|
Were I An Historical Icon
by Edna Yaghi
"What is a cynic? A man
who knows the price of everything and the value of
nothing." Oscar Wilde
Lately I discovered that the
world is overflowing with cynics. Take for example, how the
international community is disturbed about the Taleban’s
destruction of the towering statues of Buddha. The UN General
Assembly urged the Taleban of Afghanistan to honor their
previous commitments to protect the cultural heritage of their
country. A resolution approved by consensus of more than 100
countries beseeched the Taleban to take immediate action to
prevent further destruction of what they call the
irreplaceable relics, monuments and artifacts.
I discovered that if I were an
ancient inanimate relic, the world would come rallying forth
to preserve me and pronounce me irreplaceable. If I were
considered an endangered species, there would be volunteers
from every country who would diligently work to preserve what
remains of my fellow cohabitants and me.
But I am a Palestinian from
Ramallah. Though I am not inanimate, I am an endangered
species. Yet, no one has rushed to my defense. No General
Assembly has urgently called for my protection, there are not
over 100 countries to beg the Israelis to save me and there
are no volunteers from all over the world to worry about my
extinction.
Because the Israelis have built
trenches to isolate me from the rest of the world and because
of the Israeli siege, blockades, closures, curfews and
collective punishment, my very existence is at stake. I have
been denied access to proper health care, to making a
livelihood, from going to the market, from peaceful
demonstrations, from attending classes at Beirzeit University
and from visiting the sick who live across the barriers that
have been set up to liquidate me. Every aspect of my life is
being destroyed as I helplessly watch and while the cynics
worry about the giant statues of Buddha half a world away.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon sheds his crocodile tears as he tells
the world that he is willing to talk peace only when the
Palestinians stop the violence. I know that the Israeli
leaders are masters of deception but come on now, in all
honesty and in all fairness, I ask you, just who is being
violent?
I realize that ancient
artifacts, relics, and mammoth statues of Buddha are valued
more than Palestinians. I realize that my life is of no worth
to anyone but me, though I myself believe in the sanctity of
all life. My tears have turned to blood because of how much I
have cried for the dead that are carried away in what has
become not the rare but the norm. Palestinian graveyards are
full of the newly fallen and every day, Israeli sharpshooters
aim to permanently maim or kill.
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres
said that Israel’s new government would take swift steps to
ease Palestinian economic hardships and pave the way for a
resumption of peace talks. But as his forked tongue wags,
trenches are dug deeper, houses are shelled in the middle of
the night, the IDF bursts into the homes of the innocent and
arrests parents of terrified children, farms are destroyed,
tress uprooted, and homes bulldozed. Yet I do not hear the
outrage of the international community. I hear no one
demanding an end to these daily war crimes that are being
waged against the Palestinians.
Were I your inanimate historical
icon, you would do your best to preserve and safeguard me.
Remember, the world is full of cynics who know the price of
everything but the value of nothing. My blood in on your hands
and until you do something to stop the liquidation of my
people and me, you will not be able to wash it away.
Source:
by courtesy & © 2001 Edna Yaghi
by the same author:
Reproduction in whole or
in part without permission is prohibited.
-
-
|
