I was actually supposed to write a blog about the Palestinian “Nakba” on May the 15th, but since I’m not a professional writers, I only write when I feel there’s something needed to be said, not when I’m suppose to.
So, while reading some of the note written on Facebook I came across a note in Arabic written by May Shalabieh. The note was about a silence protest where the participants couldn’t keep it “silence” as they where talking the whole, I agreed with post, with one comment, protests is a punch of crap to begin with, it never changed any thing, and it’ll never will.
Yeah, I know it’s my right to protest, that doesn’t mean it’s effective, one thing got nothing to do with the other.. and yes I do agree that we Arabs have no sense of serious commitment, when ever something happened, everybody (most people any way) get angry and they wanna go for protests and rise their banners.. few days later, no body can even remember what they were protesting about!.. seriously, it’s the same thing happening every time that it’s becoming like stupid sitcom.. and that we are as far from being organized as earth from the next life inhabited planet..
What I think should be done is the same what Ralph Nader used to do back in the 70’s and 80’s.. he used to organize a VERY WELL PLANNED boycott campaigns against big corporation, and it worked.. the key word here is organized (specific goals, time table, plane B, … etc), it should be something practical, protests is just an expression of emotions.. tell me how many people in those protest drink Coke or go to Starbucks or use Nokia phones or have a P&G product in his home.. all previous brands are BIG BIG supporters of israel, specially when it was commenting the massacre of Jenin!
So, this is the message we’re sending: If you keep doing massacre, building settlements and ignoring the Palestinian people rights we’re going to do a protest that no real action coming from it, and that we’ll only last for a short time, then every body will return home and life goes on as usual like nothing happened, plus, we’ll keep on funding you by buying the products that keep supporting you.. if I was an israeli, I wouldn’t ask for any thing more, I’m actually surprised why the Israelis don’t occupy the entire Arab world if that’s the response they’ll get!
Other thing we can do, is rise awareness to our side of the story, and before that could happen, we should learn our side of the story our selves! Can’t say how many times I’ve seen Palestinians and Arabs debating cluelessly about the ancient history of Palestine, how many Palestinians know about Canaan and the timeline for Palestine history as much as they know Abu Jahel and Khaled iben al Waled stories! How many of them know the details of modern Palestine and how the Zionist immigrations started in the late 19th century.
Some other effective methods is media PR, i.e. writing letters to the foreign press (western or other wise), See how many calls the BBC World or CNN International comparing to SMS sent to support some spoiled teens on reality TV shows.
One last thing; before we start talking to others, we should set our differences a side (e.g. Hamas vs. Fatah, Lebanese government supporters vs. opposition, Wahhabi vs. Shi’a), not solving every damn thin.. just do what the Jewish do, they can have all the differences in the world between them selves, but when they talk to non-Jews, they stand one front.
I came across a group on Facebook the other day about fake holocaust photos, it’s not made by Arabs (no surprise there) as Arabs would usually make groups like “let’s see how many people love Palestine” (in Arabic usually) along with other 5000 almost exact groups!
P.S. If you didn’t figured out the title yet, see the original song
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May 21st, 2008 at 9:15 am
in your post i see two points:
1. uselessness of protests
2. taking real steps from our side.
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I might not totally agree with you about protests, as, in my opinion, protests are not supposed to achieve anything on the ground, it is intended to give the people in Palestine a small push, a small encouragement. It is crucial that we send them a message that we didn’t forget you.. although our deeds sends the opposite message…
Another very important point from those protests are that we learn and motivate our people, seriously, step one is to make them only care!! The people these days are clueless about what is happening there (and I’m talking about regular people, not writers or politics fans)!! So, I think that protests are beneficial, not directly for the cause, but for the people.
Point 2 is what we try to reach, boycott is one of the most great examples and effective methods, but to make a difference, it should be adopted on a large scale, this means involving everyone from the politician, to the regular street guy.
And the protests are one method to turn this regular street guy’s attention, and an entry point to educate him about the cause and the parts that he can take, such as boycott.
Thanks for your post
May 21st, 2008 at 9:50 am
I totaly agree with the “Organized actions”
We should have a plan and we should support such plan.
