Holocaust and Nakba

I know for one that I am not an authority to write about the subject that I wish to do so in this Blog. I do not have the in-depth knowledge or the expertise, however a recent event evoked in me the need to air my opinion of the subject and I said to myself, if not the Blog, where else can I do it. Millions of pages have been written on this most sensitive of issues concerning the modern world and the effects of which reverberate in every nook and corner of planet Earth. Yes you have guessed it right; it has got to do with the conflict which emanates in the crucible of the three major religions of the world. It is the Arab-Israel conflict, one for which there seems to be no peaceful solution. I got to read the excerpts of the eloquent speech made by the President of the United States of America Barack Obama during his recent visit to Egypt. The speech seemed so sincere and gave the impression of a person genuinely interested in bringing peace to the region. I also got to read what the critics from various quarters had to say about this speech. Two words which stood out in the speech for me were the Holocaust and the Nakba. The President had in a way equated one with the other. Of the Holocaust, there is no one in this world who is not aware. It is of course the darkest hour of the human civilization. To a normal human being like me it is unthinkable that the whims of a single person could lead to the decimation of millions of humans on the basis of caste and religion. The world decried this inhuman act and it continues to do so. Although I had been to Germany, the thought of going to one of the concentration camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau or Dachau was unthinkable. I did not have the mental courage to view these torture filled venues.

I had heard of the Holocaust as a child by virtue of my father being an authority on most of the events related to the Second World War. However I cannot say the same about my knowledge of the Nakba although both these tragedies happened around the same time in history. The first time I had heard about the Palestinian displacement was when I went to live in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in the year 1980. There were many Palestinians in Saudi who were given refugee status initially and were granted Saudi citizenships later. What differentiated these men from the locals was the fact that unlike the traditional Saudi men dressed in their ‘thobes and ghutras’ these men were dressed in western outfit. Only some of the elderly men would wear a ‘ghutra’. The women too were very different in their dressing when compared to the natives. It goes without saying that their expression was always one of sadness having lost their most valuable possession namely their motherland. Their status in the local Arab society was also that of second class citizens. It was around this time that I got to read “The Haj” by Leon Uris and this book gave me a superficial insight into the sufferings of this section of humanity. I surmised that their only fault was the fact that they lived in a land which according to the sacred scriptures belonged to another race of people 2000 years ago. I know it is not fair for me to say that the Arabs were pushed out of their country by the new immigrants who believed in their Promised Land. The authorities had planned for two states to exist in harmony but albeit that was not to be so. A more vigilant supervision by those in power could have avoided the wars that were fought and the exodus that followed.

The Nakba was no less important than the Holocaust or shall I say that both these tragedies were on par with each other. This had been my opinion every since. We are all aware that it was the result of the Holocaust and the sympathies of the Allied Powers that led to the formation of the Promised Land. It goes without saying that the people living in the erstwhile Palestine State had no say in the future of their country. Although the authorities were initially supportive of the native Palestinians and included them when it came to controlling the influx of immigrants from Europe and America, it did not take long for the immigrants to gain an upper hand with the support of the powerful Western World. Being a rich and powerful community which controlled the financial capitals of most of the western world, the immigrants had money as well as muscle power to conquer the land and make it theirs. The resulting Nakba was indeed a tragedy beyond the comprehension of the average modern man.

I would term the wounds inflicted on a community as a result of the Nakba to be the root cause for all the harm caused by the said community in today’s world. Some of the leaders of the community give this as a reason to instill hatred in the impressive minds of the youth who in turn resort to terrorism as a form of Jihad. I know for sure that there is no way in which the lands can be returned and the situation reverted to what it was in the beginning of the last century, however I wish and pray that the initiative taken by the President of the US of A will bear fruit.

To me the first step has been made when the President equated the intensity and importance of the Nakba with that of the Holocaust. As the days progress I wish to see this initiative go forward and in our own life time a solution to arise. Had I a couple of months earlier written of the Holocaust and the Nakba in the same breath, I would have been termed a senile person. Thank you, Mr. President for giving me this opportunity.