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　　(二零零三年)五月初我在西雅圖演講，在那里我會見了若雪?柯利(Rachel Corrie)的父母和姐姐。他們尚未從若雪的死亡中恢復(fù)平靜;若雪于3月16日在加沙被以色列推土機(jī)碾壓致死。若雪的父親告訴我，他自己曾駕駛過推土機(jī)，然而這輛刻意殺害他女兒的推土機(jī)卻是一輛重達(dá)60噸的巨獸，由Caterpillar公司特別設(shè)計用來摧毀房屋的機(jī)型，遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)大過任何他所看過或駕駛過的推土機(jī)。

　　若雪之所以被殺害，是因為她當(dāng)時正在拉法試圖保護(hù)一棟巴勒斯坦平民的房屋不被鏟平。在我短暫拜訪若雪的家人后，有兩件事深深烙印在我心頭。一是若雪的家人告訴我有關(guān)他們將若雪的遺體帶回美國后的事。他們回到美國后，隨即尋求該州參議員的協(xié)助，這兩位分別是Patty Murray和Mary Cantwell，均為民主黨籍。若雪的家人將事件發(fā)生經(jīng)過告知參議員，如所預(yù)料，她們表達(dá)了震驚和氣憤，而且也允諾對此事進(jìn)行調(diào)查。

　　然而，這兩位議員返回華府后，若雪的家人卻再也沒有接到任何消息，之前所答應(yīng)的調(diào)查行動也從未付諸實現(xiàn)。不令人意外，以色列強(qiáng)大的游說力量告訴了她們什么才是現(xiàn)實，這兩位議員也因此借故推托。一位美國公民被美國的忠實伙伴兼附庸國的士兵蓄意地謀殺，官方不僅不屑一顧，連原先答應(yīng)若雪家人應(yīng)有的基本調(diào)查都沒有。

　　不過，對我來說，若雪的故事真正打動我的是她的行為--勇敢又有尊嚴(yán)。若雪出生、成長于位在西雅圖南端六十英哩處的小城-奧林匹亞(Olympia)。她加入國際團(tuán)結(jié)運(yùn)動(International Solidarity Movement，簡稱ISM)，并前往加沙幫助那些她未曾謀面的受苦民眾。她寫給家人的信，讓我們見證了她平凡的人性，使人讀了既不忍又感動。尤其是她描述了她所遇到的巴勒斯坦人是如何地關(guān)心她，把她當(dāng)成他們的一份子;她和他們一起生活，一起分享生命中的歡樂與憂愁。

　　此外，她也描述了以色列占領(lǐng)下的恐怖，即使是年紀(jì)最小的小孩也深受影響。她同時體認(rèn)到這群難民的命運(yùn)，因為她認(rèn)為以色列政府所作所為的最終意圖是將這群人逼到絕境，以消滅整個種族。令人感動的是，她的作為鼓舞了一位拒絕服兵役的以色列后備役軍人丹尼，他寫信告訴她說："你做了一件好事，我很感激你所做的一切。"

　　若雪的家書在她死后不久被刊登在英國衛(wèi)報(Guardian)，而閃耀貫穿這些信的內(nèi)容則是巴勒斯坦人英勇的反抗行為;一群平凡人陷落在如此恐怖的處境中，忍受著痛苦和絕望，卻仍然努力求生存。

　　我們近來聽到無數(shù)有關(guān)中東和平路線圖及和平計劃的消息，但我們卻忽視了一項最基本的事實，那就是：即使美國和以色列聯(lián)手集體懲罰巴勒斯坦人，他們?nèi)跃芙^屈服或投降。也正因為這令人感到鼓舞的事實，也才有今天的中東和平路線圖和其他無數(shù)的和平計劃。這絕不是因為美國、以色列和國際社會基于人道因素，終于體認(rèn)到殺戮和暴力必須被扼止。

　　盡管巴勒斯坦人的抵抗或有其缺點(diǎn)及失敗處，但我們?nèi)艟芙^正視這抵抗的力量(我不是指自殺炸彈攻擊，這只是有害無益)，我們將會錯失一切。對猶太復(fù)國運(yùn)動來說，巴勒斯坦人永遠(yuǎn)是個問題，而他們猶太人所謂的解決方法，只是想淡化問題，而不是解決問題。以色列的官方政策 --不管沙龍使不使用"占領(lǐng)"這個字眼或者他是否摧毀了一兩座生銹無用的塔--都一再表明他們否認(rèn)巴勒斯坦人存在的事實，更不愿承認(rèn)巴勒斯坦人的權(quán)利一再被以色列侵犯踐踏。這些年來，盡管有少數(shù)勇敢的以色列人試圖面對這段被隱瞞的歷史，然而大部分的以色列人和美國猶太人只想努力地否認(rèn)并忽視巴勒斯坦人的現(xiàn)況，這也是為什么和平會遙遙無期。

　　再者，路線圖里完全沒有顧及到正義或者數(shù)十年來歷史加諸于巴勒斯坦人的懲罰。然而，若雪在加沙所做的奉獻(xiàn)正是告訴我們，巴勒斯坦人應(yīng)被視為一個具有嚴(yán)肅且豐富之人民生活史的國家團(tuán)體，而不只是一群貧困的難民而已。這也是若雪為何選擇和他們一起奮斗的原因。我們更應(yīng)謹(jǐn)記，類似若雪的團(tuán)結(jié)行為已不再局限于某時某地一小群勇敢的靈魂，它已被世界上許多人所認(rèn)同。在過去的六個月來，我在四大洲進(jìn)行演講，數(shù)以千計的聽眾之所以聚集在一起，正是因為他們關(guān)心巴勒斯坦，而巴勒斯坦人民的掙扎奮斗歷程已經(jīng)是解放和啟蒙的代名詞，不管他們的敵人如何處心積慮地毀謗他們。