It’s really great and effective idea and the people should consider that.
I hope one day we manage to organize everything in our lifes, specially our “Actual Acting on defending our Lands”
May 21st, 2008 at 11:21 am
i think i disagree with many many things,
1. i think you over generalize about arabs, inno they do this and they do that, am not sure how accurate is what you say, plus, isnt this what the western media does, exactly!
2. am not sure about protests being useless, especially in the arab countries, where not only it is a bunch o winy people, but it represents a realy danger to them being arrested (for days) or beaten up really bad, in jordan for example, people and parties were prevented from protesting or doing any activities on the Nakba day, so if a few people go out and protest, isnt this a big deal? a serious challenge in itself to the jordanian (sick) governement and its policies?
another thing, i dont know why is it that important to do the “careful” planning with time tables and deadlines and plan A and plan B thing,,, i do see that its important to be organized, but sometimes i feel that its too much planning, and sometimes (well,,,, many times) i feel we are running the revolution the same way a “white man” would do, or the same way a coorporation would do. the only thing left is to use techniques like “crashing” projects and tasks, or maybe start measuring “utility” for different actions. maybe even assign managers and senior managers!! the thing i wanna say, is that we might wanna be careful with this, and choose the ways and means that are fit and suitable for our societies, and not try to americanise the revolution.
maybe better examples can be used than Ralf Nader, why not study the experiences in our own history, that are really a representation and an extension to our societies, not imported models.
we do need to work on ourselves, as individuals and societies, but work, not جلد الذات
May 21st, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Ayman: through all those years, who ever learn any thing from a protest, you wanna teach people: educate them, as I said on my original post, how many Palestinians know the details of modern Palestine history, they only know the same stupid things they learned from school, how many of them can debate with Zionist Jews about the ancient history of Canaan before the Hebrews came (away from religious mythology), how can you learn that from protest’s banner!
Kamal: how I do know Arabs m3alem Kamal! well, I’ve been living with them for over 30 years.. so I guess I have a “little” better judgment on this issue then biased western media with Zionist agenda broadcasting from miles and miles away!
Although my grandfather was the secretary general for Arab Labor Union, and I’m an atheist since age of 15.. but I always supported right wing Islamic parties as they were (slightly) more organized and action oriented, other then emotionally revolutionary and chaotic left wing parties.. every thing is a project, every thing.. if you have a personal dream, then you better carefully plan it other then just dream about it.. dreams and emotions should only be the first step that leads you to plan for your goals.. how do you think the Zionist succeeded of reaching so far by controlling the media, money and politics after being the hated minority in Europe not so long time ago, what do you think the “protocol of the elders of Zion” (whether you believe I it or not) was.. it was an action plan for a project that succeeded, it was carefully planed and executed.. and it really take my last hope away when I see the new generation like you still believe in chaotic revolution like the one the Palestinians suffered from since the 60’s and before and cost us all those loses after loses.
There is no such thing as “imported models”, we live in one world, do you thing Newton theories and Edison inventions were imported.. it’s one world, we take the good thing from it and leave the bad.
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:30 am
I do think protests are effective, however, I don’t think they are affective enough, and defiantly not worth the trouble people get in for it. The problem is with the people themselves… as if we got addicted to this state, and we are getting comfortable with it, may I say too comfortable. The problem is in the culture and awareness… it is inside each of us… most… not all of course.
