Palestinians Can Teach Jews Forgiveness

            On Tweeter many have commented on the hashmark #WhenPalestineisFree.  I tweeted the following: “#WhenPalestineisFree I will advocate forgiveness. I won't be like the #Zionists who kill #Palestinians after being killed in the #Holocaust.”  Our quest to liberate Palestine has to have a human component that says we will not be like the Apartheid Zionists. We will forgive but just like the Jews of the world, we will not forget.

            The tweets I read expressed joy and happiness at the thought of a free Palestine.  hodanxo wrote “there will be smiles replacing the tears, love replacing hatred and freedom at last.” SoumaiaHashad stated “I'm afraid I would die from the happiness.” rolla_ramadan simply stated, “I don't think I can explain how happy I would be.”

            Other tweeters expressed the demise of Israel and Zionism. While I do not think this is a productive sentiment, I can understand the frustration.  You see I do not want my Palestinian brothers and sisters to do onto Zionists what Zionists have done onto Palestinians.

            The Holocaust was a very tragic event in human history.  It taught mankind that any attempt to commit genocide upon any people should be opposed at all cost. Yet that lesson was not instilled in the mindset of Zionists. While they said “never again,” it only meant “never again” only to the annihilation of Jews for just a few years after the discovery of the gas chambers in Auschwitz, future leaders of the Apartheid State of Israel committed atrocities that one could not reconcile with the Holocaust committed against Jews. It was hypocrisy in its truest form.

            It would also be hypocritical for Palestinians to commit acts of violence against Jews when a Palestinian State comes into being, and it will come into being.  We Palestinians need to learn from history and need to forge a more decent world in which we all live. We Palestinians need to assist other nationalities who long to be free.  Just as we Palestinians seek to be free of apartheid Israel, we need to keep advocating freedom for all mankind.

            A human element needs to be a part of the Palestinian struggle to be free of the Israeli apartheid practices.  If there is no human element than the our struggle will not have been worth the effort.  If we Palestinians want to commit atrocities against Israelis after a Palestinian State comes into being then we will be no better than the apartheid Zionists which commit atrocities against us now.

            We Palestinians cannot be like the Apartheid settlers who are using their cars to run over Palestinian children. This is absurd. These acts are made by desperate Zionists who know that they cannot morally continue the apartheid system in Palestine. By the year 2016 it is expected that the Palestinian population in Israel, West Bank and Gaza will outnumber Jews.  Morally, ethically and politically, Apartheid Israelis know that they cannot continue the apartheid system in the West Bank, cannot continue its siege of Gaza and cannot continue to discriminate against 20% (or more by 2016) of its population in Apartheid Israel.  This is widely known.  The demographics speak for themselves.  When we Palestinians are free from the oppression of the Apartheid Israelis, we, the oppressed Palestinians, cannot become the oppressor.

            I believe that it is the duty of the majority to safeguard the minority because the majority can become minority over time. In time, Apartheid Israelis will become the minority in a one state solution. It is inevitable! At that point, Palestinians must not become the apartheid regime that they are now fighting to change.  

            Palestinians can show the world that the concept of forgiveness is a powerful element so lost upon the Apartheid Israelis. While Jews tried to rid Palestine of the Palestinians after they were subjected to near annulation through the Holocaust, the Palestinians can teach the Jews that forgiveness is the human element that was the missing link that could have prevented the atrocities of the past seven decades.

Then Palestinians and Israelis can in the words of RobaSalibi “live happily ever after :)” 

(  © Copyright, Fadi Zanayed.  Publication or distribution of this material is allowed provided its content is not altered and the source and its author are cited.)