Name of the Book: The Second Palestinian Intifada - A Chronicle of a People’s Struggle.
Ramzy Baroud
Paperback: 260 pages
Publisher: Pluto Press (June 19, 2006) also available at Amazon.com
Language: English
ISBN: 0745325475
“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”
Reviewed by Jim Miles
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.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0745325475/002-0055858-0636837?v=glance&n=283155
July 2006
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