[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [HumanRights] Two book reviews

[Morton K. Brussel]

Book reviews, one of the book of Mazin Qumsiyeh [our visitor a week  
ago], Sharing the Land of Canaan, the another that he writes on the  
Sabra and Shatila massacres.  ---mkb

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Mazin Qumsiyeh" <qumsi001 at hotmail.com>
> Date: May 6, 2005 10:33:58 PM CDT
> To: Mazin.qumsiyeh at lists.riseup.net
> Subject: [HumanRights] Two book reviews
>
>
> (Note: Mailing List Information, including unsubscription  
> instructions, is located at the end of this message.)
>
> Two book reviews in the latest issue of Holy Lands Studies (a  
> professional journal edited in London by Dr. Nur Masalha): A review  
> by Prof. Elaine Hagopian of my book on Human Rights and the Israeli- 
> Palestinian struggle and my review of a remarkable book on the  
> massacres at Sabra and Shatila by author Bayan Al-Hout. There are  
> many good articles published in that journal.  Readers may want to  
> subscribe or encourage their libraries to subscribe
> http://www.eup.ed.ac.uk/journals/content.aspx?pageId=1&journalId=12168
> Copyright of the following are reserved by HLS
>
> 1) A democratic, secular state of Canaan
>
> Mazin B. Qumsiyeh, Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the  
> Israeli-Palestinian Struggle (London and Ann Arbor: Pluto Press,  
> 2004). 236 pp. Paperback.
>
> Mazin Qumsiyeh has written an extraordinary book in which he  
> provides a meticulously researched and demonstratively compelling  
> case for a single democratic, secular and pluralistic state in  
> Canaan. He prefers Canaan to Israel and/or Palestine, both of which  
> are burdened with emotional baggage. Canaan is historical and  
> ‘neutral’. Qumsiyeh states the purpose of his book is ‘to provide a  
> vision for peace based on human rights supported by international  
> law’. In pursuit of that vision Qumsiyeh clears the way by  
> providing documented and comprehensive responses to all of the  
> issues put forth by Zionists to demonise Palestinians and deny them  
> their legal and moral rights. These include Jewish-Zionist  
> mythological claims to the land dating back 2000 years before the  
> alleged Jewish diaspora; Palestinian refugees; Jerusalem; violence  
> and terrorism; and the actual cause of the failure of the ‘peace’  
> plans, especially Oslo. He also addresses, head on, the assertion  
> by Zionists that Zionism is the answer to antisemitism and that  
> Israel is a democracy. He notes that Israel uses these two  
> constructed images to ‘justify’ its violation of humanitarian and  
> international law in ‘defence’ of Israelis and Israel.
>
> Qumsiyeh has pulled together a wealth of existing data on the  
> various issues and applies his keen analytical mind to them. The  
> result is an enlightening clarity which exposes the absurdity of  
> Zionist claims. Starting with the original inhabitants of Canaan he  
> concludes, based on the many sources he consulted, that these  
> Semitic-speaking, multiethnic, and multi-religious communities  
> shared Canaan collaboratively and peacefully then, and they can do  
> so today. The extensive references demolish the Zionist claims of a  
> single Jewish origin in Canaan by demonstrating that Ashkenazi Jews  
> (European), dominant in Israel today, do not share ‘genetic’  
> affinity with ‘Oriental’ (‘Mizrahi’) Jews. Therefore, the  
> Ashkenazis’ assertion of a ‘rightful’ return to an alleged ancient  
> Israel is faulty. On the other hand, ‘Mizrahi’ Jews and  
> Palestinians do share ‘genetic’ affinity.  He draws the conclusion  
> that Palestinian-Israeli coexistence is possible especially when  
> knowledge of this genetic ‘kinship’ becomes known along with the  
> present realities on the ground. Nonetheless he insists that  
> Ashkenazi Jews now live in Canaan, and the foundation for  
> coexistence includes them.
