Blaming the victims
JERUSALEM - Zionists like to admonish Palestinians by saying that they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. But, according to Zionist talking points, Palestinians missed several opportunities when Israel was willing to graciously "give" them pieces of their own land. Moreover, it is alleged that Palestinians have missed so many of these great opportunities that they have no one to blame but themselves for their misfortunes.
Blaming the victims
A piece by Richard Cravatts published in the Times of Israel, and later republished in other publications, is a particularly asinine example of this admonition. In his piece, "An Open Letter to Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and Your Fellow Travelers," Cravatts writes: "Millions of Palestinian refugees [have been] created by your people's repeated rejection of offers of statehood - in 1937, 1947, 1967, 2000, and other occasions...."
Blaming the Palestinians for the ongoing tragedy of the refugees is not only callous but as outrageous as blaming the victims of the Holocaust for the horrors of the Nazis. I can testify that I have heard more than one Zionist claim that the Jews whom the Nazis killed had it coming because they did not heed the call of the Zionists. Had the Jews of Europe come to Palestine to steal and live on other people's land, the Nazis would have spared them, a theme found throughout Yoav Shamir's 2009 documentary, " Defamation."
The claim that Palestinians are prone to missing opportunities is one of the most common Zionist lines, and they still use it because it works - because unfortunately there exists such a lack of knowledge regarding the history of Palestine that Zionists can loudly proclaim that "The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity!" and go unchallenged. Another iteration of this claim is, "If only the Palestinians had the foresight to accept Zionist offers, or at least offers that the Zionists were agreeable to, things would have been so much better for them." "Them" being the Palestinians.
Anyone familiar with the Zionist talking points has heard the claim that the Palestinians "missed opportunities" so they have no one to blame for their lot but themselves. In a recent lecture I gave in southern California, a Palestinian student asked me how to reply to this argument. His question was specifically about the Zionist accusation that Palestinians rejected the Two-State Solution.
An outright lie
We will set aside the fact that this is an outright lie for a moment. We will not get into this issue in-depth, only to say that in fact, since the 1970s, the Palestine Liberation Organization (the PLO) has been the only party striving to achieve a Two-State Solution and that their willingness to make this enormous sacrifice cost them a great deal and made things worse for Palestinians the world over.
This argument typically comes from Zionists who live in the United States or the U.K. and who think it is OK that Israel has taken all of Palestine. They never admonish Israel for annexing the Syrian Golan Heights or East Jerusalem. They have no issue with Israel's building entire cities on Palestinian land. This accusation comes from Zionists who believe Israel has a right to colonize all of historic Palestine.
Israel has a right to do this because, so they tell us, Jewish people around the world may (or may not) be related to a tribe that resided in Palestine some two or three thousand years ago. They tell us that this tribe, called the Hebrews, which may or may not have any historical connection to modern-day Israel and the Jewish people, is the reason it is OK for the modern State of Israel to commit unspeakable crimes against an entire nation.
Legitimizing the oppressor
What is implied in the admonitions by Zionists is that Zionism and the colonization of Palestine by Zionist Jews are legitimate and that the Palestinians refuse to accept this legitimacy. However, these admonitions present us with opportunities to raise a larger question. The question that ought to be asked is: Why in the world would Palestinians accept any offer by their colonizers? Why would any colonized nation accept anything but the total defeat of their colonizers and oppressors, especially considering that these "offers" fail to include the liberation of all of historic Palestine?
The answer is that there is no reason. The attempts at partitioning and slicing Palestine have all been part of a strategy meant to legitimize the violent Zionist takeover of Palestine and delegitimize the Palestinian rejection of it.
cdn.iframe.lyThe aforementioned senseless, mindless Zionist propaganda piece starts by addressing Rep. Tlaib as follows:
On May 16th, you and some other members of The Squad, including Representatives Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, McCollum, and others, introduced a loathsome resolution, H. RES. 1123, which had as its purpose "Recognizing the Nakba and Palestinian refugees' rights" and to "commemorate the Nakba," the catastrophe you assign to Israel's creation, "through official recognition and remembrance." According to your baleful resolution, the Nakba not only took place at Israel's founding "but [refers] to an ongoing process of Israel's expropriation of Palestinian land and its dispossession of the Palestinian people that continues to this day."
In this typical Zionist propaganda piece, Cravatts calls the proposed legislation to recognize the Nakba "loathsome." Amnesty International recently published a report accusing Israel of committing the crime of apartheid - a crime so heinous it is designated as a "crime against humanity." Interestingly, the writer does not find those who commit the crime of apartheid loathsome, only the legislation recognizing the victims of the crime.
What is loathsome, however, is that the United States is complicit in the crimes against the Palestinians. It is loathsome to live in the United States and to justify, explain and provide cover - thin as it may be - for the brutal regime that has been tearing Palestine apart for over seven decades. And it is loathsome to stand by and applaud as the state of Israel continues to brutalize an entire nation while the world, and Israeli society, look the other away.
Feature photo | Palestinians mourn during the funeral of Amjad al-Fayyed, 17, killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin, May 21, 2022. Majdi Mohammed | AP
Miko Peled is MintPress News contributing writer, published author and human rights activist born in Jerusalem. His latest books are" The General's Son. Journey of an Israeli in Palestine," and " Injustice, the Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five."