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‘Rubble makes best building material’
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BY: DOUGLAS J. GUTH Senior Staff Reporter
Sari Nusseibeh advocates two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
In his memoir, Once Upon a Country n A Palestinian Life, politician and current educator Sari Nusseibeh quotes his father, a fiercely independent former Jordanian minister and governor of Jerusalem. “Rubble, he used to tell me, often makes the best building material.”
Over the past few decades of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Nusseibeh has witnessed smashed dreams of peace grow into a seemingly insurmountable mountain of physical and political debris.
Scaling this high peak requires perseverance and faith, two qualities Nusseibeh believes are embodied by his father’s words. “To me, this means we must never lose hope,” says Nusseibeh, the 58-year-old Damascus-born son of wealthy and politically influential Muslims from pre-state Palestine.
The author, and president of Al Quds University in Jerusalem, spoke at Cleveland Hillel on the campus of Case Western Reserve University on Oct. 14.
He served as the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s chief representative in Jerusalem from 2001-2002, and he has been a long-time advocate of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. The soft-spoken educator is also well-known among Israelis for having joined forces with former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head and current Labor Party leadership candidate Ami Ayalon to establish “The People’s Voice,” a civil initiative aiming to advance Palestinian-Israeli coexistence.
Dressed in a sports jacket and holding blue worry beads during a Monday morning interview on the Case campus, Nusseibeh insists in his Arabic-lilted English that Jews and Palestinian Arabs are “natural allies, not adversaries.” Destined to live side-by-side, adds the Oxford-and Harvard-educated Palestinian, they must get to know each other and build from the ruins of long conflict.
“I believe in the power of humanity,” Nusseibeh explains. “That’s the way I was raised.”
His memoir is a history of the failed Palestinian nationalist movement from the 1967 Six-Day War, fought between Israel and Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, to the stalemate of the present day. Once Upon a Country both celebrates and ferociously criticizes Palestinian nationalism.
“The Jew seeks space to continue living, while the Arab defends his space to the death,” Nusseibeh writes.
Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Nusseibeh told the CJN, must “open their eyes” and recognize the futility of “squabbling over every square inch of territory.”
Nusseibeh also disparages the rule of former Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat. He criticizes the late leader’s “Baathaist-type dictatorship.” When Arafat presided over the struggle with Israel, “the Palestinians were once again falling into that perennial trap. They thought somehow the world would step in like a deus ex machina and set things right.” Arafat, he writes, “clearly blew it by not closing some sort of deal at Camp David” (referring to the failed 2000 peace talks).
The educator has even greater disdain for the current Palestinian leadership. The Islamist extremist group Hamas, which won parliamentary elections last year, dangerously espouses “the myth of the martyr and the delusions of actually ‘punishing’ the Israelis,” he writes.
Meanwhile, the conflict between Hamas and the deposed, corrupt Fatah party continues to “drive everything toward chaos and extremism,” Nusseibeh told this reporter.
While Nusseibeh freely criticizes his own people, he has much to say about Israel’s role in the ongoing struggle. He feels that Israel’s settlements in the territories, its overuse of military force, and the security fence are major obstacles to any lasting peace accord.
However, his anger over Israeli policies has not led him to hate Israel. Upon his first visit to the Jewish state in 1968, Nusseibeh studied Hebrew and volunteered on an Israeli archaeological dig and kibbutz in the Galilee. “What impressed me most was (the Israelis’) idealism,” he writes.
The idea for his memoir came to Nusseibeh after reading the autobiography of Israeli writer Amos Oz (A Tale of Love and Darkness). Nusseibeh was surprised to learn that he grew up only a few hundred yards from the young Oz without knowing of his existence.
Acceptance of Israel’s existence may not be in the Hamas charter, but Nusseibeh feels the Palestinian people would support Israel if they were similarly accepted and recognized as a sovereign people living in an independent state.
Political recognition of independence is important, he says. What’s even more critical to Palestinians is “psychological recognition” n an acceptance of a people’s past history encompassed by self-respect, freedom and dignity.
“Palestinians are not creatures from outer space,” remarks Nusseibeh. “They want the same things as Jews.” A two-state solution, while imperfect, is a “human solution that caters to people’s basic needs.”
