What have you come to, Man?
by Samah Jabr with Betsy Mayfield, edited for this website
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Once upon a time, there was a little colony of
beings living peacefully among themselves at the top of a rocky hill. Life at the summit
was good; food and comfortable housing aplenty; enemies few. The population of this
society was happy. They profited from being alone and all alike, each exactly like the
other. Being sea anemones, this group had only nerve nets which allowed them to stretch
and fetch, all the while clinging together? In their brainless state, all the sea anemones
were "neophobians," meaning they all feared change. This condition
existed among the cloned citizens as it had for all time, being passed from one generation
to the next via their DNA messenger cells. It was, evidently, a genetically-created means
of protection.
Anemone neophobians were a bit like many people
today. They lived amidst their own past, present and future as if the progression of time
has no power to influence them. Events may prove them wrong, but they choose not to
recognize the wrong or react to it. They simply stay silent. Not far away, another anemone
society sprung up in the rocky cliff's largest crevice. These beings were the progeny of
the first group, children who had drifted away from home. They were still afraid of
anything new and had clung together just as tightly as their parents had in the home they
had left behind.
After many years, however, the grandchildren of the
colonizers vaguely began to be less afraid of change. Some of the grandchildren drifted
off to seek more fertile territory. Oddly, unlike their forefathers, they grew eager to
expand and to fill up the entire mountainside with their own more adventurous anemones.
They were, they believed, superior anemones. They became warlike because they thought that
no one could stop them from taking whatever they wanted. They began to attack neighboring
colonies. As they did, they realized that some nations struck back immediately and with
enough ferocity to keep them at bay. When this happened, the warriors moved on and peace
resumed among those attacked. Other groups were more circumspect, pulling into themselves
and sending out fighters only as needed. The dissenters within the "superior"
anemone colony were quickly labeled unpatriotic. Some were destroyed; others pulled their
tentacles back into their casings. The warriors kept pressing and pressing until they had
totally destroyed all life in the area they desired. Then, they moved in and expanded
their territory without restraint or opposition, until, that is, another warring group
appeared.
On and on the wars went between those begotten by
the many divisions. One group became more and more aggressive, another preemptive and a
third ready and eager to fight back. A fourth integrated into the world of their
conquerors, while another group became so powerful that its members attacked only when
they were sure they could win. Truces occurred from time to time, but there was absolutely
no possibility of peace among the colonies, all of whom (we must remember) had originally
been born of the members of the first colony, once staunchly established peacefully at the
top of the hill, but now completely gone.
The wars still continue among the brainless sea
anemone societies. Sea anemones, bags of flesh and tentacles, act only through their
nerves, a system that allows no possibility at all of intellect or thought. They reproduce
by dividing themselves, which is not much fun, but does the job and fills the sea with
more identical beings. Many anemones in the sea are able to sting another anemone to
death. There is no peace.
Sea anemones, like human beings, send messages from
one generation to another in a spiral notebook called DNA. The DNA, however, does not
suggest carrying out complex systems of war on other colonies. It gives us the tools and
instincts of defense, but we are not slaves to these. We also have reason to override the
red lights and sirens that blare when we are threatened.
Sea anemones do not go to church, the synagogue or
the mosque to find out how they should behave. They have no ideology or constitution to
follow. They have no memory of history. They can only eat and replicate and sting each
other to death. It's not surprising, then, that instinct among sea anemones leads to
warlike behavior rather than acceptance and willingness to live together in peace. I am,
however, surprised at our behavior.
After experiencing two years of war and violence
between we Palestinians and colonizing Israelis (a war that is backed financially and
emotionally by the world's remaining superpower), watching horrified as America was stung
on September 11th and for a moment paralyzed. Now, experiencing extended war
that affects our people more than the world imagines, I wait apprehensively with everyone
else. As I do I remember those sea anemones.
We wage our wars with full knowledge of what we are
doing and why. We do have intellect, ideology, education, experience and religion to guide
us. Still, in spite of all the moral and intellectual training presented to us century
after century, we, like the anemones, choose war over peaceful coexistence.
I have to wonder if humanity has reverted to the
brainlessness of the sea anemone and forgotten what we know of being human: happiness,
productivity and our responsibility as stewards of a world that is changing as we watch.
Sea anemones are only a mass of flesh and tentacles, neither of which has the capacity
— as far as we know — to suggest to another of its kind that the population
might find community and right-living without harming others. We wage our wars with full
knowledge of what we are doing and why.
To Be Continued. . .
