By: Octavia Nasr

I’m sick and tired of the pretenders who say, “Palestine is the compass,” and ignore the actual abuses the Palestinians have been enduring at the hands of occupiers, jailers and hostile hosts.

I’m not talking only about what Israel is doing to the Palestinians; I’m also talking about the fact that Palestine – in all its millions of versions (because after decades of conflict, displacement and loss, each Palestinian has his or her own version) – and Palestine is searching for its own compass especially as no Arab nation has given it a viable example or support to exist as an independent nation.

Palestinians are bleeding and want to finally rest in peace. Even Hamas wants peace

Octavia Nasr

Palestinians are bleeding and want to finally rest in peace. Even Hamas wants peace. For the only time in my life I joined an online campaign called “We are all Palestinians” simply because I believed that peaceful people remain quiet for too long and allow the bullies to yack exclusively and nonstop. This gives the impression to the outside world that we are all in agreement and therefore we become labeled as “terrorists” and “violent” and we give others reason to attack us repeatedly and without mercy.

Palestine is not the compass

Palestine is not the compass. Palestine is the excuse for the failures of those who hide behind this slogan. What do you call these people calling for further escalation in Gaza? How about they fight for the right of a third generation Palestinian refugee to be treated decently instead? They can’t teach Palestinians anything about government, infrastructure, or budgets. They can’t give Palestinians hope, strength, moral support, vision or freedom, because they have none.

Think about that next time you flap your lips to say, “Palestine is my compass.” Compass for what? Where are you trying to go and need Palestine to guide you? Drop the farce already and help bleeding and broken Palestine and the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians imprisoned in refugee camps for seven decades – that’s almost a century! Better yet, light a candle for the souls of the innocent Palestinians who perished for no fault of their own.

The conflict will soon enter its centennial and Palestinians still live in camps lacking basic human rights while the pseudo-intellectuals and their blind followers applaud and shoot their celebratory guns at the capture or killing of an Israeli soldier.

Israel dehumanizes Palestinians no doubt, turning them into numbers and simple statistics. But what these hotheaded “thinkers” who incite violence do, leads to more pain for Palestinians; and with the lazy, violent “non-doers” who cheer them, they take the dehumanization of Palestinians one step lower, by turning their death and dignity into insignificant numbers!

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Multi-award-winning journalist Octavia Nasr served as CNN’s senior editor of Middle Eastern affairs, and is regarded as one of the pioneers of the use of social media in traditional media. She moved to CNN in 1990, but was dismissed in 2010 after tweeting her sorrow at the death of Hezbollah’s Mohammed Fadlallah. Nasr now runs her own firm, Bridges Media Consulting, whose main aim is to help companies better leverage the use of social networks.

 
 
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