>
> Having clarified the historical context, Qumsiyeh follows with  
> chapters that systematically take on all the issues and excuses  
> which Israel and its US supporters have argued to stymie efforts  
> for a durable peace. His final chapter fleshes out his vision for a  
> durable peace based on human rights and international law. He makes  
> it clear that attempts at a solution which are not rooted in human  
> rights and international law have been and will be doomed to fail.  
> He encourages Palestinians, Israelis and others of like mind to  
> form the nucleus of a movement to educate and advocate for  
> democratic secular state in Canaan based on equality and mutual  
> respect.
>
> Like other serious scholars, he attributes the failure of Oslo to  
> Israeli determination to force Palestinians to accept cantonal  
> Bantustans and other degrading features, and to reject legal  
> Palestinian refugee rights. Sovereignty in any meaningful way was  
> precluded. Such unjust ‘peace’ efforts will not produce a durable  
> peace but will continue to generate Palestinian resistance to  
> Israeli subservience.
>
> Throughout his book, Qumsiyeh draws on comparative cases where  
> issues such as refugees and citizens’ rights were settled in  
> accordance with human rights and international law. He asks, ‘why  
> not the same for Palestinians?’ His analysis makes the double  
> standards applied to Palestinians stand out in relief.
>
> Qumsiyeh argues convincingly that by denying the rights of  
> refugees, attempting to maintain control over the 1967 territories  
> and violating Palestinian human rights, Israel has made a travesty  
> of humanitarian and international law. No peace can be had if the  
> full set of Palestinian rights is not addressed and if Israel  
> continues to imprison Palestinians behind an extended wall. He  
> further notes that the interconnectedness of Israeli and  
> Palestinian societies and the numerically near equal demographics  
> between both peoples make it impossible today to pursue a two-state  
> solution. Logic and morality drive towards a one-state solution  
> constituted carefully to insure equality of all citizens and to  
> safeguard cultural and religious rights. His analysis demonstrates  
> conclusively that his vision is logical, feasible, and inevitable  
> no matter how long it takes.
>
> I do have one minor observation. On page 149, Qumsiyeh gives the  
> impression that the British Mandate officially began in 1920 by  
> stating that Herbert Samuel, the first British High Commissioner of  
> Palestine (1920-25) replaced the British military governor in  
> Palestine ‘as soon as Britain had secured the League of Nations  
> mandate...’. In actuality, it was the Supreme Council of the Allies  
> at the San Remo Peace Conference that conferred the Mandate for  
> Palestine to Britain on 25 April 1920. The League of Nations was  
> approved in January 1920 by the Versailles peace conference, but it  
> did not exist as such when Ottoman territories were transferred.  
> The League of Nations Council approved the British Mandate for  
> Palestine on 24 July 1922. The Mandate itself was officially put  
> into effect on 29 September 1923. True, the military administration  
> of Palestine was replaced when Samuel, himself a Zionist, was  
> appointed High Commissioner in July1920, but the League Mandate had  
> not been secured at that time. Nonetheless, with Samuel’s  
> appointment in 1920, a shadow British Mandate was de facto initiated.
>
> My minor observation in no way compromises the extraordinary  
> scholarship demonstrated in the book and the originality of its  
> contribution. Qumsiyeh has given us a real road map to a durable  
> peace. He provides a factual foundation rooted in Palestinian- 
> Israeli reality for pursuing a just peace for all people living in  
> modern-day Canaan. I recommend this book to others without any  
> qualification as the most sophisticated analysis of the Palestine- 
> Israel conflict I have read to date. Its form and style make it  
> accessible to interested readers. His work is a tour de force for  
> which he must be congratulated and thanked.
>
> Dr Elaine C. Hagopian
> Professor Emerita of Sociology Simmons College,
> Boston
> Echagop at aol.com
> ==============
>
> 2) Sabra and Shatila remembered
>
> Bayan Nuwayhed Al-Hout, Sabra and Shatila: September 1982 (London  
> and Ann Arbor: Pluto Press, 2004). 462 pp. Paperback.
