Has Palestine Finally Found Her Gandhi?

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

Palestine is in a state of Civil War, with the terrorist group Hamas battling the Fatah government for control.

What Hossam al Madhoun said publicly today puts him squarely in the crosshairs of both:

"The darkness has fallen and invaded all of the Gaza Strip. We tried to protest against the war today, but gunmen shot at us when we tried to cross the street. This was a peaceful demonstration to try to get these gunmen to stop killing our future, to stop killing our hope. The darkness has fallen. There are no other words. Gaza is not a place for human beings anymore.

Hamas and Fatah have defeated the Palestinian people. Both factions have triumphed against the hope for the future, for a state of our own. These factions are killing the future for my daughter. She is six years old and has to live through this senseless civil war. Yes, it’s a civil war to me — you can call it what you like.

This has to stop; these young killers in the street are just boys. They’re 17, 19, and 21 years old. They’ve become killers and they don’t realize that they’re just being used — by both factions. They’re being used by the political leaders who are shouting every day on the satellite TV news shows. These so-called leaders in suits are the real killers, turning our boys into murderers.

It will take generations to recover from all this. It will take so long to change this violent culture we’ve become. If we start today, it will take years. It’s become so easy for any young boy to hold a gun and shoot. We now have a generation of damaged youth.

There were many brave people today in Gaza during the demonstration. They stood in the middle of the street — in the crossfire with bullets flying everywhere — telling the gunmen to “STOP, STOP, STOP!” Two people were killed.

In my opinion, the West is doing everything they can to weaken the Palestinian Authority. And Israel is, as well. All of their acts are aimed at Hamas, but they have also weakened Fatah, the more moderate faction here in Gaza. This is hypocrisy by the West and Israel as they steal the hope by tightening this economic embargo against the Palestinian people. Desperate people don’t think rationally. Desperate people turn radical. And that is just what is happening in Gaza.

Lifelong Gaza resident Hossam al Madhoun works for a Spanish aid agency in the Gaza Strip.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11022501

2

There is scant chance that Hossam and his daughter have survived the night that is now passing in Palestine.

Please don’t let his story, or hers, die.

When I posted this, there was one written record of the words he spoke in Palestine on June 13, 2007.

Let there be a thousand tomorrow.

Let there be ten thousand as the sun rises in Australia Friday morning.

If the internet – if the world – has any power, use it now.

3

A Ghandi would never have been effective in Gaza anyways. It is one thing to be a peaceful objector against people( the British) who pride themselves as being a civilizing force, but in Gaza there are only nihilists in control, who pride themselves on loving death.

It is an illusion, (and more than just a little racist too) to think that Israeli or American paternalism can solve the problems of Gaza, for as long as the western opressors are held responsible, the Gazans themselves can pretend that they don’t have to be. This is something that the Gazans themselves must own up to, and solve for themselves.

4

More than anything, Paleoliberal, I would be interested to know what is your business in Palestine? I mean, why post this? Do you reside at Ramallah?

What is my business in Palestine? I am a Zionist.

[size=184]גלות[/size]

5

that’s mean!

6

Fatah, Hamas : atypical Arab, totalitarian leaders.

You, liberal, have fallen for the victim claim and have disregarded the religiouscism emanating from most Muslim lands.

7

The English translation is the Babylonian Captivity. Or do you mean that being a Zionist is mean?

aspacia
Deist, Feminist, Zionist :wink:

8

being a zionist is not mean… the comment she made about not feeling bad for those ppl was mean.

9

Where did she make this claim?

Frankly, most of the Pals problems stem from their violent leadership, and the call to violence. Read the news.

10

The whole problem with the Palestinians, Iraqis, anyone in the Arab world has been their inability to become unified. Their factions have caused their enemies to prevail against them.

11

גלות is Diaspora, בבל גלות is the Babylonian Captivity.

The real problem in Gaza is there’s just too much money going around, Palestine is every second billionaire’s secret project.

bluestarpr.com/gallery.php

12

The real problem in Palestine is the billions in foreign aid given to Israel by the tax payers of the United States.

What is my business in Palestine? I am a fiscal conservative.

13

Also I agree that the region lacks a religous tradition to serve as a foundation for a non violence movement. Gandhi derived ahimsa from his experience in Jainism, something alien to Islam.

That stated, there is at least a superficial secular tradition for non violence springing out of the Civil Rights movement in the U.S. If nothing else, a willingness to act in such a manner is not entirely contingent upon the dictates of one’s own religion.

If various and assorted martyrs possess the willingness to die to improve conditions in Palestine, then that willingness can be fostered to suffer continued indignities peacefully. But to do this will require an entire social movement to withstand violence fermented from both inside and outside Palestine. Akin to what eventually happened in Ireland.

14

The religion of the Middle East will be impetus for continuing conflict well into the foreseeable future. there is just nothing in Islam, as it has been practiced in the past 1500 years, that would lead to any kidn ofg pacifist movement.

Certainly, even if not exactly pacifist, the rationalism of secularism has been progressively leading to a revaluation of violence as a solution.
Even if the twentieth century was in sheer numbers the bloodiest on record, if the relative proportion of deaths through warfare remained constant from tribal times, according to what can be surmised from the archeological record, the numbers of deaths would have been in the billions rather than the millions.

Rational thought is not friend to warfare.

The behavior of the so-called martyrs of the the 9/11 imfamy, and especially the dope-smoking members of the petty crimijnal underworld that “martyred” themselves in the Madrid bombings speak more of an excess of nihilism than an excess of religious zealotry.
Religious zealots just do not spend their last hours in strip clubs.
The tendancy to ‘suffer’ death of these modern martyrs is much more a modern phenomena of nihilism than a passionate belief in life. The leaders cunningly and maliciously mine the nihilsitc streets for their human bombs.
I personally can see nothing good developing from these sorts.

For any peace movement to develop in Palestine or Islam, the best hope is in those members of that culture who are thoroughly secularized, or at least have throrougly transcendant, metaphoric ideas about their religion.

But these are the very people that are being pumelled by all sides in most of the Islamic societies.

And the current trends toward multiculturalism in the West has liberals kowt-owing to the Islamists rather than affording such like-minded Muslim counter-parts either a voice or a refuge.

There is just no reason to expect a Ghandi arising in Palestine in an environment such as the current one.

15

Hum, not really. There was a huge panArab movement in the 50’s and 60’s, but then came the Suez crisis, Yom Kippur War, the 1967 war and Egypt blockade of Aqaba, etc.

It probably has more to do with the lack of an open media, eduction and the demand for blind obedience to the leaders and Islam.

Remember, there is only one free media source in this neck of the woods, and that is the very biased Al Jazeera, which I read almost daily, along with other world-wide news sources.

:sunglasses:

16

We, and the UN have also send billions to the Pals. Remember what happened to it? Arafat stashed it for his personal gain.

The numbers are available U.S. government sources. We give more to the Arab Middle-East because of oil. Israel has no oil.

If a fiscal conservative should we provide zero financial aid to any area for any reason. Or should we invest to keep the strategic advantage and continue receiving oil? Perhaps, we just need to dump the oil fix.

Also, remember that 80% of Israelis are living on land that they purchased from the Arab world.

:sunglasses: