Resistance is the Cure
Mazin Qumsiyeh used a metaphor today to explain the situation Palestine is in. He said Palestine is a body with a disease. The disease is a deadly one: a form of displacement settler colonialism. Zionism.
It’s important to know that before the arrival of Zionism, the Palestine body was healthy. People of all religions, ethnicities, languages, and races were all living in the same land. It was a diverse and sustainable place like this for thousands of years.
In fact, Mazin, scholar that he is, has done a study of the violence in countries since human settlement began and found that Palestine, over all these years, has been one of the most peaceful places on earth. Don’t believe that trope that Jews and Muslims have been at each others’ throats for centuries. No. I’s been just over 100 years and was brought on by this infection called Zionism.
Zionism is intent on changing the region into a monoculture - one language, one religion. From a pluralistic society to a Jewish state. But to do that it has to get rid of the 7.2 million Palestinians now living here. (There are another 8.5 million Palestinians living as displaced refugees).
The symptoms of the disease as it has taken hold include the walls, settlements, killings, tortures in prisons, occupation.
There are 3 possible outcomes of this disease: (1) the colonists leave (rare); (2) there is a genocide of natives (also rare); (3) the descendants of colonizers and the colonized live together in one country (common).
The treatment for any disease is to help the body build its own resistance. That is what Palestinians have been doing for over 100 years, in order to achieve outcome #3. Resisting.
What are the prospects for this resistance to achieve a successful recovery from its disease? Mazin believes the recovery is already under way. People are leaving Israel and not coming back. The economy is in shreds. The majority of the people in the world now see Israel for what it is, making it a pariah. Palestinians will never stop resisting, in every way imaginable.
And just as a healing body can get better quicker with external help like vitamins, supplements, etc, so too can Palestinians cure this disease faster with the external help of its allies around the world. This is why we do what we do by showing up for Palestine. This is why we have made this trip here. We are supporting the resistance. We are helping to cure the disease.