Reflecting on the Power of Hope

For  the last few days I have been reading a book about the Palestinian poet from Beit Sahhour,Anton Shomali (1914-1979) written by Aziz Al-Asa, a writer and a  researcher. Many of you remember Beit Sahhour not only for the YMCA Shepherds field service during the Christmas celebrations, but for its civil disobedience against the Israeli occupation during the first Intifada which had erupted in 1987.  By then Anton Shomali had passed away.  

  

However, the writer highlights the poetry of Anton which seems to be a documentation of the different historical periods of Palestine, some of which the poet himself  lived through.  There is a reference to the Crusaders, the Ottoman Empire, the British Mandate, the Nakba of 1948 as well as the Israeli occupation of June 1967. 

 

It seemed ironic that while I was reading one of the poems which was an Ode to Hope, I received a notice from a Palestinian-American friend,  Mary Trolan, about a new book: 

A History of False Hope: Investigative Commissions in Palestine, by Lori Allen.  

 

Ever since I can remember, we have been struggling and hoping for justice in our own land.  When we were still in school we heard of one commission after the other coming to study the options for a solution for  Palestine.  No wonder the title of Lori Allen is A History of False Hope.   Why in the first place was there a need for a solution for Palestine?  Is it because Palestine as well as other  countries of the Middle East have always been coveted by colonial powers?  Our parents thought that their liberation  from the Ottoman Empire was truly a new era of Independence, and that the law of the Jungle,  “Might is Right”  had come to an end with the establishment of  the United Nations in 1945 after  the end of World War II.    Unfortunately that did not happen, and the British and French  ended up being the new colonial powers in the region dividing greater Syria according to their own vested interests.   

 

Palestine fell under the British Mandate for twenty five  years, during which the  British  facilitated the implementation of the Balfour declaration* which eventually led to the partition of Palestine by the UN resolution 181 on November 29, 1947, and the dispossession of the Palestinians for not accepting the partition plan.  How could the Palestinians  have accepted to partition their  own land? As if that was not enough,  the UN allocated 56% of Palestine to the Jewish population who owned only 7% of the land at that time. 

 

Once again the United Nations adopted resolution No. 194 on December 11, 1948 to allow  the return of all the  Palestinians who were forced out of the country by the Jewish militias or who fled in fear.  The injustice was so glaring that we were sure it would be redressed.  That is why we never ceased to hope,  not  even after the occupation of the rest of the Palestinian territories in the wake of the June 1967 war.  Once again the United Nations passed a resolution 242 on November22, 1967  for the withdrawal of the Israeli forces based on the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war.  Although that never materialized,  we were  still hoping despite the failure of all the peace negotiations, and  the hopelessness of the situation.  But we do realize that the impotence of this international body seems to be so apparent only when Israel is concerned, and which has always been shielded by the USA.

 

However we keep hoping,  because this is bound to change eventually.  With the lockdowns all over the world due to the Covid 19 pandemic we see more and more webinars taking place in favor of the rights of the Palestinians, and more books published in favor of Palestinians as well which was not possible ten years ago.  That is why we keep quoting the renowned  Arab poet from the Abbasside era Al-Mutanabi, which translates from Arabic as follows:    “Life would be unbearable without a glimmer of hope.”   On the other hand, in his Ode to Hope,  Anton Shomali writes:

 

O HOPE
Without you no one would have rebelled ,no one would have feared
Without you no one would have labored , no one would have worked hard
Without you despair would have darkened the  conscience of every man
Without you life would have become meaningless , abandoned and man idle and dependent
Without you the world would have become a grave for every kindness and every good deed. (Translated from Arabic by Tania Nasir)

However we have to realize that Hope, like Faith, without deeds is dead.  
So as we continue to hope for justice and independence to prevail, we and all our friends who support us, have to work towards that goal in deeds and not only in words.  

 

 

*The Balfour Declaration.

His Majesty's government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country