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WHEN THE HOUR APPROACHESWH
When
the HOUR APPROACHES
By Samah Jabr*
January 2004
Various descriptions were given to the
Palestinian natural desire to procreate and reproduce. “Demographic threat,”
“biological bomb,” “fertility weapon,” and “growth cancer,”
are just a sampling of what Israeli politicians, intellectuals and their friends in the
world say. The "birth clock is ticking," their leaders and advisors warn over
and over again.
No other woman’s womb has been as inhumanly described as a ‘dormant
explosive bomb’ except that of a Palestinian. Such descriptions encompass both
groups: Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank, as well as Palestinian with Israeli
citizenship. It expresses a different and unique element in assessing the debate about the
future of the two nations and the peace in the holy land.
The discussion regarding childbearing takes place within a close family setting, and it is
a culturally sensitive issue; it is a very private matter that only concerns the parents
to be. In democratic communities, the issues of racial/ethnic/religious purity or
demographic preference are labelled AS UGLY RACISM THAT creates defects and
disfigure the fabric of any civilized, emocratic, liberal community.
In the case of Palestine, trying to influence the Palestinian’s natural population
growth is considered to be a genocidal ideation, an ethnic-cleansing wish. Maybe that is
the wish that underscores the behaviour of the Israeli occupation forces when they don’t
allow, and often shoot at our women in labour while trying to reach the nearest hospital,
and this
would explain why so many of our children are being targeted by Israeli snipers.
In fact, Israeli consultants and decision makers have moved from the stage of ideation to
implementation. Today, the plans, laws and strategies to combat Palestinian natural human
growth are well set to turn their ideations
and wishes into a factual crime in order to “defuse the Palestinian demographic bomb.”
While such strategies are more vicious than the daily violence we experience, they are
hidden, subtle and don’t make the headlines in international news.
We are not China or Bangladesh. The 3.3 million Palestinians who remain living in
Palestine comprise 40 per cent of the Palestinian nation. Palestinians used to have
one of the highest fertility rates in the world. Today, the fertility rate has
dropped to 7 in Gaza; 4.7 in the West Bank—twice or three times that of the Israelis.
Israeli statistical projections suggest that if this pattern continues
without any “management” in the second decade of this millennium, we are
expected to surpass the Jewish presence in the land.
For years countless faceless foreign organizations have been working in the name of women’s
rights to promote family planning in Palestine. Among many reproductive and women’s
health problems they claimed to target, the
significant achievement was a decreased fertility rate. Little, if any, success has been
achieved in combating the high and increasing incidence of maternal mortality, maternal
cancers, women’s anaemia and poor general health, postnatal complications or any
other demanding problems.
“Managing the Palestinian growth problem” has not been restricted to the
aforementioned; the Israeli Supreme Court has LEAGALIZED discriminatory laws concerning
residency, citizenship and marriage. For Palestinian residents of
Jerusalem, living outside Jerusalem jeopardizes their residency and denies them their
basic rights to health insurance and social security, and, at a later stage, their right
to enter Jerusalem. Palestinians with Israeli citizenship cannot pass their citizenship on
to their children and spouses.
Palestinians living in so-called Israel proper who marry Palestinians from the West Bank
and Gaza run the risk of not being able to have their family live with them, while Jewish
Israelis can live wherever they want for as long as they want and still maintain their
citizenship; they can pass their Israeli citizenship on to their non-Jewish or
international spouses, and the latter will have more rights and accessibility to the land
they come to than its own natives—the Palestinians.
In the name of giving the Palestinians a State and allowing them to reach some level of
self-determination, the Israeli agenda includes creating ghettos that consist of small,
overcrowded and separate geographical areas that contribute to strangulating their economy
and their ability to find employment to the point that the average Palestinian will have
only one of two choices: to leave “voluntarily” or to starve in his land under
an illegal occupation. So far, many have chosen the latter, which naturally lends itself
to resources running shorter, interests competing and steadfastness becoming less of a
priority.
The decline in well-being has been rapid and profound since the beginning of the
Intifada. This is directly linked to the violence and mobility restrictions we experience
daily, including death and injury to family and friends, damage to OUR property, and the
frustration and poverty they sustain through stifling closures, curfews and home
confinement. Those
conditions will aggravate in the coming 3-5 years as a result of the Monstrous Wall that
is fast approaching.
The Jewish presence in the land today is approaching 6.2 million; this does not include
the foreigners who have Israeli citizenship and are living abroad, THOSE WHO ARE WILLING
TO COME TO THE LAND DURING THE EASY TIMES AND WHO LEAVE TO THE SOFTER CLIMES DURING THE
HARDSHIPS. Over the last 55 years
Israel has denied our refugees from coming home, while reaching out welcoming arms for
Jewish immigrants. If it were not for immigrant flooding, the Jewish presence in occupied
Palestine would only be 260,000.
