In the 1960s, the people of Bab al-Tabbaneh in Tripoli gathered to participate in a long-awaited celebration for the opening of an official school, after children from the area had to travel daily over an old bridge, crossing the Abu Ali River to reach the nearest school, summer and winter. The key point was that the city's leader was the guest of honor at the event, and crowds came to greet him. The main speaker of the celebration was the contractor who won the school's tender, somehow and without competition. The contractor spoke little about the need for education and encouraging children to study and build their futures. However, he directed his comments at the leader: "O leader, when you took charge of this nation, the throne of Zion shook, Golda Meir wept, and Moshe Dayan lost his second eye," prompting the crowd to chant for Palestine and long life for the victorious leader over enemies. But, once the crowd quieted, "Abu Mustafa," a gloomy character representing the area's residents, took the stage to thank the leader, saying: "We came today to renew our allegiance to the leader after the victorious elections in which he was elected as a deputy again, and to congratulate the contractor on the profits from building the long-awaited official school, but we have forgotten the people. O leader, none of us wants you to shake the throne of Zion, or to uproot Moshe Dayan's eye, or to liberate Palestine! But we ask who will free us from the hordes of rats attacking us, the swarms of mosquitoes draining our blood, and the hunger that disturbs our sleep at night? After that, we will quickly head to Palestine. We are simple people, O leader, and our demands are simple and modest." The crowds fell silent for a moment, then murmurs began in the front rows, with some expressing outrage at "Abu Mustafa" for hinting at the leader by discussing "those trivial matters." But the leader smiled calmly, then turned to the radio and said: "The issue of Palestine is a sacred duty, and nothing will deter us from striving for it, not hunger nor sickness." At that moment, the crowd began chanting for Palestine and for the life of the leader. The leader then gestured for Abu Mustafa to come closer and whispered in his ear, asking, "Who did they cheer for more?"
I remembered this story that my father told me amid today's dangerous and violent military displays, based on the premise that the destination is Jerusalem and Palestine. The militias and armed groups are seizing the opportunity to "rescue Gaza’s people" from the horrific massacre, while also fulfilling the sincere promise that intoxicates people, leading them to chant for the blessed commander, sending martyr after martyr from their beloved children in sacrifice for the commander’s promise. But I understood that for them, as with all previous national tyrants and brokers, Palestine is merely a pretext and a commercial brand for profitable trade in blood, death, and destruction.
Why this discussion now? For someone like me who has lived through the daily details, and who has not engaged in the struggle through speeches, but rather through imminent danger and underground and open work for Palestine, knows well how many pretexts have been woven to install false leaders over the people. Meanwhile, the true fighters, whether wrong or right, lie under the ground, or what remains of their bodies that hunger has consumed before enemy bullets pierced their chests, or the daggers of false leaders struck them from behind, or thousands were incarcerated, or crushed under the impact of explosive barrels, or suffocated by toxic gas, or assassinated by silent killers on deserted roads in the south, or killed by hunger, disease, despair, and ignorance.
Today, none of us can simply stand by as we witness the horrific crimes the Zionists commit against humanity, against innocent people and children. But the simple observer will compare the magnitude of crimes committed in the name of Palestine by a pseudo-leader residing in some palace or another hidden beneath layers of protection, against the hundreds of thousands of their afflicted subjects over many decades, and juxtapose that with false leaders who have delayed growth, ignored poverty, filled their prisons with people, and their coffers with money, while Palestine remains a pretext for each of them, from Tehran to the southern suburbs, from Najd to Yemen to Egypt and Tetouan. It is not standing behind podiums shouting "O Jerusalem, we are coming" that will liberate Palestine; the priority is to liberate people from humiliation and degradation under false leaders, and only then will Palestine become a destination and not just a pretext!
Today, some emerge taking the open wounds in Gaza as a pretext to climb like flies, seeking false popularity using the enthusiasm and fervor of youth to claim that "we are here to outshine others," nothing more. In a few days, calm may return to Palestine, and some might emerge from their hiding places to raise victory flags, continuing the saga of false leaders, "but those who have left are gone."