　　一旦我們體認(rèn)到這些事實，世人即會認(rèn)同并團(tuán)結(jié)聲援巴勒斯坦人的正義和抗?fàn)帯＠纾衲陰讏鍪澜缯喂庾V中占標(biāo)竿地位的會議，如巴西榆港市(Porto Alegre)的反全球化會議，瑞士達(dá)沃斯(Davos)和約旦安曼的會議中，巴勒斯坦都是會議討論主題。

　　在美國，我們的民眾被媒體喂食充滿惡劣偏見、無知且錯誤的資訊。媒體總是將自殺攻擊的恐怖描繪得淋漓盡致，卻從未提及以色列占領(lǐng)巴勒斯坦的暴行，而以色列正在建造的25尺高、5尺厚、350公里長的"種族隔離墻"卻從未出現(xiàn)在CNN或其他電視網(wǎng)的新聞畫面中(或者只有在提到那蒼白貧乏的中東和平路線圖時才隨口提及)。

　　戰(zhàn)犯罪行，毫無來由的破壞和羞辱，以及種種暴行所導(dǎo)致的身體傷殘，房屋被毀，農(nóng)作物遭破壞，甚至人命的傷亡等等，這些巴勒斯坦平民所必須承受、日復(fù)一日的磨難，媒體卻完全沒有呈現(xiàn)在世人面前。這也難怪大部分的美國人都看不起阿拉伯人和巴勒斯坦人。畢竟所有的主流媒體，從左派自由份子到極端右派人士都毫無異議地反阿拉伯、反回教徒、反巴勒斯坦人。我們只要看看在醞釀攻打伊拉克這場非法且不公義的戰(zhàn)爭期間媒體怯懦的表現(xiàn)，就可略知一二。幾乎也沒有媒體報導(dǎo)聯(lián)合國禁運(yùn)措施對伊拉克社會所造成的巨大傷害。

　　另外，世界各國風(fēng)起云涌的反戰(zhàn)浪潮，媒體也鮮少報導(dǎo)。唯一的例外可能是記者海倫?湯瑪斯(Helen Thomas)在開戰(zhàn)前曾質(zhì)疑"伊拉克會對美國造成急迫軍事威脅"這個粗暴的謊言和"精心調(diào)配"的"事實"。同樣地，這批捏造和操縱有關(guān)大規(guī)模毀滅武器" 事實"的政府文宣打手，在媒體熱烈討論事實上乃由美國一手造成的伊拉克人民慘況時，這批文宣打手的罪行，卻被媒體所刻意脫罪或甚至從不置一詞。侯賽因的確是個殘暴的統(tǒng)治者，然而他在位時，伊拉克人民卻得以享受到水源、電力、衛(wèi)生保健、教育等阿拉伯國家中最好的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施，如今這些都已不復(fù)存在。

　　在政治宣傳專家和東方學(xué)家如柏納?路易斯(Bernard Lewis)和丹尼爾?派普斯(Daniel Pipes)等人的誤導(dǎo)下，媒體和政府普遍對阿拉伯整體社會、文化、歷史和心理狀況懷著敵意，也使得我們害怕一旦批評以色列對無辜巴勒斯坦平民不曾間斷的戰(zhàn)犯罪行，就是"反猶太人"，或是如果批評美國政府的非法戰(zhàn)爭和殘酷的軍事占領(lǐng)，就是"反美"。這些狀況也使得我們被迫灌輸"阿拉伯人是一群未開化、無能且注定要失敗的民族"的觀念，讓我們誤以為阿拉伯在民主制度和社會發(fā)展上均沒有明顯建樹，所以世上唯獨(dú)她是落后、遲緩、缺乏現(xiàn)代化且極端守舊。因此，這是我們必須抱持尊嚴(yán)，積極從事批判性的歷史思考、發(fā)掘事實、并厘清宣傳辭令與真相的時刻了。

　　沒有人會否認(rèn)，現(xiàn)今大多數(shù)阿拉伯國家仍由許多沒有民意支持的政權(quán)所把持。許多窮困弱勢的阿拉伯青年在宗教上，也只有機(jī)會接觸殘酷的基本教義派。然而，在這同時，阿拉伯社會并不是如紐約時報所經(jīng)常撒謊的，說她完全受控制、沒有言論自由、沒有公民機(jī)構(gòu)、沒有屬于人民的社會運(yùn)動。盡管有些出版品受到管制，今天你仍可以在安曼市中心買到共產(chǎn)黨發(fā)行的報紙或伊斯蘭教的報紙;埃及和黎巴嫩也遠(yuǎn)超乎我們的評價，有著各式各樣的書報雜志，滿載著正反意見的各種討論;衛(wèi)星頻道也充斥各種令人眼花繚亂的節(jié)目;社會服務(wù)、人權(quán)、企業(yè)團(tuán)體、學(xué)術(shù)研究等相關(guān)公民機(jī)構(gòu)，在阿拉伯世界同樣十分活躍。雖然在朝往民主的路上，我們還有許多重要的事必須完成，但我們正朝這個方向前進(jìn)。

　　單單在巴勒斯坦就有超過一千個非政府組織，而正是這樣的生命力和活動力，維持了社會的運(yùn)作和前進(jìn)--盡管美國和以色列不曾間斷地毀謗、破壞這些成就。即使在最艱困的環(huán)境下，巴勒斯坦社會也從未被擊敗或崩解。孩子們正常上下學(xué)，醫(yī)生和護(hù)士照顧病患，男男女女堅守自己的工作崗位，組織機(jī)構(gòu)照常舉行會議，人們繼續(xù)過日子。

