But acts of defiance, resistance, solidarity and resilience.
I was honored to be the keynote speaker for the North Carolina Palestinian American Inc.’s Inaugural Roots of Resilience Banquet this past weekend. Below are my transcribed remarks, edited and amended for clarity and length:… But essentially what we’re looking at is a position where, for the Israelis, they are in a place that six months ago I didn’t think they would be in. There are significant operational, strategic, and political benefits to the ceasefire for the Israelis. The Israelis have been successful in Lebanon, in Syria, in Iran, in one way or another, in achieving what they see as their strategic needs.
And there is now a crossroads for the Israelis, and I do not know which way they will go. They may continue the genocide in Gaza, which is certainly what they speak of in Israel. When the Israeli cabinet approved the ceasefire resolution, they said, we will resume our military operations – meaning they will resume the genocide. We will occupy all of Gaza, they said, and we will take control of all humanitarian aid. And that’s a promise the cabinet made.
The other side of it is that everything we can say about Lebanon, Syria, Iran, even, God help me for saying this, Gaza, those are all, what in the military we called, supporting efforts.
For the Israelis, the goal has always been the West Bank. And they are on the cusp of beginning their annexation. The operations, of course, that we see now, Operation Iron Wall, people familiar with Israeli history, with their politics, with their Zionist ambitions, know the importance of that phrase, the Iron Wall.
And Operation Iron Wall has begun in the West Bank. So for the Israelis, whether they continue with their genocide in Gaza or move into what has always been their goal, always has been their priority, always has been the most important thing to them, the annexation of the West Bank, I cannot tell you, but I assume we will see in the next months.
I’m going to leave my geopolitical comments at that, and I want to get into more metaphysical aspects of this, if you will.
When I came home and I did radio and YouTube and other things talking about what I had seen from my visit to Palestine, it was noted over and over again, Matt, you’re not speaking about hope. Where’s the hope in all of this? How come you’re not being more positive? And I couldn’t. And people got upset with me…and I said the same thing I’ll say to you all:
After being there, after sharing food with them, after meeting their children, after being in their homes, how can I come home and give false hope? How can I come home and give a false testimony? How can I go home and give a false narrative?
And so I do not look at hope. I don’t believe in [words of] hope.
In Palestine a young woman told me of radical acts of hope. I asked her, what are these radical acts? These acts are what continues my work, she said. And just to let you know who she was, she was a lead author of the Amnesty International report defining what’s happening in Gaza as a genocide.
What she said was, these radical acts are this:
The farmers in Gaza who go into the fields to get food for their people and in doing so are murdered by the Israelis.
The fishermen in Gaza who go out to sea to bring food back for their people and who are murdered in their boats by the Israelis.
The municipal workers in Gaza who go out to try and get the water pipes turned on, to try and stop the sewage, and who are murdered by the Israelis in the streets.
The teachers in Gaza who teach the children and who, for that act, in their schools, are murdered.
I don’t want to speak about hope.
What I want to speak about is defiance.
I want to speak about resistance.
I want to speak about solidarity.
And I want to speak about resilience.
And I think all these, and I’m no one to tell you all, and I recognize my place in this room, I think this is what informs the idea of sumud.
Defiance.
There is no better image of defiance than what we’ve seen in the last week. First day of the ceasefire, what occurs? Thousands and thousands of Palestinians turn out into the streets in Gaza. The armed resistance is on the streets, showing that they have not been defeated. The genocide has occurred. The destruction has occurred. The suffering is still ongoing. It will go on for generations. But the defiance is there. The Palestinians have not been beaten.
When I was there in the West Bank, we went in East Jerusalem to a place called Silwan. I’m sure many of you are familiar with Silwan, a neighborhood and community the occupation is trying to take it over.
And just in the past year, through November, there may have been more since, but in the past year, 15 homes have been destroyed…it’s not a very big neighborhood. And 100 more are scheduled for demolition.
You go and you meet the people there, and we met one gentleman and his wife, you may be familiar with him because he is a leader of resistance in East Jerusalem, Fakhri Abu Diab and his wife Amneh.
The home that he was born in, the home he was raised in, the home which they raised their children was destroyed. What did they do? They built it again.
And then when the Israeli soldiers and the settlers came back and destroyed it again, what did they do? They put a caravan, they put a trailer there, and the Israelis threatened to destroy that as well. You see those acts of defiance continuously over and over again.
We see it here as well. And where’s Rania Masri?
There she is. And Rania, first of all, I hope you know how much of a guiding star you’ve been for me and so many other people.
If people remember over the summer, there was a state senator from Georgia, an Arab American, whom Rania confronted. And Rania told this state senator, you can throw your lot in, you can collaborate with the powers that are carrying out this genocide against your people, but me and my people will never wave the white flag of surrender.
You see the resistance, whether it’s the armed resistance or the nonviolent resistance. And of course, the nonviolent resistance has been horribly, horribly subjugated in the last year and a half. But we see the resistance. We see it continually.
I’m not here to debate about whether the armed resistance or the nonviolent resistance is the right manner. And anyone who watches this cannot believe that armed resistance is not right. And in fact, international law tells us that the Palestinian people have a right to armed resistance, as does natural law.*
No one can look at this and say that resistance is unjustified. Resistance is necessary. And resistance is the only act acceptable under occupation. And you see that resistance over and over again, without end, without defeat.
