Palestinian Intellectuals to Syrian Regime: Not in Our Name!

[Protesters in Syria. Image from pulsemedia.org.] [Protesters in Syria. Image from pulsemedia.org.]

Palestinian Intellectuals to Syrian Regime: Not in Our Name!

By : Jadaliyya Reports
[The following statement was issued in Arabic by Palestinian intellectuals offering their solidarity with the Syrian people and applying for members to the newly established Syrian Writers Union. It was translated into English and published as such by/on Wadiqratiya. See also the Palestinian rights organization Adalah’s condemnation of the Syrian regime.]
 

It is our honor, as Palestinian writers and signatories to this statement, to request as a group to be inducted into the Syrian Writers Union, which has been recently established by the free Syrian writers and intellectuals who stand with the people as they climb the ladder of freedom which has been smeared with blood by the hand of the tyrant. The establishment of the Syrian Writers Union constitutes an essential pillar of the Syrian revolution and places the true intellectual in his or her rightful place beside the people as an effective partner in building a new Syria free of dynastic authoritarianism–a diverse, democratic, civil system based on the rights of the citizen, one that embraces the rights of expression and creation, a system incapable of falsifying the free Syrian intellectual’s will through hollow structures that arrogate the potentials of culture, usurp the role of the intellectual and falsify his or her will, always a device in the hand of the tyrant and his apparatuses.

Now more than ever, Syria needs a mature voice that speaks from its very heart, a voice which strengthens national unity and derives strength from the diversity and richness of Syrian society, which will serve as a basis for building a democracy.

We have recently heard a representative of the Syrian regime at the UN Security Council use the Palestinian cause and its painful and honorable course as cover for its terrifying crimes in Syria. We say to the Syrian regime and its representatives: not in our name, not in Palestine’s name, will these crimes be committed in our beloved Syria, oh killers.

Do not make our just cause a mask for your inhumane crimes against our Syrian brothers and sisters. It is the Syrian people who have historically adopted our cause, and sacrificed martyrs for its sake, not your regime, of which we have painful memories. We will never forget its role in the massacre of Tel Az-Zaatar in 1976, nor in the terrible assault on the Nahr al Bared camp near Tripoli in 1983, nor the siege of the camps in Beirut in 1985,  nor any of the other acts which have bitterly weakened Palestinian national unity. Do not use Palestine’s name, for it is no longer your winning card.

A unified, free and democratic Syria is what Palestine needs, and this is the Syria that is being born today from the womb of a bloody revolution ignited by a great people. We are confident that Palestine’s name will remain in the heart of this courageous, revolutionary people and of its cultural elite.

