Why I Am Not a Humanist

During a talk yesterday, a Jewish professor of philosophy posed the question of why he was not a Zionist. Clearly, the answer requires no philosophical investigation. Zionism as the national movement for the establishment of a Jewish national homeland in historic Palestine is, ipso facto, a colonial project that would be realized only by the ethnic cleansing and the dispossession of the people, who have inhabited the land of Palestine for centuries, i.e. us, the Palestinians. However, while, by virtue of being Palestinian, my entire existence is hinged upon my opposition to the Zionist project and the Israeli state, I am no less disenchanted by the supposedly redemptive undertones of the alternative form of politics this professor was advocating. This form of politics insists that the way to go forward is by embracing our common humanity, a humanity that binds us all together and liberates us from our particularistic identities, be they racial, ethnic, religious, gendered etc.

I attempted to raise the question of whether this form of global humanism was a plausible political vision for the Jewish people at the time. That is to say, it does not seem logical to demand that the Jewish people, who have been the historical victims of European anti-Semitism and had historically been persecuted only because of their Jewishness, regardless whether they truly believed in Judaism or not, treat their Jewishness as secondary to a more global and primary identity, which is their common humanity with others. Jewishness was constitutive of who this community was and it is on this basis that they were persecuted. It seems rather supremacist to insist that the Jewish people had no right to construct a politics founded on their Jewishness. Of course, we can still agree that this politics which should have been purely redemptive has become only another fierce form of European imperialism, an imperialism that was born of the newly formed Judeo-Christian alliance against Islam as the Zionist movement aligned itself from the beginning with the European powers at the time which thus gave birth to a new historical injustice whose victims are us, the Palestinians.

But to deny that an oppressed people, be they Jewish, black, Muslim or otherwise have only one way to do politics and fight against their oppression which is to assert their humanity with the rest, rather than emphasize their particularistic struggles is, at best, spurious. Of course, this is not to say that these people are not ‘really’ human. They are. But that is no reason to regard this common humanness, and not their provincial identities, as the foundation of their political struggles for redemptive power and against oppression. This is what I mean by humanism.

We surely have enough reason to throw into question the universalist claims of humanism. Humanists would like us to believe that the historical and contemporary systematic and institutional practices of racism, imperialism and patriarchy have nothing to do with humanism, and that these are only a distortion of what humanism should be. Humanism can only be good, and it is the best thing for everyone. Only that it has not been. It does not work for most peoples across the globe. The majority of the world population are oppressed, unprivileged, disadvantaged, and disenfranchised. Humanism is based on the human, and the Western idea of the human has been used to legitimize scientific racism and colonialism. Not that we are not human ourselves, but keep your idea of the human to yourself.

It is not coincidental that the boundaries of the human seem to correspond with the West. To clarify, it seems that the closer one is to the ideal of the West, the closer they are to realizing their humanness, that is, their essence as human (whatever this essence is). For example, by virtue of being in, or better yet, from the West, one seems to have more access to what we regard as basic human rights. One’s life becomes more valuable (hence the death of a dozen in Europe is guaranteed to generate more attention and fiercer outcry than a hundred in Baghdad), one’s freedom of movement becomes less restricted, one’s quality of life, generally speaking, is higher. I am not saying here that everyone in or from the West is in an equal position or is in a better position that everyone in the non-West. Of course, some are more privileged than others, but, in general, we are safe to state, and based on personal experience, that one is treated as more human– albeit not as equally human as everyone else– simply by being in the West and thus closer to the West. This is also why humanism is also colonial idea, as it is predicated on the distinction between the West and the non-West.

To conclude, we have strong grounds to reject the demand that any oppressed people can build their political project on the idea of the human, and, as victims, only by asserting our humanity, can we hope for a better treatment by our colonial masters.

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Filed under: Politics & Society

العنف المتأصل في نفوسنا

Terrorists from where ever they arise, have not religion even though they may hide behind religion.

نادية حرحش

http://www.wattan.tv/news/225791.html

كثيرا ما أفكر بردود أفعالنا المختلفة عن العالم الآخر غير العربي تحديدا. كيف نتحمل الضرب والذل والإهانة . هذا الجلد على التحمل . لا أعرف لما قادتني ذاكرتي إلى مشهد على جسر الملك حسين قبل عدة أعوام وسط أزمة خانقة في قاعة الإنتظار وأولئك الحراس العشرينيين الذين كانوا يتعاملون مع البشر “الفلسطيني” وكأنهم قطيع أغنام. ذلك المنظر يحمل بذاكرتي دائما عصا بيد أحد الحراس وكأنه يضرب الجماهير المنتظرة الرجوع ، مع أنه لم يكن يحمل أي عصا.

ما جرى في سيناء اليوم من قتل للمصلين، يؤكد ان الارهاب لا دين له. فقط يوقفنا امام انحيازاتنا لما تساويه الارواح التي يتم ازهاقها . فنتعاطف ونتشفى حسب انتماءاتنا.