　　這些事實，無疑是對沙龍和其他一心只想監(jiān)禁或驅(qū)離巴勒斯坦人的極端份子打了一個耳光。軍事行動起不了作用，現(xiàn)在不會，以后也不會。以色列人要看清這些事實真的有那么難嗎?我們必須在巴勒斯坦以及世界各角落，不是藉由自殺攻擊，而是借著理性辯論、大規(guī)模的民事不服從運(yùn)動、有組織的示威抗議，來幫助他們了解這一切。

　　我想要說的重點(diǎn)是，我們必須用比較性的眼光和批判性的角度來看待整個阿拉伯世界，特別是巴勒斯坦問題。而不是像那些膚淺和帶著鄙夷的作品，如路易斯的"哪里出了錯"(What Went Wrong)(譯注：中譯本由商周出版)和保羅?沃爾福威茨(Paul Wolfowitz)無知的聲明那樣，建議將民主帶到阿拉伯和伊斯蘭世界。

　　不管阿拉伯是個怎樣的世界，這個充滿著真實人民的真實社會，活潑地交流著各種正反意見，絕對無法被化約丑化為單一的、充滿暴力的基本教義派。巴勒斯坦人在爭取正義所做的奮斗上，展現(xiàn)了團(tuán)結(jié)的力量，而不僅僅是無止盡的苛責(zé)、惱怒、沮喪和失望，或甚至是有害的分歧。記住，我們不只是在這里，也在拉丁美洲、非洲、歐洲、亞洲和澳洲展現(xiàn)了團(tuán)結(jié)的力量。盡管我們面臨諸多困難及可怕的障礙，但許多人決志堅持下去。為什么?因為這是一個公義的目標(biāo)，是個高貴的理念，也是對平等和人權(quán)的道德追尋。

　　我也想談?wù)?quot;尊嚴(yán)"這個主題。"尊嚴(yán)"，不管是在歷史學(xué)家、人類學(xué)家、社會學(xué)家或是人文學(xué)者眼中，或是在每個文化中，都有著特殊地位。我首先要說的是，以為阿拉伯人沒有個別性，以為他們不重視個體生命，以為他們沒有任何價值能夠傳達(dá)"愛"、"親密情感"、"理解"等等這些據(jù)說只有歷經(jīng)過文藝復(fù)興、宗教改革和啟蒙運(yùn)動的歐美文化才獨(dú)有的資產(chǎn)，那是根本錯誤的東方主義，也是一種種族歧視。鄙俗淺薄的托馬斯•弗里德曼(Thomas Friedman)和其他許多人炒作了一大堆這類廢話，然后一些同樣無知與自欺欺人的阿拉伯知識份子也跟著大加闡揚(yáng)。我也就不必在這里指名道姓說究竟是哪些人了，他們說從911事件就可以看出阿拉伯和伊斯蘭世界比其他文化更病態(tài)、更失調(diào)，或甚至說恐怖主義是一種象征，象征伊斯蘭世界比諸其它世界更嚴(yán)重的一種扭曲。

　　我們不妨先來看看這樣的一個事實，單單歐洲與美國就制造了二十世紀(jì)最多的暴力傷亡，而伊斯蘭世界所制造的，與之相較，根本微不足道。今日我們所熟悉的這些似是而非的所謂"正確文明"與"錯誤文明"的假科學(xué)假知識，主要是受到薩繆爾?亨廷頓(Samuel Huntington)這位偉大假先知的荒唐影響。他讓許多人相信，世界是由相互交戰(zhàn)不息的不同文明所組成。事實上，亨廷頓沒有一點(diǎn)是對的。沒有任何文明或文化是獨(dú)立存在的;沒有任何文明獨(dú)獨(dú)有著別人所沒有的個別性與啟蒙思想;沒有任何文明可以存在但卻不具有基本的人類特質(zhì)如社區(qū)、愛、對生命或是對他人的尊重。

　　但是，亨廷頓似乎不這么認(rèn)為。這好比說非洲人天生智能低劣，或是說亞洲人生來就是奴役性格，或是說歐洲人是較優(yōu)秀的種族一樣，都是最純粹最可惡的種族歧視。這等于是將鼓吹"亞利安種族優(yōu)秀論"的希特勒式科學(xué)，如法炮制在今日阿拉伯人與伊斯蘭徒身上。我們必須堅持不要跟這類荒謬的胡說八道多費(fèi)唇舌。

　　另一方面，我們也必須嚴(yán)肅地提出更可信的說法，那就是，跟所有人類一樣，阿拉伯和伊斯蘭生活都具有透過她們獨(dú)特的文化形式所表達(dá)出來的內(nèi)在價值與尊嚴(yán)，這個表達(dá)方式，不需要模仿任何既定的文化模式，也不需要遵循任何一種宣稱所有人都必須遵循的模式。

　　人類的多元性，說到最后，就是不同風(fēng)格之個體與經(jīng)驗間的深度共存。但是，那些感傷阿拉伯世界缺乏發(fā)展與知識的學(xué)者專家卻吃人豆腐地說文明只有單一一種優(yōu)越形式。我們只需要看看由摩洛哥到波斯灣之間由阿拉伯人所創(chuàng)造或激發(fā)出來的繁復(fù)多樣的文學(xué)、電影、戲劇、繪畫、音樂和大眾文化就夠了。我們應(yīng)該拿這些東西做為阿拉伯人發(fā)展的一項指標(biāo)，而不是只看了某個時刻工業(yè)生產(chǎn)的統(tǒng)計圖表，就要斷言阿拉伯世界是否有達(dá)到某種程度的發(fā)展。

