Wars of independence - Culture - Al-Ahram Weekly

Al-Ahram Weekly

27-03-2025

'Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' These words, dating back to the 18th century and reaching out to the third millennium, amplify some of the basic human rights and the struggle of peoples over the centuries to attain them. The first phrase is at the heart of one of the strongest statements inscribed in the American Declaration of Independence, known as the founding document of the United States. The second paragraph in the declaration, which was unanimously adopted on 4 July, 1776, starts with the following statement: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.' As a researcher and professor of American Studies, I have for long been moved by these powerful words, which unified the Patriots of the 13 British colonies in America. They turned into action when these inexperienced, untrained militias formed themselves into the Continental Army commanded by George Washington, and went to war against the army of the great British empire, managing — against all odds — to defeat it and win independence. The American Revolutionary War, also known as the American War of Independence, was by no means an easy one; it lasted from 1775 to 1783, during which time the Patriots demonstrated how simple, ordinary people can achieve the impossible out of strong will and belief in freedom.
With such a strong patriotic birth, you would expect the country of the once colonised to advocate freedom, and support the struggles of other nations to gain these rights. You'd expect a country whose founding fathers wrote this declaration and took part in the Revolutionary War to extend a helping hand to people suffering from colonial abuse and seeking what they once dreamt of and fought for: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Unfortunately, it hasn't and is still acting contrary to its founding principles. The list of wrongdoing includes abuse of Native Americans and African Americans as well as orchestrating military coups in different countries, especially in Latin America. Finally come the Palestinians, particularly the Gazans, who since 7 October 2023 have been experiencing all forms of atrocity, enduring unimaginable violence and are now facing famine, with the obvious goal of ethnical cleansing. The same now applies to the West Bank; and here comes No Other Land, a 2024 documentary directed by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, four Palestinian-Israeli activists who describe their work as 'an act of resistance on the path to justice during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.'
Painfully, among the most affected in this conflict are the children, many of whom have been killed in cold blood. According to a report by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), released in March 2024, 'more children have been killed there [in Gaza] in recent months than in four years of conflict worldwide.' This horrific situation made UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini remark: 'This war is a war on children. It is a war on their childhood and their future,' indicating that 'at least 12,300 youngsters have died in the enclave in the last four months [December 2023-March 2024], compared with 12,193 globally between 2019 and 2022.'
Not only did the United States support such Israeli crimes against humanity, under Donald Trump it has also announced its plans for the area and its inhabitants, claiming that Gazans had 'no alternative' but to leave their homes. On 4 February, 2025 Trump released a statement that has sent shockwaves around the world. During a White House press conference, he said, 'The United States will own Gaza according to my plan, there will be no Hamas, and we will start developing it. We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal… the Riviera of the Middle East' (italics mine). A quick discourse analysis of his words shows an unjustified and illegal ownership of a country and its people. To make matters worse, he expressed his surprise at 'the lack of welcome from Jordan and Egypt for the plan I put forward regarding Gaza, and we provide them with billions of dollars annually.' Later, he reiterated his statement, with the White House declaring 'his plan for Gaza is good, but he will not impose it and will only recommend it.'
Americans for Justice in Palestine Action (AJP Action) remarked that the president's comments 'reflect a deeply entrenched policy of US support for Israel's crimes. If we do not act now, history will judge our silence as complicity in one of the gravest human rights violations of our time.' Ironically, the US administration shows concern about human rights regarding one sect only, the Israelis. Speaking of their released hostages, President Trump expressed his indignation; they 'looked like they had come out of a former concentration camp in Germany. These scenes are unbelievable and extremely brutal, and it is unimaginable that they would happen in the modern age.' Bringing forth the issue of the German concentration camp and the unimaginable brutality reveals a double standard and a myopic vision of the whole situation, ignoring the fact that this is exactly what the other party, the Palestinians, have been going through.
