palestine

As I'm writing this, they're showing the funeral procession of one Yasser Arafat 'live' on just about every news channel you can think of. The scene is bewildering -- thousands upon thousands of Palestinians have gathered at the Muqataa in Ramallah, chanting praise for their late leader (perhaps the only leader they've ever known), waving flags (Palestinian, Iraqi, Saudi, Syrian, Jordanian, even the Canadian flag can be seen held aloft amidst the swarm of people), firing shots into the air (probably from beyond the compound, as the only ones that can be seen carrying rifles are the soldiers), pulling at the coffin as it makes its way slowly... stopping now, the coffin slanting to one side, almost dropping off the hearse... on its way again.

The soldiers pushing, the crowd pulling... I wonder what those people are thinking. Are they thinking it's time for reflection, a time for peace that has eluded them for so long? Or will their discontent, and their frustration in knowing the only person who stood for their cause is now dead, boil over into violence again?

In a way, it is a microcosm of the peace process there that's almost non-existent. Ever since it stalled four years ago, partly due to the very person they're paying their last respects to, no progress has been made that can be seen as promising. Add in the volatile Palestinian militants and the draconian methods of the Israeli government into the mix, and the future seems even more uncertain, the cycle of violence seeming virtually endless.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly where it all began. Was it when the state of Israel was declared, against the counsel of the United Nations and the British government, before a demarcation between the two was even drawn? Did this trigger the Palestinians' refusal to recognize the state of Israel, inciting the Arab-Israeli war, leading to the guerrilla warfare between the Palestinian factions and the Israeli government that hasn't abated to this day? Was it the prejudice of the Arab nations, their inability to compromise, that led to this? Or was it before any of that happened, when the British government, in its presumptuosness, decided to take matters into its own hands?

Well, that's all semantics now. I believe both sides have been in the wrong, and so both sides have to make it right. It's ironic how the word 'diaspora', once used to describe the Jewish people around the world, can now be used to describe the Palestinians (refugees and second-class citizens even in their own lands); ironic how the belligerence of the Palestinian militants and their sucide bombers have led the Israeli government to respond in kind for the sake of its nation's security.

The state of Israel has the right to exist, and so does the state of Palestine. I'm really hoping they can work together towards that end. After all they've been through, they deserve a happy ending at the very least. Now that Arafat and his legacy have been laid to rest, they should let bygones be bygones, look forward and strive for a brighter future -- one that was promised but never delivered.

In an edition of National Geographic, I read that a hundred years ago the Palestinians and the Jews co-existed side by side as neighbors, sharing celebrations together, and harboring no ill-will towards one another. Wouldn't it be nice to see that again someday?