The Other View: 'I' - a Palestinian Arab notebook

When I began writing this notebook, I wasn't sure what its focus should be. As a Palestinian Arab, I wanted to discuss something related to my background and community - a community in which people are expected to focus on one thing and one thing only: liberating an occupied land and regaining the rights of the Palestinian people.

The occupation colors our literature, our art, in fact our entire culture - a culture which we created for ourselves to resist the occupation, and in which it's actually difficult to be creative in any field where the occupation is not the subject.

Since the beginning of the Palestinian revolution, there have been various schools of thought on what path should be taken to reach the ultimate goal of statehood. At first, the consensus was that the way to liberate what had been taken by force was through armed resistance.

Today, however, the Palestinian community is deeply divided on the issue.

The current debate has its roots in the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority, which changed the nature of the leading resistance movement, Fatah, from a movement dedicated to fighting the occupation to one whose role was to direct the community affairs of the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza.

This caused a schism as some groups, such as Hamas, sought to continue with the path of armed resistance, while others believed negotiations and dialogue were simply better for the Palestinian cause. The civil war in Gaza between Fatah and Hamas was just a symptom of the internal conflict and diverging ideologies in the Palestinian community.

 I decided to focus on this issue due to the fact that not only the Palestinians, but also the broader Arab world is suffering from a similar cultural conflict.

The Arab community continues to teach new generations about Islam and its great history. Although Arab governments by and large neither agree with nor fulfill the demands of Islam, they continue to maintain that it constitutes a "central data base" containing the answers to all of life's questions.

The Arab world, like the rest of the world, has been affected by globalization and has started to open its doors to other cultures. And while globalization was taking the Arab world by storm and holding out the promise of a new reality in the region, one which most Arab youth ardently wanted to be a part of, Islamic scholars and Imams were doing nothing to convince them to stay committed to Islam, to maintain its habits and fulfil its demands.

When I say "Islamic habits and demands," I mean the Islamic way of living, and the Islamic point of view regarding science and other cultures. The reason for this is that within Islam, too, there are conflicts. Actually, this period is reminiscent of the situation in Europe between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries.

On one hand, Arab governments consider Islam to be an important factor in directing the affairs of the Arab community and the daily lives of their citizens. On the other hand, they do not wish to establish an Islamic emirate and appoint a Khalifa to rule the whole Arab world.

The Arabs moved against the former Ottoman Empire because they wished to become independent, to establish self-governed Arab states that would protect the rights of the people. However, Arab states to this day are still ruled either by kings or dictators interested mainly in staying in power and assuring their sons will rule after them.

All of these factors have affected Arabic culture; In Arab nations still battling for free speech and democratic rights, science, for example, has become seen as relatively unimportant. Arab literature, too, became focused on the suffering of the Arab peoples and their demands for freedom.

Today, the situation is changing - the Arab world has been split in two; one side, seeking to find the solution in Islam, finds itself accused of terror and extremism due to the actions of terrorist organizations which use Islam to justify their own agendas. The other side is demanding a democratic Arab world in which the rights of citizens are respected and which is open and welcoming to other cultures.
 
The strange thing is that the West never seems to have taken these factors into consideration when formulating its position and policies.

To the present day, the Arab world is treated as third world by the West, and is still held in thrall to capitalism and colonialism. This has pushed many Arabs in the other direction - this was especially true following the the previous war in Iraq, considered a war for "democracy" in the eyes of the West.

Iran is creating a new challenge for the West, which has yet to figure out how best to deal with it considering the chaos already prevalent in the region.

What really drew me to this line of thought was actually a different question: When was the last time we Arabs attempted, or even considered attempting, achieving something in the fields of medicine and science such as Arabs have achieved in the past?

Why do we prefer to lock ourselves in a closed room of our own devising instead of opening our minds - not to imitate other nations, but to make new achievements in social and community sciences?

We convince ourselves that because of the current situation and the difficulties we face we cannot achieve anything except continuing to struggle for our basic rights. What does "fighting" mean exactly, if we prevent ourselves from returning as a people to those creative pursuits that most benefit us, and the rest of humanity?
 
Instead of watching Hollywood movies and trying to imitate others, we should sit down and study our past and the past of other nations to find out where we failed, and what we can learn from others about how to remedy the situation.

It was philosophers, artists, writers and scientists which brought Europe out of the medieval age into becoming a great power. Our own writers and scientists also brought great benefit to humanity.

To change our situation we must learn from others, as our entire system of ideals and beliefs has become useless. To change, we need to create a new generation that is ready to learn to from others - not to become the slaves of other cultures but instead to learn and to acquire the tools necessary to create something new and good to assure that we will stay on this earth.