The Trump administration is not only turning a blind eye to Israel's crimes and blatant disrespect for international law, but also blessing it; for recently it 'has approved nearly $12 billion in major foreign military sales to Israel, according to the State Department's website.' As a researcher and above all a human being trying to read and analyse this gloomy scene, I can only go back to the words of a great 20th- century thinker, Edward Said, who in 2003, celebrating 25 years of the publication of his landmark book Orientalism, condemned in an article published in Al-Ahram Weekly what he called 'the illegal imperial war and occupation of Iraq by Britain and the United States.' Twenty-two years ago, Said rightly ascribed this war to 'the tightening of the grip of demeaning generalisation and triumphalist cliché, the dominance of crude power allied with simplistic contempt for dissenters and 'others.'' He added in the same article: 'What our leaders and their intellectual lackeys seem incapable of understanding is that history cannot be swept clean like a blackboard, clean so that 'we' might inscribe our own future there and impose our own forms of life for these lesser people to follow. It is quite common to hear high officials in Washington and elsewhere speak of changing the map of the Middle East, as if ancient societies and myriad peoples can be shaken up like so many peanuts in a jar.' Unfortunately, his words continue to be true, resonating with the stand and statements of the American administration.
Despite his frustration, Said ended his article with a note of optimism, however; and like him I believe in the final triumph of humanity. He advocated that the way to counteract biased 'justifications for power and violence' is through unbiased education, through philology as applied to Weltliteratur: 'Humanism is the only -- I would go so far as saying the final -- resistance we have against the inhuman practices and injustices that disfigure human history…. Rather than the manufactured clash of civilisations, we need to concentrate on the slow working together of cultures that overlap, borrow from each other,' he affirmed. I add to education and literature art in its different forms, including No Other Land. The film's world premiere took place in the Panorama section at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival on 16 February 2024, winning the Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary Film, and the Berlinale Documentary Film Award, and finally the Best Documentary Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards, on March 2, 2025.
Produced between 2019 and 2023, it shows the immeasurable suffering of the Palestinians, and their fight against Israeli demolitions of their homes in the occupied West Bank. According to its release notes, Basel Adra 'risks arrest to document the destruction of his hometown, Masafer Yatta, a collection of villages in the Hebron mountains of the West Bank' where he lives with his family and which 'Israeli soldiers are tearing down to use as a military training zone'. On the one hand, the Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar, described this award as 'a sad moment' and added in a social media post that the filmmakers 'chose to amplify narratives that distort Israel's image' around the world, calling it 'sabotage' against his country. On the other hand, 'Palestinian residents whose community's struggles are depicted in the film called the award a morale boost.'
Interestingly, the film highlights the friendship between the Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers; for 'Adra's pleas fall on deaf ears until he befriends a Jewish-Israeli journalist, Yuval Abraham, who helps him amplify his story.' This brings to mind the friendship between Edward Said and the Israeli composer and director Daniel Barenboim; they used to perform music together, and they also co-founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra made up of children from Israel, Palestine and other Arab countries.
In their award acceptance speech, Abraham called for the end of the 'terrible destruction of Gaza' and the release of Israeli hostages, adding: 'We created this film together, Palestinians and Israelis, because together our voices are stronger.' Adra said that the film reflects the harsh reality Palestinians have been enduring for decades; a reality which he hopes his baby daughter will not face: 'About two months ago, I became a father, and my hope to my daughter that she will not have to live the same life I'm living now, always fearing settlers, violence, home demolitions and forcible displacements that my community is living and tasting every day under Israeli occupation.'
Adra's acceptance speech was within two days of the speech given by the Secretary General of the UN António Guterres, during the Extraordinary Arab Summit on the situation in the Middle East/Gaza held in Cairo. On 4 March, Guterres confirmed Adra's words, describing Israeli military operations against the Gazans as unleashing 'an unprecedented level of death and destruction, generating an immense trauma,' and making the people suffer 'beyond measure. And the risk of even greater devastation looms.' Worse is the 'alarming situation unfolding in the West Bank' with the Israeli forces launching 'large-scale operations, including airstrikes and also the deployment of tanks for the first time in over two decades. Over 40,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced in the last month — the largest displacement in the West Bank in decades. Meanwhile, demolitions, evictions and settlement expansions continue, with settler violence on the rise.'
If American policy and administration had failed the Palestinian civilians, one has to acknowledge that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which did not. With this award and recognition, one hopes that No Other Land and other humanity-centred works will give Adra's daughter and millions of other Palestinians the chance to attain the much-deserved rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
The writer is a senator and university professor.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 20 March, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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