Fight One-way Thinking, Support Orient XXI

Fight One-way Thinking, Support Orient XXI

Fight One-way Thinking, Support Orient XXI

By : Jadaliyya Reports

In December 2010 the people of Tunisia swarmed into the streets, triggering what came to be called the “Arab Spring”. In just a few months, Egyptian, Libyan and Yemeni autocrats were swept aside, those of Syria and Morocco seriously threatened. Ten years later, Winter has again descended on the region: not the Winter of Islamists but that of the dictators. Civil wars drag on indefinitely, dissident voices are stifled, hopelessness takes root, symbolised by those hundreds of thousands of young people seeking to flee their countries, often at the risk of their lives. And in the West, an essentialist perspective has taken overt, a simplistic reading of the region (Islamists vs. lay people), reducing its diversity to clichés that make it acceptable to support regimes which are anti-democratic but supposedly “stable.”

It was to combat this kind of thinking that Orient XXI was founded, we wanted to examine the societies that lie between Morocco and Iran in terms of their differences, daily lives, their ongoing struggles for justice. Thus, this year, we have devoted a dozen articles to the Covid-19 pandemic, to the way these populations have responded to it, often in the teeth of incompetent the powers that be. Under the difficult conditions created by the lockdowns, we have ferreted out journalists and academics who could report what was going on locally.

We have also continued to cover the ongoing conflicts, such as those in the Sahel or Yemen, and those which smoulder beneath the ashes only to burst forth suddenly as in Nagorny-Karabakh. We have continued to cover the Palestinian tragedy, convinced as we are that it remains the epicentre of the region’s frustrations. From culture to economics, from history to diplomacy, from women’s struggles to social protests, we have sought to provide a living image, shunning systematic pessimism, with a total of 300 articles publish over the past year, some translated into Arabic, English, Farsi and since the beginning of the year, into Spanish.

Our choices go counter to the foul wind blowing across France and the rest of the Western world. Under pretext of terrorist attacks against innocent people, every effort is being made to plant our minds a simplistic vision of the Muslim world and Islam. And while the “spirit of Charlie” has never been so belaboured, the few voices which challenge that vision are demonised. A petition was circulated, signed by aa hundred academics calling for a crusade against academic freedom, calling on the authorities to clamp down on their ’deviant” colleagues. One example among many is the censorship of which hit Farhad Khosrokavar, one of France’s best specialists of Islam. We published articles on the hidden aspects of these bans, at a time when an increasingly repressive vision is setting in, materialized in freedom-crushing laws which add to an already plentiful arsenal. They are fully in line with the demands of the fascist right, as counsellor Henri Leclerc pointed out in our columns.

After twenty years of this “war on terrorism,” is it not time to confess it has failed? As early as 2014, Reserve General Philippe Gunet, a member of our editorial staff, now deceased, declared that this “endless war on terrorism” “produces an endless string of Jihadists.” We see this in Afghanistan, where the United States is getting ready to turn the country over to the Talibans. We can evaluate it in Mali, where France’s stalled efforts go hand in hand with the fragmentation of the entire region. The refusal to debate—a pernicious form of one-track thinking, conducted in the name of “free speech”—is not only contrary to the democratic way, it has disastrous consequences on the ground.

Whence Orient XXI’s determination to continue its efforts to inform … against the grain. And this work is expensive. On the average, a single article costs 600 euros, if we add to the journalist’s fee, the cost of an illustration, the editorial work, its posting on line, its publicizing on the social networks and its translation into Arabic and/or English. We have been publishing on an average six articles a week, which adds up to 12,000 euros per month, a figure which does not take into account the volunteer work of most of the editorial staff, only two of whom are paid. Not to mention our future projects: investigation, reporting, translation into new languages, such as Italian.

Covid-19 constitutes a serious threat to media outlets, depletes aids and subsidies. We are obviously not immune from this. Which is why we are appealing to you. You can make a tax-deductible donation or a monthly payment which gives us financial visibility. But whatever the form it takes, any help you can provide is an encouragement to go on. The whole team thanks you in advance.

في ديسمبر/كانون الأول 2010، نزل الشعب التونسي إلى الشارع ليفتح حقبة “الربيع العربي”. وفي غضون بضعة أشهر، أطيح بمستبدي مصر وليبيا واليمن، وتزعزع عرش طغاة سوريا والمغرب. بعد عشر سنوات من هذه الأحداث، خيم الشتاء على المنطقة، ولا نعني هنا الشتاء الإسلاموي، بل شتاء الأنظمة الديكتاتورية‫.

تَستمر الحروب الأهلية وتُكَمّم الأصوات المعارِضة ويَتجذر اليأس، كما يترجم عن ذلك تصميم مئات آلاف الشباب على الرحيل، حتى لو كلّفهم ذلك حياتهم. في الأثناء، تسيطر على الغرب وجهة نظر جوهرية، وقراءة تبسيطية للمنطقة (الإسلامويون ضد العلمانيين)، ويُختزل تنوعها في صور نمطية تُمكن من تبرير دعم الأنظمة المناهضة للديمقراطية بدعوى “الاستقرار‫”.

