·
Palestinian parents
do not want their children to become martyrs. Some mistakenly believe
that Palestinian parents would consider it an honor to have their children
sacrifice their lives to kill Israeli soldiers or civilians. The opposite is
true. In my experience, parents start to panic if their children come home much
later than midnight, because that is typically when the Israeli army enters Palestinian cities to begin
raiding the refugee camps and parents do not want their children caught up in any
trouble with the soldiers. Children and teens who are caught throwing rocks at
the army plead with the police not to tell their parents, knowing they will be
punished and because they know how much it will upset their parents. I think
the misunderstanding occurs because of the respect given for martyrs. After
all, they did give their lives for the sake of their country. It is the same
situation in America or any other country. When soldiers are killed, their
sacrifice is honored and parents often find a small amount of consolation with
the thought that at least their child died for an honorable cause and that he
or she is now at rest far from the tragedies of life on Earth. It is the same
for the families of Palestinian martyrs. Of course, all parents want their
children to live a life of peace, happiness and opportunity. This is something
denied to many Palestinian children. Martyrs are honored for their sacrifice
and struggle to free their people, but it is a parent’s worst nightmare that their
child will become a martyr.
·
The current conflict
does not go back to the time of Abraham and has nothing to do with Isaac and
Ishmael. Rather, this is a new conflict that has its roots with the
birth of Zionism in the 1890’s. Zionism is defined as Jewish Nationalism, or
the idea that Jews need their own country to escape persecution. Before the
birth of Zionism, Jews Muslims and Christians lived peacefully together in
Palestine. When the Ottoman Empire was dissolved following WWI, Britain took
control of the areas now known as Palestine, Jordan and Iraq. Waves of Jewish
Immigrants came to Palestine; many came to establish socialist communities
called kibbutzim. Many Palestinians worked and lived on land that was actually
owned by wealthy Arabs in Lebanon. Jewish immigrants established many
organizations to assist in buying the land from the absentee owners for much
higher than its actual value at the time, and the Palestinians were forced off
the land. Original plans to divide Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state were
not welcomed because many Jews wanted all of Palestine as well as Jordan.
Palestinians also rejected the partition because the Jewish immigrants were to
be given an area extremely disproportional to their numbers and which included
many Palestinian villages. Palestinians were excluded from economic development
and feared that they were losing control of their land. The Palestinians and
Jews fought to remove the British from Palestine. When the British left, the
Jews declared the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. They massacred
entire villages, Deir Yassin among them, and drove thousands of Palestinians
from their homes and from their country. Jordan and Egypt annexed the West Bank
and Gaza, respectively. After the war of 1967 Israel occupied the Golan
Heights, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Today thousands of
refugees still live in camps in other Arab countries as well as Palestine (Gaza
and the West Bank ) - (70% of Jordan is populated by Palestinian refugees and their
descendants). Today Palestinians want to return to their homes, and for Israel
to end the military occupation. Many Palestinians are descendants of people who
have lived in Palestine since before the days of Christ and many told me how
proud they were to be the “original Christians.” This current conflict has
nothing to do with Isaac or Ishmael; it started with the ideology of
Zionism and Zionists driving Palestinians from their land. It frustrates me to hear
people say that “they have been fighting over that land since the days
of Abraham and will continue to do so until the Second Coming.” This conflict
did not start with Abraham, but unless people change their way of thinking, it
may continue until the end of the world.