Mourid Barghouti (poet and writer)
Taher Riyad (poet)
Ghassan Zaqtan (poet) 
Zuhair Abu Shayib (poet)
Azmi Bishara (intellectual)
Mahmoud Ar-Rimawi (writer)
Ma’an al-Biyari (writer and journalist)
Youssef Abu Laouz (poet)
Najwan Darwish (poet)
Rub’i al-Madhoun (novelist)
Adel Bishtawi (writer, novelist and researcher)
Antoine Shalhat (writer and critic)
Fakhri Salih (critic) 
Hussein Shaweesh (writer)
Huzama Habayeb (writer and novelist)
Nasr Jamil Shaath (poet)
Ahmed Abu Matar (academic critic, researcher and activist)
Mohammad Khalil (writer)
Youssef Abdel Aziz (poet)
Moussa Barhouma (writer)
Issa Ash-Shu’aibi (writer)
Moussa Hawamdeh (poet)
Na’il Balaawi (poet)
Khalil Qandeel (writer)
Ghazi at-Theeba (poet)
Wissam Joubran (poet and musician)
Omar Shabana (poet)
Qusai al-Labadi (poet)
Ali al-Aamari(poet)
Jihad Hudeib (poet)
Ziad Khaddash (writer)
Nasr Rabah (poet)
Bassem Al Nabrees (poet and writer)
Raji Bathish (writer)
Shaher Khadra (poet)
Raed Wahish (poet)
Asma Azaiza (poet)
Mahmoud Abu Hashhash (poet)
Khodr Mahjaz (novelist, poet, researcher, academic critic)
Bassel Abu Hamda (writer)
Ibrahim Jaber Ibrahim (writer)
Abdullah Abu Bakr (poet)
Osama al-Rantisi (writer)
Issam As-Saadi (poet)
Khalid Juma (poet)
Naim al-Khatib (writer)
Akram Abu Samra (poet)
Hanin Juma Takrouri (writer)
Najwa Chamoun (poet)
Mohamad As-Salimi (poet)
Hani As-Salimi (novelist)
Bilal Salameh (poet)
Osama Abu Awad (writer)
Jaber Sha’at (poet)
Youssef al-Qadra (poet)
Nesma al-Aklouk (writer)
Othman Hussein (poet)
Rizk al-Biyari (poet)
Yasser al-Wiqaad (poet)
Subhi Hamdan (writer)
Imad Mohsen (writer)
Leila Violet (poet)
Tayseer Muheisen (writer, critic, and political activist)
Fayez As-Sirsawi (visual artist and poet)
Rajab Abu Sirriyeh (writer)
Fuad Hamada (academic critic, researcher, and political activist)
Mai Nayif (academic critic, researcher, and gender activist)
Yusri Al-Ghul (writer and critic)
Hussein Abu An-Najja (writer and academic researcher)
Nasr Aliwa (novelist and critic)
Abdel Karim Aliyan (writer and education researcher)
Walaa Tamraz (researcher and political writer)
Omar Sha’aban (writer and researcher)
Hassan Mai (writer and academic critic)
Ma’an Samara (poet and journalist)
Mohamad Hassouna (academic and critic)
Aoun Abu Safia (novelist)
Atif Hamada (poet and academic critic)
Ghiath al-Madhoun (poet)
Rajaa Ghanem (poet)
Tariq al-Karmi (poet)
Ahmed al-Ashqar (poet)
Ali Abu Khitab (poet and writer)
Dunia al-Amal Ismail (poet)
Isra Kalash (writer)
Moussa Abu Karash (poet and writer)
Abdel Fitah Shihada (poet and novelist)
Yasser Abu Jalala (poet and visual artist)
Khalil Hassouna (poet and novelist)
Muheeb al-Barghouti (poet)
Abdel Nasr Aamer (poet, visual artist)
Nidal al-Hamarna (writer)
Ashraf Amro (writer)
Asma Nasr Abu Ayyesh (writer and journalist)
Maya Abu al-Hiyaat (writer)
Zeinat Abu Shaweesh (writer)
Suzanne Salameh (poet)

Translator`s Note: The original Arabic text can be found here. I have taken a few small liberties for the sake of clarity and flow in English, but tried to remain as faithful to the text as possible. I have also taken the liberty of adding “his or her,” which is generally not used in Arabic for stylistic reasons that I feel is in the spirit of the statement, since the signatories include women.

Arabic Text

 بيان فلسطيني جماعي
للانتساب إلى رابطة الكتاب السوريين والتضامن مع الشعب السوري

يشرفنا نحن الكتاب الفلسطينيين الموقعين على هذا البيان أن نتقدم بطلب انضمام جماعي إلى رابطة الكتاب السوريين التي أعلن عن تأسيسها مؤخراً، من قبل كتاب ومثقفي سوريا الأحرار، أولئك الذين يقفون في صفوف شعبهم وهو يصعد سلم حريته الذي لطخته يد الطاغية بالدم، إن تأسيس رابطة الكتاب السوريين يشكل رافعة أساسية في ثورة سوريا ويضع المثقف الحقيقي في موقعه الى جانب شعبه كشريك فاعل في بناء سوريا الجديدة والخلاص من استبداد حكم العائلة نحو نظام مدني تعددي ديمقراطي قائم على حق المواطنة، يفتح المجال امام حرية التعبير والإبداع ويحرم النظام من تزييف إرادة المثقف السوري الحر عبر أطر فارغة وخاوية استولت على مقدرات الثقافة وصادرت دوره وزيفت إرادته، وكانت دائما أداة بيد الطاغية وأجهزته

إن سوريا بحاجة اليوم، اكثر من أي وقت مضى، الى هذا الصوت الناضج الصاعد من قلبها، الذي يعزز وحدتها الوطنية ويجعل من تعددية مجتمعها ومكوناته الغنية سببا للقوة وإثراء المضمون وقاعدة للبناء الديمقراطي

