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Speech by Ali Bahamad, Palm Sunday 2006Today we gather, on Palm Sunday, a day of peace and love, to rally against the evil inherent in our world today, and to highlight the struggle and plight of various oppressed groups around the world.
Only the other day, I walked past some signs in the Inner City that said "Iraqi Civilians killed since start of war - Minimum: 33,821; maximum: 37,943". And this is only in Iraq! This is the world that we live in; a world that accepts wars and killings, racism and oppression! I could stand here recounting the widespread destruction in the world and the various misdeeds being done. I could talk about the war crimes against the Palestinian people. I could give details about the unjustified war in Iraq, about how the Bush administration has its own agenda, and how various corporate figures attached to the Bush administration are making a pile of money out of the war. I could speak about how the intention to create a democracy is corrupt. I could give details of the lies that were given to the people of the world by the US to start this war, and how this war has caused more destruction, more racism, and more losses of innocent lives. I could talk about how, for the wrong reasons, the US now wants to invade Iran, and how this would only cause a bigger war, with further civilians to die. I could even look here on our very shores and further iterate what has happened in Cronulla and other areas. I could talk about the extent of racism against Arab and Muslim Australians. About how Australia has folded to all this hype and hatred and has segmented the community. Today however, I would like to give you a different perspective, a much more personal story that says it very powerfully, a story that speaks directly to our hearts and souls - one that is a clear call to end all human destruction. It is the plea of Dr Nurit Peled-Elhanan - an Israeli mother whose 13-year-old daughter was killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber, as she walked to her dance class that day. At a meeting a few years ago, Dr Peled-Elhanan shared her views on the struggle for peace in her country. She stated that it's very difficult for her to identify with a country that "has let death have dominion over it". She says that the death of her daughter has created a new identity for her and has given her a new voice. And I quote: "This new identity and this new voice transcend nationalities and religions and even time. This new identity and this new voice overshadow all other identities and are deafening all the other voices I have been given by life". When she was asked how she could accept condolences from the other side, Dr Peled-Elhanan related that: "The other side is not the Palestinians, and I believe that dividing the population into two enemy sides, Palestinians and Israelis, is a wrong and a murderous division. For me the whole population of the area, and of the world has always been divided into two other distinct groups: peace lovers and war lovers". She says that the earth is ruled by the kingdom of evil, by people who call themselves 'leaders'. She says that both her daughter and the suicide bomber have been deceived and are victims of their 'so-called leaders'. "And those so-called leaders keep on enjoying playing their murderous games, using our children as their puppets and our grief as an incentive to go on with their vindictive tricks. For them, children are abstract entities, numbers and grief is a political tool. ... They know that all they have to do is to find a God that would ordain this killing. They commit their crimes in the name of the Jewish God and in the name of the Muslim God, while in Ireland and in Eastern Europe people kill each other for different versions of their Christian God. And now the enlightened leaders of the west kill in the name of the God of Freedom. But in fact they all recruit man-made gods to their sides - the God of racism and the God of greed and megalomania." She goes on to say, and again I quote, "Terrorism dominates both forces. An organised army, which terrorises a whole population, is no less and even more criminal than any guerrilla group. An enlightened first world government which ordains the killing of the innocent is just as evil as any third world guerrilla leader who is hardly known and never seen. There is no [distinction between] enlightened killing and barbaric killing, there is only criminal killing. "It is time to tell the world that words like heroism, courage, and manhood can kill and that the death of one child, any child, be it a Serbian or an Albanian an Iraqi or a Jewish child is the death of the whole world, its past and its future. That there is no vengeance for the death of a child because after the death of a child there is no other death - for there is no more life." Finally, she says: "This is the cry that has never been heard by politicians and generals. This is the only voice that remains after the violence, and that really understands the meaning of the end of all things, including wars. This is the voice that understands what today is understood only in the underground kingdom of our murdered children, namely that all bloods are equal... It understands that people should talk not in order to bring the others to their knees and win the argument but in order to come to terms. Ending the war means that I don't care what flag is put on which mountain, it means that I don't care who looks where when they pray, it means that nothing is more important than to secure a little girl's way to her dance class." There are no more appropriate words than Dr Peled-Elhanan's poignant story for why we are gathered here today. We need to use her voice of compassion and justice, one that is so full of truth, the truth that has come from a mother who has lost her child, to stop the evils in the world. We need this voice. And we need it so powerful that it can heal and transform the world. We want peace. We want an end to all wars and occupations. We want peace in Australia and around the world. Ali Bahamad is one of four Deputy Chairpersons of Arab Council Australia. He was a high achiever in his HSC and now at 20 years of age, is studying Commerce and Accounting at the University of NSW and also working for a management consulting firm. He is very active in his community, which has been living through all the tensions sparked off from September 11 2001 through to the horror of last December's Cronulla race riot. |
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© Walk Against the War Coalition 2003. |
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