{"id":1020,"date":"2008-02-02T00:52:57","date_gmt":"2008-02-01T22:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.zeit.de\/joerglau\/2008\/02\/02\/schlus-mit-der-arabischen-palastina-obsession_1020"},"modified":"2008-02-02T00:52:57","modified_gmt":"2008-02-01T22:52:57","slug":"schlus-mit-der-arabischen-palastina-obsession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.zeit.de\/joerglau\/2008\/02\/02\/schlus-mit-der-arabischen-palastina-obsession_1020","title":{"rendered":"Schlu\u00df mit der arabischen Pal\u00e4stina-Obsession!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Die kluge Esra&#8217;a (eine <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mideastyouth.com\/author\/esra\/\">21j\u00e4hrige Studentin in Bahrain<\/a>) von <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mideastyouth.com\/\">Mideastyouth<\/a> hat wieder einmal einen streitbaren Artikel geschrieben: Gegen die obsessive Besch\u00e4ftigung vieler Araber mit den Pal\u00e4stiensern, gegen deren Schicksal alle anderen Krisen der Welt verblassen. Ein Pl\u00e4doyer f\u00fcr die Weitung des Blicks. Gro\u00dfartig. Ganzer Text <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mideastyouth.com\/2008\/01\/31\/the-arab-obsession-with-palestine\/\">hier<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\t&#8222;I am not saying we should forget or underestimate what is happening in Palestine. But I am asking my fellow Arabs some essential questions here.<\/p>\n<p>\tWhy didn\u2019t people rally for justice and peace in Darfur when the situation was far worse and many more lives were at stake?<\/p>\n<p>\tWhy didn\u2019t people rally for coexistence with religious minorities, who are often wronged in our societies?<\/p>\n<p>\tWhy didn\u2019t people rally for ethnic minorities and abused foreign workers, who are taken advantage of and enslaved by the millions?<\/p>\n<p>\tWhy aren\u2019t people outspoken about honour crimes in Muslim societies?<\/p>\n<p>\tWhy only Palestine?<\/p>\n<p>\tAs you all know, Mideast Youth leads a lot of wonderful projects. Whenever we launch a project, we have a mailing list of 1,000+ which we notify. At least 60% of this list consists of Arabs from all over the MENA region. Almost every single newsletter I send, I receive a horrific amount of baseless and self-important responses that bash this network in general for not being pro-Palestinian enough (which apparently makes us \u201cself-hating Arabs,\u201d because you\u2019re only Arab if your life revolves around Palestine.)<\/p>\n<p>\tApparently, and according to dozens of these \u201cactivists,\u201d none of whom are actual Palestinians, we are doing a horrible job and we have neglected our own brothers and sisters in Palestine. How so?<\/p>\n<p>\tBy not obsessing about them?<\/p>\n<p>\tBy focusing on the minorities whom no one cares about? The Baha\u2019is? The Kurds? The genocide in Darfur? The sexual slaves? The migrant workers? Young women and men being flogged to death in the name of \u201chonour\u201d? Chinese bloggers who spend as much as a lifetime in prison? Helping Afghans in need of support? Trying to establish connections with countries that the Arab world has forgotten, countries where millions of people are crying for help, countries or issues that we often dismiss because it\u2019s not our beloved \u201cPalestine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\tI am sickened by this destructive obsession.<\/p>\n<p>\tI am sickened by the way people treat us for choosing to fight against issues that for once, are not about this conflict.<\/p>\n<p>\tI am sickened by the question, \u201cwhat about Palestine?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\tPlease remind me, how many rallies took place in defense of innocent Darfurians? How many newspapers demanded action and justice against honour crimes? How many news networks revealed what the Baha\u2019is are suffering through in many of our countries? How many people cared enough to focus on foreign workers in an attempt to abolish the widespread slavery in the Gulf? How many people in this region cared to network with Afghans who come from a country where many people are without electricity, an education, basic rights, an opportunity to communicate with the world, where the life expectancy is below 40?<\/p>\n<p>\tHow many people stood up and echoed the voices of the voiceless? Must one obsess with Palestine in order to be taken seriously?<\/p>\n<p>\tYou want to work on improving Palestine and the lives of its people, fine, that is admirable and fantastic. But don\u2019t you dare undermine other struggles on the premise that Palestine is more important. We have other issues; and while the entire Arab world is writing about, talking about, fighting towards, and obsessing about Palestinians (a lot of whom are discriminated against by their own Arab neighbours) we are going to put a lot of time and effort focusing on the other issues that affect the lives of millions of individuals in this region and beyond, knowing fully well that not many care to make these other crimes the focus of their struggles, even when it\u2019s often far worse than the Palestinian conflict.<\/p>\n<p>\tI want you ALL to understand that these other issues also matter.<\/p>\n<p>\tSo the next time we launch a network, don\u2019t ask me about Palestine. Don\u2019t tell me I\u2019m a self-hating Arab simply for not feeding your obsessive agendas that bore me to death. Try to get your head out of your butt and realize that other important struggles take place, and be kind enough to allow others to address these issues respectfully in peace, instead of making them feel like shit.&#8220;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Die kluge Esra&#8217;a (eine 21j\u00e4hrige Studentin in Bahrain) von Mideastyouth hat wieder einmal einen streitbaren Artikel geschrieben: Gegen die obsessive Besch\u00e4ftigung vieler Araber mit den Pal\u00e4stiensern, gegen deren Schicksal alle anderen Krisen der Welt verblassen. Ein Pl\u00e4doyer f\u00fcr die Weitung des Blicks. Gro\u00dfartig. Ganzer Text hier. &#8222;I am not saying we should forget or underestimate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[155],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-debatte"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Schlu\u00df mit der arabischen Pal\u00e4stina-Obsession! - J\u00f6rg Lau<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.zeit.de\/joerglau\/2008\/02\/02\/schlus-mit-der-arabischen-palastina-obsession_1020\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Schlu\u00df mit der arabischen Pal\u00e4stina-Obsession! - J\u00f6rg Lau\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Die kluge Esra&#8217;a (eine 21j\u00e4hrige Studentin in Bahrain) von Mideastyouth hat wieder einmal einen streitbaren Artikel geschrieben: Gegen die obsessive Besch\u00e4ftigung vieler Araber mit den Pal\u00e4stiensern, gegen deren Schicksal alle anderen Krisen der Welt verblassen. Ein Pl\u00e4doyer f\u00fcr die Weitung des Blicks. Gro\u00dfartig. 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