Heading Towards a Palestinian Consciousness
Defying Borders: Palestinian Youth Climb Separation Wall to Attend Friday Prayer During Ramadan
Photo taken by Hisham Abu Shaqrah, retrieved from @hishamshaqrah
Biko With Palestine
Since the inauguration of Netanyahu's fifth term in November 2022, Israeli Jews have been demonstrating against their government, espousing rhetoric that underscores the perilous path their “democracy” is taking.[1] From the Palestinian viewpoint, Netanyahu's pledge to reform the judiciary and the resulting demonstrations opposing the move are simply a tit-for-tat between settlers, where one group prefers to homogenize the “the rule of law” that has been prevalent in the occupied West Bank since 1967 over the other. The analysis of these protests has been intriguing, as the arrogance displaced by Israel’s liberal Zionists during these weeks highlights the need for Israelis to grapple with a novel consciousness, one that centers the colonial nature of the fallacy over settlers demonstrating on stolen Palestinian land, against a government that its prerequisite for power comes from the exclusion and suffocation of 70% of the land's native inhabitants. Engaging in political discussions over “what this means for Israel and Israelis” by contending that these demonstrations ignore the plight of Palestinians is rhetorical. Any discourse on liberation and democracy on the terms of the oppressor, devoid of a fundamental reconfiguration of consciousness, will inevitably perpetuate the prevailing racial hierarchy.
A burgeoning movement focused on cultivating a new consciousness among Palestinians has recently gained momentum. The events that transpired in May 2021 served as a powerful demonstration of the younger generation's resolve to unite and fight for a free Palestine, and many have drawn parallels to the 'Unity Intifada' as a pivotal moment in garnering widespread support for liberation. This movement for a new consciousness can be compared to the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa, which was initiated through philosophical and theoretical approaches aimed at dismantling oppressive power structures. The Black Consciousness Movement emerged from a process of reimagining and rethinking the meaning of politics within the South African liberation struggle, spearheaded by young South Africans in the 1970s.[2] The movement is rooted in the belief that there was a need to “providing an alternative to psychological complicity with racial oppression [which] could expedite the subjective prerequisites needed for Black liberation.”[3]Discourse over Black Consciousness cannot be detached from the environment cultivated in its emergence as those interested in its relevance preserve the necessity of studying the social conditions that led to the formation of an ethos that brought together groups that were fragmented by a system built up to preserve the stability of a colonial and white supremacist social hierarchy. In his treatise surrounding Black Consciousness, Steve Biko highlights the threats posed by the inherited consciousness that is born from a society built up on fragmenting the non-White population through methods that shackle them to “perpetual servitude”.[4] Biko’s main mission was to spark a revival in the minds of the oppressed with an understanding that their subjugation is not a normal feat but rather a horrific robbery of the agency and livelihood of the Black/non-white population and their lineage. The emphasis on distancing pigmentation from the ideals of black consciousness is extremely important to its success and stability, and why many today still revere the movement as a viable philosophical school of thought in constructing and imagining an equitable world.
As a student exploring liberation theories, the Black Conscious Movement is rejuvenating and enlightening for the foundations it provides for people who have been fragmented by colonial projects. Black Consciousness champions the utilization and celebration of cultural and religious differences to mass produce a united and morally objective position that stands in battling the true bane of the oppressed existence. Palestinians on all fronts must find inspiration in Biko’s liberation philosophies as the root effects of Zionism was the racialization of the Arab domestically and internationally.
