12/01.
Al - Naraqi, Muhammad. M. "Textbook of Ethics." Pakistan: Islamic
Seminary Publications. 1985.
Amnesty.org. "The Backlash - Human Rights at Risk Throughout the
World." Amnesty International. 10/16/01.
Fanon, Frantz. "A Dying Colonialism." Britain: Writers and Readers
Publishing Cooperative. 1980.
Freire, Paulo. "Pedagogy of the Oppressed." Britain: Penguin Books.
1975.
Giacaman, Rita & Husseini 'Abdullatif. "Shattered Lives." Bir Zeit
University. 06/01/02.
Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. "al-Serat: Islam and the Question of Violence."
Al-islam.org. 10/08/01.
Sakr, Hala. "To Break the Mirror." Ahram.org. 05/18/02.
Wahdan, Haeel. "Closure on Life." Arabic Media Internet Network.
12/12/01.
Yaghi, Edna. "My Humanity on Hold." 
Redressbinternet.co.uk
. 08/23/01.
k
-- 
"Usa il culo, che la testa lo seguira' "
ams67 - Dedicato a MMAX -

disruption in bodily functions (Giacaman, p.2).
Che nessuno e' in grado di mostrare che siano anche solo lontanamente
collegati con l'azione di polizia tenuta a Jenin :)
*LOL*
-Stefano

 ha scritto nel messaggio
news:3F46139F...@interfree.it...

Professorone dell'incoerenza e sempre alla ricerca di prove, che prove porti
sulla tua esistenza... forse, potresti essere morto e parlare dall'aldilà.
Dammi una prova (tu che sei sempre alla ricerca delle prove che comprovino
ciò che una prova debba comprovare)... se ci sei (dato che si capisce bene
che ci fai!) batti tre colpi!
ilClandestino
www.che2000.supereva.it

Professorone dell'incoerenza 
...disse il bue all'asino... :)))
*LOL*
-Stefano