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Deciphering the Hudna

(AMIN-Palestinian Authority) - Azmi Bishara Talk shows are parading experts to discuss the place of hudna in Islamic history. Can anything be more painful than to hear interlocutors peppering their speech with an Arabic word, as if by doing so they automatically acquired an esoteric key to knowledge which the Hebrew or English languages lack? Thus hudna has now joined intifada, which has survived in Hebrew and English. In the process, the intifada was elevated into a special case, differentiated from other uprisings and revolts. It became a unique phenomenon, confined to the Palestinians, and resistant to full comprehension. The same thing is now happening with hudna. Suddenly, we are no longer talking of a cease-fire - a concept readily available in English, and which is widely used in reference to the armistice lines of 1949 - but of something much stranger, much harder to pin down. In actual fact, what the Palestinian groups have recently offered is a unilateral cease-fire. It is as simple as that. When the armistice lines were drawn up in 1949, the action was rendered in English by its appropriate name, and no one saw any reason to introduce the Arabic word, hudna, into other languages. Whatever the motives of the various Palestinian factions in declaring a unilateral cease-fire, the decision was a strategically appropriate one under the current local, regional, and international circumstances. There is something to be said for combatants choosing to stop and catch their breath in the current circumstances. The great challenge facing the Palestinians today is to find a balance that will enable them to survive for a long period while resisting occupation and refusing the terms it seeks to impose on them. The Palestinian forces that are active in the fight against occupation need to prepare the public for a long period of steadfastness. Unless the Palestinians are determined to continue the struggle, the cease-fire may simply disrupt the resistance and discourage the young from joining its ranks. The writer is a member of the Israeli Knesset from Nazareth.
2003-07-11 00:00:00
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