Steven Salaita : “Zionists stole Palestine from its original inhabitants”
How are Palestinians supposed to speak with their gullets compressed by the gun butts of the Israeli army? Mamoun Wazwaz/APA images
I realize I’m being a bit abstruse. Folks with impressive titles are always advising Arabs to be more practical. I don’t want to disappoint them, so I’ll give it a try.
Criticizing Israel and receiving in response a farrago of disapproval for eschewing dialogue produces terrific confusion.
Are we supposed to let somebody vet our criticism before airing it? Is there a special council of dialogic savants to approve the tone and content of anything related to Israel?
How, in any case, are Palestinians supposed to speak with their gullets compressed by the gun butts of the Israeli army?
The confusion doesn’t end here. In these dialogues, what exactly do we discuss? There hasn’t been any misunderstanding.
Zionists stole Palestine from its original inhabitants. Israel doesn’t allow the people it displaced to return. It brutalizes those who remain. It’s not like we have to figure out what the hell went wrong.
I’m not one of those bad Arabs, though, so I welcome calls to dialogue no matter how much they befuddle me. In fact, I’m going to assist our uninvited interlocutors by providing them a simple guide to dialoguing with Palestinians.
This guide is my gift to those who insist on dialogue as an alternative to justice. May they ever use it wisely.