Ritualized Solidarity

This is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.

Clashes rage across Jerusalem. The Al Aqsa status quo returns. Nothing new here. This is part and parcel of Palestinian history since Israel has been established.

Status quos don’t reach tipping points, then they do. When the tipping point will spill over is rarely known in advance. When this happen lives – and history – are up for grabs.

First intifada, then the second. The third on its way?

Israel’s occupation is insatiable – land, lives, culture and religion are there for the taking. What is little left of Palestine besides Palestinians?

Steadfastness on the – disappearing – land? Palestinians on the land – and in Islamic and Christian prayer – are completely surrounded by Israeli power. No, if we’re honest, steadfastness has taken a new turn. It is solely, tragically and wonderfully located in the Palestinian human being.

Everyone has seen Palestine disappearing, a slow Israeli train moving inexorably toward its goal.

Or will Israel, quite suddenly, take everything it has and stop? This is the grand compromise the world community desperately hopes for.

The grand compromise isn’t about Palestinian freedom or a real Palestinian state. It’s about what’s left of Palestine. Which isn’t much. Which isn’t enough. And even what’s left will be controlled, patrolled and monitored by occupying powers. Have you noticed how many occupying hands will stir the “what’s left of Palestine” pot?

Analyze the statements, even the threats of the big players. Look at Europe’s redlines. They’re about the final closure of Jerusalem – as if it isn’t closed already. The grand compromise is really the grand theft – signed and delivered – once and for all – no Palestinian claims left.

John Kerry has stated it often and, if you look carefully, the European Union has as well. Is there any reason to disbelieve them?

Those who have the power to do something, the United States and Europe, are former and present empires. They aren’t going to push the Jewish/Israeli empire too far, if at all. Their strategic interests are at play. The history of Jews in Europe and the importance of the Jewish vote and influence in the United States casts a huge political shadow.

Outside efforts to stop that train – by “friends” of the Palestinians – have been piecemeal; and they appeal to the powers that be – Israel, the Jewish community, America, the United Nations.

Even after Gaza, the opposition – at least with institutional clout – remains in the same place. Their outrage is communicated through recited positions. That haven’t gone anywhere – for decades.

Are they awaiting another Gaza or another crushed uprising to trot out their adamant positions once again?

Resistance among Jews and Christians to the limitations of those appeals has been growing. The reckoning, a wholesale break with everything that has gone before, is being called for. But this, too, is sporadic, urged on in crisis situations when the tipping point spills over and the causalities mount to the point where all the political players have to sit up and take notice.

Is anyone in the upper echelons of the “friends” of Palestine listening? Or are those on the frontlines being disciplined once again? “Let us in the know speak for you! We will speak truth to power!”

This truth hasn’t been spoken to power or, more charitably, this truth is inadequate to the power that oppresses. So even if it is truth or part of it – that the Presbyterians vote to divest from several corporations or the Lutherans insist on a two-state solution or the United Nations won’t sponsor a future rebuilding of Gaza – as if this rebuilding of a destroyed Gaza has begun – these truths have become slogans. They bear little relation to Palestinian reality.

Are they spoken, reiterated, insisted upon for the sake of Palestinian freedom or for their own sense of speaking for the voiceless, in other words for their own sense of righteousness?

Thus, intended or not, those who repeatedly peddle the truth that doesn’t cut it become part of a normalized opposition. Somewhat like – or perhaps exactly like – the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams with life tenure and the various American diplomats that are the laughing stock of the world.

When a Bishop, a Secretary of State and a Secretary General of the United Nations – all with seemingly disparate and overlapping constituencies – are so easily mocked individually and together, we’re left to wonder if they mock themselves when they look in the mirror.

Worse is the very real possibility that they don’t recognize their own caricature in the mirror.

So the mockery doesn’t take hold, doesn’t have a place to land – their “opposition” double has taken on a life of its own. But that opposition double has merged into a single personality. A club they have become. Advocates and detractors in their ritualized dance. As Palestine burns.

Is there a way out? Somewhere over the rainbow perhaps. For now, not unless the dance is interrupted by a collective conscience that is willing to sacrifice pension plans, multi-billion dollar portfolios, the status of upholding interfaith cooperation, the rules of international diplomacy and the cache of weapons battle-field tested on innocent Gazans.

Call it the Palestine solidarity challenge. Upping the BDS call for a situation that cannot wait decades or even another day.

Will the Palestine solidarity challenge be responded to? Beware of yet another letter or statement. They already fill volumes of Palestinian discontent.

So why not publically reject the helping hand that spells your doom? Why not publicly rebuke friends that won’t sacrifice on your behalf?

The truth of the matter, borne out by history, is that the “friends” of Palestine self-interest across the board is too ingrained, too evident and too easily disguised in political and religious pieties to come to your aid.

For the most part, the outstretched helping hand isn’t for your taking. Has it ever been?