The Progressive Democratic Student Pole
("Al-Qutob At-Tullabi Ad-Dimoqrati At-Taqaddumi")
March 20th 1999

Refugee camps...Akka, Yaffa, Haifa...Al Quds...West Bank...Gaza Strip...One identity for one people!

In such a state of uncertainty and confusion, when the gap between the dream and its realization widens, we should become aware of our dismantled identity, and realize what dangers surround us. It's time that we wake up and work on achieving our dream. For the Palestinian people are torn between different parts of the world. We must move now, before we lose our sense of belonging and our identity. Otherwise, we will have nothing left but this sense of alienation!

Looking closely at our reality, we can see the attack by Zionists and their allies aimed at destroying the Palestinian identity; the right of return for Palestinians is now threatened by plans to resettle them in nearby Arab countries, not to mention the ill-treatment which they receive in these countries; Palestinians of 1948 face plans of 'Israelization' which aim at melting them into the 'state of the Jews', separating them from the rest of the Palestinian Arabs. We, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, were forced to limit our dream of an independent state and the return of the refugees to partial self rule and scattered cantons. While Palestinian prisoners are left to rot in prison, land is being taken away from us, and Jerusalem is being Judaized, all moving together in a plan of creating facts on the ground. Unfortunately, this is being done with the 'blessing' of Palestinians, who decided to follow this path...

We are aware that the diversity among the various sectors of the Palestinian people does not negate the fact that we all share one identity and one destiny on the historical land of Palestine.

Out of our understanding of the conflict and its consequences, we can't but compare between the Palestinian society and the 'Israeli entity'. The first has all the characteristics of a society: language, history, culture, heritage and 'religion'. Yet, it is not a society in the true sense of the word. For it is divided into 3 parts which are: Palestinians of 1948, Palestinians of 1967, and Palestinians in the Diaspora. Each, in turn, is divided into different sectors which lack harmony with each other and are unable to understand the other. On the other hand, there is an Israeli 'society' lacking all characteristics of a society. It consists of groups of immigrants coming from different parts of the world, and consequently, different cultures, who gathered on land stolen from the Palestinians, under the name of religion and mythological rights. The conclusion of this comparison may be summarized in the following:

• The existence and development of the Israeli 'society' is based on the dismantling of the Palestinian society and breaking it into parts. While the Israeli military occupation confiscates land and displaces the true owners of the land, other zionist organisations are implementing a calculated plan to separate Palestinians, fragmenting Palestinian society and turning it into an infinite numbers of smaller societies, in order to allow for the existence of Israeli 'society'
• Ending occupation is not achieved by overcoming its direct outward features, but also its consequences as it regards to identity. We believe that ending the military occupation, as well as its everyday, insiduous effects on all Palestinians, if properly prepared for, could revive the Palestinian society and get it back to the state of resistance.
• There is a cultural aspect to the Arab-Israeli conflict, that shouldn't be neglected. One of the main characteristic of this conflict is that it utilizes the cultural output of the East, after reshaping it with hatred and violence through occupation. One example of this is the Crusader wars, which used Christianity as an excuse to colonise the area, the same area which was the birthplace of the christian culture. Our struggle with Zionism is another round of that same struggle, here they used the religious excuse (Judaism, which is a cultural product of this landscape) to overtake the area, use it and replace the real cultural product of the area with a Western, alien culture. Our evidence of this point is the suffering of the Eastern Jews within the borders of Israel.

We would like to emphasize that our Arabic culture and identity are being targeted in the same way as our land is and that we must defend them not by going back to the past and re-using old ideas. Instead, we must revive our culture and modernize it so as to fit with the time we now live.

Dear Colleagues, we don't want to lecture you. Yet our reality is becoming more and more complicated, and in order not to lose direction, we must become aware of our identity. Only in this way will we find the path towards freedom and emancipation!