Palestine: The Same Old Cycle

Every now and then, Israel takes controversial actions or policies that cause outrage in the world. One of its boldest decisions taken was moving its capital to Jerusalem, which was supported by the Trump administration in 2018. At the forefront of the outrage, stood Arabs, who burned both Israeli and U.S. flags in protests. After all, the primary thing that springs huge movements in the Arab world, usually involves Israel and its systematic cleansing of Palestine. But what exactly is happening here? Throughout the past 14 years, the U.S. has acknowledged Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, under different administrations. Why then do we see this sudden urge of anger and desire for change?

The flag of Israel is hard to come by in the Arab world, so protesters get white towels, draw the Israeli flag on them, and then proceed to burn them. This arouses the crowd even further. Not to mention that the person who will be drawing the flag must draw it as accurately as possible. If the artist draws a defective star of David, it wouldn’t cause the same outrage. What we hate must be constructed as accurately as possible, so we can hate it more. A reminder of how Israel disrupts our emotions to the core, but not our intelligence.

“The Big Other” is the Lacanian idea of an unseen virtual regulator of our conversations. For example, imagine a 90’s soap opera in which an actor is sent on stage to recite a Shakespearean play not knowing his lines. The director gives him an earpiece, in which he tells him all the lines. The actor has the choice of reciting his lines and the play goes on, or not reciting his lines and being laughed at and booed by the crowd (representing society); the actor is forced to comply in order to avoid humiliation. It’s like refusing a handshake or a greeting. However, in this context, it’s not participating in the protests or the outrage against Israel.

This blabbering hate and coercion of participating in hateful discourse reminds me of the book 1984 By George Orwell, when there was a “hate hour” in which Winston, the protagonist, had to watch videos and films of the “enemy” and how everyone must show a threshold of hate towards the “enemy” or get caught in the hands of Big Brother. “The Big Other,” is Big Brother; inescapable social interactions, the need of participation and conformation. This needs to be understood whenever huge issues such as the Israeli occupation of Palestine are being discussed.

When the U.S. announced its acknowledgement of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, many Arabs felt compelled to display a certain threshold of disagreement—the type and extent of that threshold depending on national identity, religion, and class. It is of course necessary to acknowledge Israel as an apartheid state created by Western powers, and it is within the interest of every Leftist, Arab Nationalist, and Muslim Fundamentalist to see it brought to its knees. However, what do these protests really do? Aren’t these protests in the Arab world a paradox? “We already know the issue exists and will not be solved in the coming years, but we will send a message anyway.” The idea of sending a message is in itself pure bombast. The protests lack any form of rationality or intelligence behind them. This seems to echo the French Revolution, at the height of the “Reign Of Terror” (1793-1794), when Maximilien Robespierre guillotined French revolutionaries to protect the Revolutionary government. He was later asked why he had committed such atrocities, and he had one main well-documented argument: “Stop shaking the tyrant’s bloody robe in my face, or I will believe that you wish to put Rome in chains!” We can surely compare this dismissive argument to the present day with the “Stop questioning the flag burning or I will believe you don’t support Palestine!.” To simplify Robespierre further, let’s rephrase this to more modern, common terms and as a question to the reader: Are you ready to join the nihilistic struggle against Israel? One that is not peaceful but violent? Are you ready to defy this globalized world for the sake of the concept of justice? And in the fight for justice, will you accept Revolutionary divine terror?

It was not just Robespierre who had similar ideas, Karl Marx emphasized on the need of a vanguard party to lead the proletariat, but he also said “what are political upheavals in comparison with the invention of the steam engine?” What if we rephrase it in the issue of Palestine with “What are a few burnt flags to a technologically advanced state?” What then should we do to free Palestine from the clutches of the Zionists? We must stop with the uncontrolled hate and think! In issues of Palestine and most global problems we are always bombarded with questions like “what must we do?!” If the idea of taking violent action is insignificant to the enemy, then one should be brave enough to say “Nothing!.”

Let’s look at terrorist groups such as ISIS and Boko Haram. These groups kill, rape and pillage in the name of religion. Ignoring their terrible Islamist ideology, they have something we desperately need in the struggle for Palestine: the nihilistic struggle. ISIS and their affiliates are ready to give up everything in their struggle for a Caliphate. They will incessantly resist globalization and Western hegemony and will sacrifice all the materials needed for the struggle. We Arabs are not ready for this nihilistic struggle; we are all too comfortable in our homes to wage such a struggle. A minority would be brave enough to say “I will defend Palestine! Whatever it takes!” In Psychoanalysis, those sort of statements are identified as merely ideology based, meaning that the host who says such vigorous statements affiliates himself to a certain group or ideology, which makes the host, act like a member of this ideology or group. For example, we see too many people identify themselves as Communists or Socialists as it has become a trend in Humanities majors. Once they identify themselves as a “Communist,” they tend to act like one, reciting what little they know to assert themselves deeper within the ideology. When the revolution comes, will the person sharing Karl Marx quotes on Facebook be in the revolution? Will he be in the middle class securing his volatile existence? or will he cower with the bourgeoisie? The same can be said about current young Arab nationalists, Muslim fundamentalists, and many performative male feminists.

To really free Palestine, we must do nothing and go back to the drawing board. How can we help Palestine when we know nothing? We must get rid of these baseless emotions within us and use our intelligence. We should sit on the sidelines and expand our knowledge. Our current struggles for the freedom of Palestine will not even cause a dent on a systematically violent state. No intifada will leave a deep wound on Israel. It is only through knowledge and the ability to influence others through nihilistic struggle that can we truly wage a “Revolutionary divine terror.”