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This makes sense to me #Nakba Day

I find the insoluble problems between Israelis and Palestinians rather depressing, But this piece from the Age makes a great deal of sense there is a lesson for a lot of long standing conflicts as well:

Palestinian, foreign and Israeli left-wing activists try to break down a section of Israel's separation barrier. Photo: Gurdilek Nursel

Palestinians are the only people on Earth that use, as their national day, someone else’s independence day. Tomorrow is Nakba Day. “Nakba” means catastrophe in Arabic, and the “catastrophe” they commemorate is the establishment of Israel.

But if the Palestinians are ever going to have a successful state, it will only come after they stop focusing on what they think other people have done to them, and start focusing on what they can do for themselves.

History provides precedent: The Irish and Jewish peoples see themselves, historically, as victims. Both peoples’ histories are littered with defeats and tragedies. But in the 19th century they turned a corner. Both decided they would no longer be victims; they would be the makers of their own destiny. You can see this change in their songs, books and actions. And despite seemingly insurmountable odds, both achieved a state within decades.

Is there anyone who could disagree with the good sense here?

Cheers Comrades


  1. William says:

    As long as their bum points to the ground the Palestinians are going to hate the Israelites. Until they realise that Israel is as entitled to an existence as they are the hate will continue and be passed on to the next generation. It’s a shame it’s such a poor example of religion in action, but we non Arabs will never understand the thinking that goes back thousands of years.

  2. Iain Hall says:

    I was rather taken with the argument in the Age piece suggesting that the solution lies in abandoning victim hood and I think that that is the case with our indigenous people as well.

  3. JM says:

    Iain you do realize that the Israelis expelled the Palestinians and do not recognize legal land titles held by Palestinians? (Well they “recognize” them in the sense that the titles are legal under Israeli law, but the courts consistently refuse to protect them). This was a straight up land grab in other words, and that interpretation is not at all contraversial – after all, it is the Israelis who describe their illegal settlement activity as “facts on the ground”).

    You might also note that Gaza is effectively a ghetto under military seige and economic blockade.

    In the face of all that, complaints along the lines of “why don’t they pull themselves up by their bootstraps” are just puerile fantasy land stuff.

  4. Ray Dixon says:

    And what would JC tweet about this one, Iain?:

    “Let the Arabs have it. Last time I was in Jerusalem it was shithole overrun with wogs.”

  5. Iain Hall says:


    As i recall it you are yet to say how long it takes to extinguish a people’ claim to a particular land.

    But really I think that you are missing the point of the piece entirely.

  6. JM says:

    Iain, I don’t know that I’ve ever been asked to set a standard for “how long it takes to extinguish a people’ claim to a particular land.”

    But since you do ask.

    A s**t load longer than last week when some Israeli settler threw a Palestinian off his land in order to build a house, or when an Israeli bureaucrat refused a Palestinian land owner a building permit (I believe none have ever been issued since 1948.)

    And I think you’ve missed the point of my criticism. “Why don’t they get of their a**ses, accept their lot and help themselves” is a piss-poor justification resorted to by lazy thinkers (such as yourself) for millennia.

    Thousands of years of repetition haven’t made that argument valid however.

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