　　但我得強(qiáng)調(diào)另一個重點(diǎn)，我們的文化與社會和統(tǒng)治階層間，有著非常大的差距。在歷史上，很少有像今天的許多阿拉伯國家那樣，偌大權(quán)力如此集中在一小群君王將相或是總統(tǒng)手中。而且，幾乎毫無例外也是最糟糕的地方就是，他們都無法代表人民的最佳利益。這不單單只是所謂民主的問題，更是因為他們似乎徹底地低估了他們自己與人民。他們用盡各種方式拒人民于千里之外的結(jié)果，使得自己不敢改變也不準(zhǔn)改變;不但害怕把社會開放給人民，更害怕得罪他們的老大哥--美國。這些統(tǒng)治者不把公民視為國家潛在的資產(chǎn)，卻把他們視為覬覦統(tǒng)治者權(quán)力的陰謀者。

　　為什么在攻打伊拉克的這場恐怖戰(zhàn)爭中，沒有任何一個阿拉伯國家能有自尊、自信地對伊拉克所受的掠奪與軍事占領(lǐng)挺身說些像樣的話呢?這才是個真正的失敗。好吧，侯賽因的恐怖政權(quán)既然已經(jīng)不在了，這是件好事，但又是誰指派了美國來當(dāng)阿拉伯的軍師呢?是誰邀請美國來接管阿拉伯世界，并宣稱代表她的公民，帶來所謂"民主"?尤其當(dāng)今美國自身的教育體系、醫(yī)療體系以及整個經(jīng)濟(jì)，都已經(jīng)惡化到1929年經(jīng)濟(jì)大蕭條以來的最低水平了，為什么阿拉伯國家沒有同聲抗議美國之非法干涉內(nèi)政，給整個阿拉伯世界帶來巨大傷害與屈辱?這是一種膽識、尊嚴(yán)和自我團(tuán)結(jié)上的徹底失敗。

　　布什政權(quán)開口閉口宣稱受萬能之神的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)，難道沒有一位阿拉伯領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人有勇氣說出，做為一個偉大的人種，我們有自己的榮光、傳統(tǒng)和宗教?沒有，一個字也沒有。當(dāng)可憐的伊拉克人民忍受著恐怖的煎熬，鄰近地區(qū)也連帶遭受打擊時，每個人都嚇呆了，只怕下一個遭殃的會是自己的國家。

　　很不幸地，就在上星期，阿拉伯主要國家的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人聯(lián)合擁抱了布什這個無故發(fā)動戰(zhàn)爭摧毀一個阿拉伯國家的人。難道沒有人有一點(diǎn)膽量提醒這個喬治•W，說他給阿拉伯人民帶來了前所未有的屈辱和苦難，為什么反而對他頷首、微笑、擁抱和親吻?

　　我們應(yīng)該提供給西岸與加沙地區(qū)的反占領(lǐng)運(yùn)動的外交上、政治上和經(jīng)濟(jì)上的支持在哪里呢?一點(diǎn)都沒有。不但沒有，我們只聽到各個阿拉伯外交部長對著巴勒斯坦人說教，叫他們要謹(jǐn)慎，要避免暴力，要遵守和談協(xié)議等等--盡管沙龍對和平的興趣幾乎等于零。我們沒見到阿拉伯國家口徑一致地抗議以色列的隔離墻和暗殺行動，或是抗議以色列對巴勒斯坦人的集體懲罰，耳邊總是充斥著這些經(jīng)由美國國務(wù)院核準(zhǔn)的陳腔濫調(diào)。

　　巴勒斯坦自治政府最近的言行，讓我驚覺到阿拉伯人無法體認(rèn)巴勒斯坦目標(biāo)之尊嚴(yán)性的程度，簡直到了最低點(diǎn)。阿布?馬贊(Abu Mazen，亦即Mahmoud Abbas，馬哈茂德?阿巴斯)這位幾乎沒有人民政治支持的次要人物之所以被阿拉法特、以色列和美國選派來擔(dān)任和談工作，正是因為他沒有選民支持，不是個演說家，不是個偉大的組織者;或者可以說，他除了是個聽命阿拉法特的侍從外，什么也不是。我甚至擔(dān)心他們批準(zhǔn)他是因為他是會聽以色列施令的人，否則，阿巴斯怎么會如說腹語者的木偶般，站在阿卡巴(Aqaba)宣讀著由美國國務(wù)院官員為他所準(zhǔn)備的講稿呢?

　　這個演講雖然值得稱許地談到猶太人的苦難，但卻驚人地幾乎完全沒有提到以色列所制造的苦難。他怎么能接受這樣一個沒有尊嚴(yán)、完全被操弄的角色?他怎么可以在美國和以色列的擺布下，忘記了他的人民--一個超過一世紀(jì)以來英勇地為自己權(quán)利而戰(zhàn)的人民?特別是，以色列方面也只說將來會有一個"臨時性"的巴勒斯坦國，卻完全沒有提到她所鑄下的巨大傷害、戰(zhàn)犯行徑以及對巴勒斯坦男男女女和小孩所施加的全面性虐待和屈辱，對此沒有任何悔恨或抱歉。我必須坦白說，我真的完全無法理解為什么會這樣。做為一個長久以來承受苦難的人民之代表人或領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人，卻全然只字未提這些事，他是否已經(jīng)完全喪失了自尊?

　　他是否忘記了他不只是一個個人，在這特別重要的一刻，他更是他的人民命運(yùn)的承擔(dān)者?在這應(yīng)該迎向機(jī)會、昂首站立于世人面前、毫無妥協(xié)與含糊地展現(xiàn)人民的經(jīng)驗與尊嚴(yán)的時刻，他卻表現(xiàn)出巴勒斯坦領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人向來對冒牌白人父親懇求一些小恩小惠時所慣有的一種半尷尬、半賠罪的卑微氣度。有人能對這徹底的失敗不感到悲痛失望嗎?

