We have not given up

The Palestinian people will not yield to the west's cynical pressure on them to surrender

A Great Comment
By Karma Nabulsi
(fellow in politics and international relations at St Edmund Hall, Oxford University)
Monday November 26, 2007
The Guardian

Contributed by Lucia

"If you want bad symbolism, you need look no further than the venue. The US naval academy of Annapolis
is the current representation of unrestrained global supremacy, from where young cadets are being sent forth to occupy Arab land by force of arms. Appropriate place, then, for the US to host the meeting between Palestinian officials and the Israeli state, with every important government and international institution in obedient attendance. No one has misunderstood the nature of this meeting or is vaguely fooled by what is taking place. What we have at Annapolis is yet another ultimatum to the Palestinian people to surrender their sovereign rights.....

......There is no peace process, and hasn't been one for a very long time. It is no secret this conference won't bring an improvement in the intolerable status quo. It is a meeting to legitimise that status quo......

Our leaders, our pundits, are worn out, defeated: they simply want it over with. They no longer believe they can do anything to help the Palestinians gain their freedom, or even have a responsibility to do so......The desire emanating throughout European ministries for the Palestinians to surrender is now palpable.

Yes, these are tired politicians without valour who are holding the reins of power in Palestine, the Arab world and the west. And there has never been a more visible rupture between governments and ordinary citizens than we witness today. But this also reveals a more hopeful reality: ordinary citizens all over the world have not given up on the Palestinians, and the Palestinians have not given up on themselves. They are organising to create a national consensus and democratic representation, calling for steadfastness and courage: this general will is manifest everywhere today except Annapolis.

In Venice the astonishing art of young Emily Jacir, which paid tribute to the sublime in the Palestinian history of freedom, won her the Golden Lion at the Biennale, and demonstrated to the world that the undimmed Palestinian heart is true and free. Today in Villiers-sur-Loir, a village near Paris, more than 100 young Palestinians from every continent overcame the obstacles of visas, checkpoints and lack of passports to join a remarkable initiative, the Palestinian Youth Network, to "prove that the cause of Palestine remains in the hearts and consciousness of this new generation of Palestinians throughout the world" and to further discussions on a common political platform. Today our eyes are not on Annapolis, for there is no future there. Today they are on Villiers-sur-Loir."