Irshad Manji (author of "The Trouble With Islam: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith" writing fot the LA Times opines that their are two occupations in the Palestinian territories. We all know about the first one, but the second occupation writes Manji, is "the ideological occupation of the Palestinian people by their own leadership, their own culture."
Over the last six decades, several offers for an independent state of Palestine have been floated by the British, the Israelis, the Americans and the U.N. — Palestinian leaders have rejected every proposal. Worse, they have never consulted the Palestinian people before saying no.
Manji then writes about the popular Palestinian culture of incitement that she says doesn't exist in Israel.
Let me illustrate. In June 2003, a survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that most Palestinians could not envision a way for their rights to be protected as long as Israel existed. By contrast, the survey found that, among Arab citizens of Israel, a solid majority felt the opposite. Of the Arab Israelis surveyed, 62% said it would be possible for both groups to have their rights protected. What accounts for this difference in attitude? Posters of shaheeds — martyrs — plaster the buildings of the West Bank and Gaza. Billboards proclaim their undying honor. Adolescents make up rap tunes to them while expressing hope that one day they will imitate the self-immolators. Even a soccer tournament on Palestinian Children's Day is named for a suicide bomber.
Manji does not consider the Israelis blameless
I'm not implying that Israeli government policies are blameless. Far from it. For example, the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon refuses to arrest the criminals who set up illegal outposts in the West Bank. Such willful negligence will only feed extremism on both sides. But let's not lose sight of the larger reality. After the Aqaba peace summit in June 2003, both the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers encountered protests. Hard-line Israelis resorted to demonstrating and jeering. Hard-line Palestinians resorted to blowing up buses and the people in them. That's a life-and-death difference in choices.
I have always maintained that suicide bombing is not a result of desperation - it is a result of promises of a heavenly afterlife, dehumanisation of the victims, as well as glorification of previous suicide bombers. Manji seems to agree on this:
Many of my fellow liberals would argue that choices don't exist for Palestinians — they're economically impoverished and desperate. Not according to Mohammed Hindi, the top Gaza leader of Islamic Jihad. His response was part of a longer interview I conducted with him in Gaza — on camera and before the construction of Israel's security barrier. "What's the difference," I asked, "between 'suicide' and 'martyrdom,' as you folks now call it?"
"Suicide," he replied, "is done out of despair. But most of our martyrs were very successful in their earthly lives."
This much is clear: We liberals need to be asking as many tough questions of Palestinian officials as of Israeli ones. Until we do, we'll always reduce Palestinians to the status of mere victims. And that does nothing to recognize their dignity. Or their capacity for making ethically — and ideologically — sounder choices.
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