>
> It would be correct but rather reductionist to state that this  
> remarkable book is the most comprehensive and thorough  
> documentation of the events of the massacres at Sabra and Shatila  
> refugee camps, on the outskirts of Beirut, in September 1982. The  
> mark of a good book is that it leaves the reader changed and this  
> volume does that. Upon first hearing about this book, my first and  
> incorrect inclination was that perhaps I do not need to read it.  
> Many of us Palestinians assume we know the suffering of our people  
> over the past six decades, we have seen it and we have lived it.  
> This thought quickly evaporated after flicking through the first  
> few pages of this book and then it was hard to put it down.
>
> It is appropriate that this edition came out in English after its  
> initial publication in Arabic. Knowingly or unknowingly, many in  
> the Western world lend their name and their tax money to support  
> atrocities like the Sabra and Shatila massacres. Would it help  
> those taxpayers see what is being done with their tax money and US  
> diplomatic support? Would it help bring people to a better  
> understanding of the ‘situation’? More importantly would it bring  
> us closer to see the victims of this particular massacre as people  
> and not mere numbers? Having lived in the US for many years I  
> wanted to look at this English version from that perspective. I  
> also wanted to compare it to other books that relate personal  
> testimonies of survivors of atrocities.
>
> Those murdered in Sabra and Shatila are not around to tell us their  
> stories so we are left with the survivors, those relatives and  
> friends and acquaintances who witnessed the event and/or came to  
> pick up the bodies and the pieces of their shattered lives. Telling  
> their stories is not easy. A writer or editor of such a compilation  
> has the heavy responsibility (and duty) to his or her subjects to  
> let them tell the story with as little interference as possible. It  
> is not easy to craft careful and neutral questions that allow for  
> free and open answers. It is also not easy to select from all your  
> interviews individual accounts to include in a readable book. It is  
> not easy to research names then crosscheck all references and  
> resources to ensure presenting a picture that is as close as  
> possible to the reality of what happened. All this and more are  
> achieved in this book.
>
> The first part of this book consists of six chapters that relay the  
> statements and testimonies of the families and witnesses. The first  
> two chapters cover the place and time and events leading up to the  
> massacres including the encirclement of the camps by the Israeli  
> army. Chapters three-five cover chronologically the events of 16-18  
> September; the horrific forty-hour period in which nearly 2000 men,  
> women, and children were systematically massacred or abducted and  
> ‘disappeared’. Chapter six covers testimonies and the search for  
> victims following the massacres. Forty-six actual testimonies were  
> selected and included in these six chapters out of total direct  
> testimonies gathered on 430 victims (about half Palestinian, 28  
> percent Lebanese, and the remainder belonging to other nationalities).
>
> The second part of this book summarises the research (including  
> field study) conducted by the author into the massacres. Chapter 7  
> reviews results of the detailed field study conducted in 1984.  
> Chapter 8 analyses the issue of the number of victims killed. The  
> chilling method used by Israeli governments to minimise the  
> casualties is analysed in detail. In one part, Al-Hout recounts  
> what renowned British historian Arnold J. Toynbee (1889-1975) once  
> said in debate with Israeli diplomat Yaacov Hertzog in 1961.  
> Hertzog lashed out at Toynbee for mentioning the Nazi atrocities in  
> talking about the massacre of Palestinians in Deir Yassin in April  
> 1948. Hertzog’s contention was that the deaths of a few hundred  
> Palestinians could never be even discussed in relation to the  
> horror of Nazi atrocities. Toynbee’s answer was that ‘Every  
> increase in numbers produces an increase in suffering but it is  
> impossible to be wicked or criminal more than 100%’. The author  
> explains the Israeli attempts at trying to obfuscate reality or  
> minimise the numbers of victims (as happened in the report of Kahan  
> Commission of Inquiry). There are lessons to be learned from that.  
> Yet, the most astonishing fact is that no authority (Israeli,  
> Lebanese, or Palestinian) took it upon itself to compile a list of  
> the victims. As such, the list compiled by this author must remain  
> the most complete such list to date.
