The
Second Palestinian Intifada:
A Chronicle Of A People’s Struggle
Book Review By Jim
Miles
08 July, 2006
Countercurrents.org
The Second Palestinian
Intifada - A Chronicle of a People’s Struggle. Ramzy Baroud (Pluto
Press, London); also available at Amazon.com
“Few are spared
[Baroud's] perceptive eye, and only the morally callous will fail to
respond to his pleas to remedy the injustice that he exposes.”
-- Professor Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“A compelling narrative
of Palestinian victimization [presented] with candor and uncompromising
integrity.” -- Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, Palestinian Legislator for the
Jerusalem District
'Masterful prose. ...
(A) scathing but heartfelt portrait.' -- Professor Norman G. Finkelstein,
author of “The Holocaust Industry”
A
chronicle is a “continuous register of events on order of time”
and within that framework, Ramzy Baroud recounts the reality of the
Intifada as seen from inside the wall, through the distorted lenses
of the western media, as well as a more analytical view of politics.
These three themes - the ‘wall’, the media, and politics
– surface time and again within the narrative of events.
The introduction presents
the underlying reality of all Israeli actions, that its success “in
fragmenting physical and geographical Palestine is matched by its success
in having shattered the social, political, and economic strata as well,”
and they “have been systematic and ongoing since well before the
Second Intifada.” The end purpose is a negation of the Palestinians
as a people and as a geographical entity so that greater Israel may
be realized.
It is both a personal story
and a societal story, a narrative that presents a global view while
at the same time relating the gritty reality of everyday events when
a “policy of starvation, assassination, and systematic killing
is imposed – when people are brutalized in the streets, when schools
are raided by Apache helicopters, when F16s erratically bombard villages
and towns, when a whole nation is collectively abused and violated with
almost no protection.” For the author, it is life itself, “As
for me, I am Palestinian: I grew up in the Gaza ghetto and need not
reverse the picture to understand. Outrage is now part of my anatomy.”
The ‘wall’, the
‘security fence’, the ‘separation barrier’,
whatever its title, has become a symbol of Israel intentions just as
much as it is the reality of Israeli intentions. Rather than following
easily demarcated defensive positioning, the wall contorts itself around
and through communities, between people and their farmlands and wells
and schools, and then through the schoolyard itself. Rather than being
built along the original green line, the line marking the end results
of the 1967 war, it absorbs many Palestinian communities within West
Bank territory that are obviously destined to be eliminated and replaced
by settlements. Like all walls it is porous, almost entirely under Israeli
control, a barrier of humiliation, degradation, and denial of all civil
rights, including the geographic right to one’s own land.
It is illegal. “The
construction of the wall and its associated regimes are contrary to
international law…All states are under obligations not to recognize
the illegal situation resulting from the construction of the wall.”
Yet to follow western media,
it is all the fault of the Palestinians, that the Israelis are doing
nothing but good against a violent, dangerous, and uncontrollable people.
Western media, particularly in the United States and Canada, relate
the Israeli position as – pardon the cliché – if
it were gospel, which unfortunately for many it has become. “Israel
understands the impact of the media in the world, and takes the business
very seriously.” The occupiers become the victims, a story that
ties in well with the media spin on American military efforts throughout
the Middle East, the ‘evil’ other of the terrorists. Yet
for the true victims “driven to the verge of desperation, blowing
oneself up might actually seem like a rational way out of a despairing
situation.”
Baroud argues that Palestinians
should not succumb to Israeli values and destroy citizens but to “maintain
its moral edge, the Palestinian revolution should not depart from its
all-encompassing, tolerant, and inclusive path, it should not be tainted
by the fallacies of the occupier, it should not fall into the trap of
fury, racial and religious exclusivity, and revengeful acts against
civilians.”
For their own reasons, geopolitical
with oil and control of the Middle East, religious with the strengthening
fundamentalist evangelicalism, and the neocon desire to rule the world
without allowing anyone else to interfere, the United States has provided
unequivocal support to the Israeli position. Americans are not adverse
to ghettos and have allowed them throughout their history. Palestine
is another area to be controlled, another ghetto, seldom heard from,
even less seen, to further America’s own political purposes.
This book is as much an indictment
of the media and those that manipulate it as anything else. The story
of the Palestinian people through the five years of the Intifada is
grossly misrepresented in western media. Any periods of ‘peace’
are always fragmented by Palestinian terrorists, always demonstrating
that they are incapable of controlling themselves, that they are essentially
an uncivilized people. Those same periods of peace are ongoing periods
of Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, but those daily
events are seldom recorded in news articles.
The most recent events in
Palestine, and the Middle East, demonstrate perfectly well the major
themes that are presented in Ramzy Baroud’s personal and…what
- nationalistic, cultural, societal, political, geographical, figurative…account
in “The Second Palestinian Intifada.” Democracy and its
attributes have been shown to be nothing but a mirage, an ephemeral
quality that is to be denied once its reality is attained contrary to
American interests and expectations.
The recent election of Hamas,
receiving 74 out of 132 seats in the Palestine Legislative Council,
shows the Palestinian denial of the media narrative against them. In
what was probably the most truly democratic election anywhere in the
globe, including the paragon of democracy the U.S. itself with its flawed
system, the Palestinian vote represented the spirit of the people against
all physical and emotional odds.
Not surprisingly, the western
media, following Israel’s lead, reported only on the non-validity
of a terrorist group controlling a government, even though “Hamas
held truce throughout most of 2005 and then were asked to accept Israel
outright even while Israeli atrocities continued” and without
any guarantees of any kind from the Israelis in return.
Taken in the larger context of the Middle East, the Americans and Canadians
withheld funds intended to assist the Palestinian government with its
civic objectives with both governments explicitly stating they would
not negotiate with ‘terrorists’.
The wall continues to grow,
a sinuous cancerous band destroying Palestinian land and society. The
western politicians continue to be held in thrall to the Israeli perspective.
The media continues to misrepresent the ongoing struggle in Palestine.
But the epilogue of the Second Palestinian Intifada is both positive
and hopeful, while still serving as a warning that a subjugated people
can never be fully denied. “The Second Palestinian Uprising…will
always be remembered by most Palestinians, as well as by people of conscience
everywhere, as a fight for freedom, human rights, and justice. It will
remain a powerful reminder that popular resistance is still an option
– and one to be reckoned with at that.”
Ramzy Baroud writes with
integrity and passion on events that should be universally known but
are not represented in western media. “The Second Palestinian
Intifada” provides a realistic and honest perspective on the critical
events that are affecting Palestine, the Middle East, and, to follow,
all of us collectively. It is a people’s story that needs to be
made known.
-The Second Palestinian Intifada
- A Chronicle of a People’s Struggle is now available at Amazon.com
among many other online outlets.
-Jim Miles is a Canadian
educator and a regular contributor of opinion pieces and book reviews
to Palestine Chronicles. His interest in this topic stems originally
from an environmental perspective, which encompasses the militarization
and economic subjugation of the global community by corporate governance
and by the American government.