لقد سمعنا، مؤخرا، ممثل النظام السوري في مجلس الأمن يستعمل القضية الفلسطينية ومسيرتها المؤلمة والمشرفة للتغطية على جرائمه المروعة في سوريا. نقول للنظام السوري وممثليه: ليس باسمنا، ليس باسم فلسطين ترتكب الجرائم في سوريا الحبيبة، أيها القتلة. لا تجعلوا من قضيتنا العادلة قناعا لجرائمكم اللانسانية بحق إخوتنا السوريين. إن الشعب السوري هو من تبنى القضية الفلسطينية تاريخيا وقدم لأجلها الشهداء، وليس سياسات نظامكم التي نحتفظ منها بذكريات مؤلمة، ولن ننسى أدوارها في مجازر تل الزعتر في 1976، والعدوان الرهيب على مخيم نهر البارد بطرابلس في 1983، وحصار المخيمات في بيروت 1985، وغيرها من أعمال تسببت مرارا بضرب الوحدة الوطنية الفلسطينية. لا تستعملوا اسم فلسطين فهي لم تعد ورقتكم الرابحة

إن سوريا موحدة وحرة وديمقراطية هي ما تحتاجه فلسطين، وهي سوريا التي تولد اليوم من رحم ثورة دامية فجرها شعب عظيم. نحن واثقون من أن اسم فلسطين سيظل في القلب من هذا الشعب الشجاع الثائر ونخبته المثقفة

الموقعون والمنتسبون
مريد البرغوثي (شاعر وكاتب)، طاهر رياض (شاعر)، غسان زقطان (شاعر) زهير أَبو شايب (شاعر)، عزمي بشارة (مفكر)، محمود الريماوي (قاص وروائي)، معن البياري (قاص وصحافي)، يوسف أَبو لوز (شاعر)، نجوان درويش (شاعر)، ربعي المدهون (روائي)، عادل بشتاوي (كاتب روائي وباحث)، انطوان شلحت (كاتب وناقد)، فخري صالح (ناقد)، حسين، شاويش (كاتب)، حزامة حبايب (قاصة وروائية)، نصر جميل شعث ( شاعر)، أحمد أبو مطر (ناقد أكاديمي وباحث وناشط)، محمد خليل (قاص)، يوسف عبد العزيز (شاعر)، (شاعر)، موسى برهومة (كاتب)، عيسى الشعيبي (كاتب)، موسى حوامدة (شاعر)، نائل بلعاوي (شاعر)، خليل قنديل (قاص)، غازي الذيبة (شاعر)، وسام جبران (شاعر وموسيقي)، عمرشبانة (شاعر)، قصي اللبدي (شاعر)، علي العامري (شاعر)، جهاد هديب (شاعر)، زياد خداش (قاص وكاتب)، ناصر رباح (.شاعر)، باسم النبريص (شاعر وكاتب)، راجي بطحيش (كاتب)، شاهر خضره (شاعر)، رائد وحش (شاعر)، أسماء عزايزة (شاعرة.)، محمود ابو هشهش (شاعر)، خضر محجز(روائي وشاعر وباحث وناقد أكاديمي)، باسل أَبو حمدة (كاتب)، إِيراهيم جابر إِبراهيم (قاص)، عبد الله أَبو بكر (شاعر). أُسامة الرنتيسي (كاتب)، عصام السعدي (شاعر)، خالد جمعه (شاعر)، نعيم الخطيب (كاتب)، أكرم ابو سمره (شاعر)، حنين جمعه (شاعرة)، أحمد يعقوب ( شاعر)، طارق العربي (شاعر)، يوسف الديك (شاعر وروائي)، مهند صلاحات (كاتب ومخرج)، محمد مشارقة (شاعر)، توفيق العيسى (كاتب وصحفي)، باسمة تكروري (كاتبة)، نجوى شمعون (شاعرة )، محمد السالمي (شاعر)، هاني السالمي (روائي)، بلال سلامة (شاعر)، اسامة ابو عواد ( كاتب)، جبر شعت ( شاعر)، يوسف القدرة) شاعر)، نسمة العكلوك (كاتبة)، عثمان حسين ( شاعر)، رزق البياري (شاعر)، ياسر الوقاد (شاعر)، صبحي حمدان ) كاتب)، عماد محسن (كاتب)، ليلي فيوليت ( شاعرة)، تيسير محيسن (قاص وناقد وناشط سياسي)، فايز السرساوي (فنان تشكيلي وشاعر)، رجب أبو سرية (قاص وكاتب مقال سياسي)، فؤاد حمادة (ناقد أكاديمي وباحث وناشط سياسي)، مي نايف (ناقدة أكاديمية وباحثة وناشطة جندر)، يسري الغول (قاص وناقد)، حسين أبو النجا (قاص وباحث أكاديمي)، ناصر عليوة (ر وائي وناقد)، عبد الكريم عليان (كاتب وباحث تربوي)، ولاء تمراز (باحث وكاتب سياسي)، عمر شعبان (كاتب وباحث)، حسن مي (كاتب وناقد أكاديمي)، معن سمارة (شاعر وصحفي)، محمد حسونة (أكاديمي وناقد)، عون أبو صفية (روائي)، عاطف حمادة (شاعر وناقد أكاديمي)، غياث المدهون (شاعر)، رجاء غانم (شاعرة)، طارق الكرمي ( شاعر)، أحمد الأشقر، ( شاعر)، علي أبو خطاب (شاعر وكاتب)، دنيا الأمل اسماعيل (شاعرة)، اسراء كلش (كاتبة قصصية)، موسى أبو كرش (شاعر وقاص.)، عبد الفتاح شحادة (شاعر وروائي)، ياسر أبو جلالة (شاعر وفنان تشكيلي)، خليل حسونة، (شاعر وروائي)، مهيب البرغوثي (شاعر)، عبد الناصر عامر( شاعر وفنان تشكيلي(، نضال الحمارنة (كاتبة)، أشرف عمرو (كاتب وإعلامي)، أسماء ناصر أبو عياش (كاتبة وصحفية)، مايا أبو الحيات (كاتبة)، زينات أبو شاويش (كاتبة)، سوزان سلامة- شاعرة