　　但是，這是巴勒斯坦統(tǒng)治者自奧斯陸協(xié)議與哈吉•阿明(Haj Amin)以來慣有的對外態(tài)度--表錯情地揉和了未成年人的反叛和哀怨的乞求。到底是為什么，他們總是以為恭讀敵人為他們所準(zhǔn)備的講稿是絕對必要的?做為巴勒斯坦、阿拉伯世界以及美國的阿拉伯人的最基本的生命尊嚴(yán)，就是在于我們不但擁有文化遺產(chǎn)、歷史與傳統(tǒng)，更有著足以表達(dá)我們真實愿望的語言。我們的愿望產(chǎn)生于每一個巴勒斯坦人民自1948年以來即被迫承擔(dān)的驅(qū)逐和掠奪的苦難經(jīng)驗中。我們沒有一個政治發(fā)言人--阿拉伯世界自阿布德?納塞爾(Abdel Nasser，前埃及總統(tǒng))以來亦如此--曾經(jīng)有自尊、有尊嚴(yán)地說出我們是什么，我們要什么，我們做了什么，以及我們想到哪里去。

　　然而，慢慢地，情勢在轉(zhuǎn)變，由阿巴斯和阿布?阿馬斯(Abu Ammars)這類人所組成的舊政權(quán)，將會消逝，逐漸將被阿拉伯世界的新一組領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人所取代。現(xiàn)今最讓人懷著一些希望的就是"國家巴勒斯坦計劃" (National Palestinian Initiative)的成員。他們是一些草根運(yùn)動者;他們主要的活動不是紙上談兵，不是在銀行帳戶上耍把戲，不是吸引記者的注意力;他們來自專業(yè)階級與工人階級，當(dāng)中有年輕的知識份子、運(yùn)動者、老師、醫(yī)生、律師、工人等等這些一方面每天抵擋以色列攻擊、一方面也維持社會運(yùn)作的一群人。

　　其次，這些人致力于一種政府當(dāng)局所不曾想見的民主與民眾參與-當(dāng)局對于民主的想法向來只是確保自身的穩(wěn)定與安全。這些草根運(yùn)動人士，甚至給失業(yè)者提供社會服務(wù)，給沒有社會保險的人或窮人提供醫(yī)療服務(wù)，給下一代巴勒斯坦小孩提供適當(dāng)?shù)氖浪捉逃屗麄兠靼赚F(xiàn)代世界的現(xiàn)實，而不僅僅是昔日美好的文化資產(chǎn)。

　　為了要施行這些計劃，"國家巴勒斯坦計劃"明言，只有結(jié)束占領(lǐng)才是唯一的路徑，而要這么做，就必須自由選舉出新的國家領(lǐng)導(dǎo)階層，取代過去一個世紀(jì)以來腐敗、過時、缺乏效能的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人。

　　只有當(dāng)我們能夠尊重自己是一個阿拉伯人或美國人時，才能理解奮斗的真正尊嚴(yán)與正義所在。也只有如此，我們才能體會，為什么不管我們怎么看待自己，世界上仍然會有這么多人，包括若雪?柯利還有兩位與她同樣受難的"國際團(tuán)結(jié)運(yùn)動組織"的成員--湯姆?亨道爾(Tom Hurndall)和布萊恩?艾弗利(Brian Avery)，愿意跟我們團(tuán)結(jié)在一起。

　　最后，我將以一個反諷做為結(jié)尾。許多跡象顯示，世上越來越多的人跟我們團(tuán)結(jié)在一起，而我們卻反而沒有展現(xiàn)出相稱的自我團(tuán)結(jié)與尊嚴(yán)，甚至別人恐怕都比我們自己都還要更景仰并看重我們的文化，這聽起來很荒謬不是嗎?這難道不是我們該認(rèn)清自身處境、并展現(xiàn)尊嚴(yán)的一刻?我們所能做的第一步就是，讓政府代表明白：我們不需感到任何慚愧，因為我們正為著一個正當(dāng)且高貴的目標(biāo)而努力;他們應(yīng)該為人民所做的奮斗感到驕傲，并且以能代表他們?yōu)闃s。

　　JUNE 23, 2003 www.counterpounch.org

　　The Meaning of Rachel Corrie

5月24日紐約猶太人團(tuán)體在布魯克林游行反對以色列國

　　Of Dignity and Solidarity

　　by EDWARD SAID

　　In early May, I was in Seattle lecturing for a few days. While there, I had dinner one night with Rachel Corrie's parents and sister, who were still reeling from the shock of their daughter's murder on March 16 in Gaza by an Israeli bulldozer. Mr. Corrie told me that he had himself driven bulldozers, although the one that killed his daughter deliberately because she was trying valiantly to protect a Palestinian home in Rafah from demolition was a 60 ton behemoth especially designed by Caterpillar for house demolitions, a far bigger machine than anything he had ever seen or driven. Two things struck me about my brief visit with the Corries. One was the story they told about their return to the US with their daughter's body. They had immediately sought out their US Senators, Patty Murray and Mary Cantwell, both Democrats, told them their story and received the expected expressions of shock, outrage, anger and promises of investigations. After both women returned to Washington, the Corries never heard from them again, and the promised investigation simply didn't materialize. As expected, the Israeli lobby had explained the realities to them, and both women simply begged off. An American citizen willfully murdered by the soldiers of a client state of the US without so much as an official peep or even the de rigeur investigation that had been promised her family.

