| How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
by Mazin B. Qumsiyeh
An old saying in the fight against segregation in the South was "free
your mind and your ass will follow". I was thinking about this in the
past few days in several events that ranged from racists lecturing their
audience about how muslims treat non-muslims to supposed peace
gatherings that did not want to deal with violations of human rights and
international law when it is done to Palestinians (too controversial!
even though funded by our taxes) to gatherings of few dedicated
activists discussing the growing (but still in its infancy) movement of
boycotts, divestments, and sanctions.
But in this short article, I want to focus on something else,
70% of the US public thinks the invasion and occupation of Iraq
was wrong, nearly 100% of Arabs and Muslims in America think both the
occupation of Iraq and of Palestine are wrong. Yet of these millions
few want to change their routine to effect change. I want to take time
to address those who have yet to do so by asking them the question How
willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice? and till when
will those who are silently observing (or cursing the darkness instead
of lighting a candle) remain silent.
So How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
After all, it is about convenience. Fear of inconvenience permeates
us. Our lives are commercialized (go shopping Bush told us after 9/11),
sanitized from the suffering of others, routinized lest we encounter the
unfamiliar, and stigmatized (both stigmatizing ourselves and others).
All in all, avoiding what the Budhists call "having joyful participation
in the sorrows of this world".
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
After 60 years of ethnic cleansing, 6 million Palestinians refugees and
displaced people. After 530 depopulated villages and towns and more land
being confiscated daily (All done with Western governments direct and
indirect support).
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
After American-made Caterpillar bulldozers uprooted over 1 million olive
and other fruiting trees. After colonial settlers (some of them
soldiers) with US made M16 killed thousands of native civilians in their
own lands including when the natives were protesting peacefully.
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
After nearly $1 trillion of OUR taxes were sent to support the Israeli
apartheid state (over $11 million daily) and some of it was circulated
back to spread propaganda in America and gain the subservience of
Congress with bribes (free trips, campaign donations, etc).
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
After the lobby, lobby that was rated by Fortune magazine as third and
sometimes fourth in power (and the first that advocates for a foreign
state) with its tentacles in media and academia, after this lobby
managed to get us into a war on Iraq that cost the lives of nearly 1
million people (and made 2 million refugees, a genocide 10 times the
size of the atrocities in Darfur), After this lobby ramped up its
campaign of lies and distortions about Iran to prepare us for another,
even larger catastrophe.
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
After an International Court of Justice ruling that the apartheid wall
violates International Law, after Israel continues to violate dozens of
UN security Council resolutions and hundreds of UN General Assembly
resolutions. After our Israeli-Occupied US Congress violates US laws by
funding those who persistently violate human rights and by issuing
"resolutions" that are contrary to US laws and constitutional
protections (e.g. on separation of religion and state).
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
After our government held and tortured so many people without charges
and without benefit of trial for years at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and
countless secret prisons around the world.
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
After Howard Zinn once wrote "you can't be neutral on a moving train"
and countless books and literature (much of it available on the internet
shows that you can't complain while feeding the beast that is devouring
your brothers and sisters. Curse not the darkness, light a candle.
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
Will we be inconvenienced by working with those whom we do not agree
with 100%? Will we be inconvenienced by having to argue for our
positions, defend ourselves, speak truth to power? Will it be easier to
just talk to the converted or stay away?
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
Will we be inconvenienced by joining the massive demonstration in
Washington DC this Sunday (see http://endtheoccupation.org ) and in other
cities instead of watching TV or whatever else we do on Sundays? Will
we be inconvenienced by taking time to write letters to editors,
churches, and politicians? Will we be inconvenienced by picking up the
phone to call them while not sure of the response? Will we be
inconvenienced by engaging in boycotts, divestments, and sanctions, thus
risking being called names ("anti-Semitic", "self-hating Jew", etc) by
those who promote segregation, apartheid and racism? Will we be
inconvenienced by taking matters into our own hands instead of waiting
for Arab or American politicians (people becoming the leaders that
politicians follow)?
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
And when death comes knocking on our door (as it inevitably will), will
we remember how much time we spent at our jobs, petty lives,
conveniences, fun? Or will we remember ...How willing were we to be
inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
Originally published at www.qumsiyeh.org
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