reclaim the feda`yee!

by saleh hijazi

All around the world, whenever there is engagement with issues of oppression and domination, wherever there is a fight for freedom and peace, Palestinians are there. In every pocket of resistance now and shrouding every action against neoliberalism, war, and racism is a Kufiyah. The Kufiyah is the only representation of Palestinians in the human struggle: a mere symbol associated with the fight for freedom. We are not there in progressive discourse, real engagement, or action against oppression; we are only there as an artifact of revolution.

Today the Palestinian flag is waived by a Zapatista, Palestinian freedom is a slogan sung in the Basque, and the Palestinian revolution is an outfit worn by protestors and activists all around the world. But none of this or anything else is happening at home in Palestine. At home, trapped within a wall and inside a prison, both of which we allowed to be built on the remainder of our land, we raise green flags against yellow ones. At home and in the Diaspora we transformed ourselves from freedom singers to international mendicants. We dropped the gun and the olive branch and outstretched our arms, begging for U.S dollars. We turned Palestine from resistance nation to Mukhabarat (TM) country. We abandoned the Feda’yee for bureaucracy.
The Palestinian, the Feda’yee, the movement towards freedom, justice, and peace is stopping, not to reflect, not to reenergize, but to give up.

But why? Why are we leaving our home? Why are we going through a new exile? And why are we being the ones this time to dispossess ourselves from Falasteen al Huriyeh?

illustration by saleh hijazi

Before I discuss these questions let me shed some light on the Palestinian concepts I use and which are essential to the article: Feda’yee, Intifada, Falasteen al Huriyeh,and Kufiyah. For Palestinians these concepts/words are part of the movement’s discourse that describes what Palestine is and what it means to be Palestinian. But due to the existential disparity, resulting from historic or geographic differences, among those who identify as Palestinian, the concepts vary and are very diverse in meaning. These concepts cannot be defined, set, or essentialized. But when you are born you are in some way told that you are Palestinian or in your being you are associated with some place called Palestine, and in turn, you enter a certain discursive world made up of these words and many others.

This world contains stories, narratives, dreams, realities, images, and descriptions all of which give you the Palestinian identity and in most cases, depending on your environment, a sense of direction in life that is relevant to “Palestine.” Al Nakbah (1948) for example is one such word that is constitutive of the Palestinian discursive world in which Palestinian identity is built and discourse for movement is created. Al Nakbah is an actual historic experience just like the Kufiyah is a traditional scarf, but with the creation and progress of the social movement, these words become categories which are filled with meaning depending on the situation.

The discourse which I discuss here is that of The Feda’yee as the Palestinian revolutionary, who fights for Falasteen Al Huriyeh or the Palestine of Freedom, through Intifada or grassroots revolution with Kufiyah as the all encompassing material symbol. Depending on the historic situation, the categories of this discourse are set in meaning and therefore create the ideology which reflects the historic situation. These categories and the discourse they constitute were, until Oslo, created and given meaning by the Palestinian grassroots. The first Intifada was a living example of that.

During the first Intifada, the discourse led to spontaneous and authentic action that reached almost egalitarian levels when children and youth assumed positions of leadership in the movement. Sadly, the growing bureaucratic leadership at the time collapsed this movement, and the categories were gradually dissolved, thus leading us to the situation I am discussing today: a situation were Palestinian people are alienated from their identity as Palestinian, their movement towards a free, peaceful, and just Palestine, and their own autonomous processes of organizing resistance and engaging with politics.

This is what I am calling the new Palestinian exile. A post modern exile if you like which the Palestinians are forcing upon themselves. So why is this happening?

The occupation is always our answer to the “why” question. This is fair and right but it is not nearly enough. The Palestinian movement is essentially an anti-colonial movement and as long as there is a Zionist entity occupying Palestine it will always remain so. Our existential situation was and still is determined by the context of Western imperialism. The Palestinian relationship to that context was one of active rejection and resistance. That was before Oslo. Today, and even after a second Intifada, our relationship to the colonial context became institutional and bureaucratic, even on the level of military resistance.

The daily oppression that people in the West Bank and Gaza strip endure on a daily basis, the never-ending suffocation of the Palestinian refugees in their camps, the racism that the diaspora population faces in Arab nations and elsewhere around the world, are all matters that are dealt with institutionally or bureaucratically; negotiations, humanitarian institutions, governments, and legal organizations have become the medium through which Palestinians relate to or engage with the colonial context. This strips the Palestinian people from the political and cultural essence of their identity and promotes instead a humanitarian one.

Today, Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are citizens, and in worst cases Jihadees. The Palestinian in Lebanon is a refugee and not Handala. Falasteen al Huriyeh is a temporary American-Israeli granted state. Intifada is an old story. The Kufiyah, on the other hand, is a symbol we left for other people who have dreams and still believe in ours because today Palestinians wear suits.

But we are not dead yet and can still say, all together, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, 1948 Palestinians, refugees, and the diaspora:

Enough!

We have said it before to imperialism and acted upon that. Today we say it to ourselves and again with the many voices in this world that say enough to neoliberalism, capitalism, colonialism, heterosexism, and racism. In Palestine and wherever there are Palestinians there needs to be a revolution against the Palestinian self and then an Intifada on the world.

Palestinian youth are the key here. Support any initiative by the Palestinian youth that goes beyond any factionalism or NGO paternalism. We all can reclaim the Palestinian discourse, give it new creative meaning, and put it in motion; each person or group has the ability to pursue this in their own ways. Let us, Palestinians and others, make Feda’yee, Intifada, Falasteen al Huriyeh, and Kufiyah a process rather than a word, and let us take ownership of this movement and return it to the grassroots.

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Saleh Hijazi is a member of the Peace and Freedom Youth Forum (PFF) in Ramallah, Palestine. To contact him, send an e-mail to saleh.h@pff-pal.org.