The author’s vision for the region is an “end to the conflicts of history” followed by an onward rush to a new future where Israelis and Palestinians can coexist. Again citing his father, Nusseibeh hopes the rubble of past dreams of peace can be built into a bridge that connects Arabs with the rest of the world.
dguth@cjn.org
In his memoir, Once Upon a Country n A Palestinian Life, politician and current educator Sari Nusseibeh quotes his father, a fiercely independent former Jordanian minister and governor of Jerusalem. “Rubble, he used to tell me, often makes the best building material.”
Over the past few decades of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Nusseibeh has witnessed smashed dreams of peace grow into a seemingly insurmountable mountain of physical and political debris.
Scaling this high peak requires perseverance and faith, two qualities Nusseibeh believes are embodied by his father’s words. “To me, this means we must never lose hope,” says Nusseibeh, the 58-year-old Damascus-born son of wealthy and politically influential Muslims from pre-state Palestine.
The author, and president of Al Quds University in Jerusalem, spoke at Cleveland Hillel on the campus of Case Western Reserve University on Oct. 14.
He served as the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s chief representative in Jerusalem from 2001-2002, and he has been a long-time advocate of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. The soft-spoken educator is also well-known among Israelis for having joined forces with former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head and current Labor Party leadership candidate Ami Ayalon to establish “The People’s Voice,” a civil initiative aiming to advance Palestinian-Israeli coexistence.
Dressed in a sports jacket and holding blue worry beads during a Monday morning interview on the Case campus, Nusseibeh insists in his Arabic-lilted English that Jews and Palestinian Arabs are “natural allies, not adversaries.” Destined to live side-by-side, adds the Oxford-and Harvard-educated Palestinian, they must get to know each other and build from the ruins of long conflict.
“I believe in the power of humanity,” Nusseibeh explains. “That’s the way I was raised.”
His memoir is a history of the failed Palestinian nationalist movement from the 1967 Six-Day War, fought between Israel and Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, to the stalemate of the present day. Once Upon a Country both celebrates and ferociously criticizes Palestinian nationalism.
“The Jew seeks space to continue living, while the Arab defends his space to the death,” Nusseibeh writes.
Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Nusseibeh told the CJN, must “open their eyes” and recognize the futility of “squabbling over every square inch of territory.”
Nusseibeh also disparages the rule of former Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat. He criticizes the late leader’s “Baathaist-type dictatorship.” When Arafat presided over the struggle with Israel, “the Palestinians were once again falling into that perennial trap. They thought somehow the world would step in like a deus ex machina and set things right.” Arafat, he writes, “clearly blew it by not closing some sort of deal at Camp David” (referring to the failed 2000 peace talks).
The educator has even greater disdain for the current Palestinian leadership. The Islamist extremist group Hamas, which won parliamentary elections last year, dangerously espouses “the myth of the martyr and the delusions of actually ‘punishing’ the Israelis,” he writes.
Meanwhile, the conflict between Hamas and the deposed, corrupt Fatah party continues to “drive everything toward chaos and extremism,” Nusseibeh told this reporter.
While Nusseibeh freely criticizes his own people, he has much to say about Israel’s role in the ongoing struggle. He feels that Israel’s settlements in the territories, its overuse of military force, and the security fence are major obstacles to any lasting peace accord.
However, his anger over Israeli policies has not led him to hate Israel. Upon his first visit to the Jewish state in 1968, Nusseibeh studied Hebrew and volunteered on an Israeli archaeological dig and kibbutz in the Galilee. “What impressed me most was (the Israelis’) idealism,” he writes.
The idea for his memoir came to Nusseibeh after reading the autobiography of Israeli writer Amos Oz (A Tale of Love and Darkness). Nusseibeh was surprised to learn that he grew up only a few hundred yards from the young Oz without knowing of his existence.
Acceptance of Israel’s existence may not be in the Hamas charter, but Nusseibeh feels the Palestinian people would support Israel if they were similarly accepted and recognized as a sovereign people living in an independent state.
Political recognition of independence is important, he says. What’s even more critical to Palestinians is “psychological recognition” n an acceptance of a people’s past history encompassed by self-respect, freedom and dignity.
“Palestinians are not creatures from outer space,” remarks Nusseibeh. “They want the same things as Jews.” A two-state solution, while imperfect, is a “human solution that caters to people’s basic needs.”
The author’s vision for the region is an “end to the conflicts of history” followed by an onward rush to a new future where Israelis and Palestinians can coexist. Again citing his father, Nusseibeh hopes the rubble of past dreams of peace can be built into a bridge that connects Arabs with the rest of the world.
dguth@cjn.org
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