(Disclaimer: the Dutch people I’m talking about in this post are real-life Dutch people who I’ve interacted with while living in Holland and who have said these things to me. I’m not saying *all* Dutch people think this way. At times I do use general discourses prevalent in Dutch society and the media to make a point, such as the presence of Islamophobia – again, this is not to say that every single Dutch person is Islamophobic, but that it is a mainstream discourse present in Holland right now.)
I’ve been thinking a lot the past 2 weeks about the possibility of dialogue, and at a broader level, of social change. We constantly hear things like “oh just talk to each other and you’ll be able to resolve your differences” or “ignorance is the problem, if people heard the other side of the story they’d change their minds.” But is that true?
The past 2 weeks I’ve spoken to quite a few Dutch people about the events in Gaza. I recognize that I come from a specific positionality: I’m half-Egyptian, lived in Egypt, and so Palestine means something very different to me than it does to most Dutch people. At the same time, my support for Palestinians is not based on my “Egyptianness” but on my belief that what Israel is doing is unjust. So while my connection to Egypt has made it easier for me to see that, it is not solely because of that connection that I am pro-Palestine. In Holland, people may not have connections like that and so the only way to find out about the “conflict” is through the media.
Now, I won’t say much about the Dutch media other than that it is far from neutral. Its coverage of the Gaza events in particular has been disappointing and damaging to the Palestinian cause. The events were consistently framed as an attack started by Hamas when they launched a few rockets at Israel, despite the fact that these rockets were a response to Israel’s assassination of Jabari, Hamas’ military commander. Technically, therefore, Israel began this conflict. Moreover, the Israelis tended to be humanized much more often on Dutch news programs, as opposed to the Palestinians who were either portrayed as being responsible for rocket-launching (collectively, apparently) or as a mass of nameless and faceless victims.
So it’s no surprise that almost every Dutch person I spoke to about this conflict has a response along the lines of: “Well, I think both sides are wrong” if I was lucky, or “Israel needs to defend itself. Hamas is a terrorist organization that keeps attacking innocent Israeli civilians” if I was unlucky. Not once did I encounter someone talking about Israeli occupation, apartheid, or the blockade on Gaza.
What is especially interesting is that many Dutch people managed to imagine themselves in the place of Israelis – but not in the place of Palestinians. They could empathize with Israeli victims of rockets and bomb sirens, but not with Palestinian victims of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and constant bombardment. That’s something that really amazed me.
So what does this mean? What does it mean when dialogue is not enough? What are the chances that Dutch people can be convinced to see the role of Israel and the EU (and Holland) in perpetuating a 2012 case of apartheid and colonization? When the conversation becomes so circular that there really isn’t a point anymore, what do you do? Should we even bother trying to reach out and talk to people who don’t want to see an alternative reality? Plus how do we deal with the fact that Holland’s view of Israel is closely linked to their memories of the Holocaust and rampant Islamophobia? Is this Islamophobia the reason the Dutch people I’ve met can’t seem to identify with Palestinians?
Over and over I’ve asked myself: am I wrong? I keep saying I’m trying to show Dutch people the Palestinian side, but if so many people here believe that Israel is right, then am I the one that’s wrong? But I can’t seem to convince myself of that either. It seems obvious to me, and to many other non-Arab pro-Palestinian people that what Israel is doing is unjust, and that to frame what Palestinians do as anything but resistance is dangerous.
I guess my answer is that I don’t know what the chances of social change in Holland are. People keep saying that things are changing slowly. That bit by bit Dutch people will become less Islamophobic, that slowly the Zwarte Piet (blackface) tradition will die out, that eventually Dutch people will start seeing Palestinians as human beings who are being colonized (partly) with Dutch money. But seriously – how much time do you need?
Hey, Sara. I understand completely what you are saying (I get that same feeling when speaking about feminism with non-feminists or even sometimes with supposed allies). This idea that things change slowly if you give them a chance is really problematic because it implies people don’t have to make an effort to change them; like everything will just be different all by itself. Obviously, this is not the case. How long has Israel been occupying Palestine? Surely, people in the West would think different about it by now, but no. Change needs conscious, constant effort and most people just don’t seem to want to make that effort. So the rest of us who are willing to bring change about end up discouraged and tired. Hang in there, the world needs people like you.
Hi Sara,
It is problematic for me. too. I don’t know what should be done now that more than 138 states have voted for Palestine in the UN General Assembly and after seeing the solidarity with Palestinians all over the world during the military assault on Gaza. How can we build on this?
If we look at what the Jews did during the last 60 years (in terms of how they gained all their power), we can see three central factors: First, they established links with strong and influential states. Second, they built a strong lobby that could affect political decisions in those states. Third, they were “and still are” dominant in the influential media agencies. They also used the guilt of the West over the Holocaust to get countries to pass laws against “anti-Semitism”. All this, combined with the interests of the West in placing a “policeman” in our area to keep controlling the resources as well as the Islamophobia in the West, has given Israel all the power it has. And we should not forget that Israel began with an idea and active work to create a state and strengthen it throughout the last century.
On the other hand, we are witnessing power shifts in the world, especially in the Middle East because of the so called “Arab spring”. There are new players in the game; China is flexing its muscles behind the scenes and it is in its interest as a rising superpower to have influence in Arab countries, there is a bloc of three countries (Turkey, Egypt and Qatar) openly helping the Palestinians, and the alternative media are becoming stronger and more influential. The combination of these factors gives us reason to continue hoping for a better future, especially if the activists continue to be active and try to be influential in their own political parties, to affect the decision makers of the future.
I know it is not easy, but I also don’t think that what you or any other pro-Palestinian activist does is useless. No, it is a change even if it small. So don’t give up
there must be some interesting psycho-sociological theories being developed about this interesting phenomenon of ‘blindzones’ in perception….
there is an israeli feminist scholar who wrote really well about identity and i wonder if she wrote anything about these kind of perception blindspots. she writes a lot about identity. she basically gave up her life in israel because she didn’t feel comfortable with its politics, although her family is rooted in the kibbutz and military culture. she lives and teaches somewhere in england but now i cannot find her…
Holland is actually on the forefront of labelling settlement produce as distinct from other Israeli produce, aiding the implementation of a boycott against goods from those settlements. http://mondoweiss.net/2013/03/netherlands-settlement-products.html