It is getting harder and harder as time passes. Someone I met here said that an International once visited Palestine and was so moved they wanted to write a book, so they returned to start the interviews and research for their book and could only manage to write an article, then they learned even more and couldn't sit down to write an e-mail.
I never took a moment to consider how dangerous apuntes can be; I want folks to read these and read the tons of other blogs and books on Palestine. I want people to do something beyond reading and writing. When will more people start rebeling?
One of my dearest comrades forwarded me these words from one of my favorite writers:
We all know that there are language forms that are considered impolite and out of order, no matter what truths these languages might be carrying. If you talk with a harsh, urbanized accent and you use too many profanities, that will often get you barred from many arenas, no matter what you’re trying to say. On the other hand, polite, formal language is allowed almost anywhere even when all it is communicating is hatred and violence.
Power always privileges its own discourse while marginalizing those who would challenge it or that are the victims of its power.
Just watch what’s happening in Palestine.
I find the language of Israel, for example, the language of an occupying army that practices collective retaliation, that drops bombs on villagers because someone utterly unconnected to them kills an Israeli soldier, this language is considered (by many in the world community) as rational and civilized, yet the language of a Palestinian revolutionary, fighting to end the occupation, with whatever limited means he or she has at their disposal, is considered the language of savagery and of barbarism and of terrorism. It would seem to me that the Israelis deploy their language privilege to cloak the reality of what they’re doing and distort what the Palestinian struggle for liberation is all about.
Gracias Junot Diaz, for your palabras...
