Re “Gaza Is Nowhere” (By Roger Cohen, Dec. 30, 2014): I started writing this as a Letter to the Editor, but my anger could not be conveyed in only 150 words, so I am posting this open letter instead:
Readers expect greater accuracy from New York Times columnists.
How dare Mr. Roger Cohen suggest that Gaza, a part of my homeland, is “nowhere!”
If Mr. Cohen is at a loss to know where Gaza lies, allow me to guide him. The Gaza Strip, as well as Gaza City, were both part and parcel of Historic Palestine, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. Following the colossal injustice that resulted in the displacement of more than half of the Palestinian people, and then the creation of what we know today as the state of Israel, and the subsequent military occupation of the remaining Palestinian lands of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Gaza Strip become part and parcel of an Israeli-militarily-occupied territory. It is this military occupation under which many of my friends and colleagues were born and live to this day.
Despite the bitter life Gazan Palestinians face, they know exactly where they are and who they are. To Mr. Cohen’s possible disappointment, I will not sugar-coat reality with euphemisms or attempt to bury the international community’s disgraceful failures by dwelling on internal Palestinian political dynamics.
What Mr. Cohen terms a “high-tech Israeli facility,” is, in reality, an Israeli military garrison and checkpoint that is equipped with U.S. technology aimed to keep Palestinians locked into the world’s largest open-air prison called Gaza.
The Palestinian road worker who impressed Mr. Cohen is not “among the more productively employed of Gaza’s 1.8 million citizens.” The Gaza community is alive, albeit not well. If he had taken the time to look again without his biased lens, he would have seen an entire society struggling to be productive in a reality where electricity is a luxury, clean water is a distant thought, and having the ability to travel freely is a foreign concept to yet another generation of Palestinians.
Mr. Cohen claims that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is “the only dust-free environment” in Gaza. Spare me, please. Has he forgotten that Gaza has been on the receiving end of three major Israeli military operations within the past six years, which left scores dead and wounded and the rest traumatized for life. If he had only taken the time to visit Palestinian homes he would have found other “dust-free environments,” if dust was of such major concern to him. He would have experienced the generosity of a people battered for decades yet miraculously finding a way to go on educating their war-affected children, sustaining themselves economically, continuing to love, and stubbornly maintaining hope for a better tomorrow, even as they are forced to live in imposed darkness. Indeed, as retired Palestinian diplomat Afif Safieh has famously said, Palestinians have been “unreasonably reasonable” given what has fallen upon them.
To add insult to injury, Mr. Cohen assumes the role of spokesperson for Palestinians, claiming the utmost urgent matter in Palestinian lives is the need “to end the lockdown of Gaza.” Lockdown, Mr. Cohen, is a move used to keep prisoners in their cells. Ending the lockdown is allowing the prisoners to interact among themselves and visit the prison yard. Thank you Mr. Cohen, but no thank you. We have the right to be free from the prison imposed on us by Israel and bankrolled by your country. Our utmost urgent matter is that Israel end its nearly five-decade-long military occupation and allow Palestinians to return to their homes, after which we will take care of ourselves.
I can go on, but you are not interested in Palestine or Palestinians. Your career requires you to feed the stereotypes about my home, me, and my people, and for that, you are part of the problem, not the solution. That, Mr. Cohen, is what is truly “shameful.”
Sincerely,
Sam Bahour
Al-Bireh/Ramallah, Palestine
www.ePalestine.com
Cohen’s remarks do show some human sympathy with the people of Gaza, to whom no one will ‘offer decency’. He is right in a way to say that Gaza has been edited out of most people’s mental map of the world – the likes of us, who think about the place every day, are eccentrics and misfits, or have been until recently. His omission is to express shame at our willed amnesia.
Roger Cohen’s column is a perfect example of the casual racism that pervades mainstream media debate on the issue of Palestine. Sympathy with the people of Gaza is no substitute for a recognition that Palestinians have the same rights as other human beings. Taken to a more practical level that would mean that Israel’s “security concerns” do not trump international law and human rights — as our State Department so blandly puts it. It would mean that international donors, rather than pledging funds (only occasionally delivered) to rebuild Gaza after Israeli attacks, would instead hold Israel accountable for waging war and imprisoning millions. It would mean that, rather than suggesting “Israelis, Palestinians, Egyptians, Europeans and American turn Gaza into somewhere,” it would mean that the great powers would end their efforts to impose an Oslo like regime on Gaza by subjecting all reconstruction funds to Israeli approval. It would mean that crocodile tears like those shed by Mr. Cohen would be recognized for what they are — a refusal to admit the right of Palestinians to self-determination.
Sam Bahour is a saint and a real writer. His stuff is so good!
the NYT is a piece of shit. I can’t even come up with any examples of pieces in the NYT that might come close to Bahour’s writing… like the one about “Uno”.
Anyone with children would understand that one.
Unless you work at the NYT!!
I envy and admire your ability to channel your anger into something important and meaningful.
I get so upset so often, these days, that I can’t even function. All I can do is disappear – drag myself into a darkened room, put a cold pak on my forehead, shut out all sight and sound, and try to sleep it all off.
Your way is a better way.
The question people should ask themselves is: Why is Mr. Bahour writing for fringe media like MW and Mr. Cohen for the prestigious New York Times?
Hint: It has something to do with their names.