>
> There are four appendices to the work. Appendix 1 contains 28  
> tables relating to the field study. Appendix two provides the most  
> comprehensive listing of names of those known killed (906 names) or  
> abducted and missing (484 names). Given that only a handful of the  
> missing were ever found, over 1300 victims are known/recorded.
>
> The book ends with a series of remarkable photographs. Most are  
> ones I have never seen before and I am sure other readers will find  
> equally transforming. Most books place such photos in the middle of  
> the book or close to the beginning. A photograph it is said is  
> worth a thousand words. But a photograph can elicit all sorts of  
> emotions that then detract from the importance of reading the text  
> itself. In this case, the placement of the photos at the end was  
> the right decision and I urge readers to read this text in the  
> order it is presented. For me, this was particularly powerful. I,  
> as a reader was able to read the testimonies and review the facts  
> and figures taking time to draw the relevant lessons learned before  
> I saw at the end a series of pictures of what the scene of the  
> crime looked like. To me the most remarkable and damning evidence  
> of Israeli culpability and the accompanying lies about the  
> massacres are found on pages 304-317 and buttressed by pictures and  
> maps of the Israeli command centre overseeing the camp. Anyone  
> examining this evidence and international law understands the  
> culpability of the Israeli politicians, commanders and soldiers.  
> They knew the camps were undefended, they knew that massacres would  
> be committed by the 150 Phalange militias they invited in, they  
> knew the bloody outcome would happen, and finally they watched  
> without interfering as this unfolded over three days.
>
> I never met the author, Dr Al-Hout, a faculty member at the  
> Lebanese University for the past 25 years. I can only marvel at the  
> amount of efforts over two decades that such a project demanded. It  
> is usually something done by well-financed teams with a cadre of  
> paid staff. For the author to have done this with very limited  
> resources and help is truly admirable.
>
> It was once said that the sign of a good book is that when you  
> close the last page it is like saying goodbye to a dear friend.  
> Well in this case, it is like saying goodbye to hundreds of  
> friends: those who died in those tragic massacres and those who  
> survived to recount the stories and live their lives awaiting  
> justice. If we are to honour them all then we must engage in the  
> quest for peace with justice. When, in a few years, a museum is  
> built for the Nakba (catastrophe) that befell the Palestinian  
> people, it will have a prominent place in it for Sabra and Shatila.  
> This book will be the key resource for this. Those who care for  
> human rights should buy it, read it, and learn the lessons from it.
>
> There is a section at the end of the book, not given a chapter  
> status and seeming as orphaned as the Children of Sabra and  
> Shatila, that is simply titled ‘Conclusion: who was responsible’.  
> For those looking for the simplified answers of assigning blame to  
> just one person or party, they will be disappointed. For those who  
> want to use the lessons learned from this tragedy to prevent future  
> tragedy, the careful analysis here is a must read. From the right- 
> wing Lebanese militia, to the local Israeli commanders guarding the  
> camps, to Ariel Sharon who gave the go ahead, to the Lebanese  
> government, all share some of the guilt. But ultimately, all of us  
> who heard the news and who took no action are responsible for the  
> continuation of a string of atrocities against civilians. On page  
> 324, the author quotes from the song lyrics of the Argentinean  
> singer Alberto Cortez:
>
> “Where was the sun when anger burst at Sabra and Shatila? Where was  
> I? At what party, careless, when I read the news? And where were  
> you–you so eager to defend the oppressed– when the massacre  
> happened? Where is the pride of men? Where were you my friend with  
> the sleeping conscience?”
>
> The road is short between the atrocities of Sabra and Shatila and  
> to those of Jenin, Nablus and Rafah of today. Such books can be our  
> tour guides.
>
> Mazin B. Qumsiyeh, PhD
> Cofounder, AcademicsforJustice.org
> http://qumsiyeh.org
> qumsi001 at hotmail.com
>
> End book Reviews
>
> Mazin
> http://One-Democratic-State.org
>
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