Steven Katsineris is confident that the Palestinians will ultimately free themselves from the evil of Israeli oppression. Steven Katsineris is a Melbourne based writer and activist.
Where I live we have these Eucalypt (Gum) trees with massive trunks and large branches.
They look impressive and very strong. But often when it’s windy or at times seemingly without reasons these huge trees just fall over or big branches simply drop to the ground. When you examine the fallen truck or branches you see that the insides are hollow that all that’s left is wood dust. The inside core of the tree is decayed, having been utterly eaten away by ants or termites. Some other things in life are like this. What sometimes seems powerful, even indomitable is merely the external appearance, but the interior is rotten.
A couple of years ago a friend asked me what I thought would happen in the future in Palestine. I said I believed there would be more uprisings in Palestine and this would shake the foundations of Israel. And that because of this and the tensions and divisions this would bring to the surface, the internal pressures inside the colonial, settler state would lead to many fractures. That ultimately these deep inner contradictions in Israeli society, with the different competing Zionist factions and other friction would see Israel start to fall apart. He told me that he didn't believe this for one minute as Israel was just too strong. I told him often such states look strong, but inside they are weak, sharply divided and disintegrating and eventually will crumble away.
He said he thought that the only way for Palestinian struggle to move forward was for the ideas of the political elite in US to be changed by activists in the US lobbying them (I think I remember reading about a US academic putting forward this idea). I told him that wouldn’t happen until things altered in Palestine and around the world, that only tangible change resulting in increasing pressure on the countries supporting Israel from people would see a transformation in attitudes in the west (US, Britain and Australia). I have had some rather scathing criticism from friends and others when I have mentioned this scenario. While I don’t have a detailed picture of exactly how this will happen, I believe the conflict will lead to the unravelling of Israel.
“The apartheid system, Soviet Russia and the Berlin wall all fell within months," Levy said, and anyone who had predicted those events would have been judged insane. “Many times in history things happen in the most unexpected way in the unexpected timing.” He then analogized Israel to a huge tree that mysteriously falls and is found to be “totally rotten on the inside.” - See more.
Like many Palestinians I am also (and have been since the late 1960s) a firm supporter of the one democratic state solution in Palestine as the only viable alternative to the present Jewish state. I remain committed to these ideals, despite the criticisms. Ultimately, it will be up to the resident populace of historical Palestine to decide on this.
“The two state solution is in my view dead. The settlers won.” And there is only one alternative: the one-state solution. It’s not easy. I have no illusions. “But it is the only game that is in town… Therefore the struggle the discourse must be from now on I think a very simple one. Equal rights. That’s all.” – Gideon Levy.
While I am certainly not always right about the course of world affairs I had the same viewpoint regarding the fall of the Berlin Wall, the destruction of the Soviet Union and the Apartheid regime in South Africa. And on these issues, among others I have demonstrated to be right. Many people think the Israelis will make life so unbearably difficult for the Palestinians and that more brutal Israeli suppression will force the Palestinians to give up the their struggle. I believe that the Palestinians will defy and prevail over Israeli repressive policies and make life so unbearable and unworkable for the Israeli occupation and eventually sap the will of the colonial, settler state. In the tenacious battle to carry on, to resist, to endure, to survive, to suffer, it is the Palestinians who will refuse to give in. They will never give up this struggle. Like other Palestinian supporters, I will continue to play whatever part I can to help them achieve their just national rights until victory.
Further information on this, check these links:
Facing down hecklers in NY, Gideon Levy calls for equal rights for all in one state
Israeli society is crumbling under the weight of occupation
Note: I read the Gideon Levy article after writing this piece and was pleasantly surprised to see the same tree analogy he used.
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