And so, Norway, Northern Ireland and Slovakia, did what every other country should have done a long time ago—-they recognized the right of the Palestinians to govern themselves in a 2-State proposition. This right is unalienable. What’s so interesting about this unalienable right is that the people who inserted the word, unalienable in their Constitution have only granted the unalienable right when their hand was forced—-The Emancipation Declaration, 1863; Brown versus Board of Education, 1954; Civil Rights, 1964; Voting Rights, 1965; The Great Society, 1965.
Norway, Slovakia and Northern Ireland have shown us by their example that a recognition of the unalienable rights of the Palestinians to govern themselves does not equate with anti-semitism. Two things can be right at the same time. The carnage in Gaza can stop, and should stop. Hamas is not just a group of 37,000 gun totting, and grenade strapping, and hostage taking set of bandits. Hamas is everybody everywhere who thirsts for the right to self determination. Hamas is the British merchant class of 1215–The Magna Carta. Hamas is the American War of Independence. Hamas is the ANC fighting the evil of Apartheid. Hamas is the Zionist Movement fighting and bombing the British colonizers to ask for the State of Israel in the ultimate partition of Palestine. Hamas is Sinn Fein, the IRA, asking the British to take their knee off of their neck. Hamas is now a metaphor for everyone who says enough to average, and to oppression, and to slavery. How wrong can that be? It is about time that the people of Israel went back to the polls to elect a man who is willing to embrace a future without preconditions, and without labels. My conclusion of the matter is this: it is impossible to eliminate Hamas the metaphor. Statesmen are urgently needed to put a stop to the carnage in Gaza because there is no endgame to it. Let it be clear that one can condemn what happened on October 7th and also condemn what is happening in Gaza.
Michael Ovienmhada.
Author, Poet, Playwright and Public Affairs Commentator.
omeekey@hotmail.com
