- Then and Now
by Michael S. Ladah
The struggle for education under adverse conditions is not new
to students of the Friends Schools, or to most Palestinian
students. It has its roots in the 1950s and the early 1960s
when the struggle was less physical and appeared, at first
glance, to be less confrontational.
The West
Bank and Gaza are under siege by a ruthless foreign occupation force.
Palestinians need not be reminded of this fact. The occupation touches
every aspect of life in the territories. House demolitions, uprooting of
trees and other forms of collective punishment are all new tactics of an
Israeli occupation force that has no regard for Palestinian life or
Palestinian property. Today, the targets of Palestinian aggression, and
the Palestinian struggle itself, are better defined. The brutal occupation
forces and those who command them are the enemies of the Palestinian
people. In the 1950s, our enemies were not so well defined.
Today's
Palestinian students and those in the 1950s share common challenges: the
lack of resources, the absence of financial support, and the lack of
opportunity for higher education--to name just a few. In my days at the
Friends, when everything seemed to be going wrong, when the suffering was
no longer bearable and hope seemed all but extinguished, my generation
found its way through the maze through its persistence, its perseverance
and its belief in the fundamental goodness of the people of this Earth.
Today’s students can also find their way out of this same despair, but
they also must believe, in spite of all the suffering and the pain they
endure with each passing day. They must believe in the principles taught
by the Friends and its founders. They must believe in civil disobedience
as an alternative to violence and militancy, methods that only play into
the hands of right-wing Israelis, especially those who seek to demonize
the Palestinian people and their leadership. They must rise above hatred,
even in the face of brutal repression. They must learn from the teachings
of Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, and the protracted
struggles to deliver their nations from the grips of oppression, injustice
and inhumanity.
Today’s
students face another challenge: to overcome the temptation to hate,
to overcome the temptation to seek revenge against civilians, and to
overcome the temptation to perpetuate the cycle of hatred. If they do not,
they will become the enemy they are resisting. This is the main enemy of
today’s generation. This enemy is potentially more destructive to the
fabric of Palestinian society than all the tanks, helicopters and F-16s
that the Israeli military can muster. It poses an even greater
threat than the closures, the isolation and the deception perpetrated
against the Palestinian people. It threatens to destroy our humanity from
within.
As my
generation persisted, today’s generation will persist. With the support of
their schools, their faculty and their staff, and with the support of the
Palestinian community world wide, Palestinian students will someday, in
spite of all these challenges, find their way through the maze because of
their persistence, perseverance and their belief in the goodness of this
Earth.Michael S. Ladah is a
Friends Boys School graduate (class of 1958). He is the author of
"Quicksand, Oil and Dreams: The Story of One of Five Million Dispossessed
Palestinians."
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