PA daily op-ed: Long-term goal is to get back “all parts of Palestine”
“When my two feet stood on the soil of Gaza for the first time, and this happened in 1994, I was seized with some kind of dizzy joy…
When I started looking at the wide sea, I asked myself: ‘If this is Palestine’ – and it certainly is – ‘do I consider myself as someone who has returned to it? If Gaza is a precious part of the homeland’ – and again, it certainly is – ‘then where is the promised Palestine, with its Haifa, with its [Mount] Carmel, with its Jaffa, with its Nazareth and with all its Galilee lands?’
… And now I say: ‘Alright, this isn’t our whole land, but this is at least the part of the homeland that is available to us.’
… If Gaza and the West Bank are only an available part [of the homeland], this means that I dream of more than that. And what about the Galilee, the Triangle [Israeli region bordering the West Bank with a large Arab population] and the Negev? In other words, if I consider what the Oslo [Accords] brought to be only an available part [of the homeland], therefore I secretly believe in the right of return to all parts of Palestine.
…But this heavy price that my people have paid in goodwill cannot be the end of the story, since it is still at its beginning, and we must expect more complex details and data, just as we cannot be content with what happened; Palestine is not a market of give and take, but a permanent right that passes from generation to generation. The new generation is more stubborn in requesting this right, and a right that is demanded is not lost.
…It is possible that the leader will need to use complex tactics that are difficult to understand in certain situations and [under certain] conditions. We put our hopes in the outcome and the outcome says that if we have sacrificed, suffered and were displaced, we stay committed to the promise. The available part – or the part that is not completely available – is no more than a stop on the way.”
When I started looking at the wide sea, I asked myself: ‘If this is Palestine’ – and it certainly is – ‘do I consider myself as someone who has returned to it? If Gaza is a precious part of the homeland’ – and again, it certainly is – ‘then where is the promised Palestine, with its Haifa, with its [Mount] Carmel, with its Jaffa, with its Nazareth and with all its Galilee lands?’
… And now I say: ‘Alright, this isn’t our whole land, but this is at least the part of the homeland that is available to us.’
… If Gaza and the West Bank are only an available part [of the homeland], this means that I dream of more than that. And what about the Galilee, the Triangle [Israeli region bordering the West Bank with a large Arab population] and the Negev? In other words, if I consider what the Oslo [Accords] brought to be only an available part [of the homeland], therefore I secretly believe in the right of return to all parts of Palestine.
…But this heavy price that my people have paid in goodwill cannot be the end of the story, since it is still at its beginning, and we must expect more complex details and data, just as we cannot be content with what happened; Palestine is not a market of give and take, but a permanent right that passes from generation to generation. The new generation is more stubborn in requesting this right, and a right that is demanded is not lost.
…It is possible that the leader will need to use complex tactics that are difficult to understand in certain situations and [under certain] conditions. We put our hopes in the outcome and the outcome says that if we have sacrificed, suffered and were displaced, we stay committed to the promise. The available part – or the part that is not completely available – is no more than a stop on the way.”