We, as a people, put our own individual interest above all other interests. We say we want to feed our kids, get to work, live with the situation, we give ALL kinds of excuses, ( who is better in excuses than us)… and then we go and do whatever we want under these excuses… we are people who adapt VERY quickly to any degrading or humiliating situation we face…. On the contrary, we use it… Checkpoints…. We do not go and SIT there every day, and REFUSE them, REFUSE TO PASS through, and SIT THERE and SHOW our refusal…. No no, we curse them, we get irritated, we hate them, we go, stand “in line”, “comply” to the humilating “procedures”, listen to the soldier’s instructions, and pass through them…. O even worse…. We find ways “around” them and brag about it, saying “we deceived the soldiers o used another way they don’t know about” (why the hell do you look for other ways around in you OWN land???). Even worse, we even get a”7antoor” (horse carriage! to help people pass instead of walk) and sell tormos, books on the ground, and peanuts, at the “ma7soom” (we say “ma7soom, we do not say “7ajez”… o now we are using “ma3bar”… “ma3bar Qalandia”)… They want to build a settlement, we get angry, go work for them building it, then demonstrate against it! They want to build The Wall, we sell them the cement, then demonstrate against The Wall. We curse Americans and Israeli’s then eat their McDonalds, Burger King, Starbucks….etc. etc. and brag about being able to go to their malls. They humiliate our parents, we buy their milk for our children … this does not sound serious to me… we don’t want this badly enough… therefore, we won’t get it… this is even miles before the planning phase….
Almost any “mass” action would be powerful… boycott, refusal to pass through checkpoints, burning down your “green or orange” IDs, mass protests, mass media coverage, mass global campaigns from Palestinians abroad “refugees…. It would work…. People would know… something would probably come out of it… but all this is useless, because, simply we won’t do it… how could we talk about mass “events” when we have our own people killing each other??? We don’t do mass things… we don’t care!!! As simple as that… we don’t care…. We adapt to humiliation.
This is not about “jald el that”…. I am simply saying, we don’t want to be free badly enough to take it serious enough to do the dirty work. Until we know that, and start working on it, and acting upon it… then no use in anything else… Then comes the planning, and the organizing, and the long term setting, and developing a vision…. Yes yes there NEEDS to be a plan.. a vision… a way to walk on…. Aslan many of Arabs problem come from not planning ahead.
Not to add, assume… we got our independence tomorrow…. Do you really think we have the resources or economy or anything that is needed to sustain a country??? No! We never built that… we live on funds and grants, which we get because we are occupied…therefore, occupation is good ! And please, do not use the: “we have no economic because we are occupied” excuse… this is stupid, we all know that.
Yeah… this is what I think.
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Dear Ghassan,
First of all..I want to thank you for taking the time to write about what u read in my note…
I would like to start by talking about political apathy: yes, sadly enough…political apathy among todays youth is detaching them from our critical issues..I am not saying that protests are the magical solution…but..
It is a fact that one of the well known TV channels brodacasted a tv programme asking people what the year 67 reminds them of…for me it is a shock that people do not know the answer..or even take a wild guess
Then again I should not be shocked: our (Arab Media) is partially to blame..we are too..
Saying this underlines the importance of awareness: as it is the first step of solving any problem..how do you solve a problem if you dont even know it exsists..or you dont have the correct information..on the contrary..things get worse..
This takes us back to our topic: protests..Worst case senario..by protesting you are creating awarness..and you are creating pressure; and at this point I would like to ask you: if protests were useless, why do you think governments stop protests or even do not give permission for protests at all??? Protests do make a change..lets say like a spark..
I am not saying that protests alone can make the change..along with organised action, as you have mentioned, such boycotting..yes..we can make a difference. What I mean by organised..is working together ..as a team would do…and if this is something we do not know how to do..it is something we have to learn..by excerciseing the simplest right and responsibility…so YES! let us start by learning to AGREE to keep silent for half an hour..regardless if we agree concerning other life issues or not..
Our future..the future of our children..is definitely worth it..
It is not too late for us to learn how to make change!
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Well May, as I said on my reply “emotions should only be the first step that leads you to plan for your goals”.. we Arabs (and southern people in general) relay on emotions more then practicality and organized planing.. that’s why they are 3rd world, in ancient times you could’ve found the ancient Egyptians and Iraqi’s and other middle eastern cultures used to plane every thing carefully, that’s why they build great civilizations..
As for awareness, I believe awareness can be done in more effective ways, such as contentious events, and art..
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:35 am
Hello again,
I agree with you..this should only be the first step…chnage requires much more than protests…
I was just in about how emotions play a major role among role..its a double edged sword..
I respect your point of view..its true that awarness can be done in other ways..maybe more efective ones ..still I do not outrule the importance of protests :)and yes,,maybe this is my emotional side talking…