The process of racialization in Palestine originated with the orientalist outlook of Europeans towards Arabs, which heavily influenced how Ashkenazi Jews perceived Muslim, Christian and Jews (Mizrahis) from the Arab world.[5] The alienation and othering of Arabs led Zionist to hold the notions that "binary categories…of Jew and Arab, religious and secular"[6] cannot exist, which made way for an ambivalent and hostile understanding of identity post 1948 Palestine. In their work on Zionism and Oriental Jews, Machover and Ein-Gil argue that Ashkenazi attitudes towards Arabs was a fundamental synopsis of the discriminatory practices that successfully de-Arabized Arab land and Arab Jews which in turn fragmented and isolated the ability for Mizrahi Jews to unite under the Arab anti-imperialist cause against the racist and colonial entities of the 20th century.[7] The de-Arabization project, as well, geographically, and epistemologically dislocated Arab Jews from connecting with Palestinian sentiment for liberation. Machover and Ein-Gil thoroughly document the discrimination that Arab Jews faced at the hands of Ashkenazi Zionists. However, they both caution against the misappropriation of Mizrahim as equals to Palestinians in the social hierarchy as to depict Ashkenazi Zionists on one side of the primary dividing line and, on the other side, to lump together Palestinian Arabs and Mizrahim, regardless of their class, as co-victims, is preposterous.[8] Using Machover and Ein-Gil’s cautions, one may conclude that the distinction between Zionist attitude towards Palestinians and Mizrahim is rather clear. Palestinians are viewed and legally defined as ‘others’ who are ought to be excluded from the Israeli state, those who are tolerated are treated as docile second-class citizens living with the looming threat of an eventual ethnic cleaning. Mizrahim, on the other hand, “were recruited to replace the Palestinians, and are theoretically embraced by Zionism as brethren, although in practice most of them were placed in inferior positions."[9] Khalidi, Shapiro, Machover, and Ein-Gil contend that the recruitment of Mizrahim to replace Palestinians was a calculated step in the state-building process since there was a need for a population to settle and take up blue-collar jobs, jobs that were primarily occupied by Palestinians who constituted 70% of the population pre-1948.[10]
Biko’s discussion over the deliberate nature of whites being made as “haves and Black’s have-nots”[11] is critical when understanding why Palestinians will not obtain Mizrahim as an ally to battling the colonial and segregationists’ structure of Israeli state. Biko thoroughly contests the idea of white worker solidarity with Black liberation as even the “most down-trodden…has a lot to lose if the system is changed.”[12] The economic advantages, racial superiority, and political control that the white worker possess were gained at the expense of the Native, therefor in Biko’s perspective, it is impractical for organizers to involve whites in the initial stage of mass mobilization. It is important to note that Black Consciousness aims to address the psychological traumas infused by white racism. Having a representative of the perpetrator present would divert attention away from reinvigorating the psyche of the oppressed and would act as a constant symbolic reminder, subconsciously stifling the formation of an independent and effective opponent to fight colonialism. Regrettably, due to the generational integration of Mizrahim into the Zionist state and the need for the state to rely on the offspring of Arab Jews for conscription, Mizrahim has become the haves in Israeli society making up nearly 60% of the Jewish population and holding 47% of the colonial Knesset (parliament) ministerial positions.[13]Consequently, one can argue that by adhering to the principles of Black Consciousness, its adoption can act as a catalyst for a few Mizrahi Jews to recognize the claims for the liberation of Palestine. These notions are held due to the state of mind Black Consciousness offers, as its adoption and practice not only affects the oppressed, but also the oppressor by aiding in shedding the hateful plaque that’s dominated the psyche of the oppressor’s lineage.
Attitudes and political admissions, as Biko asserted, are crucial to the trajectory of the oppressed. The Palestinian Consciousness must be both viable and credible in order to challenge the Zionist Master narrative. To achieve this, the need for a cultural revival that champions religious diversity and historical tolerance is necessary particularly given the fundamental role that religious tolerance once played in Palestinian society. Emphasizing notions of religious tolerance is essential in countering the Zionist narrative, which portrays Palestinians as barbaric Muslims seeking to dominate the land, erases Palestinian multireligious diversity and isolates the historic claims to the holy land to a religion that’s been plagued by racial extremists. One of the primary drivers for South African Apartheid was the economic exploitation endured by Black and non-White South Africans, in the case for Israel it is religious supremacy that is imbedded in its oppressive structure. Thus, any affective counterbalance to Zionism must be rooted in equality and respect among religious practices and places. As Biko pointed out, one must not “wage any struggle without offering a strong counterpoint” to the oppressive ideological structures that “permeate our society so effectively.”[14] Palestinian imagination must hold elements of pre–Zionist Palestine to ensure that the central tenants of Palestine as a multireligious land continues till the end of times.
