Mohammed El-Kurd
speaker
488 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Jul 2023
last heard 24 May
Mohammed El-Kurd’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
They're living in a densely populated enclave that was deemed uninhabitable by the UN, that was deemed an open-air prison. So the rockets, in any case, are retaliation for the siege. Let's start there. But again, this is just to prove my point. Violence begets violence. Palestinian people are not violent people. We are not violent people at the core.
And I think what serves this narrative is Islamophobia, is xenophobia towards Arabs, which I don't have the luxury to write laws about. By the way, I'm quite frustrated by this. I am preoccupied, and the Palestinian people are preoccupied, with the material violence that we have to deal with on the day-to-day, the demolitions, the bombings, the imprisonment. That's what we're distracted with.
busy with, that we can't even talk about the racism, the casual racism against us, the anti-Palestinian racism, be it in the media, on social media, in diplomatic circles. But all of this racism that has gone unchecked, that has not been regulated,
for decades, allows for these tropes to continue, in which Palestinians are promoted as these barbaric terrorists, and the only way we could remedy that situation is by marketing them as these defenseless victims. But the fact of the matter is not this simplistic. Palestinian people are human beings who
should enjoy a full spectrum of humanity, which includes rage, which includes disdain, which includes happiness and joy and laughter, which includes celebration, which includes all of these things. But we're not allowed this.
But we are doing exactly what any people throughout history who have been oppressed, who have been colonized, who have been occupied, have done and continue to do, as we see in Ukraine, which is celebrated by mainstream media. I'm sorry to
keep reiterating this point, but at this point I am quite exhausted by how exceptional Palestine and Palestinian resistance is when the world tells me time and time again that it doesn't have a problem with violence, it just has a problem with who does that violence.
I think governments, wherever, globally, are different from people. No government is a true reflection of its people. I think this is even true in the case of Arab countries that normalize with Israel. In many of the cases, they're unelected governments. I think the Palestinian Authority continues to fail. I think they are subcontractors of the Israeli regime through their security coordination.
And also, I'd like to use this as an opportunity to comment a little bit on the analogy thing, not to stray away from the question, but you know, the Palestinian Authority two years ago killed an opposition activist named Nizar Banat. It was a horrendous crime. And I was in Ramallah with the people protesting against the Palestinian Authority.
And at some point they had their batons, the Palestinian Authority police, and they beat us with it. And many of the people in the crowd were liking the Palestinian Authority to Zionism. I think people, this is what people do. when they are confronted by a great evil, they liken it to some other great evil. And this is where the Hitler analogy came from.
Again, I don't think it's the best strategy moving forward, but I refuse to be criminalized for a little sentence.
You know, looking at the PA's action today, it tells you a great deal about what they're interested in and what they're not interested in. And maybe, yeah, the occupation is in their best interest. And you can infer similar things looking at Hamas. But these two entities virtually have no power, even Hamas. There is the context that Hamas is permitted by international law to use armed resistance.
Does that mean Hamas is equipped to govern Gaza? I don't think so. Does that mean that people around Palestine necessarily want to live under... Hamas rule. In 2006, Hamas was democratically elected. I don't know if that's still the case today. There's a lot to be said, but neither of these entities have any real power in perpetuating.
The only body that has access, that can flip the switch on all of this equation is Israelis. They're the ones who are keeping people in a cage. They're the ones who are wrapping the West Bank with a wall. Everything else to me is just secondary, regardless of what I think personally of any of those people.
Personally for me, the world I envision, not just Palestine, the world I envision is a world that goes beyond states. That goes beyond this framing of power, this hierarchy in which some people rule over other people. This whole idea of nation states, be it Israel or any other nation states, it's futile. It's not good. It's exclusive. I think that we can achieve a better world than that.
Can you not imagine a world without militaries?
Yeah, I'm not saying I have all the answers or a PowerPoint in my pocket with the instructions, but I'm saying the world I'd like to live in is one that transcends borders, is one that does not necessitate militaries, that doesn't necessitate all of these prisons, all of these walls, all of these racist laws.
I do think both of these things are truly intrinsic to human beings. But I also do think there is a way to move beyond them. I'm not saying I have the answers.
Definitely, definitely.
You know, I don't think there's a geography in which a two-state solution is possible. As we said earlier, Swiss cheese, there's literally settlements all over the West Bank. And I don't think it's fair. A two-street solution is fair to all of the people whose homes are still in Haifa, in Nazareth, in Jaffa, and so forth.
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