You Are an Arab; Imagine That
- From: "Faris Jawad" <ana_faris_bila_jawad@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2005 12:12:46 -0400
You Are an Arab; Imagine That
By Ramzy Baroud
"Why are Arabs always angry?" a reader recently asked me, in a message
filled with sarcasm and thoughtlessness. I refrained from replying right a
way, because he seemed little interested in listening. I couldn't help but
wonder how he might feel if he himself was an Arab. So, I am writing back.
Imagine for a moment that you are an Arab.
For years you watch Palestinians being slaughtered, their land invaded and
reinvaded, and for years witnessing the United States government block any
attempt to punish those who aggressed upon the people whom you call "my
people".
Not only have the United States' vetoes at the United Nations Security
Council suffocated any initiative to deploy even unarmed observers to
provide badly needed protection for Palestinians, but, thanks to billions of
annual US funds, Israel manages to expand illegal settlements and provide
its army with the greatest killing machines of all time.
Your human rights are never brought up unless an outside power is using the
subject to inflict political pressure on your ruler. You're worth a press
release by a human rights group once every blue moon, a release that no one
bothers to read. You simply matter to no one.
You are an Arab and have been watching Iraq being invaded under the pretext
that it possesses weapons of mass destruction, enough to annihilate
civilization, as we know it. You are gripped by fear, not fearing the harm
of the alleged weapons, but the disastrous attack and occupation of a
battered country, one that you often called the center of your civilization.
Then, since you are still an Arab, you watch giant multinational
corporations flood Iraq, to buy and sell its oil without the consent of its
people. In fact, you witness Israelis flooding the "center of your
civilization", seeking cheap oil and demanding pipelines that would go
through their ports.
Meanwhile, Israel still holds millions of your Palestinian brethren hostage
to curfews and checkpoints amid the constant fears of endless deadly strikes
and assassinations.
To your surprise, you learn that no weapons of mass destruction are even
found in Iraq. You hear top American officials say that Saddam might have in
fact destroyed his weapons prior to the invasion. You hear another say Iraq
is swimming in oil. You knew it all along and were shunned when you tried to
explain what you had discovered.
You watch thousands of right wing missionaries flooding the weakened Iraq,
vowing to convert your people to a religion that is not theirs. Others call
your prophet a "devil" and your religion "evil" and demand that your school
curriculum change to fit the agenda of some think-tank 15,000 miles away
from your home, alien to your culture, language and heritage.
You learn of occupation soldiers mass raping your brothers and sisters in
Iraq. The British daily mirror tells you that soldiers enjoyed themselves to
the point that they took photos of raped men to commemorate the occasion,
and were only uncovered by a chance.
You watch your people's history looted and set ablaze.
You cannot help but notice that American weapons were not only killing
Iraqis, but Palestinians too. You learn that mostly American made weapons
are the ones that claimed the lives of those Palestinian children you keep
seeing on television.
You learned that the man who caused their death, Ariel Sharon has been
granted a new title, "a man of peace" by President George Bush. You wonder
if Bush realizes that Sharon's last nickname was the "Bucher of Beirut."
You try to escape. You invested in a small satellite dish and decide to
watch mindless entertainment. To your surprise, you and your people are the
hot topic for entertainment. In Hollywood, you are filthy, smelly, repulsive
and backward. You deserve no respect. You are the bad "Ayrab", the devious
womanizer whose death in the end of a movie must symbolize a happy ending.
You try to once more escape, this time you run away from oppression, poverty
and your bitter memories. You sneak into France, to Italy, to Spain, to
Australia, to the US. You think your college degree will open doors for you.
They are all sealed and you find your self handcuffed and "shipped" back.
You lose it one day, and escape to Tora Bora in Afghanistan with all the
other "angry Arabs." They are all killed when a "war on terrorism" is
declared. You find your way through Pakistani villages to your home country
and there you are caught and tortured. Once you even cross the desert to
Iraq. There you are killed. Your body is left on the road leading to Baghdad
for days.
Then your brother decides to chase after another destiny. He chooses another
route for himself. He manages to live in the United States. He spends his
nights writing letters to the editor expressing the rage you once felt. They
are never published. He reflects on his feelings by keeping a journal filled
with poetry, flags and pictures he draws of Palestinian children.
He hears US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice threaten other
countries in your region that they will be dealt with through a "made in
America" solution.
Later that night, he watches a program aired by BBC called "Israel's Secret
Weapons." The program says that Israel is the "world's sixth largest nuclear
arsenal with small tactical nuclear weapons ... as well as medium-range
nuclear missiles launchable from air, land or sea."
He also learns that Israel has undeclared biological and chemical
capabilities and used an unknown gas against Palestinians in Gaza two years
ago that sent hundreds of people to the hospital with severe convulsions.
No US official comments on the reports, except Mrs. Rice, who describes
Israel as the United States' partner and exchanges friendly smiles and warm
handshakes with those who developed such deadly agents when she is in Tel
Aviv. Also, the overwhelming majority of the US Congress just finishes
signing a letter to Bush demanding that he never pressure Israel.
Your brother writes a letter to the editor expressing his dismay, as he
never did before. No one responds and the letter is never published.
Instead, he resorts to his journal. He writes a poem filled with curses and
angry phrases that didn't rhyme.
I still cannot help but wonder: If you were an Arab, wouldn't you be angry?
*Ramzy Baroud is the editor-in-chief of Palestine Chronicle, and the editor
of the anthology titled: "Searching Jenin, Eyewitness Accounts of the
Israeli Invasion."
http://www.apomie.com/youareanarab.htm
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