I have not written about Middle
East affairs for several months. I have
been tending to the needs of my brother Munther who has since succumbed to the
cancer that invaded his body. His death
certificate came in today and the place of birth that was inscribed therein
stated “Israel.” I was offended as I am
sure my brother would also have been.
Even in death, the Palestinian identity is being eliminated. I'm having the death certificate changed.
When asked by the Funeral Director
where my brother was born, I informed her that Munther, known as Mike, was born
in Jerusalem. That information was
translated to being Israel. Jerusalem is
not part of Israel under international law and is subject to final status
negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis.
Negotiations have been unfruitful and the circumstances indicates that
one day soon, all of the land now known as Israel and Palestinian Territories
will be one state encompassing all Palestinians and Israelis. Perception however has been painted in
public opinion that Jerusalem is Israeli.
Nothing can be further from the truth. Palestinians have not and will not give up its
claim to Jerusalem.
Israelis are doing everything they
can to ethnically cleanse Jerusalem by not only excluding Palestinians from
returning to the place of their birth but also by making it difficult for
Palestinian residence in ethe Holy City to remain. This
brings me back to my brother Mike and his perceptive insight on this matter.
My brother Mike did not discuss
politics much. In fact he had a convoluted
logic and unreasonable thinking when it came to the Middle East. Mike was a jokester and when he offered a
solution to the Middle East conflict which was unreasonable and contained convoluted
logic, it at first made me laugh. However, when I thought about it while
preparing his eulogy, I realized his point.
First let me tell explain his solution.
He stated, several months before
his passing, that an Arab man and woman and a Jewish man and woman should be selected
and placed on an island. Then he said,
America should “nuke” the entire Middle East.
After the nuclear dust settles, he stated, “ Take the Arab man and Jewish
woman and have them mate; likewise for the Jewish man and the Arab woman. And
then start all over!”
Unreasonable? Yes.
Convoluted logic? Yes. But if you
really think about it, I think my brother Mike was trying to tell us that we
should all just live together.
By the year 2016, it is predicated that Palestinians
will outnumber Israelis in Israel and the Palestinian territories, i.e. West
Bank and Gaza. Israel cannot continue to
govern as a minority entity for regardless of the Israeli position that the
Palestinian Authority governs Areas A
& B in the West Bank and Hamas governs Gaza, the fact is Israel controls
all the territory west of the Jordan River.
The apartheid practices of Israel will catch up with reality. And then we will be faced with the reality
that my brother Mike was trying to convey: Why can’t we all live together.
(© Copyright 2012, Fadi Zanayed. Publication or distribution of this material is allowed provided its content is not altered and the source and its author are cited.)
