[Archives:2001/08/Focus]

By: Hassan Al-Haifi 
If the Israelis could signal to the world that the likes of Ariel Sharon is what Israelis have no qualms about as their Prime Minister, surely their victims, the Palestinians, who have known torment and destitution in all its form and by all its synonyms, must also make it clear that theirs is not yet a lost cause, and that their fate cannot and will not be decided by merciless egomaniacs who relish on spilling human blood and disseminating suffering among fellow humans to feed their lust for power, glory and blind chauvinism. The Palestinian bus driver, who a week ago was yearning to come out of the agony of economic siege on his oppressed people, for no reason except deploring what ever sense of justice that there is left in this world, that there is a lot of things wrong going on in the Holy Land that should be remedied, had underscored the obvious fact that indeed there is immense suffering to which no idea of justice and human rights could allow to be sanctioned, let alone supported by the Global Superpower. 
This man, whose name slipped off the tongue of this observer, is bound to raise serious and sincere questions as to what could motivate such individual drive to let out his frustration on those with the uniforms that he has seen unleashing their terror and persecution, and firing their lethal weapons at the hundreds of Palesinian children killed and wounded for saying that we have had enough injustice meted against us, and that like all human beings, the Palestinian also has his dignity. Understandably, the bus driver was careful to make sure that his victims are part and parcel of the apparatus that has been mercilessly gunning down his fellow Palestinians, and understandably he did it with the most effective tool he has at his disposal Ð a bus that could be turned into a fatal weapon by the mere turn of the steering wheel, making the impressive killing tools that his victims once unleashed against his brethren seem like mild play toys when compared to a harmless bus, set loose against the oppressor. Such unilateral actions, lacking any organized backing or sponsoring and coming out of a man who has passed all the enemy’s strict and rigid security clearance checks underline the point that frustration is such a powerful stimulus to anger that no knows no dead ends. This kind of action is not fomented by hatred, prejudice or any irregularities of the mind. This kind of individual drive comes from severe pain and humiliation to a man who has decided to show the world that even the strongest of human beings cannot bear to see themselves and their fellow brethren treated like caged animals for no reason at all except to further the ungodly aspirations of chauvinists, who pride themselves on defrauding God’s sense of justice, mercy and the love He has for all of mankind. 
The Palestinian bus driver has come to realize, as many Palestinians and many Arabs outside the arena have come to understand, that talk of peace is fine and dandy, but the facts on the ground depict that nothing but misery, deprivation and disrespect for all human values have become the normal plight of his people, who are already the victims of an unjust dispossession of their domicile, to which, for thousands of years, no one has ever contested their title of. Not even their former occupiers, who have come from many a distant land, have ever found cause to uproot the indigenous population of the land, of whom there was even some Jewish representation as well, although a small one. 
What the frustrated bus driver was reflecting was not just a reaction to a current situation, but to a long systematic program to eliminate his people, their past and their hopes for any meaningful future as neighbors of the State born out of their destitution, and the blind justice of Big Power games and intrigues. Israeli logic has it that the only way that Israel can guarantee its longevity, is by refusing to accept any form of a stabilized Palestinian enclave so close to their former domicile. Such things as recognition of an injustice by their hands is a despised anathema to a State that refuses to recognize that all human beings are endowed by their Creator, with human rights and the right to live without fear of bulldozers coming the next day to knock down your home to make room for alien settlers, who probably never knew where Palestine lies on the map, let alone that it was the “long lost land of their forebears”. Ever since their forced expulsion from what used to be most of Palestine (It always dumbfounds this observer how many sympathizers of the Zionist cause in the Western press always insist that there was never such a territory as Palestine and that only Jews have lived in the territory that now comprises Israel, yet any one would be nave to reject the records of the British mandate holders and the Turkish occupiers who continued to describe the territory and the indigenous people thereof by their historical and biblical nomenclature). Surely, those Palestinians cannot be frustrated for nothing and are merely expressing their resentment for the sake of fun. Nobody throws rocks against an armed force for the sake of fun. But the facts have been twisted so much by the Zionist machine (see last week’s Common Sense), and the reliance of the latter on distorting the truth have become so entrenched in the institutions and organs that stand behind one of the greatest injustices of man against man in history. A people, who have been waiting for over fifty years to be meted out some Ð not all Ð the justice they deserve, after having become victims of an ugly chauvinism carried out in the name of God, who we all know can never condone such a systematic, well planned, and deliberate campaign of ethnic cleansing (Incidentally, it is worth pointing out that the Israelis vigorously supported the Serbs in their ethnic cleansing campaigns in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo with substantive material and technical assistance). So what drove the Palestinian bus driver to such an amazing feat of disenchantment? He had after all been lucky to have a job now after only suffering for more than four months without any access to income generation, since the Israelis have put a lead on all the potential of their Palestinian neighbors, who have accepted to let bygones be bygones and make do with whatever remains of their domicile, to access to possible economic viability, and insisted that what ever economic potential there is for the Palestinians must come from their masters and lords, the Israelis. 
For sure, the Israelis fully comprehend what drove the bus driver to literally tell the Israelis, that their might can be turned to useless hardware when faced with deeply rooted frustration and loss of all hope that their Israeli neighbors have any serious intention of living in peace with the Palestinians. In fact the Israelis have no intention of even leaving them at peace, for the Palestinian cannot ever believe that he can enjoy peace and solace near the ones who have deprived their parents of their homes, their livelihood and human dignity. The bus driver underscored the point that human dignity cannot be treaded on forever and this easily translates into a powerful form of anger that defies any explanation. It is understandable to most supporters of human rights and liberty that the actions of the Palestinian bus driver are sensible and logical and indeed justified, when viewed from a historical and social perspective and in light of the untold misery which the Palestinians continue to face to this day. Furthermore, the bus driver was making it clear that there is a lot more where that came from, with the gist of the emotions lying behind the bus driver’s act of rebellion against not only Israeli occupation but the inability of the Palestinian leadership to take on the struggle for their people’s right to a meaningful conclusion, whether peacefully or by force if necessary, not to mention at the other Arab states that do no more than give lip service to the struggle for the rights of their Palestinian brethren. These are common fundamentals in the struggle for liberty and justice and the right to live in peace, which can be understood by all human beings who cherish such values and are reinforced by all the just struggles against tyranny and oppression as well as forced occupation, history has depicted, which freedom lovers everywhere look back upon in setting the example of the sacrifices that are sometimes required to deliver a message that is clear and loud: human beings should never let anyone step on them, whether they are aliens or from their own kind and that no force is mightier than the desire of men to live free and with their dignity intact. It is a matter of honor, no more É no less, and without honor there is no life.

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