Palmyra is burning

Palmyra is burning! The Temple of Bel lies in ruins and its palm trees are scorched. And the world…the world is watching.

You too are watching. Watching from the heights that you illegally occupied not so long ago and yet, strangely, at this very moment, feel like have always been yours. And you are laughing. Laughing at the morbid melodrama that is unfolding in front of you. Arabs, Muslims, Kurds, Christians, Iranians, Minorities, Extremists – all are protagonists, and all are killing each other. And for once, for once you have no role to play. And the world…the world is watching.

And it so perfectly fits into your narrative. The Zionist dream of a modern-day Jewish homeland was born in 1896, at a time when less than ten percent of the local population of Palestine was Jewish. The pioneering Jews and the Zionists came to this region and made the desert bloom. And truly, a long list of achievements by the State of Israel proves that they really have; achievements that genuinely have to be respected. And now look at what happens when ISIS calls on Sunni Muslims to settle the land of their forefathers. Just as the Zionists had called on the Jews of the world to do so just over a hundred years ago, the Muslims today are doing the same. But this time it is not a diverse mass of people fleeing global persecution and looking for a safe haven. No. This time it is different. And the world…the world is watching.

The fanatic extremist leaders, born out of uncontrolled Saudi Arabian Wahabi’ism, and supported and legitimized by the war torn history of the region, found a large following in the disillusioned and brainwashed second generation immigrant Muslims from all over the world that, through their own failures, feel harmed by Western culture and see this as their only opportunity to make something of their hopeless and usually crime ridden lives. It was also not hard to find some support in the overwhelmingly poverty stricken, uneducated, and disenfranchised minorities of the new fledgling Arab Spring democracies. Or in the poverty stricken, uneducated, and disenfranchised majorities of the old fledgling Arab dictatorships, which for so long had served their purpose. And the foreign funding helped. It always helps. And the world…the world was watching.

But that is exactly the problem. It just fits too perfectly into your narrative. For the second time in just over a hundred years, a politicised religious movement is calling for the mass immigration of one people to and within the region to fulfil ‘biblical’ and ‘divine’ promises. Once more, the human rights, dignity, and lives of hundreds of thousands of people are being sacrificed and pushed aside to fulfil the fanatic religious interpretations of a few. Once again, god is being called to the political drawing room of the Middle East and the borders are being changed accordingly. And for the second time in just over a hundred years, amongst all the hate and savagery, amongst the massacres and the persecution, the wars and the refugees, the silent majority of the region finds itself caught in the middle, just like their fathers and grandfathers. Caught in the crossfire of Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. And this time Ali is shooting too. And the world…the world is watching.

Just as thousands of Yazidis had to flee into the Sinjar Mountains, my grandparents, and 750,000 other Palestinians, fled and marched over mountains, rivers, and deserts to make way for an extreme interpretation of the word of god. To put this into perspective, if the same were to happen in the United Kingdom today, it would mean 40 million British refugees. Nearly 200 million refugees if it were to take place in the United States of America. The coverage this would have gotten if social media had been around then. And there were massacres too – Deir Yassin, the Saliha massacre, the massacre in Lydda. Just like the Yazidis, the Shiites, the Christians, the Kurds, and all the other non-Sunni minorities in parts of Iraq and Syria today, in 1948 Palestine, we stood in the way of one interpretation of the divine scriptures. And the world…the world was watching.

And just as the bearded filth of ISIS is attempting to destroy thousands of years of pre-Islamic history in fulfilment of their sick and twisted mission, attempts were made to erase nearly two thousand years of our history between the biblical Jewish kingdoms, which ended in 70 CE, and the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. Jerusalem, Haifa, Al-Mansura, Beersheba, Ramle, Al-Majdal, Beisan, Kawkab al-Hawa, Acre, and four hundred other towns and villages depopulated or destroyed to make way for your national revival; each single one, our very own little Nimrud. And do not accuse me of anti-Semitism. These events are recorded and documented. This is your history. This is our history. “The compulsory transfer of the Arabs from the valleys of the proposed Jewish state could give us something which we have never had, even when we stood on our own during the days of the First and Second Temples: [a Galilee almost free of non-Jews]. … We are being given an opportunity which we never dared to dream of in our wildest imagination.” And the world…the world was watching

However, as mentioned, the achievements of the State of Israel since and during this ongoing atrocity should not be ignored; achievements that the deranged likes of ISIS can only ever dream of. Ingenious technological advances, a member of the OECD, countless Nobel laureates, and one of the best militaries in the world, just to name a few. You know you are not going anywhere. We know that you are not going anywhere. And in so many respects, over the last few decades, you have proven to the world that this is something positive. But it is time for a new narrative in the Middle East. No level of contributions or advancements, no matter how great, will be able to right the wrongs of your history. Whether we like it or not, and I can assure you the majority of us do not, our bloody and unresolved conflict feeds into the sick narrative of the fanatical lunatics calling themselves ISIS. The displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to achieve your biblical utopia, and the continued denial of our rights, is perfect fodder for their disturbed and skewed religious ideology. More than the petrol dollars from the Gulf and the disillusioned, brainwashed, and uneducated local and foreign masses, our continued failure to resolve this conflict allows these bearded apes to exist and spread their lies. The continued oppression of the Palestinian people has given them a raison d’être, and, ironically, your very success is the model they aspire to imitate. “If their god can achieve it, then surely ours can too.” And once again, amongst all this religious madness, the silent majority of the region finds itself caught in the middle. Shocked into submission. Silenced by the word of god. And the world…the world is watching.

It is time for a new narrative in the Middle East. You have achieved your safe haven and have regained your homeland. It is one thing when these biblical and religious narratives are used to create something constructive and positive. And it makes for a fascinating national story. But it is another when we strive to achieve our own doom by fulfilling religious prophecies that will keep us hostage for generations to come. Whether we do so in Megiddo or in Dabiq. It is time for a human narrative in the Middle East that sees beyond religious differences. Now, more than ever, the time has come to give us our safe haven. The time has come to allow and enable the Palestinians to build their own homeland, on just under a quarter of their ancestral one, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip; the rest of which had to make way for your revived ancient one. It is time to stop nearly fifty years of occupation. Secure borders are achieved through negotiations and by building trust, not through settlements, segregated roads, and checkpoints. This should not be the time of wars, rockets, airstrikes, and tunnels. This should not be the time for appointing ministers that call for the extermination of the Palestinian people. This should not be the time for calling for the destruction of Israel. This should not be the time for proclaiming Islamic Sunni caliphates in god’s name, especially in a region that has suffered from religious extremism for so long. This should not be the time for illegal and internationally condemned settlement expansion to fulfil the word of god. As, regardless of what version you believe in, no sane, omniscient, and omnipotent God would want any of this: war crimes, beheadings, home demolitions, expulsions, murdered teenagers, human rights abuses, scorched teenagers. The Middle East is in desperate need of a new narrative. And the time is now. Now, when the world is watching.

Palmyra is burning! The Temple of Bel lies in ruins and its palm trees are scorched. And the world…the world is watching.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.