　　But the second and far more important aspect of the Rachel Corrie story for me was the young woman's action itself, heroic and dignified at the same time. Born and brought up in Olympia, a small city 60 miles south of Seattle, she had joined the International Solidarity Movement and gone to Gaza to stand with suffering human beings with whom she had never had any contact before. Her letters back to her family are truly remarkable documents of her ordinary humanity that make for very difficult and moving reading, especially when she describes the kindness and concern showed her by all the Palestinians she encounters who clearly welcome her as one of their own, because she lives with them exactly as they do, sharing their lives and worries, as well as the horrors of the Israeli occupation and its terrible effects on even the smallest child. She understands the fate of refugees, and what she calls the Israeli government's insidious attempt at a kind of genocide by making it almost impossible for this particular group of people to survive. So moving is her solidarity that it inspires an Israeli reservist named Danny who has refused service to write her and tell her, " You are doing a good thing. I thank you for it."

　　What shines through all the letters she wrote home and which were subsequently published in the London Guardian, is the amazing resistance put up by the Palestinian people themselves, average human beings stuck in the most terrible position of suffering and despair but continuing to survive just the same. We have heard so much recently about the roadmap and the prospects for peace that we have overlooked the most basic fact of all, which is that Palestinians have refused to capitulate or surrender even under the collective punishment meted out to them by the combined might of the US and Israel. It is that extraordinary fact which is the reason for the existence of a roadmap and all the numerous so-called peace plans before them, not at all because the US and Israel and the international community have been convinced for humanitarian reasons that the killing and the violence must stop. If we miss that truth about the power of Palestinian resistance (by which I do not at all mean suicide bombing, which does much more harm than good), despite all its failings and all its mistakes, we miss everything. Palestinians have always been a problem for the Zionist project, and so-called solutions have perennially been proposed that minimize, rather than solve, the problem. The official Israeli policy, no matter whether Ariel Sharon uses the word "occupation" or not or whether or not he dismantles a rusty, unused tower or two, has always been not to accept the reality of the Palestinian people as equals nor ever to admit that their rights were scandalously violated all along by Israel. Whereas a few courageous Israelis over the years have tried to deal with this other concealed history, most Israelis and what seems like the majority of American Jews have made every effort to deny, avoid, or negate the Palestinian reality. This is why there is no peace.

　　Moreover, the roadmap says nothing about justice or about the historical punishment meted out to the Palestinian people for too many decades to count. What Rachel Corrie's work in Gaza recognized, however, was precisely the gravity and the density of the living history of the Palestinian people as a national community, and not merely as a collection of deprived refugees. That is what she was in solidarity with. And we need to remember that that kind of solidarity is no longer confined to a small number of intrepid souls here and there, but is recognized the world over. In the past six months I have lectured in four continents to many thousands of people. What brings them together is Palestine and the struggle of the Palestinian people which is now a byword for emancipation and enlightenment, regardless of all the vilification heaped on them by their enemies.

　　Whenever the facts are made known, there is immediate recognition and an expression of the most profound solidarity with the justice of the Palestinian cause and the valiant struggle by the Palestinian people on its behalf. It is an extraordinary thing that Palestine was a central issue this year both during the Porto Alegre anti-globalization meetings as well as during the Davos and Amman meetings, both poles of the world-wide political spectrum. Just because our fellow citizens in this country are fed an atrociously biased diet of ignorance and misrepresentation by the media, when the occupation is never referred to in lurid descriptions of suicide attacks, the apartheid wall 25 feet high, five feet thick, and 350 kilometers long that Israel is building is never even shown on CNN and the networks (or so much as referred to in passing throughout the lifeless prose of the roadmap), and the crimes of war, the gratuitous destruction and humiliation, maiming, house demolitions, agricultural destruction, and death imposed on Palestinian civilians are never shown for the daily, completely routine ordeal that they are, one shouldn't be surprised that Americans in the main have a very low opinion of Arabs and Palestinians. After all, please remember that all the main organs of the establishment media, from left liberal all the way over to fringe right, are unanimously anti-Arab, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian. Look at the pusillanimity of the media during the buildup to an illegal and unjust war against Iraq, and look at how little coverage there was of the immense damage against Iraqi society done by the sanctions, and how relatively few accounts there were of the immense world-wide outpouring of opinion against the war. Hardly a single journalist except Helen Thomas has taken the administration to task for the outrageous lies and confected "facts" that were spun out about Iraq as an imminent military threat to the US before the war, just as now the same government propagandists, whose cynically invented and manipulated "facts" about WMD are now more or less forgotten or shrugged off as irrelevant, are let off the hook by media heavies in discussing the awful, the literally inexcusable situation for the people of Iraq that the US has now single-handedly and irresponsibly created there. However else one blames Saddam Hussein as a vicious tyrant, which he was, he had provided the people of Iraq with the best infrastructure of services like water, electricity, health, and education of any Arab country. None of this is any longer in place.

　　It is no wonder, then, with the extraordinary fear of seeming anti-Semitic by criticizing Israel for its daily crimes of war against innocent unarmed Palestinian civilians or criticizing the US government and being called "anti-American" for its illegal war and its dreadfully run military occupation, that the vicious media and government campaign against Arab society, culture, history and mentality that has been led by Neanderthal publicists and Orientalists like Bernard Lewis and Daniel Pipes, has cowed far too many of us into believing that Arabs really are an underdeveloped, incompetent and doomed people, and that with all the failures in democracy and development, Arabs are alone in this world for being retarded, behind the times, unmodernized, and deeply reactionary. Here is where dignity and critical historical thinking must be mobilized to see what is what and to disentangle truth from propaganda.