القتل في اليمن، وسورية، والعراق، وافغانستان، واسطنبول… لا يختلف عن الجريمة التي هزتنا اليوم في سيناء . نفسهم المجرمون الذين زهقوا ارواحا بالكنائس ، ونفسهم الذين يقررون انهم ايادي الله لاظهار الحق على هذه الارض. بينما هم ليسوا اكثر من مرتزقة مأجورين يتلقون…

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Leonard Peltier’s Thanksgiving Statement

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By Leonard Peltier

Censored News

Greetings my friends, relatives and supporters.

Once again, I can’t tell you how much i am so honored that you would want to hear my words, or should i say read my words. You can’t imagine the thoughts that go through my head at times whenever everything is still and quiet in the night, when i lay there staring into the dark with day dreams of how things

AMERICA/MEXICO – Prayer for peace in Baja California Sur: 900 dead in three years

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Baja California Sur – To pray for peace and families, victims of violence: yesterday November 23, at least one hundred priests from the five municipalities and more than 300 people gathered in San Martin di La Paz parish, for a celebration led by the Bishop of the Diocese of La Paz en la Baja California Sur , Mgr. Miguel Ángel Alba Díaz.
During the Eucharistic celebration, the Bishop invited to remain silent while on a screen the number of people killed in the last three years was being projected: “2014-2017, about 900 people were killed due to the fury of human barbarism in Baja California Sur”. During the prayer of the faithful, those present prayed for families “victims of violence”, for those who lost their lives in this context, “for all the innocent who died for violence and for the 900 deaths in our area”. Finally the Bishop invited all to follow him in silence for a procession around the temple with lit candles.
The main reason for this celebration was the terrible murder of state lawyer Silvestre De la Toba Camacho. The Bishop said he would not release any further statements about it because society is tired of “sterile speeches” and has asked for the problem to be resolved from the root. On Monday, November 20, Silvestre De la Toba Camacho, president of the State Human Rights Commission in Baja California Sur , in the northwest of the country, was shot dead by a group of assassins while he was in the center of the city, along with his family. Even his son Fernando died while his wife and daughter were seriously injured.
The National Human Rights Commission condemned the crime and ordered the authorities to take precautionary measures to protect the victim’s family. There has been an intense wave of violence in Baja California Sur in the last two years because of disputes between criminal groups who want to control the area and the Sinaloa cartel, one of the world’s most powerful drug traffickers.

Israel army ‘reprimands’ commanders following shooting of Palestinian siblings

No words…

West Bank/PNN/

The Israeli army has taken “disciplinary action” against two commanders involved in the shooting of Palestinian siblings on 31 October, which left one man dead and his sister wounded.

According to a report in Haaretz, the commander of the Givati infantry brigade, Colonel Dado Bar Kalifa, reprimanded the deputy company commander for “improperly reporting to soldiers about the identification of the suspicious vehicle over the military radio network”.

Meanwhile, the squad commander was suspended from command positions because of his actions.

Israeli occupation forces opened fire on 26-year-old Mohammed Abdallah Musa, who died of his injuries, and his sister Latifa Musa, 33, as the two travelled in their car to Ramallah.

Sources told the paper that the soldiers who fired at the car, including the squad commander, did not approach the car after it stopped. “The soldiers reportedly returned to the tent and did not examine the identity of casualties or their condition.”

The “reprimands” are separate to a military police investigation also being conducted into the shooting. The incident was originally reported as a suspected-car ramming, after the army claimed that the vehicle did not stop when ordered to do so.

According to one eye-witness, “two soldiers came out of the tent and began to shoot at the [car]. They hit its rear from a distance. The car stopped after a few meters and was stuck on the side of the road.” No soldiers attempted to provide first-aid to the siblings.

Saudi Arabia still barring aid to Yemen despite pledge to lift siege

Covering up genocide as self-defense is not so easy.

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Saudi-led coalition has failed to lift blockade on Yemen’s ports, leaving tens of thousands without food and medicine

Aid agencies said Saudi Arabia has not fulfilled its promise to reopen humanitarian aid corridors into northern Yemen, leaving the main aid lifeline closed for tens of thousands of starving people.

Following intense pressure from western governments, Saudi Arabia agreed on Wednesday to lift a fortnight-long blockade of the port of Hodeida from noon (9am GMT) on Thursday, but in an update at lunchtime on Friday, aid agencies said no permissions for humanitarian shipments had been given.

Continue reading…

Church of Sweden to stop referring to God as ‘he’ or ‘Lord’

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Head of largest Swedish Christian church says God is beyond human gender determination

The Church of Sweden is urging its clergy to use gender-neutral language when referring to the supreme deity, refraining from using terms such as “Lord” and “he” in favour of the less specific “God.”

The move is one of several taken by the national Evangelical Lutheran church in updating a 31-year-old handbook setting out how services should be conducted in terms of language, liturgy, hymns and other aspects.

Continue reading…

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