I will say this though, because again, I do not want to come here and tell you things that are false. Individuals and families that I knew who were part of the resistance from my previous trip to Palestine, who I stood with, in solidarity with and took part in actions with, they have been broken. The Israelis are cruel. And against the iron and the steel of the Israelis and the American Empire, flesh cannot hold up.
But that’s a mistake, though, of the occupation. It’s a mistake of the Empire to think that the diminishment, the destruction of individuals and families will somehow destroy the Palestinian people. That flesh is equal to spirit. Because we know that’s not true. Because we know history tells us that’s not true, look at the last 100 years of Palestinian history.
And if you go there and you stand with the Palestinian people, you know that’s not true. There’s solidarity as well. And when you’re there, you hear this continuously from the Palestinian people. Because who do the Palestinian people have to depend upon? The Jordanian government, the Egyptian government, the Saudi government, the Turks?
Who can they depend upon? I was in Ireland back in December. And the Irish people have been great. Because the Irish struggle is intertwined with the Palestinian struggle. The Irish understand that. But the Irish themselves understand the reality of their government, the duplicity of statements versus deeds.
You see the reality is that, in the last year, the Irish have increased their trade with the Israelis in dual-use products, meaning things that can be used both for military and commercial purposes, by a factor of seven.
Israel has two massive coal-fired power plants that provide about 20% of their electricity. You know who provides a large chunk of the coal to Israel? The same nation that is leading the genocide case in the International Court of Justice, South Africa.
So, who do the Palestinian people have to rely upon?
And you’ve heard this. When I was there, you heard it over and over how grateful the Palestinian people were for us being there. And they also said this over and over again: where are the internationals? We don’t see you. You need to come. You are who we have to support us. We cannot depend upon any governments.
So, I’ll make a case here, particularly for those of us with white faces and European last names to go there.** I have resources I can provide later for organizations, whether to be on an educational delegation or whether to be on a protective or accompaniment solidarity mission.***
We, as Americans, must stand up against our own government’s actions. We all know the only thing that the United States government has not done during this genocide is to actually drop the bombs themselves. Other than that, the US government has done everything else. This is just as much America’s genocide as it is Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people.
Finally, resilience. When we were there, we had a morning open because we were going to meet some people in Jerusalem. Because they were Palestinian, they weren’t allowed into Jerusalem. So, we had a free morning, so we did some sightseeing. And we went to all the places you would expect to go. We went to the Mount of Olives, we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City, and we also went to the Garden of Gethsemane.
And in the Garden, of course, is where the olive trees are. Olive trees that are more than 2,000 years old. You do not have to be a believer to understand this story and to take this story for what it means. Olive trees that witnessed Jesus as he was defying, as he was resisting imperial and religious authority, as he was defending his people and his faith. He knew what was coming. And in that Garden what did he say? He said, “Father take this cup from me.” But then he said, “thy will be done.”
And there is no greater message of resilience to me than that, in spite of the fear, in spite of the reality of the iron and steel which is faced. This desire, no, the need to resist, the need to be defiant, the need to be in solidarity with your people and seeing it through. That is what those olive trees in the Garden witnessed 2,000 years ago and that is what the olive trees across Palestine witness today.
[Tonight’s event focuses on the olive trees.] So, you look at the olive trees themselves and the role of the olive trees in the defiance of the occupation, right, in resilience. The olive trees have solidarity with the sun and the water and the earth. But they also have solidarity with the true indigenous people of the land, the Palestinian people. And that is why the occupation hates the olive trees so much. As much as the occupation hates the armed resistance in Jenin and Nablus so much.Just as the occupation hates the Palestinian flag. Outside of the center of Hebron or Nablus or Ramallah, in the West Bank you will not see the Palestinian flag. If it’s up for a second, the Israelis tear it down because they’re afraid of it. Because they’re afraid of everything that that flag represents. And that flag, at least to me, doesn’t represent hope. It represents defiance, resistance, solidarity, and resilience.
What other option is there? Simply to hope? What other option do we have here but to be in solidarity, to resist as we can, to be defiant as we must? As the Palestinian people must be resilient so must we, because, again, what other option do they have? What option do we have?
So I’ll not say hope, I’ll say defiance
I won’t look to hope, I’ll look to resistance.
I will not express sentiments of hope, but acts of solidarity.
And I will not trust in hope, but in the resilience of a people.
Thank you again.
Free Palestine.
*The question is not over the right to armed resistance but over its strategic, moral and political effectiveness.
**Not only for the optics, but because white Americans enjoy easier entry into and movement within Palestine and Israel.
***Organizations the provide solidarity delegations to Palestine (I went in November with Sabeel):
International Solidarity Mission: https://palsolidarity.org/
Faz3a: https://www.defendpalestine.org/
Tent of Nations://tentofnations.com/volunteer/
World Council of Churches: https://www.oikoumene.org/what-we-do/eappi
Christian Peacemaking Teams: https://cpt.org
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions: https://icahd.org
Sabeel: https://sabeel.org