　　No one would deny that most Arab countries today are ruled by unpopular regimes and that vast numbers of poor, disadvantaged young Arabs are exposed to the ruthless forms of fundamentalist religion. Yet it is simply a lie to say, as the New York Times regularly does, that Arab societies are totally controlled, and that there is no freedom of opinion, no civil institutions, no functioning social movements for and by the people. Press laws notwithstanding, you can go to downtown Amman today and buy a communist party newspaper as well as an Islamist one; Egypt and Lebanon are full of papers and journals that suggest much more debate and discussion than these societies are given credit for; the satellite channels are bursting with diverse opinions in a dizzying variety; civil institutions are, on many levels having to do with social services, human rights, syndicates, and research institutes, very lively all over the Arab world. A great deal more must be done before we have the appropriate level of democracy, but we are on the way.

　　In Palestine alone there are over a 1000 NGO's and it is this vitality and this kind of activity that has kept society going, despite every American and Israeli effort made to vilify, stop or mutilate it on a daily basis. Under the worst possible circumstances, Palestinian society has neither been defeated nor has it crumbled completely. Kids still go to school, doctors and nurses still take care of their patients, men and women go to work, organizations have their meetings, and people continue to live, which seems to be an offense to Sharon and the other extremists who simply want Palestinians either imprisoned or driven away altogether. The military solution hasn't worked at all, and never will work. Why is that so hard for Israelis to see? We must help them to understand this, not by suicide bombs, but by rational argument, mass civil disobedience, organized protest, here and everywhere.

　　The point I am trying to make is that we have to see the Arab world generally and Palestine in particular in more comparative and critical ways than superficial and dismissive books like Lewis's What Went Wrong and Paul Wolfowitz's ignorant statements about bringing democracy to the Arab and Islamic world even begin to suggest. Whatever else is true about the Arabs, there is an active dynamic at work because as real people they live in a real society with all sorts of currents and crosscurrents in it that can't be easily caricatured as just one seething mass of violent fanaticism. The Palestinian struggle for justice is especially something with which one expresses solidarity, rather than endless criticism and exasperated, frustrating discouragement, and crippling divisiveness. Remember the solidarity here and everywhere in Latin America, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia, and remember also that there is a cause to which many people have committed themselves, difficulties and terrible obstacles notwithstanding. Why? Because it is a just cause, a noble ideal, a moral quest for equality and human rights.

　　I want now to speak about dignity, which of course has a special place in every culture

　　known to historians, anthropologists, sociologists and humanists. I shall begin by saying immediately that it is a radically wrong Orientalist, and indeed racist proposition to accept that, unlike Europeans and Americans, Arabs have no sense of individuality, no regard for individual life, no values that express love, intimacy and understanding that are supposed to be the property exclusively of cultures like those of Europe and America that had an Renaissance, a Reformation and an Enlightenment. Among many others, it is the vulgar and jejune Thomas Friedman who has been peddling this rubbish, which has alas been picked up by equally ignorant and self-deceiving Arab intellectuals ­ I don't need to mention any names here ­ who have seen in the atrocities of 9/11 a sign that the Arab and Islamic worlds are somehow more diseased and more dysfunctional than any other, and that terrorism is a sign of a wider distortion that has occurred in any other culture.

　　We can leave to one side that, between them, Europe and the US account for by far the largest number of violent deaths during the 20th century, the Islamic world hardly a fraction of it. And behind all of that specious unscientific nonsense about wrong and right civilizations, there is the grotesque shadow of the great false prophet Samuel Huntington who has led a lot of people to believe that the world can be divided into distinct civilizations battling against each other forever. On the contrary, Huntington is dead wrong on every point he makes. No culture or civilization exists by itself; none is made up of things like individuality and enlightenment that are completely exclusive to it; and none exists without the basic human attributes of community, love, value for life and all the others. To suggest otherwise as he does is the purest invidious racism of the same stripe as people who argue that Africans have naturally inferior brains, or that Asians are really born for servitude, or that Europeans are a naturally superior race. This is a sort of parody of Hitlerian science directed uniquely today against Arab and Muslims, and we must be very firm as to not even go through the motions of arguing against it. It is the purest drivel. On the other hand, there is the much more credible and serious stipulation that, like every other instance of humanity, Arab and Muslim life has an inherent value and dignity which are expressed by Arabs and Muslims in their unique cultural style, and those expressions needn't resemble or be a copy of one approved model suitable for everyone to follow.

　　The whole point about human diversity is that it is in the end a form of deep co-existence between very different styles of individuality and experience that can't all be reduced to one superior form: this is the spurious argument foisted on us by pundits who bewail the lack of development and knowledge in the Arab world. All one has to do is to look at the huge variety of literature, cinema, theater, painting, music and popular culture produced by and for Arabs from Morocco to the Gulf. Surely that needs to be assessed as an indication of whether or not Arabs are developed, and not just how on any given day statistical tables of industrial production either indicate an appropriate level of development or they show failure.

　　The more important point I want to make, though, is that there is a very wide discrepancy today between our cultures and societies and the small group of people who now rule these societies. Rarely in history has such power been so concentrated in so tiny a group as the various kings, generals, sultans, and presidents who preside today over the Arabs. The worst thing about them as a group, almost without exception, is that they do not represent the best of their people. This is not just a matter of no democracy. It is that they seem to radically underestimate themselves and their people in ways that close them off, that make them intolerant and fearful of change, frightened of opening up their societies to their people, terrified most of all that they might anger big brother, that is, the United States. Instead of seeing their citizens as the potential wealth of the nation, they regard them all as guilty conspirators vying for the ruler's power.

