Have you ever felt that your mere existence presents a threat? All of us young Palestinians are made to feel that we are a threat to the existence of an entire state (an apartheid, pariah state, but a state nonetheless). Not because we’ve committed any violent acts. I for one have never committed a violent act against any person or nation. Not because we’ve deliberately threatened anyone. Simply because we exist.
There were not supposed to be any young Palestinians. The plan of the founding fathers of Israel was that we would forget who we are, where we come from, our language, our cities, that Palestine ever even existed. We were supposed to become Syrian, Lebanese, Jordanian, Egyptian, Iraqi, American, French Chilean, Brazilian. The expulsion from Palestine was supposed to erase our memories. David Ben Gurion‘s famous quote still resonates with Palestinians everywhere as a preposterous prediction: “The old will die and the young will forget.” A people who have been so deliberately harmed, oppressed, abused, and largely ignored and shunned by the world can really never forget.
I have been reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and much of his own rhetoric on memory and the restoration of dignity by remembering who we are has resonated profoundly with me. It reminds me of two things. First: there is an assumed passiveness, perhaps even a stupidity, on our part (the oppressed) promulgated and internalized by our oppressors. That is first, we are easily conquered. Occupation, expulsion, forced labor, enslavement, whatever the crime, it is easy to harm and hurt us, to take from us whatever resource is desired be it land, labor, minerals, etc. This is why any resistance on our part is considered unwarranted, confusing, preposterous, and unnecessary. As is turns out, this is what Malcolm X was up against when he was building his own movement and reminding Black women and men of their history, their achievements, and their dignity.
And second, that we will accept being overpowered and will forget about it. Move on, sluggishly, accepting any other opportunity to just passively survive. Based on his autobiography, I believe this is what frightened America most about Malcolm X. He was young, he was Black, he was gifted, and he was not afraid to remember who he is, where he came from, and the necessity in demanding his rights.
Palestinians the world over, from the least political to the most, have refused to forget a most basic fact: we are Palestinian. When someone who holds Zionist ideals really wants to jab at me personally, she will say something that is a very basic foundation myth of Israel, yet entirely false: Palestine never existed. There. They think they have succeeded in demolishing my entire identity by speaking three very irresponsible, false, unfounded words. The truth is this does not shatter my identity. Its hurts a little, but only on the surface. This is what I say to young Zionists: If 63 years of displacement and Diaspora, occupation, humiliation, suffering, sieges, bombs, fear tactics, smear campaigns, lies, lobbies, racism, ethnic cleansing, and genocide have not shattered my identity, why would you think your three careless and meaningless words will?
I am young. And I am Palestinian. And I have never threatened anyone or any nation or any people. Yet I, and millions of young Palestinians like me remain Israel’s greatest fear. It is clear that we will never forget. They were right that our old will die. They have. But before they’ve passed on our elders have reminded us of who we are and what we need to do. That one day we will achieve what they were unable to: a return to a free Palestine.
