The ongoing genocide in Palestine by the Israel is part of a larger Western colonial project. Deconstructing it is the only way to end this unrest, says Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish, one of the most vital voices of Arab literature.
Speaking on the sidelines of International Literature Festival of Kerala in Thrissur on Friday, he says what is happening now is the continuation of century-old colonialism in Palestine. It didn’t start on October 7, 2023. It is not a war between Israel and Hamas as the Zionist Western media is trying to portray.
We are facing a political genocide against our identity, culture and whole existence by the colonial project called Israel, says Mr. Darwish, who has been described as one of the foremost Arabic-language poets of his generation. In 2014, the NPR included his book Nothing More to Lose as one of the best books of the year. His poetry is a walk between hope and hopelessness.
‘Remains and survivors’
“Colonial project’s main aim is to seal the land and get rid of the people. In order to do that, Israel has been attacking Palestinian society since 1948. All that is left in Palestine are just remains and survivors,” he says.
“Israel should be seen as a tool for establishing the Western colonial project in the Arab region. It’s role is to weaken the Arab region and to engage it in wars and troubles so that the West can establish its authority,” adds Mr. Darwish.
It is kind of an evil mission in which the West is taking pride. The Western colonial project has never ended in the 20th century. It is continuing with new mechanisms, he says.
“The Israel-Palestine conflict is a global issue for many reasons. The Palestinian’s fight against Israel has became a symbol of resistance against colonial thinking, colonial attitude, and colonial practices in the world. Not only the Palestinians, but people across the world, from India to Latin America, are infected by the colonial project,” the poet says.
“We are not the only country that is under occupation. The world is somehow occupied. Ultimately it is not only Israel which is responsible for the genocide. The US and most of the European governments are participating in the genocide. What we are witnessing is fascism of corporates. It is a nexus between neo-liberalism and neo-fascism,” says Mr. Darwish.
Deconstructing the colonial project is the only solution to end the unrest in West Asia. Any solution by keeping the colonial project alive will not work. Injustice needs to be stopped. I don’t see any future for my people within the colonial project. The Oslo agreement failed as it was within the colonial project, he adds.
‘International pandemic’
Mr. Darwish, who is skeptical about the recent Indo-Israeli strategic ties, says, “There has been a phenomenon across the world where the governments do not represent the interests of their people. It is an international pandemic. Israel supplies two things for India- substandard weapons and spy software. The weapons are useless and spywares are meant to destroy democracy.”
Speaking about arts and literature in the war-torn Palestine, he says, “A poet should be a good historian as he goes through human experience in total, even through the untold history. We are living in the moment of genocide. So far, some 40,000 are killed. All of them are civilians and half of them are children and teenagers.”
Mr. Darwish’s poems reflect a style of confronting harsh political truth through its in-depth imagination.
“We still have some cultural life in Palestine. Movements of arts, small or large. With our remaining energy, we are resisting colonial project, their propaganda,” adds the poet.
“We have to tell the world that Israel’s occupation is not like one country occupying the land of another. There was only one country from the time of Jesus called Palestine. Israel is only the name of a colonial project which is trying to erase the identity and people of Palestine under some Biblical claims to camouflage settler colonialism,” says Mr. Darwish.