While “peace-loving Israelis” feel that they are compelled to cede land and
isolate the Palestinians in order to avoid the “threat,” Jewish settlers in the
territories have called for government policies to encourage Jewish births, promote
religious conversions, and stimulate Jewish immigration. They say Israel should not
relinquish its hold on the land and dream of a Greater Israel that reaches from the Jordan
River to the Mediterranean Sea. They openly speak about forced expulsions of “Arabs”
to Jordan and the Sinai should the PALESTINIANS TRY TO RESIST.
WHAT CAN PALESTINIANS DO against a rising tide of pro-transfer sentiment that is being
freely expressed in Israeli Jewish society AND AGAINST THE ONGOING SUFFOCATION PLANS?
We are going to STEADFASTLY remain in what they perceive to be their
exclusive homeland. In order to RESIST AND counteract the ISRAELI strategies
TO SUFFOCATE US, the Palestinian community IN LAND AND IN THE DIASPORA should be aware of
their own challenges and needs and raise international awareness about the Israeli
intentions and the reality of their criminal practices. e should campaign for aiding
the satisfaction of Palestinian basic needs
and enhance theIR economic independence and sustainability of population growth in the
OCCUPIED LAND. I AM NOT SUGGESTING THAT PALESTINIANS SHOULD HAVE DOZENS OF CHILDREN?
BUT We should know our reproductive rights and be aware of all components of reproductive
health care, including giving people
choices and the necessary education to hold them responsible for their choices.
It is poverty, disease, ignorance, oppression, gender and racial
differences that we should fight, not natural growth and development. This awareness
should involve special attention to Palestinian orphans and sons of prisoners WHO ARE
INCREASING IN NUMBER AS THE ISRAELI VIOLENCE IS HARVESTING MORE AND MORE OF OUR FATHERS
AND MOTHERS. THOSE KIDS ARE OUR SONS WE SHOULD FIND THE APPROPRIATE CHANNELS TO LINK
THEM WITH “VOLANTARY PARENTS” FROM INSIDE IR THE DIASPORA WHO CAN FINANCE THEIR
EDUCATION, THEIR DAILY LIVING AND TRY TO BUILD AN EMMOTIONAL CONNECTION WITH THEM AGAINST
THE TIME AND DISTANCE. THIS KIND OF PROJECT CAN ALSO HELP IN mobilizing the national
commitment of the Palestinians in the Diaspora AND IMPROVE THE character qualities
of OUR PEOPLE, WHICH MIGHT BE AS IMPORTANT AS their number.
The right to procreate is a basic human right that is universally recognized. Mankind's
unique ability to adjust herself/himself to severe adversity is proof that serious
deprivation is not the end of human life, IN FACT SOME TIMES IT IS A STIMULANCE FOR
CREATIVETY. The most humorous, wise, life-loving people I have ever met were from the most
deprived African countries. Palestinians should look at life the way we wish it to be and
try
to live it the best way we can with what we have and appreciate it. We can become more
creative with our social activities and enjoy cordial relationships between different
individuals, as well as other things that contribute most to making life worth living.
AS I THINK OF ISRAELS FRIGHT AT OUR MERE EXISTENCE I UNDERSTANT THAT The
pathology of “Israel” lies in their claims of democracy as much as their Jewish
exclusivity. If it were not for their claims of democracy, our presence wouldn’t be
perceived as threatening. Democracy IN THEORY is understood as a mechanism to protect the
basic rights of minorities from the tyranny of the OVERWHELMING majority; BUT IN THE CASE
OF “ISRAEL” DEMOCRACY IS MANIPULATED TO maintain THE POWER AND privilege TO THE
JEWISH MAJOURITY, not TO protect THEIR cultural identity, heritage and religious practice,
WHICH MIGHT BE AS WELL protected and enhanced in a multi-ethnic, PLURALISTIC society where
freedom of religion, speech and association are guaranteed to all.
Their “democracy” has been their ploy to gain acceptance in the international
community; it is always used to consolidate a superior Jewish position and to preserve
Jewish supremacy, the tool and the reason used to reach the goal of our expulsion. Today,
Israel is taking advantage of the international ignorance and apathy and running her plans
in silence, while at the same time selling to the world that our presence is a threat from
which they have the right to defend
their national security. They are defusing ethno-nationalist views to flourish in the
world while criticizing the extreme right in Europe; they call them “Neo-Nazis.”
Dr Wouter Basson, a well-known apartheid chemical and biological warfare specialist,
described plans to poison the water supply to black townships in order to curb the birth
rate of the black people. I hold my breath in horror
for what Israelis are capable of doing in the name of “demographic balancing acts”
as the tipping point approaches.
*Samah Jabr is a physician and a life-long resident of Jerusalem.
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