Salute To Our Muslim Martyrs

Musil Shehadeh

As a Christian Palestinian, I cannot but bow my head in full reverence and admiration to our Muslim brothers who are teaching the Israelis and the world the real meaning of self-sacrifice in the face of cruel occupation.You can call them what you want but you cannot deny them the pinnacle of courage when they offer their own lives at the altar of freedom, not only for their own religious order but also for all of us. No power, be it the Israeli rocket, its F-16s, its tanks, or its nuclear weapons, can stand as a deterrent against such culmination of human sacrifice.

Such martyrdom has created a new chapter in the history of human resistance against occupation that has never been emulated in the history of humanity except for the Japanese kamikaze in the Second World War.

Instead of having the world study the psychological motives behind such courageous acts, they are dismissed naïvely by Israel and its U.S. protégé as simple acts of "terrorism"! Really! Those who sacrifice their lives for freedom are "terrorists," while those who massacre people to keep them under the chains of bondage are engaged in philanthropic acts? Using such bizarre criterion, it would place George Washington, Joan of Arc and Martin Luther King as "terrorists" while Genghis Khan, Attilla the Hun and Sharon as the heads of charitable organizations.Even those who criticize such heroic acts cannot deny that those young men and women, who strap themselves with explosives and sacrifice their lives, fully realize that there are other options for the future. They could have chosen to get married and to have children, or to seek profitable employment and to enjoy the many pleasures of life. They could have followed their instincts to continue living without bringing grief and misery to their loved ones. Yet when they kill themselves and deny themselves the pleasure of living, then there has to exist a very good cause that prompts them to commit such acts of self-destruction. As one of the bereaved mothers explained: life without freedom had no value in the eyes of her beloved martyr-son. They have chosen to die so that they would fight a cruel occupier to liberate their lands, to reject life without dignity, while creating life with freedom for others. Western teaching institutions would rush into explaining how frustration in life could drive people into acting violently, yet they tend to swallow with great relish the Zionist versions when explaining the violent nature of these acts.

American history can easily recall how many Americans died along the road of freedom, in their War of Liberation against the British, nor can they not forget how many Americans lost their lives to achieve equality for all, in their famous 1776 Civil War. Yet the American administration would not hesitate to espouse Sharon's view that his massacre of Palestinian women and children was a war against "terror." The U.S. apathy and flagrant ignorance with the tragic plight of the Palestinians is deepened further when President Bush calls Sharon a man of "peace," a title that Mr. Sharon's Likud constituents even deny!For those of us who are still advocating "give peace a chance," we should not forget that Mr. Sharon's war is not against "terrorism," as he would like us to believe, but rather an aggressive war to occupy our homes and land turning us into slaves in our own homes. His enemies are not those who carry the gun, but anyone who would stand in his way to expropriate more lands from the Palestinians. How else can one explain his closure of the Palestinian profile office in Jerusalem headed by Dr. Sari Nuseibeh? A super moderate Palestinian whose call for the existence of the two States, meeting all of Israeli demands for peace and security along the 1967 borders, could not be matched. Yet he was not spared the wrath of Sharon because he dared to demand the right of Palestinians for their own mini-State? It should be obvious to all of us that Sharon cannot understand any language except the language of force, as no moderate or peace-loving advocate can survive the war imposed upon us by those who are working hard to deny us our rights. It should behoove all of us to support our martyrs and their families, as these are the real heroes of our dignified and legitimate struggle for freedom in our homeland.




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