تعليق على الطلب من رابطة الكتاب السوريين
وفي أول رد فعل على هذا الطلب الفلسطيني الجماعي من جانب رابطة الكتاب السوريين، قال نوري الجراح من لندن، أحد مؤسسي الرابطة: شكرا لكم يا وجدان فلسطين وضميرها الحي. نحن نؤمن أن دمنا واحد. لقد خاطب شعبنا الثائر حكامه القتلة بكلمات شاعركم العظيم محمود درويش: "خذوا حصتكم من دمنا وانصرفوا"، فساوى المستبد بالمحتل. إننا نعتبر هذا الطلب استفتاء فلسطينيا على الثورة السورية، وهو صوت جماعي يسحب البساط الفلسطيني من تحت النظام السوري، وينزع ورقة التوت الفلسطينية عن عورة النظام. فالضحية الفلسطينية التي ملأت أوجاعها العالم لايمكن لها أن تقبل الصمت على آلام الضحايا أيا كانت هويتهم فالألم الإنساني واحد والجريمة ضد الإنسان واحدة، فكيف بآلام الشقيق. أقول لهم باسم جميع السوريين: بيتنا الأدبي الحر الوليد يتشرف بهم، لهم صدره ولنا العتبة. إن وجدان فلسطين الممثل بهؤلاء الشعراء والأدباء إنما يؤكد على حقيقة نهائية مفادها إن الاستبداد هو الحاضنة الطبيعية للاستعمار، وإن نهاية الاستبداد هي بداية نهاية الاستعمار.
باسم وجدان سوريا الفكري والروحي أقول لإخوتنا الفلسطينيين: شعبنا الحر لن يخذلكم، لن يخذل فلسطين المجاهدة. شكرا لكم، شكرا لكم.

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Past is Present: Settler Colonialism Matters!

On 5-6 March 2011, the Palestine Society at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London will hold its seventh annual conference, "Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine." This year`s conference aims to understand Zionism as a settler colonial project which has, for more than a century, subjected Palestine and Palestinians to a structural and violent form of destruction, dispossession, land appropriation and erasure in the pursuit of a new Jewish Israeli society. By organizing this conference, we hope to reclaim and revive the settler colonial paradigm and to outline its potential to inform and guide political strategy and mobilization.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often described as unique and exceptional with little resemblance to other historical or ongoing colonial conflicts. Yet, for Zionism, like other settler colonial projects such as the British colonization of Ireland or European settlement of North America, South Africa or Australia, the imperative is to control the land and its resources -- and to displace the original inhabitants. Indeed, as conference keynote speaker Patrick Wolfe, one of the foremost scholars on settler colonialism and professor at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, argues, "the logic of this project, a sustained institutional tendency to eliminate the Indigenous population, informs a range of historical practices that might otherwise appear distinct--invasion is a structure not an event."[i]

