An apology and acknowledgment for The rape of Palestine is the only way forward

We, the Palestinians have been abused, terrorised  denied our identity yet the burden is on us  to justify our existence and history. We have been stigmatised as the perpetrators of our own rape yet its our existence that is under an existential threat. Its our land our home that was stolen in one of the most blatant land thefts in modern history. We were and are the victims in one of the most consistent examples of Machiavellian behaviour in world history. The rape of Palestine and the creation of Israel on our land.
 
Long overdue,  its time for Britain and the USA to apologies and acknowledge its role in depriving the Palestinians from their land and for Israel to acknowledge and apologies that its creation denied the right of Palestinians before any further ‘peace ‘talks.
 
For years I have participated in some form or other in some kind of dialogue between Israelis, Jews and Palestinians. I believed , desperately that the way forward was understanding and moving on from the past.
I was wrong .
 
Like all victims of abuse somewhere in my being I chose to believe that my abuser would somehow change. I had been so impressed and taken in by the language of peace that I pushed to the back of my mind I had been raped metaphorically and actually. My land, my home had been taken, like hundreds of thousand of Palestinians’ the decimation of Palestine and its people in 1948 with the creation of Israel was total and relentless.
 
The subsequent decades saw a brutal regime of intimidation, theft of further land, destruction of homes ,arbitrary arrests and a highly systematic  campaign to erase Palestinian  history and  culture.

Our narrative was submerged and ruthlessly eradicated or undermined in the international public sphere. We became labelled as terrorists for daring to fight in any way we could.  Nothing worked for that elusive peace. We recognised our rapists right to exist but were denied ours.
 
Yet we were lulled by promises of peace and processes, empty promises all made to us on the premise that we were the perpetrators of our misery of our Diaspora, of our loss of country.
 
Somewhere along the decades of talks, wars, peace negotiations one  salient fact seems to have been either forgotten or dismissed, that we Palestinians are the victims of a brutal consistent rape of our lands, homes and people.  That our Palestine was arbitrarily given to displaced Jews the world over with no thought to the moral or ethical reason but for poltical expediency and to satisfy the guilt of  and shame of Europe as it stood silently watching the extermination of the Jewish people in Europe
 
We are called terrorists for trying to fight for our freedom yet we are bombed and killed with impunity by Isreali military forces. Gaza is subjected daily to electricity cuts lack of freedom of movement. Every single minute of every single day Palestinians are subjected to harassment at best to brutality at its worst.
 
Not once has there been an acknowledgement either by Israel or its US supporter that we are the victims. That we continue to be occupied and live under an apartheid regime. No democratic country in the world would escape censure from the International community for such policies and deeds.
 
 Yet it is  I  that have to qualify my humanity by expressing regret, horror at the Holocaust and anti Semitism. Its we that have to guarantee the oppressors security. Why is no one apologising to us about the occupation? About the creation of Israel on historical Palestine? Palestinians were no more responsible for the Nazi atrocities or anti Semitisms than Mickey Mouse but Israel the US and Britain are responsible for my displacement and continual rape of my identity and home.
 
Acknowledgement to  historical atrocities are essential both for the oppressors’ and the victims.  While it has taken centuries for  an apology to be forthcoming for the Native American Indians, it did eventually come from President Obama  in 2009  in the Native American Apology resolution.

It took some 50 years for German chancellor  Willie Brandt to apologies to the victims of Holocaust but come it did.

In the last few decades there have been numerous acknowledgments and apologies to the victims of oppression and wrongdoing.  The Australians apologised to the Aborigine community for forcibly taking their young babies for adoption to white families. Nelson Mandela apologized for atrocities allegedly committed by the African National Congress against suspected enemies.  Even FW de Klerk squeezed out an apology for the apartheid system.  The list is endless.

Yet we Palestinians are expected to meekly wait while we are subjected to  indignity after indignity  and no recognition of the gross injustice that was committed against us. We are supposed to commit to ensuring Israel’s right to exist but are denied our own right to be. We are supposed to take responsibility for our own rape as we were metaphorically dressed in revealing clothes. Yet Israel is not made accountable for its crimes.  There is no pressure on it politically or economically.  Yet at the same time American lawmakers felt it right to  block French railway company SNF in 2011 from bidding for contracts in the USA until the company apologised for its role in transporting Jews to the death camps. Yet I see no pressure from American lawmakers to apply the same accountability towards Israel. On the contrary Israel is rewarded vast financial support for its oppression and illegal occupation. Its rape and continued rape of Palestine continues with impunity while the USA, Britain silently watch .