The adaptation of Black Consciousness as a school of thought among other struggles throughout the third world coincided with the revolutionary/decolonial climate of the 1960’s-1980’s. Biko, a student of Fanon, emphasized the psychology of liberation within the core of Black Consciousness, Machover and Ein-Gil extensively document the Zionist racialization project and its historical ramification in Historic Palestine. My first question to Biko would be, how does a liberation project, one that is fought on two frontiers (Domestic and International due to the imperial intimacies Israel holds in Europe and North America), justify to a Western audience the imperative nature to supporting the armed struggle Palestinians take on when defending their lands and livelihood? My second question was, “how does one convince their own oppressed group that the future we imagine cannot exclude those that oppressed us?”*
*Upon further reflection, I realize that my earlier question regarding the future with the oppressor is somewhat misplaced. I must clarify that envisioning a future with the oppressor does not entail coexisting with the oppressor; in fact, it is often quite the opposite. By adopting a Palestinian Consciousness, we aim to dismantle any form of ethnonationalism that exists between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, and instead promote equal standing and preservation of the Abrahamic religions. The central artillery of the oppressor, an exclusivist, is an intricate legal structure that slowly erodes the Arab presence from the land thus, one of the primary objectives of the Palestinian Consciousness must be to target and dismantle the legal foundations of the oppressor. Without his legal foundations, the oppressor is fragmented, incoherent and unable to hypnotize the Jewish masses he once controlled. The Jewish faith's defining trait of heterogeneity, which remains very much alive yet is suppressed from popular consciousness by American and Israeli Zionists, was coerced by the Zionist regime to adopt a colonial consciousness. Therefore, the paramount nature of the legal structures and institutions of the Zionist state becomes evident, as the state depends heavily on its religious and ethnocentric definition, which was first introduced in the 1950 Basic Laws, to compel a homogeneous oppressive Zionist ideology over the Jewish people.
[1] Staff, ToI. “Thousands of Judicial Overhaul Supporters Demonstrate in Tel Aviv, Block Highway.” The Times of Israel, March 30, 2023. https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-march-30-2023/.
[2] Pityana, N. Barney. Bounds of Possibility: The Legacy of Steve Biko & Black Consciousness. Cape Town: D. Philip, 1991. Page 103
[3] Ibid Page 100
[4] Steve Biko, and Aelred. Stubbs. I Write What I Like. Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1996. Pages 49
[5] Raphael Shapiro. “Zionism and It’s Oriental Subjects.” Matzpen, July 10, 1978. Studies 25, no. 4 (1996): 53–68.
[6] Raphael Shapiro. “Zionism and It’s Oriental Subjects.”
[7] Joseph Massad. “Zionism’s Internal Others: Israel and the Oriental Jews.” Journal of Palestine
[8] Ehud Ein-Gil, and Moshé Machover. “Zionism and Oriental Jews: a Dialectic of Exploitation
and Co-Optation.” Race & class 50, no. 3 (2009): 62–76
[9] Ibid page 73
[10] Rashid Khalidi. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: a History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017. First Picador paperback edition, 2021. New York: Picador, 2021
[11] Steve Biko, and Aelred. Stubbs. I Write What I Like. Page 51
[12] Ibid Page 51
[13] Joseph Massad. “Zionism’s Internal Others: Israel and the Oriental Jews.” Journal of Palestine Studies 25, no. 4 (1996): Page 57.
[14] Steven Biko, I Write What I like, Page 51