Therefore, the classification of the Zionist movement as a settler colonial project, and the Israeli state as its manifestation, is not merely intended as a statement on the historical origins of Israel, nor as a rhetorical or polemical device. Rather, the aim is to highlight Zionism`s structural continuities and the ideology which informs Israeli policies and practices in Palestine and toward Palestinians everywhere. Thus, the Nakba -- whether viewed as a spontaneous, violent episode in war, or the implementation of a preconceived master plan -- should be understood as both the precondition for the creation of Israel and the logical outcome of Zionist settlement in Palestine.

Moreover, it is this same logic that sustains the continuation of the Nakba today. As remarked by Benny Morris, “had he [David Ben Gurion] carried out full expulsion--rather than partial--he would have stabilised the State of Israel for generations.”[ii] Yet, plagued by an “instability”--defined by the very existence of the Palestinian nation--Israel continues its daily state practices in its quest to fulfill Zionism’s logic to maximize the amount of land under its control with the minimum number of Palestinians on it. These practices take a painful array of manifestations: aerial and maritime bombardment, massacre and invasion, house demolitions, land theft, identity card confiscation, racist laws and loyalty tests, the wall, the siege on Gaza, cultural appropriation, and the dependence on willing (or unwilling) native collaboration and security arrangements, all with the continued support and backing of imperial power. 

Despite these enduring practices however, the settler colonial paradigm has largely fallen into disuse. As a paradigm, it once served as a primary ideological and political framework for all Palestinian political factions and trends, and informed the intellectual work of committed academics and revolutionary scholars, both Palestinians and Jews.

The conference thus asks where and why the settler colonial paradigm was lost, both in scholarship on Palestine and in politics; how do current analyses and theoretical trends that have arisen in its place address present and historical realities? While acknowledging the creativity of these new interpretations, we must nonetheless ask: when exactly did Palestinian natives find themselves in a "post-colonial" condition? When did the ongoing struggle over land become a "post-conflict" situation? When did Israel become a "post-Zionist" society? And when did the fortification of Palestinian ghettos and reservations become "state-building"?

In outlining settler colonialism as a central paradigm from which to understand Palestine, this conference re-invigorates it as a tool by which to analyze the present situation. In doing so, it contests solutions which accommodate Zionism, and more significantly, builds settler colonialism as a political analysis that can embolden and inform a strategy of active, mutual, and principled Palestinian alignment with the Arab struggle for self-determination, and indigenous struggles in the US, Latin America, Oceania, and elsewhere.

Such an alignment would expand the tools available to Palestinians and their solidarity movement, and reconnect the struggle to its own history of anti-colonial internationalism. At its core, this internationalism asserts that the Palestinian struggle against Zionist settler colonialism can only be won when it is embedded within, and empowered by, the broader Arab movement for emancipation and the indigenous, anti-racist and anti-colonial movement--from Arizona to Auckland.

SOAS Palestine Society invites everyone to join us at what promises to be a significant intervention in Palestine activism and scholarship.

For over 30 years, SOAS Palestine Society has heightened awareness and understanding of the Palestinian people, their rights, culture, and struggle for self-determination, amongst students, faculty, staff, and the broader public. SOAS Palestine society aims to continuously push the frontiers of discourse in an effort to make provocative arguments and to stimulate debate and organizing for justice in Palestine through relevant conferences, and events ranging from the intellectual and political impact of Edward Said`s life and work (2004), international law and the Palestine question (2005), the economy of Palestine and its occupation (2006), the one state (2007), 60 Years of Nakba, 60 Years of Resistance (2009), and most recently, the Left in Palestine (2010).

For more information on the SOAS Palestine Society 7th annual conference, Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine: www.soaspalsoc.org

SOAS Palestine Society Organizing Collective is a group of committed students that has undertaken to organize annual academic conferences on Palestine since 2003.

 


[i] Patrick Wolfe, Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology: The Politics and Poetics of an Ethnographic Event, Cassell, London, p. 163

[ii] Interview with Benny Morris, Survival of the Fittest, Haaretz, 9. January 2004, http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/art.php?aid=5412