Intifada: Not a Political Ploy but a People's Cry for Justice
By Ramzy Baroud - [email protected]
Oct 12, 2001
Whenever a significant event takes place, many wonder: how will this event effect the Palestinian Intifada?
When Arab leaders met in Cairo's Arab League Summit early on, analysts showered us with endless rhetoric that the summit's decisions, if failed to provide meaningful support to Palestinians, might contribute to the halt of the Intifada.
The summit and all other summits failed to impose any real pressure on Israel or those who supply Israel with weapons, but the Intifada rages on.
When Palestinian Authority officials meet Israeli intelligence officers to discuss "security cooperation", "truce" or "ceasefire" we are told, "Okay everyone, time to go home, the Intifada is over."
Yet despite everything, the Intifada carries on.
And now with the September 11 attacks on the United States, many were sure that the United States would be keenly interested in ending the Middle East strife, so as to strengthen its coalition on the "war on terrorism."
Those who are convinced of such analysis cite President George Bush's recent statement in support of a Palestinian statehood; while others talk about information "leaks" that the US is pressuring the PA and Israel to bring an end to the "violence" and to resume talks.
The Intifada however, will carry on.
What most people fail to see is that the Intifada is not a ploy, nor is it a political tactic aimed at pressuring Israel for "more concessions".
The Intifada is not a puppet show run by the Palestinian leadership to garner international support using the world's media.
The Intifada was and shall always be a genuine act lead and developed by the oppressed masses who are in fact revolting against oppression, political ploys and empty promises.
The Palestinian uprising develops, grows and changes methods. It responds to Israeli violence with counter violence, and this is the legitimate right of every man, woman and people to defend themselves.
The increasing use of fire arms by Palestinians was not an indication of a "radical faction's" control over the Intifada as some claim, but a natural response to the Israeli use of F 16 warplanes, directed missiles and tank shells.
Suicide bombings are not a manipulative tactic either; killing oneself can never be a tactic. Palestinians do treasure life, but when pushed to the limit they explode. They are only humans, humans who have experienced untold pain for over five decades, left alone to fight an unequal battle.
Slingshots cannot stand the might of the world's fourth strongest army for too long. The idea might spark a poem or a song, but in reality not enough to provide meaningful protection for a nation that is left to endure the pain of betrayal, and the savagery of an apartheid state and army.
Unlike what Israel alleges, Yasser Arafat is not in control of the uprising, nor even Hamas, Islamic Jihad or any other group. What truly controls the Intifada are the unwritten principals of justice and freedom that most Palestinians, in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and elsewhere have agreed to uphold.
The Intifada shall always be heading in the right direction as long as it steadfastly holds to these principals.
One must admit that many have tried to trick Palestinians and manipulate their uprising to serve a political agenda, but despite all, the uprising will continue.
It's a mistake to say that the Intifada started on September 28, 1999, for the Palestinian people are in reality living an ongoing Intifada.
In reality the Palestinian uprising of 1936 never truly ceased; it developed, it changed, and the torch was handed from one generation to another. But it never ended.
The Intifada will end when Palestinians lose track of their priorities and become apathetic to their freedom and legitimate rights. You know as much as I do that this would never happen.
So let President Bush try all of his political maneuvers to strengthen his coalition; let him envision a "Palestinian state"; and let Shimon Peres meet with top Palestinian officials and sip coffee and talk about the good old days of Oslo.
Yet once Bush's temporary vision of a state is over and his vision of a US embassy in Jerusalem is back, and once the Israeli army violates the reached "ceasefire" over and over again, they'll realize that all efforts have failed, and that the Intifada will still carry on.
You see, the Intifada was a revolution against empty promises, a rejection of "security" meetings in which lists of Palestinian activists are handed to the PA so that they can be arrested; imaginary "peace" and false process.
The Intifada is not a political ploy. It is truly a people's cry for justice.