At the time I decided to start writing these notes, I was wondering about the subject that would be good to discuss and is related to my background and the community which I come from. I come from a Palestinian Arab community that[singlepic id=58 w=320 h=240 float=right] implies on each one which lives inside it to concentrate on one thing only which is the issue of liberating an occupied land and the regaining of the lost rights of the Palestinian people.

The occupation affects all our creativity in the different fields of culture, literature, art, and community. It is hard actually to become creative in any subject which is far from our daily life which is affected by the culture which we created for ourselves in order to fight occupation. Since the beginning of the Palestinian revolution, Palestinians varied in their views and actions to reach the final goal. In the beginning, the Palestinians concentrated on one way to liberate what was taken by force; armed resistance. Today, the Palestinian community is suffering from a hard argument about the right way which must be used to establish the Palestinian state.

This argument started since the establishment of the Palestinian National authority that changed the nature of the work of the leading resistance movement “Fatah” from fighting the occupation into directing the community affairs of the Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza. Since then the Palestinian movements started to argue with each other since some wanted to continue their armed resistance way and others believed that negotiations and good Political work in the international community is simply better for the Palestinian case.

The Gaza civil war was simply a live picture of the Palestinian internal conflict and difference between ideologies. I started by discussing this matter since its similar to many other cultural and community conflicts which the Palestinians and the Arabs are suffering from. The Arab community continues to teach the new generations about Islam and its great history. Although the Arab governments do not agree or fulfill the Islam demands regarding the Political and community system, Arab countries continue to keep the Islamic religion as a central data base to explain everything in life.

The Arab world like the rest of the world was affected by globalization and started to open its doors for other cultures and habits. While globalization was taking control of the Arab world and creating a new world which most of the Arab youth wanted to enter, the Islamic scholars and Imams were doing nothing to attract the Arab youth to stay committed to the Islamic habits and demands. When I say Islamic habits and demands, I mean the Islamic way of living and the Islamic point of view about science and other cultures. The reason is that inside the Islamic community there were other arguments about the way which Islam must be fulfilled. Actually this period reminds us with the situation in Europe between the fifteenth and eighteenth century. On one side the Arab governments want to keep the Islamic religion and consider it important in directing the Arab community and the daily life of each Arab citizen. On the other side, the Arab governments do not wish to establish and Islamic emirate and appoint a Khalifa to rule the whole Arab world. The only reason which pushed the Arabs to move against the former Ottoman Empire was their wish to become independent and establish Arab states which rule themselves and protects the rights of its nation. Although this was the reason, until today the Arab governments are still ruled either by royal systems and certain families or dictator leaders who want to stay on their chair and assure that their sons will continue after them.

All of what I mentioned before affected on the Arab world and its interests. Science became something not really helpful especially that the Arab nations are still fighting for their free speech and democratic rights. Literature concentrated on the Arab peoples suffering and demands for freedom. Today the situation is becoming different since the Arab world is divided into two sides; one which is asking to return back to religion and find a solution in the Islamic system and dictionary. This side is usually accused of extremism and terrorism because of some of the terrorist organizations which used Islam as a claim and justification for their actions. On the other side another is demanding for a democratic Arab world which respects the rights of its citizens and is open minded to welcome other cultures and civilizations.

The weird thing is that the West was never analyzed regarding its view and position of the Arab world. Until today the Arab world is treated as a third world and capitalism and colonialism is still controlling it. This pushed many Arabs into the other direction especially after the last war on Iraq which was considered a war for “democracy” in the eyes of the West. The Iranian issue is creating a new challenge for the West which is still studying the best way to deal with it especially that the Arab world already exists in a chaotic situation.

What really attracted me to think about is not this fight and argument but something which is different; when was the last time that we Arabs did think about something or tried to work for achieving something like former Arabs achieved in medicine and science in the past. Why do we prefer to put ourselves in a closed room which we created for ourselves instead of opening our minds not to act like other communities but to create new achievements in social and community sciences? We convince ourselves that because of the current Arabic situation and the difficulties which we are facing we cannot achieve anything except of fighting for our basic rights. What is the explanation of “fighting” and what does it mean exactly if we prevent ourselves from developing our situation and return to become creative again in everything humans consider important and brings benefit.

We are ready to be open – minded when we are talking about certain western culture but we consider any concern in studying the European and American history as an old fashioned thing. Instead of watching Hollywood movies and trying to act like others we should sit down and studying our past and the others past in order to find out where we failed and what we can do by learning from others. Others such as philosophers, artists, writers, and scientists which made Europe move from the medieval age into becoming a great power. Others like our own writers and scientists who brought great achievements to humanity.

In order to change our situation we need to learn from others because we need to change our complete ideal and belief system that became useless. In order to change we need to create a new generation that is ready to learn to from others without becoming the slaves of other cultures but instead to learn in order to create something new and good to assure that we will stay on this earth.

Ziad Khalil Abu Zayyad

A Palestinian-Arab living in East Jerusalem, Ziad graduated from College Des Freres in Jerusalem in 2003. Ziad finished his major in International Relations and English Literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Ziad is a former President of the Watan student movement at the university. He is interested in Middle Eastern political issues and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Founder of the Middle East Post and MEL (Middle East Future Leadership Network), he represents Palestinian youth at several international conferences.

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