بُعث موقع أوريان 21 ليعارض هذه الرؤية، إذ نريد النظر إلى مجتمعات المنطقة من المغرب إلى أفغانستان بكامل تنوعها، وفي حياتها اليومية، وفي مقاومتها المستمرة من أجل العدالة. من أجل ذلك، نشرنا هذه السنة أكثر من عشرين مقالا وتقريرا حول جائحة كوفيد-19، وحول ردة فعل المجتمعات أمامها وأمام إهمال السلطة في معظم الأحيان. ورغم ظروف الحجر الصحي الصعبة، وجدنا صحفيين وباحثين قادرين على سرد ما يجري على أرض الواقع‫.

كما واصلنا تغطية الصراعات المستمرة، كتلك التي تشهدها منطقة الساحل أو سوريا أو اليمن، أو التي تخمد نيرانها تحت الرماد قبل أن تندلع فجأة، كما حصل في ناغورني قره باغ. وواصلنا كذلك تغطية مأساة الفلسطينيين، لقناعتنا بأنها تبقى قضية جوهرية في المنطقة. من الثقافة إلى الاقتصاد، من التاريخ إلى العلاقات الديبلوماسية، من الكفاحات النسوية إلى التعبئة الاجتماعية، اخترنا أن نعطي صورة حية وألا نخضع للتشاؤم العارم، من خلال نشر أكثر من 300 مقال بالفرنسية و120 مقال بالعربية، بعضها ترجم للإنكليزية والفارسية وحتى للإسبانية، منذ بداية هذه السنة‫.

بخيارات كهذه، نحن نسبح ضد التيار وفي اتجاه معاكس للريح التي تهب على فرنسا وعلى العالم الغربي. فقد باتت الهجمات ضد مدنيين أبرياء ذريعة لفرض رؤية تبسيطية للعالم الإسلامي وللإسلام. فبينما يُرفع شعار “شارلي” في كل مكان، تتم شيطنة أولئك الذين يجادلون هذه الرؤية، حتى في صفوف الباحثين والأكاديميين، وتُمَارَس عليهم الرقابة. وقد قررنا ردا على ذلك نشر نصوصهم على موقعنا. يحصل ذلك في وقت تتفاقم فيه المقاربة الأمنية، كما يظهر من خلال سن قوانين تحد من الحريات وتُضاف إلى عتاد النصوص القانونية الموجودة، في انسجام تام مع مطالبات اليمين المتطرف‫.

بعد عشرين سنة من اندلاع هذه “الحرب ضد الإرهاب”، ألم يحن الوقت لتقييم إفلاسها؟ منذ 2015، ذكّر العقيد الاحتياطي فيليب غوني -وهو عضو في هيئة تحرير أوريان 21 توفي السنة الماضية- بعدم نجاعة هذه الحرب بل وكونها تغذي الحركات الجهادية. وهذا ما نراه في أفغانستان، حيث تعتزم الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية ترك البلاد بين أيدي طالبان. وكذلك في مالي حيث ترافق تجزئة المنطقة تورّطَ الجيش الفرنسي. إن رفض النقاش حول هذه المسائل -وهو شكل خبيث من الفكر الفردي الذي يُروّج إليه بدعوى “حرية التعبير”- ليس فقط ضد الديمقراطية بل له تداعيات وخيمة على أرض الواقع‫.

من هنا يأتي إصرار موقع أوريان 21 على مواصلة مجهوده الإعلامي ضد التيار السائد. وهذا العمل له تكلفة. فنشر مقال واحد يكلفنا تقريبا 600 يورو، إذا أضفنا إلى أجر الصحفي تكلفة الصورة المرافقة والتحرير والنشر على الموقع والحضور على شبكات التواصل والترجمة. نشرنا هذه السنة معدل ست مقالات في الأسبوع، ما يعني تكلفة بـ15 ألف يورو في الشهر، هذا دون ذكر العمل التطوعي الذي يقوم به أعضاء هيئة التحرير التي تعد فقط موظفتين براتب. ناهيك عن مشاريعنا المقبلة من تحقيقات وتقارير وترجمات للغات جديدة، مثل الإيطالية‫.

تهدد جائحة كوفيد-19 الصحافة، وتقلل من المساعدات والدعم الذي قد يطالها. ولسنا مستثنين من هذا الواقع. لهذا السبب، نطلب مساعدتكم. يمكنكم القيام بتبرع أو بدفعة شهرية معفاة من الضرائب بالنسبة لمن يدفعون ضرائبهم في فرنسا (تسترجعون في هذه الحالة 20 يورو على كل 30 يورو تتبرعون بها)، ما يمنحنا رؤية أوضح لمستقبلنا المالي. نرحب بجميع المساعدات مهما كان شكلها، فكل مساعدة هي تشجيع لنا للمواصلة على نفس المنوال‫.

.ولكم الشكر سلفا من كامل الفريق

[This article was originally posted by Orient XXI in English and Arabic on 23 November 2020. To donate to Orient XXI, click here.]

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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