The Long History of Palestine: Why the Palestinians are Winning the War for Legitimacy

Ironically, it was Israeli historian Benny Morris who got it right when he offered a candid prediction of the future of his country and its war with the Palestinians.

“Palestinians look at everything from a broad, long-term perspective,” he said. said in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in 2019. “They see that at the moment there are five, six, seven million Jews living here, surrounded by hundreds of millions of Arabs. They have no reason to give up because the Jewish state cannot last long. They will definitely win. In another 30-50 years they will defeat us, no matter what happens.”

Morris is right. He is right in the sense that the Palestinians will not give up, that there can never be a situation in which societies survive and thrive indefinitely in a constant matrix of racial segregation, violence and exclusion—the exclusion of others, the Palestinians, and the exclusion of themselves.

The very history of Palestine is evidence of this truth. If the oppressed, the original inhabitants of this land, are not completely defeated or destroyed, they are likely to rise up, fight and regain their freedom.

It must be extremely disappointing for Israel that all the killing and destruction occurring in the Gaza Strip was not enough to affect the overall outcome of the war: the “total victory” that Netanyahu keeps talking about.

Israel’s frustration is understandable because, like all military occupiers of the past, Tel Aviv continues to believe that the right amount of violence will be enough to subjugate colonized countries.

But Palestinians have a different intellectual trajectory that shapes their collective behavior.

Of the many classifications of history, modern French historians distinguishdaily story‘ – history of events – and ‘long term‘ – long story. In short, the former believes that history is the result of the accumulation of successive events over time, while the latter views history at a much more complex level.

True history can only be seen in its entirety, not just the totality of historical events, recent or old, but the sum of feelings, the culmination of ideas, the evolution of collective consciousness, identities, relationships and the subtle changes that occur in societies. over time.

The Palestinians are a perfect example of how history is shaped by ideas, not weapons; memories, not politics; collective hope, not international relations. They will ultimately achieve their freedom because they have invested in a long-term trajectory of ideas, memories, and social aspirations that often lead to spirituality, or rather, to a deep, abiding faith that grows stronger even in times of terrible war.

IN interview In 2020, I spoke with former United Nations Special Rapporteur Professor Richard Falk, who described the struggle in Palestine as a war between those with weapons and those with legitimacy. He said that in the context of national liberation movements, there are two types of war: real war, where soldiers carry weapons, and war for legitimacy. Ultimately, whoever wins the latter will win.

Palestinians really do “take a long, long-term view of everything.” It may seem strange to agree with Morris’s statement since, after all, societies are often driven by their own class struggles and socio-economic agendas rather than by a single and coherent long-term vision.

That’s where long term becomes most relevant in the case of Palestine. Even if the Palestinians have not come to a general agreement to wait for the invaders to leave or for Palestine to once again become a place of social, racial and religious coexistence, they are driven, albeit subconsciously, by the same energy. this forced their ancestors to fight injustice in all its forms.

While many Western politicians and academics are busy blaming the Palestinians for their own oppression, Palestinian society continues to evolve based on completely independent dynamics. For example, in Palestine sumudSustainability is an ingrained culture, largely unaffected by external stimuli, political or academic. This is a culture that is as old as time. Congenital. Intuitive. Generational.

This Palestinian saga began long before the war, long before Israel, long before modern colonialism. This truth shows that history is driven not just by events, but by countless other factors; that while “event history” – the political, military and economic aspects that contribute to the creation of history through short-term events – is important, long-term history offers a deeper understanding of the past and its consequences.

This debate must involve all those who are concerned about the struggle in Palestine and seek to present a version of the truth that is driven not by future political interests, but by a deep understanding of the past. Only then can we begin to gradually liberate the Palestinian narrative from all the convenient stories imposed on the Palestinian people.

This is not an easy task, but an unavoidable one, since it is essential to break beyond imposed language, historical events, repeating dates, dehumanizing statistics and outright deception.

Ultimately, it should be clear to any astute reader of history that while fighter planes and bunker bombs may influence short-term historical events, courage, faith, and public love determine long-term history. This is why the Palestinians are winning the war for legitimacy, and why the freedom of the Palestinian people is only a matter of time.