　　This is the real failure, how during the terrible war against the Iraqi people, no Arab leader had the self-dignity and confidence to say something about the pillaging and military occupation of one of the most important Arab countries. Fine, it was an excellent thing that Saddam Hussein's appalling regime is no more, but who appointed the US to be the Arab mentor? Who asked the US to take over the Arab world allegedly on behalf of it citizens and bring it something called "democracy," especially at a time when the school system, the health system, and the whole economy in America are degenerating into the worst levels since the 1929 Depression. Why was the collective Arab voice NOT raised against the US's flagrantly illegal intervention, which did so much harm and inflicted so much humiliation upon the entire Arab nation? This is truly a colossal failure in nerve, in dignity, in self-solidarity.

　　With all the Bush administration's talk about guidance from the Almighty, doesn't one Arab leader have the courage just to say that, as a great people, we are guided by our own lights and traditions and religion? But nothing, not a word, as the poor citizens of Iraq live through the most terrible ordeals and the rest of the region quakes in its collective boots, each one petrified that his country may be next. How unfortunate the embrace of George Bush, the man whose war destroyed an Arab country gratuitously, by the combined leadership of the major Arab countries last week. Was there no one there who had the guts to remind George W. what he has done to humiliate and bring more suffering to the Arab people than anyone before him, and must he always be greeted with hugs, smiles, kisses and low bows? Where is the diplomatic and political and economic support necessary to sustain an anti-occupation movement on the West Bank and Gaza? Instead all one hears is that foreign ministers preach to the Palestinians to mind their ways, avoid violence, and keep at the peace negotiations, even though it has been so obvious that Sharon's interest in peace is just about zero. There has been no concerted Arab response to the separation wall, or to the assassinations, or to collective punishment, only a bunch of tired clichés repeating the well-worn formulas authorized by the State Department.

　　Perhaps the one thing that strikes me as the low point in Arab inability to grasp the dignity of the Palestinian cause is expressed by the current state of the Palestinian Authority. Abu Mazen, a subordinate figure with little political support among his own people, was picked for the job by Arafat, Israel, and the US precisely because he has no constituency, is not an orator or a great organizer, or anything really except a dutiful aide to Yasir Arafat, and because I am afraid they see in him a man who will do Israel's bidding, how could even Abu Mazen stand there in Aqaba to pronounce words written for him, like a ventriloquist's puppet, by some State Department functionary, in which he commendably speaks about Jewish suffering but then amazingly says next to nothing about his own people's suffering at the hands of Israel? How could he accept so undignified and manipulated a role for himself, and how could he forget his self-dignity as the representative of a people that has been fighting heroically for its rights for over a century just because the US and Israel have told him he must? And when Israel simply says that there will be a "provisional" Palestinian state, without any contrition for the horrendous amount of damage it has done, the uncountable war crimes, the sheer sadistic systematic humiliation of every single Palestinian, man, woman, child, I must confess to a complete lack of understanding. As to why a leader or representative of that long-suffering people doesn't so much as take note of it. Has he entirely lost his sense of dignity?

　　Has he forgotten that since he is not just an individual but also the bearer of his people's fate at an especially crucial moment? Is there anyone who was not bitterly disappointed at this total failure to rise to the occasion and stand with dignity ­ the dignity of his people's experience and cause ­ and testify to it with pride, and without compromise, without ambiguity, without the half embarrassed, half apologetic tone that Palestinian leaders take when they are begging for a little kindness from some totally unworthy white father?

　　But that has been the behavior of Palestinian rulers since Oslo and indeed since Haj Amin, a combination of misplaced juvenile defiance and plaintive supplication. Why on earth do they always think it absolutely necessary to read scripts written for them by their enemies? The basic dignity of our life as Arabs in Palestine, throughout the Arab world, and here in America, is that we are our own people, with a heritage, a history, a tradition and above all a language that is more than adequate to the task of representing our real aspirations, since those aspirations derive from the experience of dispossession and suffering that has been imposed on each Palestinian since 1948. Not one of our political spokespeople ­ the same is true of the Arabs since Abdel Nasser's time ­ ever speaks with self-respect and dignity of what we are, what we want, what we have done, and where we want to go.

　　Slowly, however, the situation is changing, and the old regime made up of the Abu Mazens and Abu Ammars of this world, is passing and will gradually be replaced by a new set of emerging leaders all over the Arab world. The most promising is made up of the members of the National Palestinian Initiative; they are grass roots activists whose main activity is not pushing papers on a desk, nor juggling bank accounts, nor looking for journalists to pay attention to them, but who come from the ranks of the professionals, the working classes, and young intellectuals and activists, the teachers, doctors, lawyers, working people who have kept society going while also fending off daily Israeli attacks. Second, these are people committed to the kind of democracy and popular participation undreamt of by the Authority, whose idea of democracy is stability and security for itself. Lastly, they offer social services to the unemployed, health to the uninsured and the poor, proper secular education to a new generation of Palestinians who must be taught the realities of the modern world, not just the extraordinary worth of the old one. For such programs, the NPI stipulates that getting rid of the occupation is the only way forward, and that in order to do that, a representative national unified leadership be elected freely to replace the cronies, the outdated, and the ineffectiveness that have plagued Palestinian leaders for the past century.

　　Only if we respect ourselves as Arabs and Americans, and understand the true dignity and justice of our struggle, only then can we appreciate why, almost despite ourselves, so many people all over the world, including Rachel Corrie and the two young people wounded with her from ISM, Tom Hurndall and Brian Avery, have felt it possible to express their solidarity with us.

　　I conclude with one last irony. Isn't it astonishing that all the signs of popular solidarity that Palestine and the Arabs receive occur with no comparable sign of solidarity and dignity for ourselves, that others admire and respect us more than we do ourselves? Isn't it time we caught up with our own status and made certain that our representatives here and elsewhere realize, as a first step, that they are fighting for a just and noble cause, and that they have nothing to apologize for or anything to be embarrassed about? On the contrary, they should be proud of what their people have done and proud also to represent them.

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