ON THE OCTOBER 7 QUESTION: DO YOU CONDEMN?  October 7 is deeply  rooted in history, argues

Abdullah M. Abu Shawesh   

Since October 7th, several inquiries were carefully drafted by numerous western media sources and used, as an introduction for any interview on their screens with the aim of steering and directing conscience of the listeners and viewers. In this article, I am going to address one of these questions.

After a lengthy description of what happened in the morning of October 7th, based for sure, on the Israeli fabricated and exaggerated hollowed narrative, came the same repetitive, typical and starter question, do you condemn?

For sure, we all watched on the screens how the Palestinian fighters invaded the 1967 borders and no doubt, we all know that many Israeli soldiers died on that morning, we also saw many Israeli civilians escorted to Gaza and became prisoners. This should not be discussable, otherwise we will engage in the deaf dialogue.

Once the anchors started by this question with its lengthy introductory description, it means you are already cornered and trapped, since it is evident, they look for one out of two answers YES or No. I personally believe it is absolutely unfair, because by saying YES or No, you already participate in isolating this exact day from its historical context, and in cutting the umbilical cord from its historical womb.

In politics, particularly these types of events and for the sake of revealing the truth and uncovering the full picture, we need a sufficient space for dialogue and discussions, otherwise, we will be forced to adopt and align; without any free choice, with the position of one side. If we all agree that the wars and manmade catastrophes should be tackled with their roots and historical background this will lead to talking more about the current open show of genocide.

October 7th has already happened, and out of what we saw on the social media and the numbers and statistical figures that have been issued, there are still many things to be uncovered and many secrets need to be revealed, so that we all know the complete and exact truth. It’s possible that this won’t occur very soon and that it will remain a secret for many years to come. We are all aware that military secrets are not allowed to be revealed to the public since they require extensive ornamentation, strategic planning, and artistic touches to be altered prior to publication.

October 7th is deeply rooted in history, as 106 years ago, the UK sow the seeds for the pain, unjust, oppression and persecution of the Palestinian suffering today by issuing the ominous and notorious Balfour Declaration on November 2nd, 1917.  At that time, the UK even didn’t have any existence or footprint on our historical land, Palestine. In this declaration, they gifted our land to the foreigners, European Jews to build their own state over this land, with a complete neglect and disregard to the indigenous people, and their fundamental political rights. Not only that, the declaration considered us as minority people with civil rights only.

October 7th can’t be isolated from Al-Nakba (the catastrophe), the ethnic cleansing we have been subjected to in 1948, after tens of massacres committed against our people by the Jewish Terrorist Zionist Gangs, such as Lehi, Irgun and Haganah.

The memory of Deir Yasin, King David hotel and Al Tantura, besides many others, is still alive and unforgettable, these massacres led the majority of the Palestinians to become refugees in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, West Bank and Gaza. In 1948, the foreigners with the full support from many Western countries succeeded to expel the Palestinian people and built their State on 78% of our historical land, and the Palestinian political question that had been on the UN table has now shifted and become a pure humanitarian question, and talks are all focused on the amounts of aid needed to serve the internally displaced Palestinian people.

October 7th also can’t be discussed without connecting it to June 6th, 1967, when Israel succeeded to occupy the remaining 22% of the historical land of Palestine. Since that time, it has been 56 years of oppression, unjust, Jewish supremacy, killing, arbitrary arrests, torching, ill-treatments to the endless list of the occupation menu and recipe that the Palestinians have been subjected to.

October 7th tied with umbilical cord in its womb, the history and lengthy complicity of many Western countries, political leaders and decision makers. October 7th is the heavy price we all pay for the fanatic, maniacs and messianic dreamers, who have been ruling Israel since many years ago. Also, it’s the natural result of the intensive and nonstop Israeli official incitement against the Palestinian people.

October 7th is a natural reaction to everything mentioned above as well as to the millions of details we can never forget. It is impossible to fairly treat this particular day unless every one of you puts himself briefly in the shoes of the Palestinian people, imagine yourselves living, only one hour, under the constant atrocities and perpetual unjust situation.

October 7th clearly shows the wide rift on the global discourse and blind support that the occupation is still receiving from many corrupt political leaders. In contrast, it also shows the wide and great influence to the non-classical media sources that reshaped the global conscience and put the wheels on the right rail again. The biased media outlets did not monopolize the air and wash the global brains, all have another neutral and decent sources of information and will not be blind again, this is a crucial point.

October 7th also exposed many western countries political leaders and media outlets who were not shy in supporting openly the onslaught of our people, which shows that millions of decent people, from all the faiths and different beliefs, stand strong for their real values. This juncture throws away the fig leaf and displays the shame of the hypocrisies, lips service providers, democracy and human rights theorizers, when in the real and needed practical level they became totally naked and proved to be big liars and hypocrites.

This is a tip of an iceberg, so yes, we should all condemn the roots of October 7th, Belfour declaration, tens of massacres committed against us that led to the ethnic cleansing in 1948, the 56 years of occupation, the settlement expansions, the desecrating of Al Aqsa mosque and the Holy Tomb, the daily oppression, the Jewish supremacies, the proven apartheid practices, absolute immunity sheltering the killers, the total complicity, the paralyzed UNSC, the double standards that is ruling the world, the total misconception and fraud information surrounding our cause, to endless list of a well pre-engineered tools and polices of oppression of the Palestinian people for more than one century, this is the only way to make sure that we are all fully aware of what and why October 7th happened.

If we all succeed to tackle the roots of the problem and put our fingers on the exact reason for this continuous pain, this mean October 7th will be a great wake-up call for all, it means that we are paving the way to a real and sustainable peace process.

 A just solution for the Palestinian Question based on the rule of international law, UN Resolutions 181, 194, 242, 388 and many other related UN resolutions that should lead to embodiment of the State of Palestine on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, along with a fair solution of the Palestinian refugees based on the UN resolution 194; is the only accurate and legitimate way to guarantee that no other October 7th and the open slaughtering screened party will be repeated again.

 H.E. Shawesh is Palestinian Ambassador to Nigeria